As the campaign progresses, we’ll give you an advanced look into some of the products you’re backing. Today, here’s a brief introduction to the official Fantasy Heroes Unbound setting of Khromys that’s detailed in a massive 368-page colour hardcover.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Introduction to the World of Khromys
Seventeen centuries. That is all the mortals who call the vast continent of Sapheris home know of Khromys’s history. They know and understand that their world is far older, crafted in a past aeon by the Primordial Gods to be a cosmic wonder. Enough ruins survive to hint at empires past – the monuments they built and the wars they fought. Legends speak of long-lived survivors who remember the ancient world, though the few known appear rarely and speak less.
The world as people know it began with the Two Century War. An empire like no other – a vast nation forged by ambition and malice called the Fiend Empire of Vasartok – spread across their continent and its two neighbours, conquering or burning all in its wake. The main reason so little history survives is because Fiend Emperor Vasar ordered all records prior to his rise erased, so no one would know any world but his. An alliance defeated the empire, but could not destroy it; the next 15 centuries saw the rise of an uneasy co-existence with long periods of cold war.
It is the year 1499 on a calendar that begins with Year 0 at the end of the Two Century War. A new Fiend Emperor has risen in Vasartok, driven by an ambition to undo many centuries of corruption and complacency. Dungeons and lairs dot the Sapherian landscape, overrun by monsters who threaten peace wherever they lurk.
Threats to both continent and world come from beyond the surface as well. Khromys is a world of layers, with Deeplands caverns housing entire civilisations between the outer and inner worlds. Far beneath the surface, an artificial sun composed of all five elements (fire, air, water, earth, and Mana) gives life and light to the Mistlands, its Mantle Moon bringing a familiar night-day cycle to inner Khromys and balance to the hollow planet. A great Aquelf kingdom sprawls beneath the waves to rival Vasartok, its court a place of scheming and murder where the victor might decide the world’s balance of power. Even the vast, blue sky holds floating lands in which the gods once lived while crafting their masterpiece.
Like most worlds of iron and magic, planes of spirits and elements stretch out beyond the physical realm of Khromys. Gods and fiends take direct interest in the affairs of mortals. Their agents enter the world to become heroes or monsters, depending on their natures. Unique to this crafted planet is the Vergence, a realm that vibrates between etheric and astral energies. The Feywhite – a menace separate from dragons and fiends – awaits within to replace Khromys with its own mad reign.
Perils rise from every imaginable direction. Sapheris cries out for heroes. It’s time to step up and answer the call.
