N'FERRA™

Welcome!

Welcome to N'Ferra; a realm of imagination, adventure, and wonder. In N'Ferra, anything can happen. Here you can find lost civilizations, horrors beyond compare, heroic explorers, brilliant scientists, merchant princes, thieves, priests, mages, villains who seek to conquer whole worlds, and the heros who wish to defeat them.

In many ways, N'Ferra is very different from earth. Here, magic exists, and the powers of the mind and spirits are very real. Still, in N'Ferra people are still people, with many of the same dreams, hopes, and fears of people everywhere. Much of N'Ferra is comparable to the Earth of the opening days of the 20th century. Much is known and great advances can be seen daily, but much is still unknown, and dangers lurk in strange corners.

If N'Ferra has a single theme (which can be debated), it is the idea of progress. The people of N'Ferra believe that problems can be solved. It may take a long time, but they firmly believe that every problem has a solution, and if the solution leads to problems of its own, those can be solved in turn. That is not to say that every solution is worth trying, some cost more than they are worth. In these opening years of a new age, N'Ferra faces many problems; and many opportunities. Of course, nearly any type of campaign can be run in the sphere.

Though N'Ferra has known of other sentient races for hundreds of years, only recently has the 'average' person come in contact with other races. Within N'Ferra, Humans are just one of thirteen races; ranging from the catlike Nurha to the alien insectile Nye and the outre plantlike Bine. The contact between differing races and cultures has resulted in friction and conflict. In years not long past, the entire sphere was at war, with race set against race. Even today, after the formation of the Confederacy, there is a great deal of conflict between the different races and cultures. There are also the undead, parasites on the other races, who have their own agenda.

Though the formation of the Confederacy has prevented further system-wide wars, it is, in many ways, a government without teeth. It often seems that every organization is trying to increase their own power, most often at the expense of their rivals and the Confederacy itself. Furthermore, there are nearly as many ideas as to how the Confederacy should be governed as there are people. Many of these factions are willing to listen to others, but many are not. Still, it seems likely that the fall of the Confederacy would only result in the destruction of N'Ferra by factions from within and without.

It was just a few years ago that N'Ferra learned the secret of dimensional travel, and exploded into the greater continuum. Magical ships travel the void between worlds and alchemal gates lead to realms where the laws of nature are different indeed. Now they must face the challenge of guarding their borders from those unfriendly to them and dealing with the new ideas that further trade and travel bring. N'Ferra's church (the Ministry of Inquiry) is most affected by this. No longer can they deal solely with the familiar, they must stretch to deal with alien viewpoints and religions, and this has resulted in some minor fractures in the church.

Much wealth was created when the different races first came in contact with each other, but that is nothing compared to today. New developments in travel and communications, and new ways of doing things appear near daily, and great profits can be made by the trader or entrepaneur who is willing to take a few risks. Though the general standard of living is rising, this is still far below the wealth of the merchant princes and companies. In several cases, such companies rival local governments in power, and are willing to do nearly anything to maintain or increase their power.

Exploration and Research are the ideal occupations in N'Ferra. Still in many parts of N'Ferra there exist people who have little contact with the cultures that dominate the sphere. Contact with these people is ongoing, and ranges from those who wish to exploit these 'primitives' to those who simply wish to see them prosper. On the other hand, research into the Powers is ongoing, and while there are many who use the powers for good, many have fallen into the temptation of using their powers for selfish and malicious acts.

Introduction

In N'Ferra you will encounter a realm where people have developed many different ways of controlling their environment. Some of these ways will be fairly familiar (Technology and Magic). Others will be extremely esoteric (Spiritualism and Planetology). Each is distinct from the others, and they interact in different ways.

28 planets and innumerable worldlets present unlimited opportunities for exploration and adventure. If this is not enough, the recent discovery of the means to access other worlds means that individuals from N'Ferra could appear in nearly any realm or campaign.

(N'Ferra once had a PBEM campaign. Though I have discovered my gaming style is not suited to running PBEMs, I would welcome anyone who wishes to run a PBEM set in N'Ferra.)

History

The First Age (The Golden Age, ~5,000 years): In the first age Ferris creates the races and permits them to expand and dominate their worlds. Ferris selects one individual from each race and creates the first immortals. On all the worlds, population expands faster than communications, creating many small nations with differing governments covering their whole world.

Eventually, communications improve to the point to make governing larger areas feasible. Hostilities (and alliances) between the differing viewpoints consolidate the smaller nations, uniting them into larger areas. Several immortals rebel against Ferris, and he destroys all but one of them.

The Second Age (The Age of Heros, ~3,500 years): As the races outgrow their social controls, sleeping monsters waken. They proceeded to devastate the large nations, halting communications and slowing transportation routes.

To combat the monsters, heros arise, forcing cultures to change and adapt. In some lands, heros become very important as people trade their services to the heros in order to obtain the protection of their special powers. Ferris selects replacements for those immortals who had rebelled. Some heros become worse than the monsters they combat, while others are corrupted into Chaos Knights.

As time passes Ferris gives the heros, now nobles, the gifts of nobility, linking their bloodlines with the land itself. By doing this, a noble draws on the power of his land to fight better, and affect anything on his land almost as easily as if s/he were touching it.

The Third Age (The Age of Exploration, ~1,500 years): With most of the monsters destroyed politics became the order of the day. Some nations grow to cover most of their worlds, others remain tiny. The major cultures on each of the worlds improve to the point where they began to systematically explore their worlds. In doing so they meet with cultures of other beliefs and practices. While a few cultures are wiped out in this exchange, Ferris tries to assure the expansion is broad-minded and two-way.

The Fourth Age (The Age of Chaos, ~350): The races start to spread out from their worlds. Small groups of all the races set out to found colonies among "the stars." Most colonies survive, but at a much reduced level of knowledge from the main planets. Sooner or later they encounter the other races of the sphere. Massive upheavals take place as the races adapt to the idea that they are not alone. Spelljamming develops in the middle part of this age.

The Fifth Age (The Present): The races of N'Ferra solve the problem of dimensional travel. They begin to travel all over the continuum.

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