Legends walk the lands of Theros, a realm shaped by deities and the deeds of heroes. From the temples of omen-speaking oracles to the five realms of the Underworld, the champions of the gods vie for immortal favor and a place among the world’s living myths.

A vast, opaque fog acts as a wall at the borders of Theros. If you check the map, the areas to the very edge of the map is covered by this fog, and it seems unpassable by mortals. Everyone who has tried to traverse into the fog always winds up exiting the fog at a random fog-obfuscated point in Theros. Though, there are the very few who walk out of this fog with no memory of where or who they were previous, sometimes they are seemingly completely new to the realm as there is no evidence of a previous life before exiting from the fog. These people are called the Mistborn.

Theros is a place filled with myths, mysteries, monsters, heroes and divinity. Paths divulge according to the hero’s choices, and the world adjusts as desired. The roots of Theros lie in the myths of ancient Greece, tales dominated by gods, heroes, and monsters. This world takes inspiration from real-world mythology and adapts it into a world designed for heroics and fantastical adventures. The central conflict in Theros is among gods, striving against each other over the devotion of mortals. Mortal devotion equates to divine power, after all. Fate and destiny is always at play in this realm, with each mortal bound by the strands of fate, but some heroes choose to take it into their own hands… will that be you? Will you become a champion of the gods, or even against them?

Setting

You are located in Theros, a region of the "realm" Fanensunn. The themes of this world are Mythology, Heavy Divine Influence, Heroic, Destiny, Discovery, and Adventure.

Here is the Timeline of Theros, which includes history of each of the four ages.

Character Creation in MOoT

What makes a hero? Is it a quality of birth that sets some mortals above others? Is it a blessing from the gods? Is it a matter of fate, spun out in the strands of a divine tapestry, charting the course of a hero's life from miraculous birth to glorious end? If you're reading this, the answer is that you make a hero, of course. In Theros, player characters and heroes are synonymous, being rare individuals whose deeds aren't bound by fate, who willfully stray from the paths laid before them and chart their own courses.

The following is information you should know when creating a character in Theros:

Heroic Drive

The defining characteristic of a hero in Theros is their heroic drive-the force that impels them to live a life worthy of great epics. Ordinary mortals across the multiverse are driven to extraordinary deeds when they are called on to pursue their ideals, to protect their bonds, and to overcome their flaws. In Theros, heroic drive stems from the same sources, but the power of fate and myth destines every character for legend; all one must do is act and discover their own immortal tale.

• Amplifying your Ideal
  • Many characters' ideals come directly from their service to a god. Each god's description in chapter 2 includes a table you can use to determine your hero's ideal if your character serves that god, instead of (or in addition to) an ideal derived from your background. But whether your character holds to one of those ideals, one from the Player's Handbook or another source, or one of your own invention, try to state your ideal in the grandest possible terms to express your character's heroic drive.
• Legendary Bonds
  • The connections and goals that serve as characters' bonds are powerful motivators, all the more so when they have supernatural origin or possess mythological weight. As with your character's ideal, think on a legendary scale as you define your character's bonds. What if a person mentioned in your bond is actually a god? Consider this twist on a bond from the urchin background in the Player's Handbook: "I owe my survival to Phenax, god of thieves, who taught me to live on the streets while disguised as another mortal urchin." In this case, the secret divine identity of the person in the bond makes the bond more significant. 
• Tragic Flaws
  • The heroes of Theros don't often conform to tidy definitions of heroic morality and virtue, and they are often laid low by their own flaws. The Player's Handbook encourages you to think of "anything that someone else could exploit to bring you to ruin or cause you to act against your best interests." For a hero in Theros, a tragic flaw is something that the gods themselves might exploit or punish, with hubris being the classic example. The gods of Theros aren't so concerned about "ordinary" flaws like addiction or laziness. Rather, consider a tragic flaw involving something you don't want a god to learn or certain to provoke a god's anger. For example, some of the flaws listed for the outlander background in the Player's Handbook could put a character into conflict with a god. "I remember every insult I've received and nurse a silent resentment toward anyone who's ever wronged me" could cause significant problems when the character nurses a grudge against a god. A tragic flaw can also be supernatural in nature. A hermit who harbors "dark, bloodthirsty thoughts that my isolation and meditation failed to quell" might have a sinister connection to the vicious god Mogis. 

