Exploring Ancerra
Ancerra is the planet on which MythCraft’s adventures begin. This chapter offers detailed information on forty-seven nations that occupy Ancerra’s biggest continent, Gathandia. Ancerra has many explorable regions beyond the oceans that surround Gathandia. Indeed, Ancerra has five moons, three of which have breathable atmospheres and vegetation. You should feel free to make up interesting environments for your players to explore, but the information in this wiki section will give you plenty of specific material to work with if you run your games on the continent of Gathandia.
The Tear
Ancerra’s broad history can be divided into four supereons, each transition into a new supereon marked by some kind of momentous event. The setting for MythCraft’s first adventures is the second supereon.
The first supereon was a prolonged time of enormous planetary natural disasters and rampaging kaijan.
A series of devastating disasters and valiant efforts from humanoids to put an end to the kaijan menace laid the groundwork for civilizations to truly prosper, and a remarkable phenomenon in the sky reflects this monumental change. For generations, the night sky held nothing other than the moons. Murky clouds lay beyond the moons by night and the sun by day. But ninety years ago, this changed. Like a tear in a curtain, a great rend has opened in the sky. By day, this is simply a stretch of sky where the distant clouds are absent, though normal atmospheric clouds might still float through this space. By night, those who look to the sky can see stars for the first time in recorded history. While the clouds that separate Ancerra’s solar system from the Pale still persist, the enormous tear in the sky is filled with the magic of twinkling stars and fills the people of Ancerra with wonder and awe.
Nations
Planes of Existence
Gathandia and Ancerra are not the only places that daring heroes might explore. Adventurers, especially those of higher character level, might journey into the planes of existence beyond the mortal coil. Ancerra and other worlds on the same plane of existence are believed to be on the “Prime Material” plane, according to planar scholars.
Avadria
Once a plane of boundless light and radiant creations, the Eon War between the Paragon and Corrupted Avadri destroyed Avadria’s former splendor. It is now a silent, desolate plane filled with tendrils of the Pale and debris of millions of dead worlds. Avadria consists of entire galaxies that have gone dark. Cold, lightless stars still form the centers of silent solar systems and lifeless mechanical planets orbit around them.
There is no gravity here, and the space is breathable even when between planets. There is no light whatsoever, and the shadows seem to actively eat away at any light source. Terrors larger than planets stalk the umbral plains, surviving off of the refuse of an obliterated civilization. Maddened fae linger here, as well as denizens of the Pale.
Many scholars believe that the enormous machines that orbit dormant in these galaxies will one day awaken again and either set their galaxies back in order or break out of Avadria, bringing the plane’s desolation to the whole multiverse.
Points of Interest
Alshahath. The ruined shell of Alshahath, homeworld of the Avadri, still drifts through empty space as its star detonated eons ago. Its surface a mess of molten metal and frigid wastelands, the technology possibly contained within the deepest recesses of the planet holds the power to ascend any mortal to godhood or beyond.
The Star-Forges. The various star-forges and world- forges that survived the Eon War still retain the ability to create and disassemble entire solar systems. Anyone capable of harnessing these massive machines in their full power can create their own demi-planar planet.
Thyre. Thyre, last fortress of the scattered Avadri resistance, lies at the intersection between Avadria and the long-forgotten Fundamental Plane. The entire planet has been converted to a colossal warcamp, radiant structures forming a majority of its observable landscape. The air and sky are near absolutely pure. The Avadri guardians who are still alive dwell within this bastion.
The Celestial Sea
The Celestial Sea is a vast planar ocean that connects the Prime Existence, Avadria, Everwilds, Inferno, and Iztari. It allows safe travel between planes without having to travel through the dangerous Pale, which envelops the Celestial Sea on all sides beyond the planes.
The Celestial Sea always teems with trillions of stars, but these are not physical stars that produce heat and energy. Instead, stars on the Celestial Sea are bits of Essence that form together to create souls.
