War and Darkness rests heavy upon the troubled Lands of Helémas. Know, oh noble traveler, that it is the Age of God's Insult, the 14th year following the Third and Final Civil War between the Eastern and Western partitions of the Exalted Duchy of Kaylexsia. The ensuing peace was hard won, but the frontier regions of the Shrouded Coast of the Continent of Sethar-Eshurana may not long hold their deeply-paid-for respite from the terrors of war... For the distant southern continent of Uzanyr-Orgoroth has been overrun by demonic forces that pour forth, without ceasing, from the mysterious cyclopean edifices known as the Three Gates or the Three Doors of Doom. The central and greatest of the Three Gates of Uzanyr Orgoroth is the Gate of Steel Truths and Golden Lies, beyond whose immense arc lies the terrible realm of the Dark Host of the Netherworld of Akertamenthesamenti. Foremost among the sinister lower dimensional emigrees from this blighted half-world of fire and death into the Lands of Helémas are the godlike dragon-demons known as the Ashlords and their legions of malign servitors. These mysterious reptilian entities were fashioned by dreadful sacrifices performed upon the witchiron iron and blood granite altars of the Devil Lords Set-Sutekh, Inpu, and Upuat wherein the bones of ancient crimson dragons were violently invested with the spirit of a fallen serafim, cherubim, or ofanim. With blazing countenances of inscrutable aspect, these maleficent draconic entities direct their marshalled invasion forces from the topmost spires of their iron palaces, vast edifices whose molten red gables flicker ominously over the Lake of Everburning. Here, on the blackened shores of the fire-waters of this the vast ocean of infernal illumination on the far side of the Gate of Steel Truths and Golden Lies, the Ashlords erect their great war camps and prepare to execute the dread desires of their dark masters. The fevered servants of the crimson-scaled Ashlords spread abroad with increasing rapidity, apparently little-diverted from their warlike procession by the long aquatic passage across the Lanternlight Sea to the Lands of the Shrouded Coast. The black and red garbed corsairs of the Ashlords have begun to press aggressively to control the major waterways of Sethar-Eshurana. The inhabitants of the frontier city of Thunder Falls, also known as Selinhant, have been unsettled since a recent rash of kidnappings have conspired to disturb the hard-won peace of the Flint Plateau and the surrounding Forest of Chert following the Third and Final Civil War of Kaylexsia. These dual geographic barriers of the jagged heights of the Flint Plateau and the thorn-laden morass of the Forest of Chert together form a significant part of the war-torn hinterland of the Exhalted Duchy of Kaylexsia. However, the origin of these kidnappings is far from clear... Indeed, the anxious shopminders and innwardens of the Riverfront District of Thunder Falls pass fearfully-whispered rumors in hushed voices -- the avaricious Cobalt dragon demigod Barbarushbarasphababa'alazabbabbabur, vilest spawn of the Cold Hell of Al-Zamharīr and the supreme lord of the so-called 'topless peak' of Mount Kolzdagar, and Arch Minister of the Ministers of the Shale Crown, a sinister cult of slavers that carry out the god-dragon's dread designs, have purportedly wormed their way into the underworks of Thunder Falls. In seeming answer to these disquieting rumors, sinister porcelain statues of Barbarushbarasphababa'alazabbabbabur have been discovered by spelunkers investigating the twin ruins of the ancient strongholds of Khaar-Bhranth and Amun-Suel which stand ominously on the far shore of the broad curve of the Fleetwaters, a 30 mile wide river that divides the Great Duchy into two roughly equal halves. In particular, the sinister ruined fortress of Amun Suel -- the so-called 'Mount of Magic and Mystery' -- has recently stirred to unsettling life on the heights overlooking the riverine city of Thunder Falls. Enterprising adventurers are needed to investigate. Other, darker rumors hold that the mysterious ruins of the ancient 'Pale Men' known as the S'zuunites, sealed deep beneath the labyrinth paths of the city's extensive sewers, have been reopened. Horrors from the ancient Ages of the Pale and Black Suns have crawled forth from the lightless depths of the Utter Deep and the purportedly bottomless shaft known as the Throat of the Endless Hollow to trouble those who live beneath the sun. Finally, in the surrounding forests, the ambitious jade dragon Saritsavitthawansrisatitithanasukolwittrivisvavet, also known as the Queen of Talons, seeks to establish an empire in the inner reaches of the vast