Our campaign takes place in a home-brewed low-fantasy world, influenced by Norse and Northern European tales and sagas, but then extended and extrapolated into some unique. It is not a typical D&D, Pathfinder or Savage Worlds setting - though some elements may be on the surface familiar. It is a Living World and I hope this will introduce an extra facet to the strategic rule set.

Our world is called Farholme and in the time beyond memory the skalds and storytellers say that our world was many worlds, that the Aesirii walked upon the earth and there was a terrible war in the skies. Some speak of the time of fire and ice, when the world was remade, and the sundering that is responsible for the shape true men take today. All agree that there was chaos for century upon century until what is now called the First Empire formed in the northern steppes. It rose and the Northmen with it, bringing the Laws of Salt and the Laws of Iron to the peoples of the southern deserts and jungles or Varsoom, the vast plains of Karresh in the east and both the Mountains of the Moon and the Dagger. In time the too-tight grip of the All-King shattered the empire and for a time there was blood and war.

Seven centuries past a new All-King rose, a man from the kingdoms that had formed in the central riverlands named Varan, and he forged a new Empire through guile and marriage and the secrets of steel and mechanition. Claiming the core of the old empire there rose a rennaissance of science and rationalism - that rise seeing the decline of the skalds and the oral history and the quiet hedge magics that had seen many hamlets and villages through dark times.

Over time this Second Empire expanded, as all empires must, reaching the extents of the known world beyond which there was simply black seas. Within it's borders were the sundered Races  of Man - the Aelf, quick and lithe; the Dwarrow, stunted but strong and accustomed to their delvings and underholds; the Jotun, tall and broad, slow to tire as they kept to their steadings; the Valk, fierce nomads renowned for their herds and the bonds with them; and the Got, kin to the Dwarrow but more wiry and wilder. Among them other, less known, peoples lived - both men and Juret, beasts who walked like men.

Over time rot set in, the Cultures that made up the Empire calcified and power shrunk towards the Imperial core. In the steppes the Northmen reverted to their superstitious and the Old Ways, the Laws of Salt and Iron. Plague swept through the towns and villages of the jungles of Varsoom and though the rites of the Southron saved many, few of the Jotun remained. Cities of the Easterlings warred upon one another, the bread basket of Karresh sown with blood. Suspicion and fear saw many of the Aelf begin a Great Migration to join with the Islanders or Farlanders in the isles beyond where the Great Southern Desert met the ocean. In his Great Hall in Varansgeld the All-King Neren wept, watching as further pockets of anarchy and chaos emerged, where those bold enough or clever enough might carve out their own destiny...

In recent times the borders have become rougher and more lawless, with numerous petty warlords emerging as the Empire has retreated to the riverlands. In Varansgeld the boy Gorek Nerensen wears the crown. In the south and east there are rumours of rebellion as the noble families who once were kings seek to re-establish the realms that existed between the First Empire and the this one. Scattered whispers of the re-emergence of the Dwarrow Underrealm follow in the wake of trade-trains and the airships of the Aelf Farlanders have not been seen for many a season.

Our campaign takes place in the coastal Borderlands to the west, with it's own set of petty kingdoms and rebels, it's own smugglers and pirates and traders trying to keep their routes open. Rumours tell of deserters and traitors, of a long forbidden cult and hidden sanctuaries for the Juret peoples.