This document outlines, in broad strokes, the setting that Lambda takes place in.
The Precipice is the name given to the strip of wilderness between the lands of the Four Kingdoms to the East, and the Free Cities to the West.
This is where our game takes place.
The Four Kingdoms lie on the green lands, where harvests are plentiful and nature’s bounty provides for the masses. Villages, towns, and great cities lie across the land, and well-trodden roads connect them. The Kings of the Four Kingdoms individually govern their states, but each offers fealty to an Emperor, who rules over all the realm.
The Four Kingdoms cover many leagues, and its populus contains a variety of peoples, united in name and nationality alone. It is a time of peace for the Four, as war has not come for half a century.
The West is a barren place. A desert of sand and stone. Those in the green lands refer to it as the Gray Wastes. Its landscape is sporadically marked by tribes of people, holding fast against the bleak prospects of survival. The Desert Folk, as they are called, are a tough people. They are the ancestral people of these lands.
Many tribes claim a history dating back thousands of years, to a time before the Four Kingdoms, when the tribes of the West were great Clans. They claim a time when they made wars and alliances just as the Four do today. A time of advanced technology, great industrial might, and legendary heroes. Now their great kingdoms are ruins, their technology is lost to the desert sands, and the heroes of legend are but tales for the young.
We begin our story with the Four Kingdoms in peace-time, but an uneasy peace to be sure.
The Emperor’s taxes on his bannerlords grow. The wilderness and even the roads grow unsafe. Bandits, along with Goblins, Orcs, and other creatures of darkness, seem to fester in subterranean caves and ransack travellers and villages alike.
In farmlands along the verdane, crops seem to die when they used to flourish. The winds at sea are colder, stronger, and even the mines of Lankhmar seem to produce less steel year over year. Strange plots are rumored in the court of the emperor, and the Kings prepare for another conflict in the coming years.
But for a local peasant, or a merchant, or a craftsman, the affairs of these lords hold little sway. The world is as it always has been - hard, expensive, and dangerous.
Khmer | Hamun’s Wood | Emory | Maegor’s Hills | Farwatch | Dragon’s Range | The Gray Wastes
The game begins in The Precipice, in a small farmer’s hamlet called Khmer.
A day’s ride to the East is the City of Emory, a stop on the road to the Hold of Errol.
From Emory, one can strike North and West to trek to Farwatch, the keep on the edge of the desert. It is the furthest West city in the Four Kingdoms.
To the south is a forest the locals call Hamun’s Wood. To the north, a mountain range crowned by Maegor’s Peak.
And finally, if a traveller sets out due West from Khmer, and crosses the hills of the Dragon’s Range, they will emerge in the great sea of sand - The Gray Wastes.
Khmer is a collection of farms and mills, with a couple of businesses at its center. Its population sits around 150.
It is located on the southern bank of a great lake, in the shadow of Maegor’s Peak. Its local landscape is that of a forested valley, and Hamun’s Wood the South provides ample supply of hunting as well as wood for charcoal and construction. Villagers are careful in the forest, however, as Goblins make their home here. Beyond the wood is an old swamp.
The climate is warm in the summer, and cool and wet in the winter. Mediterranean.
The villagers pay tax to the local lord in the City of Emory, which is a holding of the King of the West, the House of Errol. In exchange, the House grants protection from the dangers of the wilderness in the form of a permanent assignment of a half-dozen soldiers, as well as maintenence of the road to Emory.
Before the Four Kingdoms spread to the edge of the desert, Khmer was a Free City, and its population today is a mix of Western and Eastern folk.
The path most take from Emory to the West passes thirty miles north of here, so Khmer rarely receives visitors or merchants. Its people till the earth and raise forage for cattle.
At the hamlet’s square stands a few businesses.
Hamun was a sage of the aboriginal people of this land long ago.
The forest to the south of Khmer is a quiet place, with a variety of flora and fauna.
The main inhabitants of this wood are Goblins, the Black-Bear tribe.
They survive by foraging and hunting, and mostly keep to themselves.
They are known on occasion to ransack a remote farmhouse, and to kidnap humans for sacrifice or labor. In recent years, they seem to have grown bolder. There have been two incidents in the last year alone.
