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jayneknightwrites · 7 years

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D&D Adventure Setting: The Erudite Emirates of Emeria

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This region draws from the works of Terry Pratchett, intending to dissect and subvert many tropes associated with Wizardry, Witchcraft, and Warlockery. Emeria is the principal high-magic region in the world, and the only place where spellcasters are commonplace. Access to magical learning in this realm is tightly controlled by cabals of spellcasters.

“Mutually Assured Destruction” Contingency. Should the Enigmatic Echelons put aside their differences and sign a single metamagic contract together, each magic user in the region would become a potent conduit of wild-magic sorcerery, instantly transforming their populace into an army of war mages. However, the resulting conflux of power could create a feedback loop, spreading out from Emeria, and eventually transforming the world into a thaumatological fallout zone--a realm of utterly uncontrollable wild magic.

Overview

Though they hold no official power, leaders of the six distinct Emirates default to the whims of their local “Enigmatic Echelon,” one of a number of cabals which control magical learning across the nation, and are thus the de facto political powerhouses.

The Echelons originally arose from ashes of the Mage Towers which dotted the Emerian countryside during the era of the Mage Wars. As groups of spellcasters gathered around a single master for apprenticeship, these ivory towers would inevitably sprout like dandelions under their feet. This system of apprenticeship and reluctant mentor idolatry would sometimes transform the master of a tower into a powerful sorcerer. Sorcerers ruled their domain and their underlings until they felt the need to prove that the Mage Tower down the road was full of idiots and shoddily built, and soon both towers would be blasted into tumbled-down ruins.

Eventually both teachers and students began to tire of this system. They began to form schools, which distributed the metaphysical responsibility of magical teaching in a more balanced fashion among the faculty, thus resulting in far lower rates of power-crazed sorcerers. In order to compete with the crackpot sorcerers still hiding in the hills, and eventually with each other, these schools pooled their resources and created powerful artifacts which enhanced a particular aspect of their craft, and then bound their students with magical contracts that reinforced the institution. From this combination of artifact and contract arose a faction-based system of Metamagic, which gave all the various disciplines of spellcasters an edge in the fight to end sorcerous elitism. And thus the Enigmatic Echelons were born.

Each of the Echelons specializes in one or two magical fields, and thus attracts different classes of spellcaster. Though the original Echelons famously incorporated defunct Mage Towers into their facilities and relied on physical artifacts for their metamagic, later ones were sometimes more abstract with their campuses and objects of power. The official title for the leader of such an organization is “Eminence of the Enigmatic Echelon of the [insert organization name].” When traveling abroad, the addendum “Envoy from the Erudite Emirates of Emeria” is requested.

The Arcane Academy (abjuration, transmutation) - draw power from the Philosopher’s Stone and the Skein of Fate. The premier wizarding school in the world. Originally an alchemist vocational school, though the unionization of the Alchemist’s Guild has diminished the power the AA holds over that trade. The Academy’s sprawling college campus surrounding its historic central tower.

The Binding Vault (conjuration, hematomancy) - draw power from blood pacts with demons, spirits, and celestials. The go-to school for warlocks. Also popular among blood mages and some less scrupulous witches. The flame scorched tower extends several stories above ground, and its dungeons delve and equal distance below. Central column has hundreds of levitating containment boxes where summonings are conducted, each bound to its neighbors and the outer walls by countless rattling iron chains.

The Elder Eyrie (evocation) - draw power from gems containing the souls of dragons. Faculty and student body are exclusively draconic sorcerers. Tower is an ancient dragon roost, where the dragon population lives alongside their potential future partners.

The Moonstone Stair (divination, druidism) - draw power from the alignments of the firmament and the natural laws of the world. Run by oracles, and loosely affiliated with several witch and druid circles who supply additional instructors. Based around a mountaintop oratory precisely attuned to celestial motions.

The Unseen University (illusion) - none are sure what source this faction draws power from, but many rumors exist. Actually located in a magically concealed wing of the Arcane Academy’s campus. Facilities are arranged around a mysterious, floating, inverted pyramid, which generates the illusion hiding their existence. Admission means induction into the elusive Society of the Blind Eye.

The Undertower (necromancy) - draw power from an ancient Grimoire (secretly a lich’s phylactery). The only home for necromancers, reanimators, and the macabre-inclined. Based around necropolis of an ancient civilization, which extends into an underground maze of crypts, and further into the vast cave network known as the Underdark. Surprisingly, there is a strong workforce of clerics employed by this Echelon, as they outsource across the nation and abroad for corpse internment interment services, with the promise that the deceased’s soul will be sent to the afterlife with the proper rites, even if their body won’t be as respectfully treated.

The Wyrding Wood (enchantment) - draw power from the Maze of Dream. Popular among witches, with the occasional bard alumnus. Located in a pocket plane inside a maze inside an enchanted wood. Those that fail to navigate the wood or the maze find themselves on the edge of the wood with no recollection of how they got back, and with a gnawing anxiety they’ll one day commit an assassination under an enchantress’ geas.

Other Factions Independent of the Echelons are the Alchemist’s Guild and the Hedgecrafter’s Hegemon, both of which operate like labor unions for practitioners of petty magic within and beyond the borders of Emeria, as well as the various Bard Schools. Rogue Sorcerers still control small fiefdoms throughout the region. These individuals have taken to employing Hexknights--martial fighters with an oath-sworn bond of magic to their sorcerous patron, who often specialize in anti-mage warfare--in order to wrest back control from the Echelons.

Note: This setting is inspired by the concepts laid out by JM Perkins “fantasy cold war” world description. It is designed with the intention of compatibility with works set in the same larger world, but is a separate module and can be played as an independent adventure setting.

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