Tales of Eira - d6 Fantasy begins

When this blog first started back in 2012 it was subtitled "OSR with a Celtic Twist".  At the time much of my efforts were bent toward the creation, maintenance, and sharing of the loose OSR setting I used for the home game I ran for my daughter and her friends.

This setting was called "Chronicles of Eira"  and if you look back at one of my first releases you can see Eira is in the title.

As time passed though and my daughter and her friends moved in different directions gaming wise I too found myself moving to the vaguely post-apocalyptic Lands of Usarm setting.  For the next five years that is where my efforts lay through adventures like Joy in a Flask, Assault on the Southern Horn and finally in the huge Pyramid of the Lost King.

During this time though Eira was still there in the back of my head, always a whisper but never moving quite a way from that ... until, that is, my daughter convinced my wife to play a new home game.  Now, my wife has never been the biggest fan of gaming ... she'd much rather be out hiking or exploring a cave system.  With this in mind I went with Open d6 (Mini-Six variation to be exact) since my wife had enjoyed my P.I.E. adventures during playtest.

Eira came to life immediately in this new system, the world blowing up all around me ... below is a sample part of a playtest manifesto (if you will) that I am subjecting my Patrons too in the coming weeks ... This is just the beginning histories, races, the land itself will be remolded and refined as time moves forward ... but if you like the core please give me your thoughts.

Eira FAQ

Tales of Eira is an in-development High Fantasy setting for Mini-Six from Genius Loci Games that takes inspiration from Japanese anime like Record of Lodoss War, Tower of Druga, and JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Wild Arms.  The purpose of this short adventure is to highlight some aspects of the world of Eira, acting as a creation mechanism in and of itself.  That said …

The island of Eira exists to the northwest of the continent of Eurys formed long ago from the primordial energies of the world by the goddess of the Scales and Life; Ei.  Meant as a way to test the immortal spirits of the mortal races of the universe, Eira was a land whose beauty hid a heart filled with strife and contradiction.  For a time, the races of Eira – the cat-like Caitsth; the monstrous but loyal Rogen; and the secretive Fay - lived in un-easy peace, even coming together time after time to fight against strange creatures and invaders from other lands.

That all changed when the Adama appeared with weapons, armor, and machines that the races of Eira had never encountered.  The Adama, from the Secerian Empire that controlled much of Eurys had not let a vast ocean stop them from the immortal march of conquest and soon Eira’s races were crushed and subjected under the rule of the Seceria.  For more than a hundred year, the Caitsth, Fay, and Rogen lived and worked as soldiers, slaves, traders all in the name of the Empire.  That is until a new force appeared on the northern shores of Eira, a strange race escaping from a storm of war and chaos far to the west.  The Dwarves, stewards of the heart of the Earth gathered the people of Eira together and soon drove the Adama to the southern plains of Eira.  There the Secerians built a wall while holding off near constant attacks from the people of Eira. 

Now, nearly a hundred years later, an uneasy peace rules Eira.  In the south the Secerian Empire builds cities of marble and metal, while the races of Eira control the north and save for some towns and villages have gone their separate ways.  Only the dwarves freely travel across the face of Eira moving amongst the races and making a home where they can, while trying to maintain the identity of their people and homelands.

Races:

Caitsth

Racial Cost +2 Perk Points (Perks - Cat-Form, Dark-Vision; Flaws - strange appearance)

Cat-like fay with the ability to take on a human-like appearance.  Caitsth are natural pranksters, with a wanderlust that rivals the Adama in how it influences their action.  In human form the Caitsth retain the ears, tails, and eyes of their natural feline form.

Fay

Racial Cost:  +2 Perk Points (Perks - Fight 60’, Natural Magic (-2 to all TN 20 or Lower spells), Nature Speak; Flaws - Extreme small size 8”, Glow  30’, )

These small beings stand between 6 and 8 inches in height and have a natural glow that changes color depending on their emotions.  A secretive race, the Fay rarely left their forest homes until the Secerian invasion where their small size and natural magical affinities came into great use against the Adama foes.

Rogen

Racial Cost +2 Perk Points (Perks - Wolf-Form, Dark-Vision; Flaws - Magical Null)

Rogen are believed to be the oldest race of Eira, harkening back to its creation by the Goddess Ei.  The Rogen see themselves as the protectors and guardians of Eira and where the first to fall to the Secerian Empire.  Now, they are a society that is broken, split into many packs and with no clear leadership of directions in this new Eira.

Dwarves

Racial Cost +2 Perk Points (Perks – Dark-Vision, Immune to Poisons; Flaws – Stranger in a Strange Land)

Only a tenth of the Dwarven people made the perilous journey from their homelands across the western seas.  Hoping for a new and peaceful home the dwarves found instead the subjection of the Secerian Empire.  Having lost their old home, the dwarves had little patience for those who would conquer and enslave in their new home.  Now after the Secerians have been pushed back and the majority of Eira is free from them, the dwarves find themselves a people without a home.  They have moved in many directions from the single Dwarven stronghold of Entry on the Northern coast, plying their trades in any town or village that will have them.

Adama

Racial Cost +1 (Perks – Able to wear plate mail, Use SecTech; Flaws – Hunted Exile)

Few of the Adama ever make a move against their own Empire, but a few have and Eira seems to be where the Empire dumps these traitors.  Left along the shores of the Westerns shores in the Fen lands with nothing but their own clothes, these Exiles make their way through a world that rightly hate their kind, trying to etch out an existence of their own.