The world of Phoenix Reborn

The city-state of Gelf is the greatest of the known realms of mankind and comprises the City of Gelf, the Land of Gelf, and the Glitterwall (also known as the Wall).

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The City is large and bustling, with its citizens productively utilised at all times. The struggle to survive against the terrors of the wastelands necessitates that everyone contributes and dissention is forbidden.

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The world of Phoenix Reborn is gritty, dark fantasy, with horror themes. The style of dress is loosely medieval with the more wealthy members of society verging on a more renaissance theme.

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The nature of the world tends to make clockwork and other mechanisms unreliable, so whilst they are not unknow, they are very rare.

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The peasantry knows little of the demons, save their boundless cruelty and thirst for destruction. Creatures of immense power, they cannot be harmed by mortal attack and are only held at bay by the workings of the Guild of Essence. Demons have survived the attacks of soldiers in their hundreds, apparently unharmed as they slew the entire attacking force. 

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The heroes of Gelf seldom encounter demons, which is just as well, as they are extreemly dangerous. The many cults that worship them and their wicked servants, the grimlocks are more common foes.

Guild of Essence members have mastered the art of bending reality to their will and use essence to do so. Exactly how magic works is a closely guarded secret, but the citizens of Gelf understand small feats of magic appear almost effortless to the magi, but when a grand master chooses to, he or she can achieve feats of power that echo the awesome forces of the dead gods. 

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Essence users in Phoenix Reborn have the freedom to custom build their spells, giving each member of the Guild of Essence unique abilities, and the freedom to roleplay the area of magic of their interest. The skilled can then manipulate their spells on the fly to manifest a range of different effects.

Rank is very important in Gelfan society. Every person belongs to a guild, which has its own status (for example, the protector guilds are ranked most highly, in contrast, the scavengers guild is one of the lowest status guilds). They then have a rank within the guild to further complicate matters. Above the guilds sit the nobility, with the elected monarch sitting above all others.

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Characters will be a member of a protector guild, and so of considerable status. Ranks within guilds are driven by in-character actions, you cannot buy rank with experience points.

Beyond the Glitterwall lie the wastelands. This territory belongs to the demons and their servants. Such is their chimeric influence that the very land itself warps and shifts, never appearing the same to those who pass through.

It is just possible to travel across these areas, with care during the daytime as the presence of the sun weakens the demons and their spawn. However, the night belongs to the demons, and they are much more powerful then, so travellers must take refuge in one of the lonely waystations dotted in the wastelands.

Most important of the guilds are the three protector guilds, the Guild of War, the Guild of Essence and the Guild of Survival. The protector guilds, as the name implies, are responsible for the defence of the realm of Gelf against the demon threat. It is also the members of the protector guilds who guard the caravans and traders that travel between the realms.

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Characters in Phoenix reborn will belong to one of the three protector guild, but as each guild has access to a wide variety of skills and abilities, no two members will be alike.

If you would like to know more about the world of Phoenix Reborn please join our Facebook group, where you can find the Players' Almanac, a detailed (and free!) source book for our game in the Files section of the page.

Very little is known about the time before the demon rain. Scholars call it the Time of Reason and speculate that the world was a paradise where peasants toiled on a fertile land and gladly paid their taxes to a benevolent and magnanimous king. 

In this time the gods were alive and answered the prayers of peasant and king alike. 

Why the demons arrived is not known. Neither is why they are bent on nothing less than the agonising eradication of all human souls. Some think they were drawn to overthrow the now silent gods, whom they saw as rivals. Some think they were always amongst us, but bided their time until humanity was weak and careless. Some think the gates to hell were knocked on by some forgotten fool.

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There is no religion in Gelf, worship of any kind is seen as demon worship and is punished harshly.