Hi folks here's this week's lore round up and a few thoughts about what it means (or what it might mean for your campaign).

When I first conceived of the peoples of Ghotharand, they struck me as having similarities with colonisers everywhere, a people who rarely thought about those they had colonised or the land they had taken.

The Ghothars had the bad luck to seize land that was unsuitable for farming (an epic fail in 'Imperialism 101') and have worn it as their hard luck story ever since. The two articles about the Ghothars here are about how they have adapted to the inhospitable terrain and how their society and culture had evolved as a result. As is so often said of them, the Ghothars are 'poor as beggars but hard as steel', and a result they have a certain toughness and an air of fatalism to them when they adventure across Aestis.

Ghothar Culture

Communal Life of the Ghothars

Emperor Dures II

For no apparent reason last week my mind was full of thoughts of crowns, obscure rituals and dynastic feuds and crumbling empires. Literally no reason at all. As a result I set out to explain about one of the more important monarchs of the past, Dures II. Dures role was to manage the end of the Vannic Empire, whose rulers were divided between whether to rule from the mountains or from sea level (most civilisations have found the latter choice to be more practical, but there really is no telling some people).

Dures realised that he could not prevent the collapse of the Vannic Empire and so he tried to preserve what he could by creating the Library of Harenis, underneath Mount Khest. I'll talk more about the library soon, but for now, here is the story of Dures II.

The Arclander

We hope that you enjoy these deep dives into an entirely new universe. If you want to learn more about the Arcverse and add new classes and origins to your game, make sure you get the Arclander zine, which includes the first part of our amazing Shadow and Steel campaign set in the Mill Lands.

All the best and thanks so much for being part of the Arcverse.

Nick