Worlds Enough: Archaea
Long ago, the Ancients built a vast empire, spanning the entire Archaean continent. They were masters of magic, especially magic contained in items, and they were particularly adept with spells of conjuring, of gates and portals. They created a network of gates connecting all their major settlements, and runes that would transport you to the nearest such portal to which the rune was attuned, or from a portal in one settlement all the way across the continent to another such portal, again, assuming the bearer knew the other location and had visited it long enough to attune their passage rune.
As often seems to be the case, some of the Ancients overreached, opening portals to other dimensions, other worlds. The first few were safe enough, bringing human, and elf, and brownie, and others. Trade was established. Magics and technology were exchanged. Eventually though, the Ancients opened a door they should not have, and the denizens of the Seven Hells poured into Archaea: the demonic Orc folk and Goatmen, the greater devils and demons, the dragons.
Archaea fell. Contact was lost with their allied worlds, the other peoples that had come through trapped on Archaea with the Ancients. The portal network shut down. Civilization, built over many thousand years, toppled in a single generation. The doors into Hell, thankfully, were sealed.
Now, thousands of years later, the descendants of the Ancients (the Ogres and Dwarves) and their trapped allies have rebuilt. Cities rise again. But much was lost. None now live who can wield the magics the Ancients once, did, nor duplicate the gates.
So we must delve into the ruins of our ancestors, and find the magic that we lost, if we ever wish to regain their glory. Perhaps we will be wiser than they, but without their power, we are lost, for the demonspawn have risen as well, and the seals on the gates to Hell weaken, with the Orcs and Goatmen and misguided cultists working hard to break them wide open.
Demonspawn, bandits, cultists, and monsters roam the wilds, along with scattered descendants of monsters from strange worlds, and the places between the towns and cities grow ever more perilous. We *must* find the secrets of the Ancients. We *must* regain their power. Or our new age of light will be short indeed.
We must discover:
The Secrets of Archaea.
A world of vast magics, lost to the ages
A world overrun by evil, but not without hope
A world with town portals and waypoints
inspired by Diablo and similar ARPG’s, but tailored for the tabletop
The archaeology and research are just as important as killing monsters
