Shadow Light Preview 012509

Shadowlight: Myth of Truth: Preview A tangled world of mysteries. The secrets, lies, hopes and desires of its inhabitants dance like puppets on strings, pulled every which way from behind shrouds of magic and intrigue. On Temnia, what will you believe? Fascinated by the foundations of creation and the ultimate questions of existence, the race of beings known as the She’lioa created Temnia as a grand cosmic experiment. While some envisioned it to be a sign of love for their god, others saw it as an avenue to god-like power. Populated first by dragons and the dragon-born, and the She’lioa’s own hand-created race the Be’Leshadaux, the She’lioa watched over their new, artificial world like an ant farm, hoping to find in its machinations the most closely-guarded secrets of the Omniverse. Their fascination would ultimately be their downfall however, for a pair of cataclysmic disasters would both render them extinct, and completely change the face of the world they created. Today, the She’lioa are no longer. What did they leave behind? The civilizations of Temnia were drastically altered. How were they changed? Those left behind woke up after the devastation as if from a dream, left to start their lives anew. What of their lives before? Most of Temnia's inhabitants are unaware of the legacy that preceded their fathers and forefathers. But are they all? You'll find these questions inside Shadowlight: Myth of Truth; search for their answers, but beware: you'll find many other questions with them as well. Temnia is a fantastic world of many different intelligent creatures, all of whom are embroiled in a web of international politics. This web, however, acts as a layer of mystery, shrouding the world from truths that have yet to be uncovered, and creatures with clandestine agendas. Some of these creatures seek to cause conflict, while others work to ease conflict without anyone learning of it in the first place. Buried truths lay in waiting, having the potential to rise from the depths and affect the course of world events. Reality versus illusion, truth versus perception, and the actual history of Temnia as opposed to the stories told in the mythologies of its cultures: these are all themes that run throughout Shadowlight: Myth of Truth. The civilizations of Temnia, whether they are aware of it or not, tread carefully on a delicately-woven fabric of international harmony as they seek out simple, comfortable survival. The Dayrin League, one of the five human Miryag nations, works hand-in-hand with their nomadic, seafaring Varyag cousins, constantly striving for harmony to prevail over discord. Other nations, such as the Tyrennhian Imperium, live in such fear from their past as thralls to the Overlords that their only answer to the uncertainty outside their borders is scorn and conquest. The rest of Temnia’s peoples have their own struggles, which occasionally involve their neighbors. Threats of mysterious foreigners, demons, and dark horrors both seen and unseen, have forced some individuals to try and open the eyes of their countrymen, even at the risk of being judged as madmen. And through all this, ancient foes circle each other, waiting for the right time to settle age-old grudges. • Temnia is a fabricated world, having been created by the now-extinct She'lioa. It is disc-shaped, rather than spherical; one side could be called “civilized”, inhabited by Temnia's intelligent races, whereas the other side is overrun by hordes of invading fiends. • Two catastrophic, world-changing events, called the Cataclysms, have defined the landscape in its current form. The Rift, a void-space surrounding Temnia, cuts the plane off from the rest of the Omniverse, changing the nature of summoning and travel between worlds, affecting the use of magic. • Whereas in the sea of reality, time is an abstract concept, on Temnia the past, present and future have been captured in parallel “pocket realms” known as the Infinite Archive, the Enduring Sanctuary, and the Repository of Secrets. Representing past, present, and future respectively, each one has strange and often unpredictable effects on Temnia. • Dragons, coauthors of Temnia with the She'lioa, have for the most part either fled from the world or were destroyed in the First Cataclysm, and now only a very few (if any) remain. They have passed out of the awareness of Temnia's present-day inhabitants. • Temnia’s inhabitants either originated on Temnia (such as Be’Leshadaux, Cindaraxim and Slilikul), or were brought to it from their races' home worlds (such as humans, Orcs and Ylvani). The Second Cataclysm shaped them into the types of creatures they are in the present day.

