Welcome to the Netherworld

avril 21, 2022 Vincent L. 0 Comments

Creatures: Netherworld is our studio’s newest creation. This first major supplement of the Fateforge series took two years of work. It is now complete and will be crowdfunded on Kickstarter on May 2nd. To be notified of the campaign’s launch, click here!

Creatures: Netherworld features more than 180 illustrated creatures for all levels, including 150 entirely original ones and 30 great classics with a new spin such as the Aboleth or the Chuul, 5 playable species (Drow, Duergar, Sidhe of the depths, Grimlocks, and Svirfneblins), adventure hooks, new feats and handicaps, 12 original magic items, 8 original archetypes providing you with material to design new monsters for your games… and much more!

Longtime followers of the Fateforge series have already encountered terms such as “Netherworld,” “Canker,” “drow,” “duergar,” and more. The present book is first and foremost a bestiary and toolbox for any subterranean campaign. It fits Eana’s universe, but can just as well be used as material for any other campaign setting.

◾A book that’s part of a series. If you are acquainted with the first Creatures, which went over the Free City, the Drakenbergen, the Septentrion, and Kaan, you will be in familiar territory as far as the book’s layout is concerned. It is split into two main parts (which are detailed below), each spanning several chapters exploring major themes, so that leaders can easily familiarize themselves with specific subjects and construct scenarios focused on them. Each creature has been designed as a source of stories, which can be dangerous, strange, wondrous, or frightening. Appendices catalog perils typical of subterranean natural environments.

◾ A standalone book. Working on the book, we intended it to be self-sufficient, featuring complete and self-standing information, so that readers do not have to constantly refer to other sources. With this in mind, Creatures: Netherworld can be used with Adventurers and Grimoire—the core books of the Fateforge series—or with any other book detailing the 5E rules… Or it can be used as worldbuilding material for any setting where Netherworld creatures would fit.

The Netherworld is immense, stretching underneath the entirety of Eana’s surface and seas. The comings and goings of purple worms fill it with tunnels and contribute to bringing breathable air to its depths. Through their wanderings, these exceptional beasts open pathways into new lands. Bold explorers venture there, sometimes spearheading the settlement of new communities.

Though groups of surface-dwellers possessed of darkvision sometimes settle belowground, most of the underground population is made of species highly unfamiliar to those who live in the sunlight. Drow, svirfneblins, and duergar are descendants of heroes of the Dawn War who remained trapped in the Netherworld. Simmaïens have inhabited this subterranean realm for so long that they cannot really imagine returning to the surface. As for sidhe of the depths, they are bound to the roots of Eana and to enrooted fey, which are unique to the Netherworld.

Creatures: Netherworld provides plentiful and diverse content. Today, we will go over the five new playable species included within:

◾ Drow, or dark elves, are particularly infamous in the center and east of the Drakenbergen. Tales abound of their subterranean cities, said to be places of wonder and cruelty in equal measure. The reality behind the legend is much more nuanced. 

◾ Duergar, or gray dwarves, are unknown to most surface-dwellers, and many believe them to be extinct since the Mountain King War. And yet, there still exist two highly distinct lineages: abyss duergar, inventors of extraordinary artisciences whose civilization flourishes below the ocean, and oldstone duergar, masters of illusions, settled in northeastern Cyfandir.

◾ Sidhe of the depths are born from rooted maelossas (sites directly connected to living nature—Eana). Due to their sensitive origins, they are permeable to other forces, which has resulted in three different sidhe lineages: root sidhe, abyss sidhe (related to Blackwater), and Nightmare sidhe. 

◾ Simmaïens are the first people of the Netherworld. They inhabited it even before the Fall of the Travelers, and they are split into two lineages: shrouded and enlightened. 

◾ Svirfneblins, or deep gnomes, have kept in touch with their surface cousins. There are two lineages: the rooted, who are deeply connected to Eana, and the exalted, who are by and large city-dwellers.

Canker is mostly known as the Hideous Scourge, taking shape as loathsome monsters birthed in repulsive Cankerous nests. Some have also heard of Nightmare, which made the practice of trance a matter of survival for elves. These horrific aspects are brought up and explored in Grimoire, but something lesser-known is that Canker is an evolving entity and that it has taken another, dangerously alluring aspect: Sublime.

Part of Creatures: Netherworld is dedicated to this entity lurking in the depths of the subterranean world. Some see it as a deity, others as a cancer gnawing at the world from the inside. Canker takes shape in many creatures of all CRs embodying its two aspects: the Scourge and the Sublime.

Whether your campaign is set in Eana or in a setting of your own, Canker will pit your players against a new major antagonist, as unpredictable as it is deadly.

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◼ The Creatures: Netherworld Kickstarter page.

◼ The official Discord server.

◼ Any questions? Contact us :)