Amrynth is a vast and ancient plane, one of considerable mystery, immense power, and beings unseen anywhere else in the Prime Material. It is also a plane besieged by constant terrors, sometimes described as “nested apocalypses”. Because of this, the inhabitants of this plane are generally much more capable of handling themselves in combat than the average individual. Heroes rise and struggle all across the plane, every day. Even at their strongest, the most epic and skilled of adventuring parties will have no difficulty or shortage of incredible challenges and dangerous foes to face. Plane wide, the oceans run fathomless in their depth, and the twin moons loom low overhead every night. And in recent years, the bass, pipe-organ howling can be heard ringing out across many lands, the telltale heralding of the arrival of the ancient and powerful Sovereigns.
The Twin Moons:
Hanging low and large above Amrynth, these two moons orbit one-another as much as they do the plane below. Brug-Ghezal, the Amber Moon, is seen as a tiding of ill-omen, it’s presence seeming to incite and empower demons. Se’aala, the Sliver-Blue Moon brings with it a calm stillness, and is often associated with calm, peace, and strangely enough, death and undeath.
The Demon Moon:
Amrynth is a plane that metaphysically borders closely to the farthest edges of the Abyss. When the Brug-Ghezal eclipses Se’aala, an event that happens roughly once ever forty to seventy days, the walls between the Material Plane and the Abyss grow far too thin, and Demons begin to spill into Amrynth en-mass. The terrible event lasts for roughly one to five days, and occurs planewide, with only a small handful of exceptions.
Rather than this spelling doom for those that live on Amrynth however, the peoples of this plane have long since adapted to these harsh conditions, making use of any tool at their disposal to not only survive, but thrive here. The people of Amrynth often live fulfilling, daring lives.
The Silent Moon:
When Se’aala Eclipses Brug-Ghezal, activity across the plane grows still and quiet and fiends everywhere are weakened. The frequency of this event is slightly lower than that of the Demon Moon, and it has a unique side effect; all across the plane, undead become slightly more common, the shadowfell becomes more accessible, and necromancy is easier to perform.
This brings us to an interesting aspect of life on Amrynth: necromancy is far less taboo here, being seen by many as just another tool to be levied against demons, and having several religious institutions revolving around careful and responsible use of these arcane arts.
The Elemental Harmony:
When both moons are at exactly opposite and complementary positions to one-another (eg: Waxing vs Waning Gibbous/Crescent), the weave of magic and flow of mana across the plane grows strong and potent, and elemental beings and effects grow far more numerous and pronounced.
The Lands of Farshroud
Now that we’ve moved on from the lunar cycle, and its importance to the people’s of Amrynth, we will take a quick journey to the four continents located in a remote section of the plane known as the Farshroud Ocean. Because of Amrynth’s immense size, the open sea between continents is both immeasurably deep and mind-numbingly distant. However, the Four Farshroud continents are relatively close to one-another and share a sub-continental shelf, which facilitates relatively open travel and communication between these lands. Minotaurs are the only race and culture that can natively be found throughout every continent, leading scholars to believe that they were the first peoples to settle here. The continents and a quick overview of each are as follows:
Aerimar:
Smallest of the four Farshroud continents, and the western of the two northern “sister continents”, Aerimar holds countless ruins and the considerable long-lost knowledge of Amrynth’s ancient past. It also holds a city-state of the undead, watched over by an enigmatic Lich.
Shohlsturr:
The much larger eastern “sister continent”, it’s western shore is only separated from Aerimar’s eastern shore by a strait roughly forty miles wide. Shohlsturr has spent much of its history embroiled in ever escalating and brutal conflicts, which have only recently come to a standstill because of the emergence of the Sovereigns.
Kathranis:
Also known as “The Shattered Continent”, Kathranis is a collected mass of hundreds of islands and archipelagos all sharing a single continental shelf. It rests in the southeastern corner of Farshroud. Kathranis is also a hotbed of innovation, and holds the only Artificers colleges to be found here. This place is home to an alliance of Dwarves and Goblinfolk that lead most of the technological progress in Farshroud.
Xiriyama:
Also known as “The Homeland of the Elves”, Xiriyama’s very existence is an enigma. The southwestern continent of Farshroud is one of the only known places on Amrynth not to experience the effects of the Demon Moon. Some scholars claim this to be a result of the endless planar contact with both the Feywild and Limbo. This continent is an endless shifting mass of elemental and fey chaos.
The Sovereigns:
A collective of beyond ancient Dragons, Krakens, and other former servants of the gods. The Sovereigns believe themselves to be the true inheritors of Amrynth, claiming to have slain most of Amrynth’s ancient pantheon of gods. While the exact number of Sovereigns is unknown, it is widely believed that they may number in the hundreds, the common folk only being spared the full extent of their wrath by virtue of their infrequent and staggered awakenings from the suspended animation that they have been trapped in for untold millennia. Some claim that they cannot be killed, simply being reborn as children in hidden sanctums throughout the plane. Their return has also stirred thousands of long hiding dragons and dragonkind into action. Whatever the truth behind their words and actions may be, they pose an as-yet unseen level of threat to almost all of the denizens of Amrynth.
K’rklliyx Empire:
An aggressive, xenophobic, empire from a continent to the far northeast, they deploy massive floating cities with fleets of slave-collecting ships docked on them. K’rklliyx slavers are known to make landfall all throughout Farshroud, however they seem to particularly target Shohlsturr and Kathranis. They’ll most aggressively target communities of bugfolk, humans, dwarves, and halflings. However, any humanoid communities are fair game for them, and they’ll take as many slaves as they can get on board a ship before they’re apprehended. Why the K’rklliyx empire seeks to take this many slaves, and for what purpose is a mystery for many on Amrynth, however their ruthlessness and omnipresence in the oceans of Farshroud is widely known and acknowledged.
Meta Information:
So, as is evident, Amrynth is not a safe or pleasant plane, at least when compared to other settings. It is also a plane where immense power is far more easily attainable and accessible. The reasons for this are multifaceted. Primarily, I had initially wanted to create a setting built to accommodate high level play without making low level play too miserable, so I made a plane where the common folk are fairly strong and reliable in combat in their own right, and where great power is feasibly attainable. Then, I added the looming threat of “nested apocalypses” (the Demon Moon and Sovereigns are only two notable examples of many), and then left some “sleeping” apocalypses to potentially be triggered by the actions of my players. This means that even for a Tier 4 party, there are always more foes to fight, adventures to be had, mysteries to solve, and disasters to avert. This also makes follow-up campaigns easier, since the world keeps on moving even after one or two great threats have been dealt with. Also, an important note should be that, to preserve the integrity of the early game, low level players should be challenged fairly. This can be (and at my table is) easily justified by the players being too far beneath the BBEG to garner their attention, with 1st level player characters generally not being much stronger than the average commoner (CR 1/4-1/2).
My intent in creating this post is so that it might serve as a basic guidepost into the “why’s” and “how’s” of many of the creatures, subclasses, spells, patrons, gods, etc. That I’m going to be posting going forward. Occasionally I plan to cast further detail on many of the locations, factions, maps, and events mentioned here, particularly over the next several months. If even further detail is desired by readers, I’ll make worldbuilding posts here a more regular thing.
The Wyrm Scribe 