Introduction to Aeldrum

This meta-article is meant as an introductory page for people new to the Aeldrum setting

## Welcome to Aeldrum!

The Aeldrum Cosmos is an original science-fantasy universe, used as a setting for (homebrewed) Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games. The setting has been developed collaboratively since the early 2010s, with Christophe (User:Shrouger) as the original creator of the setting and the primary source of worldbuilding and lore.

As of 2022, Aeldrum RPGs have been running pretty regularly for nearly a decade, with **32** separate campaigns and at least **24** one-shot sessions, involving a total of **49** different players and **7** gamemasters.

# The Aeldrum Setting

## Cosmology

Physics in the Aeldrum universe behaves differently than in our own. There are no stars, and light is instead produced by atmospheric energy discharge. "Worlds" in Aeldrum are actually pocket dimensions inside the greater aether, which is a realm of roiling and unstable energies. Pocket dimensions are connected to the aether via aetheric gates, and interplanetary travel is carried out between pocket dimensions by following the path of aetheric ley lines.

The position of a pocket dimension within the aether and relative to other pockets is typically non-euclidean, and two aetheric gates on a given planet can connect to vastly different parts of the wider aether. Although technological breakthroughs in the modern era of Aeldrum history have made translane navigation possible, interplanetary travel, commerce, and warfare is still primarily dictated by the positions and connections of aetheric ley lines.

Gravity in the cosmos is a constant and universal force (as opposed to being mass-and-distance-based), and though there are no suns (or moons, or stars) most planets experience day-night cycles, weather patterns, seasons, and other familiar and life-conducive phenomena by way of aetheric atmospheric effects.

The aether in the Aeldrum universe is both a background energy field, an analog for electricity, and also the underlying substance of which all matter is composed.

→ *Read more about Cosmology and Cosmological Phenomena*

## Gods, Magic, and the Occult

Many different gods exist in the Aeldrum setting. Some are well known and widely worshiped and actively intervene in mortal affairs, while others are obscure and mysterious, and still others are completely unknown or forgotten. Likewise, some gods are capable of altering the course of the entire universe (or are responsible for some aspect of its creation or maintenance), while others are relatively powerless and perhaps hold dominion over only a particular pocket dimension or a limited period of time, while still others are so minor as to be better thought of as demons or eldritch beings rather than as true gods.

The oldest gods are the Elder Gods, responsible for creating/shaping reality, but inscrutable and holding less influence over the modern cosmos. The most powerful and influential gods in the modern era are the gods of the Great Pantheon, while popularly worshiped gods falling outside the Great Pantheon tend to be Savage Gods. Additionally, some mortals may be raised to partial godhood as angels, the semi-immortal proxies of the gods.

Apart from the powers of gods, there is no "magic" in Aeldrum the way there is in other fantasy settings. However, there are many scientific phenomena that would be seen as magical on Earth. Souls exist as a biological phenomenon, with many interesting scientific consequences. Psionic abilities imbue a small fraction of people with powers of telepathy, mind control, telekinesis, or other uncanny abilities. Sufficiently advanced technology in the modern era can achieve things like levitation, teleportation, invisibility, and transmutation.

In addition, there are many things in Aeldrum that are unexplained, unknown, or unknowable. "The Occult" is an umbrella term for all the wonders and horrors that exist at the boundaries of mortal knowledge. Those who study the occult run a great risk of insanity, death, or worse.

→ *Read more about Gods, Religions, and the Occult*

## History

### The Partition

In the beginning of the Aeldrum cosmos, the gods had a direct and overawing presence in the universe. Roughly a million years before the modern era a cataclysmic millenia-long cosmos-spanning war between the gods, known as the Pantheon War, caused the surviving gods to come together and voluntarily bind their powers in a pact called The Partition. The Partition set new laws for the universe which limited the gods' ability to intercede in the mortal realm, laying the groundwork for stable and relatively secular mortal progress.

### The Mage Imperium

Some 7,000 years before the modern era, a powerful and sophisticated empire known as the Mage Imperium spanned much of the known cosmos, its strength built largely on a covenant with the goddess Adalna, the Loregiver. In many ways, the science and technology of the Mage Princes of the Imperium was more advanced than even the most cutting-edge science of Aeldrum's modern era.

