Setting

[Mythras-HârnWorld is a medieval world, loosely equivalent to 12^th century Norman England, but with significant elements of fantasy added. The result is a world that keeps players grounded in reality. GMs can weave magical and fantastic campaigns (low magic also with dwarves, elves, and orcs) within a natural, plausible setting. Players respond to this, and its affects their attitudes and decisions. Encounters become thought provoking and carry emotional weight. Combat has consequences and is taken seriously.]

Hârn is an island off the western coast of the region of Venârivè (the northwestern part of the continent of Lýthia) on the planet Kèthîra, but as Hârn has traditionally been the focus of the setting, many people refer to the world as Hârn or HârnWorld. Hârn is notable for several reasons:

·       It has no 'evil' versus 'good' aspect that dominates many other FRPGs.

·       It has a high level of detail and internal consistency. A large number of individual cities, fortifications, towns, manors and adventure locations have been described down to the names of the peasant families residing there. In its immense detail it rivals other game worlds known for their depth, such as Tekumel.

·       It is also notable for its high level of realism and a concomitant low level of magic. Its societies are, for the most part, modeled closely on Earth during the Middle Ages (specifically, that of Norman Britain). Nonetheless, it has many of the standard trappings of fantasy, such as elves, dwarves, orcs, wizards, etc. Many of these have a unique Hârnic spin.

·       The written history and events of Hârn are current up to a specific point in time (midnight on the first day of the year 720), and there is no intention of "advancing" the official timeline beyond this point. The individual game masters control the history and events that occur after this point. Thus, all Hârn games are unique but spring from a common starting point.

The island of Hârn has seven human kingdoms and two kingdoms ruled by other species. In alphabetical order, these are:

• Azadmere is the home of the Khuzdul, the Hârnic dwarves.
• Chybisa is viewed as a struggling independent monarchy or a breakaway county of Kaldor.
• Evael is located along the southern coast and is the forest home of the reclusive Sindarian, the Hârnic elves.
• Kaldor is a feudal kingdom with a weak king. Located at the hub of four trade routes, it is a power in the east. It is perhaps the most detailed of all of the kingdoms.
• Kanday is a stolid, chivalric kingdom situated in the western part of the island of Hârn.
• Melderyn is the most ancient kingdom on Hârn, reputedly founded by wizards. It is located in the southeastern part of the island and claims a monopoly on trade with the Lythian continent.
• The northern land of Orbaal was once a collection of peaceful princedoms inhabited by the Jarin people (analogues of the British Celts) until it was conquered by the Ivinians (analogous to the Vikings). Now the Jarin are brutally suppressed, but some plot rebellion.
• Rethem is widely viewed as the "evil kingdom" but this is because its rulers value might and merit over birth and privilege (or, possibly, because its largest town was the base for a crusade by the church of the death-god Morgath). It is a kingdom born of war and beset by enemies on all sides.
• Tharda rose from the ashes of the former Corani Empire (as did Kanday and Rethem) and is the island's only non-monarchist state; its patron-client social structure is superficially similar to that of Roman Republic. Petty corruption and patronage are rife. The Republic is very ambitious in its territorial claims.

The island is also home to over a dozen human "barbarian" tribal nations and many bands of Hârnic orcs, known as gârgún.

The planet Kèthîra, on which Hârn is situated, is one of seven linked parallel worlds collectively known as Keléstia. Among the other worlds in the family are Terra (or Earth); Yàsháin, a high-magic world which is the afterlife of Kèthîra; Midgaad, a parallel of Tolkien's Middle-earth; and the Blessed Realm, a parallel of the land of the same name in Tolkien's works. It is suggested that the ancestors of Kèthîra's elves and dwarves came from Midgaad to Kèthîra; in the case of the elves this is a stopping off point on a longer journey to the Blessed Realm. Kèthîra's Sinái retain the custom of building swan-shaped ships in which they sail to the Blessed Realm when they weary of their time on Hârn (in this case sailing through a periodically appearing interworld portal known as the Nimeliant off Hârn's northeastern coast).

LANGUAGES:

The Sindarin, Khuzdul, and gargun each speak their own languages (Sindar, Khuzan, and Gargun respectively). 

Some Ivashu also speak their own language, Ivashi. See Scripts. 

Human languages on Hârn are:

·         Hârnic: The language, in one dialect or another, spoken by the majority of Hârnians.

