Arcanis

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Arcanis: World of Shattered Empires, to give the setting its full fancy name, is a Dark Fantasy setting created by Henry Lopez and published by Paradigm Concepts Inc. It was originally a third-party setting for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, but shed those roots to run its own custom-built rule system during the days of 4e. However, it eventually returned to its roots with a Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition conversion.

Arcanis is set on the continent of Onara, where a crumbling Coryani Empire (reminiscent of the Western Roman Empire) struggles with newly created nations such as Milandir (reminiscent of the Holy Roman Empire) or Canceri (reminiscent of Russia during the Middle Ages and the Balkans). Unlike many other fantasy roleplaying games, which focus primarily on tactical combat, the Arcanis campaigns focus on moral ambiguity and politics.

Races

Arcanis began as a 3rd party setting for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, so initially it had the standard D&D races. But as the setting grew (and temporarily went separate ways from D&D), its racial lineup has shifted, changed and taken on very distinct characters, which it has retained as it returned to the fold of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.

Humans & Demihumans

You gotta have humans, what you talking about? Ironically, most humans on Arcanis actually began on some other world and were brought to Arcanis by their pantheon of twelve gods. They had an enormous empire called the Imperium, nowadays remembered optimistically as the First Imperium, which spanned multiple worlds, but it was torn apart over a series of catastrophes, including multiple disastrous civil wars and the Time of Terror, when some idiots (human, incidentally) literally tore open the Gates of Hell and allowed fiends to flood the planet. Nowadays, they are broken into multiple competing and squabbling civilizations, with the most notable being the Coryani Empire, the Free City-States of Almeric, the Hinterlands, the Kingdom of Milandir, the League of Princes, and the Republic of Altheria.

Kio

The mysterious kio are a human subrace touched by union with some mysterious, mystical race. Tall, graceful and fair-complexioned, kio hold themselves apart from their human cousins, and in particular reject the Gods of Man, revering only their ancestors, the Pure Blood or True Kio. They have their own dedicated splatbook, Children of the Sky.

Undir

The undir are a once-primitive people, a human offshoot touched by the elemental powers of water - reputedly, they descend from a simple hunter who was taken as a husband by a beautiful undine. For centuries, they lived a peaceful life on the coast and amongst the rivers of the Western Lands, but the coming of the Coryani has disrupted their traditional way of life. Undir can pass for ruddy-skinned, dark haired, dark-eyed humans, unless one sees the webbing between their toes, the most overt manifestation of their elemental affinities.

They are actually blood-related to the kio, as the "modern" kio are said to be the product of unions between the original kio, whatever they are, and the ancient undir.

Val

The aasimar of Arcanis, the Val are a collection of human bloodlines who trace their lineage to the twelve gods of man, as their ancestors were chosen as mates by valinor (angels) to father a superior race to serve as humanity's leaders and protectors. Of course, given that Arcanis is a Dark Fantasy setting, a lot of val have fallen... rather short of such lofty ideals, shall we say?

There are multiple distinct Val Bloodlines, representing which god/valinor they descend from.

• val'Abebi: Children of Althares, the God of Knowledge.
• Val'Assante: Children of Illiir, the Ruler of the Gods.
• val'Borda: Children of Cadic, the Lord of Shadows.
• val'Dellenov: Children of Saluwe, the Green Mother. Unique for their matriarchal culture.
• val'Emman: Children of Nier. One of two Nier-descended bloodlines, they've been almost wiped out by the val'Virdan.
• val'Holryn: Nobody knows what god created this bloodline.
• val'Inares: Children of Anshar, the Suffering Goddess.
• val'Ishi: Children of Beltine, the Gray Lady.
• val'Mehan: Children of Sarish, the God of Magic.
• val'Mordane: Children of Neroth, the Lord of Tombs.
• val'Ossan: Children of Yarris, the Lord of Waves.
• val'Sheem: Children of Larissa, the Divine Harlot.
• val'Tensen: Children of Hurrian.
• val'Virdan: Children of Nier.

val'Sungha

The val'Sungha are a human offshoot who bear the mingled bloodlines of both the val and the kio, said to be the result of a True Kio woman who bore children by three val men; a val'Assante, a val'Borda, and a val'Sheem. These three unions all produced children, who have been carefully cultivated into a sprawling family with three distinctive bloodlines, each preserving its own unique meld of kio and val mystical traits. Stats for this race appear in the Children of the Sky splatbook.

