Wol Sung World Tour

7/30/2019 Wol Sung World Tour

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VICTORIAN FANTASY

hospital beore the rst convulsions start. Tere was amoment o silence and then rantic sounds o someonetrying to run through thick bushes. Miss Shackletonsmiled.

A black gure slipped through the window and silent-ly stepped into the study. A man sitting silently in anarmchair looked up rom the paper he was reading, amild curiosity in his eyes, and cleared his throat. Teburglar jumped and quickly reached or a gun.

Open the sae! I want jewelry and all your securities!he snapped. Te host olded up the paper and slowlylit up his pipe.

Please, take a look around. he let out a cloud o smoke. Tere were hundreds o trophies hanging on

the walls o the library. Bare-toothed muzzles o man-ticores, razor-sharp beaks o grions, hydras thirteenheads, stued crocodiles, leviathans whalebones,masks, shields and spears o the savage.

Do you think that any o these monsters constituted asmaller challenge than you? the man grinned, fash-ing his very white teeth. In this moment, even in hissilk housecoat, he did not look like a gentleman at all.Te burglar shivered.

Only when the reezers door slammed, did HeinrichStein realize that this was a trap. Tey tricked me.Darned halfings. Frost started to cover his mustache.Te dwar rubbed his hands, looked at the rows o hanging bee sides, and started searching his pocketsWhat the butchers ound in the reezer the ollow-ing morning, was one happy engineer, one improvisedmana heater and twelve tons o derosted meat.

Petunia, my dear Fili Vollenwander lookedthrough the window and stirred his coee, a bitdistressed. Tis masked gentleman ran on our roo again! He broke o the drainpipe and slid down onit, straight onto the roo o a passing omnibus. Tat isthe third time this week! ell Bob to call the police.Probably there are several thugs up there, on the roo,trying to nd some way down.

Te tattooed ork attacked with a urious roar. Te rsthit o the club broke Miss Amalia wists rapier in two.Not waiting or the second blow to come, she hid behinda tree, grabbed the rst thing that came to her hand

Wolsungpresents an alternative version oour world at the end o the 19th century,

a version strongly inuenced by adventure novels,penny dreaduls, action movies, video games andcomic books. Te world is amiliar enough, so youwill not eel out o place, and at the same time it has

the reshness, dash and magic that will compel youto explore it during your game sessions.

Tis ree World our presents the setting o thegame: its history, geography, technology, as wellas details on everyday lie in the daring times oMagical-Industrial Revolution.

VICTORIAN FANTASYTe world oWolsung is a magical version o our19th century in which Victorian ladies and gentle-men come rom antasy races, and mysterious mag-ic interweaves with amazing steam technology.

Under the sky crowded with airships, steam-poweredautomobiles race the streets and luxurious steamerscruise to overseas colonies. Te marriage o magic andscience gave birth to mechanical golems, cabalisticthinking machines and earsome iron dragons.

Yet most o the world is still unexplored who

knows what treasures and mysteries await deep inthe jungles and high on the mountain tops. In thedark corners o the earth the undead lurk (a terriy-ing relic o the Great War) while villains and evilmasterminds plot their deranged plans.

InWolsungyou will nd lots o amiliar elements,that will remind you o your avorite action mov-ies, the classics o antasy, video games, graphicnovels and the adventure books rom your child-hood. Tis is a world meant or playing, and the

number o sources o inspiration you may use ispractically innite.

SCeNeSFROmAheROSlIFeMiss Shackleton stopped suddenly, turned on her heeland spoke reproachully towards the bushes. I haveheard you over a quarter ago. You re making so muchnoise. I there was anybody hiding in the shadows,they gave no sign o their presence. Adrianne tilted her

head. In case you have not noticed, the bush yourestanding in is a scorpion ivy. Something budged inthe darkness. I you take a cab, you might get to the


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and threw it straight into the savages ace. Tis thingturned out to be a poisonous cobra. Miss wist was reallyimpressed by the eect.

Do not despair, Mr Livingstone, the jungle is not asbig as it may seem the ogre could not stop talking orthree days now. My cousin Winston oten hunts gri-

ons in this area and, i Im not wrong, we are rightin the middle o the hunting season! Lets sit down onthis rock and just wait, surely someone will nd ussoon. He sat his tired riend down. Oh, look! Tereare even some grions here. Te monsters were justabout to attack them, when cousin Winston really ap-

peared.

Hes going to... escape us gasped Dr Watts,leaning against a street lamp. His companion, a dig-nied el in a checkered coat, looked calmly at the

gure disappearing in the crowd. Quite the opposite.Did you notice the red clay on his shoes? One can ndit only in the Bridgebank district. Our riend is anork, so he wont venture beyond Lumney Street. Tisis enough to deduce exactly where hes heading to.Te el called a cab with a lordly gesture. Come on,doctor. Im a detective, not a sportsman. We will wait

or him there.

Te troll in a black uniorm looked at the gnome withscorn. Tere are situations in lie when your amousdeduction is not enough. he pushed the barrel againstthe journalists orehead. Goodbye, Mr Wittman.Te gnome smiled. Tere are situations when simplearithmetic is perectly enough. I counted your shots.Te magazine is empty.

RACeSTere are eight playable races in the world oWol-sung:elves : aristocrats and artists with an allergy toiron;gnomes : a mysterious and clandestine race ogolem-builders;dwarves : a subterranean race o engineers andbankers;humans : a race o travelers and vagabonds;halfings : once peaceul armers, now conusedactory workers;

ogres : a cursed race o apelike giants, only maleogres exist;orks : strangers rom distant lands communicat-ing with spirits;trolls : a urious race o doomed heroes.

elVeSall and slim beings with slightly pointed ears,big almond eyes, narrow noses and small whiteteeth. Elven women usually have a petite gure,and ampler shapes are considered plebeian. Elvengentlemen usually have no acial hair. All thismakes men and women o this race not so dierentin terms o appearance. Tey have air hair: romwhite, trough light blue, golden, to light brown oreven green. Ginger or black hair, or a beard are an

oddity and constitute a strong sign o mixed blood humans or trolls among ancestors.

Elderly elves get more and more detached rom thephysical world and drit into their memories andconstant daydreaming. Finally, every old el losesthe way back, the mind oats to uncharted landso dreams, while the body lapses into lethargy andusually does not wake up again. It is said that someelves just slip the other side, literally disappearingrom the material world. Rumors about the oldestelven amilies rom Alheim say that under manyelven estates there are crypts where ancient ances-tors rest dreaming.

For centuries, most o the gentry in Vanadia were


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elves. Nowadays the proportions are changing, butit is still very difcult to meet an el who would

not come rom a rich, respected amily with a longtradition and ancient roots.

Te most noticeable elven tribe living outside Va-nadia, are the Yakshas sensual, swarthy, black-haired elves rom Dekan.

By the way, it is worth noticing that all elves haveblue blood. Yes, literally blue.

GNOmeS

Gnomes are small and energetic, o the heightsimilar to halings, but slimmer, with a moredwar-like appearance. A traditional picture oa gnome is a little man with a long beard andcharacteristic black and red clothes. Recentlymore and more gnomes dress according to thecommon ashion, but only ew decide to shaveo their mustache.

Gnomes are secretive and mysterious olk. For cen-turies they have been living door to door with therest o the society, but they stayed isolated in theirown world o clandestine customs and rigid tradi-tion.

Tey stick together much more than other races,

constituting a separate nation within a nation. Youdo not hear much about gnomish generals or poli-ticians, but every educated person should be ableto enumerate at least a ew mages, scientists or in-ventors coming rom this race. Despite their stay-ing on the sidelines (or maybe just because o this),gnomes sometimes evoke aversion or even openhatred in other citizens. And nobody can be reallysure how much truth there is in the rumors abouttheir dark rituals.

Most gnomes belong to the middle or lower classo the society, but all o them are thoroughly edu-cated. According to their belie, it was gnomes whoinvented writing. Te most honorable members otheir walled-in community are the wise men called

godi. Tey study old legends and guard the memo-ries o the races past. Te majority is skilled at writ-ing runes and using the magic hidden in them.

Gnomes come rom Tule, an island on the Sea o

Ice. Te turbulent history has scattered them allover Vanadia, rom the icy Hrimthorst, throughthe sunny Coriole and the mist o the Kingdom o

Alheim, to the vast tundras o Morgovia. Gnomesinhabit also every major colony, rom Vinland tothe arthest islands o Shan-Dekan.

BehINdTheSCeNeS

Elves in Wolsung are a mixture o olkiens stere-otype, the Faerie rom English legends and the19th-century aristocracy. Tis race is connectedwith high society, art, aultless accent and total de-

tachment rom everyday routine. An el who evenonce in their lie soiled their hands with real work isconsidered an oddity.

o make things clear elves are not good. Teyare just classy. I lord Byron had lived in Vanadia,he would have been an el this should explain eve-rything.

BehINdTheSCeNeS

Vanadia draws countless inspirations rom the cul-ture and the history o Europe, and every elementin the world oWolsung is related to a stereotyperom the real world.

Gnomes are no exception here. Tey are inspired bythe Jews, but coming rom the ar north and wor-shipping Odin. Tey live in a closed communities,have their own religion, customs and many troubleswith the world outside. You can use this similarityat your own discretion. I you like to, you can to in-troduce mature and serious topics to your sessions,i not eel ree to ignore the cliches. Tis is just agame.


