EditKey Notes
Esoterica is all about things happening on a grand scale. It is, by its nature, an ultimate crossroads of any other conceivable place or even (if the GM wishes to go that route) time. And thus its at least theoretically possible that even the most unlikely of things might happen and conversely that the most likely of things may fail to occur despite any expectations or assumptions to the contrary.
Esoterica has no exact borders, no precise limits, and no definite absolutes...other than those an individual GM wishes to impose. It should feel "wide open" and liberating, but also dangerous and unpredictable. A wise player should harbor an awareness of uncertainty and risk when piloting their character through the Realms mysteries and travails, and a wise GM should inject the unexpected and unpredictability whenever things seem to be getting too staid or safe.
Most of the the slopes should be slippery, and most of the wickets should be sticky...most of the time.
EditThe Nature of the Multiverse is Unclear
Many theories exist to explain why the multiverse is the way it is but they all have their problems. There are two good reasons for this:
- We believe that fantastic and mysterious things are generally more fun when specifics aren't asserted and individual imaginations can roam freely. Like a good magic trick, once you know the secret its anticlimactic and ruins the mystery.
- The second is all about the GM. The more room we give individual GM's, the easier it is for them to slot Esoterica into their campaigns as they can more easily tweak the Esoterica multiverse to fit in with their own cosmology.
EditThe Great Game
Esoterica is a common place for the various powerful entities of Generica both temporal and immortal to wage war, settle their differences, plot and scheme against each other, pursue cross-dimensional conquest, manipulate events on a grand scale for their own benefit, and so forth. This ranges from powerful empires of more mundane planes that are aware of and can travel to Esoterica, to so-called "gods", "daemons", and "elemental" beings, as well as threats "native" to Esoterica itself.
Whilst the PCs should be able to play a significant role in events, they should never quite loose the impression that their achievements and failures are only a small part of a vaster, labyrinthine game, with stratagems too subtle and epic in scope for mortal minds to fully appreciate.
A subtle "wheels within wheels" approach is the intent, where the true mastermind is always one step ahead, whilst the supposed mastermind is a mere servants of another power even if they are unwilling servants or unwitting pawns. Every now and then though a plot unravels and some kind of closure is reached by persistent enough adventurers, do-gooders, or meddlers. Such a "reveal" is excellent fodder for the final scene of an entire campaign.
EditMagic is Common and Diverse
Like the multiverse itself, the fundamental nature of magic is unclear; though many have their pet theories it's not understand why so many diverse forms of magic have arisen throughout the multiverse and why magic doesn't always work the same in every Realm.
Esoterica, by its very nature, is magic rich; people need to be able to travel between planes and for obvious design reasons the Realm needs to accommodate all of the various magical disciplines found in the various realms of Generica. Thus a vast diversity of magic systems might be encountered or used in Esoterica, though some are far more common than others. The GM has a great deal of latitude in this area.
Native Esoterica magics tend to be focused on travel, dimensional forces, and survival in various climes and places due to the practical realities of its extra-planar nature and cross-planar hi-jinks.
However, whilst low and medium powered magic should be slightly more common than other realms, powerful magic should be as rare, if not rarer, than in other realms due to various pressures. Esoterica is host to some of the most powerful entities both mortal and immortal found in any Realm. Due to the realities of competitive advantage, those on the top tend to keep up-and-comers down, and those on the way up tend to get in over their head. Also, though mortal population tends to cluster around a relative handful of "safe" places, Esoterica is an incredibly vast (as in practically infinite) expanse within which even a surplus of powerful individuals amounts to very little in the grand scheme.
If the magical width, depth, and danger is put into the metaphor of an ocean, the waters are very wide and very deep, but safe harbors are few and far between and the water is full of sharks and other toothy monsters. Thus while many might sail blithely upon the ocean's surface upon some manufactured conveyance, only the bravest, strongest, and luckiest divers are able to plumb its depths and survive. Dabblers or those who overstep their limits tend to run afoul of the many hazards, or else simply get gobbled up by something more dangerous than themselves.
EditMagical Devices
All things that can be found in other Realms can potentially make their way to Esoterica due to its planar nature. Thus, unsurprisingly, magical and technological items of broad manufacture have proliferated.
Magical machines are also more common in Esoterica than in other realms but they are a relatively recent thing. Strange combinations of mechanical and magical principals are dubbed Arcanickal devices in Esoterica, and have started to become somewhat unremarkable (though not commonplace) in Sanctuary and a few other large settlements.
If a particular GM is using Esoterica in conjunction with another Realm or campaign setting and they do not want such devices to proliferate beyond Esoterica, they can simply decide that such devices are powered by pure Vim or 'Tween current, etc, and thus don't work (or at least not for long) in more mundane realities.
|
|