Dark-Kin

Dark-Kin are the tieflings of Arcanis, being the descendants of humans whose ancestry was polluted by Infernal crossbreeding during the Time of Terror. Nowadays, they are largely a scorned race, barely tolerated and appearing at random amongst the different human nations. Dark-Kin always display two distinct mutations, gaining supernatural powers from these prominent remnants of their Infernal heritage, but may also display any number of cosmetic mutations such as reddish hued skin, small horns, pronounced incisors, a forked tail or eyes that constantly glow with a malignant light. Some dark-kin struggle to prove they are not condemned by their tainted heritage, others embrace their corrupt ancestry, but most just want to be left alone.

Dwarf

The Dwarves of Arcanis were originally a race of celestial giants, until they betrayed the oath they swore to the god Illiir to protect humanity. Instead, they tried to depose the Pantheon of Man and make humanity worship them instead. For this, Illiir cursed them with stunted forms, and barred their souls from passing on to the afterlife, instead being trapped in sacred stones. However, he did grant them one mercy; if a dwarven enclave can craft the "perfect item", then they will be freed of their curse forever more.

It's called out that whilst there are stories of bearded dwarf women on Arcanis, these are just salacious stories with no basis in fact.

Whilst some dwarven enclaves focus entirely on crafting the perfect item that will win them redemption other enclaves believe that what Illiir intended for them was to take up their original mantle, and so they focus on being allies to and protectors of humanity.

Known enclaves of dwarves:

• Encali: The only dwarf race capable of practicing eldritch sorcery. Have a fearsome reputation as unscrupulous manipulators and double-dealers.
• Nol Dappan: Volcano-dwelling warriors and weapon-smiths.
• Solani: Known and admired as the most noble and self-sacrificing of dwarves, believing wholeheartedly that loyalty to humanity is essential for their race's redemption.
• Tir Betoqi:' Similar to the Solani, but more humble, prefering to avoid recognition. Dedicated to destroying Infernals.
• Tultipetan: Remnants of an enclave destroyed by one of the last true dragons, famous for covering themselves in mystical tattoos.

Elorii

The elorii are kind of what you might get if you mashed together orks and eldar, then found a way to justify such a fusion in a fantasy setting. Elorii are kind of the elves of Arcanis, being androgynously beautiful, immortal beings. But they were created eons ago by Ssanu using a combination of fleshcrafting and an alliance with the five Elemental Lords as a race of super-soldiers. Thus, all elorii mature rapidly - in ten years - but effectively live forever. They have redundant organs, including two hearts, making them really tough to kill. They get bigger as they age, gaining several inches and about 50 pounds every 1,000 years they live - since they literally don't die unless killed, the elders of the race are over 10 feet tall! Also, if you do kill an elorii, they reincarnate through the womb of another elorii, with all of their memories and skills passing on - the race's one weakness is that this means their numbers are fixed; they cannot increase the maximum number of elorii in existence, even if they can replenish their casualties quickly. They are divided into five subraces, based on which of the five Elemental Lords they are most attuned to; Ardakene (Life), Berokene (Water), Kelekene (Fire), Marokene (Earth), and Osalikene (Air).

As the slave-soldiers of the Yahssremoran Empire, the elorii genocided twelve sapient races in the primordial history of the world, an act that deeply scarred them. They overthrew their masters and created a benevolent empire that lasted for nearly two thousand years... then humanity showed up. The elorii initially allied with the newcomers, but humanity betrayed them; the human gods murdered four of the five Elemental Lords to steal their powers, and their human followers then attacked the delorii whilst they were off-guard, breaking their empire and sending them fleeing into the wilderness to rebuild.

Naturally, the elorii don't exactly think highly of humans in the present day...

Gnome

Thae Gnomes of Arcanis are a cursed race, born when a human mates with a dwarf. The melding of the bloods, and particularly the curse of Illiir, means that gnomes are not only as small as dwarves, but afflicted with all manner of horrible physical defects and deformities. Hunchbacks, oversized heads, clubfoots, extra or missing digits, bulging eyes and snarled teeth; the lot of the gnome is to inspired pity and revulsion from those around them. Despite their disfigured and half-crippled frames, they are deceptively strong and tough, and their wills are like iron.

Ss'ressen

Ss'ressen are the lizardfolk of Arcanis, bred and shaped from humble reptilian stock by the ssanu during the days of the Yahssremoran Empire, and they continue to serve its successors, the Ssethregoran Empire.

...Well, most of them do. One subrace, the Black Talons, collectively found religion and, guided by the deity known as the Fire Dragon, grew disgusted with the cruelty and decadence of the Ssethregoran, causing them to flee to the swamps of Milandir and forge their own path as allies to ithe val'Holryn Dukes of Tralia who rule over their new homeland.