temperate rainforest known as the Forest of Cinnamon, the shadowed bows of which overhang the broad roads leading forth from Griffin's Roost. The dragon's vicious raiding parties of gnolls, flinds, ghouls, and ghasts have already begun to disrupt trade along the famed Road of Gems and Jewels. Enterprising heroes are needed to reconnoiter the mysterious depths of the Forest of Cinnamon and its ancient ruins and ultimately extirpate this new draconic threat The truths of these and other dark matters shall only be uncovered by those brave enough to plumb the terrors to be discovered in the darker places of the world... Seeing if there's any interest in a *text-based* game on Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon EST with Fantasy AGE 1st edition (that's the edition I own and I'd use). More setting information -- the homebrew Lands of Helémas are a sword and sandals aesthetic fantasy setting -- I'll have a bunch of maps and additional setting detail, though I'd largely like to reveal the world and develop character 'histories' through actual play -- i.e., you'll give me a brief blurb for the character background like 'character is a slightly surly lone wolf type that has the personal goal of avenging their parents' assassination by the local slaver's guild' and we'd build on that together in-game. I'm more intending to reveal the world through in-game compendia items than have you read a lore document beforehand. Most of the world detail will be revealed through descriptive posts and in-game compendia entries -- such as books or other written artifacts that are uncovered in-game. There will also be a lot of space for contributing to the world-building by pcs. The significant 'distinctive' elements of Lands of Helémas are as follows: (1). An exceptional number of dragon and dragon-like creatures. I'm going to use a lot of the dragon types from Sawyer Lee's highly imaginative exoplanet/xenobiology thought experiment the Dragonslayer Codex. For example, the starting wilderness area is going to have include nest of these nasty fellers: Sicklemouth species (Dragonslayer Codex) by SawyerLeeArt on DeviantArt. There will be a lot of additional dragon species and evolutionary adaptations to dragonkind, such as neanderthal/ogre/hill giant tribes with Strangler Giant by SawyerLeeArt on DeviantArt war beasts. (2). Each of the main continents is going to be a self-contained ecosystem like prehistoric Madagascar/Australia/Indonesia/South America where there will be unusual flora and fauna and climactic zones unique to those biomes. (3). The cosmology of the world is going to be that of Monte Cook's Beyond Countless Doors -- i.e., the outer planes consist of an infinite number of dimensional 'bubbles' located in some kind of higher dimensional 'bulkhead'. There are infinite numbers of infernal and paradisical, as well as elemental worlds as opposed to just one 'Nine Hells' or 'Plane of Earth'. In terms of format, I'm imagining this as being fairly open-ended like an ubi-soft open world game (think the Assassin's Creed rpg trilogy -- Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla). There would be a broad over-arching story, but a lot of freedom as to how you want to go about interacting with it or achieving your characters' goals. There would be a lot of incidental world building detail like architectural details, local culinary customs and clothing styles etc. I'm looking for players that enjoy that kind of thing and like to read and write at length. For timing, the potential times for sessions would be **Tuesday** or **Wednesday** late afternoon to evening **EST time zone**. Just to head off needless discussion on this point -- **you don't need to ask about alternative times because there are none**. I can't ever play on the weekend (Friday/Saturday/Sunday) because of work, and I'm not getting up early in the morning to run a game. In terms of format, I want to run a **text-based** game. That means all the game narration would be typed in Discord channels. Being able to touch-type and read fairly quickly would be key to successful participation. I am not interested in running a game with any voice-chat element. I don't enjoy talking on microphones over Discord. I've rarely run sessions over Discord where someone didn't have a significant tech issue with a microphone, and I'm just not going to torture myself with the format any longer. This element is also not up for discussion. If I can't get a group that wants to do a text game, I just won't run it at all. In terms of format, character sheets and dice rolling will be on Roll20. Maps will be on the Tableplop vtt, canva, or lucidraw (the latter two are electronic white boards).