Lore And Lore Creation.

The Age of Shadow's setting has some Lore. It's pretty vague to allow each GM to make the setting their own. However, I can write as much lore as I want, I can't force any of you to read it or care about it. However, if I let you participate in the world's lore creation, you will feel much more immersed in it as some of it will be your own.

This is what this thread is fore. I'll put in the lore I have form the Campaign Guide and the magazines (in broad strokes, I may elaborate later), and then some of what I came up with. Within this frame (and maybe out of it as well, sometimes history is tainted by bias), you'll be free to come up with your own lore to complement what already has been established.

Brief explanation of the setting.

Close to 700 years ago, Hathron, the first high-king of the elves, fell in combat at the gates of Gorgast (or Garadorn as it was called back then). This was during the winter of the year of Carnos. He took with him in death, one of the four demon lords head of the Enemy.

Mathran, the only surviving son of Hathron took his father's crown, and continued the fight with men from south, and dwarves who had lost their settlements in the Eriathon Mountains. Together, this alliance fought the enemy, pushing it further north for 200 years, pushing them past the Erathion Mountains, building (or rebuilding) fortresses and watchtowers to keep watch on this new norther border. Thus ended The Age of Strife.

Both side having been spent, neither could truly finish this war. The tribes of men who had helped the elves in this war were granted the land east of the Lunuin River. Five centuries of uneasy peace followed, with the odd small skirmish fought with the Enemy (except perhaps the wildmen incursion from some 70 years past). This age was dubbed "The Age of Shadow".

Now, Mathran calls to arm, ready to finish this conflict once and for all. More elves are marching north, the dwarven forges are alight night and day, banditry is becoming rampant, strange creatures are spotted in the woodlands, and winters are coming sooner, growing colder, and lasting longer... Meanwhile, people of the south seems rather unconcerned with this call to war, with tales of the war feeling more like distant myths and legends to them... The Age of Shadow is coming to an end, and the shadow is lengthening.

On orcs, trolls, and goblins.

The rulebook provides stats for both beastlings/fellgrims and orcs/trolls, and the Campaign Guide explains that the main enemies of TAOS are meant to be beastlings and fellgrims, but the game also provided orcs and trolls for GMs wishing to use those instead. I've decided to use both (and goblins converted from OQ) as I see the goblinoids having been "the old enemy", something the dwarves and elves were already united again before the coming of man. But goblinoids were more of a minor nuisance, especially considering the raw might and organization of the Enemy which came later.

Many tribes of goblinoids decided to side with the Enemy, but a few refused, deciding to remain free. Most of those are still up to their raiding ways or fall under the corrupting influence of some vile ogre or other intelligent beast, but a few try to live peacefully, or even trade with men and halflings (dwarves and elves still having too much of a disdain for goblinoids).

On Gods and religion.

I haven't seen much concerning religion in TAOS. The closest thing to organized religion I've found is the map of a generic elf temple with no backstory provided for it (unlike most other VTT products in the line). So here's what I came up with...

When the race of man appeared (an unspecified amount of time before The Age of Strife), the elves saw the primitive and often violent worship of men. The first thing elves did when they took this new people under its wing and taught them the way of civilization was to explain to them that if gods truly existed, they seemed rather unconcerned with the affairs of mortals and immortals. That any gods or spirits demanding bloodshed or living sacrifice was mostly a malign entity (as elves were very familiar with the ways of demons even before the coming of the Enemy), and as such any sacrifices offered to gods or spirits should be of a personal nature, either in the form of of time (prayers of thanks or meditation) or of skills (offerings of cooked meals, carved effigies, painted icons, etc.). Few man tribes rejected this teaching, thinking the elves trying to erase their culture, and became the barbaric tribes of today, still practicing bloodletting and animal sacrifice to appease their primordial deities and/or ancestral spirits. Many of those, however, became swayed by the Enemy thanks to such traditions, and became the wildlings (who sometimes offer sacrifice of sentient beings to the Enemy).

