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Woah woah woah! This wiki has too much information! Where do I even start?

If you're reading this post, then you're either a potential player in my LFG Tales from Thule campaign or a lost wanderer of the great web. Perhaps both.

Regardless, some confusion is understandable; this lovely site is intended as a repository of world-building—lore, factions, deities, creatures, and characters—written for the campaign setting where Tales from Thule unfolds. Keep reading, and I shall provide you with a proper summary of it eventually. I hope that can save some time for anyone who is not yet invested enough to explore this growing wilderness of information.

Here lies the doomed space and time of Primeval Thule; its traits will be familiar to some, and strange to others. Originally published by Sasquatch Game Studio and released in 2014 for Pathfinder, D&D 4th Edition, and 13th Age tabletop role-playing games, this setting diverges from the archetypal themes and tropes of high fantasy that the tabletop genre is often known for, and instead, mirrors the gritty realms where Conan the Barbarian, Elric of Melniboné, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser tread their soiled feet over the jeweled thrones of the Earth. Here is where we make Sword & Sorcery adventures happen.

Okay, I'm listening. What do you mean by Sword & Sorcery?

It's a sub-genre of fantasy originating from pulp fiction—racy, action-based stories published in cheaply printed magazines from across the 20th century—penned by defining authors such as Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, and Michael Moorcock. Their works usually feature one or two larger-than-life main characters taking center stage in a series of self-contained short stories. After all, anything epic and novel-length just wouldn't fit into a magazine or comic book adaptation. In the context of tabletop RPGs, think a bunch of one-shot adventures that all feature the same main character(s).

Although these stories are very character-driven, the worlds they take place in are hardly unimportant. The Hyborian Age, Lankhmar, or the Young Kingdoms settings are rich in detail inspired by mythology and ancient history. But these worlds are somewhat different from Middle-Earth or Narnia; those being "high fantasy" settings that typically end off better than they began. The key difference here is that in Sword & Sorcery, the setting is perpetually doomed. The world can never be "saved", which means never-ending adventures can take place in them, each one focused on character progression rather than any notion of a happy ending for the world. There can still be happy endings, but they're reserved for the characters, never the world.

Compared to high fantasy works like Lord of the Rings, the stakes in those stories aren't very high; or to put it better, the stakes are more personal than universal. While Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee set out on a single quest hoping to save the entire world or die trying (not because want to, but because they HAVE to), Fafhrd and the Mouser set out to pull off yet another heist for gold and glory (not because they have to, but because they WANT to). There's still a fair bit of crossover here: in both kinds of storytelling, the courageous adventurers face dangerous challenges and must make witty or moral choices to overcome them.

In the simplest terms, a Sword & Sorcery hero is someone who is

1. using decisive action to

2. to pursue self-motivated goals while

3. standing outside the normal rules and conventions of society.

And pretty much everything else about the sub-genre flows from that. For example, Conan the Barbarian is a staunch anarcho-primitivist and would sooner behead a judge than be lectured on the superiority of byzantine laws. Elric of Melniboné is a sickly anemic who relies on drugs and a soul-eating sword to stay alive, much to the contempt of those who vie for his imperial seat on the Ruby Throne. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are swashbuckling thieves. None of these heroes are knights in shining armor; yet due to the chaos and cruelty of their surroundings, they end up being the "good guys", or at least the most morally-consistent ones.

Now, I could talk about how S&S themes and story structures might influence how I narrate the campaign (and honestly, as a newbie GM with a Chaotic alignment, I'll be anything but consistent about this). But the purpose of this digest is to inform you players about player-relevant things, so I'll leave it at that. To prepare for our game, your responsibility is to create a character for whom you will role-play with others as, until they have reason to leave the party (death or otherwise).

Hm, alright. But does my character also have to be like what you just described?

No. The 3 archetypes for S&S heroes listed above are merely guidelines, NOT rules, for envisioning your character.

I'd say #1 is the only ubiquitous "rule", but don't be afraid to create a patient character who comes to decisions slowly and piecemeal. Inquisitive characters like Geralt of Rivia sometimes embody that kind of disposition. Just don't be completely indecisive, because we are trying to keep a game running.

#2 and #3 seem okay, but I can see how they might be misinterpreted as a preference for some self-serving loner character, which is reasonably a pile of sin at most tables. Since you'll be coexisting with other player characters in a group, you could take a page out of Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser: a duo of thieving besties who share similar goals and sentiments despite their superficial differences (the former is a romantic barbarian who talks and sings like a bard, and the latter is a cynical rogue with a warlock flair). Even archetypal "lone wolves" like Conan or Guts (Berserk) have many adventures where they must work with others of roughly equal skill and import (Bêlit of the Black Coast, Red Sonja of Hyrkania, Subotai and Valeria in the 1982 movie; Guts' Party after the Eclipse arc).

And while those examples are decent, feel free put your own spin on it or make something entirely different. I would not mind more selfless glue within the party to offset any borderline egomaniacs. Your main limitations are the setting: a Lawful Good "Christian knight"-type static character would not fit at all. I'd even go as far as to say you're 100% forbidden from making a true lone wolf or any socio-/psychopathic supervillain. No PC should try to kill, betray, or steal from another (without permission). TL;DR Bottom line is, I think all player characters ought to have these three characteristics: Courageous, Capable, and Cooperative.

This is ultimately a game of role-players working together to have fun, not a lone writer's novella or character study, so we must all strive for that.

Might be fun. But shouldn't I know more about the setting before I make a character for it?

Perhaps. You could have a character who has only lived in one place all their life, before they began adventuring. That would be totally understandable for a person who lived in ancient times, back when much of the world was unknown—and to quote a notorious hypocrite—"the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." Or heck, your character may have arrived in Thule from another time period or dimension!

There are legitimate boons to role-playing with some knowledge of the setting you're imagining yourself in. It can make for an immersive experience for the whole group, which is one of the big reasons people are drawn to fantasy role-play in the first place. And it isn't solely my job as the Gamemaster to generate that kind of experience. But I am supposed to take the lead on that, so I'll tell you some things about my version of Thule.

I'm all ears, I guess?

Don't you mean "all eyes"? Haha! Alrighty, I'll get to it.

First of all, your character in Thule must be a human. You will not play elves, dwarves, hobbits, aliens, robots, alien-robots... you get the point. I fully understand the turn-off this can be for fans of D&D and other fantasy RPGs. That being said, Thule is supposed to be set on Earth—yes, our Earth (and specifically the subcontinent we call Greenland nowadays)—but thousands of years into the past from now. It takes place only a dozen centuries after the world-changing cataclysms espoused in real-world mythology, such as the "Great Flood" and the "Fall of Atlantis" myths. Human civilization is still in the Beta testing phase. There are still some cave-people running around without bows and arrows.

One could argue that Tolkien was trying to do a similar "real-world" thing for Middle-Earth, but the only intelligent race he truly set apart by "othering" was the orcs. In Thule, however, everyone that isn't human is an "other". In fact, humans themselves can be "others"—there are stark differences between pompous city-dwellers and wilderness savages, for example—with their decadence or barbarity dialed up to eleven.

Non-human fantasy peoples and creatures do exist in Thule, but most of them are bitter rivals or enemies of humankind. They compete against us for survival in a savage land. We may have the numbers and adaptation advantage, but many of them are superior to us in various other ways, be it the wielding of magic or the old fashioned "I make my snacks out of creatures like you" dynamic. In gamer terms, they are the NPCs and mobs to be interacted with.

But don't fret just yet! Don't forget that we humans are a truly diverse spectrum of souls! Historically, we have divided ourselves by beliefs, class, ethnicity, individual, language, lineage, or otherwise. In most fantasy stories, with or without exclusively human characters, any character's "race" or "species" is just a tip of the iceberg. We are what we eat, drink, read, speak, listen, believe, and...

Okay, okay! Humans are great! But what's separating them in Thule?

For Tales from Thule, I have written four unique ancestries of humankind that fit well into the setting's lore (which has been inspired by other S&S worlds, ancient myths, lost continents, theosophy, etc). They are as summarized below, and I hope they interest you enough to make a character based on one of them.

Thuleans. The most diverse, all-encompassing ancestry of humans in Thule. Thuleans are any human descended from the hunter-gatherers who migrated to Thule from the Far North during the end of the previous Ice Age (and when the Great Flood/Fall of Atlantis happened). They are the bulk of humans who live outside the walled city-states, especially those who dwell within the vast swathes of untamed wilderness that cover the continent. Thuleans are very tribal and traditional, worshiping a variety of nature spirits. Each tribe has its own "spirit animal", which is a kind of animal that members of the tribe can actually understand and communicate with, and potentially (but rarely) form a bond with. This spiritual connection is, however, lost to Thuleans who choose to live urban lifestyles. Most tribes are hunter-gatherers making use of Neolithic technology, but some do practice farming and basic metallurgy; the latter is steadily becoming more common as these tribes trade and mingle with city-dwellers or rural folk who live near the cities or along the major trade routes. The possibilities here are quite endless; you could be a nomadic horse-archer of the Nar highlands, a painted witch-doctor of the Dhari jungles, a hermit ascetic of the Zinandar mountains, and so many more.

Lemurians. Sort of what happens when you toss a bunch of Bronze and Iron Age civilizations in a blender. The Lemurians have a Noah's Ark-esque legend to explain how they survived the Great Flood and arrived in Thule after a 40-year voyage. Then came along a famous general called "Kalayan the Conqueror." This guy helped his people build a big network of tributary states/trading partners. Kalayan's maritime empire quickly fractured after his death. The Lemurian city-states he left behind still remain, but are all ruled by competing sovereigns. The hottest ongoing rivalry is between their most militant city (Lomar) and their richest city (Quodeth). Lemurian citizens are part of a loose confederacy of coastal city-states and can move freely between them. Their society features both a large merchant class and warrior class, since trading and warring are their two favorite pastimes. Lemurians tend to be cosmopolitan (allowing some non-Lemurians to visit and trade with their cities, and even assimilate them) and are more divided by wealth status than by culture. A couple more noteworthy facts about the Lemurians: they dislike unnatural things like monsters and magic. Magic in particular is not well understood because Lemurian blood was cursed by it: whenever a Lemurian casts a spell, it is twice as likely to cause a random chaotic effect. Because of this, Lemurian magic users are rare (cultists aren't, since divine magic isn't affected by the curse), but those that do exist are greatly feared. For most Lemurians, mundane technology is considered superior and more reliable than magic, especially the innovations that help them win more wars or make more money.

Vrilerinnen. Genetically-engineered humans with a few traces of Atlantean (and potentially other non-human) ancestry. The last prince of Atlantis and his human consort created the Vrilerinnen to carry on the intellectual legacy of the Atlanteans, but without the inherent flaws of that species—immortality, narcissism, and sociopathy—to hold them back. Their human traits—mortality, kinship, empathy, ambition, and altruism—differentiate them from their alien forerunners. They appear human, except for occasional elfin features, and they age a bit slower than other humans. The pyramid hierarchy in Vrilerinnen society is supposed to be a meritocracy, with a "philosopher-king or queen" at the top. But by legal right, this monarch is solely responsible for defining what "merit" is. As a result, Vrilerinnen city-states often become elitist and tyrannical, forcing many political dissidents who don't fit the social mold to revile and flee their home cities. Their culture is strictly erudite, with each Vrilerinnen being obligated for apprenticeship to a master of some trade, typically one within their own family. Any disreputable, unskilled trade is left for slaves; although one city called Katagia has "outlawed" slavery, while ironically using thousands of imprisoned criminals for free labor. Vrilerinnen magic users are still quite rare, but such power isn't beyond belief. Much like a nuclear science, they treat magic very cautiously, even though the Vrilerinnen people actually have a natural-borne resistance to magical effects. For safety's sake, the arcane arts are kept under wraps by a few chosen practitioners. And due to political circumstance, proficient magic users are almost exclusively part of their military class. As a consequence of draconian leadership and cultural insularity, the Vrilerinnen cities have many enemies, such as barbarian tribes pressing their borders or rival city-states. Those who travel and live among other peoples think twice about revealing knowledge about their homeland, unless they have a reason to commit treason.

Hyperboreans. Probably the rarest of the four human ancestries in Thule, but also the most noticeable. Hyperboreans are exceptionally tall humans (around 7 feet height) with colorless pale skin, originating from a land called Hyperborea described as "the northern rim of the Earth." They are a spartan people, resistant to intense cold and able to go for long periods without warmth, food, or water. These adaptations helped them thrive in the harshness of their homeland. For the longest time, the Hyperboreans were their own enemy (besides polar bears, walruses, and whales). They rarely fought true wars, instead enjoying glorious (and "fair") arena battles beneath their underground cities of everlasting ice. But at some point in recent times, cataclysm struck. Suddenly out of nowhere, the Hyperborean cities were attacked by a combination of sweeping blizzards and hordes of undead known as the Pale-Walkers. Those who stayed behind to defend their holds were eventually forced to join the armies of the wintry revenant, while hundreds of others fled into exile, migrating across the stormy boreal seas in hopes of reaching "safety" in Thule. Now lost and ever-dwindling in number, these Hyperborean exiles must live among the small-folk, offering them their strengths and services in exchange for bare resources and tolerance.

