THE DARKPLANE SETTING

In 2015, Darkplane: A Campaign Setting raised over $33,000 on Kickstarter and BackerKit to publish the campaign guide book. This was my first effort in TTRPGs and taught me lots of valuable lessons. Because it wasn’t intended as a commercial product, the finished book was Kickstarter exclusive and isn’t available any longer. This site has become a landing page for all my work, including occasional Darkplane projects (you can find some on DriveThruRPG).

WEIRD HORROR IN FIFTH EDITION

The Darkplane universe is a campaign setting for fifth edition that blends weird horror with a rich, culturally diverse history. Darkplane adventures rely on an overarching, seductive sense of dread and mystery. It’s about cults, hauntings, twisted monsters, and breaking away from moral simplicity.

While it has elements of high fantasy, it won’t take you long to see that this is not a setting modeled on Medieval Europe. It pulls from the mythologies and folklore of many different cultures in an attempt to support a wide array of horror stories. The mortal world, Vinramar, can be a perilous place, whether you’re eluding witch-hunts in Trentsmund’s colonial provinces, searching forgotten ruins for the secrets of the cosmos, or taking desperate flight from the cannibal-infested wastelands that once were the kingdom of Welluxia.

Here are a few ways that the Darkplane setting changes the core assumptions of a campaign.

The World Appears Mundane. To the everyday inhabitants of Vinramar, magic is only a dark legend. Half-believed traditions of the supernatural prevail among common folk—whispers of spirits, strange magic, and unexplained terrors—but few people come in contact with such things. Darkplane campaigns focus on those special few.

Perilous Horrors Hide Under Every Stone. Beneath the façade of the everyday world lies a nightmare realm, the true reality that would drive common folk to madness. Magic is rare and dangerous. Vengeful abominations creep into the natural world from other dimensions, sowing chaos and fear. Frightful vestiges of pre-human civilizations lie hidden in the earth, and some of their immortal denizens live unseen among mortals. When such supernatural forces come in contact with average people, the scars they leave are deep and troubling.

God is Dead. Shortly following the creation, the supreme creator Sowm was killed by Her son Daemoth, plunging the Heavens into an endless war. The key players in this conflict are unfathomable gods who rarely visit the mortal realm, but their followers are all too eager to drag the world through millennia of bloodshed and carnage. These priests might be charlatans, sages, or warmongering vipers, but if their faith is sufficient they can channel powerful wonders.

Industrial Revolution Has Created Wide Technology Gaps. Some cultures resort to ancient practices like hunting and gathering to survive, while others have developed specialized crafts such as printing and glass blowing. In Trentsmund, steam power has irrevocably changed the kingdom’s infrastructure. Traffic between these societies is still limited enough to preserve the technological disparity.

The Darkplane Encompasses All. The four worlds are surrounded by an endless void beyond natural reality, called the Darkplane. The Darkplane is populated and ruled by mysterious aberrant powers so unnatural that their comprehension is beyond mortal minds. The god Daemoth’s slow conquest of the Darkplane has driven these alien horrors into the four worlds, where their presence infects and twists natural creatures into unspeakable aberrations.

What's a Campaign Setting?

In tabletop roleplaying games, a group of players tell a collaborative story. Most players have a single character whose actions they control, and the Game Master (GM) plays the world around those characters (enemies, allies, environments, plotlines, etc.). He or she acts like a director, focusing the storytelling and keeping everything running smoothly while the group spins a compelling yarn. Everyone that plays acts as writer, performer, and audience member.

A campaign setting is a written guide to the world where the story takes place. It offers a unique fictional world for the storytellers to play in. That's what Darkplane is.

This is not your typical high fantasy world. Most magic is dangerous and rare, seen as a forbidden art. Humans, who make up the vast majority of the world’s population, don’t look lightly on the uncanny or the supernatural. There are no elves, dwarves, no halflings, no orcs—at least not in their traditional forms. In short, this setting is meant to challenge many clichés of fantasy roleplaying. But above all, it’s meant to frighten and delight you.

