The VI·VIII·X setting cornerstones

Today some insights on the setting which will be the second pillar of the KUP model after the core rules (I actually need to reorganize and prepare the expanded rulebook and I need to post some more info on that as well... Ok, that will be one of the next posts here, I took a note for that!).

The setting is firmly tied to the cosmogony and it uses some parts of it as cornerstones. The first one is the presence of some characters called Eidolon: these are NPC (I will not explain in detail the reason for the time being but it is not possible to use them as playing character) and they are essential figures for the setting itself: around the Eidolon an important feature of the setting is built and without them there would not exist one of the "reason why" for the PCs (in an interesting post the author Robin D. Laws explains what is the "reason why": he calls it "core activity"... the post is this one). The Eidolon have a reason, a goal and a sense in the whole setting and they act as "external agents" in order to fulfill a precise task.

However the original purpose of the Eidolon has been shocked by an event that occurred nearly 1300 years before the time where the game takes place... This event has been a real "game changer" for the whole universe: I will not get into details, suffice to say that it has been called "the obliteration". The Eidolon, even if near perfect creatures, had been affected by this event and the original purpose of their existence got partially lost making them a real agent acting within the setting. The PCs might have a "reason why" by joining one of the Eidolon's factions.

A second interesting feature is the search for the "true words" which feed magic power of spellcasters. This is a second "reason why" for any PC (be him/her a spellcaster or not)... The knowledge of magic is shattered and very incomplete: the searchers of magic powers are always welcome for the guilds of magic in the setting.

The third "reason why" is tied to the one here above: a brotherhood which has an extremely important goal related to the facts which caused "the obliteration". Beyond this specific organization, a more generic "reason why" is the discovery of the past: "the obliteration" has removed in all the memories of any being in the universe the facts that brought to it (as a matter of fact the name of this event is quite clear in terms of meaning...). 

A last "reason why" is adventuring the underworld by means of a net of tunnels present all over the known lands... No one knows who is the creator of these tunnels but these have been used in the last centuries as an alternative and safe way of travelling perilous lands (at least those visited, mapped and cleared ones)... The interesting part of the story is that a company is in charge since centuries to map the whole tunnel network and this seems to be an extremely dangerous job which seems really impossible to complete due to the width of the tunnels...

The PCs will find themselves in a world with a lot of opportunites: large and opulent cities now completely (or almost) abandoned, a company which is devoted to explore weird tunnels beneath nearly all the lands of the setting, a former civilization which has not left any written proof of its existance which is investigated by a secret brotherhood. Schools of magic devoted to unveil the secrets of the universe. Factions of Eidolon who wander the land like inquisitors searching the truth (or better their truth)...

As a last comment, one important feature of this setting is that the underlying mood is not a grim and dark world where people is oppressed by evil forces and there is no hope: the land where the PCs act is dwelled by people eager of justice and a sense of satisfaction coming from the life... It is a positive mood where anything "wrong" is expected to be corrected so that everyone can enjoy life and be happy with what life can provide. The reason for such subliminal mood is founded on the efforts and work of a sigle being, someone who made a real change possible, the author and promoter of the "palingenesis"... if you want to better unsterstand it, you'd read the cosmogony!

I really hope to be able to transfer this feeling by the way I will write this important part of the project! 

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