As such, religion in The Age of Shadow tends to be a very personal affair, and organized religion is almost unheard of. Any god, spirit, or "fairies" (if any) worshipped by a community will most likely be completely different than any gods, spirits, or "fairies" (again, if any) worshipped by the closest neighbouring community.

Still, there are many creation myths floating around, many contradicting each others or even themselves for that matter, while others being strangely similar to others (though, it is difficult to tell which inspired which)...

On halflings.

Halflings are a relatively recent addition, having appeared near the end of The Age of Strife. As many of the the tribes of man went to fight north, and were later granted the land to the east of the Lunuin River, moving there to settle their new home, much of their land to the south were now left bare and empty. It was a surveying expedition of dwarves from Gandagethul (or Hadothron as the elves call it) who first discovered the small folks settled in the gentle rolling hills at the foothills of the Arasgar Mountains a few decades into The Age of Shadow, and it looked like they had already been settled here for some times now.

Very little is known about the halflings. They claim to have migrated from further south, fleeing some other conflict beyond the Harnan Raith when they came upon the abandoned villages of "giants" (from their point of view). They decided to settle the area, trying to reuse and repurpose as much as the large empty homes that they found for their own use.

The race of man seems to think the little folk related to dwarves due to their small size, while the dwarves claim that the small folk must be an offshoot of the race of man as aside from their large hairy feet, they pretty much look like miniature men, and that their language and alphabet bears many resemblance to that of Mannish. The elves for their parts, were only concerned to find out if the strange small folks were not some agents of the Enemy. When they realized that the halflings preferred a simple living full of creature comfort, with good food, good tobacco, and cozy homes, it became quickly evident to the elves that the halflings were no threat, and as such the matter was settled for them.

Though the halflings possess no large settlements, their small communities are very welcoming and it is not rare to find the odd man, dwarf, or even elf living among the small folk.

Weather in the norther kingdom (and a calendar)

A year in TAOS is 364 days long, and divided into 12 moon cycles (months) a little over 30 days long, allowing for the solstices and equinoxes moons to be 31 days long instead.
Each moon is divided into 3 ten-days week, with the second week of the solstice and equinox moons having an extra day added in the middle of it.
Days of the moons are referred to as the phase of the moons. As such, the second day of Lenc-Ithron would be referred to as The Second Waxing of Lenc-Ithron, while the 13th day of the same month would be referred to as The Third Full of Lenc-Ithron.



The moons of the years are as follows.

Lenc-Ithron: roughly translates to "slow moon", it spans 30 days (beginning with the Harvest's End Festival), and is roughly equivalent to the month of November. Each day sees approximately 9 hours of daylight.

Nan-Denyr: roughly translates to "long-nights", spans 31 days (including the winter solstice), and is roughly equivalent to the month of December. Each day sees approximately 7 1/2 hours of daylight.

Daur-Ithron: roughly translates to "bleak-moon", spans 30 days, and is roughly equivalent to the month of Janurary. Each day sees approximately 9 hours of daylight.

Elith-Erain: roughly translates to "silver-days", spans 30 days (beginning with the Awakening Festival), and is roughly equivalent to the month of February. Each day sees approximately 10 1/2 hours of daylight.

Elith-Denyr: roughly translates to "silver-nights", spans 31 days (including the spring equinox), and is roughly equivalent to the month of March. Each day sees approximately 12 hours of daylight.

Nos-Melen: roughly translates to "rain-end", spans 30 days, and is roughly equivalent to the month of April. Each day sees approximately 13 1/2 hours of light.

Breth-Ithron: roughly translates to "fleet-moon", spans 30 days (beginning with the Festival of Life), and if roughly equivalent to the month of May. Each day sees approximately 15 hours of daylight.