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dwARVeSAlthough dwarves are rarely taller, than a me-ter and a hal tall, they are usually stronger andtougher than average men. Tey have dark or blackhair, males sporting bushy beards, which stronglycontrasts with their characteristic pale complexion.Used to underground darkness, they rather try toavoid sun to which their skin is very sensitive.

Dwarves are amous or their sel-control andsomberness. For a dwar, the world is just a compli-cated mechanism which can be measured, analyzedpart ater part and logically interpreted. Tey trustthe mind, not emotions. Maybe thats why they arenaturally skilled at working with machinery andthey show unusual tolerance or mechanical or go-

lemic implants.Tey have always been related to mining, metalprocessing and trade. Dwarves usually work astechnicians, miners or engineers. Many amousinventors, actory-owners or bankers are a lso mem-bers o this race. In some countries, dwarven clansconstitute the very core o aristocracy. Tose whohave chosen military career serve in heavy inantry,armored divisions, or as sappers. Dwarves otenhold high positions as ofcers too.

It is not known whether the mountains o Vana-dia or the mighty peaks o central Sunnir are thecradle o this race. What is known or sure is that

nowadays they can be met almost everywhere,apart rom Lemuria and Atlantis.

humANSHumanity is a very diversied race. Depending onrom which part o the world a man comes, the coloro their skin may vary rom white to dark brown.Teir eyes are usually green, celadon or dark blue.However, even dark brown eyes have a slight under-tone o green like water in a muddy river.

And indeed, humans are like water they get intoevery crack, t every ree space, collecting all thedirt and scum in the process. Tey do not t anystereotype (or you can say, that there is at least oneman or every stereotype).

Tey are the essence o the middle class in Vanadia:reelancers, the rst ones to ollow new ashions orbring curiosities rom abroad. Many humans aresailors, travelers or explorers.

Human tribes can be also ound in the deserts oLemuria and Sunnir, the jungles o Atlantis or theprairies in Vinland. However, they are not the ma-

jority on any continent.

BehINdTheSCeNeS

Te picture o dwarves in Wolsung is strongly in-uenced by Nordic legends it is the race o under-ground blacksmiths, who play the roles o engineersand inventors in the antastic 19th century. Teir

temperament is very similar to the stereotypes con-cerning the German down-to-earth, reliable andalmost deprived o any sense o humor.

Dwarves enable you to introduce cyberpunk ele-ments to the game, especially the questions o theblurred boundary between man and machine.

BehINdTheSCeNeS

In the antasy genre men are usually pictured as themediocre common denominator. In Wolsung werather made them eccentric. You can meet themeverywhere, they and easily adapt to new conditions

and are the unpredictable avant-garde.Tey are the best choice or new players every ideaor a human character is a good one.


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hAlFlINGSHalings are usually over a meter tall, with humanbody proportions and thick curly hair. Gentlemenusually sport impressive sideburns and promotethis ashion in every country they live in. Te coloro hair and eyes varies, it is equally easy to spot aswarthy black-haired haling as a pale ginger witha reckled ace.

For ages halings lived o the land, their hugeamilies constituting to the idealized image a quietand peaceul countryside. Nothing lasts oreverand with the dawn o the Magical-Industrial Rev-olution, this picture changed as well and has nowbeen replaced by the a new cliche: a lower-class conman with itchy ngers.

Te average lie span is almost hal longer thanhumans, but it also depends on the conditions oliving. Factory workers working 14 hours a daycan expect not much more than an average o 30years.

Te countryside changed ater the War. Farmingwas no longer protable and multigenerationalhaling amilies had to move to the cities and workor a living. Away rom their old community, de-prived o tradition and their riends support, they

soon blended in an anonymous crowd o workers,cratsmen and thugs. Te traditional hierarchy ovalues could not survive in dirty, cramped tene-ment houses. Devoid o their tradition, halingsslowly all underclass or seek shelter in the organ-ized crime structures.

Outside Vanadia, native haling tribes can beound in ertile valleys and deltas o the great riversin Lemuria and Atlantis.

OGReS

Ogres are really huge taller and stronger thanadult trolls. Some say that they are hal animaland hal human. Hairy, with disproportionatelylong arms, prominent angs and grim aces theyare more similar to giant apes than to any rationalbeing.

Tere are no ogre women, every member o thisrace is male. Legends attribute this phenomenona curse cast by angry ancient gods. Despite theirbestial demeanor ogres have this spark that asci-

nates and attracts women rom other races. I a sonis born rom such a relationship, he is always anogre, while the ew girls are always the same raceas the mother.

Te civilized world thinks o ogres as beings with achilds mind and a bears strength. Tey are usuallyemployed or hard and dangerous jobs. Ater the

BehINdTheSCeNeS

Halings in Wolsung mix the tolkienistic stere-otype o a amily-loving armer, with a much moreplayable picture o a haling rogue.

Te world itsel provides a air justication: the

19th century was the time when the countrysidestarted changing and ormer armers began the or-mation o the proletariat. Tis is why every secondhaling in Wolsung is a revolutionist or at least a

BehINdTheSCeNeS

Yeah, ogres are all male. Tey are ideal or role-playing classical themes such as a romance betweenan aristocrat and her gardener, hidden bastard chil-dren or the issue o racial segregation. Besides, theylook like a combination o Ron Perlman and JohnGoodman.

More and more ogres start to ght or a better placein the society. Just go through the morning papersand nd out how many movie stars, sportsmen ordetectives are ogres. Te gossip column also ex-plains much you can oten read about unusualmarriages, surprising verdicts in inheritance casesand heirs to aristocratic ortunes suddenly ound inorphanages.


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War governments made eorts to bring ogres intothe society. Teir young are brought up in specialchildcare centers, where, thanks to modern edu-cational methods, they can grow up to be decentcitizens.

Outside the civilized world, in the northern plains,one can stumble upon savage hunting tribes wherethe majority o men are ogres.

ORkSOrks have a slightly animal, predatory look: sharpteeth, protruding cheekbones, pointed ears, atnoses. Full o exotic charm and magnetism, theyare easily distinguished rom the Vanadians. Tis

is an old race, that has given birth to both can-nibal tribes o Lemuria and the sophisticated an-cient civilization o Shang-In. What do they havein common? All orks are strongly connected to theworld o spirits.

Te majority lives outside Vanadia in Sunnir, At-man, Vinland and Lemuria, in their own strangesocieties. Teir position changed with the begin-ning o the colonial era: nowadays more and moreyoung orks study at Vanadian universities and

move to the Old Continent to live there.

TROllSYoung trolls, with their characteristic pointed earsand sharp teeth look like little wild animals andbehave like them as well.

Adult ones are very tall and well-built. Despitesharp-eatured aces and magnetic ery eyes manyconsider them rather handsome. Wild-red-coloredhair is very common.

Old trolls slowly become monsters with steel-strongmuscles, thick skin, sharp claws and slobberingbare-toothed mouths. rolls do not stop growingand with age they can achieve a size inaccessibleor any other races.

Te changes in both the physical and the mentalside o a troll are gigantic. Young, adult and oldtrolls are almost three separate species. Sel-reliantrom early stages o development, adolescent trolls

grow rapidly, only in order to degenerate in the oldage. When in their seventies, trolls are nothingmore than bloodthirsty mindless beasts. Nobodyknows how long a troll can live, most o them com-

BehINdTheSCeNeS

Orks combine two strong cliches: the evil race romclassical antasy literature with the sinister Chineseand lecherous urks rom the 19th-century adven-

ture novels.InWolsungthey stand or all that is alien and dan-gerous (yet compelling).


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mit suicide just beore they lose control o them-selves orever. Tose who do not, end up killed byamilies, neighbors or the police.

rolls are a race o honor and strong moral spine.Teir main aim in lie is to leave something behind earn immortality through their outstandingachievements. Tey are brave, even daring. Ambi-tious, even ruthless. Teir careers are brilliant, butquick as a are.

Vanadian trolls come rom Hrimthorst, but somewild tribes can also be ound in the jungles o Le-muria, the steppes o Sunnir or the plateaus o At-lantis.

BehINdTheSCeNeS

Wolsung trolls are a compilation o numerousScandinavian legends and myths. Young ones aretroublesome but harmless imps, while the old areinspired by a stereotypical antasy image o huge

and deadly beasts.Only adult trolls are playable. Tey are also a stere-otype earless Viking warriors, with their splendorgoing beore their saety, ready to die in order tobecome a legend.

ThewORldOF wOlSuNG

TeChNOlOGYANdmAGICAmazing inventions, devices created with the use oNew Magic are nowadays something common orVanadian people. On the crowded streets, the lastcarriages are giving way to noisy shining steamo-biles. Te cities are ull o lie, growing; skyscraperscompete with actory chimneys in the race towards

the sky. And the sky itsel is crossed by majestic air-ships and small but maneuverable postal wyverns,while mine shats, tunnels, sewer systems and geo-mantic chambers cut deep into the ground.

Seas are lled with military leviathans, transoceanicpalace-ships, manaextractions rigs, transport steam-boats and yachts o the wealthy. Even the underwa-ter world has less and less secrets, as modern bathy-scaphes constantly break new records o submersion.

With every shipment o iron, every new steam engine,

civilization enters colonies. Te world is tamed.

Tanks to the efcient postal and crystalographservices, inormation circulates between continents


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distance pneumatic lines are still uneconomical bynow.

