Twilight
Those who might recall Oarim’s RPG Web from the late 90’s may recall the development of a system-less setting called Twilight. This is the setting proposal document sent to Wizards of the Coast for their setting search contest based on that work.
Due to a word limit, I wasn’t able to fit everything on the sheet that I wanted to, and I’ve included some of the cut text below. At some point in the future, the rest of the material developed for the setting may make an appearance here or elsewhere on this site.
Inspirations for this setting were the Dark Sun apocalyptic fantasy campaign for the Dungeons & Dragons game, the novel The Silver Warriors by Michael Moorcock, ancient Babylonian myth and legend, and an article from Dragon Magazine #150 entitled The Sunset World: In the realm of the mind flayers by Stephen Inniss.
1. Core Ethos Sentence: In a land of eternal twilight, where the dead walk and ancient evils rule the endless shadows, brave heroes struggle to give hope to a doomed people.
2. Who are the heroes? The Enkirlu, powerful healers and mystics who wander the cursed desert beneath the Red God’s eye, searching for enlightenment; Jessiah’s Children, followers of the dwarf called ‘the Heretic,’ whom not all agree are heroes; the men and women of Anpa, a city of resistance and light amid the shadows; the Wanderers, the traveling dwarves who bring food and news from village to village, and whose enchantments and fury can drive back the evil illithid masters; and the unquiet spirits among the Dead who yet manage to retain their own wills.
3. What do they do? Oppose the hunger and violent rule of the illithid; put the sun-eyed Dead to rest through deed and compassion; search out ancient secrets among the ruins that lurk in the damned places; battle the fanatical Children of the Red God; hold back the savage hordes of giants and orcs of the mountains and swamps, and fiercer things that sometimes stray out from the cursed lands.
4. Threats, Conflicts, Villains: While a rich tapestry of conflict and danger weaves itself around the twilit world, the greatest threat, and some believe the source of all its ills, is that of the Akharu – illithids – who enslave the human race to use as chattel and breeding stock, sometimes devouring whole villages in their gory hunger, leaving only ruin and living death in their wake.
5. Nature of magic: Though a few rare individuals have always had mysterious gifts, the science of magic has only recently been rediscovered. Inspired by tales from the deep deserts, these wizards study the locations and pathways of the celestial travelers – the stars and the moon – and so tap into an ancient source of power and prophecy governed by the movements of the heavens. Most, however, trust in their sacrifices to the Red God, and though he is a distant, uncaring, wrathful god, those who appease him are nonetheless given his power, and the ability to command the world around them with his will.
6. What’s new? What’s different? The world exists beneath a small, red sun set eternally upon the horizon. There is no day or night, no seasons, only an eternal twilight. Beneath the sun’s gaze is an endless desert filled with ruins and dangers, and beyond its sight are frozen, icy wastelands leading to the edge of the world. The only god of this twilit realm is the Red God, whose eye is the bloody sun. Many sects, such as the fanatical Children of the Red God, serve him and oppose one another. Of the races, dwarves no longer live below ground, but in nomadic caravans skirting ancient paths around the deserts beneath the sun’s gaze. They maintain their connection to stone and metal, but cannot return to their sealed mountain holds for reasons even they have forgotten. Only a handful of elves still live, and most believe them to be nothing more than myth; they hide away in mystical Vales sealed against all others by the use of subtle, dangerous magic even they can no longer control.
Rewritten/Cut Text
Tentacled demons appear from the burning deserts beneath the Red God’s eye, slaughtering and devouring man and dwarf alike, drawing sustenance from their flesh, bone and blood and leaving only empty ruin behind.
Savage giants and barbaric tribes of dark-loving orcs haunt the mountains and swamps, and even fiercer things sometimes stray out from the deep deserts and lost places of the world.
The fanatical Children of the Red God prepare for the day their lord will cleanse the world in a fiery conflagration, and sacrifice those whom they capture in praise of the one whom they believe has chosen them as his only voice.
The Dead, restless spirits and slain bodies whose eyes burn with embers the color of the red sun, wander the landscape, some harmless specters lost in their own memories, some terrifying and hungry for the life of those who yet live.
Some even say the sun itself is dying, that the time is coming when the Red God will close his eye or go blind, and with this all will become as the lands beyond the mountains, and then nothing.
The heroes are the Enkirlu, mystics who wander the desert in search of enlightenment; sorcerers of the lost cities; dwarven traders and warriors; explorers. Man and dwarf fight a losing battle against the predations of the illithid who enslave and devour them, to say nothing of the other horrors of their doomed world.
They oppose the evil demons that ruin the world with their hunger, and strive to save their people’s despairing souls. They seek out ancient knowledge and history, and struggle against the despair of a dying world. They save friends, family and strangers from the grips of the Children of the Red God, and some help the Heretic, while some hinder him.
This document is (c)2003 by Raven Daegmorgan.