Heroic Feats

If you don't like any of the Supernatural Gift options presented below, you may choose to take a feat as a variant supernatural gift. You gain one feat of your choice. This list suggests twelve feats from the Player's Handbook, but you can choose any feat your DM allows:

• A snake emerged from my mouth before I took my first breath--an omen of my gift for deception. (Actor)
• I hear voices on the wind, warning me of danger. (Alert)
• lroas gifted me with physical prowess, intending to see me compete in the Iroan Games. (Athlete)
• I feel the vitality of the earth beneath my feet, and it refreshes my strength when I rest on it. (Durable)
• The stars of Nyx are never hidden from my sight, revealing their secrets to my eyes. (Keen Mind)
• I hear the echoes of the gods' speech in every mortal language and trace the patterns of Nyx in the written word. (Linguist)
• The gods smile on me, but I dread the day when they withdraw their favor and my luck runs out. (Lucky)
• As a child, I used to run through the woods and play with a giant lynx--which, I learned later, was an emissary of Nylea. (Mobile)
• The sun's light brings what is hidden to clear view in my eyes. (Observant)
• I ate a magical fruit that blessed me with extraordinary resilience. (Resilient)
• I studied with a supernatural tutor. (Skilled)
• I was bathed in the waters of a mystic river that left my skin resistant to harm--and glittering with starlight. (Tough) 
  

Most of everything in the God's Guide Dashboard (except the homebrew Bloodlines) can be used in character creation, as long as you check with me first. Although, if a section below has "EXCLUSIVE" in the title, that means those options are your only choices for that section. The following options are added for this setting:

New Background(s)

While the heroes of Theros might come from any of the backgrounds presented in the Player's Handbook, the gods have a way of interceding in the lives of those meant for greatness. When determining your character's backstory, consider how the gods have influenced your life. The gods are pervasive in the stories and cultures of Theros, and even their devout followers shouldn't feel bound to choose a faith-focused background like acolyte. The gods' followers come from all walks of life, and any heroic soul might find themselves thrust into the midst of divine schemes.

• Athlete
• Mistborn

EXCLUSIVE Race(s)

A diverse assortment of peoples dwell among the lands of Theros. Aside from humans, the races in the Player's Handbook are unknown on Theros, unless they're visiting from other worlds or are the extremely rare case of an unknown race Mistborn.

• Centaur (Theros)
  
• Human (Theros)
• Leonin
• Minotaur
• Satyr
• Triton (Theros)
  

New Subclasses(s)

The heroes of Theros always find a way to throw their own spin on fighting styles, spellcasting, and of course, subclasses. The following subclass options are only available to the Theros setting, and are thus influenced by the gods and people of the setting.

• Bard: 
• Cleric: Revelry Domain
• Druid: 
• Fighter: 
• Paladin: 
• Ranger: 
• Sorcerer: 
• Warlock: 

Supernatural Gifts (Theros)

A character in Theros begins with one supernatural gift chosen from those in this section. Work with the DM to decide where your character's gift came from.

Sixteen years after your first visit, you and your companions return to the wondrous Witchlight Carnival to recover what went lost, fulfill the wishes of a dying man, and perhaps save the Feywild from a looming darkness along the way.

The Witchlight Carnival is a fairground of kaleidoscopic tents and wagons crewed by wondrous beings, including many denizens of the Feywild. This is no ordinary carnival; it uses magic to travel from world to world across the Material Plane, visiting each world once every eight years and setting up business on the outskirts of populated areas. The carnival spends a few days at each location, then packs up and moves to another location on the same world until the decision is made to leave that world and visit the next. 

Your characters have a dim memory of sneaking into the carnival together as a child/when you were younger without paying for a ticket. That memory has grown foggy over time, though it still conjures a weird admixture of emotions--wonder and awe mixed with loss and regret. During this childhood visit, your character lost something. You tried to find it, but the carnival owners--a pair of elves who's names escape you--were decidedly unhelpful after realizing you came in without a ticket. The longing to retrieve that which you have lost has resurfaced, as though an old spell has faded away, allowing you to feel the loss as sharply as if it happened yesterday.

An old man named Madryck Roslof has beseeched you all to come meet him at the orphanage he owns on the outer edge of Berdusk, saying he knows of your lost items and has a proposition for you. You all vaguely remember Madryck growing up, as he has owned this orphanage for as long as you can recall.

Setting

You are located in The Sword Coast. The carnival is set up next to the town Berdusk, a hotspot on the Trade Way road. Though, the campaign will quickly enter the realm of the Feywild, so matters on the material plane will not be easily resolved if left open.

What You Need to Know about Witchlight

• The Witchlight Carnival comes to your land only once every eight years. It has always disappeared three days after its arrival.

• The Carnival is said to visit many worlds and rides the edge of the border between the world and the realm of the fey – the Feywild.

• A strange corruption is said to have set into the Fey and the borderlands between the realm of the Fey and our world. Some believe it is a collision between these worlds and another.

• In the land of the fey, the notable archfey Zybilna has gone quiet. Those attuned to Zybilna as their patron have not heard from her in more than a year.

• Beings from the fey know that within the Feywild, visitors and natives alike best follow the Rule of Reciprocity; the Rule of Hospitality; and the Rule of Ownership. What do those mean? You're bound to find out!

• For unknown reasons, the numbers eight and three have power in the realm of the fey.

How Your Character Relates to the Campaign

Eight years ago you accidentally snuck into the Witchlight Carnival after chasing a baby owlbear you were secretly raising with your friends, or you came to the carnival and didn't have coin for a ticket (depending on what we decide as session 0). Sneaking in, you enjoyed a day of fantasy and revelry whose joy you have never forgotten even if the details are now fuzzy. One thing remains clear, however. On this fateful day you lost something. Something you have missed every day since. Throughout your travels you’ve met others who, like you, lost something at the carnival and seek its return. Now eight years later you and your companions return to the Witchlight Carnival to recover what was lost, fulfill an old mans dying wish, and maybe saving the Feywild in the process.

