The world
Yggdrasil holds the nine realms on its boughs and in its roots. Now its bark is split, and the realms have drifted apart into shards. The only ways between them are gates worn into the world's edge.
You wake in a clearing with nothing, not even a weapon. The Norn-Stone puts one in your hand. What you become after that depends on what you carry, what you make and where you dare to go.
The market stands sell nothing of their own. What is on the stands was carried in by somebody, and what leaves is carried out the same way.
The first shards
Each realm is a small, hand-made place, and you choose your road by running for one of its gates. These three are the first. More will follow, each opening onto three or four others.
Tier II · Warded
A timber town in a clearing of old forest, and where every journey begins. The sawmill runs off the beck, the smithy makes the axes that fell the wood, and the market stalls sell nothing of their own: what is on them was carried in by someone. South-west of the vale road lies Ulfsholt, an abandoned cutting where the wolves have made their den.
Tier V · Contested
The border country south of the town, named for its watch-cairns. Here the law thins: a duel is allowed, and a hauler who loses one loses the load on their back.
Tier VII · Lawless
A drowned fen west of Kaupholt, where the mist hides the reeds and the reeds hide everything else. Nothing is safe in the mire, and nothing you bring is yours for certain. It is also where the richest materials grow.
Beyond the gates
Every new shard opens onto three or four more. Somewhere past the mire the ground freezes, and the beasts there carry frost in their coats.
Meet what waits thereThe old wood
Around the timber town stands the old wood: giant trunks the axes never reached, mushrooms on their roots, and drifts of flowers in the clearings. It changes with every hour of the day.
The risk gradient
Every realm carries a tier from I to VIII. The tier sets what a death costs you, and what grows in the ground.
No player may harm another. A death costs you nothing.
Common materials
Open to duels. Slain by a player, you drop your bag.
Uncommon materials
Any death, beast or blade, drops your bag.
Rare materials
Full loot. Any death drops everything: bag, gear and purse.
The finest, and only here
A living world
The world keeps one clock for everyone. Mist gathers in the hollows at dawn, the lamps come on at dusk and fireflies drift through the wood at night.
Houses can be bought at their door, guilds can be founded, and the palisade around the town can be climbed and walked.
