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Framing the 4th Era. Hope or Despair?

In fantasy fiction it’s not unusual for an age of conflict and strife to end with a resolution and new hopeful future. LOTR, WoT and even the predicted Shadow World storyline implies a new age of prosperity. That’s a natural story arc. Unfortunately, conflict is and challenges are a necessary ingredient for roleplaying adventures! A Shadow World reset should be noticeably different from the 3rd Era and established story arcs.

The tone of the 4th Era would obviously rely on the GM’s preferences, but a few angles or ideas to consider:

  1. Despite the “win” by the forces of light, Kulthea needs to be rebuilt from the ashes of the grand war/battle.
  2. Will the Lords of Orhan withdraw to let the peoples of Kulthea choose their own future, or will the Gods be more omnipresent in the day to day? ie: will the churches fill any leadership gaps? Could this lead to oppressive religious institutions or a corruption of clergy?
  3. How could a major disruption of the Essaence Flows impact the Navigators? Would major flow routes and/or Foci changes quarantine off areas of Kulthea?
  4. How far would civilization fall? Would major cities like Eidolon, Haalkitaine or Danarchis be destroyed?
  5. Is this a “rebuild” society or post-apocalyptic setting or a “clean up” the residual Unlife/Demons/Dark Gods remnants?

Major Arc Ideas:

  1. Legacy of the Loremasters. (see, I inverted “Loremaster Legacy” for continuity sake!). The Loremasters took enormous losses during the “Last Battle” and the organization is decimated. Karilon was attacked and perhaps destroyed too!! Andraax has disappeared and assumed killed while the Council were mostly killed. One of the players is a apprentice Loremaster with a latent artifact. Goal is to recover the Loremaster archives, rebuild the organization etc.
  2. Rise of the Dragonlords. With major cities and governments collapsed, several of the Dragonlords have expanded their empire. The Silver Dragon in northern Emer, The Red Dragon is most of Jaiman, Ulya and Jenkyna is the western lands.
  3. The Age of Reason. The restoration of the Northern Eye created a “EMP” style Essaence surge. Essaence users were exposed and suffered permanent burnout and loss of casting ability! (to be recovered somehow?). Magic is waning, and the Essaence is weakened by a constriction of the interdimensional rift. (the Lords reduce the aperture further to block the Unlife and mitigate the volatile effects of the Nothern Eye) In this void, the Alliance, Channelers and Mentalists are ascendant powers.
  4. Lords of the New Pantheon. The Hierarchy of the Lords of Orhan is overturned. Several of the Gods of Charon have reclaimed their position on Orhan and/or have ensconced themselves on Kulthea as true God Kings. New religions, powerful Clerics and theocracies spring up.
  5. Waterworld. The effects of the last battle have melted much of the polar regions. The sea levels have risen 20′ destroying coastal communities and reducing land mass. Shaal’s followers grow, the Mermen and Shuluri control the sea lanes. Many great cities are submerged (and can be explored!). A plan to re-freeze the poles using the power of the Eye’s is formed by a small group of survivors.
  6. Technology is the new future. Off-world powers begin to visit and/ or settle Kulthea. Technology is still unreliable or sensitive to Essaence effects. Conflicts between native powers and colonialists ensue.

Just a few ideas to ponder!

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Shadow World and the 4th Era

There has been some discussion about resetting the Shadow World setting with the start of the “4th Era”. The purpose is two fold: first, to respect the canon work that Terry has built and second to create a starting point for new Shadow World material with a clean slate (more or less).

There is no dispute that Terry’s work in the Master Atlas’s, Emer books, Loremaster Legacy, Grand Campaign and other supporting material was building towards a finale. The converging narratives were built around the loss of the Northern Eye, growing influence of the Unlife, and world spanning cults. Similar to the end of the 1st Era, and to a lesser extent, the Wars of Dominion at the end of the 2nd Era, the current 3rd Era was going to end, and likely messily!

