Tanares
Tanares is a setting from Dragori Games. This comes out of Tanares Adventures, expansion to the Arena: The Contest tabletop system. Dragonlance meets Nightfall.
The Sandbox[edit]
As for what we know about Tanares the world, that's mainly from the Kickstarter; but it's going to be a big fantasy sandbox with lots of vying factions both on the surface and in its Underdark. The stand-in for the Ethereal Plane would be the Penumbral Plane, here. With a touch of Far Realm. And there's a Tarrasque in this plane because of course there is.
The main church are the Evolutionists, who own Sacred Scriptures. The "Book of Malrok" stands in for the Revelation. The gods in dragon form herein proclaimed that gods shall make their abode in Tanares and that, henceforth, war is banned. No seriously: "Massive bloodshed will be punished with natural catastrophe". This "Malrokian Curse" has happened at least four times that we know of. How very Asimov "Nightfall".
Two hundred years ago the main Empire, to prevent any fights that get large enough, has decreed that if more than five people gather for violent intent they're ... just don't, okay? There's been prepared an Imperial Prison for you.
One hundred years ago, though, it seems erupted a war that the Empire (perhaps not yet an Empire) got away with: when a coalition attacked the Mystical Kingdom and sacked the city Arcana. After that little dustup, the Mystical Kingdom got enveloped by a hallucinogenic mist thus becoming the Wasteland. The Emperor, being about the last credible authority standing, founded the Ironhand to enforce his no-war and no-large-armed-party law.
Various factions abound within the church namely the Draconic Evolutionist Assembly of Tanarean Helpers (D.E.A.T.H.), who are now dragon-skeptics; and the apocalyptic Cult of the Shadow Wing.
Races[edit]
Several familiar demihumans and humanoids walk about: bugbears, goblins, gnomes, elves, dorfs.
Some new ones:
Cirrus: The oldest race. Winged philosophers from the mountains. Supposedly good at suggestion but wear veils. Maybe those are to keep the bugs out of their teeth when they fly. The wings work best at 9th level.
Gloomfolk: Griba- gtirba- gerbil- Manscorpions, with red eyes. Libertarians, inventors. The NPC in that Madness module is kind of an asshole.
Kemet: Occultist para-elves. Some aren't fey anymore.
Taii'maku: Dark-skinned practical engineers, carrying around an akete prayer-rug. So, Sufi Muslims from the Sudan. Or (more likely) from dimly-remembered viewings of The Jewel of the Nile.
Classes[edit]
Again, the OGL usual; even that fucking bard. What's new:
Dragonblade: warriors who are also scholars, who can summon a Dragon Spirit.
Elementalist
Madwalker: eldritch swashbucklers, infused with the Penumbral Plane. So here's where you get your Chaosium on, down to (in)sanity-points.
Redeemer: can beam out rays, positive or negative.
These come from the sample of the Guide: http://www.dragorigames.com/sample/guide.pdf
Playable Adventures[edit]
For some reason, people outside Brazil have taken note of this setting, so it is getting the Dungeons & Dragons [5th Edition] makeover.
Ed Greenwood is top of the designer-list but there are other names we'll recognise, for better or worse - like Anthony "Scarred Lands" Pryor, Jeff "Manual of the Planes" Grubb and, um, Skip Williams. But really the setting and the story were composed in Brazil, so what are those American fogeys even doing here. The fogeys got a cool two million dollars to play with, so hopefully it will not all go to strippers and cocaine. If only for their health.
Dragori is publishing all of it or at least sticking their logo in it. The logo does look sweet.
There's a yuuge module / Adventure Path) called Adventure in the Realms of Madness, which deals with that Prison and other stuff... like the Wasteland's mist dissipating.