Only the Black Talons are discussed in the setting corebook, but the rest of the ss'ressen strains - both the Black Talon offshoots of Ghost Scales, Ashen Hides, and the Brood of Ven val'Sosi, and the Empire loyalists of Barbed Tail, Curled Tail, Dark Crest, Death's Head, Emerald Scale, Flaming Tongue, Ghost Scale, Horned Jowl, Long Claw, Razor Claw and Venomous Scale - are discussed and made playable in the Codex Geographica II.

Ironically, ss'ressen of different subraces, or "clutches" as they call themselves, instinctively hate each other on sight (except for the Black Talons and their offshoots), as their ssanu masters engineered this trait into them to keep them from organizing against them. Whilst it's clearly worked, one has to wonder how the hell the ssanu manage to organize them into an effective force.

Lesser Races

Whilst the above form the "core" races of the Arcanis setting, its slow conversion to 5th edition is unlocking a number of less powerful (geo-politically speaking) races that are, nonetheless, potentially playable.

Codex Geographica I: The Blessed Lands features two races in its bestiary with official PC write-ups; the Ibon, a race of Half-Giants, and the Sama, race of small insectoids who mature from hyper-emotional adolescents to hyper-logical adults.

Codex Geographica II: The Ssethregoran Empire contains a massive expose on the various scalykind of Arcanis, and as a result, it is full of new playable races.

Hussuma are an artificially created race produced using biomancy. Made in imitation of the elorii, hussuma are used to spy on that race by its former masters.

Hylis are a race of small, humanoid tree frogs who willingly allied with the ssanu to defeat and ruin their former rivals, known today only as the Shell-Backs.

Iguadons are bigger, bulkier lizardfolk traditionally used as shock troops. Whilst their creators and even their ss'ressen cousins tend to consider them dim-witted, they are a deeply spiritual race that clings to the worship of the old ssethric god Kassegore.

Kobolds were engineered as a race of worker-slaves, and may have been made a bit too well, as they have proliferated both within and without of the empire.

Naga are a ssanu subrace altered by biomancy in the ancient days of the Yahssremoran Empire to create the ultimate wielders of elder sorcery and psionics. Now they've taken over the ssethric races, ousting their cousins to form the Ssethregoran Empire. They are divided into three subspecies, known as "Houses"; House Kahss, House Sardatis, and House Taricha.

Pleisaurans are a race of humanoid pleisiasaurs who serve to control the amphibious and aquatic slaves and minionbeasts of ssethric society.

Rhamphorikes are a slave-race created by using biomancy to crossbreed kobolds and small pterosaurs to create aerial troopers.

Shell-Backs were once a proud and ancient race of humanoid turtles... until their bitter rivals the hylis made an alliance with the ssethrics to decimate and subjugate them, stripping away their culture and even robbing them of the knowledge of their own racial name.

Ssanu are the original ssethric race, a species of serpentfolk with a mastery for elder sorcery and especially biomancy. They were nearly annihilated by their elorii creations, and now they're under the control of their own naga descendants.

Yissera are an artificially engineered race created from a cocktail of human and ssanu DNA to produce spies and agents to infiltrate human civilization. However, as they age, their reptilian genes assert themselves, twisting them into oft-horrific amalgamations of human and snake. They're essentially a knock-off version of the Yuan-Ti, specifically the Pureblood and Malison variants, with the ssanu getting the "snake with a humanoid upper torso" appearace of the Yuan-Ti Abomination.

5e Classes

In the 5th edition version of the game, the available classes are a tweaked array compared to your standard 5e setting. There are also some unusual twists to the usual rules, to emphasize the setting's lore. For example, clerics on Arcanis are socially restricted - certain deities will only permit certain races or genders to follow them; you can't be a priest of Saluwe unless you're a woman, only female [ss'ressen]] can be clerics AND they can only worship the Fire Dragon, and elorii can only worship Belisarda. Another is that Mystic Theurges do not exist - you cannot practice Divine Magic and Sorcerery, because their beliefs are fundamentally opposed. The exception to this are the Sorcerer-Priests of Sarish, who believe that Sarish is the God of Magic and thus all magic is part of their god's dominion. You can wield Divine Magic and Psionics simultaneously, however, as psionics are viewed as a gift of the gods.

Cleric

Clerics in Arcanis 5e are the same general idea as clerics in other D&D settings; they are the workers of divine magic who speak the wills of the setting's gods.

Fighter

What's there to say? The Arcanis 5e fighter is your generic warrior type.

Fury

Furies fill the role of the Barbarian in the world of Arcanis, being warriors who draw power from savagery.