Souls and Essence
A soul is the Essence cultivated within a single living creature. One soul cannot live multiple times, because when a creature dies and their Essence returns to the Celestial Sea, their Essence doesn’t remain stuck together. This makes resurrection impossible after a number of years, depending on how long it takes for a Soul’s Essence to dissolve back into the Celestial Sea.
This is also why some Resurrection results in a person having their personality changed, some of their memory being lost, or some other combination of unique mental/personality challenges: a person’s Soul might have begun to dissolve, and when they are forcibly resurrected back into a body then the process might bring back their incomplete Essence or might bring other ambient Essence (perhaps Essence that was once part of a different soul and still has different memories and personality associated with it) back into the same body.
The Everwilds
The Everwilds are an endless tangle of dramatic natura llandscapes. Sprawling deserts, enormous forests full of towering trees, blizzard-scoured tundras, and impossibly deep oceans all jumble together in an illogical swirl. While towns and settlements exist in the Everwilds, it is truly the domain of nature. Each natural environment is at its most dramatic in the Everwilds.
Travelers who journey into the Everwilds will quickly realize that space and time are relative in this plane. Adventurers may journey across a sweeping grassland towards a towering mountain; while the mountain looks to be a day’s journey away, it may take them an hour or a week to reach the mountain. They will also find, upon returning to the Prime Material, that a week in the Everwilds might have only been half that time in the Prime Material. Other travelers experience the opposite, realizing that two weeks have passed in Ancerra for every week they spent in the Everwilds.
Of all the planes outside of the Prime Material, the Everwilds has the most portals. It is easier to travel back and forth between the Prime Material and the Everwilds than any other plane, either through the use of spells or through finding numerous magical portals throughout the world. Because of this, there is quite a strong presence of fae creatures and fae humanoids in Ancerra, and humanoid settlements in the Everwilds are not very uncommon.
Much of the Everwilds is a collage of dramatic natural landscapes that do not follow the natural laws of weather and terrain. Jungles may border on tundras, which might in turn give way to tropical archipelagos. However, the six Archfae Conclaves exert significant influence on the land immediately around them. The natural environment around each conclave reflects the general disposition of the conclave’s members.
The six Archfae Conclaves, along with their basic attitudes and how this shapes the world around them, are described below.
Ashyidir
The Ashyidir Conclave embodies the four prime elements - fire, water, earth, and air - along with their derivatives. Fire and water together make steam, while fire and earth make magma, for example. The Ashyidir have a variety of dispositions but are generally driven by emotion rather than deliberative thought. The natural environment around the Ashyidir Conclave morphs to emphasize the four prime elements. Islands might float in the sky, waterfalls might fall upwards, and forest fires might be more common.
Letspina
The six Archfae of the Letspina Conclave each represent one of the six senses typical to mammals: touch, taste, sight, hearing, smell, and instinct. They are generally curious about the world, trying to gain more input about their surroundings and unlikely to make hasty decisions. The natural world near the Letspina Conclave is especially vibrant. Some might relish the sensory overload: the wind feels a little sharper, the rustling grass sounds a little more crisp. Others might find this a bit overwhelming.
Pashak
The Pashak Conclave consists of Archfae that represent the spiritual embodiment of various plants. They are generally seen as the slowest and most deliberative out of the conclaves, and consequently are typically considered the wisest. The vegetation around the Pashak Conclave is the healthiest in the entire multiverse.
Shibmar
Archfae of the Shibmar Conclave are the embodiments of many different animals. The personalities of each Shibmar Archfae reflect more of the animal’s spiritual characteristics than the physical, as virtually every animal seeks food, shelter, and companionship in approximately that order. Animals in close proximity to the Shibmar Conclave are highly intelligent compared to their mundane kin; some can even speak fluently.
Stravon
The Stravon Conclave is the most mischievous of the six. The Archfae in this conclave each embody a dichotomy of emotions, such as love and hate. Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of this conclave, are at times volatile and at times deliberative. Many Stravon Archfae enjoy playing practical jokes on other Archfae and on mortals. The natural world near the Stravon Conclave is more prone to odd juxtapositions of environments, such as jungle trees growing out of a glacier.
