A Brief History of Eversia
What follows is history as the people of Eversia possess it: part surviving record, part inherited memory, part religious teaching, and part supposition. Where certainty ends, nations and faiths supply their own answers.
The War of Four Generations
The old world was broken by the War of Four Generations, named for the four human generations that lived and died during its course.
It is commonly remembered as a struggle between War and Chaos, although histories disagree about whether the gods directed the conflict, joined wars already begun by mortals, or were blamed afterward for mortal ambition. Armies crossed Dikaioma, borders moved, settlements vanished, and ancient strongholds were abandoned.
The war’s injuries remain visible. The Grainfall is still scarred by magic and black powder. Much of the dwarven Mid-dark stands empty. Old roads end at ruined fortifications, and families separated during the war now live on opposite sides of hostile borders.
The Wonder and Destruction of Genosia
Before its destruction, Genosia was considered the most wondrous realm in Eversia. Its people developed Aetherics: engines, portals, vehicles, tools, and civic systems powered by mana. Some surviving mechanisms continue operating after centuries without maintenance. How they were constructed is now largely unknown.
Three hundred and eleven years ago, Genosia was destroyed.
The cause remains disputed.
Some historians believe that foreign powers conspired against Genosia before the war had truly ended. Others argue that an Aetheric experiment or magical-industrial failure escaped all control. Religious traditions speak instead of the God’s Death, though they disagree about what died, why it died, and whether the destruction of Genosia was punishment, sacrifice, murder, or consequence.
Whatever occurred, the land broke. The Gods’ Teeth rose from the sea, and raw chaotic mana flooded Genosia.
Life Unbound
Mana is not merely fuel for spells. It participates in life itself.
Within Genosia, uncontrolled mana entered forests, animals, and people. Across generations it produced forms beautiful, useful, grotesque, immense, and terrible. Creatures capable of crushing cities now move through the wilderness, while stranger mutations survive in ruins, rivers, caverns, and abandoned machines.
The people of Genosia are not recent castaways. They are the descendants of those who survived the destruction and the three centuries that followed. Many now live in fierce tribal societies shaped by mutation, scarcity, strength, and inherited memory.
The Age of Expeditions
Many believe gods once walked openly among the peoples of Eversia. They no longer do, although their religions, nations, and rivalries remain. Prayers still appear to receive answers, and every region continues to interpret history according to the nature of the god who shaped it.
Meanwhile, surviving Aetheric discoveries have become objects of scholarship, devotion, greed, and war. A functioning engine might provide power to thousands. A restored portal could transform travel and trade. A weapon, shield, or vehicle might allow one ruler, church, university, or private faction to dominate its neighbors.
The University of Arcana sends expeditions into Genosia to recover what can be saved and learn what was lost. Governments, churches, merchants, soldiers, and salvagers pursue discoveries of their own.
Each claims that the past will be safest in its hands.
The Question of the Past
Every recovered marvel creates a question its discoverers must answer:
Who should be allowed to possess the lost knowledge of Genosia?
Should it belong to those who found it, those who can understand it, those who need it most, or those strong enough to protect it? Should dangerous knowledge be shared, controlled, hidden, or destroyed?
Who will benefit if it is returned to the world?
Who will be harmed?
No nation of Eversia—including your own—is innocent of ambition. The discoveries brought back from Genosia will not simply reveal what the world once was.
They will help decide what it becomes.
Regions and ancestry
Regions and traditional divine associations · Ancestries · Campaign Framework for Players