Clashes of great powers, meddling of Gods both noble and malign, key and notable NPC’s and the players themselves could result in seismic events. Perhaps this grand battle would not result in world-wide destruction, but it could certainly lead to triggers that would then unleash secondary destruction. Floods, tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions could be as destructive or more so than cataclysmic releases of the Essaence.

I see 4 major categories of change:

  1. Geographic impacts. This could be destruction of coastal areas, loss of land mass due to a rise in sea levels, subsidence of continental shelves, massive volcanic activity.
  2. Changes in the Essaence. Would major Essaence flows change in scope or power? Would flows reroute or diverge from current paths? Would the ambient level of Essaence change, become more or less volatile?
  3. Political. If major population centers and/or empires were dramatically impacted would new powers emerge? Which major powers, NPC’s or historical figures survive?
  4. Gods. IF the gods were involved with the end of the 3rd Era, what is the end result? A shift of the current pantheon? A change in the hierarchy of the gods? Do the Gods of Charon benefit or lose from these events?

I think this is an exciting pivot point for Shadow World! Terry’s setting up to this point, becomes history– a time of legend and mystery! Functionally, this reset could coincide with the new RMU ruleset and some of the changes built into the 4th Era could better engage with Rolemaster rules.

As I work on this I’ll post some updates, but curious if anyone else has some thoughts?

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Shadow World: Retconning the Dyari.

There was a recent discussion on the forums about Dyari. I’ve written about Elves before here, but the recent conversation brought me around again.

Musings on High Elves in Shadow World
Elves, Elves, Everywhere! Elves in Shadow World and fiction.

I’ve put together a more detailed history of the Elves and posted it on the forums a decade ago. In the subsequent years I’ve fine tuned and expanded upon it as part of our definitive Master Atlas and now in the SW: Book of Essaence I’m working on. I feel that most of my material is well within Canon, but there is one significant change I made: I demoted the Dyari to a cultural group.

The Dyari are a more philosophical issue for me. First and foremost, I have no interest in strict racially dictated moral and cultural traits: i.e. Orcs are “evil”, Gnomes are good with tech or devices, Dwarves like to work with stone and metal. These monolithic ideas that beings were born into specific abilities, attitudes and predilections were simple and appealing 40 years ago. IIt allowed us to easily drop races into convenient trait and identity buckets for game play. And, it gave free reign for player groups to attack and kill any person or being inherently “evil”. Per the MA:

The Dark Elves instead gained their name because
of an earned reputation for associating with
the powers of darkness. It is true that many of their
kind have been seduced by the lure of the Unlife
(many of the Priests Arnak are Dyar, for instance),
but most Dyari are merely what one might call
“mercenary.” They embody the worst traits of the
Loari but to the extreme: they are vain and arrogant,
considering all other races (including other
Elves) to be inferior. They have a lust for power:
political, magical, physical, and spiritual.

    I am uncomfortable with an entire race, male, female and children being painted in such broad strokes, I feel that the origins of the Elves lends themselves to worship or alliance with the Lords of Orhan, but ultimately there should be a role of self-determination. For me, the solution was to have Elves that withdrew from the Lords of Orhan, become inherently “outcasts” from the collective Elven community. That is not to say that they would become evil, or automatically follow the Charonic pantheon. This solution allows for a variety of motivations: moral independence, agnosticism, allegiance to a local god, atheism etc. This of course introduces aspects of religious indoctrination, complicated cultural forces, and player choice.

    It’s important to note that SW Dyari are not DnD Drow with black skin and white hair. That is a powerful image used throughout fantasy pop culture and VERY popular with players. Instead Terry wrote this:

    The Dyari (Iy: “Delvers”) are, despite their nickname
    of “Dark Elves,” no darker in skin pigmentation
    than their brethren; in fact they are very
    fair-skinned.     While most have raven hair, a few
    are born with pure white locks. Their ears frequently
    have more pronounced points than the
    other Elves; their eyes are grey, black, or sometimes
    amber. Often, however, they are so similar to their
    Loar cousins that it is difficult—at least for mortals—
    to tell the difference.