Vertumna
The Vertumna Conclave is the smallest conclave, with only four Archfae. They each represent a season and work with one another in perfect synchrony. Unlike the other conclaves, which often bicker internally, the Vertumna understand that each of them play a crucial role in the progression of time. Without spring rains, crops would fail, and without winter’s snows, rivers that rely on runoff might dry up. The natural world near the Vertumna Conclave is the most stable and recognizable to a traveler from the Prime Material. Seasons progress logically in Vertumna territory, and plants grow in their appropriate environs.
Inferno
Though Inferno itself functions outside the normal senses and structures of mortal existence, the Fiends are well known as the very embodiment of malicious and evil intent. The landscape of Inferno is similarly malicious, though it is unknown whether the terrifying and hostile plane is a result of Fiends that inhabit it or if the Fiends are a result of their environment. Philosophy aside, it is certain that Inferno is one of the most dangerous and inhospitable places any mortal could find themselves.
Time and space move differently in Inferno than they do in the Prime Material, making distance and proximity impossible to measure, and one’s perception of being is heavily influenced by the willpower of an individual. A mortal might find themselves walking the same lonely stretch of 100 yards for years or moving across entire continents in a single step. Countless spirits who have dared enter Inferno have simply vanished, fragmented through mind-breaking confusion and lost to fog of incomprehension, without ever laying eyes on the malefic Fiends that stalk its recesses. These are the luckiest travelers to Inferno.
Inferno’s hellscape is divided into four domains, each with distinct topology and nightmarish creatures. The Cholereth, Melaneth, Phlegmereth, and Sanguineth are the four broadest categories of fiend into which most fiends can be sorted, and these are also the names that scholars use to refer to the four regions of Inferno. Each domain also has one defining characteristic.
The Exiles, having been expelled from Iztari, make their home in Inferno as well. Many of them, especially Mikhael, have risen to prominence and are capable of contesting the archfiends for dominance over Inferno’s regions.
Cholereth
Dominated by the burning desert of Kalk’gahrak, the domain of Cholereth stretches endlessly as a brutal waste. Ash and coal intermingles with glass-sharp sand beneath a blood- red sky. Across these dunes, warbands of Cholereth fiends lead an endless slaughter as they fight for dominance with greater archfiends in an effort to dominate the region. These conflicts may last thousands of years before one fiend is finally victorious and moves on to battle the next fiend.
Melaneth
Durlossoth, the Black City, is an endless collection of tightly packed stone buildings in various stages of decay and ruin. Occupying the whole of Melaneth, the Black City is full of nonsensical alleyways that twist between structures of no unifying architecture. Overhead, a cloudy sky is stuck in perpetual twilight. The streets seem to shift around its lost wanderers, keeping souls from ever finding their way out. Pale-skinned Melaneth fiends stalk the shadows as gaunt, hunched figures of bone and sinew with hollow eye sockets and twisting voids of blackness at their cores. They are just as likely to welcome you with disingenuous fang-toothed smiles as they are to jump upon you with hooked claws and crude weapons. The buildings themselves come in every shape and size but always contain neglected furnishings of gnarled black wood.
The Obsidian Palace. At the heart of Durlossoth stands a grand palace carved from one solid piece of obsidian. Fortifications and spires loom over the ruined buildings, sprouting countless ballista and defensive emplacements. These sit unmanned and forgotten. The great obsidian gates are left ajar so that any who come upon the palace may enter freely. Inside, grand halls stretch for miles with all the trappings one might expect to find from noble holdings, each room seeming like the occupants left only moments before. Great paintings depict unidentifiable conflicts, the spilling of blood, countless representations of suffering, and twisted portraits with screaming faces. At the center of it all is the throne room of Sahrnulothon, Prince of Ruin.
Phlegmereth
The embodiments of plague and infection, the fiends of Phlegmereth lurk in the silent bog of Xarnoas. The landscape of Xarnoas consists of flat, sparse boglands covered in a sea of needle-sharp blades of grass, occasionally interrupted by stagnant pools of icy-cold water. Xarnoas is almost completely silent aside from the buzzing that emanates from thick clouds of stinging insects that swarm across the waterways. Very few creatures live in this miserable place, but that does not make it any less dangerous. Large ambush predators vaguely reminiscent of crocodiles lie in wait in the shallows. Bulbous mounds of fungus sprout whipping protrusions that infect any they sting with rotting, transformative growths. Diseases are rampant here, and every paper-thin cut leaves a body in life- threatening danger from infection.
