Games - Earthdawn

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	Games - Earthdawn

Earthdawn is a fantasy role-playing game produced originally by FASA. It has since been licensed to Living Room Games, which is producing the Second Edition line, and RedBrick Limited, a company that is producing the Classic line.

The game is similar to fantasy games like Dungeons & Dragons, but draws more inspiration from games like RuneQuest. The rules of the game are tightly bound to the underlying magical metaphysics, creating a richer, more realistic fantasy world. Like many role-playing games from the nineties, Earthdawn focuses much of its detail on its setting, a region called Barsaive.

Setting

In Barsaive, magic, like many things in nature, goes through cycles. As the magic level rises, it allows alien creatures called Horrors to cross from their distant, otherworldly dimension into our own. The Horrors come in an almost infinite variety -- from simple eating machines that devour all they encounter, to incredibly intelligent and cunning foes that feed off the negative emotions they inspire in their prey.

In the distant past of Earthdawn's setting, an elf scholar discovered that the time of the Horrors was approaching, and founded the Eternal Library in order to discover a way to defeat them — or at the very least, survive them. The community that grew up around the library developed wards and protections against the Horrors, which they traded to other lands and eventually became the powerful Theran Empire.

The peoples of the world built kaers, underground towns and cities, which they sealed with the Theran wards to wait out the time of the Horrors, which was called the Scourge. After four hundred years of hiding, the Scourge ended, and the people emerged to a world changed by the Horrors. The player characters explore this new world, discovering lost secrets of the past, and fighting Horrors that remain. The primary setting of Earthdawn is Barsaive, a former province of the Theran Empire. Barsaive is a region of city-states, independent from the Therans since the dwarven Kingdom of Throal led a rebellion against their former overlords.

The Theran presence in Barsaive has been limited to a small part of south-western Barsaive, based around the magical fortress of Sky Point and the city of Vivane.

Races

The setting of Earthdawn features several fantasy races for characters and NPCs: # Dwarf - Dwarves in Earthdawn are similar in appearance to the classic D&D or Tolkien dwarves. They are the predominant race in Barsaive, and the Dwarvish language is considered the common language. Their culture, especially of the dominant Throal Kingdom, can be considered more of a Rennaisance-level culture then in most other fantasy settings. # Elf - Elves in Earthdawn fit the common fantasy role-playing convention; they are tall, lithe, pointy-eared humanoids who prefer living in nature. Elves in Earthdawn naturally live a very long time; some are thought to be immortal. Such immortal Elves feature in many cross-pollinated storylines with Shadowrun. A subspecies of Earthdawn Elves are called the Blood Elves. # Human - Humans in Earthdawn are physically similar to humans in our own real world. They are granted a special Versatility Talent to make them more mechanically appealing. Humans in Earthdawn are considered to be somewhat warlike in general outlook. # Obsidiman - Obsidimen are a race of large, rock-based humanoids. They stand over 7 feet tall and weigh over 900 pounds. Their primary connection is to their Liferock, which is a large formation of stone within four hours of their place of birth. Obsidimen are loyal to the community around their Liferock, and eventually return to it. Obsidimen can live around 500 years away from their Liferock, and their ultimate lifespan is unknown, as they generally return to it and remain there. # Ork - The Ork race in Earthdawn is similar to other depictions of orks in fantasy role-playing. They are tribal, nomadic and often barbaric humanoids, with green, tan, beige or ebony skin. They are relatively short-lived. Before the Scourge almost all orcs were enslaved by other races. # Troll - The Troll race in Earthdawn is also similar to other fantasy role-playing depictions of trolls. They are very tall humanoids, with a hardened skin and horns. Socially, they form clans to which they are fiercely loyal. Troll clans often raid one another, and a significant subset of the troll race are Sky Raiders, which command many of the airships of Barsaive. # T'skrang - The T'skrang are lizard-like amphibian humanoids with long tales and a flair for dramatics. Many of them exhibit the behaviors and characteristics which are stereotypical to a "swashbuckler". T'skrang are often sailors, and many t'skrang families run ships up and down the rivers of Barsaive. # Windling - The Windlings are small, winged humanoids, similar to many depictions of fae creatures, which means they resemble small elves with insect-like wings. They have the ablity to see into the astral plane, and are considerably luckier than the other races. They have wings similar to a dragonfly's and are one to two feet in height.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Earthdawn ]

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