Emory is the largest city West of Errol Keep. Its population numbers around a thousand.
Its primary industry is trade. Emory is often where caravans from the desert exchange wares with the merchants of Errol, and where each turns back to return to their own lands.
Businesses selling animals, arms, armor, and all manner of goods reside here. Especially common are spice-traders, as are gem-traders. Wares from the West which are impossible to find in the Four Kingdoms.
The city is bolstered nearby to the North by Davon’s Keep, a stronghold whose guard is 100 strong, and whose captain reports directly to the Hold.
The journey to Errol Keep is a long one, typically taking a fortnight’s ride. Therefore, travelers from the East tend to spend time in the city to recover their strength.
Gambling is common, as are other forms of entertainment, and many types of taverns, inns, and wayhouses operate profitably.
Wealthy people stay here often, and some have permanent villas in the upper quadrants of the city. For that reason, Emory is home to many thieves and grifters.
a dozen miles to the south of Emory lies the ruins of the Old Town, which was abandoned due to climate change a century ago. It, and the surrounding lands to the south, are barren, rocky, hot, and dry, and continue to degrade over the years.
Named for Lord Maegor, who once built a fort atop Maegor Peak here, these hills loom over Khmer lake and all the valley of the precipice.
The range is a cold, bleak place, and travel through it is difficult.
Few creatures live here, save for buzzards and bees.
Farwatch is a hold at the edge of the desert.
It hosts 50 soldiers of Errol, alongside a population of families and craftsmen to support them. Merchants and other travelers pass through Farwatch, set up to exact a small toll and inspect foreigners.
You can buy a decent weapon here, as well as various common supplies for the journey, and camels with which to proceed into the harsh climate to the West.
The hold has earned the title Wind-Hold by those who travel through here, as the desert winds whip against the walls of the Western bank, making a characteristic noise all throughout your stay here.
A range of mountains between the green lands and the grey wastes.
The Dragon’s Range is apparently so called because it was once home to a great Blue Dragon, in the ages long past when such creatures commanded the landscape.
But the Dragons are dead, and this range of hills is nothing but stone and earth now.
The great Western desert stretches as far as the eye can see.
There is apparently a city in the desert, less than a week’s ride from Farwatch, though there is no clear road, and navigation in the desert is nigh impossible without a guide.
The Four Kingdoms | The Desert | Gods | Magic | The Past | Non-humans | The Far East
Below are details which people in the green lands might know.
Peasants might only know rumors or gossip about these things, but a lord or a merchant might have the whole truth of many of these worldly details.
They are unlikely to be relevant to a character in your circumstances at the start of the game, but might serve as a good reference for later on.
Errol is the House which commands the West. Their lands are primarily agricultural. The people are peaceful here, and for many years have prospered.
Lankhmar commands the North. The great northern mountain ranges hold riches, which are harvested in the multitude mines of the Lankhmar Kingdom. A mining folk, the people of this northern kingdom are hardened by the cold winters and grueling labor.
Marconi is the House which commands the East. The East is a merchant’s land. A thin strip along the sea is the holdings of the Kingdom of Marconi. Their sea-faring ways make them the primary source of export and import, and they trade with strange lands to the East of the continent.
Reuss is the House of the central green lands, and currently holds the honor of the Emperor of the Four Kingdoms. They are a nexus for the other three kingdoms, and leaders of culture, religion, and politics are born from their multitude bloodlines.
The capitol of the Empire is the city of King’s Rock on the Southern shore.
Often in the years since the Four Kingdoms claimed the lands of green have they fought amongst eachother.
Their wars are bloody, and are most often fought with cloak and dagger as well as sword.
Near five decades ago, the Four Kingdoms fought once again amongst themselves. The Emperor of the time hailed from the House of Errol, having held the great throne for a century prior. But this age was a time fraught with political discord and plots.
The belligerent house was that of Marconi, who commanded a host of sellswords gathered from Eastern lands. They laid siege on King’s Rock, while simultaneously forming an alliance with the Reuss.
The Reuss host rode from the North, and King’s Rock was cut off from Errol Keep to the West.
