Welcome to Hera

 Header Graphic by Alghozy auf Unsplash.

Hail traveller! Please, sit down, have a drink – avoid the purple one if you want to spare yourself a massive headache, trust me – and mark my words. In the following, I am attempting to give you a run-down of what this world is and how to navigate its basics.

We find ourselves on the planet of Hera, the only habitable planet within the Core System to the best of my knowledge. Hera itself holds a lot of tension between two of its continents, the biggest and most populated continents, called the Mortal Lands and the Immortal Lands. Their conflict stems from a difference in rationale that goes back centuries, millennia even, about how mortal species live in interaction with immortal nature. Some claim the land as their own, as the Mortal Lands, and seek to shape the world to their liking. Others claim the land is nature’s to keep and nature’s to give, and mortal species shall protect it at all costs and live in harmony with the world they inhabit.

Recent political developments in a so-called Progressive Alliance have pushed everyone on edge and the alliance plans to establish a forceful claim on unused resources on the Immortal Lands. Now, we are a mere weeks away from a globe-spanning war breaking out – if we’re lucky that is.

But I hear that you are from far away, so let us put aside the political chaos for now – I will tell you more about it in dedicated chapters if you’re interested – and move on to the factors that will impact how you move around on Hera by yourself or with friends.

The most important thing to know about Hera is that everything here exists on a scale, and not in absolutes or in single truths. What does that mean? Well, you should know as much from your own world, do you not? It means that I cannot really tell you what to expect here in terms of tone and danger. There are some areas that are lighter and full of joy. Here, you will find yourself dancing to off-beat music for hours on end in a whirl of people in flowing clothes. Others are more grim and violent. In those places, you end up dragging your boots through the wet mud of a battlefield, careful not to step on a decomposing body. You will meet people that commit heinous crimes and those that won’t hurt a fly. You will walk through nations that have fully industrialised and through land where no state has been established at all. Talk to your guides about the kind of story you wish to tell. Whether light-hearted or grim, Hera has a place for it. And never worry: if it feels too dark or too light, a change in lightness is usually but a few hours away. Whether you wish to uncover ancient ruins beneath living forests, dive deep into dragon lairs and watery graves, navigate the politics of ambitious empires, barter with merchants, hunt monsters in forgotten mountains, or spend an evening drinking terrible liquor in an even worse tavern, Hera has a place for you. But don’t say I didn’t warn you about that liquor.

I know that it might be unsatisfactory to have no clear map in mind now but I can give you some pointers based on the aforementioned continents:

The Mortal Lands are inhabited mostly by humans and have largely industrialised. They use technology to overcome natural limitations and strive to realise the full potential of their species as quickly as possible. The key figure acting as the driving force behind this ideology is Pelayo Fafilaz de Fuentescura X., the Rey Absoluto at the head of the Progressive Alliance. He is eager to take over new lands to make up for the depletion of natural resources in his empire.

The Immortal Lands are largely inhabited by a variety of non-human sentient species and have not established clear national borders anywhere. They live in smaller tribes, city-states, and clans that are represented in a Council of Crowns that decides continental issues collectively. The people here strive to preserve nature as an everlasting home for themselves and their offspring, although some are very determined in this endeavour and willing to take up arms to defend it and others seek a more pragmatic approach, seeking to combine natural and mechanical progress.

What else is important to get started? How to stay alive! Life is so important to you visitors, it’s a little sad to see. You know, life here is more of an endless cycle of potential that transfers from the Material Plane to Khaos to Anagenesis and back to the Material Plane. Does this mean a rebirth? Well, no. Not really. Khaos will break up the potential after your death and randomise it, then it will be randomised again on Anagenesis before being put together to bring a new life forth. So no, you do not remember everything you did in your previous life – I sure as death don’t, but then again, there are stretches of time from university years that I cannot remember from the current life either – but sometimes you will feel an intuition that you cannot quite explain and that feels like luck but isn’t... and that is your ancestors guiding your hand from within you.

For the purposes of “game play” this has two consequences for you:

1. Resurrection is only possible if you are fast. The longer you wait, the less of the original potential you can recover. Reanimation of bodies is always possible, but the person you want to save disappears more and more the longer you wait. Mind you that passage to Khaos is tethered locally, meaning that resurrection at any point in time is only possible where the body has died. If the body was moving in the process of dying... good luck, I guess, but expect not to find the potential again. Why you people cling to the dead is beyond me anyway, let them become new life! If you don’t like them, you can imagine they are turning into a slug... if you do like them, imagine they become their favourite animal or a beautiful flower. They will be back in this world faster than you know, even if not exactly in one piece.
2. Natural reincarnation is rare but it is possible. The most powerful form is when the potential survives randomisation in a condition that they remember their entire life or even several iterations of it. Powerful mages and reborns can tether their potential and strengthen it to increase the likelihood of passing to Anagenesis before a significant amount of potential has been dispersed. That is how a person who has cycled once is more likely to cycle again the next time and the next. The more cycles, the more knowledge and the more wisdom, or so we think, and thus these turn into patrons of domains related to the legends we attach to their existence.

I hope that I could give you a quick overview of what to expect in my homelands, and I wish you well until we meet again. Keep your eyes open and your heads up.

Lark