Te radio makes use o the specic qualities o crys-tals, which start pulsating under the inuence omana, spreading the vibrations through the Astraland evoking the same eect in other crystals near-by. Tis phenomenon, however, has a limited rangeo only several kilometers, which orces building adense network o aerial transmission masts. Radioreceivers are the size o a pretty large cupboard andneed individual powering.

Te crystalograph is similar to the radio, but it isused or long-distance communication, not enter-tainment. It does not have the main transmitter,and transmission masts do not orm a network, but

aster than it used to between cities beore the War.Gas lamps illuminate the streets and houses. Te

power o steam heats and uels the everyday ma-chinery in our houses.

COmmuNICATIONTe network o the pneumatic mail (popularpneuma) entangles all the major cities. How doesit work? First, you put the capsule with the letterinto the eeder. Ten, compressed air pushes it intothe labyrinth o pipes, where a system o switchesinterprets the arrangement o serrated rings on thecapsule and directs it towards the selected number.In great cities, such as Lyonesse, letters are usu-ally delivered in no more than two hours. Long-

QuOTeSTe world is changing rapidly. Ater the Great

War a new kind o magic emerged the Magic oSteam. Recent developments in science and tech-nology brought us the most amazing o all inven-

tions, the steam engine. It is the proud symbol oour times.

With the frst giant actories the age o mass pro-duction began: nowadays cheap products o highquality are available or everyone, not only therich, popularizing the recent achievements o sci-ence. Beautiul steamobiles zoom on the streets.Te sky is flled with majestic airships. Te Met-ropolitan Rail trolleys move constantly both inunderground tunnels and on over-passes. Te

railway network entangles the whole globe, andluxurious streamers provide a comortable way toreach the overseas colonies. Te inrastructure ogreat cities provides the standard o living una-vailable or our ancestors. Gas lamps light up ourhouses, while the pneumatic mail enables quickcommunication between any addresses within thecity. Metropolises use great networks o crystalo-graphs instead.

Magic has entered universities and schools, no more

a plaything or the chosen, and became a workingtool or every educated person. Tanks to the worko geomancers, buildings are constructed in suchplaces and rom such materials, that their naturalenergy ow promotes the buildings purpose theparks make you more relaxed, the ill recover aster inhospitals, and schools improve your learning capa-bilities. Alchemists have moved rom their cramped

workshops to modern laboratories and actoriesand golems are utilised more and more extensively.Cabalists and numerologists created rst mechani-cal calculating machines.

Tese are the brave new times.Excerpt rom Know your nation textbook or the

rst year o the common school.

I believe that this omnipresent optimism is prema-ture at least.

Te scars let behind by the Great War are muchmore serious and grim, than the authorities are will-ing to admit. Tey seem to underestimate the act

that an enormous stretch o land along the wotani-an-aquitanean border, where the greatest battles othe conict took place, is totally and irretrievablydestroyed. During the nal stage o the War, thisarea suered radiation o intensity exceeding 700thaums, and 20 tons o shells where dropped oneach square meter! aking into consideration thedeath o thousands o soldiers, one should not besurprised by disturbances in the structure o the As-tral, that warped those places. Most o the lands in

question does not, and probably never will, haveany vegetation. Disruptions in the energy ow areso big, that even the regular airship lines wont yover those lands, which lengthens the journey bymore than 100 miles. ()

Excerpt rom a controversial book Te Lands o Hav-oc by sir Jonathan Glimpshire


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they ork into lines ending with a sending-receivingdevices. Te message is transmitted rom one sta-tion to another, and is immediately written downon paper as soon as it reaches a receiver. Crysta-

lographs are used mostly by companies, especiallynewspapers. Messages can be also sent and read inmajor post ofces.

Te cinema is almost hysterically admired by peo-ple, and amous actors are treated as national heroes.In every small town you can easily nd a projectionhall, even i it is only a rented school classroom,the screen is nothing else but a white sheet on thewall and all the lms presented are silent. Cinemasin metropolises look like real temples o entertain-ment owing with gold and velvet, with shiningmarble walls. Here the lms are hand-colored andaccompanied by sound recorded on peroratedtapes and played in high-class speakers.

TRANSpORTATIONSteamobiles are probably the most popular meanso transport nowadays steam-powered cars haveconquered the roads o the whole Vanadia. Tey are

no more the awkward pre-War horseless carriages,but modern and really stylish vehicles. Alchemi-cally enhanced coal briquettes are their uel. Beorethe ride, remember to take some time to heat up

the boiler and ll it with water then you just haveto control the pressure and eed the briquettes romtime to time. A well-developed network o servicestations helps reuel the vehicle quickly and cleanits hearth. Te major stations also provide all nec-essary repairs.

Railway is irreplaceable or longer distances. Itslines connect all major cities and make the journeyacross Vanadia possible in less than two days, evenincluding stops at the stations. Te level o com-ort varies much rom wood seats in third-classsuburban lines to crystals and velvet in the saloon-carriages o long-distance expresses.

MetropolitanRail due to the elves sensitivity toiron, the rst railway lines connecting Lyonesse andnearby towns were built underground. Tis was thebeginning o the amous Metropolitan Rail whichhas inspired similar enterprises in other capital cit-ies. Even now railway lines in Alheim tend to gothrough rather unoccupied areas, and stations arebuilt mostly on the outskirts o the cities.

Mechanicalanimals are a very peculiar type o go-lems. Tey are aster and stronger than their livingcounterparts and have a certain level o intelligenceand consciousness. Tey can understand even rela-

tively complicated commands and cope with the

BehINdTheSCeNeS:

TheReTRO-COmmuNICATIONCRIB

What to say during the game i you want to:call rom a mobile phone? Im sending a pneu-ma, Ill send a messenger, Ill send a crysta-

lograph;lookup something online? Im going to li-brary, Im browsing the morning newspapers,Alred, bring me the encyclopedia;watch V the radio shows starts within anhour, lets go to opera, a amous archaeologistis giving a lecture in a Ash and Oak Club;listen to music lets go to philharmonic, Iveheard youre playing the piano beautiully, letstry out my new gramophone;

go to cinema lets drive to Lyonesse, to cin-

ema, I have invited a touring cinema to ourmansion, I would love to see a new lm, so Illbe happy to und your production.going beoretheir saety, ready to die in order to become alegend.


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terrain a steamobile would not. Te most popularmechanical animals are horses and oxen. Te ormerare used by elite police units in most countries, whilethe latter work mainly in agriculture.

Behemoths are huge multi-legged combat golems,invented during the Great War. Tey have the best

cannons, heavy armor, are more than 5 meters talland need a crew o six to ten people. Nowadaysthese golems are the core o the armor divisions inalmost every army in the world.

Wyverns are ying machines based on their liv-ing counterparts. Just as all the other mechanicalanimals, they have residual consciousness. Tey areast and maneuverable, but capricious. Wyvernsare mostly used or delivering mail, and the biggestcan take up to six passengers. However, when anexperienced pilot takes the yoke, they can turn intoa deadly weapon.

Airships, thanks to the air elementals closed inthe balloons, are better at load capacity, reach andthe height achieved than wyverns. Tey provide acomortably transport or hundreds o passengers,linking capital cities and overseas colonies.

BehINdTheSCeNeS

Te technology in Wolsung is based on magic, sosome o the inventions may deny the laws o physicsas we know them. Te level o technological advance-ment has a lot more in common with the roaring

20s, than the XIX century. Machines are poweredby magic and steam, but still are close enough tomodern devices, or the players to use their commonknowledge and not worry about anachronisms.

Te rules are simple:there is no internet nor computers, there are me-chanical dierence engines;there are no telephones, there are crystalomantictransmitters;there are no planes, there are golemic wyverns;

there is no electricity, there is

mana(magical en-ergy);there are no chemical elements, there are classicalelements (re, earth, air and water);there is alchemy instead o chemistry, engineersare called technomancers, mathematics is sup-ported by numerology, and astrology the mostcommon way to study and describe the Space.

LYONeSSeLyonesse had a rich history, and now, ater overtwo millennia, its the greatest metropolis o theworld. Just look at the glorious palace o Queenitania, or at the all om near the Houses o Par-liament, or at the skyscrapers in intagel District,but please, avert your eyes rom the other side othe river. Teres nothing to look at in Bridgebank,

just decay, poverty and og.

eMetropolisofLyonesse

Administrativedivision: 54 districts and the auto-nomic intagel District

Mayor: sir Horace, the First Baron o Erlkin

Languages: Alsh, Old Alsh and Utalian, Wota-nian, Shangese and others

Population: 7 million (unofcially more than 10million): 16% elves, 15% halings, 14% humans,12% trolls, 12% orks, 12% dwarves, 11% gnomes,8% ogres

Te capitol o Alheim is a city o universities,museums, art galleries, textile workshops, docks,orges and actories; its a centre o cinemato-graphic industry and the last harbor and newhome or thousands o immigrants rom allcorners o the earth. A melting pot o religions,cultures and cuisines. It is a city o commerce, art

and crime, ostentatious luxury and extreme pov-erty. Te city o contrasts. Te city o wonders.Te city o the cities.

Te City in the Fog.

ChARACTeRSTe keywords or characters coming rom Lyonesseare: progress and the empire.