What was lost to your character on that day? This decision is entirely up to you, but the following Lost Things table gives examples for you to use or even just to give inspiration.

My House Rules

Every GM has their list of house rules. Here's mine:

• Potions can be drunk on a bonus action, but it takes an action to apply it to someone else. Additionally, when drinking a healing potion, you can choose to drink it with an action instead and take the maximum amount of healing offered by the potion.

• Death saves are rolled behind the GM screen (by you) so that just the GM and the player who's dying know how close to death they are.

• If used applicably, some skills can be used with alternative ability scores. When you gain proficiency with one of these skills, your proficiency applies to either ability score. The ability score used is chosen in the moment before rolling, and should be thematic to how the skill is being used (for example, a Barbarian who specifies they want to use Intimidation to stand towering over someone of less strength then them can use Strength instead of Charisma for the roll).

• Intimidation: Charisma or Strength

• Medicine: Intelligence or Wisdom

• Nature: Intelligence or Wisdom

• Religion: Intelligence or Wisdom

• We are using the new One D&D mechanic Weapon Mastery, which can be found here in Weapons and Weapon Mastery Properties. Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, and Rogue all have the Weapon Mastery class feature that allows them to use mastery properties with specific weapons listed in their entry.

• Any character that meets the prerequisite also has access to the Weapon Mastery Initiate (One D&D) feat when choosing a feat.

• The following character options are banned in the game:

• Spells: Silvery Barbs

• Subclasses: Echo Knight (Fighter), Eloquence (Bard), Peace Domain (Cleric), Twilight Domain (Cleric)

• If we are using standard array for determining ability scores, you gain a +2 bonus to an ability score depending on the Core Ability of your class.

• Races/species give a +2 to an ability score specific to the race/species, but also gives a free +1 to any ability score. Alternatively, if we decide we want Race to have less of a bearing on Ability Scores, we can do a free +2 and then a +1 specific to the Race (the +1 increase in this case is the Ability Score the +2 would have applied to if this alternate ruling wasn't being applied).

Some of these I am pretty set in keeping, but if there is a house rule you really don't like please say something and we can work on changing/removing it!

Fey Twists

During a normal session, you will get a one/a couple tokens that you can expend for a free reroll of any d20. When you use a token this way, you must roll on the Fey Twist table and take the result. Unless specified otherwise, all twists last one hour.

The following are examples of some Fey Twists I came up with, but I would like your guys help to make more!

Character Creation in WBtW

Use the God's Guide Dashboard to find the links to classes, subclasses and races that I allow in table formats. You may choose any race from the Official Races column of the "General List of Races" table, any class from the "General List of Classes and Subclasses" table and any subclass in the Official Subclasses column of the same table.

This campaign starts at 1st level, so many characters will not start with a subclass, but it is still nice to look if you want to plan for a subclass or if you are a Class which gets a Subclass at 1st level like Cleric, Sorcerer, or Warlock.

For a general step-by-step guide that leads you through character creation, go to this link: Step-by-Step Character Creation

Additionally, the following options are available for this adventure:

New Background Options (Feywild Character Traits)

• Feylost
• Witchlight Hand

New Race Options

• Fairy
• Harengon
• Ragborn
• Satyr

Thematic Race Options

• Bugbear
• Changeling
• Eladrin
• Elf
• Goblin
• Hexblood
• Hobgoblin

New Subclass Options

• Bard:
  • College of Satire
• Cleric:
  • Revelry Domain (cannot worship Xenagos, as he is from a different setting. Consider god's like Lliira or Milil.)
• Sorcerer:
  • Wretched Bloodline

Thematic Subclass Options

• Barbarian:
  • Wild Magic
• Bard:
  • Glamour
• Cleric:
  • Nature
  • Trickery
• Druid:
  • Dreams
• Fighter:
  • Eldritch Knight (if based in Enchantment and/or Illusion spells)
• Paladin:
  • Ancients
• Ranger:
  • Fey Wanderer
• Rogue:
  • Arcane Trickster
• Sorcerer:
  • Wild Magic
• Warlock:
  • Archfey
• Wizard:
  • Bladesinger
  • Enchantment
  • Illusion

The Sarkoris Scar Oneshot Guide

- The Sarkoris Scar is a jagged, black gash that runs across the land once known as Sarkoris and, more recently, as the Worldwound. Although the yawning portal to the Abyss is no more, the land of The Sarkoris Scar continues to be infested with leftover demons, and the Kellid (ethnicity of human) descendants of the original inhabitants of Sarkoris still have a long way to go before they can reclaim their ancestors' land. There are very few actual settlements in this land, and where there are it is usually reclaimed land thats still being re-built.