Teth-Denyr: roughly translates to "short-nights", spans 31 days (including the summer solstice), and is roughly equivalent to the month of June. Each day sees approximately 16 1/2 hours of daylight.

Gad-Ithron: roughly translates to "bright-moon", spans 30 days, and is roughly equivalent to the month of July. Each day sees approximately 15 hours of daylight.

Mal-Erain: roughly translates to "gold-days", spans 30 days (beginning with the Summer Festival), and is roughly equivalent to the month of August. Each day sees approximately 13 1/2 hours of daylight.

Mal-Denyr: roughly translates to "gold-nights", spans 31 days (including the summer equinox), and is roughly equivalent to the month of September. Each day sees approximately 12 hours of daylight.

Nos-Heran: roughly translates to "rain-start", spans 30 days, and is roughly equivalent to the month of Octobre. Each day sees approximately 10 1/2 hours of daylight.

On the Elvish language.



I didn't want to make this post as to avoid monopolizing this thread (remember, I want you to participate as well), but in the game threads, I've seen mentions of switching from Elven to common speech and Quenya, so I thought I'd post what I know of The Age of Shadow's Elvish language.

First, as p.9 states, Elvish is the "common tongue", so there is no need to switch between the two. As for fluency and literacy, p.19 answers those questions: fluency requires a score of 50%, and literacy a score of 80%. Finally, concerning Quenya, while Kristian Richards did state somewhere on his blog that an earlier (possibly alpha) version of the game used Tolkien Elvish, he switched it to his own brand of Elvish to avoid legal troubles with Tolkien's estates... In a way, I think this was a wise decision (not only for a legal stand point) as it further differentiates Kristian's world from Middle-Earth. So yeah, TAOS's Elvish is not Quenya, it is its own entity.

So far, I scoured the various supplements to try and figure out as much as I could about the Elvish language. Here is what I gleaned so far, though for some words, I'm not entirely sure (as you can see from my notes). Perhaps there is more about Elvish on Kristian's blog, I'll check it out at some later time and edit this post appropriately.

A - and.
Alad - tree.
Am - for.
Amandess - shield maiden.
An - denotes a possessive form, similar to the "'s" or "of" in mannish.
Anda - iron.
Aras - wall.
Arothar - (the) king.
Arth - tomb.
~ath - suffix which denotes the plural form, for example "rithirath" means wardens or watchers. (though, for some reason, some words are in plural form even without the ~ath suffix... see the months' names for an example of that.)
Bach - curse.
Balgroth - wildling(s).
Bannon - road.
Breth - fleet.
Cauth - mound.
Corithen - (awake/wake/woke?) awoke.
Daur - bleak.
Delrim - felgrim(s).
Denyr - night(s).
Dirait - men.
Dranroth - beastling(s).
Elgarth - (forsake?) forsook.
Elith - silver.
Eragoth - vampire(s).
Erain - day(s).
Esan - veil.
Ethenath - elves.
Gad - bright.
Galarin - blessed-crystal.
Garn - stone.
Garnhath - shadow-stone.
Garnnil - stone-lady (so using garnhath above as a guide, "nil" probably means "lady").
Gist - lore.
Gorgoth - werewolf(ves).
Hath - shadow.
Heran - start.
Hurn - hound.
I - in.
Intha - bridge.
Iset - within.
Ithron - moon.
Lane - (fall?) fell.
Lenc - slow.
Lin - song.
Lirol - (sing/sang?) sings.
Lorin - quiet.
Mal - gold.
Melen - end.
Mindas - tower.
Nan - long.
Nos - rain.
Oborher - horse master.
Onno - gift.
Rafarlir - hunter.
Ragroth - demon lords/(the) Enemy.
Rithir - warden/watcher.
Rorg-Degnar - (the) wolf-slayer.
Roth - helm.
Sineth - (sleep/slept?) sleeps.
Sinn - now.
Sold - root.
Telgalil - starlight.
Teth - short.
Ulgarth - undeath.