Broken Haven
12005-03-12
The world of Broken Haven is a place of conflicts, both amongst the nations of the Maelstrom and the races of the Titans. The lands are scattered with ruins of ancient civilisations built with old magics and cities filled with modern wonders, from the great elemental skyships of Kalites to the Griffin Knights of Bretawald.
The Maelstrom nations are marred by signs of the ancient Godswars and the later Demonwars, many of the nations still favouring walled settlements over more open ones. The devastation of great magics can still be found in more remote and wild places of the world, the great Maelstrom being one of the better-known ones.
The more recent conflicts between the Maelstrom nations have left more mundane scars on the lands, great battlefields haunted by the restless dead and ruined machines of war left rotting like the bones of strange creatures.
The nations of the Maelstrom are so named because the great sea that borders them has at its centre a vast storm created during the Godswars, supposedly to encage a structure of enormous power, preventing the races of the world from accessing it and threatening the power of the gods.
In the Great Weald, the nation of Bretawald, supposedly one of the oldest and most ancient in age and lineage, has much of its land still wild, with ancient forest ranges clustering around the bases of gargantuan mountain ranges. The towns and cities are scattered throughout the lands, often walled and situated near the outer or inner coasts, as suits these travelling, raiding, and trading people. Ruled over by the Thanes and Skalds, these noble families oversee all that happens in the lands they possess, bound by ancient codes and laws set down by their forefathers generations ago, they embody the ideals of this nation.
Split from the nation of Bretawald is
Athantia
A nation ruled by a divinely appointed emperor, the true heir to the most ancient empire of Leverexokarthil, or so they claim, and the secretive Scolemi council. Political backstabbing and dark-room deals are the norm in this nation of secrets, honour and authority.
Darkhan
Less a true nation and more an expanse of lands claimed by the nomadic people from across the seas, they arrive on ships with all they could bring, firing them upon the shores, and carving out the lands they now hold. What drove them from their ancestral lands? Where were these lands where their elk mounts were the better choice, now enshrined in their culture?
Halaxia
Beneath the canopy of the great trees, these people live, lie bloody practices of an inscrutable priesthood, worshipping a malevolent entity whose essence is corrupting the very ground of the nation.
Idria
Bound by ideals of perfection, of mind, body and soul, this land of warrior priests has an unbending code of conduct and honour to break it, is to become outcaste.
Kalites
This Magocracy looks to the future, striving for power and stability. This inventive and progressive nation sees the only true measure of worth as the power to defeat your opponent. Its positions of power are taken through a highly ritualised duel to the death, but through this brutal practice, they drive the nation to greater power.
Quosha
A land of mercantile families bound in honour, where back-room politics can see the downfall of a ruling house family
This setting represents the world in which I run fantasy RPGs, currently, that is Pathfinder 2E, as such player choice can have significant impacts on the setting, sometimes resulting in world-shaking events that spring out of nowhere. That is the joy of running games and giving your group the power to change the world they play in.