Setting

- 5 years ago, in 4718 AR, the Worldwound that was constantly pouring forth demons for more than a century was sealed and renamed The Sarkoris Scar. The game will be taking place in the city of Gundrun within The Sarkoris Scar, this town is heavily influenced and fortified by the Reclaimers who have been attempting to restore much of the land after the sealing of the Worldwound.

Setting-Specific Player Options

- Background(s)

• Issian Partisan (option if from the northern region of Brevoy)
  
• Razmiran Faithful (option if from the region of Razmiran)
• Rostland Partisan (option if from the southern region of Brevoy)
• Sarkorian Reclaimer (very relevant; option if you are a Reclaimer or trace origins to Old Sarkoris)
• Sarkorian Surviver (very relevant; option if you were present in this region when it was the Worldwound)
• Wonder Taster (option if you are from Numeria, gives a cybernetic flair)

- Archetype(s)

• Aldori Duelist

Chains of Asmodeus, abbreviated to CoA from now on, is a D&D setting and adventure module that typically takes players from levels 11-20. We will be doing some homebrew adventures before those levels to establish your characters.

This adventure will see a group of individuals (y'all) in desperate need for some coin taking an odd job, and leads into those same individuals delving into the nine hells to claim something of insurmountable value that has been lost to them.

The incursion of fiends that had been going on for years was enough of a problem... but the Gap changed everything. Cities crumbled into ruins in seemingly the blink of an eye, mortals crying out to their gods that gave no answer. Areas of the world that nature still had its grasp on had grown as if centuries had passed, and others held scars upon the land that could only have been afflicted by beings of unimaginable power. Though, not all was lost: the Demon Lords and Archdevils that had made their way into the world disappeared along with the gods, and even through the immense destruction, there was still hope.

You will be starting in the city of Myddraal, the only beacon of mortal hope still around in Nurau or maybe even the Severed Rimelands at large. 

Setting

The setting will be Ahbael. You are located in the city Myddraal, within Nurau (a subregion of the Severed Rimelands).

What You NEED to Know about the Campaign/Setting

• The Incursion happened long before the Gap, named after when fiends entered and began their sieges upon the material plane alongside their archdevil masters and demon lords. The River Styx that parts through all of the lower planes also made its way into the material plane, cutting up lands and forming new, almost impassable barriers of mind-altering water between them.

• The Gap happened 70 years ago: the amount of time that passed in the blink of an eye to all mortals during it is completely unknown, though it is assumed to be at least a couple hundred years due to the erosion and changing of much of the landscape, and the ruins that many cities turned into after that single blink. All known archdevils and demon lords seemed to suddenly disappear after the Gap, as well as the gods. There has also been no known major contact with any of the celestials since, though some report ghost stories of the shadows of what looks to be angels that suddenly appear over cities then disappear just as quickly.

• The land you are in, Nurau of the Severed Rimelands, is overrun by demons, though that does not mean an errant devil does not pop up here and there. Also, fiends are not the only creatures to watch out for in the land: plenty of beasts and monsters of the old world still roam the wastelands, though some may be tainted by fiendish influence.

• You will all be starting in the largest known mortal city not just in Nurau, but the Severed Rimelands at large: Myddraal. Much of the city's structure managed to stay intact during the Gap, though its previous, diarchic rulers Akhedya and Motaedoxa were nowhere to be found after. These previous rulers established a law system based upon the seven sins (pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth), where committing egregious acts in line with those sins would get you punished by law, usually resulting in exile. From those who were around before the Gap, some recall that this system was established in order to take strength away from the fiends that feed on these sins.

• People, and overwhelmingly Tieflings, have been suddenly disappearing from the city. One of these people was a young tiefling from the orphanage (if it is agreed upon by you guys that you are all from the same orphanage), and the last place that he was seen was a long destroyed area of the city that has been undergoing re-acquirement for a very long time. Much of the area is covered in ruins.

How Your Character Relates to the Campaign

This only matters if we go with the plotline that you guys are all orphans in the city.

Somehow, someway, you are an orphan. At some point in your life, you found yourself at the orphanage that you met the rest of the party at, whether this means you grew up in it your whole life or you were only recently orphaned. 

Why are you at the orphanage, or Myddraal in general? Refer to the following table for ideas, but you can do whatever you want even if its not on the table:

My House Rules

Every GM has their list of house rules. Here's mine:

• When drinking a healing potion, you can choose to drink it with an action instead of a bonus action and take the maximum amount of healing offered by the potion.

• Death saves are rolled behind the GM screen (by you) so that just the GM and the player who's dying know how close to death they are.

• The following character options are banned in the game:

• Spells: Silvery Barbs

• Subclasses: Eloquence (Bard), Peace Domain (Cleric)

• If we are using standard array for determining ability scores, you gain a +2 bonus to an ability score depending on the Core Ability of your class.

• Races/species give a +2 to an ability score specific to the race/species, but also gives a free +1 to any ability score. Alternatively, if we decide we want Race to have less of a bearing on Ability Scores, we can do a free +2 and then a +1 specific to the Race (the +1 increase in this case is the Ability Score the +2 would have applied to if this alternate ruling wasn't being applied). Modified standard array is 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8.