The Emperor and his retinue fled the castle, returning home to Errol Keep. The House of Errol, however, betrayed their master emperor, and bent the knee to the new lord of the land, the Reuss.
The Marconi formed ties of blood between their family and that of the Reuss, and pledged their loyalty as well.
For many years and three emperors has the dynasty reigned in King’s Rock, in an era of military peace.
To the west is a vast desert, an ocean of sand.
The people of the desert can be roughly divided into tribes along blood lines.
Those of the West tend to refer to them as the Desert Folk, or as the Nafud.
To the knowledge of the green people, however, the desert folk’s allegiances are strange and alien.
Gods are worshipped in the Four Kingdoms and the Grey Wastes alike.
Folk make offerings and say prayers to the heavens, hoping for good fortune.
In many legends, the Gods once involved themselves in human affairs. They have turned the tide of wars, and changed the hearts of Kings.
But now, the Gods seem to hold little sway over the physical world, and few folk pray with as much faith as they once did.
Rarely, a prophet comes from the population who claims to have powers granted by the Gods. But these tend to be grifters, not miracle men.
Chanterelle | Goddess of the sky
Worshipped by the people of Errol. Said to bring the weather, and the days and the nights.
Moradin | God of the Earth
An ancient God, worshipped by the Lankhmar. Brings iron, stone, and everything dead.
Torm | God of Courage
A warrior-god of new fashion. Worshipped by the Reuss. Said to have created man.
The Western folk know only one god, who goes by many names.
They call it the Lightgiver, the Lord, the Sun-King, the Great Mother.
Many tribes hold holy different prophets and leaders of the past, but all pray to the same heavenly authority.
Magic, while rare today, is an important part of the history of this world.
It is known that masters of the natural world exist, whose powers of knowledge and esoteric lore allow them to shape the world as they please.
It is a rare person who has the capacity to do so, and many claim those who have the gift are touched by divinity.
In ages past, magic was more common, and more powerful. Great artifacts were forged by craftsmen, imbuing them with elemental magics, harnessing great stones of power found deep in the earth. Spells were invented which could do any deed imaginable. Wizards and Warlocks once had the power to move mountains, to conjure flame, to bring the rains when the crops dried up.
They once turned the tide of wars, and made Kings.
But over the years, the gift seemed to fall away, and fewer wizards knew of the old ways.
Today, magic is but a shadow of its former self, and spells are limited and rare.
However, the Artifacts of old still exist, though many have been buried in ruins of kingdoms gone by.
Some artifacts lie in the hands of Kings today, and it is from those weapons of great power that their sovereignty lies, along with their wealth and blood ties to older kings.
This continent has been occupied by men for longer than any records could tell.
The folk of the desert have a long history on this land, but other empires have risen and fallen alongside their tenure.
The last of these great empires was known by its people as Myelar. It reigned over a golden age of a thousand years. The prosperity of these lands brought people to wealth, to peace, and to a culmination of culture and knowledge.
Magic was strong back then, and they used it to build miraculous structures, towers which would last ten thousand years, and to forge artifacts, testaments to the skill of generations of craftspeople. Technology which was far ahead of its - and our - time.
What caused the end of these golden days is little known. But when the Four Kingdoms arose in their place, beginning with raiders from the northern shore, the great wealth of Myelar - the Sunlight Domain - vanished. Now, only ruins remain.
Humans come in many shapes and sizes. They come from many lands.
But among them, and kept to the wilderness, are rumored to be various non-human creatures.
The very people of Myelar, the Elves, as they are known today, remain in incredibly small numbers. They are a pale, gaunt folk, sensitive to human diseases and to bleeding. However, it is said that every one is touched by divinity, and has the powers of magic within them.
Orcs and Goblins resemble humans in some ways, though none know the origin of these creatures. Some say they spawn from the earth itself. Others claim them to have been created by a magical mishap. Whatever the original cause, humans pay the price dearly. Orcs are the primary threat to the Four Kingdoms today, and Goblins threaten farmers and villages everywhere across the verdant lands.
What lies beyond the Eastern sea? The merchants of Marconi claim it to be a strange place, inhabited by a proud people, who perform strange rites and war amongst themselves.
It is known that the swords of this place are sharper than any known in the west.
Very little else is known of this land.