These four aside, there's also mixed-ancestry options and the "traveler from another time or dimension" option available.

There are certainly other ancestries of humankind in Thule, but not the kind we are used to dramatizing as adventuring heroes. These are your blind cave-dwelling troglodytes who get zero sunlight, accursed and territorial beastmen (animal-human hybrids) who are constantly at war with wilderness tribes and cities alike, mutant miscreations spawned from Atlantean mad science, and other degenerate folk who follow dark gods of ritual cannibalism, headhunting, or human sacrifice. These are, of course, not playable.

Oh, that's not bad, even if they're all just weird humans. And you mentioned a few locations there, so what about those?

Like the Greenland we know, Primeval Thule is a surprisingly big place. There is a world map available (linked right here; don't use it if you want to steer clear of spoilers or meta-gaming behaviors). But many of those marked places are intentionally left unexplained with no more than a name attached. I believe this is intentional game design, to allow the Gamemaster some leeway to make things up as they go (especially for those who haven't purchased the released modules, myself included). For this reason, I cannot tell you what each landmark entails... not yet. But I promise, when Tales From Thule is well underway, any local landmark ripe for the party's exploration will receive its own informational entry on this site.

On the flip side, I recognize how some locations must be described before the campaign starts to help you players envision where in Thule your characters come from.

So let's start with the old colloquial expression: "There are two types of people in this world (Thule);" there are tribesfolk and there are city-dwellers. In general (but not always), these two cultural groups distrust and dislike each other. The uncivilized jungle hunters or tundra nomads regard the people of the cities as corrupt, decadent, untrustworthy, and greedy beyond all reason. In return, the citizens of Thule’s city-states think of the barbaric peoples of the continent as ignorant, lawless brutes, all too ready to meet any obstacle or setback with senseless violence. Of course, neither of these judgements are entirely true nor false; we can agree they are missing nuance and empathy.

I could go in depth about how life is generally different between these two categories, but some information can be surmised, and others are best saved for a separate article.

Tribesfolk. I can't say much about tribes because, frankly, there are probably thousands of them sprinkled across the large swathes of Thulean wilderness. I don't have the time and brainpower to make good world-building considerations for them all right now. Those of you who want to make a tribesfolk character, I would suggest inventing your own tribe. I can supervise the creative process, but I want you to do more of your own imagining—and if you're really passionate about this—do your own research on actual tribal peoples that have or still exist on Earth. If multiple players want to, they can create characters who share the same tribe.

City-dwellers. This is where things get a little bit more specific. As I've mentioned before, human civilizations at this stage of history are not very old. There are a great number of small settlements, like barbarian towns and villages, rural farming communes or trading posts scattered throughout the land. But true cities—or anything that can even claim to be a city—are not common at all. Most scholars would name perhaps sixteen to eighteen cities in Thule and the surrounding lands, depending on whether one would call a place like Ur-Ghom a “city” or not.

The cities of Thule include: Spoiler Alert!

Akal-Amo. A distant and mysterious city on the great northern island of Hellumar.

Droum, the City of Tusks. The people of Droum are abandoning their city in the face of Nytharian raiders and the approaching glaciers, leaving behind a plague of restless dead.

Ikath, the Hive City. Built upon the ruins of a great Myrmidon hive, Ikath is the Lemurian gateway to the Dhari jungles and their rich trade in lumber, spices, ivory, gems, and hides.

Imystrahl, the Bastion of Doom. An ostensibly impregnable stronghold where the last Atlantean immortals are holding out, Imystrahl is falling into ruin under constant siege by its neighbors, and the influences of an opiate known as the "Black Milk" introduced by a pernicious cult.

Jomur, the Place of Spirits. The meeting-place of many Thulean tribes in the North, Jomur is virtually abandoned for three-quarters of the year. The exceptions to this are whenever tribal shamans gather here to make communion with the nature spirits.

Kal-Zinan, the City of Starry Nights. A cloudless mountain refuge of innumerable ascetic and spiritual cults, where the Wardens of the Dawn—a warrior cult of the goddess Asura—make their nighttime stands against Starspawn invaders who fear nothing but the Sun.

Katagia, the Free City. A zealous, draconian Vrilerinnen city of the southern coastal plain, where crime and "decadence" is forbidden. Scores of criminal offenders are imprisoned and set to work (not slavery, but "re-education") in the great cavernous dungeons of her mad royalty. To be fair, those who are able to follow the strict Katagian Code tend to lead prosperous lives here, with fertile soil to tend many crops—that's if countless raids from the city's long list of enemies don't stop them.

Lomar, the City of Triumphs. Self-proclaimed the cultural and economic heart of the Lemurian people, Lomar is an impregnable fortress located at the junction of two rivers emptying into the Kalayan Sea, where a natural moat forms. The city has no royalty, instead ruled by an autocratic and militant Despot who claims stewardship of the throne. His legions represent the strongest armed force to be found in Thule, forcing many neighbors to pay tribute or face their wrath.

Marg the Crimson, the City of Slavers. Home to the Crimson Slavers, Marg is a cruel and oppressive place whose cheap slave markets are filled with wretched captives—often the victims of barbarian raids, and occasionally wars waged by city-states near and far.

Nim, the City of Reavers. A lawless and brutal harbor on the northern coast, Nim is the refuge of the Reaver Kings of the boreal seas, known for their raids on all shores of Thule.

Nith, the City of Ghostly Fires. During the Atlantean Expulsions, the holdouts at Nith self-immolated, knowing they could no longer hold off the constant sieges. But instead of passing into the afterlife, they remained restless and vengeful at night—as ghosts. A mortuary cult has since settled in Nith, bent on restoring the haunted city to its original splendor in hopes of putting the ghosts at peace. But in spite of their progress, some fear the cultists' intentions are far more sinister.

Orech, the City of Mazes. Cloaked in mystery and madness, Orech is an isolated city under the influence of reclusive yellow-clad priests who worship an unspeakable god believed to walk among them.

Quodeth, the City of Merchants. Largest and richest of Thule's cities, Quodeth was once a great Lemurian stronghold—until its princes laid aside their warrior traditions in favor of luxury and decadence. They allowed commerce to flow freely from her great seaports, and appointed a powerful eunuch called the High Vizier to govern their state for them. Since Quodeth is now overrun with mercenary companies and thieves’ guilds, some name it the City of Thieves instead of the City of Merchants.

Ren Shaar, the Immortal City. Since the turmoil of the Atlantean Expulsions, Ren Shaar has changed hands and banners countless times in history. Today, its diverse populace claim independence and elect their own monarchs. Ren Shaar’s economic importance is easy to see; it connects the southern coast to Thule’s interior via the Torchbane Tunnels beneath the Starcrown Mountains. Surrounding city-states all wish to conquer this bastion of trade, but they still fear the Ren Shaari people cannot be tamed, given their reputation for bloody resistance.

Rime, the City of Ore. Laid against the shade of the mountain god, Kang, this Lemurian mining city falls at the doomed doorstep of the Pale Death. Rime is the head of all ore production in Thule: its deep mines are a prime source of copper and tin for bronze, coal and iron for steel, gold and silver for coins. So too can diamonds and other precious gemstones be harvested from Kang's sacred rock. Discreetly but not secret, all city-states (especially Lomar and Quodeth) vie for control of Rime's exports, and would pay handsomely for corsairs to ransack the trade-ships carrying ore and slaves from her ports.

Ruritain, the City of Vaults. This Vrilerinnen stronghold is known for its catacomb vaults, sealed shut and abandoned since the Atlantean Expulsions. The contents of these vaults are unknown but for the eerie sounds that vibrate from them on occasion. Inexplicable cases of Ruritainians going missing are sometimes blamed on the vaults, putting the locals who dwell above them on edge.

Thran, the City of the Black Circle. Remote and forbidding, Thran’s obsidian walls conceal the strongest and most wicked cabal of magicians in all of Thule.

Ur-Ghom, the City of the Beastmen. Hardly a city at all (in the human sense), Ur-Ghom is the seat of the brutal beastman Cur-za-cur, or Chief of Chiefs. Folk of other kinds enter at their own peril.

There are also rumors of hidden cities concealed in Thule’s vast jungles or in the trackless mountains, but these places remain undiscovered for now and have no dealings with the known cities of the continent.

Wow. That's a lot of cities I'd never want to live in. And—Beastmen, Beastlords, Myrmidons, Starspawn, Pale Death, Black Milk, Crimson Slavers, Reaver Kings, Atlantean Expulsions, Katagian Code—what are all these dangerous-sounding thingies?

Thingies I hope none of us ever have to deal with in the 21st century CE.

If you're curious, here are some short explanations of the subjects listed above: Spoiler Alert!

The Beastmen are cursed animal-human hybrids; as savage and territorial as animals, and as cunning and war-like as humans. The Beastlords are talking animal spirits who "rule" the animal kingdom and were responsible for turning humans who angered them into beastmen. The Myrmidons are giant bugs infected by a fungal strain which turns them into hive-minded servants for an ancient evil; the fungus can infect humans too. The Starspawn are deadly alien invaders transported to Earth from distant star systems; they usually hate yellow dwarf stars (like our Sun) and only come out at night. The Pale Death isn't just a cold wave of climate change responsible for the Ice Ages; it's a powerful weather-spirit wielding both necromancy and winter magic to cataclysmic effect. The Black Milk is a sinister narcotic that the last Atlantean holdouts have been addicted to, and may continue to be for the rest of their immortal lives. The Crimson Slavers are a sprawling merchant company at the forefront of the continental slave trade. The Reaver Kings lead marauding bands of tribal outcasts engaged in coastal raids around the continent (kinda like Vikings). The Atlantean Expulsions were a series of genocidal wars waged against the last survivors from sunken Atlantis. The Katagian Code is a draconian set of laws that govern the eponymous city and her surrounding lands; it is the source of buildup for her imprisoned labor force.

These menaces of society or nature alike are just a few known examples of what an adventurer may come face to face with in Thule; many more await discovery. This land is saturated with perils of all shapes and forms, tangible and abstract, known and unknown. They are what makes it a challenging, hopefully fun adventure setting, but also an awful place to live in—unless you're something of an S&S hero yourself, a valiant explorer and daredevil!

I think I get the setting now... kinda. But what about the plot? Where does the story begin?

I plan to talk with the players about their adventure & character interests before I make more grounded decisions about the this.

Since the campaign is unlikely to begin until June, there will be a lot of time to plan. I am committed, but also in no rush. The premise for the first adventure should be released sometime in May.

Well, I might be onboard. What now?

If you are a player in Tales From Thule, you need access to the players' resources, which I provide. These are as follows:

Discord. There is a server used for chatting with me and other players in and out of the game. Moreover, links to other resources will be provided in the Discord server since it is the main hub for communication within our game group. This is where I can discuss and answer your questions about our campaign setting, your characters, access to resources, and our game.

Foundry VTT. This is the platform I run my game on (access linked in Discord). For players, FVTT is browser-based and completely free as long as access is given. Because I am self-hosting the game on my home network (via port-forwarding), access to the game is ONLY available to players whenever I have loaded into the game on my computer, and assuming there is a stable ethernet connection as well.

When it's time to play, I would recommend opening the game on a Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox browser. Firefox is much better if you have issues with memory usage and lag. You can also optimize your own performance in the Settings Configuration, by adjusting maximum framerate, shadow and lighting quality, animations, etc.

You can learn more about the system requirements for running FVTT here, and how players can use FVTT here.

Low Fantasy Gaming RPG. This is the game system we are using for this campaign.

The core rulebook is available to everyone for free in PDF file form (download link from the original website here). They're all you need to learn the system. Parts of the rulebook and 4 additional class option supplements (Cultist, Druid, Ranger, and Unlikely Hero) are also available as Journal Entries in the Foundry VTT game, in addition to several house rules.

Kanka. This site (https://kanka.io/en-US/campaign/59542) contains all the campaign setting information you or I need. Some entries from Kanka are also available as Journal Entries in the Foundry VTT game.

This Notes entry (linked here) is what I call "The Same Page Tool": a checklist of options to clarify the kind of game I intend to run for us. This way, everyone in our group can understand what this game is, in terms of expected play-styles and what is/isn't allowed. Democratic amendments to this checklist can be made when the entire group gets together for the first time to discuss the game, like a "session zero".

When does the game take place?

📅 Sessions begin once a week every Sunday @ 8:00 AM HST (GMT-10:00), each lasting 4 hours give or take. 📅

Our Session Zero begins on June 6th!