The Cathedral of Phlegm. While villages of stilted hovels can be found throughout Xarnoas, only one lasting structure stands at its heart. The Cathedral of Phlegm is a massive ruin of ancient stones from an unknown era now sagging into the soft earth. Thick, stinking moss threatens to swallow the cathedral whole. The Six Bishops, the rulers of Phlegmereth, meditate on the power of plague amongst a flock of infected fiends and other unfortunate beings forever cursed with maladies of every horrific imagining. These powerful archfiends are not immune to the spread of illness, instead seeing every pustule and rash as a sign of divine favor worthy of excessive meditation and reflection.
Sanguineth
The jungles of Ogshora, also known as “the Red Glade,” dominates the domain of the Sanguineth. Thick, hot air chokes fetid waterways of coppery red liquid similar in taste and smell to mortal blood. These streams flow around large copses of fleshy, tumorous growths that resemble mangrove trees. Blood-sucking leeches, giant bloated ticks, toxic frogs, and swarms of carnivorous birds are some of the creatures one might encounter in these horrid jungles. The plant life is just as deadly.
The Den of Delights. Deep within the Red Glade, the most unlucky travelers will find the home of Ogshora’s archfiend prince, Thaniasmos. The Den of Delights is an ancient ruin draped in flayed skins still dripping with blood. Thaniasmos feeds off of the emotions of mortals like a connoisseur sampling the finest of wines. Thaniasmos’s most prized souls are kept in torment for ages as their spirits are slowly consumed in the most prolonged and painful of ways.
Iztari
The dramatic and beautiful plane of Iztari is home of the celestials. The plane is structured as an enormous, gently sloping mountain that never becomes too difficult to breathe despite its great heights. The snow at the peak of the mountain is pleasantly cold but never causes serious frostbite. Similarly, the whitewater rapids that cascade down the mountain never drown anyone, as the water is magically breathable. Various celestial creatures dwell on the different elevations of the mountain. Ponycorns graze in the lush foothills, Chamroshes Sphinxes soar above the treetops, Daeva and Narai splash in the waterfalls, and the Celestial Council oversees it all.
At the top of the mountain, the Celestial Council’s great hall is carved from brilliant marble. Within this hall, the Council debates over planar legislation and argues whether they should allow the Exiles to return from Inferno and rejoin the ranks of the Celestials.
The Exiles
Thousands of years ago, when factions of Celestials found themselves unable to reach a consensus regarding their role as planar protectors, heated debate boiled into war. Tovare and her defenders eventually won the war and they cast out the dissidents, Mikhael and his followers, consigning them to eternity in Inferno. Rather than simply accepting their punishment, Mikhael and his followers set about warring with the archfiends and trying to become the new lords of Inferno.
The Pale
The Pale is the space in between. It is the edge of creation. Whatever darkness is to light, the Pale is to reality. It is a blank canvas to the most powerful gods, and incomprehensible to most mortals. Eldritch beings lurk within the Pale as crawling things hide in the shadows.
What lives in the pale could drive most intelligent beings insane by simply gazing upon it. What comes out of the pale are nightmarish, otherworldly outsiders that are hard to even keep record of. Even the words on the page crawl. Beings without powerful magic to shield their mind cannot enter the Pale.
International Guilds
In addition to the many nations of Gathandia, international guilds are also major players on the continent. Note that this section deals specifically with guilds that hold an international presence and are not explicitly associated with a nation. Falthic crime syndicates, for example, do not have a dedicated entry here as they are closely tied to the nation of Falth.
Crime Syndicates
Magical Guilds
Mercenary Organizations
Mundane Guilds
Performing Troupes
Scholarly Orders
Witch Covens
Timeline
See Timeline