Roughly 2,000 years after its formation, due partially to Adalna's seeming disappearance or abandonment, the Mage Imperium collapsed and the cosmos fell into a 5,000-year-long dark age known as the Interregnum.

### The Modern Era

The modern era is, by convention, said to begin with the restoration and unification of the pocket dimension of Aeldrum, the decimated capital of the former Mage Imperium (and the location from which the Aeldrum setting takes its name). The first D&D campaign in the Aeldrum setting concerned this restoration of Aeldrum, and most games since then have steadily advanced the timeline of the setting forward.

The following 500-odd years have seen technology in the cosmos advance from the steam engines and crude gunpowder weapons of the late Interregnum to sophisticated aetheric computers and interplanetary dreadnoughts, meeting or surpassing the technology of 21st-century Earth. Deep aetheric exploration has turned a cosmos shrouded in mystery into one well mapped and with comparatively few blank edges, with many pocket dimensions that had lain abandoned or forgotten since the Mage Imperium being rediscovered and reintegrated into the fold. Whereas pocket dimensions in the Interregnum were commonly split between multiple nations with only occasional multi-planetary empires, the modern era has seen these various polities gradually coalesce (whether through true coalition or through conquest/colonization) into only a handful of empires and major cosmic powers.

With the growth and development of the Aeldrum setting, the focus of campaigns has largely shifted as well, from stories of insignificant adventurers on unimportant quests to high-stakes games of great power politics and cosmos-wide wars.

→ *Read more about History, Technologies and Technology Levels, and the Aeldrum setting's Timeline*

## Demography

In addition to humans, the Aeldrum setting includes most of the standard fantasy races (Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, etc.) and several original setting-specific races (Fialta, Gul'Dan). Some pocket dimensions and nations are composed entirely or almost entirely of one type of people, while others are much more diverse.

Climate and ecology can vary by pocket dimension as well. Some pocket dimensions resemble biomes found on Earth, others are quite alien, and some involve a mix of the two. Most plant and animal species found on Earth can be found somewhere in the Aeldrum cosmos, as can many creatures that are completely fantastical.

→ *Read more about Races and Culture*

## Cosmography

One of the most difficult aspects of cosmography ("cosmic geography") is grasping and mapping out the non-euclidean nature of the Aeldrum cosmos. Rather than a 2- or 3-dimensional map, it is better to think of the cosmos as a connected graph with nodes representing pocket dimensions, connected by aetheric gates to interplanetary ley lines. Since interplanetary travel is almost fully confined to the aetheric ley lines, the territory of cosmic empires consists of 1-dimensional segments of ley lines (and the gates and corresponding pocket dimensions encompassed by those segments) rather than 2- or 3-dimensional "areas" of space.

Since two aetheric gates on the same pocket dimension can (and usually do) open onto two very distant points in the aether often located on different ley lines, these multi-gate worlds are the key to traveling between different parts of the cosmos. The more aetheric gates a planet has, the more important it is for travel, commerce, and warfare: The pocket dimension of Aeldrum has 7 gates, the most of any known planet (making it the obvious choice for the capital of the Mage Imperium, as well as the capital of the modern era's premier empire, the Serene Duchy of Aeldrum), while the pocket dimension of Bishant takes second place with 5 gates.

The Aeldrum cosmos can be broadly broken up into three main regions: Imperial Space, Celestial Space, and Naga Space. Recently in the modern era, technological advances have opened up a fourth cosmic region known as Conduit Space. Most campaigns in the Aeldrum setting have focused on Imperial Space.

### Maps

The following map of Fialta Space (a sub-region of Imperial Space) shows the entirety of Ley Line 7 and portions of Line 6 and Line 8, and all of the adjoining multi-gate pocket dimensions (along with the single-gate capital world of Fialt).

The *positions* of pocket dimensions and ley lines shown in this map are arbitrary and meaningless due to the non-euclidean nature of the aether—only the *connections* shown are important. Additionally, while the positions given are arbitrary, the 1-dimensional *distances* between pocket dimensions when traveling along a ley line are drawn here approximately to scale.