Our 1st Session begins on June 13th!

Credit goes to Christopher Chinn for the original post on his blog.

INSTRUCTIONS

Before you start a campaign, the group as a whole should sit down and look at this list, and pick the ideal options for this game – for this specific RPG, this specific campaign you’ll be playing, and this particular group of people.

Get together with your play group, either in person or online, where you are all present and can talk in real time and ask questions and dialogue. Talk about which choices fit and which ones do not and why. If you are playing a game that already sets these options, simply circle them accordingly.

Yes, some of you might say, “I can do 2 or 3 of those choices” – pick the one that best fits the game you’re trying to run.

CHECKLIST

There is room for negotiation, but remember: the group needs to pick ONE of each category.

1. Do you play to win?

~~A) Yes, you totally play to win! The win conditions are… (elaborate)~~
B) Good play isn’t a win/lose kind of thing.

2. Player characters are…

A) …expected to work together; conflicts between them are mostly for show.
B) …expected to work together; but major conflicts might erupt but you’ll patch them up given some time.
C) …expected to work together; major conflicts might erupt and never see reconciliation.
D) …expected to pursue their own agendas – they might work together, they might work against each other.
E) …expected to work against each other, alliances are temporary at best.

3. The GM’s role is…

A) …to prep a set of events – linear or branching; players run their characters through these events. The GM gives hints to provide direction, guiding them down a premeditated narrative, or one of several.
B) …to prep a plot hook or several, which the players can take in any direction based on their own decisions. The GM only has to play the NPCs while accurately explaining and representing their world.
C) …to wing the whole thing – the GM doesn't have to prepare and is expected to make things up on the fly.
D) There’s no GM. Everyone works together to make the story through freeform.
E) There’s no GM. The rules and the system coordinate it all.

4. The players’ roles are…

~~A) …to follow the GM’s lead to fit the story.~~
B) …to set goals for their characters as a group, and pursue them proactively together.
C) …to each set an individual goal for their character, and pursue it proactively.
~~D) …to fling their characters into random situations that seem interesting, with or without planning beforehand.~~

5. Doing the smartest thing for your character’s survival…

~~A) …is what a good player does.~~
B) …sometimes isn’t as important as other choices.
~~C) …isn’t even a concern or focus for this game.~~

6. The GM’s role to the rules is to…

A) …follow them, no matter what happens (including house rules).
B) …ignore them when they conflict with what would be good for the story.
C) …ignore them when they conflict with what “should” happen, based either on realism, the setting, or the genre.

7. What can players contribute to the story/setting?

A) The thoughts and actions of their characters; everything else is owned by the GM.
B) The above, plus their character’s backstory; everything else is owned by the GM.
C) The above, plus narrated outcomes when they spend a resource or make certain kinds of rolls, subject to the GM’s approval.
D) Whatever they want, subject to GM’s approval, which should be as forgiving as possible.
E) Anything.

8. After many sessions of play, during one session, a player decides to have their character side with an enemy. This is…

A) …something that shouldn’t even happen. This is someone being a jerk.
B) …where the character becomes an NPC, right away or fairly soon.
C) …something the player and the GM should have set up ahead of time.
D) …only going to last until the other player characters find out and do something about it.
E) …a meaningful moment, and an example of good roleplay and storytelling.

9. A fistfight breaks out in a bar! The details of where everything is – tables, chairs, where everyone is standing is something that…

A) …is important and will be displayed on a map or grid, perhaps using miniature figures.
B) …is something the GM will describe and players should ask questions to get more information.
C) …the group can decide on the spot using specific game rules (rolling dice, spending points, whatever).
D) …isn’t really that important other than it makes for an interesting scene – pretty much anyone can come up with details, and the GM can judge whether they're allowed or not.

10. How much comedy/wacky/silliness do you like?

A) All the time! We’re here to have fun, after all. Bring on the Muscle Cars From Space.
B) Lots! “Wouldn’t it be funny if…” should come true all the time. On a critical fumble do a pratfall.
C) Some. When comedy emerges from situations in play that’s great, but let’s not turn our gritty fantasy into a sitcom.
~~D) None. Let’s push to avoid our natural tendency to be silly.~~

11. A player character's death…

~~A) …should only happen at the player's request.~~
B) …should only happen if the GM talks to the player first.
C) …should only happen if it’s appropriate for the story.
D) …should happen whenever the mechanics call for it.

12. If this game were a movie, its movie rating* would be…

A) …G
B) …PG
C) …PG-13
D) …R
~~E) …NC-17~~

SPECIAL

Instead of choosing one, pick which options apply, leave the ones that don’t.

13. In order to really have fun with this game, the rulebook is something that…

A) …everyone playing needs to have read and understood before play, because the rules and setting are both very important.
B) …everyone should know the rules very well.
C) …everyone should know the setting very well.
D) …everyone at least should know the basics of the rules.
E) …everyone at least should know the genre the game pulls from.
F) …only one person needs to really know all the rules and can explain them in 10 minutes or less to everyone else.

14. This game runs best when the players take time to create characters that are…

A) …built to face challenges using the mechanics and stats.
B) …written with extensive backstories or histories.
C) …given strong motivations and an immediate problem or crisis.
D) …tied into the other characters as (allies) (enemies) (as either).
E) …written with some knowledge, research or reading up on the game setting, real history, or an actual culture.

15. (The G or PG-rating* checks all of these options) Regarding sensitive topics and establishing consent within a narrative, the GM must avoid depicting certain types of mature subject matter found in dark fantasy and sword & sorcery stories, such as…

~~A) …threats of excessively graphic nature in dialogue.~~
B) …violence against pets or animal companions.
C) …violence against animals in general.
D) …violence against children.
E) …violence against the pregnant (humanoids).
F) …domestic abuse or family violence.
G) …drug and alcohol abuse.
H) …self-harm and suicide.
I) …gore and torture.
J) …body horror.
K) …salacious innuendo in dialogue.
L) …consensual salacity.
M) …non-consensual salacity.
N) …any salacity that doesn't "fade to black."
O) …using insulting pejoratives in dialogue.
P) …racism.
Q) …sexism.
R) …homophobia.
S) …transphobia.
T) …ableism.
U) …dirty jokes and gallows humor.

^ Note: Keep in mind, these options are described within the context of diegetic role-play. Moreover, I have zero intention of making gratuitous and unnecessary depictions of them in our game. The keywords here are "morally grey grit" instead of "over-the-top evil edginess"; I get that those lines are sometimes blurred, but at least you should know which side of that spectrum I'm leaning towards. I believe some "serious issues" can be used tastefully to raise plot stakes and create engaging RP scenarios. But I also draw the line at however an issue is handled in a way that ends up frustrating or disturbing my players. I don't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable for participating; should that happen, I'd want to put a stop to it immediately.

“No map can contain all of Thule’s mysteries, nor can any tome catalog all its splendors. The perils of the Lost City of Tentakron or the secrets of Kal-Zinan have obsessed scholars for ages.

But one thing is clear: Thule has enough dangers and treasures for several lifetimes of adventures. For that is one of Thule’s most curious aspects: those in the east know little of what lies to the west, and those in the north are ignorant of the south.

Only by crisscrossing this vast and awe-inspiring land, from the Claws of Imystrahl to the Thousand Teeth, from the Highlands of Nar to the Lands of the Long Shadow, can one begin to comprehend the enormity and strangeness of Thule.”

The primeval continent is a land of a thousand different moods. Its character changes drastically from one valley to the next, revealing new wonders or presenting the traveler with unexpected obstacles and dangers. Jungles, glaciers, mountains, volcanoes, sweltering swamps and inland seas... Thule offers a bewildering variety of terrain and climate. In a few dozen miles, adventurers might go from a noxious marsh where prehistoric beasts bellow and roar, to cool and lofty hills dotted with the ruins of forgotten kingdoms, and then press on to endless plains of windswept tundra where fierce barbarians roam.

While Thule as a whole is difficult to categorize, sages studying the maps drawn by Lemurian explorers generally divide the continent into six great regions: the Claws of Imystrahl, Dhar Mesh, Kalayan the Golden, the Lands of the Long Shadow, the Nar Highlands, and the Thousand Teeth. The nearby islands of Hellumar and Nimoth form a seventh region, because they are geologically and culturally similar to Thule, and they share Thule’s history. The borders between these regions are often hard to discern—for instance, is the city of Thran more properly included in Dhar Mesh or the Thousand Teeth? In which region does a nomadic tribe dwell? Still, diversity is the common characteristic of Thule, so it is not surprising that each region harbors within it many examples of the wondrous variety to be found in the continent as a whole.

Each region represents an area in which the people and the lands are more closely linked to each other than to neighboring lands. Barbarian tribes can be found all over Thule, but the Thuleans of Dhar Mesh are a distinct culture group when compared to the Thuleans of the Thousand Teeth. The Dhar Mesh barbarians are tangled up in complicated webs of feuds and friendships with each other, but naturally have little to do with tribes found in other lands. Thanks to the difficulty of travel in Thule, few individuals or events have the power to affect people in multiple regions.

Means of Travel

The swiftest and easiest way to travel from one place to another in Thule is by ship. Thule has few good roads to speak of, but the seas, lakes, and rivers serve as the best highways. The Quosa River connects the Kalayan Sea with the waters ringing the island continent, linking dozens of isolated ports that otherwise would never trade with each other. It is only a couple of hundred miles overland from Ikath to Orech, and ten times that distance by sea—but most of the time, the traveler making that trip by sea will reach Orech days before the one who sets out overland, and probably enjoys a safer and easier journey in the process.

The drawbacks of traveling by ship or boat are obvious. First of all, there may not be a body of water that leads in the direction you want to go, or a place where you can land when you get there. Much of Thule’s outer coastline consists of extremely rugged mountains with no harbors to speak of. There simply is no place to land west of Katagia or south of Orech, so anyone who wishes to go deep into the Shields of Sunset is going to have to walk most of the way. Secondly, the coasts are poorly charted and subject to dangerous weather from time to time—the Thousand Teeth are littered with the wreckage of unlucky ships. Finally, corsairs are thick in the waters of Thule, and eagerly prey on any unprepared galley that comes their way.

If a sea or river won’t serve, the next best option is to join up with friendly nomads heading in the right direction and travel in their company. Many barbarian tribes wander endlessly across the territory they claim. Not only is it safer to travel with large numbers of fierce and well-armed friends, it is a lot more comfortable than foraging in the wilderness for yourself. A barbarian camp may not be quite the same as a fortified palace in Lomar, but it offers a tent over one's head, hot meals, entertainment of different sorts, and the simple pleasure of company. Many tribes can be quite generous to their friends, offering food and shelter without question for as long as needed. Of course, nomads tend to wander where they will, not necessarily where you want them to go... and winning the friendship of a barbarian tribe is often a difficult undertaking requiring years of fair trading, shared dangers, and the giving of rich gifts.

The last form of travel worth noting is to join a merchant caravan heading in the right direction. Land-bound trade in Thule is relatively rare, but the so-called “jungle traders” who link the richer and more advanced barbarian tribes to the markets of the great cities must venture regularly into the deep forests. If you have any delusions about an easy ride in a wagon full of pillows, set them aside now—the typical caravan consists of heavily laden oxen, horses, or mules, led by drovers on foot. In the warmer climates where most beasts of burden don’t do well, a traveler wishing to join a caravan might have to pay for the privilege by agreeing to serve as a porter, and carrying the trader’s wares.

Thule may be a cruel and hard land of many dangers, but it is not a hell on earth. Many people lead somewhat decent lives and enjoy their share of ordinary pleasures in their due season—feasts and revels, family and children, the satisfaction of work well done—whether they are illiterate barbarians, simple craftsmen, or great nobles. Adventurers, on the other hand, are far from ordinary. The stories of their lives are written on a broader canvas, for good or for ill. But they arise from the same common clay as all other people in Thule, and grew up amid the same traditions and ways as the people around them. The ordinary details of life in Thule are part of who they are.

City-dwellers, Barbarians, and Savages

People in Thule may fall into one of two broad categories within a vast spectrum of humankind: tribesfolk and city-dwellers. In general (but not always), these two cultural groups distrust and dislike each other. The uncivilized jungle hunters or tundra nomads regard the people of the cities as corrupt, decadent, untrustworthy, and greedy beyond all reason. In return, the citizens of Thule’s city-states think of the barbaric peoples of the continent as ignorant, lawless brutes, all too ready to meet any obstacle or setback with senseless violence.

City-dwellers, naturally enough, are the people of Thule’s civilized realms. Only the upper classes are normally literate, but all are subject to the laws and customs of the city in which they live. A large number of city-dwellers are farmers or frontier-folk who actually live outside the protection of city walls, tending the fields and groves that feed the masses. The Lemurian and Vrilerinnen cultures are typically associated with this kind of lifestyle, but there are many Thulean cultures who have adopted similar customs, becoming sedentary peoples relying on agriculture to feed themselves and palisaded towns to protect them from outside threats.

