Introduction

This wiki, aside from serving as a knowledge base, also serves as a launching pad for those interested in learning more about my campaign world. Consider this introduction as an overview of the Mortal Sphere and what you can expect before jumping into the details. You might also read a bit about My Story and what I have experienced to get to where I am today.

Ten Things You Should Know About the Mortal Sphere

When discussing the Mortal Sphere, there are ten things that Dungeon Masters and players alike should know:

1. If it belongs in D&D, it belongs in the Mortal Sphere. Any monster, class, or ancestry (I refer to races as ancestries) found in the 2014 5th edition Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, or the Dungeon Master's Guide has a place in The Mortal Sphere. Within this setting, you will find a reimagining of classic Dungeons & Dragons material integrated in the fundamental history and lore of the Mortal Sphere. Content from expansion books, while not implicitly included, can be made to fit in without warping the tone of the setting beyond recognition.
2. Tone and setting. The Mortal Sphere embraces more elements of dark fantasy than other established Dungeons & Dragons settings at first glance; an eternally cloned king rules over half of the civilized world, an evil lich lies dormant within the dark moon, and God is long dead or forgotten. Indeed, the Mortal Sphere is beset on all fronts by seemingly insurmountable forces. The world teeters on the edge of dystopia and ruin, but great leaders have forged pockets of freedom and safety. Hope is found not in gods, but with people. Regular, everyday people must protect their communities from evil however they can, and adventurers (commonly known as Fetchers) are the first to rise to that challenge.
3. Mortals and immortals. The people of the Mortal Sphere are obsessed in many ways with their mortality. They envy longer-lived ancestries such as the elves or dwarves, they plan great monuments to stand long after their short lives end, and carefully groom heirs to continue their pursuits. Some go even further, performing occult research to achieve true immortality, becoming twisted liches or monstrosities in their experiments. The extreme heights of nobility pay exorbitant insurance tithes to the most powerful churches for promise of resurrection in the case of an early death. Lorium-Rex, a human emperor, employs the services of his archmage to be eternally cloned. In this obsession, mortals subvert the natural order of things, denying their soul of the afterlife so that they can continue to embroil themselves in their earthly missions. Many of the conflicts in the Mortal Sphere revolve around the tension between Mortality and Immortality.
4. Monsters with a twist. Monsters are given additional agency and history in the Mortal Sphere. For example, kobolds are recognized not only as clever trap-makers, but also as ingenious inventors, experimenting with dangerous elemental forces generated by their dragon-lords. A tribe of Kobolds under a blue dragon might harness the generated electricity and create the first tesla coil. Meanwhile, the familiar goblinoids are not just ruthless savages, they are the remains of marooned colonization programs, having long been trapped in a continent not their own. Orcish kingpins smoke hookah as they discuss the operations of their diamond mining companies, vampiric courts rule over the kingdoms of man, and the last Storm Giants flee from their imminent extinction. Monsters are intelligent creatures with their own cultures, histories and nations. You can't assume that a gold dragon is good, or that a hobgoblin is evil. Depending on the individual and the local culture of a given group, monsters might subvert any and all preconceived stereotypes surrounding their species. In many respects, the term Monster is merely a colloquial, catch-all term to describe supernatural creatures who can be just as dynamic, multi-faceted, and intelligent as any Mortal Ancestry.
5. A world of intrigue and adventure. From the sprawling megalopolis of Cordelia to the legendary floating island Buyan, from the flying fortress Valzivad, to the lost subterranean mega-complex of Il-Mundu; the Mortal Sphere, Taea, is a world of intrigue and adventure. Each region can draw heroes into conflict and quests that could shape the future for centuries to come. Adventurers search the continent of Mord for the lost crown of Koroahar to reunite the dwarves under one king. Noble courtiers scheme in their towers of Cordelia, plotting a heist to steal the Mortal Shard of Life. Both the foolish and courageous guard the Great Wall of Ocharan against the devils of Abaddon, and some even more foolish seek the Amber Temple of Vecna so that they too might rise again as an immortal. The world is large and no one adventurer can claim to have discovered each and every secret of the Macrocosm. The Mortal Sphere is full of story hooks that provide motivation and mystery of epic proportions.
6. Immortality breeds stagnation. Though an immortal might live forever, such an existence dulls their imagination and innovation. Immortals seek to prolong the world with which they were familiar, and time itself seems to bend around exceptionally powerful immortal people, causing a stagnating phenomenon. The greatest societies and cities are often ruled by those with magically extended lives, if not an outright immortal such as a vampire or lich. Technological advances have slowed substantially in all such civilizations. Most populated regions in close proximity to an immortal force might resemble a typical medieval fantasy. However, in deep jungles, in inhospitable deserts, or across the raging seas, there are outsiders and pariahs, even monsters, who dare to do the impossible: study science. Hobgoblins of the dark continent of Neron are among the only civilized society to have braved the dangerous oceans of the Mortal Sphere, thanks to their colony battle-ships, the Worgs. The enigmatic desert-dwellers of Shanishaiah navigate their caravans through the danger of the deep-desert in their alche-mechanical Janijah flying machines. Even hermits living under oppressive vampires in Astrgolfel have devised automatons and contraptions to protect themselves against the undead.
7. There are no Gods. None were present to witness the creation of the Macrocosm. The universe has no divine creator, no one to take credit for all that has been or ever will be. There are remnants, but they are but mere hints of the truth. The angels, though inscrutable to all but powerful saints, acted as stewards and at times, protectors. In time however, there came to be fallen angels, and with them came devils, demons, mortals, and monsters. Cosmological beings such as the angels or devils or known to scholars as the first Immortals. They are fickle, prone to conflict, and their machinations are incomprehensible to any but themselves. Regular people, meanwhile, rely on their churches and saints to guide their spiritual needs and desires. But even the greatest of intentions paves many roads. Some lead to heaven, and others lead to the hells.
8. Mortal Shards. Long ago in the ancient history of the Mortal Sphere, the angels bestowed upon the world their Mortal Shard, a vestige of creation. This relic empowered the greatest civilizations the Mortal Sphere has ever seen. However, in the waning days of the old, world-spanning Elvish Empire, the Mortal Shard was lost and shattered. Its pieces became scattered across the Macrocosm. These Mortal Shards, each imbued with a memento of power, possess the ability to warp both reality and history, and imbue their wielders with great power. These items are beyond value, and exceedingly rare. Possession of even a single Mortal Shard could make a beggar unto a lord, or a king unto the divine. Who knows what would happen if they were all brought back together again?
9. The East and West. The continent of Mord is separated by the Arbasmendi Mountain range, split into East and West. When the Dwarves of Az-Mundu controlled the Arbasmendi Mountains, people could travel through their halls to pass from one side to another, but when Vecna turned the mountains into inhospitable volcanoes, crowned by the indomitable Necropalace, travel between the two sides of Mord became borderline impossible. The West and East, now separated, were forced to develop isolated from one another. The West is a harsh and untamed land, a rough and wild region ruled by loose monarchies and confederacies. The East, meanwhile, has been all-but conquered by the Empire of Lorian, under the Saint King Lorium-Rex. Having completed the reunification of the East, his eyes now turn westward, and work has begun on finding a path through the ruined dwarvish halls, the fabled Throughway. It is only a matter of time until Lorium-Rex finds a means of marching his armies to the West, and a small time before the start of a campaign, the region has likely begun to feel the hooks of Lorium-Rex setting into the region.
10. Its not my world. Once you decide to run a game in this setting, its not my world anymore, its yours! Your interpretation of this material is the most important interpretation, and some key details have been left deliberately mysterious so that each Dungeon master can "fill in the blanks". Each Mortal Sphere that might exist is going to be different and totally unique! You can decide which sections you like, which you don't, and deploy them as you see fit.