Holy Champion

Holy Champions are the Paladins of Arcanis.

Psion

Psionic magic is the rarest form of magic on Arcanis, and so taking the Psion class requires you have the Psionic racial trait, which currently only the Val possess.

Ranger

You know what a Ranger is, but Arcanis reinvents the class, which let's face it is more than justified.

Rogue

The humble rogue needs no introduction. Bards are a rogue subclass on Arcanis rather than a fully fledged class in their own right.

Shaman

Perhaps best described as a hybrid of druid and warlock, shamans are Charisma casters who invoke the primal spirits and lesser gods of Arcanis. Like Clerics, they have a specific taboo based on their patron spirit - shamans of Jeggal Sag, the bestial last god ofthe ss'ressen, are forbidden from allowing animals to come to harm (which means no hunting for sport, don't start fights with animals, etc), for example. Unlike druids, wild shaping isn't an inherent part of the shaman arsenal - only the Skin Dancer subclass can do it.

Sorcerer

Arcane magic users in Arcanis are collectively known as Sorcerers, but there two distinct types of sorcerer.

Elder Sorcery is the earliest documented form of arcane magic use, and most closely corresponds to wizardry. It is slow to cast and extremely focused on attention to detail, but this makes it potent - mechanically, Elder Sorcerers are the arcane magic users who can use metamagic, in addition to selecting distinct arcane traditions to follow. The complexities it requires, however, make grasping it impossible for many races on Arcanis, including humans. Mechanically, only races with the Elder Sorcery racial trait, such as Elorii, Ssanu and Sama, can take the Elder Sorcerer class. Elder Sorcerer subclasses in the corebook are the Arcanist (focused on mastering metamagic), the Conjurer, the Elorii Elementalist (an Elorii-exclusive wielder of elemental magic), and the Magi (a gish who fashions arcane energy into obsidian-hued blades and armor).

'Eldritch Sorcery is the "young" magic, likened to a sledgehammer vs. the scalpel of Elder Sorcery, and is closer to the traditional D&D sorcerer, being a Charisma Caster vs. the Intelligence Caster of the Elder Sorcerer. This is the most widespread of the arcane magic styles in the modern era, since most races can learn it - only races with an affinity for Elder Sorcery, most dwarf subraces, and male ss'ressen have no affinity for Eldritch Sorcer. Eldritch Sorcerers can learn metamagic too, but they're not as good at it as the Elder Sorcerers. Eldritch Sorcerer subclasses in the corebook are the Invoker (focused on boosting the raw power of their spells), the Sorcerer-Priest of Sarish, and the War Mage (a gish).

Warlock

Warlocks canonically exist on Arcanis (with the exception of those devoted to the Archfey, as fey don't exist on Arcanis), but they are a shunned, feared class, hunted and outcast by those who recognize what they do.

Elder Warlocks, introduced in the Sorcerous Pacts splatbook, practice a mixture of Elder Sorcery and warlock-like pacts with elemental beings of great power. Because of the similarities between Elder Warlocks and Elder Sorcerers, they are not subject to the same prejudice as regular warlocks, and mechanically are an entirely separate class. Only elorii can be Elder Warlocks, as only their race is both compatible with Elder Sorcery and has the traditions of elemental worship that created the bonds which can be called upon.

Nations

The nations of Arcanis are mostly human affairs, all related to the First Imperium that fell thousands of years ago; most of these are ruled by the Val. The primary human lands are:

• The Republic of Altheria
• The Theocracy of Canceri
• The Coryani Empire
• The Hinterlands
• The Khitani Empire
• The League of Princes
• The Kingdom of Milandir
• Ymandragore

The three Elorii Nations are:

• Elonbé
• Entaris
• Malfea (a.k.a. Malfelen)

The major Dwarven Enclaves are:

• Solanos Mor
• Nol Dappa
• Tulipet
• Tir Betoq
• Encali

There are three major clutches of Ss'ressen (outside of the Ssethregoran Empire), the second two being offshoots of the first:

• Black Talons
• Ashen Hide
• Ghost Scale

The other races are mostly outcasts and wanderers, though occasionally small racial enclaves arise in larger cities, rather than maintaining organized civilizations.

Religion

The Deities of Arcanis are sectioned off into different pantheons. The main pantheon is the Pantheon of Man, housing the human gods. Other pantheons such as the Pantheon of the Elves, are broken, or destroyed leaving only one or no gods behind.

In Arcanis, "true" gods are unconcerned with petty mortal morality, so have no alignment as gods in other settings do; only churches have alignment, depending on what aspects of a god they worship. The Pantheon of Man, for example, does not have alignment, but the Sethregoran Varn Gods do.