    For me and my campaign, that was the opening to retcon Dyari and provide a more nuanced approach to “fallen” Elves. Notably, during gameplay, I’ve framed Ilyar to be more intolerable, insufferable and judgmental in their approach to mortals and other lesser beings, while Dyari tend towards libertarianism. Certainly some contemporary parallels!

    A final point, and one that I’ve also written about extensively. I don’t see the Charonic gods to be inherently evil or part of the Unlife. Certainly some of the gods of Charon embrace less celebrated behaviors and personality traits, but these aspects are all inherent to the human condition. I’ll have more on this in the upcoming SW: Book of Essaence!

    For many, or even most GM’s, this is probably too much of a retcon, but I’m happy to hear everyone’s thoughts!

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    Random Musings. Shadow World & Rolemaster

    I’m already falling off on my blog schedule, but time of year, work, RL and Shadow World projects take priority! I have a number of pending blog topics, but I use these Random Musings as a way to organize my thoughts through writing. Hopefully they add value for reader(s), but it also creates a record of my creative development. I was reading back through my posts from 10 years ago, and I was surprised by how my perspectives have changed or my approaches to the game have progressed.

    1. Rolemasterblog.com. Clearly the RMBlog activity has really whimpered out over the last few years. Peter isn’t actively playing, we’ve covered A LOT of topics over the last 10 years and you sort of run out of things to discuss. Additional, sites like discord have become the primary place for roleplaying discussions. We are pondering the future of this blog and hopefully we can come up with a long term solution to keep things going. Other ideas are porting over to substack; this seems to be the new alternative to long form discussions.
    2. AI. I heard there was some discussions on Discord regarding AI. I’m dealing with significant industry disruptions from AI in my own professional practice, and it’s no surprise that roleplaying, and publishing, are also coming to grips with new technologies. As a hobbyist, AI can be a great aid for organizing sessions, generating quick content during gameplay (battlemaps, NPC’s etc). As a content creator, I certainly feel defensive about AI generated material. I just don’t see how it goes away and we aren’t far from AI run games…exciting or scary?
    3. RMU. Based on a relatively small data set, RMU continues to be a crowd pleaser! I think that’s fantastic. I will reiterate that there will always be a base of gamers that are seeking out “crunchy” systems. That was true in the 80’s and still true now.
    4. Shadow World. Not sure what to say about Shadow World. I’m going to keep pushing out material.
    5. Verisimilitude vs Simulation. I’ve been reflecting on this a lot. I would argue that Rolemaster provides verisimilitude: the appearance of realism and complexity. Despite it’s reputation, RM mechanics are a simple probability system. Culturally, we are programmed for probability and deterministic outcomes, so the d100 system is appropriate for modelling virtually any action. I also have a background in early wargames (Squad Leader) and RPG’s were birthed from wargaming. These games arose out of battle field analysis and tactics. Rules were specific, inflexible and were designed to simulate reality: line of site, facing, weather effects, morale, RoF, etc. To finish this thought off, I feel like there is a streak of simulation design driving RMU right now. Endless debates on rule wording, the appropriate penalty, conflicting effects. For me the goal is the appearance of complexity with tactical options without the need for over engineering.
    6. Trends. LitRPG/Progression Fantasy/Challenge Zones/Level Matching. I’m probably late to the topic, but fantasy literature is being parsed into all sorts of sub genres. Two that keep cropping up is LITRPG and Progression fantasy. Both are fiction that emulate a game system mechanics and seem quite popular. Adjacent to these fantasy genres is the concept of level matching. Whether it’s difficulty zones in Everquest, or a progression of challenges starting in the village, moving into the wilderness capped with increasing difficulty as one goes deeper into a dungeon. This is the norm in many RPG’s and now in fantasy fiction as well but I’m not a fan. The reason I like Shadow World as a setting and Malazan as a book series is it’s lack of progression. Shadow World has a deserved reputation for being dangerous and perhaps high level. As a mixed genre setting, dangers can be mundane, magical or even technological. Power is not distributed evenly or uniformly and the Rolemaster system can be the “great leveler” with it’s open ended rolls and critical charts.