·         Jarinese: An almost dead language used by the early Jarin settlers. Modern dialects of Jarinese are spoken by some tribes and by some stubborn Jarin.

·         Orbaalese: The mixture of Ivinian, Hârnic, and Jarinese commonly spoken in Orbaal.

·         Most Ivinians speak their own language (Ivinian) to each other. 

The Calendar

This is the year 720, in the Tuzyn Reckoning, which began with the founding of the Melderyn kingdom. Most civilized people follow this reckoning, and dates are suffixed with either TR (Tuzyn Reckoning) or BT (before Tuzyn).

There are twelve lunar months of 30 days, and 360 days in a year. The first of spring is also the first of the year. The 15th of the month (Yaelah) is the full moon, and the 30th of the month (Yaelmor) is the new moon. Both days are holidays in most of Hârn. Both the seven day week, and the tenday are used for reckoning shorter periods of time. Yaelah and Yaelmor fall between weeks.

The elves and dwarves keep a different calendar.

Climate and Weather

Hârn generally has cool summers and mild winters. Fog, drizzle and overcast skies are the norm. Hârn has been described as having no climate, only weather. What the crops lack in the way of sunlight is balanced by an overabundance of rain.

The cool, moist weather promotes extensive deciduous woodland, with evergreen forests and alpine tundras at higher elevations. Moorlands are found along some windward coasts.

The seas around Hârn are famous for their rough and unpredictable waters.

Coinage

There are no bronze or copper coins in Hârn. The standard coin is the penny, abbreviated by the symbol “d”, which is about 1/16 an ounce of silver, debased no more than 10%. Pennies may be broken in ha’pennies and farthings. Each walled city mints its own coins under royal privilege.

Barter is very common, and virtually the only form of trade among the barbarian tribes. Notes of credit and other similar instruments also exist, but these are primarily for the use of sea captains and merchants.

The general economy in civilized areas can be surmised from the average wages for various occupations. Farm hands earn one penny a day, longshoremen can make up to two pennies a day, and teamsters up to three pennies a day. The guilded occupations can earn from two to four pennies a day.

Religions

·         Agrikanism remains the dominant religion among the kingdom's nobility and is closely linked to the crown. Its various orders possess a goodly amount of land throughout the kingdom-- particularly in strategically important border territories, although the loss of three keeps to Kanday in Ezar's War has grievously hurt the Company of the Copper Hook.

o   The only threat to the church seems to be its own fractiousness: more loyal to their individual orders than to the offices of bishop, primate, or even pontiff-- they generally act independently and frequently feud with each other.

o   A few high-ranking Agrikans have been calling for a massive crusade of all the orders against some enemy (either Kanday, Tharda, or the Kuborans) in the hopes that such an endeavor might bring greater unity to this deeply divided church, but the idea appears to have fallen largely on deaf ears.

·         The church of Morgath is the only real rival to Agrikan supremacy in Rethem. Golotha remains the bastion of Morgathianism in the kingdom (and indeed on all of Hârn).

o   Since 690 or so, a tacit alliance between the church of Morgath and the dominant Agrikan order has resulted in increased influence, stature, and authority for both.

·         Halea has a sizable number of worshippers among merchants and guildsmen in the kingdom-- and has even attracted the interest of a handful of nobles-- but the church wields little power and is frequently under attack.

o   Golotha is home to the kingdom's only Halean temple, which officially has the right to appoint one member of the city's Heptarchial Council, but those who openly profess devotion to the goddess are often found brutally murdered. Thus, the Halean seat has remained unfilled for the past two years.

·         The churches of Save-K'nor and Ilvir maintain small temples in Golotha but have few followers-- and like the Haleans, followers of these gods generally deem it wise to keep their faith to themselves.

·         The church of Larani is banned throughout the kingdom.

·         Ironically, while Peoni worship is officially forbidden, most farmers and peasants are discreet followers: small Peoni shrines are scattered throughout the countryside.

o   The secular authorities generally ignore the activities of wandering Peonian clerics, because their church does not involve itself in politics," but in regions where the churches of Morgath or Agrik are strong (e.g. Golotha), such mendicants may be severely punished.

o   A handful of nobles, including the Earl of Tormau, have openly called for lifting the Peonian ban as long as it stays out of politics and helps to ensure a docile peasantry.