• Each of Temnia's cultures has had a long and varied history spanning over a thousand years; however, apart from these peoples, some races exist in the present day that have lived since Temnia's creation. Although they were changed by the Cataclysms, they remember their long and storied pasts back to the beginning of the world. • Magic is uncommon in Temnia; the great masses of Temnia's inhabitants are not capable of wielding such power, and there are only a select few who have the capability to do so. Supernatural items are rare, crafted only by those competent in the practice; since the practice does not come without a great deal of time and effort, such competency is equally rare. The major sentient races of Temnia Be'leshadaux: Creatures who shape their forms with the Elemental Power of Life, and secretly manipulate Temnia's nations to purposes only they know of. Cindaraxim: Intelligent shape-shifting oozes, who can manipulate their mass to appear as any of Temnia’s races. Dragon-born: Races created by the dragons during the earliest days of Temnia's existence: the jackal-like Tulosh, leonine Bhurtash, insectoid Kustu, and saurian Thennanim. The S'zaakri, created on a template known only to the dragons, were placed as the leaders of the others, directing them to worship the dragons as gods. While not all of the dragon-born races survived the Cataclysms, these five exist in the present day. The ursine Cherekoth are also one of the dragon-born races, but were separated from these five, and live reclusively after losing the War of the Rough Oaks to the elves. Dwarves: Short, stocky humanoids, torn between a love of the earth and a civil war within their sundered kingdom. Giants: A general group describing humanoid creatures of immense size, towering shapes standing many feet tall. Half-Giants: Hybrids of giants and humans, they try to blend in and survive with either giant or human culture. Gnomes: Diminutive humanoids who live in a simple tribal society that reveres nature and their ancestors. Halflings: Diminutive humanoids forced underground by giants and cherekoth, who steal from surface-dwellers. Humans: • Miryag: Rebelled against Marlena's curse on the Varyag, allowing them to settle in permanent homes: the

squabbling nobles of the Atvar Confederacy, the diplomats and arbiters of the Dayrin League, the righteous, lawabiding citizens of the Karrak Kingdom, the rugged individuals of the Merlani Free Cities, and the zealous Poliman Sultanate. • Raeluth: Fled the Immortal Emperor's conquest of Quan'hsu, relying on necromancy to survive. • Tyrennhians: Value education and the study of magic, but are militaristic and xenophobic. • Varyag: Friendly merchants and information brokers, doomed to a rootless life by a curse from Marlena, goddess of ill omens. • Yenxhai: Live in fear within Naram'tzin's Dominion, trying to avoid the wrath of summoners who call forth horrors from beyond reality Orcs: Porcine humanoids who live and die rapidly, selling their mercenary services for food and shelter Sha'ledh: Not physical creatures at all, they are instead parasites composed entirely of mental energy; they implant copies of their consciousness onto their victims, moving through Temnia in the minds of these host creatures. Shi'ruul: Bipedal avians who call down magic from the stars, looking for a way back to their home world. Slilikul: Amphibious coastal raiders, “gill-men” who were mutated by powerful magic to be underwater warriors. Half-Slilikul: Hybrids of the slilikul and other humanoids throughout Temnia, as outcasts they must be self-reliant. Trolls: Twisted, green-skinned bipedal creatures who delight in a marauding lifestyle, invulnerable to mundane weapons. Half-Trolls: Hybrids of trolls and humans, who inherited the heightened healing factor of their troll heritage. Vaul: A desert-dwelling race of serpentine humanoids who stalk the caverns and ruins of the Vasanti Wastes, watching over them for reasons only they fully understand Ylvani: The three elven peoples of Temnia: • Aldarwa, tall creatures in communion with the forest • Erumë, short desert-dwellers • Yelin, proud and arrogant, living on wintry mountain-tops Half-Ylvani: Hybrids race of ylvani and human, they have struggled to find a place for themselves in Temnia so that they can hide from the Tyrennhians.