Lyonesse is the most progressive o cities and the

heart o vast colonial empire. You can travel halthe world and see less, than what you will see ina year living here. Growing up in Lyonesse is anexperience like no other. In this city mere street


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lYONeSSe

An elven artist born in the royal amily, with anextraordinary talent, and a knack or scandals.

A retired air ace and a war hero, honorary mem-ber o the Ash and Oak Club.

An orkish martial artist, adopted daughter andheiress o an inuential Lord.

STORYSeedSDaring erce competition between river-cabscorporations. Halings orm scylla ghting againstorkish triads. Aerial duels above the all om clocktower. Evil mastermind constructing giant steamgolems in the orges o Stableton. A giant ape es-caping rom the Zoological Garden. Breaking andentering a manor inhabited only by an old troll.Saving the Queen. Bank robbery in intagel Dis-

trict. Rush-hour omnibus chases.Exploration - Lost in the Fog. Mapping the ubestunnels. Nocturnal escapades to the pubs in Uld-nesse, culinary journeys through ethnic restau-rants. Experiments and inventions at the Universi-ty. Looking or lost artiacts in the ArchaeologicalSocietys storerooms. Hunting ghouls at the com-munal cemetery in Bridgebank.

Investigation mutilated bodies o the Butchers

victims. Luddites conspiring against the industrial-

BehINdTheSCeNeS:

Lyonesse is designed as the universal, archetypi-cal city. Its siblings are erry Prattchets Ankh-Morpork, Nightcity rom Cyberpunk 2020, New

York depicted in Marvel comic books, and, most o

all: Victorian London. It is the deault setting orsteampulp adventures in an urban environment. Iyou want to play in a city, choose Lyonesse.

We described only some o the districts the restis yours to create. I you need a unique scenery,some bizarre location, or a secret society just dropit somewhere. We are sure, it has always been there,youve just never got out o the ube on this par-ticular station.

intagel District is the City o London mixed with

pre-war Manhattan. All the major crimes are inves-tigated by inspectors rom Alven Yard. And there isthe Fog. In Lyonesse, og is not just a weather, itsa magical phenomenon; not only people get lost init, sometimes even whole houses disappear in thisthick pea souper.

rufans witness wonders, that would never occurto even the most educated Wotanians.

Its hard to nd more open-minded people than

those living in Lyonesse and more sel-reliant.Well, i you encounter, day ater day, those endlessriches orm all over the world, you do not just havetrustin the Empire, you knowits power.

Here are some character concepts or heroes romLyonesse:

Alven Yard inspector, born in Dekan and special-izing in ethnic crimes.

A halng actress during the day, a burglar with athousand aces at night.

A troll, engineer and monster-hunter, looking orprey in the ubes tunnels.

ALyonessecharacterinanutshell

Do not leave the city there is no need to. Lyonesseoers all you could ever want, and sometimes evenmore. I you have to leave, ace it theres nothingabroad, that cannot be ound on the spot.

Even exotic cuisine tastes much better in this nicesmall place round the corner than at a maharajascourt.


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wOTANY

ists and the gentry. Crimes o passion on a Belvillemovie set. Clandestine cults in Old Ipswitch, kid-nappers and pickpockets in Bridgebank. Gnom-ish mysteries in Svart Tule, stranglers in Yaksha-town.

Society the Buckinghind Palace and intrigues on

Her Majestys secret service. Clubs or Ladies andGentlemen: Grion Club, Ash and Oak. Charityballs organized by Duchess Nimblewist, romanc-ing on the ice rink in Abbots Gardens, betting on

Winledon tennis courts, gossiping on the FairyPond gol elds, dueling in Ferret Forrest.

SOCIeTYIn Lyonesse people talk all day long in every lan-guage possible. Tey whisper in the docks at night,declaim in university classrooms, sing over glasseso ale and stout, gossip over gin and pickled eggs,testiy in courtrooms, chat in clubs over brandyand cigars, irt in theaters and ballrooms.

What do they talk about? Tey say that elevenbridges over the ether is not enough anymore,comment upon the last delivery o colonial goodsat the dArrots, and this new Golemic Museumthat is soon to be opened, complain about the in-

ux o immigrants, laugh at the caricatures in thepress and drink to the Queen.

Nobody mentions the hundreds o thousands ohomeless, the poor housing conditions in the in-dustrial districts, strange disappearances in the

docklands or the juvenile crime, drunkenness andprostitution. Nobody rets that ater all those yearsthe Alven Yard still havent stop the Butcher. No-body questions the idea, that absinth, black lotusand laudanum are really such wonderul cures orthe big-city melancholia.

INTeReSTINGplACeSTreecoven the Royal Astrological Observatoryis located near the dockland area, exactly on thePrime Meridian which makes it a perect placeor perorming magic rituals.

ComediansEnd part o Uldnesse (the old town),known or its cabarets, theaters and pubs. Youmust visit the New Teatre, the Moon Teatre andthe worlds amous Hand and Mask Pub situatedright between them.

Ethnicdistricts in Lyonesse the strangers sticktogether. Everyone knows that Svart Tule is agnomish ghetto, immigrants rom Dekan live in

Yakshatown and dwarves rom the continent neverleave Stableton. Quirinale, amous or its halingrestaurants, is openly called Little Scylla just asPothill is the oriental Shang own.

Clairvale the posh district o the aristocracy.

Tis part o the city is ull o manors, lavish gar-dens, hidden aairs, hushed scandals, dangeroushabits, all kinds o eccentricity and elves. So, itshouldnt be a surprise that the iron is banned inall Clairvale.

WOTANYTe love or the atherland, the cult o technologyand ubiquitous order in this country these thingsare visible everywhere as ar as the eye can see. Wo-tany is the astest developing economy in Vanadia,but tradition and history are also very importantor its citizens.

Te society o Wotany is like a giant mechanism,

where every gear has its place. However, order is not

orced, quite the contrary the people here are born

with it. It starts with the amily: no matter how muchyour relatives may irritate you, you can always count

on them. Te amily, just like dwarven clans in the

past, stick together and meet in crowds during holi-

WotanianEmpireCapitalcity: Heimburg

Politicalsystem: Federal monarchy

Ruler: Emperor Frederick-Willem II (dwar )

Religions: Reormatism (state religion), in thesouth also Ponticalism

Language: Wotanian

Currency: 1 mark = 100 pennigs

Area: 759 000 square kilometers

Population: 61 million: 21% dwarves, 16% hu-mans, 15% elves, 14% halings, 14% trolls, 12%gnomes, 6% ogres, 2% orcs


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wOTANY

days and celebrations. You do not exactly know what

is the level o blood relationship between you and your

cousin or how his grand-grandmother was related toyour brother-in-law? No problem. You are both parts

o one amily and in time o need you are always there

or each other. Tis is how it works in Wotany.

Te principles that rule the amily lie are valid alsoor every other level o the society. Just as in town

it is important, what amily you come rom, thaton the level o a district people pay attention tothe town you were born in. In the province peo-ple rom the same district are considered almostrelatives. Provinces matter on the level o a land,and lands on the level o the empire. Te world-amous Wotanian love o their atherland is con-structed o tens o small local patriotisms.

ChARACTeRSTe keywords or the characters coming rom Wo-tany are: technology and order.

Wotanians are sti, boorish and extremely pedan-tic or just well-behaved, decent and respectingtradition. And most characters coming rom thiscountry will be like that. However, there are blacksheep in every herd. Tis group contains, amongothers: idyllists who postulate getting rid o privi-leges or the aristocracy, and nihilists terrorists

regarding any social order as pure lth. Tere isalso a whole group o rebel artists, philosophers,spiritists and other activists. What is more, every-one here remembers the times o chancellor ven

BehINdTheSCeNeS:

Wotany is the 19th-century Germany mixed withthe Weimar Republic a ederation o lands whichdo always agree with one another. Tere are somesimilarities to the situation ater World War 2, asthe memories o the Great War still cast a darkshadow over every aspect o lie in Wotany. Tis is acountry where all citizens drink beer and love bloodsausage, but at the same time they secretly miss theOrder brought by the Undead Chancellor.

Wotany is a good setting or political adventures.Te main gures include Chancellor ven Loar(inspired by Bismarck), supporter o the nal uni-cation o Wotany, and Dukes-Electors who de-sire autonomy. Add to this wealthy industrialists,courtiers, ofcials, secret agents, occultist lodgesand Wormund the Wotanian dragon with hisown idea or a new, better atherland.


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wOTANY

Rier. Many industrialists and aristocrats wouldlike to hide the dark secrets rom their past serv-ing the Undead Reich.

Here are some character concepts or heroes romWotany:

a chairwoman in a great concern, controlling thestock market operations and the local House-wives Society;a dwarven mechanic, brilliant at repairing andtuning steamobiles;an agent o the Wotanian Bureau o Taumo-logic Control, hunting horrors which survivedthe Great War;a secret agent in the service o the Chancellor,inltrating nihilist and autonomist conspiracies;

a young countess, heiress to the amily ortune

and golem actories;a student o the university in Grommingen, aspecialist in khemrean hieroglyphs.

SOCIeTYPeople in Wotany meet and talk in restaurants andbeer cellars, on bicycle trips, visiting their riends,during spiritualistic sances and at marksmens ra-ternities.

Tey talk about new railways, amazing inventions,discuss the news rom the press and amily events.Comments are made upon the colonial politicso Aquitaine and Alheim, the domestic issues oMorgovia, or the theories concerning other coun-tries dragons. Scandals are mentioned occasion-ally in a patronizing tone.