    I’m not sure I fully thought through any of these! But I wanted to get it down in words and reflect upon it further.

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    Shadow World: Works in Progress

    While I’m working on the Shadow World: Book of Essaence, I dropped a quick Shadow World Combat companion book of alternate combat notes from my S.W.A.R.M. ruleset. For those that read this blog regularly, a lot of the material was posting on this blog over a decade ago and has been consistently used in my Shadow World campaign.

    Optional Initiative was one of my earlier posts back in 2016!

    Optional Encumbrance and Armor Rules

    Individual Weapon Modifiers

    Shadow World Armor

    Matt’s Shadow World Combat Styles

    I updated some items, added my own Combat Styles and put it together in a more comprehensive package for my group to use. Like the Book of Channeling, this is a slow but steady process of consolidation of my Shadow World material. Much of it is in our “red book”, a monster Master Atlas that’s now at 476 pages!

    The Shadow World: Book of Essaence is putting together a ton of my material that can found on this blog and the the Rolemaster Forums: history and development of magic, Ka’ta’viir, Earthwardens, Dragonlords, Gods, Primal Magic, Arcane Magic, Elven Magic, Dark Magic, Magic development by the Eras, new spell lists, magical languages and spell list assignments by language and a few key artifacts. It’s turning out to be a much bigger project than I anticipated! I had hoped to have it up by now, but life keeps interrupting and these smaller projects like Book of Channeling and Combat Companion was needed for my gaming group.

    Thanks for reading!

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    Shadow World. Player Backgrounds and Challenges.

    My previous post on the Grand Campaign had me thinking about player backgrounds. Most of Terry’s campaign narratives found in his writings: Sea Drake, Grand Campaign and the Loremaster Legacy all include pre-gen PC’s with specific backgrounds needed to advance the narrative, access certain abilities, or utilize key items. That’s not unusual in fantasy fiction, less common in RPG modules, but very common in Terry’s work. Again, Terry was more a story teller and world builder than a nut and bolts GM/DM so the “railroady” bits didn’t seem to be an issue.

    Matt and I also embrace extensive player backgrounds in our Shadow World campaigns. There so much material in the timeline and cultural backgrounds that you sort of need to include that for the players! But detailed backgrounds come with their own challenges since they direct PC goals and behaviors. Let’s discuss a challenge I have with one of my new players, Iyrdrut. Iyrdrut is of the Udahir and has the opportunity to become one of the Thyfuriak. In my SW campaign, a young Udahir warrior will spend the first few levels building skills and preparing for their Vision Quest which will allow them to bond with a Thyfur. I’m excited for the player but this background creates to challenges for me, one general and one specific.

    1. General Challenge. There is always an implied tension when players are members of a special, private or elite organization also need to go out and adventure. Why would any organization allow privileged members to wander off arbitrarily to find fame and fortune? The easy answer is that they are pursuing their organizations agenda, but that becomes a burden upon the whole party. Terry dealt with this very problem with the Changramai and the Navigators by making them a commercial endeavor. You pay them for services. An easy solution. For Iyrdrut, the problem arises once he officially becomes a Thyfuriak. Is he really going to have his freedom to hang with the group and chase adventures? Isn’t he needed to guard and defend Uda Tyygk? I have an answer for this of course, but given that the players read this blog I’ll leave it there.
    2. Specific Challenge. What do you do with a Thyfur? I’ve blogged about some of the cool mounts in Shadow World and it could be argued that having a flying mount gives a huge and perhaps unfair advantage to the player and/or the group. But my GM philosophy is that there is a trade off for everything (also an underlying principal to Rolemaster). Sure, having a powerful flying mount creates all sorts of opportunities, but it comes with it’s own considerable draw backs. A simple solution would be to just require Iyrdrut to leave his Thyfur with the Udahir–but that’s not very interesting. Instead I’ll take a cue from the “Unhewn Throne” books and lean into the Thyrfuriak and it’s enhancement to the player group.

