Gotta get started with something. This is a redone version of my original cohost pinned post on my lore journal, reposted AGAIN from my Dreamwidth. I figure it'd be good to have something I can link to on any OC posts I put out.

In 2016 CE the Earth was Rended. an cataclysmic event of unknown origin, brought ruin upon to world. Somehow, humanity survived the upheaval of the old world, finding the an unrecognizable world. Survivors found themselves scattered across the savage new earth at random, building societies with people who didn't share their culture or language. Others found themselves lost in time, showing up decades or even centuries later. All this in a world wild with magic and that seemed intrinsically hostile to the technology that the old world was built on.

The World was shattered and unrecognizable, with those still on it trying to survive in savage landscapes, filled with wild magic. The very air seeming destructive to the technology of the Old World, while daemons, physical representations of humanity's myths and legends, ran rampant across the land.

Despite this, Humanity endured.

Those without language or culture in common came together to build something new. Societies learned from each other, merging into new, unique cultures. Without easy access to technology, old ways of life returned, as did inequality. The Soul made humanity stronger, but in increasing humanity's potential, so too did it create the conditions necessary for tyranny. The Era of Kings and Queens returned, as did war. As the harsh hellscape faded, Humanity's greatest enemy once again became itself.

Now, it is the 5th Century of the New Era. The Earth is green again. The chaotic wastelands of the past are almost long forgotten. The rules of magic have been studied and refined. Magic's abrasive force on technology has weakened in some places, allowing for the rise of great cities of machines and steel. Cultures and ethnicity have fused and where English, Mandarin or Hindi are not the standard language, pidgins and creoles fill the gaps. Many Old World Languages are now only known by nobility and scholars, a time in history that is quickly becoming a footnote, even while scavengers dig deep under mountains for now ancient artifacts.

Setting Concept

Brave Earth is a setting where fantasy tropes can fuse with anachronistic 'modern' element, while also being directly connected our real world history. Originally conceived as a setting that was flexible for a lot of my old RP groups, it's been refined and has changed a lot over the years. Most of the modern stories in the setting, including Brave Earth Prologue, happen across the continents of Aistoria and Simeria, which represent the ruins of what used to be Europe and Asia. Aistoria, a land of knights and magic and it's distant neighbor of Shiv, a land of technology and industry. While the anti-technological effects of magic keep these regions separate, cultural exchange leads to a weird blend of influences. Knights, in plate armor, but arming doublets of kevlar. Medieval-esque cities with "modern"ish stores and fashion trends that cross back and forth. A setting with a noble woman can learn fencing and magic and then go back to their castle to listen to pop music on their super expensive reinforced, magic resistant MP3 player. The setting is designed to be eclectic and a little eccentric in it's fusing of elements. While not a setting designed to permissive to anything like it was 20-something years ago, it is still a fairly flexible setting.

Magic, Fast

There will probably be a lot of writing on here about how magic in Brave Earth works, but the quick version:

The earth of surrounded by a film of 'soul' power. Humanity all have souls. Souls are the mirror of the self. The body tries to have parity with the soul. It is suspected that humans might not have had souls before the Rending of the Earth.

Souls make modern humans live longer, heal faster, and be stronger and more capable of being their ideal selves (with caveats). Magic manipulates 'loose' soul energy (aether), influencing it to do your bidding. Magic is a science, but oddly more of a social science. Magic runes and writing work because people believe in them, and this believe propagates in the loose souls (the 'Aether Field'). Studious mages have gotten magic to the point where it is practically programming, but many use magic intuitively.

Beliefs echoing through soul mass that surround the world also cause 'ideas' to pop into existence. These "daemons" are entities that 'act' like monsters or other creatures from human culture. An orc exists because people believe in them. It is violent because that's what people think orcs are.

Daemons are not sapient. They're like weird NPCs. They can appear intelligent but prodding them shows a lack of any real long term memory and very repetitious behavior patterns. While this is understood by many magical scholars, it is common for humanity to treat these things at face value (The Church of Aistoria sees a daemon of a Demon as a literal satanic Demon). Killing a daemon doesn't really kill it as much as it just pushes the energy back to the Astral Plane. There are also weird and complicated exceptions to all of this.

The Aether Field is naturally hostile to technology. Cars will stall, electronics will fry, and in particular, things like guns have a tendency to fail catastrophically in high magic areas. Large populations of people and human foot traffic seem to lessen this effect ("real" souls taking up space rather than the vague, soul like energy) allowing say, some cities in Astoria to have say, lighting and refrigeration. Some places in border regions can use more advanced tech, as long as it's more robust. Many tricks are used to try and protect technology from magic to try and extend its usefulness. Despite the separation of magic and tech, both types of cultures are well aware and knowledgeable of the other, as business and trade relationships kinda requires it. Places like Aistoria benefit from goods manufactured with technological processes and Shiv benefits from good made in Aistoria with magic processes.... OOOOR by cheap labor, you know how it goes.

While I feel like I'm still missing a lot, this is about as reasonable of a primer as I can hope for.