A DIVERSE WORLD

The world of Vinramar is divided into World Regions, with each operating as a self-contained setting. Of course a single adventure could take you to several locations across the world, but if you prefer to build a home base and adventure on a smaller scale, each region offers distinct peoples, history, and adventure themes.

ARROCHULE

Campaigns set in Arrochule can make use of the region’s rich history. As one of the cradles of civilization, it has seen countless cultures, wars, and tragedies. The memory of such events lies heavy on the land, and gives it great character.

Arrochule’s cities are built on the ruins of previous settlements. Each one can tell a unique story as adventurers descend into hidden passageways, catacombs, and temples that have far outlived the empires that built them. Such places might contain pieces of an ancient artifact, forgotten chants, sacred sites of power, or clues to the identity of jharethil hiding in plain sight among the people.

This region is the birthplace of the jharethil, children of remote celestials whose hidden cities fled the misery of the mortal world only to be forced to watch it rot from above. Arrochule is likewise home to the Eitharmos, an order of demonic crusaders whose salvation depends on rooting out the surviving jharethil.

Arrochule is a good launching point for Darkplane campaigns because it lies at the center of this great conflict in the setting, but also because it is a cultural and geographical center. Hundreds of merchant vessels come in and out of the region’s ports each day, bound for lands as far as Trentsmund or Arwest. If you wish to introduce your players to many different cultures, putting them on a ship out of Arrochule is a great first step.

ARWEST

Blood is shed daily in Arwest. The powder keg of fear has been lit by rumors of Vampire resurgence to the east, and many factions now scramble to compete for limited resources. Urban locales like Farlithia and Faerras stand out against the desolate wilderness that surrounds them. Access to both makes adventuring in Arwest a lesson in opposites.

Faerras is a city particularly well suited as a starting point for any game. Being a human settlement within short distance of empty wilderness, werekin territory, and the vampire homeland, it can serve as a base for diverse adventures. It’s also a place where refugees and immigrants have gathered from most parts of the world, allowing you to get a taste of many cultures without going far.

Werekin characters are sometimes defined by their relationship to others of their kindred. How they interact with the pack says a lot about who they are as individuals. Since Arwest is the only region where werekin live in large numbers, it offers the chance to explore how these characters relate to the larger community to which they may or may not belong.

CHAYRSHELLECH

Within the cliffside cities of Chayrshellech, the heathfolk keep a high standard of living. Tough as nails, but with the souls of poets, education is of utmost importance in their culture. Universities wield political authority here, forming governments comprised of professorial administrators that counsel and provide for the people.

Magic is the subject of significant dispute among the heathfolk nations. Hundreds of years ago, the Yaelcar led a cultural revolution, rejecting the tradition of folk magic that is as old as heathfolk history itself. Separated by the past and barreling toward different futures, the Yaelcar and their Northern Kin each carry their banner, insisting to the world that their own dogma is the better destiny for the region of Chayrshellech.

GOLTARAIM

Goltaraim lies on a critical juncture between East and West. Thousands of vessels cross the Strait of Imokh and the Sea of Jassaid every day. Vibrant markets filled with the exports of a hundred nations serves to draw even more traffic to it ports. This multicultural crossroads has cultivated an environment of cultural collectivism, justice, and mutuality—by and large, human and telmatra no longer consider themselves separate peoples.

It is among the warring merchant princes that murder and malice turn profit. The nations built beneath the yoke of privileged bloodlines are nearing revolution. The Goltari League, which keeps the ruling families of the region at peace, is in silent war with the people whose interests it claims to protect.

The shining sands of Goltaraim hide terrible wonders. While merchants scramble like mice to hoard their banal coin, strange and forgotten secrets of primordial power lie buried beneath their feet. A chance discovery or encounter can transform a character’s life in sublime and horrific ways.

