The charter colonies
are spreading west, and their surveyors are already in the river valley that everyone expects the war to start in.
Across the Eastern Ocean lies a continent of deep forest, a great river, endless plains and red canyons. The ships came two centuries ago. Now it is on the eve of a war.
27careers
11peoples
141spells & runes
209pages, free
What draws them, and what keeps them
The Worldsoul
The living breath of the land, which can be worked as magic here and nowhere else. It is what draws the newcomers across the ocean, and what keeps them. Three peoples have learned its crafts, and the witchfinders of the southern crown hunt them all.
Six powers · One frontier · No peace
The powers on the frontier
The river traders
have built a chain of forts down the great river, and their soldiers are moving into the same valley.
The southern crown
holds the south and the canyons, mints the continent's coin, and would be glad to see its rivals bleed each other.
The merchant company
will sell powder to whichever side pays, and would pay almost anything to own the Worldsoul.
The seekers
keep arriving by the shipload, hungry to learn the Worldsoul, while witchfinders hunt anyone who works it.
The halfling homesteads
want only to be left alone, and lie in the path of any army that marches west.
“Your characters belong to none of these powers, or not entirely. They are the ones caught between them.”
A trapper who knows the back trails, an envoy carrying words no one wants to hear, a deserter with a price on their head, a Keeper guarding something old, a seeker just off the boat.
The whole of the system
One roll. Every test.
Roll 2d6 + characteristic + skill rank and meet the difficulty. The bell curve is steep, so every point of training matters, and snake eyes always fails.
- 4 species, 11 peoples. Canyon dwarves to river elves to the seekers just off the boat.
- 27 careers. Powdermen, thief-takers, woods runners, witchfinders and more.
- Three magic traditions. Soul Magic, Hearth Magic and Rune Magic, each its own craft.
- Hard frontier. Hit locations, critical wounds and Fatigue that builds through every fight.
Try a roll
4 + 3 + 3 = 10
Pick a bonus and throw the dice.
| Difficulty | Target | Chance at +3 |
|---|---|---|
| Very easy | 7 | 92% |
| Easy | 9 | 72% |
| Medium | 11 | 42% |
| Hard | 13 | 17% |
| Very hard | 15 | 3% |
| Nearly impossible | 17 | 0% |
27 careers
Who will you be?
Acrobat
Travelling shows follow the trade roads from the ports to the frontier forts. An acrobat is welcome in most settlements, which makes one useful to anyone who needs eyes inside the walls.
Antiquarian
Digs the abandoned earthwork cities of the river elves and the oldest dwarven workings, and sells what turns up to collectors or the merchant company. The boat-clans call most of them grave robbers.
Barber-Surgeon
A practical healer with a saw and a razor, found in every garrison, ship and trading post, On the frontier this is the only medicine most people will ever see.
Bowman
The bow is still the weapon of the elven nations and of anyone who cannot afford powder. A good bowman shoots faster and more quietly than any musket.
Charlatan
Sells cures, charms and forged deeds to settlers who cannot tell a true working of the Worldsoul from a trick, and moves on before the buyers find out.
Duellist
Honour is settled with steel among the colonial gentry and the plains elves alike. A duellist fights for a name, their own or a paying patron's.
Envoy
Speaks for one people to another: a crown to the League, a nation to a company. Every treaty on the continent has passed through someone like this.
Hearthwarden
Keeps the hearth magic of the halfling homesteads: small workings of bread, fire, threshold and field. Newcomers hungry for the Worldsoul overlook it, and those who want the Worldsoul ended rarely think it worth burning.
Highwayman
The roads between settlements are long and unwatched, and coin now travels them. A highwayman takes it at pistol point.
Housebreaker
Colonial towns are full of new wealth behind new locks: strongboxes, land deeds and dwarven rune-work, all worth taking.
Keeper
Tends the Worldsoul, which elves call the Breath or the Soul. The river elves' older word is the Braiding, and the plains elves' is the Under-Song. Keepers are courted by those who want to learn from it and hunted by those who want it ended.
Lancer
A mounted warrior bound by honour. The riders of the plains elves and the cavalry officers of the crowns both answer to the name.
Minstrel
Carries news, songs and old stories between settlements and nations, and is often the only word a place gets from anywhere else.
Pilgrim
Walks to holy places, the newcomers' shrines or the old sacred sites. Pilgrims are tolerated nearly everywhere and cross lines that others cannot.
Powderman
Gunpowder is new, and this is the one who understands it: mixing, mining, blasting and serving the guns. Every fort and company wants one.
Privateer
A licensed raider on the Eastern Ocean or the great river, taking a rival power's ships under a letter from a crown or company. Without the letter, a pirate.
Prizefighter
Fights for purses in the ports and frontier camps, wherever a crowd gathers and wagers are laid.
Raider
Lives by taking: the war parties of the nations and the border reivers of the colonies. Colonists call them barbarians, and their own people call them providers.
Rifleman
The long rifle is the frontier's new weapon, slow to load and deadly at a distance. Riflemen serve the militias as scouts and marksmen.
Runewright
Cuts the runes that turn a dwarven device from metal into magic. Anyone can use the finished work, but only a runewright can make it. Every trading company wants a runewright on its books, and very few will teach an outsider.
Soldier
A drilled, paid fighter for a crown, a company or a nation's war band. The coming war will need thousands of them.
Surveyor
Maps land, routes and borders, and for the merchant company, where the Worldsoul runs strong. A surveyor's map decides who claims what.
Sworn Guard
Bound by oath to one person: a chief, a governor, a keeper or a merchant with enemies.
Thief-Taker
Paid to bring in fugitives, deserters and runaways. Colonial law reaches only as far as someone is willing to carry it.
Trapper
Works the fur trade, alone for months in country that belongs to the nations, and lives there by their leave.
Witchfinder
Roots out Worldsoul-craft for the southern crown and for the sects of the charter colonies. Feared by the nations, and by any settler who has traded for a charm.
Woods Runner
An unlicensed trader and scout who lives among the nations, carrying goods and messages where no road goes. Neither side fully trusts one.
4 species · 11 peoples
One continent, many peoples
Dwarf
Canyon dwarves
“Stone runs deep. Water remembers.”
Cliff-town dwellers of the red canyon country, who keep their rune-forges lit behind closed doors under the southern crown.
Read their field journal →The whole book, free to read
Contents
All 209 pages of the rulebook in 15 chapters, searchable and linked, with the book's own illustrations and field-journal pages.
Open the rulesNow Wanted
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Souls
for Service on the Frontier, in the Forests, upon the Great River, & wherever the War may lead.
Trappers, Envoys, Riflemen, Keepers, Powdermen & all manner of Adventurers. Roll your characteristics, choose a people, and take up a career. Your papers are kept free of charge.
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