Other than Fialt and Hybern, all of the pocket dimensions shown are two-gate worlds. The two-gate worlds of Mir'Thalran and Marivan both have gates which open onto different parts of the same ley line, rather than connecting different ley lines. Hybern is a three-gate world, with two gates on Line 6 and one on Line 7. Note that there are many more single-gate worlds in Fialta Space that are not shown on this map. The vast majority of planets in the cosmos have only one gate, but since single-gate worlds can only connect to a single ley line at a single point, they are not useful for cosmic navigation and are thus often excluded from aetheric maps.

A full cosmic map including modern political boundaries can be found here in spreadsheet form, and here as a visual representation.

→ *Read more about Ley Lines and Cosmic Locations*

## Cosmic Politics

In the modern era, Imperial Space is controlled primarily by three major empires:

* The **Serene Duchy of Aeldrum**, a secularist democracy (though leaning toward plutocracy) centered on the pocket dimension of Aeldrum. The Serene Duchy is dominated by a minority elvish population, but is home to many different races, ethnicities, and religions.
* The **Shantine Empire**, a mostly-human theocracy dedicated to the goddess Kirva, the Flame, with the pocket dimension of Bishant as its capital.
* The **Fialta Imperium**, a warlike nation of half-demon Fialta, worshiping the five-god pantheon of the Lords of the Pentacle and with its capital on the pocket dimension of Fialt. The Shantine and Fialta have historically been fiercely hostile to each other.

Significant minor powers in Imperial Space include:

* The **Empire of Alusia**, a former client state of the Shantine Empire which broke away and became a sophisticated bureaucratic and economic powerhouse and major cosmic power, before its influence was dimmed somewhat after its defeat in the Alusian-Shantine War.
* The **Republic of Sermaye**, a commercial power falling somewhat within the Serene Duchy of Aeldrum's sphere of influence.
* The **Elvish Enclaves**, a reclusive nation of elves devoted to the elvish patron deity (or deities) known as the Elven Triad.
* The **Thalranese Marches**, a somewhat less advanced collection of militarized states, significant for being the only major Fialta power not part of the Fialta Imperium, although it has played a much less prominent role on the cosmic stage following the Second Coalition War.

Major powers in Celestial Space include the Veiled Dominions of Nippon (formerly the "Nippon States", a trade power controlling main routes between Celestial and Imperial Space), the Brass Cities (a nation ruled and populated by faceless automata), the Middle Kingdom, the Grand Celestial Confederacy, the Ashgarate of New Nippon, and the Kingdom of Aksai Chin.

Naga Space is controlled by the fearsome psionic Naga and their vassals the Perfect Princes. Conduit Space contains several small and relatively primitive kingdoms along with several colonial ventures from the great powers of Imperial Space.