ILJUDHEIM

The lands of Iljudheim were first settled by Feiren and Culfirith, the first of the Fey Children. From early on, their people were hounded by demonic creatures that wandered aimless in the North during Daemoth’s exile. The harrowing of the Fey culminated in the death of their goddess Forlortha, who fled to the world Iltallach as a mad spirit. Claiming Iltallach for her Fey Children, Forlortha opened a dimensional rift allowing passage between that world and present-day Oruna.

During the Great Winter centuries later, ice caps from the south spread across many Fey lands, rendering them inhospitable. The archfey Telwyn swayed thousands of his people to flee through the Fey Gate en masse. In their zeal to renounce their ancestral lands, the apostates sealed the portals, leaving many hundreds of their people stranded in Iljudheim and Arwest. These unfortunate stragglers became the elves: a wild, callous folk that prowl the hidden lands of Iljudheim.

Humans first appeared in Iljudheim about 5,000 years ago, trailing south from Motta. From the beginning, the elves frightened the humans, who populated their legendry with fearful warnings about dealing with such beings, not all of which were unwarranted.

Minor skirmishes across the region escalated tensions until there was widespread war in Iljudheim. Over the millennia, the elves have receded deeper and deeper into the wild. Campaigns set in Iljudheim draw on this overarching conflict between the mortal domain and the perilous, inexplicable realm of the elves.

MOTTA

Motta has always been a land of religious fervor ruled by the merciless. The Homam Telberzah, holy writ of the Etholchan Church, names the city of Motta itself as the ancient site of Maromutalcoth, where for millennia the god Daemoth held court with his monstrosities.

Since that forgotten age, the region has become a holy land for crusaders and pilgrims of every Daemothite sect, ruled by a diverse and enduring empire.

Whether farming in Iarmuto’s river valley, scribing in the imperial courts, or eking a living among the shoals of Ocalatnoloset, the Mottan way of life is a forced dependence on community. Without significant wilderness anywhere in the region, Mottans are connected in a way that’s rare in Vinramar. At times this creates a sense of cooperation and belonging, but more often it means sectarian competition and ostentatious hauteur.

Motta is a vibrant and diverse backdrop. It lends itself well to campaigns that revolve around intrigue, infiltration, and urban adventure. Powerful religious factions are at constant odds with the empire, its dissident neighbors, and each other. If your players want to wage holy war, civil war, or just skulk around in the shadows cast by these conflicts, Motta is the place.

THE NORLYTHE

While dark and unpredictable, the forest of Olmeníhue is home to various Quitzál and gugrum cultures. These city-based clans each contain a hierarchy of tribute, with conquered cities paying their subjugators in goods and labor. Despite having nominal power over their network of tributary cities and villages, clan chieftains rarely exert authority over affairs outside their own city walls.

The wonder and peril of the frontier is the heart of any story set in the Nolythe. Adventures here reveal the horror of both the wild and civilization. The settlers encroaching on the forest and the tribes that swear to defend it are equal victims of primordial cruelty. Those who draw close to the earth may come to embody its callous brutality, while those who place their confidence in the work of their own hands grow as cold as the tools they wield. Adventurers often learn to fear all paths.

The Norlythe is a good setting in which to explore themes common in the American Gothic subgenre: sacrificing one’s humanity to gain knowledge, the human desire to separate oneself from what one considers grotesque or foreign, and the horror of discovering that you’ve become that which you loathe.

SYRIKHAL

Though Syrikhal was among the first regions settled by humans, its inland reaches are still buried in jungle, where the straggling remains of pre-human abhorrence linger undiscovered. The dragonborn clans that populate the tropical forests descend from the Empire of Daragoch, which crossed the Black Ocean and claimed present-day Syrikhal before humans even set foot here.

Aberrant threats lurk hungrily in the shadows of the jungle, held back by the Humenhi Wayfarers—dedicated monks who have sworn to keep planar threats at bay. It’s never been clear which came to Syrikhal first, the monks or the Darkplane aberrations, but their desperate dance over the fate of the mortal world has lasted centuries. In this region the need for a disciplined mind and a strong hand is real.