• We'll use the 2014 backgrounds instead of the 2024 backgrounds, but you'll also get an Origin feat of your choice.

Some of these I am pretty set in keeping, but if there is a house rule you really don't like please say something and we can work on changing/removing it!

Temptations

During a normal session, you will start with one token that you can expend (called "taking a temptation") by handing it to the GM for a free reroll of a type of roll depending on if you choose an Abyssal Temptation or an Infernal Temptation. Both types of temptations will have you roll on a table that determines an effect that occurs as soon as you take the temptation. Unless specified otherwise, all effects from temptations last one hour.

Any effects from the temptations that require a saving throw of any kind have a DC equal to 12 + your Proficiency Bonus.

When you roll a natural 1, natural 20, or the GM determines it appropriate, you gain your token back if you do not already have it.

Abyssal Temptation. Intimidating, violent cacophonies of demons encourage destructive tendencies. Choose one from the two options below, then roll a percentile die and the GM will consult the Abyssal Temptations table to tell you the consequences to giving into this temptation:

• Reroll an attack roll, or;
• Force a hostile creature within 30 feet of you to reroll a Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution saving throw.

Infernal Temptation. Seductive, charismatic whispers of devils make sure you perform at your best. Choose one from the two options below, then roll a percentile die and the GM will consult the Infernal Temptations table to tell you the consequences to giving into this temptation:

• Reroll an ability check, or;
• Force a hostile creature within 30 feet of you to reroll a Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma saving throw.

The following are examples of some examples I came up with for Demonic Temptations and Infernal Temptations, but I would like your guys help to make more!

Character Creation in Ahbael

Use the God's Guide Dashboard to find the links to classes, subclasses and races that I allow in table formats. You may choose any race from the Official Races column of the "General List of Races" table, any class from the "General List of Classes and Subclasses" table and any subclass in the Official Subclasses column of the same table.

This campaign starts at 3rd level, so you will be starting with your subclass right out of the gate.

For a general step-by-step guide that leads you through character creation, go to this link: Step-by-Step Character Creation

Additionally, the following options are available for this adventure:

New Race Options

• Gapborn

Thematic Race Options

• Aasimar
• Gapborn
• Human
• Tiefling (Abyssal or Infernal)
• Any other race/species from the 2024 rules works just fine, and if none of those interest you, you can choose from the 2014 races/species as well.

Classes

• Artificer (technically 2014 rules, will require some conversion)
• Barbarian
• Bard
• Blood Hunter (technically 2014 rules, will require some conversion)
• Cleric
• Druid

• Fighter
• Monk
• Paladin
• Ranger
• Rogue
• Sorcerer
• Warlock
• Wizard

Your choice of race affects many different aspects of your character. It establishes fundamental qualities that exist throughout your character’s adventuring career. When making this decision, keep in mind the kind of character you want to play. For example, a halfling could be a good choice for a sneaky rogue, a dwarf makes a tough warrior, and an elf can be a master of arcane magic. 

Your character race not only affects your ability scores and traits but also provides the cues for building your character’s story. It’s worthwhile to consider why your character is different, as a helpful way to think about your character’s background and personality.

Just as every tree has branches that vary in lengths, every class has variations to the style of how you fight, how you interact, or how you explore called subclasses.

Just as the name suggests, a subclass is a subcategory of a class that expands on the base class by adding abilities that change how you might play the class normally, or that just expand upon the class itself.

The caprice of the gods. The destiny of heroes. Great journeys into monster-infested wilds, and mythic odysseys to where the mist lies at the edge of the world and back. These elements of adventure fill the realms of Theros.

Realms of Gods and Mortals

The world of Theros, as its inhabitants understand, includes three realms: the mortal world, the divine realm of Nyx, and the Underworld.

Compared to most worlds of the Material Plane, the mortal realm of Theros is small. The known world is barely two hundred miles across, with the mists beyond.

A vast, opaque fog acts as a wall at the borders of Theros. If you check the map, the areas to the very edge of the map is covered by this fog, and it seems unpassable by mortals. Everyone who has tried to traverse into the fog always winds up exiting the fog at a random fog-obfuscated point in Theros. Though, there are the very few who walk out of this fog with no memory of where or who they were previous, sometimes they are seemingly completely new to the realm as there is no evidence of a previous life before exiting from the fog. These people are called the Mistborn.

The known world of Theros consists of a long stretch of coastline forming the eastern edge of the vast Siren Sea. Eastward from the sea, the land rises up to two ridges of mountains. The lofty peaks of the second ridge form a barrier that few mortals have passed, so only few have seen what is assumed to be the mist that lies beyond.

To the north, the coastal lands become a barren region of badlands crossed by a labyrinth of arid canyons, with minotaur lands beyond. The minotaurs speak of impenetrable mountains rising amid a dark forest to the north above Skophos.

