Caern was once a beautiful, magical world full of miracles and wonders. Using the mysterious and mystical force known as ‘Art’, astonishing cities of glass dotted the landscape. Flying mechanisms soared through the clouds while the seas were home to fanciful city-sized ship-states and underwater kingdoms. The Magisters traveled the lands, bestowing wisdom, benevolence and prosperity. It was a golden age. An age of wonders. And then doom fell from the sky in the form of a gigantic dark stone that crashed into the planet, vomiting corruption that tainted all Art and made anyone who touched it go mad and transform into monstrosities. The Baneblight, this corruption was called. Slowly, the kingdoms of the world fell to ruin. Many campaigns to destroy the Banestone were launched by various rulers, but none succeeded. The Banestone surrounded itself with horrors the likes of which had never been seen, and in the jungles of the southernmost continent, it brooded like a cancerous lesion upon the world while civilization came to the very brink of extinction. But it was not the end. Legend tells of a human by the name of Eidan who rallied the fledgling humans to cease their pointless warring against each other and instead turn their efforts to cultivation and survival. He spoke with the children of the forest - the Aelden - and brokered peace with them. With the mountain-dwelling D’okari, he formed alliances and strengthened them with honor and respect. Sadly, the Aelden and D’okari continued to war against each other and the conflict continues to this day, though none remember the cause - not even the Aelden or the D’okari. Now three hundred years have passed. The Baneblight seems to have ceased it’s expansion, though all Art is still tainted. The lands and kingdoms of the Humans, Aelden and D’okari have rebounded somewhat (though still a far cry from what they once were). The children of root and thorn - the Feykin, have sought refuge in the world of men. Cut off from their magical ancestry, the feykin can no longer call upon their magic and must instead learn to live alongside those they once regarded as foolish children. The world is a much darker place now, with the lands dotted with dark forests filled with unholy creatures spawned by the Baneblight, vile cultists who actually worship the Banestone working out their dark designs upon the innocent, and hosts of other terrors to turn nightmares into reality. The World of Caern needs heroes like never before. Will you be one of them? Greetings, adventurer! The world of Caern is an original, homebrew campaign setting that uses the fast and streamlined 'Cypher System' by Monte Cook games. My name is Emberleaf, and although I am new-ish to the Cypher System, I have been playing and running games in various systems for over 30 years. I'm looking for 1-2 (maybe more?) players to complete the party for my very first Cypher System game entitled 'Journeys in the Wailing Wood'. This game will serve as an introduction to the campaign world I've created and (hopefully) lead to a longer campaign. What kind of a GM am I? I'm very much a 'story-first' GM. I want to see my players have a good time and (hopefully) succeed - and I'm not afraid to toss the rules out the window in order to achieve that goal should I feel it's warranted. I work very hard to craft stories and worlds that players can immerse themselves in - and I expect similar commitment from my players. I've been known to use some.....uh......'colorful' language from time to time. I have a messed up sense of humor, but fortunately it's usually good-natured. ;) What kind of player(s) am I looking for? I'm looking for players who can commit to game times and really be present during the game. I ask that you please respect your fellow players by not canceling out on the game often. I'm an adult with an adult vocabulary, and I am looking for adults to play with. My games may deal with adult subject matter from time to time, so if that sort of thing offends you, you should probably look for another game. Also, discussing real-world religion and/or politics is not welcome at my table, so let's just focus on telling awesome stories together, yeah? Aside from all that, I'm totally cool with new players, or players completely new to roleplaying games (heck, in some ways it's almost preferable!). We'll be playing every two weeks to begin with. If everyone is cool with it, we can switch to a weekly game later on. Our first session to make characters and get to know each other will be Sunday, January 28th from 10am to 2pm PST. We will be using Discord for voice chat for the game as it's proven to be more reliable than Roll20's voice chat. That's about it. Please feel free to ask any questions here or by sending me a private message. Looking forward to hearing from you! Let's game!
