ken, chaos: here

A SEED OF HOPE

 

A BESM Fantasy Campaign (2012)

 

The Past (an intro):

 

The world has changed. You can see it in the lone star that no longer flees the moon. Smell it in a sea no longer the pale green of elfen eyes. There is none alive save the lone star who remember the fabled elven towns of the West where the sun gladly set every night to burn with copper-gold hues and the songs of thanks sung to gods whose names only the elfen knew. The times that are now began with the burning of the two trees that bore the silver bloom of Night and the terrible ships Osgiliath came across the sea to put an end to all the world knew of beauty, hope and love.

 

But that is how the elves who remain speak of the fall of the West: the humans speak of terrible magics and tributes demanded and how no man could stand before the magics of the elves until two wizards forged in secret, with the aid of the hidden dwarves, magical rings that protected the rulers of of humanity from the machinations of the elves.

 

One by one the towns and villages of the elfenkind fell under the power of the human armies. Some say the elves went to war in return, but by the it was all late and they were no longer what they had been. A last alliance of elves and some guilt-stricken dwarves hid the seed of the silver trees from the world and spirited the last of royal blood from the sacred temple to vanish into the swirling maw of the worlds of man.

 

Victory was achieved but what was done could not be undone. Some say the terrible magicians known as the Darkness-Slayer and Earth-Helper were unpaid and placed a curse on Osgiliath, others that without the soothing elven magics holding them back, the race of man went mad. Still others believe that without an enemy in the West to focus on, they turned against each other as the elfenkind had a revenge of sorts in the end.

 

As the elfenkind had fallen, so too did the empire of Osgiliath fall and many things were forgotten, lost to fire and shame and myth. The elven empire was gone and the elves that remained slunk into human cities to work and left, peddling what small magics remained to them and tricking the unwary when they could do so. The elves still lived longer than men, but few found it more than a burden and most stories of the West became myths, and the myths turned into campfire tales as the elven left their glory behind as burden as much as shame.

 

Without the two trees in the West, a darkness crept back into the world, and under the earth the dwarves forgot ancient pacts and delved deep into the world to waken things best left forgot and ancient evils slowly stir again. For much that the elfenkind were had been undone and all the things they had done in silence for the world were lost, even to them, and foul things began to move in the deep south, creatures neither man nor elf nor dwarf stirring from fetid wastes to cry out shrill war cries.

 

The rings of Osgiliath are all but lost, the dwarves now dark and foul and the only hope is a whisper of light, a rumour that a seed of the twin trees remains and that, if a heir of the elfen throne were to hold it, there would be magic in the world again ... for as long as a changéd world could bear such things.

 

 

 

 

System:

 

BESM3, 400 points, skills.  Benchmarks and limits for weapon levels in effect.

 

 

SETTING STUFF:

 

The current world is entirely human-dominated in the many kingdoms and nations that make up what was once the eastern continent of the world. In the south an uncouth and barbaric race known as Orcs are slowly but surely making their way through the mountains, driven by ancient powers stirring in the dark hearts of the world.

 

The elves that remain are clearly second-class citizens. Despite lives that can be four times as long as the oldest human most of their ancient skills were based around the magic derived from the silver trees that are no more: some elves have tried to hold to old ways and thin scraps of power, or made terrible bargains for new and different magics, but most slink about and work hard and try not to make waves.

 

There are kingdoms where it is illegal for elves to marry or have children, and many humans think it should be like this elsewhere. (In all places, elfen/human liaisons are illegal and both parties will be put to death by any elf or human aware of it. The resulting offspring are monstrous.)

 

Elfenkind: Most elves don't gather in large groups and most of the old traditions and ways, of chanting in the day and night, the names and rites of ancient gods, have fallen to the wayside of failed entirely. The gods never answered during the time of greatest need, so why would they now? All they have left is a shared suffering and a slow, grim decline of culture in a world that loathes their long lives and alien beauty.

 

Humans: Humans have no magic at all and no true human can learn much of it at all. (The fabled Rings of Osgiliath, in part, turned this natural ineptitude into anti-magic of a kind.) As such, humanity takes great pride in inventions and technologies though none of those are built to last like the elves and dwarves build.

 

Dwarves: Vain and secretive, the dwarves hide away in the dark from the judgement of the elves as much as anything else. The promises humanity made them have all gone sour but the dwarves no longer trust their judgement in such things and rather than war with humanity have driven deeper into the earth and woke things from when the world was very young indeed, creatures that ancient elf pacts no longer keep sleeping.

 

Orcs: Elf/human crossbreeds, and the inhabitants of the southern part of the eastern continent. They are a created species, though who made then and why is lost to history. A very few of them can work magic, but all are hideous and vile creatures with even less redeeming qualities than humans have.

 

        Magic

 

Dwarf magic lies entirely in building things and ancient alchemies and rituals only they can use and know.

 

Elf magic was tied into the two silver trees and dealt with life and growing, allowing them to command lessers to their will and steer the world as they saw fit. Once war came the royal family spread the magic too thin and were too late in gathering it for war, or chose not to do so at all and risk changing not only the trees but the elves as well.  Almost all elf magic centred about crafting and warding items, much like the dwarf magic, only their extending to their person and the world itself, allowing for healing and luck and good fortune.

        Most elf magic that remains is little healing spells that elves make their living with, or tricks to make a blade sharper.

        (As the seed of the tree the heir holds is the seed of a new tree, the above does not hold true: what they do with it determines what this magic will become. For good and for ill.)

 

Magicians: A very, very few of these exist. And what they reall are, neither man nor elf can be said to know. Most spells exhaust greatly the more visible they are, ande most magicians prefer quiet things, and tricks, and building a reputation based on one or two actual spells cast rather than risking sanity and life casting spells when they don't need to. Few are as powerful as they pretend to be, but none should be underestimated: the power over chance can be a terrible power indeed.

 

 

Religion: Elves are losoing their old ones in the ancient gods and patrons, the dwarves – if they have one – do not reveal it ot outsiders and humans have no religion at all. The orcs are said to have dark gods who drink deep on blood and sacrifice, but they pretty much will use any excuse they can get to kill and maim.

 

 

Technology: Late middle-ages. Huma doctors are pretty decent, since they have no magic to back them up at all anymore, and the war taught a lot of things very well indeed.