The Siren Sea is studded with islands large and small. The largest cluster near the mainland, called the Dakra Isles, is poorly charted, and even those sailors who attempt to explore the isles return with contradictory information. Westward from those islands, some have successfully sailed to the edge of the known world, though no one can say for certain how far it is--the journey never unfolds in a straight line. In theory, it is equally possible to sail south to the edge of the known world, but those waters are stormier and more forbidding.

The heart of mortal civilization lies in and around three poleis-cities and their surrounding territories. Together the three poleis, Akros, Meletis, and Setessa, encompass most of the human population of Theros. Meletis covers the whole territory of the southwestern peninsula, Akros forms the northern frontier, and Setessa lies at the northern edge of the wild Nessian Wood.

Two bands of centaurs--the Lagonna and the Pheres--roam the hills and grasslands between the three poleis. The leonin hunt in the valley of Oreskos, nestled between the two mountain ranges. Satyrs dwell in a smaller sylvan vale northeast of the Nessian Wood. And tritons live primarily in the coastal shallows of the Siren Sea, though some manage to make comfortable homes among the humans of Meletis.

The badlands of Phoberos, northwest of Akros, are the frontier where Akroan soldiers clash with minotaurs. Farther north is the minotaur city of Skophos, little known to humans.

The necropoleis of Asphodel and Odunos are home to the Returned-zombie-like beings who have escaped the clutches of the underworld at the cost of their identities. The lands around these cities are bleak and barren, as if the Returned brought the pall of the underworld out with them into the mortal realm. 

Gods and Worship

A pantheon of fifteen gods guides religious life on Theros. To learn more, click on the "Gods and Worship" title above.

The world is cold, but some areas more than others. Sharran can contain the average person's worst nightmares. High Sharran, officially named Aetheril, contains the highest nobles and wizards. Though, royalty can be deceiving: never take anything here at face value. Lower Netheril, officially named Shaderil, is where nightmares are real. Some say the emotion of fear originated in just this one part of the continent, and slowly spread to the rest of the world a long time ago. This lower plane is devoid of color, and contains the lowest of the low society.

A dense fog divides society in this land, more so then normal in the various regions of Fanensunn. This fog, called the mist by residents of Sharran, cuts abnormally through both Aetheril and Shaderil. If you are so lucky to make it out of the mist, you will most likely find yourself in a completely different climate, landscape and society. You may find towns or similar structures in these various societies, but don't trust them at face value, only a fool gets comfortable in this terrible, gruesome, and extremely grim region.

Netheril: Table of Contents

Setting

Grim Neutral Fantasy/Grim Bright Fantasy depending on places in the continent, low to medium-low magic, dystopian, violent, mystery.

Supernaturals

People are strange in these parts of the world; and the uglier they are, the stranger they come.

The following are a list of features that you may pick at character creation. You get a choice of 1 supernatural. Find the list of supernaturals here.

Character Creation in Sharran

Use the Netheril: Table of Contents link listed above to look at everything that is allowed to be played in the campaign. If you are looking for anything else that is not in that section, ask me about it so we can discuss other possible options.

Because of the grimdark setting, some subclasses, races, or sometimes even feats simply do not work. There are some options in these categories that I disallowed, but, in return, there are new options that only fit for a grimdark setting. You can find these grimdark restricted options by checking the parenthesis next to the option links.

Sharran also makes use of the Overdrive mechanic, which you can read about in its individual page, but does not use Bloodlines during character creation. Both mechanics are my personal homebrew and require playtesting, but Overdrive is the most balanced of the two as it has possible negative effects.

Welcome to the Sorted Coast, a region in the everchanging world of Fanensunn that has nothing to do with the Sword Coast of the Forgotten Realms.

A world captured by Oni and kept in a state of easy control from these demons. There are five types of oni: red, blue, green, yellow and black.

Vesel'ye

Lifestyle: The way of life for Vesel'yens is purely the pursuit of dumb fun mixed with creative learning. They pride themselves on their freedom for an individual to go start a drunken fight, pursue a specific style of fighting not often taught, gamble their life away at games of chance, or anything their heart tells them. Though, this lifestyle does instigate a lot of dangerous circumstances for their youth and can potentially make someone spiral downwards, so its best to not lose yourself in your foolish ways.

Yange'de

Architecture reference: Japan, edo period

Lifestyle: The rigorous spiritual and academic teachings given to the people of Yange'de make them incredibly skilled fighters with their guardians, or without. This may seem bland and dull, but ultimately these teachings are used to inspire beauty to blossom from hardship.

Throughout all of Yange'de are alluring lakes and landscapes with beautiful flora growing near and in it en masse, seemingly outweighing the dark colored, repetitive structures that dot the land in between these wonderful flower fields, ponds and meadows. Whether this method is effective has never been in question, as it has created some of the most talented and awe-striking warriors in this regions history, but the ethics of this teaching is dubious and anyone who has experienced this system can tell you; it is not kind to those who fall behind the rest.

