Where Worlds Collide

Imagine a world unlike our own. Where humans are but slaves to a decadent and cruel alien race called the Kandar. Where wizards battle with exotic mental powers. Where the gods are very real, who can and will smite unbelievers with lightning bolts from the heavens. Where warriors fight with swords alongside arcane technologies whose origins are long-forgotten. Where stranger alien races lurk in the shadows, and layers of conspiracy and mystery lie behind everything.

Now the long reign of the Kandar is threatened. Their civilisation has stood for a thousand years, protected by the watchful eyes of a race of powerful beings called The Guardians. But their human slaves, kidnapped across the dimensions generations ago, now tire of servitude. Beyond the lands of kandar rule, barbarian kingdoms descended from runaway slaves grow in strength. Bandits threaten the commerce between far-flung cities. Even in the decadent kandar cities, humans plot rebellion against their overlords.

Some kandar recognise the dangers. They plan to fight back, crush the rebellions before they can start. Others go further: “Kill them all!”, they cry. But there are also those who dream of a time when the two races can live as equals. Most kandar ignore such things, and scheme and plot for honour and status within their clans or guilds.

And the kandar wizards are worried. Some of their number claim to have detected something strange happening with the fabric of space and time. Have the mirrors reopened? Will the horrors of ancient times return again?

What of the guilds? The Academies of Knowledge and Life guard their secrets jealously. Are they all that they seem? What are their real agendas, and what dark secrets do they hide in their workshops and laboratories?

And what of the Guardians? Who are they? Are their priests telling the world the truth? Are the Guardians telling their priests the truth?

And the Zughru? What wonders might be found in their warrens beneath the mountains? Why to they fight a war with the kandar over a region of barren mountains?

Enter the world of Kalyr. Will you be a Kandar noble, defending the ancient civilisation? Or a human rebel seeking to overthrow it? A wizard studying mystical powers of the mind? A priest of a Guardian? A guildsman studying arcane technology? Or the secrets of life itself?

A world of wonder awaits!

History

The first inhabitants of Kalyr were two races calling themselves the Kandar and the Zughru. Neither race is native to Kalyr. Their original home is long since lost in the mists of time; all that survives of their pre-Kalyr history are a few contradictory myths and legends. They came to Kalyr three thousand years ago, brought across space and time by the enigmatic beings known as the Guardians.

The kandar built their first settlements on the coasts, and in the fertile river valleys, while the zughru settled the mountainous interior. In the space of a few generations, these settlements had blossomed into magnificent cities full of wonders. Assisted by the Guardians, the kandar built spectacular spires, huge domes, and graceful arches. The Zughru hollowed out the mountains themselves, and carved out vast halls. It was a time of great learning and science, an age known today as the golden empire. The ruling elites of both races were powerful psionics, but they ruled with great wisdom, using their powers to understand the desires of the people rather to impose their own will upon them.

Such wonderous times could not last. The kandar slowly became decadent and cruel. Using sciences now forgotten, they ventured across dimensions, and enslaved other races. The diminutive Uleem became personal servants and craftsmen, and the muscular reptilian Ssraa became labourers.

It all ended in destruction and war. Over some trifling dispute now forgotten, the kandar and zughru fought with terrible engines of war never seen before or since. The mighty cities were thrown down, the spires collapsed into jumbled ruins filled with charred corpses. Those who survived the burning of the cities succumbed to the plagues the factions unleashed upon their enemies.

Little is known of the events of the following centuries. The scattered bands of survivors, some living in the ruins of the once-fine cities, others retreating into the forests away from the plagues, spent all their energies into mere survival, and kept few records. The Guardians withdrew from the world. Not for nothing is this era known as the times of darkness.

After several centuries had passed, a new civilisation of sorts emerged. It was but a shadow of the golden empire, the crude stone and timber buildings of their towns a pale imitation of the former graceful arches and spires. Many of the rulers were little more than petty warlords and tyrants, a contrast with the wise emperors of the past. Those with psionic powers, descendants of the former elites, were distrusted my many. Many kept their abilities hidden, others banded together to form what later became the Academy of the Mind.

The Guardians were still absent from Kalyr. Many people longed for their return, and the Guardians heard them. This time they did not come down to Kalyr in person, but chose Kandar (and Zughru) to be their mouthpieces, known as the Guardianspeakers. The kandar built temples to the Guardians, where the people congreated to hear the wisdom of the Guardians, relayed through the Guardianspeakers.

Some ancient engines and devices from the Golden Empire survived being destroyed in the final wars, and one of the surviving engines were the strange ‘mirrors’, which allowed travel across dimensions. Once more kandar ventured to other worlds, and once again they went in search of slaves. This time, the race the discovered were humans. Just like the unfortunate uleem and Ssraa before them, humans were bought to Kalyr to be slaves world, to be their slaves of the kandar. Then one day the ancient device was destroyed, some say by the guardians themselves.

Over the centuries, many empires rose and fell. The descendants of those human slaves multiplied until they outnumbered the kandar. Most are still servants and slaves of the kandar, but many escaped and fled, and established settlements beyond the borders of kandar lands.

Kalyr Today

Most kandar now live in fortified cities, surrounded by vast human-worked plantations that feed the cities. The archetypal kandar is arrogant and superior, looking down on other races. The kandar are split into two castes, nobles and freemen. Some of the more priviledged humans also warrant the status of freemen. A great many more humans are still slaves.

There are now three main kandar nations. In the South, conservative and decadent, lies the Great Kandar Empire, ruled from the imperial capital, Vohrneyn. Once the Vohrleyni emperors ruled most of the kandar settled lands, but their power has waned, and the cities of the more sparsely-populated northern lands either became independent, or were abandoned, depending on who you listen to.