### Major Wars

* **240s A.U.** — The **Orcish-Fialta Wars** represented the last cosmic-scale military incursion by shamanistic orcish populations, consisting of a mass invasion of the Fialta States. The war resulted in the formation of the Thalranese Marches and the Orcish Directorate.
* **305-310** **A.U.** - The Alusian War of Independence, undertaken with support from the Aeldman Trade Company, resulted in the independence of the Despotate of Alusia from the Shantine Empire and precipitated the decline of Shantine power, which would reach its nadir at the end of the Fialta-Shantine War.
* **354-357 A.U.** — The **Fialta-Shantine War** ended with defeat for the Shantine Empire and led to the formation of the Fialta Imperium.
* **360s-380s A.U.** — The **Fialta Unification Wars** consisted of a series of related conflicts against individual Fialta Princes and the Thalranese Marches by the Fialta Imperium, and accompanying large-scale repressions of conquered populations, as the Emperor Mithranatus ultimately asserted control over three quarters of Fialta Space.
* **396-399 A.U.** — The **First Coalition War** was the first cosmos-wide war of the modern era, and saw the Fialta Imperium defeated by a coalition of nations led by the Serene Duchy of Aeldrum.
* **420s A.U.** — The **Gunboat Wars** saw Aeldman naval and dragoon forces deployed against the Thalranese Marches (which were backed covertly by the Fialta Imperium) to assert navigational rights and keep the Fialta Confederacy open to outside commerce.
* **447-448 A.U.** — The **Second Coalition War** again saw the Fialta Imperium defeated by an Aeldman- and Shantine-led coalition in response to the Fialta invasion of the Thalranese Marches.
* **450 A.U.** — The **Great Celestial War** saw conflict between two major blocs within Celestial Space primarily over commercial rights: the Nipponese and their allies on one side and a coalition of "interior powers" led by the Middle Kingdom and Kingdom of Aksai.
* **454 A.U.** — The **Alusian-Shantine War** saw an ascendant Empire of Alusia defeated by the Shantine and a third of the Alusian Empire partitioned among the Shantine and Fialta Imperium, as well as confirming the territorial partitioning of the Fialta Confederacy among the Fialta Imperium, Thalranese Marches and newly formed nation of Istomir.
* **478 A.U. -** After the chilling of Aeldman-Nippon relations and the collapse of the "Walled Garden" policy, the **Second Great Celestial War** saw the New Celestial Confederation, acting as Aeldrum's proxy, challenge the regional hegemony of the Nippon States. The NCC intervened in the **Interior Wars**, a series of civil conflicts that embroiled the Middle Kingdom and several princely states, and through its victories secured near-peer status with the Nipponese. Flush with new status, the NCC retitled itself the Grand Celestial Confederation.
* **490s A.U. -** The Veiled Masters of Nippon asserted direct control of the Nippon States and several outlying petty kingdoms in a series of shadow wars, coups and terror attacks collectively known as the **Veiling of Nippon**, after which the territory became formally known as the Veiled Dominions. The Veiling saw failed interventions from the Ashgarate of New Nippon and the Grand Celestial Confederation in support of attempted breakaway worlds from the iron fist of the Veiled Masters. The Ashgarate was subsequently undermined and subjugated into the Dominions.
* **533-535 A.U.** - The **Dominions War** was initiated by a secret pact of Aeldrum, Alusia, Bishant and the Fialta Imperium (the "G4") in response to the demonstration of occult capabilities by the Veiled Masters which the G4 concluded were the work of a semi-sentient etheric "demon virus". Paranoia and fear of a VM first-strike led the G4 to invade the Veiled Dominions, eventually joined by the Brass Cities. While the Veiled Masters unleashed their virus in retaliation, to significant economic effect (especially against the Fialta), the G4 managed to hold the momentum of their invasion and prosecute a successful conventional and intelligence war against the Masters, resulting in the partitioning of the Dominions into Mandates that would be governed by each of the victorious powers.

→ *Read more about Factions and Wars*

## Notes

1. ↑ Technically, Korinth is a three-gate world, but since its third gate connects to Ley Line 5 (not considered part of Fialta Space), this third connection is not shown. Similarly, the three-gate world of Saldan connects to Line 8 between the gates of Mir'Thalran, but is not shown since its other two gates are on Ley Line 9.

# The Aeldrum Wiki

## Using the Wiki

In addition to clicking through the various articles linked above, browsing the hierarchical listing of article categories might help with making navigation more grounded.

Alternatively, for a more stochastic approach, try going to a random page.

In addition to this wiki, all rulesets, campaign docs, and other sorts of non-wiki Aeldrum links and files can be found on the Aeldrum website at https://aeldrum.neocities.org.

## Editing the Wiki

YES!! Please contribute and help the wiki to grow! I love you, person-reading-this-"Editing-the-Wiki"-subsection.

Before editing (and especially before creating a new page), please have a look at the Style Guide.

Probably the best way for people to get started with helping out this wiki is to add information for campaigns they've played in, and in particular for characters they've played. Beyond that, Wanted Pages, Stub Pages, and Incomplete Pages would all be good places to start. An ongoing project has been to get more pictures onto this wiki, whether homemade, commissioned, or just found on the internet somewhere.

For wiki questions, the two admins/primary editors are Craig and Lux. For deep Aeldrum lore questions, get in touch with Christophe.