The Setting
Welcome to the world of Triumvene, which aims to facilitate games with collaborative, co-created lore and history, built from a limited description of the world. Feel free to describe characters you know who can help with challenges faced, or fill out the details of a treaty between two local groups which can aid you when you're stuck in a bind, or relate how your character's personal history influences the story.
The game exists in an post-industrial revolution science-fantasy world, with elements of both of high magic and high technology. It explores the idea of influence between those with power and those without; who watches those who watch.
The world exists on four levels:
- The peoples of the world of Orth, where you will begin your journey,
- The Second Peoples on the great Nightfay starships and the stations, asteroids and trading vessels in the skies above, home to the billions of Second Peoples,
- The Golden Plane, a virtual world and hive mind on board the ancient starship Dawnfay, containing the sublimated digital minds of the Ancient Peoples, and
- The Triumvene, ancient, near omnipotent creatures who haven't been seen in a long, long time.
Interference by any level on the ones below biases towards an consequences similar to the effect on a sentence caused by a full stop. As such, these interactions are heavily mediated through diplomatic channels. As a party, you'll discover first locally, and over time, more widely the challenges of diplomacy. Just remember, war is diplomacy by other means, too.
The Playable Peoples
The Humans are the jacks of all trades, masters of none. They are the peacekeepers of Orth, and the most adventurous of the peoples, for better or worse.
The Marati are a shorter than average peoples, with great talents in invention, and surprisingly good memories. However, their stature limits their physical prowess.
The Taurac are large, physically powerful bipedal bovines, possessed of keen minds. They're almost pathologically honest, leading to them being poor diplomats.
The Dadamard are consummate diplomats, and famously apolotical and neutral in foreign affairs. However, they tend towards pacifism, and have no standing military.
The Rikaffin are a bipedal antelope, tall and elegant, with a plutocratic government. Surprisingly robust and agile, but hampered by substandard national education.
The Nardlor are a notoriously legal and militaristic people, and tend to enjoy cooler climates. Incredibly capable fighters, they're less skilled at negotiation.
The Lurniage are currently heavily engaged in building the bureaucracy required to run a nation. Terrifyingly physically powerful.
The Henagon resemble winged dinosaurs, with small hands on their wings and scaly tails. Physically strong and cunning in negotiation.
The Non-Playable Peoples
There are also many and strange are the creatures which you will encounter as you adventure and explore. From perfectly normal peoples to misshapen half-alive half-machine horrors, you'll encounter a vast array of interesting creatures.
These are split into three groups, representing the places where they're most likely to be found. They're broken out into three sections, and over the next year or so, each people will be receiving its own lore as we flesh out the world.
You can find the brief overviews we've created to get you started over on the Orth bestiary, the Second Peoples bestiary and the Ancient Peoples bestiary.
Background to the Setting
The world of the Triumvene is filled with peoples and nations of all types. Some are friendly, some hostile. Some areas are little but barren wastelands, blasted uninhabitable by powers long past. Others are mountainous places of eternal ice and snow. A few are sandy deserts, baked lifeless from the constant hammer blow of the sun's heat, whilst others are lush, fecund pastures of endless shades of green.
These are all the major areas of the world of Orth. Green areas are grasslands and forests, yellow are deserts, grey are mountains and white denotes snow-caps. The homelands of the various peoples are shown, with the unexplored, unreachable area of Nos Sans-Jadskat in the bottom left of the larger continent.
If you want to learn a little more about the history of the world, a brief overview can be found here: History of the World. For more information on the three main areas, keep reading.
Primary Locations
There are eight major nations around the world of Orth.
Matteland is a rolling land of green pastures, dotted with thousands of small villages, hundreds of towns and three major cities. Home of the Humans.
Okrogmar is widely considered the home of philosophy and art. Its cities are built on a vast scale, to be able to accomodate its citizens. Home of the Taurac.
Escisland translates as "Land of the Mountain" from Dadamardian. An apt name given the vast mountain Escitan which dominates its landscape. Home of the Dadamard.
Ko'yuncia is a vast polar island, almost entirely mountainous, with snow laying on the surfaces most of the year round. Warmed only by the deep geothermal wells which feed the springs of the island. Home of the Nardlor.
Aeldshire is a mix of desert, lush plains and vast farmlands. Known for its cities highly developed irrigation systems which aid with the rainy season. Home of the Rikaffin.
Estarunia consists of great grasslands and marshlands, farms and pastures, and a single great desert. Home of the Marati.
Athirael is covered in lush jungles and forests, which are bounded to the south and west by tall mountain ranges. Home of the Henagon.
Carinerino has a temperate climate, it's a mix of deserts, jungles, grasslands and mountains. Previously home to the Remin, whose buildings still stand. Home of the Lurniage.
Each has its own cities and towns, and its own stories. Outside of these, but also worthy of note is Begureu, the single largest city in the world. The scion of Human-Marati-Rikaffin collective effort, it's the home of the Morund Collective. Technically a city-state and not a nation, it's nonetheless growing to such size and wealth, it's considered similar to the nations by dint of the outsized influence it exerts on the rest of the world.