"the monsters of Ikoria demand your respect. You may think you understand them at a glance, but each possesses power and beauty far beyond what you think you see. What's more, they're liable to mutate into something completely different right before your very eyes! If you tread carefully, observe from a distance, and expect the unexpected, these wonderous creatures will reveal their secrets to you. But if you underestimate them, take your safety for granted, or assume you've got the upper hand, they will not hesitate to prove you wrong."      -Vivien Reid, explorer of Ikoria

Ikoria is a world filled with monsters. Monsters here come in all shapes and sizes, from terrifying, city-stomping behemoths to clever little beasties small enough to perch on your shoulder. Skysharks soar over herds of lumbering goriaks, winged foxes flit through crystalline forests, and brooding nightmare creatures emerge from the shadows to hunt the unsuspecting.

Bonder

Races in Ikoria

Human

Humans are the only "civilized" species to have survived on Ikoria, occupying a precarious midpoint in its monstrous food chain. They owe their resilience to a variety of strategies that have allowed them to elude extinction for generations. Most of them choose to live inside of protective sanctuaries. These communities range from small wilderness outposts to massive walled cities, and each employs a combination of techniques to ward off monster attacks (both physical and magical).

Classes in Ikoria

Barbarian

The barbarians of Ikoria are typically those who were raised in the dangerous planes of Ikoria, and learned to harness its primal nature into pure physical power. It is not uncommon for a barbarian to also be a bonder, but they typically bond with creatures that share their primal personality.

Since an Ikorian barbarian is shaped by their environment, there is a wide range of them depending on what region they are from. For example, a barbarian from Savai might harness the predatory stalking of the cat clade and use the undershelves of the craggy landscape to take refuge, whereas a barbarian from Ketria may harness the elemental energy inherit in the region and throw it into their attacks.

Subclass Options in Ikoria

• Path of the Ancestral Guardian
• Path of the Beast
• Path of the Berserker
• Path of the Storm Herald
• Wild Heart
• Path of Wild Magic
• Path of the Zealot

Bard

Bard

Blood Hunter

Blood

Cleric

Cleric

Druid

Druid

Fighter

Fight

Monk

Monk

Paladin

Paladin

Ranger

Ranger

Rogue

Rogue

Sorcerer

Sorcerer

Warlock

Warlock

Wizard

Wizard

The lands of Ahbael were once adorned in immense and beautiful forests, vast colorful canyons, and societies of mortals advancing: this changed many years back during what many people call now "the Incursion", where the land was quickly taken over by fiends, much of the outskirts of the land were coated in burning mist, and the River Styx began to spill out from the Fiendish realms, parting and splitting the land as it flowed. Ahbael, especially at this time, was constantly at war with its two residing sides of fiends: the demons and the devils, with the mortal natives of the realm caught in the middle.

The regions controlled by the devils are more regimented and built into functional cities with strict, extremely binding laws. On the contrast, the demons reside in the spaces between these devil-controlled cities, whether mindlessly stampeding through wastelands, gathering in tribes, or advancing in what demons consider to be a "city".

It is not known which of the two sides made the first move on the material plane, but each side accuses the other. According to the demons, the devils were trying to reach beyond their means and claim the material plane as a slave order in their military regimes and, as some intelligent demon lords would call it, "manipulative bureaucratic devilry". According to the devils, the demons quietly expanded into the material plane and used their demonic twisting presence to usher along portals connecting the Abyss and the Material Plane, and the devils were forced to follow in order to stop them expanding further.

The mortals who are native to the plane are divided in some parts but extremely united in others. Some mortals saw resistance as futile and joined the legions of the devils, some were destroyed or even corrupted by the demons, but many others chose to unite against these invading forces and created a few cities that stand against the fiends, hoping to banish them back to whence they came. Though, over time, many fiends intermingled with various races of mortals and created hybrids in quantities not seen before on other worlds. Thus, the lines of loyalty get blurred in some areas of Ahbael, and there are few communities who live in harmony during this dark time.

Though... Much of this changed when the Gap happened.

The Gap

Years upon years of invasion from fiends was beginning to wear down the material plane. The fiends--Devils and Demons--fought each other almost as much as they slaughtered mortals, but for every one fiend slain by a mortal twenty others took their place. Then, there came a day that many people expected but were hoping would never happen: the Archdevils of the Hells and the Demon Lords of the Abyss finally arrived.

Some of the Archdevils and their minions took tyrannical control of mortal cities with ease, while some Demon Lords came in as cataclysms upon whole regions reshaping them to their will.

When all hope was beginning to be lost by the mortals and doom seemed imminent, trumpets began to ring from the Heavens and the clouds turned to golden fire. As mortals and fiends alike looked upward, they wept as they saw winged angels descending upon the land, and the hands and eyes of the gods entering through the barrier between their realm and Ahbael.

Then... everything went dark. Seemingly not for long, in fact, it was only for a moment: a single blink. Though in that blink, mortals found themselves exactly where they stood before with held breath and teary eyes without having aged a single day, yet at least a century had passed in the world around them, not leaving a single memory of the time in between. Many mortal cities were scattered ruins (if anything was even left), and many places that once were forests were now just ash-cloaked wastelands or long stretches of darkened ice.