The World of the Mortal Sphere

The Grand Macrocosm. A forgotten universe with no God watching over it. All that remains of creation are the first Immortals. These Immortals oversaw the emergence of Mortal ancestries over the empty sphere, and now vie for control over Mortal beliefs and activities. They promise what all mortals seek: grace, wisdom, power, eternal life after death. Great wars were waged to garner the favor of immortal masters, greatest of all the Lamplit War of Lucernan, wherein Vecna raised his forces of evil against the Last Alliance of Lorian. It was thought that after Vecna was sealed inside of the Darkmoon, evil had been expelled from the Mortal Sphere for good.

It was not so.

Instead of demonizing Vecna's heretical path of lichdom, Mortals were instead enticed. Drawn to the occult secrets of Immortality, they sought to live forever on magic secrets and the ancient Mortal Shards. The civilized world is now ruled by the Holy-King Lorium-Rex, who is continually cloned by his Archmage. His court is full of emulators, who likewise seek to cement their power with life everlasting. The rest of the world watches on, conflicted: do they bow to the eternal king who offers his protection, or allow = monsters and terrors to descend upon their villages? Kings, queens, heroes, and the lowly fetchers must either rise to the challenges ahead, or submit to their fleeting mortal lives.

The Tone of the Mortal Sphere

The overriding themes and tone that the Mortal Sphere evokes include many elements of dark fantasy. The world hangs upon a precipice; while the eternally-cloned emperor Lorium-Rex seeks to subjugate anyone who would stand in his way, the lands outside of city walls are fraught with terrors, mysteries, and monsters. It seems destined that the mortal world is hurtling towards a dystopian future.
There are no Gods to save the universe from this path. The saints speak of angels, devils, and spirits of the afterlife, but never a God. Whatever altruistic divinity remains in the Macrocosm was placed in the trust of the angels, but it is apparent that such power is loosed seldom for the benefit of Mortals. Churches stand not only as beacons of worship, but as gathering places for true devotees to channel the might of their prayer.
Even the wise sages cannot be relied upon to thwart these dangers alone. Magic is an unnatural phenomenon, a power that Mortal hands were never meant to wield. Very few people are even capable of casting spells, and even fewer have mapped the winding pathways of the Viarchs. Magical practitioners harden their hearts and temper their bodies to withstand the symptoms of Clash that come with casting magic. They often live exacting, hermetic lives far from civilized society, while they study and perfect their secret powers. The colleges seek to explore fully the pathways of magic, to harness its power for the sake of knowledge, but in doing so, they invite the denizens of the Viarchs, and in so doing, they invite chaos and madness.
Fetchers are the key to tipping the scale, one way or the other. They are the instruments through which the major powers battle and compete. Rival fetching companies skirmish for control of ancient ruins rumored to contain artifacts or magics of the elder days. Their foolish missions awaken things that ought to be left sleeping. Such forgotten secrets lie dormant in the bellies of slumbering complexes for centuries, only to be recovered by the hands their creators least expected.