Barbarians are not far behind civilized folks in some areas, particularly the crafting of weapons and armor. Some are nomadic or semi-nomadic, moving from place to place to follow food sources such as migrating herds or to seek milder lands for the winter months. Others are settled, and keep herds and tend fields much like civilized people. The chief differences between these sedentary barbarian tribes and civilized folk are the simplicity of their social hierarchy and the lack of written laws and records. Such things may still be documented in more primitive notations, such as cave paintings, pottery, idols, and runestones. Alternatively, legends and laws may be recorded orally (and spiritually) via prominent lawgivers and shamans—usually elders—who wield mediumship with powerful spirits like the Beastlords. In a typical tribe, a barbarian answers only to their own conscience, serving no lord or master. Chiefs and elders are respected and listened to, but they do not rule—they lead.

Savages, on the other hand, are significantly less advanced than barbarians. One might naturally think the terms “barbarian” and “savage” interchangeable, but in this case they mean different things. The people of a savage tribe use only those tools and weapons they can find in the world immediately around them; they know nothing of metalworking, writing, or commerce, and very little of magic or other secret lore. Despite the preconceptions of civilized folk, savages aren’t stupid. After all, surviving in Thule’s wilderness with nothing but stone, wood, and fire requires a great deal of planning and inventiveness, and any savage warrior is quick to appreciate the value of a bronze or iron blade. They are simply wary of change and suspicious of different cultures. The most well-traveled individuals from all three groups (adventurers, for example) soon learn that there are good and bad people wherever one goes. Many tribal wanderers find their fortune in one city or another, and plenty of civilized merchants and mercenaries form fast friendships with people of the tribes they meet.

Coin and Trade

Precious metals are relatively common in Thule. Every major city—and a few noble houses, temples, or especially prosperous merchant enterprises—mints coinage in copper, silver, gold, and occasionally bronze, electrum, or platinum as well. In general, the value of the coin is dependent on the weight of its metal; denominations aren’t widely used, simply because the intense rivalry and competition between cities means that coinage marked with a value higher than its physical worth may not be honored outside the boundaries of the city where it was struck.

Some of the more notable coinage that circulates in Thule includes:

Gold crowns. The most common gold piece in Thule, worth itself in weight. Most are struck with the head of Kalayan the Conqueror, since they were minted in his time, although other monarchs have appropriated their own versions (with their own heads).
Atlantean sunburst. Made from orichalcum, the red gold of Atlantis, a sunburst features a hieroglyphic sun emblem. It is a rarer coin, each mint valued at 20 gold pieces in most large cities.
Quodethi double peacock. A gold coin of twice the normal weight, the double peacock is stamped on both sides with the princely emblem of the city. It is worth 5 gold pieces in Quodeth, or 2 in another city. Due to its long name, the colloquial term for this coin is "doubloon".
Margish kraken. These large silver coins are emblazoned with the image of a many-tentacled kraken. In Marg, their value is fixed at one healthy field slave, fifteen to twenty-five years in age (or fifteen to fifty years old for a Vrilerinnen slave), and they can be redeemed for such at any civic auction. For a slaver, the kraken’s value is about 10 gold pieces.
Ikathian amber. These similar-sized amber stones occasionally turn up in Myrmidon hives. They are accepted in most Lemurian cities as worth 5 gold pieces, but in Quodeth they are known as "vermin's gold" and sometimes regarded as bad luck.

While a purse heavy with gold pieces can see to many needs in civilized regions, not all the peoples in Thule care about money. Savages have little use for coins; they can’t be eaten, they aren’t tools, and they can’t be used to make clothing or shelter. No matter how many coins a merchant offers, a savage won’t part with something tangible and useful such as a pelt that might keep one warm or a hunting spear. However, coins are pretty, and many savages are happy to trade pretty things of their own such as uncut gemstones or ivory carvings. One may find that savages are more than happy to trade their trinkets for civilized goods that are clearly useful, such as bronze spearheads or warm garments.

Barbarians have a better idea of what coins are worth, even if they rarely use them. They are more likely to measure wealth in terms of the livestock they own, the houses and halls they build, or the weapons and tools they craft. Bartering with one’s neighbors for goods or services is more common than paying in the coins of the cities. Most barbarian tribes have at least occasional contact with civilized traders or encounter trading posts during their travels, so they tend to save what coins they do collect for the occasions when they’ll be useful in trade.

Days of the Week

In addition to the months and days of the Atlantean calendar, the people of Thule also count seven-day weeks tied to the phases of the moon. This is only used to provide weekdays and provide a more convenient schedule for regular commerce and observances, which otherwise would have to be fixed to specific dates ahead of time. The days are named after major deities as follows:

Asura's Day
Tarhun's Day
Kishar's Day
Nergal's Day
Tiamat's Day
Mithra's Day
Ishtar's Day

The middle of the week is considered inauspicious in some cities, and people superstitiously avoid beginning new enterprises or conducting important business on Nergal’s Day and Tiamat’s Day. Even civilized people have little notion of a weekend, but in most places Ishtar’s Day is a day of light work; many festivals or revels are planned to fall on the last day of the week.

Record of Years

Most people in Thule count years from the beginning of their monarch’s reign. For example, a merchant might boast that she bought an olive grove “in the third year of Queen Nalyani’s reign,” or promise to pay a loan “by the eleventh year of the queen’s reign.” If the queen’s reign happens to end before eleven years, people understand that the date means eleven years from the year in which Queen Nalyani assumed the throne. In the course of a single human lifetime there are rarely more than half a dozen rulers to keep track of in any given city, so it is not very confusing. But from time to time, truly villainous or despised monarchs are stricken from history by their successors, which can introduce some uncertainty for later scholars.

Tribal peoples follow a similar custom, but they tend to date years from notable events—battles, natural disasters, or heroic deeds of great renown. For example, a barbarian might count “the seventh year since we fought the Lemurians at the River Klal,” or “the ninth year after the Great Azure Comet passed through the sky.” On occasion, the beginning of the rule of a well-loved (or much-hated) chieftain counts as a notable event, but not often. Finding common references by which two barbarians can agree on when something happened can be challenging at times.

Scholars and sages make use of the Postdiluvian dating system, which counts years from when the Great Flood covered the world, sinking Atlantis and the Lemurian continent. In this system, the Great Flood took place in 0 PD, and the current year is estimated at 1202 PD. Click here to learn more about the Atlantean Calendar...

Common Languages

Most peoples in Thule are bilingual to a greater or lesser extent. They know the language of their home city or tribe and converse fluently in that tongue. They may also know some amount of Lemurian—the language of the Lemurians, now widespread since the days of Kalayan the Conqueror. Or, they may know Atlantean—the language of old Atlantis, still spoken by the Vrilerinnen and the Atlantean holdouts of Imystrahl. Most speakers of these "common" tongues get by with a couple of thousand words and some standard phrases, but can converse well enough for all but the most complicated or nuanced concepts.

The more isolated barbarians have little use for a common language, and it’s not unusual to find that particularly reclusive or hostile tribes don’t understand any Lemurian or Atlantean at all. Then, there are the oft-unwritten languages of monsters; relics of the prehuman and pre-Atlantean civilizations. The names given to these wicked languages go unknown by most, save for their cult acolytes or the likes of dark magus orders, such as the Black Circle, who may utter spells in such aberrant tongues.

Stone, Bronze, Iron, and More

The Atlanteans were masters of metallurgy and machines, but their influence did not penetrate to the deepest jungles of Thule. In general, the savage peoples of this land make do without metal arms or armor, while the peoples of the city-states are skilled in working bronze and iron. Barbarians who have any regular contact with civilized folk are able to equip themselves with metal arms and armor too, whether through trade, tribute, or pillage.

People (and intelligent monsters) who have little contact with civilization generally wield weapons of stone, bone, and wood. In many cases, these inferior materials are still quite sufficient to do the job—an arrow with an obsidian point is nearly as lethal as one with a hard metal point, as long as the target isn’t wearing armor made from better materials. Naturally, few adventurers insist on using primitive weapons when better weapons are available, so even the most savage heroes usually get their hands on metal spears or swords early in their careers once they begin interacting with more civilized folk.

Weapons and armor made from crucible steel—the strongest weapon steel that can possibly be made from materials native to this Earth—are rare. The only people in Thule who know the secret of working crucibles are the Atlantean holdouts and the weapon cults of Lomar, and neither would simply sell their most prized arms.

The mages and craftsmen of antediluvian Atlantis knew the secret to working steel beyond use for weapons or basic tools. Of course, they were no stranger to more mysterious alloys as well—cold iron, star-steel, and others. It is possible that these secrets may still survive in some Atlantean ruins, but for the most part this knowledge has vanished from the world. A small amount of such antediluvian weapons and suits of armor can be found in the treasuries and vaults of Thule, and they are generally regarded as priceless. Only the greatest of rulers and heroes own such marvels.

Perhaps the single most salient feature of Thule is the brooding, primal wilderness that virtually covers the continent. Even the most urban and domesticated city-states lie no more than an easy day’s walk from true wilderness, where terrifying beasts and hostile tribes of savages hold sway. The civilized folk of Thule fear the wilderness and do their best to wall it out, huddling within well-defended cities and other fortified settlements. Barbarians do not fear the jungles and forests the way civilized people do, but they certainly hold a healthy respect for the dangers that surround them, learning from an early age to be keenly aware of their surroundings at all times.

Wilderness Dangers

People unfamiliar with the wilderness assume that death in a dozen different forms waits to pounce the instant one leaves the narrow belt of relative safety around a town or city. Like many fears, this is based more on imagination and inexperience than actual threat. Thule’s wilderness harbors many dangers, but it is also lush, rich with game and forage, and in many cases spectacularly beautiful. Travelers who exercise some very basic precautions—for example, choosing campsites carefully or hiring experienced guides—rarely run into trouble they can’t handle. The problem is that, from time to time, disaster can strike even the largest and best-prepared expeditions. And in Thule’s wilderness, help is rarely close at hand.

As long as one avoids the glaciated regions of the continent, there are few landscapes in Thule that are innately hostile to life; there are no deserts, climates are moderate, and food and water can usually be found. But the terrain of Thule is extremely rugged—forbidding mountains, knife-edged ridges, and sheer gorges seem to conspire to delay and divert travel on foot. Physical exhaustion from marching up and down steep hillsides can leave inexperienced travelers too tired to guard themselves properly against hungry beasts or hostile tribes. Only a fool strikes out into Thule’s jungles or mountains without a trail to follow or a very knowledgeable guide. Getting lost in the forest is no mere inconvenience—it is a situation with potentially lethal consequences. The wild lands of Thule are literally trackless, offering travelers few landmarks or references once a party leaves a known trail.

Thule’s terrain is rarely lethal, but its animals, on the other hand, pose a very significant danger to travelers. The forests and tundra are home to countless large and aggressive beasts, many of which are dangerous to humans. Predators such as dire wolves, cave bears, crested eagles, and saber-tooth cats are obviously threats to life and limb, but many of Thule’s herbivores are equally dangerous. The foul-tempered ground sloth is a monstrous beast the size of an elephant with foot-long claws that can rip a warrior in half, while the Thulean elk sports antlers that stretch a dozen feet tip to tip. Many of Thule’s creatures are simply the most gigantic and fierce examples of their kind to be found in any age, and by quirks of history or climate they happen to be native to this land at this time.

While Thule’s giant beasts are impressive, one creature is still indisputably the most dangerous alive: Man. The wilderness is home to tribes of fierce barbarians and bloodthirsty savages who spend their days in a constant state of war against all other people, rural and urban. Blundering into the territory of a hostile tribe is quite often a fatal mistake. Warnings are rare—the first sign of impending attack may be a volley of poisoned arrows from the shadows, or a wave of screaming berserkers bursting out of the brush. Worse yet, tribes found in especially remote regions are often cannibals, headhunters, or fanatics dedicated to the worship of monstrous or demonic gods, without the cordiality of more well-known nature spirits like the Beastlords. Swift death in battle would be far preferable to the sort of torments that would follow after capture by such degenerates.