Never try to talk about death or serious illness-es. Do not reer to the War in other words thanthe seventies. Do not mention Wormund. Bearin mind that no supporter o the unication willopenly criticize the Dukes-Electors and no auton-omy enthusiast will dare to say a bad word about

the Chancellor, at least in public. And remember:putting words Wotany and necromancy in onesentence practically means social death.

STORYSeedSDaring great business and even greater politics.

Zombies in the sewers, hungry gargoyles on theroos. Stealing patents and plans, kidnapping sci-entists and engineers. Dangerous maneuvers in thenewest prototypes o steamobiles, airships and wy-verns. Betraying tradition and social order.

Exploration the Fields o Death and the aban-doned (at least ofcially) strongholds o ven Riersarmy constitute the greatest challenge on the OldContinent. A labyrinth o towers, chimneys, ex-tensions and attics in Grommingen, where a killergargoyle hides. Te Silent Forest. Abandoned ac-tories; museums; laboratories where extraordinarygadgets are developed. Old town backstreets. Tehangars o the ven Keisel concern the biggestproducer o airships.

Investigation stolen rue Names, plots o secretlodges and cabals, wars o intelligences and po-litical powers. Underground organizations o venRiers ollowers plotting against the Empire. Illegal

trade in astral beings. Mysterious people in blackuniorms with a symbol o a dragons eye. Corpsesawully mutilated with a razor victims o the in-amous Barber rom Heimburg.

Society the Emperors court and the Dukes-Electors. Eight lands, countless duchies, provinces,ree cities and autonomous regions. Parties at thearistocracys palaces, industrialists balls, rst pres-entations o new inventions. Te war o ideas be-tween the puritan townsmen, nihilists and young

artists. Caes, cabarets, illegal meetings o theChildren o the Undead Reich and the clandestine

Ancient Lodge o the Enlightened Mysteries.

INTeReSTINGplACeSeFreeCityofHeimburg the smallest, but themost important o all the Lands in Wotany coversthe area o the capital city o Heimburg. It is oneo the biggest ports in Vanadia. Its duty-ree zoneconstitutes the biggest store o exotic goods on the

whole continent. Te city grows rapidly thanks tothe income rom trade and has recently exceededthe number o three million inhabitants.

AWotaniancharacterinanutshell

Always praise the Emperor, your local beer undthe Sehr-Gut-Wotanian-echnology. Add Herr

and Frau beore your interlocutors name. ry topretend that during the War all Wotanians were onholidays abroad or at least were in the support serv-ice ar rom the ront or better, avoid this topicat all costs.


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Quellen a ashionable health-resort visited an-nually by the Emperor himsel. Te town lives othe patients and tourists boarding houses, hotelsand posh restaurants burst at the seams, hostingthe people rom all levels o the society.

Wolfenburg the ruins o the Undead Chancel-

lors wartime residence. Lost in the orests in thesouth-east o the country, Wolenburg attracts onlythe most determined tourists. Te evil ame o this

place eectively discourages most adventurers andmystery-hunters.

Grommingen the oldest city in Wotany, ound-ed in the ancient times o the Resian Empire. Itis a true pearl o the gothic architecture, with itsamous Cathedral, the heart o Reormatism. Ithas the biggest population o city gargoyles inthe world: more than two hundred active speci-mens.

LemuRIA(CONTINeNT)For thousands o years the hot and unexploredcontinent o Lemuria has been the embodi-ment o the mystery. It was a cradle o ancientcultures, the strangest creatures and a source oinnumerable riches. Lemuria provides leviathanivory, ebony, diamonds, gold and thousandso other colonial goods. As well as slaves. Teheart o the continent is still uncharted terraincognita starts several dozen miles away romthe coast. Wild orkish tribes perorm their pa-gan rituals there, grions and manticores attackcareless travelers, while winged monkeys buildtheir nests in the ruins o ancient cities. o behonest, nobody really knows what to expect inthis place.

STORYSeedS

Daring sandstorms, venomous animals, no-mads, blasphemous rituals, khanjar-ghts in thebackstreets, playing cards at a crowded bazaar, acrazy chase in the crowns o the rainorest trees,

thieving winged monkeys.Exploration the pyramids and their treasures,excavations, looking or temples lost beneath desertsands, tropical jungles, ancient ruins, mythicalcreatures carved in stone, abandoned mines, laby-rinths beneath ancient cities, uncharted tunnelsunder the city o Khemre.

Investigation bootlegging, rebellious warlords,audacious artiact-thet, unknown narcotics, mys-terious disappearances o the consulates ofcers,missing supplies o the Colonial Legion, a hippo-potamus ootprint in the garden o a small coun-try residence near Lyonesse.

Lemuria

Kingdoms and colonies: Khemre, Aksum, Co-riolean Lemuria, Aquitean Lemuria, Punt, era,Prester Johns Kingdom

Majorcities: Khemre, Presteria

Religions: Alsm, Ponticalism, Reormatism,Ormism, Polytheism, minor cults

Languages: Alsh, Coriolean, Aquitean, Khemrian

Surfacearea: 17,5 million square kilometers

Highest peak: Kibuhura (5859 meters above sealevel)

Lowestpoint: Lac Assail (107 meters below sea level)

Longestriver: aygete (at least 6 thousand kilom-eters)

Outermostpoints: Cape Black (north), Cape oLost Hope (south), Ponte de Maladie (west), TeEye o a Needle (east)

Biggestdesert: Hamra (4,5 million square kilom-eters)

Temperatures: min. -23C, max. 58C

Society sheiks palaces, ertile oases, monaster-ies in the middle o a desert, bawdy houses, divessmelling o date moonshine, a ball in the embassy,a meeting in a consulate, negotiations on a hangingbridge, slave market haggling.

SOCIeTY

Even i we do not take into consideration variouscolonial invaders, Lemuria is a melting pot o na-tionalities, nations and tribes multiculturalism isan inexhaustible source to draw rom.


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Atlantis is the wild South Arica rom adventuremovies, rich o mysteries let by the Aztecs and theMaya. Here people look or legendary golden cities,meeting cannibal tribes who oer bloody sacrices

to their gods. Here also loiter numerous expeditionsled by bearded proessors, whom you usually rescuein the nal scene o the session. Ater World War 2

Argentina was a shelter or Nazis, so Atlantis is alsothe place where many o ven Riers ollowers ed.Santa Luna is Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and SaoPaulo in one a gigantic city o contrasts, wherethe palaces o the rich, huge churches and museumsneighbor slums.

Sunnir is a cross section through the most interesting

(rom the geographical and political point o view)ragments o Asia. Te elogan massi is the Himala-yas, Atteman is nothing else than the Ottoman Em-pire at its heyday. Dekan is the colonial British Indiawith its strangler cults, taken straight rom the bookby Kipling and Verne. Shang-In is China, weakenedduring the opium wars and the Boxer rebellion. Ozu-mu is Japan, successully getting out o isolationismand beginning the period o rapid development aunique mixture o samurais, Godzilla and giant steamrobots. And what can be ound in Indo-China, herecalled Shang-Dekan, is totally up to you.

Sunnirians are ideal antagonists a perect combi-nation o an evil ork rom the canonic antasy c-tion and a villainous Chinese rom 19th-centuryadventure novels.

Vinland America, where Charles May meets AlCapone, Bualo Bill and Jack London. Te ron-tier is pure western, cities oer the mix o the co-lonial times and the prohibition, while the coun-

tryside is Lovecrats New England. At rst, thecontinent may seem similar to Vanadia, but theyare completely dierent at heart. Te Independence

War was lost so there are no United States in theworld oWolsung, but a ew small countries doexist in Vinland: the League o Free Counties (notrecognized by world powers) in the west, Vindianscountries on the Great Plains, colonial Vinlandian

Alheim on the east coast and vast plantations inthe south, belonging to the cotton tycoons romthe loyalist Southern Conederation. Te historicalconict North-South takes place between the Eastand the West. Its current stage can be called theCold Civil War.

Purgatory is the Australian penal colony, cut orom the outside world by a magical barrier andsurrounded by the astonishing beauty o Poly-nesia white beaches, shockingly blue lagoons,intensely green jungle. Te area which belongs towild brave warriors, devious rat-like midgets andpowerul shamans, devoted to the spirits o nature.Te continent is cut o by the barrier o magi-cally altered currents and wild, uncontrolled orcedischarges. Te interior o Purgatory its a post-apocalyptic steampulp Mad Max. Exile is usuallya one-way trip.

BehINdTheSCeNeS: OTheRCONTINeNTS

People talk here in two ways. One is long, multi-layered stories, the pride o the continent. Teother tumultuous, spectacular haggling on the

markets and bazaars. Te locals love talking butthey are careul to whom and what they talk about.Do you want to get to know every single secret oLemuria within one evening? Perhaps a decade isnot enough.

INTeReSTINGplACeSAksum millennia ago Aksum was a powerul king-dom. At its heyday, it ruled mercilessly almost thewhole continent. Nowadays, Aksum is only a murky

legend about an ancient city in the heart o the BlackJungle, a gossip about the revolting cults o some aliengods and about merciless slave hunters.