The ascetic religion of the Humenhi Wayfarers is a binding cultural force among the humans who live in Syrikhal. They symbolize discipline, enlightenment, restraint, and mutual trust. Whether these precepts can withstand the abominable presence of the Darkplane is yet to be seen.

TRENTSMUND

From humble beginnings, this region rose to become seat of the world-choking empire that is its namesake. Trenstmund’s is a history of unlikely greatness—and a warning of the perditious corruption such greatness can bring. To the Trentsmunders, machinery is a symbol of life. Automation and steam power are now the fuel that runs the engine of its economy.

The true heroes of Trentsmund are seldom recognized because they Fight invisible threats that would chill the blood of prosaic folk. Some investigate hauntings and paranormal threats, others walk in the circles of the demimonde—the underground community of criminals, hedonists, and libertines. Common to such company is an interest in the dark arts, a pursuit too preposterous (or perhaps too dangerous) for prudent minds.

Your investigations in Trentsmund might lead through the narrow cobblestone streets of a factory district, along the dotted path of streetlamps that strain to penetrate the coal-fire smoke, or into the parlor of a psychic cult. Behind any door may wait horrors in human clothing.

WELLUSK

Its proud cities now in ashes, Wellusk is an expansive ruin inhabited mainly by the bloodthirsty quasi-vampires that have succumbed to the vorruc blight. These packs of ravenous hunters band together, often mimicking the uninfected in pursuit of living flesh and blood to consume. Humans who have survived the desolation find they must stay out of sight, scavenge what sanitary food they can, and cling to the faint hope that they will one day escape or rebuild.

Some say the effort to cleanse the region has already begun, as the widowed and orphaned take shelter in ruined sanctuaries, forming new bonds in new communities. Old grudges have been done away. Now there are only the living, the dead, and those in between. To the homeless and forsworn, more than ever before, the true enemy is clear: the vampire legions of Perrith Gorr.

But that enemy hasn’t shown its face in five years. Since the vampire host withdrew beneath its cerement, speculation runs wild among the surivors in Wellusk. Whatever the reason, it’s clear that the god-emperor of Perrith Gorr never intended to rule the ruin his legions left behind. He was content to unmake it, and leave the rest of Vinramar to ponder what terrible wonders will follow.

Parties adventuring (or surviving) in Wellusk tend to have one of two goals: adapt or escape. Those who refuse to abandon their home find nesting to be a difficult proposition, but if they can obtain allies, supplies, and a defensible shelter, they have a chance. Many can last for some time in such circumstances. Escape, on the other hand, sounds far easier than it is. With ships shunning the region and nearby settlements all flooded with refugees, survivors need every ounce of cunning and determination to put this devastation in their past.

THE FOUR WORLDS

The inner worlds of the Darkplane universe are four planets. Iltallach, Vinramar, and Morvugol orbit Salvendum, the central world. Each of these four worlds shelters unique life forms, creatures whose origins are connected to the history of their given home. The environments they dwell in surpass the diversity of Vinramar, reaching into the splendid and horrific realm of the supernatural. Gods and monsters rule these places directly, making them perilous for mortals to enter.

THE DARKPLANE

In the abyss beyond the four worlds, alien horrors reign. This is the Darkplane, the vast space that surrounds natural reality. It’s populated and ruled by mysterious aberrant powers so unnatural that their full comprehension is beyond mortal minds. Darkplane influence is always connected with madness, physical anomalies, and the overarching fear that the universe’s true nature is malignant and alien.

There are several deities connected to the Darkplane, most notably Daemoth, his mutant bride Maruma’e, Senfaer, and the unknowable horror Igundadosh, sometimes called the True Mother. All four have dealings both in and outside the four worlds. This perilous traffic to and from the Darkplane brings aberrant life forms to the mortal world, where they infect, distort, or otherwise threaten the very integrity of reality.