    I’m curious about other GM’s decisions on player backgrounds, unique heritages or even legacy benefits like artifacts, familiars or memberships to unique organizations.

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    Revisiting the Grand Campaign. Book One.

    It’s possible that Terry’s Shadow World opus magnum is the “unfinished” Grand Campaign (GC). Even a short review of the material shows the connective tissue between early Shadow World books, material introduced in Emer: The Great Continent, the online journals of Kalen Avanir and his novel the Loremaster Legacy. Whether the GC guided Terry’s future work, or his writing directec the GC will never be known, but the meta plot was there early on in 1989-1990 when the box Emer Set introduced Schrek.

    As an adventure path the GC could seem daunting. Three sections lead the PC’s from a lowly beginning to a finale that allows them to save the world–or at least postpone it! Is this really a campaign that can realistically take players from 1st level to 20th level or higher? Terry was always more interested in the story and seemed less concerned with Rolemaster RAW or the actual mechanics of roleplaying. Is there enough material, encounters and challenges to level the players up? Is the GC too “railroady”? Can the material survive a significant plot pivot forced by the group? Finally, can the players actually triumph at the end? Do they have the power and skills or will the GM need to provide assistance or a deux a machina to force the victory. Lets explore this a bit.

    But before I dive into particulars I would ask this: is the Grand Campaign really unfinished? Sure, there is material that could be updated to align it with narrative changes that Terry made, but despite the lack of Emer IV, most of the missing material in the TGC is now readily available. What was once alluring references found in the Master Atlas and Emer are now fully fleshed out in updated version of Cloudlords and newer Shadow World books: Xa’ar, Haalkitaine, Eidolon and Emer I-III. I would suggest that by using the existing outline in the GC and grabbing content from those mentioned books, then there the majority of the material is ready to use. Let’s take a deeper look at the Grand Campaign.

    FOREWORD

    Right out of the gate, Terry tackles the issues around defined plotlines and extended campaigns. By the late 90’s there was already pushback against “extended narrations” like the Dragonlance modules. Players wanted to experience the material found in books through the gaming medium but that necessitated a strict storyline without much variation. ICE already grappled with this with their early work in Middle Earth. Rather than embracing the material adjacent to the LOTR storyline, ICE expanded the setting, plumbed the depth of obscure lore and/or added their own spin on Middle Earth (Court of Ardor). Terry cautions the GM that while side adventures and subplots can exist, the main narrative is paramount. I find this awareness refreshing, and despite his attempts to address the railroading, I believe most Shadow World users have shied away from using the Grand Campaign.

    PART 1: OVERVIEW

    The overview is a collapsed outline of the major chapters of Part I–with fleshed out chapters later in the work. These adventures take the group from Lethys to the Mur Fostisyr and is basically the Grand Tour of Jaiman. Given that both Jaiman and Emer are the most detailed continents of Kulthea, and represent the majority of Terry’s writings, there is considerable material to fill in any missing parts of the Grand Campaign as well as insert smaller side adventures and subplots. Well explore these sections in the later chapters of Part I.

    PART 2: PLAYER-CHARACTERS

    The Grand Campaign follows in a similar vein as the Journals of Kalen Avanir (the Loremaster Legacy novel). A lowly group of adventures, with mysterious heritages and heirloom objects, stumbles upon, and is central to, world changing events. The Heroes Journey.

    Terry has built a roster of 10 PC’s, each with a unique and useful history, racial background and powers. He also suggests that the initial group should be around 6 or even 7, so some of the PCs will be unneeded. Does this create plot holes? Are some PC’s more critical than others? I think they are all pretty cool and illustrates Terry’s gift for flavor and descriptive writing. Each character is compelling with interesting roleplaying hooks. They also represent a variety of races and cultures that makes Shadow World such a great setting. Terry’s writing brings it alive.

    PART III: TIMELINE

    This section is just a few pages highlighting some major historical events from the 1st to Third Era. It provides some meta data for the Grand Campaign narrative. Notably, the timeline ends at or around 6051 Third Era, an important inflection date for Shadow World material. (fyi MA 4 goes to 6054.)