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hISTORY

Transalanea usually reerred to as Prester JohnsKingdom, it is a young, teocratic country whichgained independence during the Great War. Tedescendants o the settlers rom Ys, Alheim and

Wotany made great use o diamonds and gold de-posits. Although the country still has not been o-

cially recognized by Queen itania, its independ-ence is not in danger.

Port Beauregard a ortress on the coast, thecapital o Aquitean Lemuria. Te headquarterso the Colonial Legion: the most elite unit in the

Aquitean army.

Tera a rocky island on the Inner Sea, the resi-dence o the Order o the Burning Sword and theplace where the inamous Aquitean emperor Rov-annon Villanteau died.

BehINdTheSCeNeS:

Lemuria is nothing other than wild and hot Ari-ca, known rom action movies and novels, such asKing Solomons Mines, Te Mummy, Indiana

Jones or Polish In Desert and Wilderness.

Te north is dominated by the Vanadian civiliza-tion, with governors palaces, the Colonial Legionand the Order o the Burning Sword (the counter-parts o the French Foreign Legion and the Ordero the Knights o St John o Malta). However, theurther south you go, the more cunning traders andhal-savage desert tribes you meet.

Khemre is more similar to the ancient Egypt o thepharaohs than to a typical Arab country. Prester

Johns Kingdom is a magical South Arica ater the

alternative Boer Wars.

HISTORYTe history o the world is important during thegame only when it may inuence the charactersadventures. Tere is no room or dates and boring

enumerations we want a ourish and interestingstories, as i taken rom adventure movies and c-tion.

ThehISTORYOFlICheSTank Providence (or the Laws o Nature) that soew liches ever existed in the whole known his-tory. Shame that as many as our o them in ourtimes.

enatureofthelichesTe very nature o the lich transormation remainsa mystery. Each undead ruler came into existencein a dierent way and under dierent circum-stances. What is needed or sure is a combinationo necromantic knowledge and skill, perseverancestronger than the instinct o sel-preservation andvast amounts o energy torn out o the lichs vic-tims.

Te key to the transormation is always some orm

o suicide. I at the end o his days the mage hasenough perseverance, power and skill, he can pro-long his dying moments orever. Body unctions

QuOTeS

First came the rotten wind, bringing ever and

death rom the illness. When enough men died,the procession o the undead came. At the soundo their bells and rattles, the dead were rising romtheir graves. Te living were caught and slain beorethe Mourning King. When the procession movedon, there was nobody and nothing alive let be-hind.

An excerpt rom Te history o medieval Vanadia byJurgen ven Stelltanke

Te Chancellor arranged the meeting with the king

o Nordia in his study. Tey started the discussionrom important issues o political and militarycharacter. Te Chancellor insisted on accepting hisdemands, but the king was strongly against. Tenven Rier began to talk about things trivial, such asashion, sport and dog breeding. In his presence,the king weakened more and more with every sec-ond, but did not dare to turn the guest out, due tothe delicate situation he was in. Finally, out o hisown will, the king returned to the military topicsand accepted each and every Wotanian proposal.Only then the Chancellor let.

An excerpt rom Te true history o the Undead Re-ich by Alexei Samsonowich Henrikov


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hISTORY

stop, the esh gets cold, but decay does not beginand the sorcerers spirit remains perched on theborder between existence and non-existence. Tereward is eternal un-death, the control over the un-dead and the power growing with every lie takenaway. What are the consequences o a ailure? Final

and permanent annihilation.Delaying the moment o death, a lich creates an as-tral wound through which energy leaks out o thematerial world. Te very presence o such a crea-ture is deadly grass withers immediately, animalsdie ater a ew hours, people ater days.

Zahared

Legends say that the rst lich was an orkish priest-king called Saher-Addini, also known as Zahared.

Te story happened over our thousand years ago.Zahared reigned mercilessly or our centuries andthe end o his domination was brought by the eryrain sent by the angry god Orm. Te description othe transormation ritual survived in several cop-ies until the ancient times, but ortunately, none othem was complete.

eMourningKing

Te next successul attempt was undertaken onlyin the 14th century by bishop anaric o Godaker,later known as the Mourning King. During thetime o the plague, he made use o the ragments o

the ancient manuscripts and, getting his strengthrom the ill and dying, became a lich. Soon aterthis anaric, preceded by the Black Death, led anarmy o the undead to conquer the world. He wasnally deeated ater a century o wars, and all au-thorities, both religious and secular, did their best

to make sure that every copy o his treatises wasdestroyed. Parts o the text survived, but they wereragmented and completely useless.

MictlanandNataleoVasquez

wo centuries later, the conquistadors led by Na-taleo Vasquez, landed on the shores o zitzimimeand aced the undead ruler o Atlantis. It is notknown why Mictlan, strong with the power othousands o victims and reigning then or the

th century, believed in some ancient prophecyand voluntarily surrendered to the air-skinned in-vaders. Beore he was burnt, he conded the secreto the un-lie to Vasquez.

Tree days later the conquistadors slayed all theinhabitants o the city and threw a pile o torn-out hearts to the eet o their leader. Vasquez per-ormed the rituals and became a lich.

Drunk with his newly gained power, he set o back

home, in order to take over the Coriolean throne bymeans o black magic and gold. He did not realizethat the sailors could never survive a journey in hispresence. Only one ship reached Vanadia, bringingthe news about the bloody gold and Vasquezs in-sanity. Nataleo and his ollowers disappeared, butone man survived the monk who wrote downMictlans conession.

GeneralvenRier

During a Wotanian oensive against Aquitaine,general ven Rier and his units landed in the line othe heaviest re. Surrounded by enemies, exposedto both shellre and powerul magic, the ambi-tious commander made a decision raught withconsequences. He muttered an incantation and leda rontal attack on the Aquitean lines. He got rightinto the enemy re, but the bullets that were sup-posed to kill him only made the ritual complete.

On this ateul day several thousand soldiers died

on the elds o Nordaly. Ven Rier ed on theirdeaths and absorbed most o the magic reed bythe sorcerers rom both ghting sides. Te deenseline was broken and Wotany won the battle. Te


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hISTORY

lich-general and his undead soldiers were hailedas heroes. Soon ater this, the emperor nominatedven Rier chancellor and handed over the power tohim.

Te war continued and nothing could stop the ad-vance o ven Riers troops. Te world was helpless

in the ace o the Undead Reichs atrocities. Onlywhen it turned out that three most trusted con-dants o the chancellor: Otto von Roher, Johannepitz and proessor Frederick Leich, also under-went the lich transormation, did a coalition orm,so strong that it could win the Great War.

epitz was captured and sentenced to destructionby the Furienels tribunal, but two other chancel-lors advisers managed to escape. Ven Rier himselperished under the rubble o his destroyed ofce.However, the body has never been ound.

Ater these events, necromancy was orbidden inmost civilized countries. All the copies and de-scriptions o the ritual that could be ound weredestroyed, and nowadays even possessing such ma-terials is severely punished by the law as the mostserious crime.

ThehISTORYOFdRAGONS

elegends

Eons beore the Eight Races, the world was ruledby the dragons. Long-lived, commanding greatmagic, they could have everything. But there was

only one thing dragons really cared or: the earthey evoked and the power resulting rom it.

Millennia passed and nally, the Dragon Era cameto an end. Te world cooled down, old continentsdisappeared under the waves, new ones emergedrom the deep. Even the long lives o the dragonsturned out to be too short. Fewer and ewer eggshatched, while death was constantly taking its toll.One ater another, dragons started to all to sleep

rom which they were not to wake up again. Telast o the dragons gathered the remaining eggsand hid them deep in the hottest spheres o theearth. Ten he cast a powerul spell on the youngto sleep and wake up only when the better timesdawn. Such was the end o the Dragon Era.

At least the legend says so.

edragondreams

When the conditions became riendly again, the

dragons woke up and crawled out o their caves.However, the world was theirs no more. Many diedand the young were born too rarely to revive therace.

Tey waited patiently then, hiding or centuries intheir deep caverns, dreaming about the power. Ithey woke up, they went down to the valleys torelish the ear and death. Dragons destroyed king-doms, erased whole nations, and then let satised.For some time.

Te Eight Races have met no more than two dozendragons in their whole history, but each awakeningwas a memorable event. Te dragons, slaves onlyto their own whims, never showed any considera-tion or anything and never cared about the con-sequences o their actions. Teir minds and theirmotives are incomprehensible even nowadays. Atthat time, nobody could ght a dragon. Tey werestill too strong.

erstheroesCenturies passed and dragons grew older, while peo-ple became more and more powerul. Finally, an Eo-


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hISTORY

lian hero named Lycaster, or the rst time in history,deeated one o the beasts. He did not kill it, buttrapped and wounded. Swearing by the most terricspells, the dragon promised to ulll Lycasters onewish in return or sparing its lie. It kept the promise,but the wish brought only death and doom. Te hero

died, but the dragons knew, they had to ace a seriouschallenge. A challenge. At last.

From this moment on, destruction was no longerthe aim in itsel or the dragons, it began to be atool. Tey would not stop until somebody chal-lenged and deeated them. Always beore the nalhit they promised ullling the winners wish. Andthe wish always brought only suering and death.Heroes invariably hoped to outsmart the dragonand invariably ailed. But what motivated the

beasts to act this way is not known.

edragonempires

Te situation changed when a young warriornamed Xandrius deeated the ancient dragon Ba-silicus. Xandrius wish was: Serve me and all mysons loyally.