A Quick Overview Of Thule's Topography
Thule is a vast, mountainous island-continent that stretches more than fifteen hundred miles end to end. Nearby lie the great islands of Hellumar and Nimoth, with stranger lands yet beyond their shores. All three lie in the northerly reaches of the Atlantean Ocean, but in this age, they are warm and verdant. The deathly ice has only just begun its relentless advance.
The dominant feature of Thule is the rampart of mountains ringing its coasts. The Shields of Sunset guard the high plains of Nar in the west. To the south, the mighty Starcrowns reach elevations of more than 10,000 feet and shelter a maze of fjords and inlets known as the Claws of Imystrahl, where the posthumous influence of Atlantean culture holds strongest. In the east, the volcanic Zinandar Mountains smolder and fume. In northern Thule, the highlands and peaks are covered by the great glacier known as the Pale Death. This ring of mountains forms a gigantic basin or lowland in the center of Thule. A great lake known as the Kalayan Sea lies here, surrounded by deep jungles and trackless wilderness.
As one might expect from a land of such extremes, each region of Thule has its own rugged beauty. The plains of Seraykia are among the tamer realms, its flatlands rich with crop growth and farming villages centered around the city of Katagia. The Claws of Imystrahl are majestic fjordlands, home to Thule’s oldest cities and seaports facing the Atlantean Ocean. The mighty Starcrown Mountains virtually wall off these steep islets and peninsulas from the rest of Thule. The Nar Highlands in western Thule are wide, rolling plains and hills where fierce nomads roam on foot and horseback. Named for the man who conquered this vast region, Kalayan the Golden stretches from the Quosa river valley, across the south bend of the inland sea, past the swamps of Phoor, to the tropical doorstep of Dhar Mesh. It is home and battleground of the richest and most powerful cities on the continent: great powers such as Quodeth and Lomar.
The northern coasts are known as the Thousand Teeth, after the countless rocky islets and spires that dot the Sea of Mists. These are barbarian lands with few cities. Finally, Thule’s northeastern reaches are known as the Lands of the Long Shadow. Vast tundra plains and barren, windswept hills mark the creeping onset of everlasting winter, with the grim expanse of the glaciers looming on the northern horizon. Here the secret of Thule’s wonders and majesty is made plain: this is a doomed land, and its beauty will not last.
Click here to see a map of Thule...

A Primeval Landscape

Newcomers visiting Thule for the first time soon learn that this is one of the most rugged and inaccessible lands in the world. Steep mountains virtually ring the island continent, creating a daunting barrier against travel to the interior. The great central plain of Thule is much flatter than the mountains and highlands of the coast, but it presents an even more difficult obstacle: Dense, trackless jungles and swamps that are home to countless large, hungry predators.

Fjordlands

The first part of Thule that greets new arrivals are its spectacular fjordlands. The great majority of the continent’s coastline is mountainous, plunging steeply to meet the sea in a veritable maze of narrow inlets and steep-sided islets. Some of these inlets stretch more than a hundred miles into the interior, ringed by ever-higher peaks.

Fjordlands teem with life. The steep slopes are covered with light forest where game animals abound, while the cold, deep waters are home to dense shoals of fish and beds of shelled critters. Fjordlands also offer easy travel by sea, since these waterways and inlets comprise the best natural roads one could hope for. On the other hand, moving overland from one fjord to another is often impossible. Sometimes two villages on the same island or cape may only be four or five miles apart as the crow lies, but sailing fifty miles around the point is the preferred way to travel from one to the other than trying to climb the mountain ridge separating them.

Given their moderate climate and access to the sea, fjordlands would seem to be ideal for settlement, but they generally lack arable ground. They are anything but flat, and only a few ideal spots can support towns or cities of any size.

Forests

Between the sweltering jungles of the interior and the bare shoulders of Thule’s mountains lie magnificent broadleaf forests. These mixed woodlands are dominated by ancient oaks, beech groves, maples, and silver-trunked birch trees. As one travels north, the beech and oak forests give way to taiga—the pine forests of the boreal world, vast and desolate.

Like the fjordlands of the outer coast, the forests are among Thule’s kinder climes, rich with game and forage for those who know them well. The woodlands are also home to a variety of large and aggressive beasts—Thule’s forests are dangerous places to wander carelessly. Worse yet, they are the hunting grounds of barbarian tribes, some of which are quite fierce. These hardy folk have little use for intruders and are prone to defend their territory with sudden violence. In the wilderness, one should assume that all other people are enemies until proven otherwise.

Inland Seas

The central lowlands of Thule are dominated by a chain of vast freshwater lakes. The largest of these is known as the Kalayan Sea, and it stretches almost seven hundred miles from end to end. The Kalayan is often called Kalayan the Golden, or simply “the Golden Sea,” named for the striking hues of its surface during the long northern dawn and dusk.

The inland seas of Thule offer the best means of traveling any distance across the rugged landscape, but they are far from safe. Storms on the Kalayan can raise waves every bit as large and dangerous as those of the Atlantean Ocean, it is said, and many Lemurian ships have been wrecked in these waters by sudden squalls. Corsair galleys lurk in the Kalayan’s jagged coasts, eager for the opportunity to fall on a passing merchantman. Finally, large and hungry predators swim these waters—the Kalayan (and other sizable lakes) are home to freshwater crocodiles, giant gars and pike, vicious eels, and a few atavistic survivors such as plesiosaurs and mosasaurs. It’s not a good idea to swim unarmed!

Jungles

The jungle is in many ways the single defining landscape of Thule. Dark, deadly, mysterious, and impenetrable, it forms a vast green world within a world, a place where savage beasts and feral barbarian tribes struggle against one another in a never-ending battle for survival. Here, the illusions and pretenses of civilization are stripped away, leaving raw and fierce nature as the ultimate arbiter of whether one lives or dies. Death lurks only a few heartbeats away, ready to claim the careless or unlucky.

While true rainforests tend to have relatively little undergrowth, Thule’s rugged topography and antediluvian soil provides lots of fertile hillsides where dense understory growth can develop—the jungles of this primeval land are dense at all heights, not just the canopy. A fecund collection of life in all forms thrives in this lush environment, including an unbelievable number of venomous or predatory beasts that can kill humans. In fact, Thule’s jungles are often home to creatures that died out ages ago in other parts of the world; more than a few behemoths (dinosaurs) still lurk in these verdant retreats, it is said. Naturally, there are no human cities or civilizations to be found in the interior jungles of Thule. There aren’t all that many barbarians or savages, for that matter; most people look for less hostile places to make their homes. But the tribes that dwell in this fearsome environment are some of the toughest and most fierce warriors in the world.

Giant Caves

In addition to its spectacular vistas of ice-capped mountains and vast forests, Thule is also home to a number of caves and caverns of tremendous extent. The vast interior basin of the island-continent combines limestone hills with heavy rainfall—the perfect recipe for the formation of truly gigantic cavern systems. The hilly reaches in the Land of Long Shadows and the northerly lands of Hellumar and Nimoth are likewise riddled with caves—even if these regions are now too cold and dry for huge caves to form, they were tropical until just a few centuries ago.

There is no true “underworld” system of continent-spanning caves miles below the surface in Thule, but the natural caverns accessible from the surface are quite impressive in their own right. Some of these include huge chambers hundreds of feet across, while others are sprawling networks of passages and chambers dozens of miles in extent. Strange ecologies of cave-dwelling creatures develop in the larger cave systems—and some hold hidden strongholds of monstrous beings, or dark temples dedicated to the worship of forbidden gods. Unspeakable powers were once strong in these lands, and many of their followers—or possibly the Great Old Ones themselves—may lie dormant in the deepest of these caves.

Mountains

The story of Thule’s mountains is written in fire and ice. Mountain ranges in the northerly portions of the continent (and in the great islands of Hellumar and Nimoth) are desolate, inhospitable places mantled in mighty glaciers and snowfields. Huge fields of ice fill the valleys and choke the passes, rendering travel nearly impossible. The mighty Starcrowns of Thule’s southern coast are so lofty that they, too, have fallen into the grip of the Pale Death, even though they are many hundreds of miles south of the creeping glaciation that is conquering the northern lands. But the ranges in eastern Thule smolder and smoke with their own subterranean fires, my King, creating a barrier of volcanic heat against the encroaching ice. Lush and verdant compared to the icy ramparts of the other ranges, they are only marginally less impassable—frequent eruptions, constant tremors, and deadly fumes can close off passes with no warning whatsoever.

Between glaciers, volcanoes, or sheer elevation, the mountain ranges of Thule (and the great islands of Hellumar and Nimoth, which lie close by) form a nearly impassable barrier blocking travel between the coastal fjords and the interior jungles. As one might expect, few people live in these regions. A few hardy tribes of humans make their homes in these high vales, fortifying the narrow passes against intruders, and the easternmost Zinandar Mountains are home to the realm of Kal-Zinan. For centuries, there the nocturnal Wardens of the Dawn have defended their city (and unwittingly, the rest of Thule) from starspawn invaders, earning themselves demigod status among those faithful who shelter in the City of Starry Nights.

There is one thing more that must be said about Thule’s mountains: there are many places in the high peaks where men should not go. Black temples buried in the snows and terrible ruins of antediluvian monsters are often found on the higher slopes, not all of them abandoned.

Swamps

The coastal plains of Thule’s inland seas are home to dense, tangled swamps—huge stretches of flooded forest that can stretch for dozens or hundreds of miles. Gigantic cypress trees mantled with hanging moss loom over the shadowed waterways, and the rare patches of dry ground are overgrown with underbrush covering every hummock or islet. Countless meandering creeks, lakes, and sloughs further impede travel on foot; swamps are almost impossible to navigate without a local guide or an uncanny sense of direction.

Much like jungles, swamps teem with a vast number of large and dangerous beasts. Huge reptiles such as giant vipers, crocodiles, pythons, and monitor lizards seem especially common in these humid areas, and a few behemoths (dinosaurs) that should have gone extinct millions of years ago still lurk in some places. Worse yet, the tribes of the swamps are some of the most primitive and degenerate people to be found anywhere in Thule. The vile headhunters of Phoor are perhaps the best example; masters of stealth, ambush, and poison, these murderous savages are fanatically devoted to the worship of terrible gods and regard all other humans as potential sacrifices.

Tundra

As one travels farther north, the trees grow sparser and more stunted until finally they give out altogether. This is the tundra, a vast arctic plain that lies between the taiga and the advancing glaciers. Sometimes referred to as the Lands of the Long Shadow, the tundra plains of northern Thule are a harsh and forbidding environment—but in summer and fall, they teem with big game. This is the domain of the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, the muskox, and the caribou. Vast herds roam these lands, migrating with the seasons and grass-growth.

Like the taiga forests, the tundra is home to tribes of nomadic hunters who follow the great herds. Hunting mammoths or rhinos is no small feat; these giant beasts have thick hides and fight aggressively, trampling any hunter that gets too close. Taking down a mammoth is a long and dangerous game of luring the beast into charge after charge by hunters who show themselves and suddenly retreat, while dozens of arrows and thrown spears slowly wear down the mighty animal until it can be goaded into a reckless charge against a thicket of grounded spears or lured over a cliff.

Glaciers

A grim and implacable enemy is at the gates of the northern world. Year by year, the summers grow shorter and the northern glaciers creep steadily closer to the lands of humankind. Already the great island of Nimoth lies trapped in the clutches of the Pale Death, the ice thickening over its abandoned cities with each passing winter. In the mountainous spines of Hellumar and Thule, new glaciers are marching on the surrounding lands. Already the Pale Death holds the northeast quarter of Thule in its icy grasp, and lesser ice sheets are slowly spreading too.

As expected, Thule’s glaciers are cold and inhospitable. Nothing grows here, and few animals can find food on the ice. Without grazing or game, there is nothing to eat unless one is near enough to the sea to get by with sealing or fishing. Even that meager existence is impossible during the months when the seas are frozen over. In addition to the lack of food and the bone-chilling cold, glaciers are treacherous terrain to cross. Crevasses, sometimes hundreds of feet deep, can be completely concealed by a thin crust of snow that gives way when an unfortunate traveler unwittingly walks over it. Avalanches, toppling ice boulders, or outbreaks of melt-water can also threaten life and limb. A few bold caravans cross an arm of a glacier when necessary, but no one lingers in these desolate places.

Worst of all, Thule’s glaciers seem to possess an active and malign intelligence capable of harnessing paracausal forces: controlling the wintry weather, or even stranger, necromancy. Here, the frozen dead of the bygone ages do not sleep soundly. Loose snow, frozen flesh, and skeletal bones surge forward to cut off the retreat of trespassers, or change course to traverse mountains, crushing towns that should be out of their reach. The idealized "Pale Death"—who some say is a cold and hateful spirit—animates these titanic masses of ice and long-buried corpses, willing them onward to crush the lands of civilization and blanket the world with nothingness.

The wilderness of Thule may be majestic and deadly, but so too are the continent’s civilized regions. Thule’s city-states are ancient and often magnificent in their monumental architecture and barbaric splendor. Golden palaces and rich gardens sprawl behind towering walls manned by proud warriors in jeweled harness, while mysterious temples and the minarets of astrologers and sages soar to the sky. Yet for all their wealth and beauty, it must be told that the civilizations of Thule are frequently cruel, warlike, and oppressive. Despotic overlords rule by whim and caprice, showering rich rewards on their favorites and ruthlessly laying low any foes or rivals who attract their suspicions.