    PART IV: GREATER POWERS

    While there is nothing new in the Grand Campaign, much of these “Greater Powers” have been fleshed out in more detail in later works, specifically “Powers of Light & Darkness“. Notable to me, and one that I discuss often on the blog is the lack of traditional fantasy monsters: orcs, trolls, ogres, giants etc. Shadow World has a unique fauna, once that adds to the setting, not dilutes it. The PC’s are up against great evil and terrible foes, but not reduced to common RPG tropes.

    PART V: LETHYS

    This city is probably one of the lost opportunities in Shadow World material. As the largest city in Rhakhaan, a Lethys book would have been a great addition to Shadow World material. Jaiman provides about 1/2 a page to Lethys and the this chapter gives it 3-4 pages. However, Martin Jaobsson did quite a bit of work on this as an unofficial product, which can be found HERE so anyone that wanted a detailed, building level description of Lethys, then Martins work is fantastic. With Martin’s work a GM could dramatically expand the start of the Grand Campaign and perhaps add some more flavor to the “party build”.

    This chapter also pulls together motivations for the party build: why and/or how does this group connect? Of course the answer is always “in a tavern” (Flask & Mug) but honestly, the reasons for a party build of a diverse group of strangers has always felt a bit contrived in any gaming group. Terry provides the barebones of motivation so the group can begin the journey. Perhaps using Martin’s Lethys material, a more layered approach could be developed. Perhaps a series of mini-adventures or encounters that build the group one by one. Less involved is to have two smaller groups that eventual join up and collaborate. One reason to cooperate between 2 groups is an easier pull than having multiple reasons for 6 to join forces?

    PART VI: NOMIKOS LIBRARY.

    The second stop is Ormian and the famed library of Nomikos. The Jaiman source book has detailed information on the library so there is ample floorplans and background for a GM to guide the adventure. There is a subplot involving the Changramai and some contrived exposition via research to provide info on the Crowns and the more expansive story line around the Secret Circle. I would note that this would be a perfect entry point into the extended Sea Drake Legacy campaign found in Jaiman. This would allow a more extended adventure, build character experience and levels and uses a lot of great material.

    Also, the segue from PART VI to VII is awkward at best and uses a Essaence Storm to redirect the group. The extended Sea Drake Legacy would make the eventual trip to the Zorian Wastes much more organic.

    PART VII: THE ZORIAN WASTES

    I recently blogged about the Zorian Wastes and the inclusion in the Grand Campaign is fantastic for a post-apocalyptic adventure. Clearly Terry repurposed much of this chapter into the Aalk Vaalg adventure on Drivethrurpg so while there is not much in new material, there is enough to make this chapter into 2 or more gaming sessions.

    PART VIII: HAALKITAINE

    I don’t believe Haalkitaine was published when the Grand Campaign came out, but now with that book a GM could add a number of side plots or expand the scope of the campaign. One note is the lack of Uthgool in the Haalkitaine book. Also there is some changes when it comes to the Phoenix “items”. If the Seadrake Legacy was inserted after the Nomikos Library, then the PC’s will already have built some experiences in Haalkitaine. Another adventure in the sewers and catacombs would be the segue into 3-Return to Underearth. Rather than search for the “sword”, the group could merely be fleeing a foe or utilizing a mysterious underground tunnel to access Tanara. Note that there is a Major Essaence Flow barrier between Haalkitaine and Tanara following the Gray Mountains.

    PART IX: TANARA

    Tanara. In the GC, Terry cautions the use of the Cloudlord books due to changes in material and a differing timeline; but with the update of Cloudlords of Tanara we once again have a fully fleshed out region that can complement the Grand Campaign story line. The Tanara plot is fairly basic, so this is a good chance to introduce the Cloudlords or even the Narselkin. Depending on the group, acquiring powerful weapons and artifacts will be critical for their ultimate success. Plus the players love themselves some cool kit!!