Within the next three years Xandrius the Greattook control o almost the whole then-known world

and created the greatest empire o all times. Buttwo years later Xandrius died o an illness some-where in the wilderness o Sunnir. In his memory,Basilicus made the biggest uneral pyre in history no one rom a several-thousand-strong army sur-vived the beasts ames. When the re nally dieddown and the wind blew the ashes, the dragon let.Te empire ell down in a second like a house ocards, but people remembered that dragons can betamed and bring ultimate power to those who de-

eat them.Several centuries later a nomad leader named Gizmirought and deeated the dragon Asusen on the vaststeppes o Sunnir. When the creature oered a wish,Gizmir said: You are just like me, Asusen wild anduntamed. Join me and we will together experience somuch joy o ght and conquest as we would never beable to experience alone. Te khan and the dragonwere inseparable rom then on. Tey rushed throughthe steppes and wherever they came they brought

re, war and death.Tey never created an empire, but this was nottheir aim, only the thrill o the ght and the en-

emies ear. When the khan died, Asuen realizedthat Gizmir was the one who protected it rom theoverwhelming boredom o a thousands-years ex-istence and decided to lapse into lethargy.

eFirstDeal

In the dark barbaric times, somewhere in themountains o Wotany happened a thing that

changed the world orever. A dwarven kingnamed Guntric deeated the dragon Wormundand chose his wish: When I or any o my de-scendants call you, you will come and do what-ever we demand rom you. However, the herodid not really want to summon the dragon again.He gained control over the beast, but i he usedit, he would be exposed to a mortal danger. Gun-tric was a politician and he knew that a threatitsel can be more eective than its real results.

As long as Guntrics enemies knew that he couldcall the dragon at any time, he did not have todo it. Te dragon-tamers ame and his politicalskills helped Guntric create an empire.

QuOTeS

A new, sensational exhibition is opening thisevening in the Museum o Natural History. Teexhibits, brought by a world-amous archeologist,proessor Funelli, rom his last expedition to the

deserts o Sunnir remember the time when dragonsruled our world with absolute power. Visitors withweak nerves should be warned the main attrac-tion o the exhibition is a reconstructed skeleton oa Sunnirian dragon, more than ninety eet long!

Lyonesse Crystalograph, special edition

- You deeated me the dragon said. Now I am atyour mercy. Spare my lie and I will ulll your onewish. Tere is nothing I could not do.

- I am tired o constant ghting Lycaster replied. I just want to live out my days in happiness. Canyou give me this, dragon?

- I can. Are you not happy now, knowing that youdeeated the greatest o all monsters and your re-ward will be eternal splendor, power over this landand a beautiul woman to warm your bed?

- Indeed said Lycaster I am happy now.

Ten the dragon killed him.

An excerpt rom the Legend o Lycaster and the Dragon


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hISTORY

When he died, his sons started struggling ordomination. Te right to call the dragon was inthe blood o each o them and nally one decidedto summon Wormund to ensure the kingdomsthrone. Te dragon came, killed all the rivals andlater, no longer bound by the deal, took also the

lie o the dwar who called it. Guntrics bloodlineexisted no more, but his legacy lived on.

edragonkingdoms

Te next person to ollow Guntrics ootsteps wasUtter o Alheim. Ater he tricked and deeated thedragon Garwitnir, he made a change in the text othe Deal the right to call the dragon was neverlost, but given to the rightul owner o Malvador the sword Utter wounded Garwitnir with.

From then on, the owner o the sword had the con-trol over the dragon and the power to rule all theclans o Alheim.

A new era began. Heroes who deeated theirdragons started to bind the Deal to the victori-ous weapons. Such a sword, axe or hammer wasa precious artiact, handed down rom generationto generation in the winners amily. Years passed,the amilies turned into dynasties, and when the

dark ages o Vanadia nally ended and the Em-peror was crowned by the Holy Couple, there wasno more need or the dragons presence. Every ma-

jor monarchy had its beast bound with the Deal,but nobody planned to use it. Dragons were slowlybecoming only a legend.

eRevolution

Te status quo was disturbed by an act o regicide.Te inept reign o Philip XVI led to a revolution

breaking out in Aquitaine. When the mob enteredhis palace, the desperate monarch turned to his lastresort and summoned the dragon Graudel.

Led to the scaold, Philip shouted Avenge me!But he could not save his lie. Just ater the guil-lotine blade ell, the dragon appeared in the sky.

Woken up rom a thousand-years sleep, ree andbound only by Philips last wish, Graudel ruled

Aquitaine or seven years. Tis dark period in thehistory o the country is known as the Great er-

ror.Te whole Vanadia looked at what was happening,but as long as the dragons anger was turned only

against Aquitaine, nobody wanted to act. When thesituation nally changed, it was too late. A youngand ambitious ofcer, Rovannon Villianteau, drewthe dragon into a trap. Treatened by artillery re,Graudel oered him a wish.

eDragonWarsVillianteau proclaimed himsel an emperor and,with the dragons help, conquered almost thewhole Vanadia within three years. When Aquiteantroops entered Morgovia, tsar Oleg V summonedhis dragon Zmey Gorynych. Rovannon wasdriven back, but the war did not end. Te politi-cal balance on the continent was destroyed and therulers, one by one, started calling their dragons.Tese events nally resulted in the outbreak o the

Great War.

echangeofGarwitnir

Te war caused very ast development o the tech-nomagic. Each side o the conict was looking orthe ultimate weapon. Te Named Golems arti-cial creatures with rue Names, souls and con-sciousness were supposed be such a weapon, butthe spells needed to create them were too difculteven or the most powerul mages at that time.

Te battle o Mitteleup turned out to be the turn-ing point. Garwitnir ought there the First Wo-tanian Armored Division. Artillery, behemothsand enchanted bullets made o cold iron nallyachieved the impossible. When the dragon realizedthat the wounds were atal, it ed and managed toget to the coasts o Alheim. With its last breath,the dragon called the high golemologist, Waylent,and conded the secret o Giving Names to him.Te creature demanded in return that the rst othe new golems would be a steel dragon named byGarwitnirs rue Name. So it happened.

Te beasts new body was made o the strongestmagical iron, equipped with the deadliest mod-ern weapons and enhanced by the most powerulrunes. When the ritual was completed, Garwitnirsspirit came to lie in the iron body. Te dragon o

Alheim returned, stronger than ever beore.

Tere was one thing Garwitnir did not tell Waylent

its death completed the Deal and reed the dragonrom any obligations. However, the mages remem-bered the history and the mistakes o their predeces-sors and did not reveal all the secrets to the dragon


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hISTORY

either. Malvador was melted in the vat which con-tained the metal Garwitnirs new body was madeo and a new spell was cast to renew the Deal. Tedragon itsel was chosen as the weapon symbolizingthe agreement. Te specic construction o the golemguaranteed that the creature could not even move a

leg o its own will and regained partial reedom onlywith a pilot behind the rudder.

So, both sides tried to cheat and both were cheat-ed. Te dragon wanted to escape death and be reeagain, while the mages wanted total control overthe dragon. In the end, nobody succeeded.

When Garwitnir woke up, it realized that with-out a pilot it would be only a motionless statue. Itlooked as i Waylents plan had worked, so the pilottook a seat in the cockpit. Just a moment later hewas struck by all the anger, hate and malice o thedragon. All the power and passion o the ancientreptiles mind stormed to destroy everything in itswake. Te hands that held the rudder belonged toa man, but were driven by Garwitnirs will. Temages nally managed to immobilize the monster,but the casualties were heavy. Te sides agreed tomake a deal the pilots role was only to supervise

the dragons actions and stop it i it turned againstAlheim. In return Garwitnir regained the ree-dom o movement. Te dragon came back to thebattleeld and contributed greatly to the victory othe Alliance.

SteeldragonsTe secret o the Named Golems could not bekept or long. In the same year, the intelligenceso Aquitaine and Wotany had the spells needed orthe creation o the Named and within the next twoyears almost all the royal dragons died in the battleonly to be reborn in steel bodies.

Nowadays, ater the Great War, steel beasts stillserve the monarchs o Vanadia. Te Dragon Ridersare careully chosen pilots, brave and strong-mind-

ed, making sure that their charges were never letwithout supervision. Te dragons patrol the seassurrounding Purgatory, guard the colonies andalso or the rst time in history guard peace.

The GReAT wARTe most important event in the whole history the event separating the world that used to be and


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hISTORY

the world that is now can be described in manydierent ways.

We give you the events, the acts and present themechanisms any moral judgments are up to you.

We are going to begin the story o the Great Warmuch earlier than usually, just to present the chain

o events that nally led to a terrible tragedy.

eDragonWars

Te rst person responsible is the last king o Aqui-taine. When the urious crowd was taking him tothe scaold, the monarch, realizing that he hadnothing to lose, summoned the dragon Graudel.Te beast was back ater almost a thousand yearso sleep. We already know the rest o the story: theGreat error ended by Rovannon Villanteau, his

reign and the army marching east, monarchs call-ing their dragons and nally the war spreading allover the continent. A new political balance wasorged in the re o deadly battles. Alheim, notas weakened by Rovannon as other countries were,gained advantage over the rest o the kingdoms. Astrong eet supported by the greatest achievementso traditional magic was the basis o Al heims he-gemony on the seas and oceans.