The foundation of the pantheon are three brother gods: Illiir, the Patron God of Emperors and Order, Sun God and Head of the Pantheon; Yarris, God of the Sea; and Neroth, God of Death. Further, three Goddesses are their sisters and in some cases consorts: Saluwé, Goddess of the Earth, consort of Illiir; Beltine, Goddess of the Soul, wife of Neroth; and Anshar, Goddess of Pain and Suffering. The children of Illiir and Saluwé are Hurrian, God of Storms and Honorable Combat, the Reluctant Warrior, Nier, God of Fire, War and Slaughter, and Larissa, Oracle of the Gods and (more recently) Goddess of Pleasure. The child of Neroth and Beltine is Cadic, the God of Shadows, Murder, and Music. Larissa and Cadic have a son named Sarish, God of Oaths and Binding of Demons. There is reference to Althares, God of Knowledge, Invention, and Artifice, as being the "Grand Uncle of Sarish," but exactly where he fits into the divine family tree is unclear.

Schisms

The Mother Church of the Pantheon of Man once held all the gods in equal worship, until a schism occurred which drove followers of Neroth, Sarish and Nier to form an independent church, the Dark Triumvirate in Canceri. The Mother Church and the Dark Triumvirate differ in several ways, primarily in that the Dark Triumvirate approves of activities the Mother Church fears: the creation of Undead and the summoning of demons and devils for the most part.

The Ss'ressen and Ssethregoran Gods

The Fire Dragon is the god worshiped by the Black Talon ss'ressen. The Ashen Hide split off from this group, believing that Fire Dragon was actually the human god, Nier.

The Ssethregoran Empire once worshiped the gods Kassegore and Yig. With the ascension of the Naga to a ruling position in the Empire, they have begun to worship a pantheon of beings from another plane known as the Varn.

The Elorii Pantheon

The Elorii follow the Elemental Lords that created them, despite the destruction of four of them. The remaining Elemental Lord, the life spirit Belisarda, was believed to have been destroyed by The Other (or Umor, as the Elorii knew him), until the arrival of a Prophet who claimed this was not true.

• Belisarda – Goddess of Life and Healing
• Keleos – God of Fire
• Mârok – God of Earth
• Osalían – God of Air
• Beröe – Goddess of Water

Elorii heresy

A somewhat common movement among Elorii has been the practice of identifying elemental lords with one of the human gods that supposedly absorbed those elemental lords powers. For instance, some Elorii followers of the Lord of Air consider Hurrian, the Storm Lord in the Pantheon of Man, to be their God. To other Elorii this seems to be heresy and is considered to be so, although the Mother Church (and the Dark Triumvirate in the case of Nier) has little or no issues for Elorii who choose this path.

Myrantian gods

The ancient Myrantian Hegemony had its own pantheon of gods, although much information about them has been lost to the ages. The Mother Church of Coryan considers worship of the Myrantian deities heresy, but allows the worship of traditional Pantheon of Man deities under the names of Myrantian gods. The Myrantian Pantheon seems primarily based on the Ancient Egyptian pantheon, though not entirely. Tzizhet is considered a combination of Sarish and Neroth. Shu is a god of storms, sky, and magic, considered an amalgam of Hurrian and Sarish.

Factions and secret societies

The setting also has secret societies, which are factions who have beliefs and goals that occasionally aid or impede the mission of players. Each faction varies in its goals as well as how secret each faction is. Many secret societies exist in the world, though a good number of them are restricted to non-player characters in the living campaigns. The following secret societies have been open to player characters in the living campaigns:

• The Orthodoxy seeks to maintain orthodox human religion and eradicate heretical worship of the Pantheon of Man.
• The Hawk and Shield seek to eradicate the minions of the Sorcerer King or protect those with arcane gifts from his depredations, respectively.
• The Emerald Society are archaeologists who seek to discover anything and everything about the history of Onara, especially from the First Imperium of Man.
• The Followers of the Azure Way wish to restore mankind to new glory by establishing a united Second Imperium of Man.
• The Mourners in Silence believe that the gods of Arcanis have died or never existed.
• The Swords of Nier are Nierites who follow Leonydas val'Virdan, Sword of the Heavens.
• The Order of the Twilight Bough are Elorii
• The Laerestri are Elorii from Elonbé in the Vastwood. Though their existence is not secret, they sometimes receive secret orders from Elonbé.

In addition, sometimes secret orders are issued to specific nationalities, sides in war, or other subgroups.