    PART X: THE GRYPHON

    Gryphon College. The Gryphon College in the Grand Campaign isn’t quite fleshed out as in Jaiman and for the GC, the purpose of the visit is for exposition/information dump via Visions and guidance from Zaris. There is no mention of the Gryphons, or the Ilarsir but they could meet Kalen and Jad! The floorplans in the Jaiman book will be useful. If the group ran the Sea Drake campaign, then they will have a better understanding of the Crowns and this visit to Gryphon College could be more purposeful beyond R&R.

    PART XI: THE SARALIS FRONTIER & PART XII: A CHILL WIND IN LU’NAK

    These sections of the GC was great in 1990 when there was little know about the NW of Jaiman. However, this whole section could be replaced by using the Xa’ar Source book. Encounters with Shards, Elor and learning more about the Earthwardens would be useful to the overall campaign. A journey through Saralis and the Blue Forest would be an epic overland journey–so far there hasn’t been much for wilderness adventuring in the the Grand Campaign.

    PART XIII: THE MUR FOSTISYR

    The region where it all began. The Iron Wind. Perhaps my favorite roleplaying supplement, the Iron Wind would be a rich environment for an extended series in the Grand Campaign. For the Grand Campaign, the plot centers around one of the PC’s a Ky’taari, but the Iron Wind provides ample adventure opportunities that could add to the campaign: the White Dragon, the Demonlord, the Udahir and the Syrkakar.

    PART XIV: Urulan

    For me, this was an intriguing section of the Grand Campaign. What was going on in Urulan? Over time I think Terry changed some of his thoughts on Urulan, but I based a lot of Empire of the Black Dragon on his material in the Grand Campaign: the Steel Rain, the Iron Warriors and the mechanical mining devices. This is the entry point in my Empire of the Black Dragon module and takes the characters to Emer, then to Agyra and includes further interactions with the Sisters of the Steel Rain, Jenkyna and Ulya Shek. That material segues into Priest-King of Shade and then the group returns to Sel-Kai for an interlude…

    Because Terry fleshed out Jaiman, Book One of the Grand Campaign is a intensive and ready to use adventure series. The Grand Campaign itself is less important as a narrative, but more useful as sign posts using existing Shadow World material.

    Martin’s Lethys — Jaiman/Nomikos — Jaiman/Sea Drake Legacy — Aalk Vaalg –Haalkitaine — Cloudlords of Tanara — Jaiman/Gryphon College –Xa’ar — The Iron Wind –Empire of the Black Dragon–Priest King of Shade –Eidolon.

    Book One is likely years of adventuring if a GM were to utilize a majority of the adventures, encounters and subplots. These would include interacting with most of the notable organizations and forces of Jaiman and build a knowledge base for the group. In short, the Grand Campaign is a full tour of Jaiman!

    The meta plot, (Secret Circle etc) is really a side issue for Book One. This first part is for leveling up, skill building and group strategy. I think the group can realistically reach 8th to 10th level, which is probably a good level to be for Book Two!

    Stay tuned for Books Two and Three. These were only outlined by Terry but once again the material is there for use.

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    Shadow World Thought Experiment: Magical Realms

    Between my work with BASiL and my current project, Shadow World: Book of Essaence, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the rolemaster magic system and the Shadow World setting. Perhaps an unhealthy amount of time!

    For those that follow my BASiL musings, my final conclusions and work product are driven by the setting. What does Shadow World imply about the hows and whys of the magic system? This is contrast to forcing RM Spell Law RAW into the setting. Both approaches have merit, but I made my choice. Certainly Terry was not wholly interested in RM RAW; Shadow World takes many liberties with professions, skills and other RM mechanics. In short, BASiL also attempted to create mechanical differences in how different realms and magics were utilized and cast. Essence, Channeling and Mentalism all used different mechanics than just the standard RM SCR.

    I was either reading or watching something and I had a thought. Probably not one I’ll test out in my current campaign/testing game but I wanted to think it through here on the blog. Given that Essaence is manifest and present throughout Kulthea, why couldn’t it just be tapped to use it (Channeling skill) rather than holding Power Points in a personal reservoir?