ColoniesandinventionsVanadia was divided. Alheim ruled the seas andtook over the majority o Vanadian colonies. It be-came the Empire the sun never set on. No othercountry on the continent could change this situ-ation. Ater the wars ended, dragons had nothingto do, so they were sent to the oceans to bring theoverseas territories back to their previous owners.However, the spectacular ghts did not result inany long-term prots. It was the research in to themagic o the elements that turned out to be the mostpromising way to power. Te rst steam machines,modern golems and iron ships were developed in

Wotany. Te era o the New Magic began.

eoutbreakoftheWar

Wotany led the way in organization and technology on

the Old Continent. Te country in which the Magical-

Industrial Revolution started had no colonies, so it

became a very natural opponent or the traditionalcolonial Alheim. Networks o alliances and secret

deals started spawning around these two political cent-

ers. Some even started mentioning the need to bring

dragons back to the continent. At that time, Vanadia

resembled a barrel ull o gunpowder, ready to explode.

Te spark was provided by the inamous Ostrian inci-

dent. Even today it is not really known which vampire

inveigled prince Radol and turned him into one o

his own kind, but only weak circumstantial evidence

leading to Drahan Zmeysky, the duke o Silvanegro,was enough or Ostria to attack the neighbor. Soon the

other countries o the rimonarchy joined the confict.

Within several weeks, the majority o the Vanadian

countries declared war on one another. Te attack

o the Wotanian feet on the Lemurian colonies o

Alheim made this confict a true world war.

Magicandiron

Nobody in Al heim expected such a spectacular de-

eat. raditional magic and wooden ships could notresist steam-powered, iron-clad battleships and brandnew battle curses. During the rst stage o the war,the Empire lost almost all the colonies in Lemuriaand Atlantis. When the nal downall o Alheimseemed only a matter o time, conicts started be-tween the allies on the continent. Wotany and othercountries argued about the division o the overseasterritories and the war broke out again. Te Reichstechnological superiority was still unquestionable.

Ater deeating the rimonarchy, Wotanians beganthe operation against Aquitaine. Te victory seemedunavoidable, but it turned out that Wotany did nothave a monopoly or bold inventions mechanicalwyverns equipped with the rst machineguns oughtor the other side. Te impasse in the air inuencedthe ront and a long positional war began.

egentlemenswar

Te line o the ront stabilized and long periodso relative peace altered with deadly ghts. Alli-ances were changing and several hundred kilom-eters rom the border there was no trace o warto be noticed. Te struggle reached a higher level.Everyone realized that the side possessing themost advanced inventions would eventually win.

An unprecedented war o intelligences began.Tis period, ull o acting behind enemy lines,stealing plans, kidnapping engineers and magicalattacks on enemy laboratories, is cal led the gen-tlemens war because o its relative bloodlessness.Many monumental, or even crazy projects weredeveloped then, including the amous Wotanian


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hISTORY

armored rail, which connected the most impor-tant industrial centers and big cities to the rontline. he rimonarchy, seemingly withdrawnrom the war, turned out to be the winner o thisbehind-the-scenes struggle. Ostrians cooperatedwith Serenissima, amous or its excellent intel-

ligence, but very weak militarily. In return orprotection, the Merchant Republic was stealingthe secret plans o the rimonatchys enemies.

All projects were handed over to one person. Teperson who was destined to change the course othe war an engineer called Gutric Gemeine.

Tis brilliant gnomish inventor used to serve on theront line during the early stage o the war. His talentwas quickly noticed and appreciated by the magicalintelligence. When the rimonarchy started the co-

operation with Serenissima, Gemeine was ordered togather a group o scientists and create a departmentdedicated to the implementation o new inventions.Tis is how the legendary group known as the Forgecame into being. Its secret actories produced go-lems, behemoths and wyverns, developed more andmore efcient steam engines, better cannons, moreeective machine guns and deadlier spells. Gemeineand his seven partners made use o the best ideasby Wotanian and Aquitean engineers and improved

them. In the nal stage o the war the Alliance wasormed a coalition o Aquitaine, Alheim and therimonarchy against Wotany.

InthetrenchesofNordaly

An incident in Lemurian colonies, resulting in theAlliances attack on Wotany, was a perect excuseor employing the inventions o the Forge. Te gi-gantic Wotanian trains were immobilized by airstrikes, rails destroyed, supplies cut o. Te Reichwas at the same time attacked rom three sides andeven the alliance with Silvanegro and the help oHrimthorst could not change the situation. In anact o desperation, the emperor sent all the army re-serves to the battle on the elds o Nordaly an areabetween Wotany and Aquitaine. Tis ght wentdown in history as the bloodiest and the most hor-riying in the world. Tousands o soldiers, mightybehemoths, a rain o iron and re, a burning skylled with wyverns and giant airships. Hundredso deadly spells, charms and curses, demons andghouls crawling everywhere. And then, when thepower o Wotany was about to collapse once and

or all, rom the orgy o death and destructionven Rier emerged. Te Wotanian general cheateddeath, becoming the rst lich or centuries. Tedead rose up and ollowed their new master. Tebattle turned into mindless bloodshed.

eUndeadReichriumphant ven Rier came back to Heimburg.Te lich became the chancellor and took over thepower, sending his undead armies to battle. Telines o resistance, one ater another, were brokeneortlessly by Wotanian troops. Te modern armyo the rimonarchy could ght or long, but venRier made an alliance with Drahan Zmeysky andorced his enemies to play a double game.

Numerous deeats and the news about the lich

transormation o ven Riers three adjutants under-mined the allies morale. Ater the battle o Mit-teleup, where the Alheim dragon Garwitnir wasmortally wounded, it seemed that nothing couldstop the army o the undead.


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hISTORY

Finally the emperor o Ostria decided to share theinventions o the Forge with his allies. Groundbreak-ing technology based on the New Magic provideda ray o hope that the power o the Reich could bestopped. Soon the dragon o Alheim, born again ina steel body, returned to the battleeld stronger than

beore. Other countries, terried by the vision o theUndead Reich dominating Vanadia, joined the Alli-ance: Baventia, Slavia, Scylla and Charibdis

Te last years o the Great War were a period o aconstant struggle between the Alliance and the Re-ich. Te situation teetered on the edge o disasterseveral times, but the vision o the end o the worldas they knew it made the allies ght till the lastdrop o blood. Tey eventually managed to destroyven Rier and deeat the Undead Reich.

epost-warperiod

Te struggle on the continent lasted several monthsater the downall o the Reich, while it took twoyears to bring the situation in the colonies undercontrol. Many war criminals were captured and sen-tenced and necromancy was orbidden in the wholecivilized world. Alheim generally maintained itshegemony, but had to give up some colonies.

Te rimonarchy lost its technological advance.Gemeine died under mysterious unexplained cir-cumstances in the last days o the war, and therest o the Forge, conicted, without a charismaticleader, ell into disavor with the monarch. Te ma-

jority o the ormer Gemeines subordinates work

WolsungWorldTour

WrittenbyArtur Ganszyniec

TranslatedbyPiotr uchowski and Artur Ganszyniec

ProducedbyMicha StachyraDTP: Szymon Szweda

CoverGraphics: Krzyszto Rogulski

InteriorIllustrations: Mateusz Nightwing Bielski (p. 10), Marcin andrew Grlikowski (pp. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), Filip Boel Py(p. 25), Krzyszto sirDuch Rogulski (pp. 12, 23), Piotr Szot (p. 14), Martyna Sayrel Szczykutowicz (p. 17), Micha teli eliga(pp. 8, 19, 20), .

WolsungLogo: Bartomiej Rozbicki

PageLayout: Mariusz Gandzel

Wolsung was created by Artur Ganszyniec

Wolsung: Steam Pulp Fantasy is Copyright Kunia Gier. All rights reserved.

Copyright Wydawnictwo Kunia Gier (FHU Monty), 2009-2011

Learn more about Wolsung on our website http://www.steampulpantasy.com

Legalese and Permission to Print, Bind, and Photocopy Wolsung World our is ree and may be printed or personal use. Tese booklet may not bedistributed by any electronic or physical means without express written consent o Kunia Gier.

now or the Wolsung concern. It is said that thiscan be the cause o the surprisingly ast develop-ment o the post-war Wotany.

Te war irreversibly changed the world o politicsand the mentality o people, but it also let its markon nature. Once ertile plains o Nordaly are now a

wasteland where the spells cast during the war are stillpresent. Te place which saw ven Riers lich trans-ormation is now called the Fields o Death and isstill uninhabited. Bloodshed and magic warped thewoods on the south o Wotany. Te Silent Forestseems to be a conscious organism, intolerant o civi-lization and any signs o animal or rational lie.

However, the most spectacular eect o the War is theParoxysm. When the major peace treaties were nallysigned, it turned out that secret laboratories are lledwith magic numerous powerul battle spells readyto be cast. Many o them had been being developedor so long and had gathered so much energy thatthey could not be stopped. A decision was made toturn the biggest island on the Southern Ocean into apenal colony or the most dangerous criminals romthe whole Vanadia. o make escape impossible, theauthorities decided to rise up new islands, sink someold ones and change the direction o currents, creat-ing an impassable barrier and cutting Purgatory orom the rest o the world. All the post-war spellswere used to do the deed. Te magical Paroxysmwhich created the Barrier, at the same time partlysinking the eastern coasts o Lemuria, is commonlyconsidered the ultimate end o the Great War.

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