The most impactful, though, was the silence. The Archdevils, the Demon Lords, and even the gods themselves were gone. 

No one knows what happened in this time in between, now called "the Gap", but fiends of all shapes and sizes still permeate the lands, though it seems the connection to their respective planes has cut off. It is unknown if the fiends now in this world without their lords experienced the Gap just like the mortals. No matter what, there is still a clear threat for the mortals of the Fiends that still remain in the lands, but now there is another goal: rebuild.

The vast central continent of the planet Toril, Faerûn is a land mass divided by a great sea known as the Inner Sea, or the Sea of Fallen Stars. The lands beyond the North can be roughly divided into those to the south and those to the east, becoming more foreign to the folk of the Sword Coast and the North the farther away they are.

The continent included terrain that was as varied as any other. Besides the exterior coastline to the west and south, the most dominant feature on the continent was the Sea of Falling Stars. This was an irregular inland sea that kept the interior lands fertile, connected the west and east regions of Faerûn and served as a major trade route for many of the bordering nations.

The northwest region of Faerûn is one of vast wilderness, difficult winter weather, orc hordes, and barbarian tribes, this region is generally referred to as "The North", which also contains most of the "Sword Coast North". It's a mostly untamed region that lay between the large Anauroch desert in the east and the expansive Sea of Swords in the west, north of the High Moor. The northern region of Faerûn stretches from the wide Anauroch desert in the west to the eastern edge of the inland Moonsea, in the northern region of the continent. The remote area in the Northeast begins in the cold, forbidding lands along the great ice sheets and continues south toward the northeastern shores of the Sea of Fallen Stars, collectively known as the Cold Lands. It is bordered on the west by the mountain-hemmed land of Vaasa and stretches east to the vast steppes of the Hordelands. West Faerun includes the nations south of Waterdeep and north of the Shining Sea that bordered along the Sea of Swords. It encompassed both the majority of the Sword Coast and the Lands of Intrigue, including Amn.

The important area to remember is the The Sword Coast and the North, these are where the majority of adventures take place.

Technology. A period between medieval and enlightenment, closer to medieval

Divine Involvement. Accepted; divine influence is an accepted fact of everyday life. Their will is enacted through priests and organized religions. Divine avatars may appear in the world during extreme circumstances.

Magic. Common; magic is an accepted fact of everyday life, though its mysteries are beyond the reach of most people. Magic portals and gates can whisk travelers “in the know” halfway across the world or to the other side of the multiverse.

Running along the Sea of Swords from north of Amn to the Sea of Moving Ice, the Sword Coast is a narrow band of territory dominated by the city-states of the area that use the sea for trade. For most who care about such things, the area is delimited by Neverwinter in the north and Baldur's Gate in the south, but territory farther to the north and south that isn't under the sway of a more influential power is usually also included in maps of the Sword Coast.

More broadly, the North refers to all the territory north of Amn, split into two general regions: the Western Heartlands and the Savage Frontier. The Western Heartlands encompasses a narrow strip of civilization running from the Sunset Mountains to the Sea of Swords, and northward from the band of territory marked by the Cloud Peaks and the Troll Mountains to the Trade Way. The Savage Frontier is the name given to the rest of the unsettled or sparsely settled territory in the North, not including the major cities and towns and any settlements in their immediate spheres of influence.

Calendar

Factions/Organizations

Many characters created in the Forgotten Realms setting, especially those for organized D&D play, belong to one of five factions that have risen to prominence in the Realms. Each faction has its own motivations, goals, and philosophy. Some are more heroic than others, but all band together in times of trouble to thwart major threats.

Harpers

• Favored Alignment(s): Lawful Good, Neutral Good, and Chaotic Good
• Favored Deities: Any Good-aligned diety
• Goals: Preserving historical lore, maintaining the balance between nature and civilization, and defending the innocent from the forces of evil across the realms

Order of the Gauntlet

• Favored Alignment(s): Lawful Good
• Favored Deities: Helm, alternatively Hoar, Torm, or Tyr
• Goals: The destruction of evil in Faerûn, enforcing justice, become paragons of faith (both in your deity and your allies)

Emerald Enclave

• Favored Alignment(s): Lawful Neutral, Neutral, and Chaotic Neutral
• Favored Deities: Silvanus, alternatively Eldath or Mielikki
• Goals: Preserving the order of nature in all of its iterations, defeating any forces that would disrupt the order, providing aid to those left fatigued or suffering injury

Lords' Alliance

• Favored Alignment(s): Lawful Good and Lawful Neutral
• Favored Deities: None
• Goals: Oppose and put a halt to the Black Network or any related thieves' guilds, keep the cities peaceful and safe, improve the collective regions of the North and the Western Heartlands as a whole

Zhentarim (the Black Network)

• Favored Alignment(s): Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Evil or Chaotic Neutral
• Favored Deities: Bane, alternatively Cyric
• Goals: Create an iron-fisted monopoly on protection services in the Realms, take down rival businesses and caravans, secure profits by any means possible to ensure the Black Networks wealth, influence, and power