Mimessarchs—mortal beings that have been physically and mentally twisted by the infectious influence of the Darkplane—can be found scattered about Vinramar. Their alien deformities bear witness to the fate of unfortunate souls who enter the Darkplane or cross paths with its denizens.

Several locations within the Darkplane have entered into Vinramar’s legendarium, such as Dolodiri, the chaos-nebula, and Daemoth’s Abyssal Throne. Little is told of such places, but those who dwell there are known to occasionally influence events in the four worlds.

The Abyssal Throne

Daemoth’s abode is a banished world called the Abyssal Throne. It exists between the universe and the Outer Realms, wholly enveloped by the Darkplane. Here the fiends, monstrosities, aberrations, and countless slaves of Daemoth carouse and wallow in the filth of eternity. It is a place of unimaginable misery and grueling dark, where pleasure can only be found in depravity and contempt for what is wholesome.

Dolodiri

The god Silphenor dwells in Dolodiri, a tumultuous nebula deep within the Darkplane. This domain is also called Limbo, the Dross, or the Reap of the Unwanted. It is the resting place of the unclaimed dead, whose life and loyalty were unworthy of another god’s domain.

GIRUTZE

Girutze, the wandering star, is home to Senfaer, the primordial god of order. His followers depict Girutze as a great silver horse, on which Senfaer wanders the universe in search of truth and hidden mysteries. From this mobile domain, he places stars within the Darkplane, waypoints that protect natural creatures from the oppressive void.

THE HIYORUGH

Once a great orb that powered the sun and housed Sowm’s spirit, the Hiyorugh became a desecrated vessel for the soul of Daemoth after he killed the Mother that Was. It now lies in the possession of Gauren, Daemoth’s prodigal child. Using the Hiyorugh as a titanic body, Gauren steers the planet through the Darkplane, exploring the Outer Realms and serving Daemoth’s pleasure.
Devils and their minions live on the surface of the Hiyorugh, eternally plotting to seize control of it from their infernal progenitor.

THE OUTER REALMS

Daemoth’s explorations in the Darkplane have revealed the presence of many worlds and planes far beyond the reach of mortal conception, which seem to house aberrations of infinite variety. Daemoth has slowly conquered vast stretches of these Outer Realms, and thus introduced many aberrant life forms to the four worlds. Gods, slaves, and refugees from the Outer Realms have poured into some areas of Vinramar, inciting horror and madness wherever they appear.

RELIGION

Religious and cultural conflict are central to the Darkplane setting. The gods have inspired myths, philosophical movements, and bitter conflict throughout Vinramar's history, but they're also richly developed characters whose natures and stories are interwoven with mortal and immortal creatures alike.

The word god can invoke many different concepts. In the Darkplane universe, gods are beings that have achieved a higher level of awareness. Some resemble classical gods, with bodies that can take various forms. Others are powerful spirits, visible only when they wish to be. Still others manifest as elemental forces. What these beings have in common is incredible intelligence and the ability to perceive all forms of matter at once, including much not seen by mortals.

Vinramar, the mortal world, has become the battleground for many divine conflicts. Mortals can thus find themselves in the service of various gods through religious organizations, personal spirituality, or occasionally by force. The gods rarely manifest themselves openly, even to those who serve them, but you can make their presence felt in any story through the actions and agendas of their followers. Maybe a priest with ulterior motives becomes the party’s employer, or perhaps player characters become the quarry of zealots looking for souls to feed to their god’s graven image.

Hi, I'm Graham Ward: writer, stage actor with AEA, and GM for hire. I’m an award-winning GM at Baldman Games and work as a TTRPG designer and editor, with credits on products from D&D Adventurers League, The Last Caravan, GrymWyrd, and Bite-Sized Gaming. You can see more of my work as resident GM, livestream producer, and content manager at Ghostlight RPGs. Contact me at darkplanecampaign@gmail.com or follow my newsletter and social media feeds to stay in the loop.

Darkplane is created by Graham Ward, with concepts and writing by Kristy Eager, Michael Eager, Adam Rodger, and others.