Introduction

"There's always a moment when you stand on the beach, letting the waves bury your feet in the sand, and you look out at that horizon and wonder what's out there. A part of you imagines that it could be... just about anything."

— Riven Harshtide, personal journal

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Theme

"No, I don't know what's waiting for us out there. That's the best part!"

— Dartimen Silvernight

  An Unknown Shores campaign is shaped by the long aftermath of the Shattering and the permanent wound left in reality by the Great Umbra. The world did not simply survive a catastrophe. It adapted around it. Nations, cities, and cultures exist in a state of uneasy continuation, knowing the world they inherited is fractured and will never fully heal. Old borders remain, but trust is thin, power is carefully managed, and the past is never truly past. Adventures often revolve around navigating that fragile stability, uncovering truths deliberately buried after the Shattering, and deciding whether preserving what remains is more important than confronting what caused it.   Moral ambiguity defines the setting at every level. There are few clean victories and almost no pure motives. Institutions that keep the world functioning often do so through secrecy, manipulation, or sacrifice, while those who challenge them risk making things worse rather than better. Characters are regularly forced to choose between survival and principle, loyalty and truth, or order and freedom. The question is rarely what is right in an abstract sense, but what cost a character is willing to accept and who will pay it.   Magic in Unknown Shores is powerful but damaged, constrained, and mistrusted. The Shattering broke the old assumptions about how magic works, and the Great Umbra stands as a constant reminder that reality itself has limits. Magic still supports trade, travel, and warfare, but it is no longer treated as infinite or safe. Every use carries cultural memory of catastrophe, and control over magical resources is a source of quiet conflict rather than open wonder. This gives the world a grounded tone where magic is useful but never comforting.   Identity and continuity are central themes in a world where history has holes and existence itself can be erased. People struggle with who they are in the shadow of lost nations, broken bloodlines, and truths removed from the world entirely. Questions of legacy, memory, and whether a person or a culture truly endures if it can be forgotten matter deeply. Characters often confront whether they are defined by what was lost, what remains, or what they choose to become despite both.   The theme of play blends grounded adventure with investigation, political maneuvering, and personal stakes. High action exists alongside quiet deals, shadowed negotiations, and careful exploration of dangerous truths. The Great Umbra and the worlds beyond it promise discovery and escape, but also annihilation and corruption. Progress and exploration are always tempting, but ancient forces, broken laws of reality, and unfinished consequences ensure that every step forward risks reopening wounds the world barely survived.

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Tone

“People like to talk about hope as if it’s a virtue. Out here, hope is just what gets you killed faster. What keeps you alive is knowing which truths to ignore, which bargains to honor, and when to walk away before the world remembers it can still break you.”

— Brimstone Steelhammer

The tone of an Unknown Shores game is restrained, tense, and quietly unforgiving. This is not a romantic world of destined heroes or moral certainty. It is a world that survived the Shattering and continues on out of necessity rather than hope. Stability exists, but it is fragile, carefully maintained, and widely understood to be temporary. People live with the knowledge that reality itself has failed once before, and that knowledge colors every alliance, law, and promise.   Adventure in Unknown Shores carries a strong sense of momentum and danger, but it is never weightless. Action is sharp and decisive, often sudden, and frequently costly. Characters may sail into impossible horizons, descend into forgotten vaults, or cross paths with forces older than the world as it now exists, but every bold act leaves consequences behind. Lives are disrupted, power shifts, and scars remain. Courage is respected, but survival favors those who understand restraint as well as daring.   A noir sensibility runs deep through the setting. Truth is rarely whole, records are incomplete by design, and many institutions exist to manage damage rather than uphold ideals. Investigations uncover layers rather than answers, and clarity often reveals something worse than ignorance. Power is hidden, compromises are normalized, and even well intentioned actions can serve systems that are fundamentally broken. The prevailing mood is wary and watchful rather than hopeful.   Magic reinforces this atmosphere instead of relieving it. After the Shattering, arcane power is treated with caution and discipline rather than awe. It is used because it must be, not because it is trusted. Its limits are known, its failures remembered, and its misuse feared. The presence of the Great Umbra ensures that magic is never purely a tool of progress, but a reminder that the structure of the world is damaged and watching.   An Unknown Shores game feels adult, grounded, and unsentimental. It rewards players who accept uncertainty, navigate compromise, and understand that preservation is often the highest ambition available. Doing the right thing is rarely clean or celebrated, and the best outcome is often preventing something worse from happening rather than achieving a lasting victory.