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 to find before jumping into the world. You might also read a bit about My Story and what I have experienced to get to where I am today.

The World of the Mortal Sphere

The Grand Macrocosm. A forgotten universe with no God to watch 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 like moths to the flame 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 vie 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 lowly fetchers must either rise to the challenges ahead, or submit to their fleeting mortal lives.

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 all explicitly included, can typically be made to fit in without warping the tone of the setting beyond recognition.
2. Tone and setting. At first glance, The Mortal Sphere embraces more elements of dark fantasy than other established Dungeons & Dragons settings; 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. Read more in Exploring the Tone of the Mortal Sphere.
3. Mortals and immortals. Many of the conflicts in the Mortal Sphere revolve around the tension between mortality and Immortality. These concepts, though abstract, crystallize in many ways throughout the setting. Mortality represents change and evolution through death. Certain philosophies even assert that life itself has no meaning without a definite end. Immortality, meanwhile, represents ambition, persistence, and stability, but always comes with a heavy, sometimes inhuman, cost. Just one example of this tension is the conflict between the natural world and the urban world. Nature is on the side of Mortality: the wilds are always growing and continuing to change in a brutal cycle of evolution. Urbanity, meanwhile, is an Immortal, artificial system wherein people erect monuments, track history, and plan for the future. Mortals are obsessed with their fleeting lives, and when it comes down to it, they must choose to either embrace a humble, happy, and simple existence, or to fight with all their strength against their destined death.
4. There are no Gods. The Macrocosm has no divine creator. Its inception is shrouded in mystery and complicated further by religion. The only remnants, the angels, are completely inscrutable to all but powerful saints. At times the angels served as stewards and protectors, but ceased to intervene in mortal affairs after some ancient apostasy now long-forgotten. Though they are divine creatures, they are not infallible. Descending from their ranks came the Fallen Angels, and with them came devils, demons, mortals, and monsters. Regular, everyday people can't rely on guardian angels to protect them against the things that lurk in the shadows. Instead, churches and saints tend to people's spiritual needs, providing miracles in the hopes that their flocks will follow them to heaven.
5. Monsters with a twist. Monsters are given additional agency and character 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. Kobolds that serve blue dragons are known to harness their master's electricity to power their volatile contraptions. On the other hand, Goblinoids are not just ruthless savages in the Mortal Sphere, 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 Drow are 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.
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 elves, vampires, dwarves, or liches - people who live much longer than humans ever could. Technological advances have slowed substantially in all such civilizations. Most populated regions in close proximity to an immortal might resemble typical medieval fantasies. However, in deep jungles, in inhospitable deserts, or across the raging seas, things get weird. 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 lowly hermits who escaped the oppressive life beneath the vampire lords in Astrgolfel have devised automatons and contraptions to protect themselves against the undead.
7. 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 an old, world-spanning Elvish Empire, the Mortal Shard was shattered. Its pieces became scattered across the Macrocosm. These Mortal Shards, each piece an index of creation, possess the ability to warp reality and history, imbuing 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?
8. 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 is a world of intrigue and adventure. Each region of Taea is seeded with hooks to draw heroes into conflicts and quests that could shape the future for centuries to come. Adventurers search the continent of Mord for the lost dwarvish 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. The emperor's mercenaries guard the Great Wall of Ocharan against the devils of Abaddon. The bravest, or perhaps the most foolish fetchers delve the deepest reaches of the world to find the Amber Temple of Vecna so that they too might rise again as an undead lich. Taea is large, and the Macrocosm is without limit. The Mortal Sphere is full of epic story hooks to provide character motivation and inspire campaign mysteries.
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 safely from one side to another, but when Vecna turned the mountains into inhospitable volcanoes, travel between the two sides of Mord became borderline impossible. The West and East, now divided, were forced to develop isolated from one another. The West is a harsh, 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 this reunification of the East, his eyes have now turned westward. Work has begun to discover a safe path fit for a conquering army to traverse 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 some regions have already begun to feel the hooks of the empire setting in.
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.