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:
- 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.
- 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?
- Political. If major population centers and/or empires were dramatically impacted would new powers emerge? Which major powers, NPC’s or historical figures survive?
- 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?
Since part of EMER IV was in T.K.Amthors Legacy (Nicholas) I doubt that officially there will be a 4.ERA before that is finished and published together with a few adventures.
But looking into the far future a 4 ERA would be after destruction or theft of the last eye with the East (and lot of mighty Kataviiri lords from Kadaenas Legacy) now free to roam Kulthea dominating it probably after 100 years completely together with Ondoval and Lorgalis.
IMO only a super heroic act like killing Ondoval with the Soulsword would prevent that.
Even then the Lords of Orhan have perhaps to intervene to prevent the complete breakdown of the Kulthean prison shield. So the 4 ERA would be very dark indeed or a restart of the 3 ERA if the Lords would save Kulthea again imo. But from the view of an author it would probably like you stated: a lot of changes that would make a 4th ERA something else altogether and more interesting for new players. For example the altered essence flows changed the laws of magic (RMU introduced) – through essence portals lots of other races are fleeing other pales (RMU races) to Kulthea. The missing planetary shield brings more contact to the Galaxis around (new or old Spacemaster) and part of Kulthea is build as new Kataviiiri Empires who will again try to dominate the Galaxis.
In my version of Shadow World, the 4th era comes after a lot of world shaking events (basically the end of several big campaigns from the books), they leave most of the great powers exhausted, and Lorgalis takes advantage of the situation, which begins a centuries long war that sees Eidolon plummet to the ground (on top of part of Sel-Kai!) and other stuff like that. Eventually Lorgalis travels to Folenn to use the Jewel Wells to try and open the Barrier to the East, but only manages to weaken it. After he is defeated by a big coalition of gods, Navigators, Loremasters, etc, the 3rd era ends.
I still have a pending campaign of sending the players that have used RMFRP for decades to the east, and convert some of their characters to RMU. For other groups, I’m already using RMU in the 3rd era in the west without issues.