    Taking it a step further for clarification of the current 3 realms:

    Essence. Casters using the Essence Realm draw from area or surrounding sources to power their spells. That also means that the level of ambient Essaence would impact casting. Areas with low Essaence, or inhibited would stifle the caster. Areas of high Essaence (Flows or Foci) would enable more powerful casting. Instead of PP’s, the limitations would be around burnout and overcasting or perhaps just exhaustion based on channeled energy.

    Mentalism. Mentalism would be more akin to the current system. The caster carries their own power points and replenishes PP’s as normal. Therefore Mentalists are independent of ambient Essaence levels; self-sufficient as it were.

    Channeling. Channeling is basically a mix of the two, Channelers could either use their own stored PP’s or draw power from the Gods/patrons.

    I always like tradeoffs in gaming mechanics, so clearer differentials on spellcasting mechanics in addition to spell power distinctions is of interest to me. As equally important, it still fits the Shadow World setting. Again, probably not something I’d test or flesh out, but when thinking about how to make Shadow World a unique setting or an updated one, it’s always helpful to think outside the box!

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    Shadow World: Book of Essaence

    “Master, I still do not understand. How can a language do anything? Words describe things. They do not ignite lamps, mend bone, or open gates.”

    My old teacher smiled faintly. “Common words do not. Magical language is not ordinary speech.”

    I collected my thoughts. “Then what is it?”

    “A control architecture,” said the teacher. “A formal symbolic system that binds intention to the Essaence. Consider ordinary language. If I say fire, I have not created flame. I have only caused your mind to retrieve a concept or image. Heat, light, danger, color, memory. Yes?”

    “Yes.”

    “But when a trained caster speaks the correct arcane lexeme for fire, with the proper tonal contour, breath pressure, mental image, and energetic will, he is not merely invoking a concept. He is selecting and activating a pattern already latent within the Essaence.”

    I studied the pages in front of me, a sheet of vellum covered in angular glyphs, breath-marks, and tonal notations. “And these symbols?”

    The teacher tapped the spiral glyph.

    “This establishes the transformation domain — thermal excitation.”

    He tapped the hooked mark.

    “This limits the area of effect.”

    Another mark.

    “This binds the effect to the designated target rather than the surrounding air.”

    Another.

    “This determines duration.”

    “Then a spell is a sentence?”

    “Similar, but no. In ordinary language, grammar clarifies meaning. In magical language, grammar clarifies causality. A spell is what happens when intention is encoded into valid symbolic form, supplied with energy, and resolved by the field into a realized effect.”

    I was silent for a moment. “Then why can two mages speak the same words and produce different results?”

    “A good question. Because the utterance alone is not the whole spell.” The teacher tapped his own temple. “Intent conditions execution. The spoken form provides explicit structure, but the mind provides hidden parameters; target image, desired intensity, exclusions, emotional coherence, even metaphysical alignment.”

    I looked again at the glyphs. “Then magical languages were specifically designed for this?”

    “Some were designed. Some were discovered. Some are remnants of older, denser systems. But yes, they are not optimized for ordinary conversation. They are optimized for semantic precision, low ambiguity, and resonant correspondence with the Essaence.”

    “So common speech describes reality,” I said slowly, thinking it through, “but magical speech instructs it.”

    The teacher’s expression sharpened with approval. “Exactly.”

    “Why did the Earthwardens labor to devise spell languages for mortal use?”

    “Because raw Arcane speech was too dense, too exact, too perilous for lesser minds.”

    “And so?”

    “And so they made structured paths: formulae, runic bindings, later lists and notations all to let mortals shape the Essaence without being consumed by it.”

    “And the greatest spell-language?” he asked softly. “The oldest one…Iruaric?”

    The teacher was silent for a long pause, as if considering what to reveal to the young student. “Iruaric does not merely refer to the structure of reality,” he said. “It was formulized close enough to first principles that speaking it correctly is less like making a request and more like issuing a lawful revision.”

    Loremaster Remembrances. Vol I

    Randae Terisonen

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