By their very nature, despots come and go swiftly in most places. An influential nobleman, a high captain in the army, or an unscrupulous high priest manages to secretly gather the support needed to topple the old ruler, and takes the throne for a few years—or perhaps a decade or two—until someone else successfully deposes the deposer. The nature of this transition varies from city to city and culture to culture. In martial Lomar, the road to the Lemurian throne lies in reuniting the empire of Kalayan the Conqueror—by leading his legions to victories and atrocities abroad. In mercantile Quodeth, wealth is the way to power; its Lemurian princes are blue-blooded figureheads, and those who seek to rule the City of Thieves vie to claim the position of High Vizier through bribery, extravagance, and the occasional assassination. Thran, the City of the Black Circle, belongs to the most powerful magus of that dark order, who holds it until a challenger defeats him in a battle of spells. In Thule, might confers legitimacy.

Unfortunately, the brutal politics of power are not the only problems Thule's civilizations face. In this age, the social compact is rough and incomplete. Cities are hard and heartless places where the strong oppress the weak, corruption runs rampant, and the most wicked entertainments and practices are simply routine. Each of Thule’s cities seems to harbor its own fatal law, an injustice or social ill that cries out for redress. For example, Quodeth is beset with thievery, usury, and fraud; all the problems of a society in which gold reigns unchecked. The crimson-walled cesspool of Marg is no better than a giant slave market where human life is bought and sold for a handful of coins, while the last Atlanteans who dwell in the dark hospice of Imystrahl are mired in the waking dream of “the Black Milk”, hardly caring whether they live or sleep forever dreaming.

To put it another way, every city-state in Thule is marked by its own brand of wickedness. Travelers who blunder into strange cities unprepared might soon have reason to wish they had remained in the monster-hunted jungles.

The City-States of Thule
The island-continent of Thule is mostly wilderness, and cities are few and far between. While there are a great number of small settlements, barbarian villages, and trading posts scattered throughout the land, true cities—or anything that can even claim to be a city—are not common at all. Most scholars would name perhaps sixteen to eighteen cities in Thule and the surrounding lands, depending on whether one would call a place like Ur-Ghom a “city” or not.
The cities of Thule include:
Akal-Amo. A distant and mysterious city on the great northern island of Hellumar.
Droum, the City of Tusks. The people of Droum are abandoning their city in the face of Nytharian raiders and the approaching glaciers, leaving behind a plague of restless dead.
Ikath, the Hive City. Built upon the ruins of a great Myrmidon hive, Ikath is the Lemurian gateway to the Dhari jungles and their rich trade in lumber, spices, ivory, gems, and hides.
Imystrahl, the Bastion of Doom. An ostensibly impregnable stronghold where the last Atlantean immortals are holding out, Imystrahl is falling into ruin under constant siege by its neighbors, and the influences of an opiate known as the "Black Milk" introduced by a pernicious cult.
Jomur, the Place of Spirits. The meeting-place of many Thulean tribes in the North, Jomur is virtually abandoned for three-quarters of the year. The exceptions to this are whenever tribal shamans gather here to make communion with the nature spirits.
Kal-Zinan, the City of Starry Nights. A cloudless mountain refuge of innumerable ascetic and spiritual cults, where the Wardens of the Dawn—a warrior cult of the goddess Asura—make their nighttime stands against Starspawn invaders who fear nothing but the Sun.
Katagia, the Free City. A zealous, draconian Vrilerinnen city of the southern coastal plain, where crime and "decadence" is forbidden. Scores of criminal offenders are imprisoned and set to work (not slavery, but "re-education") in the great cavernous dungeons of her mad royalty. To be fair, those who are able to follow the strict Katagian Code tend to lead prosperous lives here, with fertile soil to tend many crops—that's if countless raids from the city's long list of enemies don't stop them.
Lomar, the City of Triumphs. Self-proclaimed the cultural and economic heart of the Lemurian people, Lomar is an impregnable fortress located at the junction of two rivers emptying into the Kalayan Sea, where a natural moat forms. The city has no royalty, instead ruled by an autocratic and militant Despot who claims stewardship of the throne. His legions represent the strongest armed force to be found in Thule, forcing many neighbors to pay tribute or face their wrath.
Marg the Crimson, the City of Slavers. Home to the Crimson Slavers, Marg is a cruel and oppressive place whose cheap slave markets are filled with wretched captives—often the victims of barbarian raids, and occasionally wars waged by city-states near and far.
Nim, the City of Reavers. A lawless and brutal harbor on the northern coast, Nim is the refuge of the Reaver Kings of the boreal seas, known for their raids on all shores of Thule.
Nith, the City of Ghostly Fires. During the Atlantean Expulsions, the holdouts at Nith self-immolated, knowing they could no longer hold off the constant sieges. But instead of passing into the afterlife, they remained restless and vengeful at night—as ghosts. A mortuary cult has since settled in Nith, bent on restoring the haunted city to its original splendor in hopes of putting the ghosts at peace. But in spite of their progress, some fear the cultists' intentions are far more sinister.
Orech, the City of Mazes. Cloaked in mystery and madness, Orech is an isolated city under the influence of reclusive yellow-clad priests who worship an unspeakable god believed to walk among them.
Quodeth, the City of Merchants. Largest and richest of Thule's cities, Quodeth was once a great Lemurian stronghold—until its princes laid aside their warrior traditions in favor of luxury and decadence. They allowed commerce to flow freely from her great seaports, and appointed a powerful eunuch called the High Vizier to govern their state for them. Since Quodeth is now overrun with mercenary companies and thieves’ guilds, some name it the City of Thieves instead of the City of Merchants.
Ren Shaar, the Immortal City. Since the turmoil of the Atlantean Expulsions, Ren Shaar has changed hands and banners countless times in history. Today, its diverse populace claim independence and elect their own monarchs. Ren Shaar’s economic importance is easy to see; it connects the southern coast to Thule’s interior via the Torchbane Tunnels beneath the Starcrown Mountains. Surrounding city-states all wish to conquer this bastion of trade, but they still fear the Ren Shaari people cannot be tamed, given their reputation for bloody resistance.
Rime, the City of Ore. Laid against the shade of the mountain god, Kang, this Lemurian mining city falls at the doomed doorstep of the Pale Death. Rime is the head of all ore production in Thule: its deep mines are a prime source of copper and tin for bronze, coal and iron for steel, gold and silver for coins. So too can diamonds and other precious gemstones be harvested from Kang's sacred rock. Discreetly but not secret, all city-states (especially Lomar and Quodeth) vie for control of Rime's exports, and would pay handsomely for corsairs to ransack the trade-ships carrying ore and slaves from her ports.
Ruritain, the City of Vaults. This Vrilerinnen stronghold is known for its catacomb vaults, sealed shut and abandoned since the Atlantean Expulsions. The contents of these vaults are unknown but for the eerie sounds that vibrate from them on occasion. Inexplicable cases of Ruritainians going missing are sometimes blamed on the vaults, putting the locals who dwell above them on edge.
Thran, the City of the Black Circle. Remote and forbidding, Thran’s obsidian walls conceal the strongest and most wicked cabal of magicians in all of Thule.
Ur-Ghom, the City of the Beastmen. Hardly a city at all (in the human sense), Ur-Ghom is the seat of the brutal beastman Cur-za-cur, or Chief of Chiefs. Folk of other kinds enter at their own peril.
There are rumors of hidden cities concealed in Thule’s vast jungles or in the trackless mountains, but these places remain undiscovered for now and have no dealings with the known cities of the continent.

In Thule, personal ambition and ability are the final arbiters of how high one might rise. Thulean society can be surprisingly meritocratic, and it offers many chances for upward mobility—if one defines “meritocratic” as permissive of advancement to anyone who can bribe, strong-arm, or assassinate their way into the upper classes. People with ability (and perhaps a great deal of personal ruthlessness) acquire the means by which they can buy their way upward. In fact, many mercenaries and freebooters take up their dangerous profession in the hope of someday winning a high appointment or noble title.

At the top of the social ladder, naturally, stands the monarch, although the exact title might be king, queen, despot, overlord, warlord, or tyrant. There is no such thing as a constitutional monarchy in Thule; the monarch wields power without limit. With a word, the monarch can sentence any person to execution, send a city to war, strip titles and wealth from a rival, or decree a month-long festival. The only check on the monarch’s power is what the city’s nobles or officials permit—a monarch who rules capriciously or ineffectively becomes too dangerous to leave on the throne, and therefore ripe for deposing.

Beneath the monarch are the nobles. These families control hereditary offices, monopolize rich trades or commodities, or own vast estates in the surrounding lands. The qualifications of nobility vary from city to city; for example, in Lomar, “nobility” refers to whether one can trace descent from great conquerors and defenders of ancient Lemuria. Nobles have vast reserves of wealth and live in opulent palaces. They command personal armies in the form of their household troops, keep hordes of loyal retainers and advisors, and own hundreds or even thousands of slaves who work their fields, labor in their quarries, or crew their galleys. Nobles often enjoy virtual immunity to the laws of their home cities and need only fear the censure of their peers or the direct action of the city’s ruler.

Nobles wield great power, but the monarch who holds the ultimate power in a city does so by maintaining the loyalty of the next social class: the officials. They hold titles such as vizier, magistrate, general, consul, or panjandrum. In the name of the city’s ruler, they enforce law, command the army, supervise public works, and regulate taxes and duties of all kinds. High-ranking officials are every bit as powerful and influential as the great nobles of a city, and often vastly wealthy—control of an important office gives an official plenty of opportunities to become rich. Many viziers and panjandrums are, of course, quite corrupt, but others are honorable and forthright civil servants.

Most cities in Thule are also home to large and influential orders of priests. Temples are rich and powerful institutions, and often control estates and troops that rival those of the strongest noble houses. Like noble houses, temples can often be quite jealous of their privileges and position. Cloaked in mystery and ancient traditions, temple hierarchies serve as a balancing force of sorts, countering the most oppressive practices of monarchy or nobility, but also defending the status quo against the resentment of the lower classes.

The merchants constitute a large middle class in most of Thule's cities. In fact, in some cities, there is very little distinction between a wealthy merchant and a wealthy noble. Merchants include shipowners and caravan masters who engage in trade with distant cities, moneylenders, shopkeepers, and even skilled artisans and craftsmen. Anyone who owns a place of business and practices a trade for himself or herself—even independent landowners with rich vineyards or orchards—is counted as part of this class. Soldiers and servants make up the lower classes; there are exceptions to this, but only for the most skilled fighters and charmers among them. They are free men and women, but they work for whoever can pay them. In many cases, the “pay” is simply the privilege of belonging to a household and having room and board provided to them. Warriors often take service with a noble house and serve loyally for decades with no expectation of pay beyond a few silver pieces every now and then to gamble away or spend on drink and revelry. The best masters look after servants who grow too old to continue their labors. It’s not unusual for a noble to reward an old and faithful servant or guard with an easy retirement and a gift of enough money to make the servant comfortable. Regrettably, not all who employ servants are so kind-hearted.

As one might expect, slaves are near the bottom of the social ladder—but they are not quite the bottom in practice. The conditions of slavery vary widely from owner to owner. Slaves may be kept in wretchedness and misery, put to hard labor and discarded once they are no longer useful, or they might simply be tenant farmers who live on the land they work for their owner, enjoying lives not all that different from a poor member of the servant class. Beggars are regarded as the lowest of the low, beneath even slaves. After all, if someone is a slave, it’s because someone else thinks they’re worth owning and feeding. Beggars, on the other hand, are so wretched that no one cares if they starve or not.

Thieves, smugglers, assassins, and other scofflaws occupy a curious position in society. Thievery is considered a trade of sorts even in the face of the sternest laws against theft and extortion, as unlikely as it may seem. Therefore, guildmasters, and master assassins are generally regarded as members of the merchant class, while the average guildmember holds a position similar to a laborer in an artisan’s workshop and is considered a servant of the guildmaster. Only the most vile murderers and criminals are truly outside society.

Dark Delights

These are cruel times, and the entertainments and diversions of Thule’s cities would shock the sensibilities of a different day. Civilized folk think nothing of watching men and women die in arena fights or seeing criminals put to death in spectacular and grisly executions. Gambling dens, brothels, fighting pits, opium houses, and hidden shrines where forbidden deities are worshiped with debauched rituals can all be found in the crowded precincts of the typical city-state.

The wantonness and hedonism of the typical city-dweller are one of the primary reasons why rural and barbarian tribesfolk dislike and distrust civilization. A bloody-handed ice reaver might hurl himself into battle against a hundred foes without a moment’s hesitation, but blanches at the wicked displays that are all too common in Thule’s cities.

