As the year drew to a close, once again the flames grew high; bright wards against encroaching doom. For a brief moment it seemed like the barrier would hold, that the evil would be held off. Then it was over: first one flame flickered and dimmed, then the entire line shrank, darkening and eventually going out. Those huddled behind the flames could take comfort in one fact, at least: the pain would be brief.
It was an all too predictable pattern all across the world: the shadows, sudden as they had arrived, could be held at bay by light... but every few years, they would gather in such unimaginable concentration that even the staunchest ring of flames could not hold them back: even magical fire fuelled by human sacrifice would dim in scant minutes. Everywhere, that is, save for Hoseki.
What made it survive?
Dragons.
Dragons, it seemed, were the key to stopping the tide. Beings of such vast magical might and power were more than capable of creating barriers to block the darkness, holding it at bay even as it tried to press in. As the rest of the world fell, island by island, Hoseki alone remained to try and push back the darkness... without being extinguished entirely.
Dragons, however, were few in number, and none could be spared to both hold off the darkness and seek a way to destroy it. Though they had the power to resist the shadows, their few brief forays into the darkness had made one thing clear: they were TOO strong, and the darkness they sought to destroy had no trouble avoiding them.
So one sacrificed itself, revered as the God of Night, and spread its power amongst hundreds.
They would have to beat back the darkness.
----
Okay, that probably wasn't entirely clear. Anyway: the gist of it is that the world is... for one reason or another, basically one giant archipelago. Islands; islands everywhere. Some time back, beyond living memory, truly impossible shadows showed up. Initially, they were nothing more than a nuisance, the weak-willed and the ill would succumb to the darkness, but the healthy could fend it off. Eventually, it became clear that the shadows were getting stronger, and people started setting up fires and the like to keep them away from populated areas. This tended to lead to island-encircling magical rings of fire as barriers.
Naturally, they didn't last.
And what did this leave? Hoseki, a group of islands that laid claim to one thing the rest didn't: dragons (eastern, for reference). Long revered as gods by their inhabitants, and treated as such, this was fairly justified. Their enormous power is enough to hold the darkness back... so long as they don't leave. See, there's a minor issue: whatever guides this apocalypse is intelligent, and has a lot of space to manoeuvre in, so it can avoid such obvious things.
So one dragon split its power between hundreds. The PC's are amongst these hundreds: strong enough to be immune to the inevitable death and side effects of being in the shadows, but weak enough to not be a beacon to be avoided.
And yes, this means that most characters are expected to be from fantasy dragon-worshipping Japan.
So, anybody interested?
It was an all too predictable pattern all across the world: the shadows, sudden as they had arrived, could be held at bay by light... but every few years, they would gather in such unimaginable concentration that even the staunchest ring of flames could not hold them back: even magical fire fuelled by human sacrifice would dim in scant minutes. Everywhere, that is, save for Hoseki.
What made it survive?
Dragons.
Dragons, it seemed, were the key to stopping the tide. Beings of such vast magical might and power were more than capable of creating barriers to block the darkness, holding it at bay even as it tried to press in. As the rest of the world fell, island by island, Hoseki alone remained to try and push back the darkness... without being extinguished entirely.
Dragons, however, were few in number, and none could be spared to both hold off the darkness and seek a way to destroy it. Though they had the power to resist the shadows, their few brief forays into the darkness had made one thing clear: they were TOO strong, and the darkness they sought to destroy had no trouble avoiding them.
So one sacrificed itself, revered as the God of Night, and spread its power amongst hundreds.
They would have to beat back the darkness.
----
Okay, that probably wasn't entirely clear. Anyway: the gist of it is that the world is... for one reason or another, basically one giant archipelago. Islands; islands everywhere. Some time back, beyond living memory, truly impossible shadows showed up. Initially, they were nothing more than a nuisance, the weak-willed and the ill would succumb to the darkness, but the healthy could fend it off. Eventually, it became clear that the shadows were getting stronger, and people started setting up fires and the like to keep them away from populated areas. This tended to lead to island-encircling magical rings of fire as barriers.
Naturally, they didn't last.
And what did this leave? Hoseki, a group of islands that laid claim to one thing the rest didn't: dragons (eastern, for reference). Long revered as gods by their inhabitants, and treated as such, this was fairly justified. Their enormous power is enough to hold the darkness back... so long as they don't leave. See, there's a minor issue: whatever guides this apocalypse is intelligent, and has a lot of space to manoeuvre in, so it can avoid such obvious things.
So one dragon split its power between hundreds. The PC's are amongst these hundreds: strong enough to be immune to the inevitable death and side effects of being in the shadows, but weak enough to not be a beacon to be avoided.
And yes, this means that most characters are expected to be from fantasy dragon-worshipping Japan.
So, anybody interested?
