Æsëa Wiki

Welcome to Æsëa
Within these pages is your guide to the land of Æsëa. Read carefully and ye will uncover more of its glories, byways, and dangers than ye might learn in a year of perilous travels. More adventurers should be so well informed when they first venture into lands wild and strange. If they were, more might live to tell their own tales.

I am Ærénd of Thamland, called by some the Old Skald, and called far worse things by others. I've walked these lands for more years than I care to count. Yet I am far from the oldest, wisest, or mightiest being to walk the ground of Æsëa with my well-worn boots-and that is truth. But if ye learn the long history of this land's heroes, ye'll know precisely who they were and what they stood for. And that's a rare and precious thing, knowing yourself. Do ye know exactly what ye stand for?

Think on that while I let my tongue loose for a bit and roll the splendid sights of these lands over ye like the great green waves that crash below where Mount Fløyen rises up out of the cold and mighty Sea of Gold. Let me speak of the wonders bards like me sing of under the starry night sky all over these fair lands. Let me tell ye of the soft blue moonlight and spell-stars in the hair of elfen women, their bare shoulders all silver, dancing under the trees of the Green Forest-just as the ghosts of their vanished fae kin dance still under the moon in ruined, horror-roamed Cendriane.

Let me speak of brawling, bustling Pont du Leon, the beautiful towers of Senaliesse, and of a hundred other proud cities with their lanterns and rumbling carts and shadowed alleys and dripping sewers, their intrigues and strivings and riches. Let me whisper of the Realm Below, the Chaos, a realm of raw matter and entropy where elemental beings form entire worlds just to tear them down in an endless cycle of creation and destruction, and demons battle within the pulsing infinity of the abyss.

Heed my tales of old magiks in forgotten tombs or maked by standing stones and portals that with half a stride fetter one off to another reality. Beware cold claws that reach from the shadows and proudly sneering courtiers in glamoured finery whose honeyed tongues and sly plots are colder and more perilous still than steely talons. Hear tell of wilder places where dragons battle each other in the sky and ruins only adventurers-like ye-have seen that are haunted by fearsome wraiths, shape-changing fiends, and oozing things made of eyes and tentacles that lurk... and hunger.

Hold and listen well! If ye heed not a word of mine, remember this: Æsëa needs its heroes.

I am one such to some, though I am old and battered and have left a heap of bloody, bitter mistakes behind me high enough to bury empires. Your sword must flash behind my faltering song, for Æsëa faces new, rising dooms that I cannot face alone. Our homelands stand now in worse peril than ever before. Old evils stir, or return unlooked-for, looming like storm clouds over darkened hills. Strife and change tear apart nations and cities. The people look now for a voice to guide them ever since the catastrophe of the Great Veiling. Who now can see who shall rise over all? Even the Vistani, who keep well the old prophecies, can no longer tell.

It might just be ye, if your swords and spells are ready and your heart bold. Æsëa needs ye, lest we fall unguarded to the dangers all around. Adventurer, I am Ærénd, and I say to ye that these ancient lands are yours to discover, rebuild, and defend, yours to make anew in winning your own crown. Go forth and take up arms against the perils that beset us!

-Ærénd of Thamland Midsummer, 103 AF

The World of Æsëa
Welcome to a land of great heroes and stark evil, encompassing lands of magic, mystery, and high peril.thumb|300px|right

Bold knights dare the crypts of long-dead monarchs, seeking glory and treasure. Insolent rogues prowl the dank alleyways of ancient cities, plotting their next exploit. Devout clerics wield mace and prayer, questing against the terrifying powers that threaten the land. Cunning wizards plunder the ruins of fallen empires, delving fearlessly into secrets too dark for the light of day. Dragons, giants, black-hearted villains, demons, savage hordes, and unimaginable abominations lurk in horrible dungeons, endless caverns, ruined cities, and the vast wild places of the world, thirsting for the blood of heroes.

This is the land of Æsëa, a world of heart-stopping beauty and ages-old evil. It is your land to shape, to guide, to defend, to conquer, or to rule. It is a land trod by noble heroes and unredeemable villains, a great and terrible company to which you and your fellows now belong.

Welcome to the Æsëa campaign setting.