Naturally, the basest forms of entertainment tend to collect in the poorest and most desperate neighborhoods. Some sort of slum quarter—a crowded, crime-ridden district of extreme poverty—can be found in almost every city. Some are ghettos walled of from the more prosperous districts nearby, some are bad neighborhoods that anyone might wander into by mistake, and some are actually buried streets built over and forgotten by the city officials, but these impoverished districts are all riddled with crime and thievery, and nearly every city has one.

The slum quarter of a city is a world of its own, a city within a city. Here, the city guards do not venture. Vicious gangs of ruffians, bands of slavers, beggar brotherhoods, and of course thieves’ guilds rule over each street or block. It’s no place that anyone with a better choice would willingly choose to live, but the wretched masses have few other options—a life of poverty and desperation within the city walls seems preferable to a swift and certain death in the wilderness.

Law and Order

Systems of law and law enforcement are not very well developed in most of Thule's civilizations. There are no constables, police, or city watch officers in Thule’s cities. Instead, laws are kept by the city’s soldiers, who only enforce whatever laws the monarch wishes enforced, and only in those districts the monarch bothers to protect. Justice is often for sale, and a noble or wealthy priest can bribe magistrates or guards to take action against anyone who offers offense, whether the charges are legitimate or not.

In general, simple vices are ignored—peddling exotic drugs or establishing a brothel are not against the law in most places, although trying to avoid the taxes and gratuities city officials and guard-captains collect can bring down the heavy hand of the authorities. City guards only step in when a crime is especially serious or when they catch the perpetrator in the act. Crimes that generally provoke the attention of the city guard include:

Murder (although dueling or consensual fights do not count as murder).
Assault or theft (when the victim belongs to the higher classes).
Arson, rioting, or general mayhem.
Rebellion or resistance to the monarch’s soldiers.
Practice of dark magic (although few lowly guards would dare hinder a known magus).
Worship of forbidden deities.

Punishment for crime tends to be swift and harsh. With the (ironic) exception of Free Katagia, prisons are virtually unknown in Thule’s cities, although most garrison buildings and magistrate courts have cells for holding accused criminals until the authorities can determine punishment and see it carried out. These punishments include flogging, fines, maiming or marking, enslavement, exile, or death.

Warfare and Rivalry

Relations between one city and another are even more tense than the relations of the various factions and powers within each city. Distrust, suspicion, and vicious rivalry is the typical state of affairs between Thule’s civilized states. The Lemurian warriors of Lomar despise Quodeth’s naked mercantilism. Quodeth resents Katagia’s celebration of Vrilerinnen heritage and superiority. Katagia is repelled by all things her Code deems "unnatural", including the cheap slavery of Marg and the narcotic decadence of Imystrahl. The cultural divides are deep and difficult to bridge.

Despite these differences, open warfare between cities is rare, simply because most cities are so far apart that it is nearly impossible to attack one another directly. Lomar lies three hundred miles from Quodeth, with rugged mountains and deep jungles covering most of the intervening terrain—any Lemurian legion that sets out for the City of Merchants would be decimated by starvation, disease, and the endless attacks of jungle tribes by the time it arrived.

By riding the down-current of the Quosa River, Quodeth’s mighty fleets could bring a Quodethi army to Lomar’s shores more easily, but they would be outnumbered three to one by a combination of Lomar’s tributary navies and matchless phalanxes on land. For now, these two enemies can only watch each other and wait for some turn of events to change the basic strategic considerations. Similar difficulties challenge most of the other civilizations, and limit their ambitions.

Since long marches across Thule’s wilderness are so difficult, cities find other ways to compete with each other. Proxy warfare is quite common in this land; when a city falls into civil warfare or disorder, its neighbors eagerly funnel arms, gold, and mercenaries into the fighting, hoping to pick the winning side and gain influence over their neighbor. Likewise, cities in the same region vie with each other to win the allegiance of the stronger barbarian tribes in the area, in the hopes that they can goad hordes of wilderness warriors into taking the fight to their rivals. Competition between merchants of different cities is absolutely ruthless, as various cities compete to control especially valuable or strategic trades—skirmishing, raiding, and piracy are common mercantile activities.

While Thule’s cities spend a good deal of time and effort interfering with each other, they also keep a wary eye on the rise of barbarian tribes in the wilderness. Barbarians have no love for civilization, especially civilizations as corrupt and hedonistic as those of many cities. But the combination of rich treasuries and luxuriant livelihoods is an irresistible lure to many barbarian hordes. Over the centuries, more than a few cities of the Kalayan or the Lands of the Long Shadow have been laid to waste by waves of berserk warriors. Pragmatic cities simply bribe the strongest tribes to trouble somebody else, while more hostile cities such as Lomar, Ikath, or Thran viciously punish any such incursions into their lands.

There are countless gods in Thule: protectors of cities, patrons of merchants, spirits of beasts and leaf, and dark things remembered only by a few savage tribes or vile cults. This is a superstitious age, and humankind is surrounded by mysterious powers. In such a world, people naturally seek to understand the forces around them by giving them names and seeking to win their favor or avert their displeasure. And because most individuals do not wish to offend any gods, even those they do not worship, strict monotheism is rare if not nonexistent; the people of Thule tend to be polytheistic or henotheistic. Whether the divine take note of such things or not, few indeed could say, for the gods of Thule can be mysterious and fickle.

The Seven

The Seven are a series of (usually seven) godly figures—drawn from ancient Atlantean and Lemurian mythologies—shared and worshiped by most city-dwellers and other civilized peoples. Some of these divinities may have been based on ascendant rulers from antediluvian history; the stories of their lives must remain shrouded in mystery, with truths preserved and twisted by their enduring cults. But in practice, the Seven are viewed as celestial beings beyond the tangible reach of most living mortals, excluding fateful times when they have reincarnated into mortal aspects or "demigods"—gifted individuals who are always destined for greatness.

Thule's civilized cultures often portray their greatest ancestors, rulers, and heroes as incarnations of the Seven. For instance, many Lemurians believe Kalayan the Conqueror was an incarnation of Nergal, a war god. Such beliefs can validate entire bloodlines for royal legitimacy; noble families can try to claim descendancy from a popular demigod as an excuse to take the throne of a city.

A description of each member of the Seven is provided below:

Asura

Goddess of Dawn, Messenger of the Gods, Flame of Atlantis

Symbol: A crown or tiara with rays of sunlight

Alignment: Neutral Good

Portfolio: Dawn, fire, beginnings, inspiration

The goddess of dawn, Asura is said to begin each new day by kindling the Sun with divine fire. She is a figure of glory and hope, dispelling darkness and driving away evil things with her coming. Her holy texts teach that people are meant to live free of oppression and realize their potential, doing good works and aiding those less fortunate than they. She was once considered the special patron of Atlantis, and her radiant glory symbolized the progress and enlightenment of Atlantean civilization.

Temples of Asura commonly greet each sunrise with ringing gongs, and keep a sacred fire burning at the altar all year round. The cults of Asura lost great deals of wealth and influence when Atlantis was destroyed. But after centuries of decline, her faith is now gaining strength again as new cults pledged in her name champion the cause of Thule’s lower classes. The cultists of Asura oppose the worst excesses of the slave trade, calling for laws to ensure that slaves are treated well, and a few of the most radical even go so far as to call for the abolition of slavery altogether—a position that puts them at odds with the elites of most cities.

In the Vrilerinnen culture, Asura—instead of Kishar—is considered the mother of the gods and consort to Mithra; one of her incarnations was Katagia, consort of their maker, Vril, who founded the city named for herself and the Katagian Code. Her usual portfolio aside, the Vrilerinnen also consider Asura to be a goddess of executive justice and purification.

Ishtar

Goddess of Love, Luck, and War

Symbol: Eight-pointed star

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Portfolio: Love, beauty, art, fortune, passion

Ishtar is the goddess of love and beauty. She is legendary for fickleness and fits of jealous rage, but this same passionate nature also drives her to fight fearlessly to protect those she loves and boldly confront foes. Ishtar therefore possesses an important aspect as a goddess of war. While Nergal is the god of war-making and conquest and Tarhun is the god of battle, Ishtar represents war as the ultimate expression of unchecked emotion. Her dogma can be reduced to one simple idea: Live passionately, in all senses of the expression.

Ishtar is one of the most widely worshiped of the Seven, and her temples can be found in almost every city. Consequently, her cults tend to be rich, powerful, and influential. Many of the rites and festivals associated with Ishtar’s temples are sacred prostitution, grand feasts, and orgies of one kind or another, which goes a long way to explain Ishtar’s popularity with the masses. Cultists of Ishtar are also seekers of beauty, defenders of art, and protectors of their cities.

Kishar

Goddess of Grain, Mother of Rivers, Queen of the Gods

Symbol: A sheaf of grain

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Portfolio: Agriculture, the earth, rivers, motherhood

Goddess of agriculture and growing things, Kishar is the consort of Mithra and the mother figure among the Seven. She is the mother of Tarhun, and held in some reverence by followers of that faith as well as her own. Kishar teaches that all things come in their own season, and that people should give thanks for the bounty of the earth.

Few temples are dedicated specifically to Kishar. She is more commonly worshiped in conjunction with Mithra, and in many places the highest-ranking priestess in a temple of Mithra also serves as the city’s high priestess of Kishar. Kishar’s cults observe the seasons of the year, declaring the times for planting and harvest and seeking Kishar’s blessings of rain and sunshine in good measure.

In the Vrilerinnen culture, Kishar is given her own temples; moreover, she is not considered a motherly figure and is unrelated to Tarhun. The Katagians believe her incarnation was Seraykia, the daughter of their maker, Vril, and his lover-consort, Katagia; both god-incarnates in their own right.

Mithra

God of the Sun, Lord of the Sky, King of the Gods

Symbol: A sunburst and eagle (or black ram)

Alignment: Lawful Good

Portfolio: Sun, justice, sky, rulership, and dominion

The ruler of the Seven, Mithra is the god of the Sun and sky. Kishar is his consort, and headstrong Tarhun is his son. He is a just and benevolent king, ordering all things so that his followers can enjoy justice and prosperity in their lives. Mithra is also a stern and vigilant judge who checks the wicked ambitions of gods such as Nergal and Tiamat, ensuring that they fulfill their role in the scheme of things without exceeding their lawful authority. He teaches that order and justice are the instruments by which the most good can be done for the most people.

Mithra’s temples are often the grandest and most powerful in a city, and his cults are wealthy and influential. They are usually strongly aligned with the city’s monarch, and the support of Mithra’s cults is often one of the chief pillars on which a city’s monarch bases their rule. Few rulers can keep their thrones for long if Mithra’s cultists determine that Mithra no longer blesses the monarch’s reign.

In the Vrilerinnen culture, Mithra's consort is Asura, not Kishar. They believe their maker, Vril—the "last prince of Atlantis"—was an incarnation of Mithra. As such, their symbol for the King of Gods is a black ram and not an eagle. The Vrilerinnen also expand Mithra's portfolio to include creation and artistry, and downplay his legal influence in favor of Asura's executive authority.

Ever since the Lemurian Schism began in 960 PD, the cults of Mithra were exiled from Lomar and Quodeth. As neither city-state has a true monarch, nor has any intention of crowning such until one has conquered the other (which would restore the empire of Kalayan the Conqueror), they have no need for a cult whose purpose is to appoint rulers. Mithra is still widely known and worshiped by the Lemurians, especially those who herald the reunion of their former empire. But until the Schism ends, the war gods Nergal, Tarhun, and Ishtar have effectively taken Mithra's place in the chain of divine rule.

Nergal

God of the Underworld, Lord of War, King of the Dead

Symbol: A black lion with a mane of flame

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Portfolio: War, death, avarice, the underworld

A grim and implacable figure, Nergal is the god of the underworld, war, and death. He represents war as the drive for power, dominion, and triumph, the desire to subjugate enemies and claim what is theirs. Nergal is also the stern and final judge of the dead, sentencing souls deserving of punishment to ages of penance in his hell of black flames. Nergal’s philosophy teaches that the strong rule over the weak, and people are meant to seize the things they want in life—a creed that often casts the lord of the underworld as a sullen and resentful being who believes Mithra’s place as the ruler of the pantheon belongs to him.

While Nergal is a dark and demanding deity, his temples are found in many cities and are firmly established in Thule’s civic life. War comes to all lands sooner or later, and warriors seek Nergal’s favor in the struggles they face. His cults urge a strong hand in dealing with the wretched masses and rival cities, and they also sponsor spectacular (and bloody) games to celebrate the anniversaries of triumphs and conquests from past wars.

Tarhun

God of Storms, Lord of Battle

Symbol: A three-forked lightning bolt

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Portfolio: Storms, sky, battle

Brash and headstrong, Tarhun is a god who confronts his foes and tries his strength against them without hesitation. The son of Mithra and Kishar, Tarhun is a warrior-hero, a figure who battles scores of dreadful monsters in various myths and tales. He celebrates battle as the true test of adulthood, the strife in which a warrior can show their true merit, and teaches that people with courage and honor can make the world a better place by challenging wickedness and crushing it underfoot.

