Earthdawn (Setting)

Earthdawn is a roleplay setting where ancient magic,  supernatural threats, and heroic rebirth define the world. Set in the province of Barsaive, it tells the story of civilizations emerging from centuries of hiding after a magical apocalypse called the Scourge, facing both the remnants of past horrors and new dangers in a wounded but wondrous land. It is a world where magic shapes not only spells and artifacts but the very structure of society.

Earthdawn is a game setting with a compelling metaplot that merges high fantasy, dungeon delving, complex politics, and real word parahistory. The main setting of the game is the province of Barsaive, where civilization is returning to the world after a magical apocalypse called the Scourge. The metaplot of Earthdawn is strongly interwoven with Shadowrun, and despite IP conflicts and retcons, is treated here as continuous between the two as canon.

Core Setting Elements

The Earthdawn setting is similar in its construction to the parahistory of Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age, providing an alternative timeline to Earth as we know it. Several key elements make it unique:

• The Fourth World: Earthdawn is set in the previous age of magic to that of Shadowrun's Sixth World, but is a retelling of Earth’s prehistory. The setting itself provides maps and relationships to locations in Eurasia and north Africa.
• Barsaive: The central and flagship region of the setting, which is deeply inspired by eastern Europe and the Ukraine. Do not confuse the two, as Barsaive’s ecology, biomes, and environment are vastly different than what is recorded in our histories.
• The Scourge: A term for both the era in which the peoples of the Fourth Age retreated from monstrous Horrors from astral space who ravaged the world into magical shelters called kaers, and the Horrors themselves.
• Magic: Magic in the Fourth World is pervasive but dangerous. The setting is populated by wizards, dragons, airships, magocratic regimes, and powerful otherwordly forces.
• Living Legends: Heroes walk in the world, performing legendary feats as Adepts of unique mystic Disciplines.

The Fourth World

The setting’s materials primarily focus on Barsaive, but there is a much larger world in the lore of the setting. The ancient Theran Empire calls many lands its own, with a map reminiscent of ancient Rome; with a reach from far Arancia, through the wilds of Vasgothia, into the haunted deserts of the pyramid builders who call Creana home. Much of this is portrayed in maps the detail a world much the one we know, with the provinces of Thera surrounding the Selestrean Sea.

To the east of the Theran heartlands is the land of Indrisa, an imperial domain of coastal trade cities and wild jungles, deeply similar to a sub-continent we know well. Beyond the ancient lands of Indrisa lies the Five Kingdoms of Cathay, another ancient land that considers itself the center of the world. Other places are alluded to in the source lore, such as Araucunia far across the great ocean where Feathered Serpents hail from.

The Namegiver Races

Earthdawn is a setting where Names hold power, and those who create these powerful Names are called Namegivers. The Namegiver races of Barsaive are familiar to fans of fantasy, but some are unique to the setting:

• Dwarves: Traders and builders, who at their best carried the light of civilization back to Barsaive and fight for its freedom, and at their worst are schemers with generational grudges and imperial collaborators.
• Humans: A simple and adaptable people, with no homeland of their own in Barsaive.
• Trolls: Fierce raiders with their own code of honor from the mountains and highlands of Barsaive, who call the Twilight Peaks home.
• Orks: A once unlanded people, who battle the world and themselves to rebuild their homeland of Cara Fahd.
• T’skrang: A lizardfolk who call the Serpent River home, and are known for their flamboyance and tribal alliances called aropagoi.
• Obsidimen: A unique race of stonefolk who emerge from seams of elemental magic called Liferocks.

• Windlings: A race of pixie-like creatures, small and winged, who live are more highly attuned to the magic of the world than the other races. Quixotic, mischievous, and trouble if you don’t keep your eye on them.

In the expanded (and continuity contested) Third Edition sourcebooks, other Namegiver races native to lands outside of Barsaive are given as well.

Major Forces and Factions

• The Kingdom of Throal: The major native power of Barsaive is the dwarven mountain Kingdom of Throal. Once an imperial administrator for the Therans, the nation has emerged as a leader of Barsaivan independence.
• The Theran Empire: An ancient empire, founded to prepare the world for the Scourge, that became a prisoner to its own ambitions.
• The Elves: Once a united people was once ruled from the Wyrm Wood in northern Barsaive. The Wyrm Wood emerged from the Scourge as the Blood Wood, and its people scattered to the Gwydenro.
• The Great Dragons: Powerful, enigmatic, and ancient creatures of magic, who take the long view of things. The peoples, nationals, and factions of the Fourth World are variably tools or nuisances to them, and dealt with accordingly. One of the more compelling elements of the setting.

• The Passions and Mad Passions: Though many would aspire to the power of a god, there are no gods by name in the Fourth World. In their place are the Passions, powerful entities who live alongside and in the world, but hold themselves separate. Living embodiments of ideals and madness, they inspire Questors who shape the world.

Recent Events

This setting lore follows the events as established in the Fourth Edition Gamemasters Guide.

In the events of Earthdawn, the Scourge has ended, prematurely by the count of students of magic. The great kaer of Throal opened to the world in 1409 TH, to a land warped by the Scourge and still haunted by the Horrors. In the years following, Thera returned to re-establish its perceived claim to the region, and two wars erupted, the First and Second Theran War. The current year is 1517 TH, and the great Theran citadel is Skypoint fallen, with the imperial forces retreated to leave the region to its own governing. It has been just over a century since the end of the Scourge, and Barsaive has seen new nations rise, cities flattened, and the deaths of kings.

See Also

• Maps of Barsaive and the Fourth World