the world
This history and the information about the world are intentionally light on details since players will determine any specifics that are relevant to them during character creation and workshopping. However, there are a few established facts that we’ll build the rest around.
THE STORY OF THE STORM
Almost three hundred years ago, the people of Iriya first heard whispers of the Stormsworn, a new power growing in the icy wastelands of the north. At the time they dismissed it as just another cult grabbing for scant resources in their seemingly never-ending tribal wars.
When the marshals of the border steppe called for aid against a foe they claimed wielded thunder and lightning and was massing to push southwards, Iriya sent a few token riders as they always did, young warriors eager to prove themselves in glory. None returned.
It was not until the princedoms and city states of the Mirror Sea started falling one by one that the southerners opened their eyes and began to see the true threat that faced them, for the lords and ladies of the great bay waged war just like they did, with armies of sword and spear, with knights and lances, with mighty catapults. If they could not keep these tempestuous barbarians at bay then perhaps there was a cause for true concern.
Finally, Andar sounded the call for unity, and it was Andar’s generals who selected the Keep of the Crossings to make their stand. The Shipwright princes did not like it, for it let the Storm roll through many of their capitals unchecked, but there was no other point so choked and easily defensible in the Stormsworn’s path. Some of them agreed to send troops, and others fell back there to join the muster with what forces they had remaining after the lightning had ravaged their lands.
Andar marched its mightiest legions north to man the keep, and Iriya sent many of its host, combining to make the greatest military force of our age… and in a single night they were gone. The Stormsworn horde rolled over the Keep of the Crossings as if it were made of paper and rampaged on through Andar, destroying that beacon of the free world utterly.
Thousands fled, but many more surrendered, joining the Storm as it swept south towards Iriya, the only land remaining now between it and the sea.
All seemed lost, for Iriya could not possibly stand fast where Andar had fallen, but the scholars refused to despair. When the Stormsworn were first named a threat, they had found an ancient prophecy that they believed held a chance at salvation.
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At the dawn of the world was formed a stone -
the light of freedom within.
And though it be lost, when the storm doth rage
its light will shine again.
The Stormsworn, they claimed, were granted their unearthly powers of thunder and lightning and eerie, cloud-like insubstantiality by the oaths they had been forced to take to the Storm itself, the same oaths that spurred them mercilessly towards conquest. If the Dawnstone could be found, it would cast a light across the enemy army that would break those oaths and free the people bound by them.
With all other hope faded, the scholars were given permission and resources to mount an expedition into the Stormlands and, to the surprise of all, the adventurers who set out returned days ago with an enormous gem that glittered with the light of the dawn.
But the Stormsworn are not far behind, and in the morning their unfathomable army will be here to wipe away the last of the free peoples, unless Iriya’s broken troops and a small band of heroes can stop them.
LORE
NATIONS
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Farthest north beyond the harsh mountains are the Stormlands, where few have dared to venture for many years now.
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The cohorts of the Steppe are loosely affiliated under a Grand Marshal, but are predominantly nomadic and independent.
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The city states of the Mirror Sea each have differing outlooks but are defined by their trade and squabbles with their neighbours. Some are princedoms, others republics, and their people are often collectively known as the Shipwrights.
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Andar is a formerly imperialistic kingdom of strong towers and long history, ruined by the Stormsworn despite having been the greatest military power in the known world.
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The larp takes place in Iriya, an isolated, scholarly nation and the last that has not been overrun by the Stormsworn.
THE STORMSWORN
The Stormsworn are ordinary people who have given an oath of allegiance to the Storm. No one knows if the Storm is an ancient power or a relatively new one, as only the Stormsworn have ever been close enough to observe it, and their oaths push them into rampage and conquest with little time to study.
Many of the Stormsworn have been observed displaying the ability to call lightning or thunder, or to turn their bodies to insubstantial, stormcloud-like black mist, making them almost unbeatable foes.
HUMANITY
All the inhabitants of the world are humans, who come in a great many colours, shapes and sizes. There are a handful of bloodlines that have been warped by old magic and a few individuals will still be touched from time by outbursts of wild power. Such people were once thought of as blessed, but now many see signs of supernatural heritage as too closely akin to the Stormsworn and may regard magically altered individuals with distrust if they recognise them.
THE DAWNSTONE
MAGIC
There are ancient powers in the world, but the knowledge of how to harness them is all but lost. Some still remain who can conjure some small effects, but they are few and their magic is old and weak. Player characters may have access to magic, but its impact on the larp will be small.
The Dawnstone is a sizeable gem, amber in colour, that is said to have the power to bring the light of freedom to those who are under the sway of an external power. For aeons it has lain buried in the far north, but a group of adventurers ventured into the Stormlands to retrieve it, and those who returned from that fraught quest are still with it in Castle Iriya tonight.
No one knows for certain that it will work.