Tarhun’s temples are common in the more martial cities of Thule, especially Lomar and Nim. He is increasingly seen as a god of strength and valor, a war deity who rewards courage (unlike Nergal, who rewards only triumph). Many warriors take Tarhun as their patron and seek his favor before battle.

Tarhun’s cults frequently sponsor athletic games, tournaments, and gladiatorial contests to celebrate the virtues of physical hardiness and valor.

Tiamat

Mother of Dragons, Goddess of the Sea, Queen of Chaos

Symbol: A dragon skull with five horns

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Portfolio: Chaos, destruction, monsters, vengeance, the seas

Goddess of the sea, Tiamat is a capricious and wrathful deity who supposedly caused the Great Flood disaster, as well as gave birth to many of the more terrible monsters plaguing the world today. Long ago, she warred against the other gods and was subdued only with the greatest of difficulty, and she still hates all the others to this day. Tiamat teaches that the world is without order, and that those who serve chaos and beseech her favor will be rewarded with power and riches.

While temples dedicated to Nethys and Nergal can be found in many Thulean cities, Tiamat’s worship is not quite as common. At best, those who have to hazard life and livelihood on the high seas—fishermen, sailors, and merchants—are careful to pay their respects to the dragon goddess, hoping to avert her wrath with suitable offerings. People who feel they have been wronged also have been known to seek out Tiamat’s shrines and pray for disaster to befall their enemies. Tiamat’s cults often seek out monsters wherever they lurk, providing them with treasures and sacrifices to honor the “children of the Queen.”

The Nature Spirits

Roughly categorizing them as "the Beastlords, Land-spirits, and Weather-spirits", the Thulean tribes acknowledge the existences of a myriad of nature deities. Unlike other gods, nature spirits dwell on Earth in physical forms. Some can even be hunted and slain by daring heroes or villains (though the spirit will move on to another host; these deities never truly die).

Those who worship the nature spirits are not priests or templars. They are shamans or totem warriors of one kind or another. Their magic is derived from nature, not the power of faith or the divine intercession of distant gods. In fact, tribal people are mystified by the rites and doctrines of the city gods; to the typical barbarian, gods don’t want anything from humankind—they just are. Honoring the natural spirits is simply good sense, since angering the spirit of the deer by failing to express gratitude for a successful hunt might lead the spirit to keep game away from the hunter in the future, while angering the spirit of the mammoth is a good way to get oneself killed.

Although they are minor in power and breadth compared to the lofty gods worshiped by civilized folk, these primeval entities hold a much older and grounded influence over Thule. In fact, in-the-flesh encounters with Beastlords and such are not so uncommon that even the city-dwellers are quick to acknowledge their existence and true might. However, city cultures have long portrayed them as savage demons to loathe and slay, rather than benign deities worth submitting to.

There is also a frequent misconception among city-dwellers that the beastmen are in league with the Beastlords and/or were created by them as militant servants; truth be told, the beastmen were degenerates cursed by the Beastlords for defying their age-old pacts (trespassing sacred lands, hunting or gathering more than one needs, failing to thank a hunted animal before harvesting it, etc). Some beastmen do indeed serve the Beastlords, as part of some ancient blood oath or path to redemption; still, most are beyond saving, serving only to haunt and remind tribespeople of what the price and station of humankind is—that is, no better than beast-kind.

Civilized travelers are sometimes inclined to treat shamans and their spirits with skepticism—after all, they have their own explanations for the mysteries of nature and do not look at the world in the same way more primitive peoples do. But there is no doubt that shamans and other practitioners of primal magic deal with powers every bit as real and capable as the mystic forces harnessed by a mage's spells or a cultist's blessings. It seems that for the wilderness tribes, believing is seeing. They perceive a world where every animal, every tree, every rock, and every stream possesses its own living spirit, and for them, it is so.

The nature spirits of Thule are countless, and many are unknown and unrecognizable to those who live outside their territorial bounds. But there are some deities that are more widely known, and therefore are worthy of a description provided below:

Hamah

Lord of Apes

Symbol: Broken bones

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Portfolio: Beasts, savagery, rage, destruction

An old and brutal Beastlord, Hamah represents the violence and bloodthirstiness that lurks inside the human heart. He was one of the first gods of humankind, a suitable deity for naked savages who were barely more advanced than apes themselves. Hamah teaches that humans are no more than beasts that can think, and that the true man is one who rids himself of his delusions and false morals, giving himself over to the beast that lurks within.

Few civilized folk still worship Hamah. His message of primitive rage and brutal impulse repels the more advanced cultures of Thule, and his temples sit forgotten (or shunned) in the older quarters of Thule’s ancient cities. But here and there Hamah’s crude altars stand in the wild places of the world—in jungle clearings or on windswept hilltops—stained with the blood or bones of the sacrifices the Lord of Apes demands from his worshipers. His worshipers include the most savage warriors, murderers, and lycanthropes.

Nethys

Lord of Blight and Curses

Symbol: Yellow mold (Ophiocordyceps fungus)

Alignment: Lawful Evil

Portfolio: Curses, blights, insects, slaves

Nethys is ancient beyond measure. According to some stories, this cruel nature spirit actually arose to deification during the long ages when ancient Myrmidon hives ruled over Thule and was first worshiped as a goddess by that wicked invertebrate race. Unlike other spirits, she is loathed even by barbarian tribes and their shamans for her deviant obsession with civilization and bondage. She has been portrayed among the Seven as the eternal enemy of Mithra, and a bitter rival to Nergal and Tiamat. Nethys teaches that free will is illusion, and that the only path to understanding is to surrender oneself to her in body, soul, and mind.

While the worship of Nethys is unwelcome in many cities, none can deny the power and influence of her temples. As much as the cults of Mithra and Asura rail against the sinister machinations of Nethys' cults, few would dare to move openly to ban Nethys’ worship or desecrate her altars. Over the years, zealous crusaders have tried to do just that in cities such as Quodeth, but sudden mysterious deaths and various other disasters invariably ensue, bringing these ill-considered campaigns to an end. Nethys' worshipers consist largely of the downtrodden and the defeated, people who think so little of themselves that they surrender their all to her in the hope that she will reward faithful devotion with the comforts and power that have eluded them. Many other people simply hope to propitiate the Lord of Blight and avert the curses, misfortunes, and catastrophes at her command.

Kang

Lord of Mountains, The Sacred Mountain

Symbol: A mountain (himself)

Alignment: Neutral Good

Portfolio: Mountains, strength, endurance, immortality

Many of the great nature spirits in Thule are none other than eminent bodies of nature, such as rivers, lakes, and mountains. Kang, who is one such deity, is an actual mountain; the largest and highest range in all of Thule, his apex peak is visible from as far as Droum and the steppes of Nythar. One of the oldest gods in Thule, Kang was the first Land-spirit to greet the Thulean peoples when they first emigrated to the island continent from the North during the end of the last age. Towering above all, he is an everlasting symbol of might and constitution. His great spine holds back the boreal winds and the Pale Death from collapsing upon the rest of the continent.

Since the founding of Rime before the days of Kalayan the Conqueror, Kang has hosted mother-lodes for all manner of precious ores mined and traded across the Lemurian city-states and beyond. Even the civilized folk acknowledge his sacred nature, since he "blesses" them with so many important resources: copper, tin, coal, iron, salt, lead, marble, limestone, sandstone, gold, and silver.

The barbarian tribes of the Lands of Long Shadow shame the mining of Kang as desecration, weakening his integrity and poisoning rivers sourced from his runoffs. Moreover, the mines are not the only caves beneath him; there are older spaces within the mountain that shamans warn should not be disturbed. Tremors, cave-ins, and strange echoes are just the tip of the horrors that miners face in the bowels of the mountain god.

The Pale Death

The Pale Death

Symbol: None

Alignment: None

Portfolio: Apocalypse

With the source of its winter-sorcery and necromancy unknown... it returns.

The Other Gods

Long before the gods of Lemuria and Atlantis or even the myriad spirits of the natural world came into existence and assumed their places, primordial powers—evil, ancient, inhuman, chaotic—came to the young planet and established their alien dominion over land, sky, and sea. Only the most fearless (or foolhardy) of sages study these creatures, but from these scholars a few terrible names are known. These Great Old Ones include:

Cthulhu. The Caller in the Deep.

Dhuoth. The Giver of Eyes.

Hastur. The King in Yellow.

Ithaqua. The Wind-Walker.

Lorthnu'un. Lord of the Golden Chalice.

Nyarlathotep. The Crawling Chaos.

Tsathoggua. The Sleeping God.

Yga-Ygo. The Dweller in the Dreams.

Yog-Sothoth. The Key and the Gate.

Driven into hibernation in the desolate places of the world or exiled to the far reaches of time and space, the Great Old Ones hunger to return and reclaim what was once theirs. Some who bargain with these beings do so in search of power, some are degenerate tribes that cling to their monstrous gods, and some are vile cultists who pray for the end of all existence. Few indeed dare to name these Other Gods aloud, but that does not mean they are not worshiped.

Worship, Beliefs, and Devotion

The gods of Thule are more secretive or aloof than those of many places. This is not a land where gods move mortals like chess pieces or appear in shining visions to direct their followers to take on quests or launch crusades. A priest in Thule is generally left to their own devices and determines the nature of their service on their own.

Most people in Thule spend little of their concern on matters of the soul, mortality, or the afterlife. Most city-dwellers are not terribly religious; the idea of seeking eternal salvation through faithful service to a deity simply isn’t a part of most cultures. Instead, pious citizens observe rituals and make minor sacrifices more as a matter of participating in civic culture (and perhaps invoking a little good luck) than as a matter of seeking favorable treatment in the thereafter. Piety and moderation are the virtues of good people, and good people need fear nothing that awaits after death.

Some holy texts state that gods can reward their loyal servants or punish the very wicked, but these are usually portrayed as bounded fates—a great traitor may be sentenced to spend an age in Nergal’s black hells, or a courageous hero may be chosen to feast at Tarhun’s table the day they fall in battle. But if the writings of Thule’s religious scholars are to be believed, most souls simply depart the world on death, and the gods have limited power or interest in decreeing otherwise.

Cultists and Magic

Divine magic is rarely seen, and is every bit as secretive and mysterious as arcane magic. In Thule, cultists don’t just pray for spells; they gain their magical powers when they are initiated into the deeper mysteries of their chosen deity’s worship. To put it another way, once a priestess of Ishtar is initiated into the tenets and secrets of Ishtar’s cult, she may be invested with the ability to use magic, considered a fraction of Ishtar's power. What she does with those powers after that point is up to her.

Because cultists can only be judged by the observable actions they take, it is far from certain that any given cleric is serving their deity faithfully. Cultists, like all other mortals, are fallible and corruptible, and their magic has no special divine imprimatur that makes it holy or good. Magic in Thule is mysterious and not well understood, and Thule’s cults are nothing if not mysterious.

In Thule, most people are familiar with the broad history of their own city or tribe. They know the foundational myths of their culture and the more important events that have taken place during their own lifetimes, and possibly during the lifetimes of their parents and grandparents. Unfortunately, learning lore is parochial in the extreme; a Quodethi may know next to nothing about the history of Katagia or the tales of the Dhari people. And it is not unusual for powerful kings or priesthoods to create new versions of old myths in order to cement their own authority and place in history. Only the most diligent and widely traveled of sages possess any real glimmer of historical understanding, and in many cases, they fear to share what they have learned.

Those sages who have pieced together an account of Thule’s history divide it into three ages:

The Primordial Chaos (??? ATD). This vast and timeless span stretches from the beginning of all things to the rise in dominion of Atlantis. While humans did not yet exist, the Earth was not empty of sentience. Ancient prehuman races held sway over the world. The chaotic stories of their wars and triumphs are mostly lost to time, with only a few cryptic ruins or crumbling scrolls left to record them. Perhaps the cycles of nature were still constant then: falling asteroids and comets, volcanic eruptions, great floods, and the ebb or flow of the Pale Death.

The Antediluvian Age (??? ATD - 0 PD). This was the age of Atlantis, and of Lemuria; when that empire and that rival continent rose to prominence, respectively, and fought each other. At this time, the northern world fell under the reign of the Pale Death. But all would come crumbling down with the arrival of the Great Flood.

The Age of Man (0 - 1202 PD, Present Day). This is the current age holding sway in Thule, more lush and warm than ever. For the first time in many ages, the creatures known as humankind emerge a dominant species... but not without disturbing the older powers of the world.

“Before the great glaciers covered the northern world for the last time, there was a place steeped in legends lost to the modern age.

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