In the north-west is a loose confederation of three semi-independent city-states, Filgeth, Calbeyn and Ravenah. These three cities have a much greater human population, with human freemen outnumbering slaves, and the total of the two outnumbering the kandar, and humans have far greater rights than elsewhere.

To the north east stands the new power, the Konaic Empire, ruled from the grim city of Karmork, one of the first cities to break away from Vohrleyn. The Empire is militaristic and expansionist, having absorbed several smaller cities. In contrast to the cities of the northwest, there are no human freemen at all; the only humans are slaves. Even the slave population is lower than elsewhere.

Life in a kandar city varies according to social status, which is in turn largely dependant on race. At the top of the social heap are the kandar nobles, members of the fourteen ancient clans. They are the ruling elite, holding key positions not just in government, but in the powerful guilds. Noble kandar receive an education steeped in ancient history, great works of literature, multiple contradictory myths and legends, and of dead languages. They’re taught from infancy to look down upon the lower orders, especially humans.

Beneath them are the Freeman, the vast majority of them members of either guilds or temples, not just craftsmen and shopkeepers, but also priests, wizards, artists, architects, career soldiers or physicians. Most are kandar, but an increasing number are human.

At the bottom of the heap are the poorer humans. They struggle to make a living, not necessarily always managing to stay on the right side of the law. They live in decaying tenement buildings, possibly underground, maybe partly collapsed. Life can often be nasty, brutish and short, and such people need wits and street skills to survive.

Then, of course, there are the slaves. Many are labourers, worked to death in dirty and dangerous jobs. But some are trusted servants of poverful people or organisations, who live relatively comfortable lives, and sometimes wield a lot of influence. Despite this, they are never allowed to forget that they are someone else’s property.

The cities are surrounded by “civilised” areas, dotted with farming villages and plantations that exist to supply food for the city. Most people outside the cities are agricultural labourers, either workers on a kandar-owned plantation, tenant farmers struggling to earn enough to pay the rent on a piece of poorer- quality land, or free farmers scratching a living on the poorest quality land on the very edge of the civilised area. City dwellers tend to regard people from outside the city walls as ignorant hicks.

The wilderness areas beyond the farms are not totally unoccupied. Large areas are thinly populated by communities of humans and other races, many of which were founded by escaped slaves. Life in these communities is hard, under constant threat of attack from bands of outlaws, or by the kandar trying to eradicate outlaws. Anyone from outside the “bounds of civilisation” will be looked down upon in any kandar-ruled area.

The Zughru still live in their warrens beneath the mountains. Very little is known about the zughru kingdoms, but there are rumours of fabulous wealth and wondrous devices. There is a long-running border war in the supposedly mineral-rich foothills of the mountains between the zughru and the kandar of Calbeyn and Filgeth. There is little real fighting, but there are quite frequent skirmishes. These skirmishes are just about the only time zughru are ever seen above ground.

There are still survivors of the kandar’s earlier slave races around. The reptilian sssra have now reverted to savagery, and have been all but wiped out except in remote areas., The small purple uleem are occasionally encountered in kandar lands, often as merchants and traders, or as thieves. In the wilds, the savage vordral may be encountered, hideous warped creatures who first appeared during the times of darkness. There are rumours of other, stranger races living in remote areas.

The landscape is still full of relics of ancient times. Ancient ruins litter wilderness areas, many of them reputed to be haunted. One might encounter a devastated area where the very rocks have melted, or a line of decayed towers, purpose forgotten, marching across the horizon.

Glossary of Game Terms

If you haven’t played a roleplaying game before, you need to read this bit first, otherwise the following chapters will be more difficult to follow. If you’ve played a lot of roleplaying games before, you’ll recognise a lot of them, and might be tempted to skip this section. But don’t. Not all games use these terms consistantly, and some of your assumptions might not match those used in this game.

• RPG: Short for Role Playing Game. A roleplaying game is a combination of tactical wargaming and collaborative storytelling. Some games lean more towards one or the other, but all such games have some elements of both.
• Player: One of the people playing the game, each of whom takes the role of a specific character in the setting.
• GM: Game Master. The one person taking part whose role is completely different from the others. Instead of playing one character, he or she takes the part of the rest of the world, both secondary characters, and the universe itself.
• PC: Player Character. A character in the game world controlled by a Player. Each Player Character belongs to one Player, and normally each player will only control only one Player Character. Player Characters are the main protagonists in the Story. The character can have a completely different personality and motivations from that of the player.
• Character Sheet: A piece of paper on which the Player writes down all the important information about their Player Character that they need in order to play the game.
• NPC: Non-Player Character. A character within the game world controlled by the GM. Many NPCs will be secondary supporting characters, although some will be major opponents of the PCs.
• Party: The collective group of PCs (sometimes with an extra NPC or two) who are expected to stick together.
• Setting: The context in which the characters exist and the story takes place. In this RPG, the setting is the exotic world of Kalyr.
• Game Mechanics: The bits of the game rules that deal with resolving events within the game, covering everything from who wins a swordfight to what a piece of technology or psionic power can or can’t do.
• Game Session: A single session of play. Can be anything from 2-3 hours to a whole day in length.
• One-Shot: A complete game that can be completed within a single Game Session.
• Campaign: A lengthy game spanning multiple Game Sessions featuring the same characters and/or storylines.
• Story: The sequence of fictional events that occur within the game. A satisfying story is the end result of play. It should be heavily influenced by the choices made by the players, not something scripted in advance by the GM and simply narrated to the players.

Terms that are very specific to this game, like Abilities, Keys and Fudge Points will be explained in the following chapters.