Our world had from the beginning always been separated from the realms of fantasy. An oddity that stood apart from the interconnected pieces of the Great Wheel, Earth lived out its fledgling years in isolation from its distant planar cousins and appeared none the worse for wear. Time passed, life developed, and the small blue orb spun on in ignorance of what else was out there.
But with new pathways opening every day, nothing stays hidden forever. It wasn’t long before tenuous links between these two dimensions began to solidify, portals popping up here and there that allowed travel, both intentional and accidental between the worlds of fantasy and those of what we once called “reality”, subjective though that term may be. People came and went between worlds, sometimes re-appearing in their native plane only seconds later, sometimes weeks or months, and sometimes not at all. Those who returned brought with them their memories of a land of wonder… and horror. Some lost their minds pondering over what they had seen while others chose to shove the experience away in some dark corner of their mind; just a bad dream that shouldn’t be dwelled upon.
Nonetheless, the stories were told; tales of dragons and giants, faeries and demons, spoken first in hushed whispers around a fire, then in exulted prose in grand theaters, and through the yellowed pages of old volumes. Bit by bit the fantasy became more a part of the reality; whether this was through some uknown power of the stories themselves or simply a natural, inevitable meeting of two worlds no one can say. But what is certain is that after thousands of years of accidental contact and half-remembered journeys, Earth found itself thrust upon the Great Wheel.
Starting just before the turn of the 20thcentury, Earth experienced an influx of the fantastic. It was a slow trickle at first, but as the millennia-old boundaries were weakened more and more portals opened up across the globe with more and more traffic flowing through them. Dwarves took up residence in the mountains of the Scottish Highlands, goliaths found the cold climes of northern Europe to their liking, and gnomes flocked to the urban centers of Britain and America, eager to entwine themselves in the industrial culture of this new world. Similarly, many earthborn humans packed their bags and sought to make a go of it on another plane. In a time when the old frontier was closing, innumerable new ones opened up, calling to this new generation of extraplanar pioneers. By the time of the Second World War, Earth was about as incorporated into the Great Wheel as any other plane or planet, though lingering unease and disbelief would persist for some time.
The game takes place in the year 2075 CE, nearly 200 years after the integration of Earth into the rest of the Great Wheel cosmology. Modern firearms have come into common use in the Planes, alongside cars, computers, and even limited cybernetic augmentations. Technology hit the Planes suddenly, however, and there are still many who lead a more primitive lifestyle, some out of preference but many out of tradition. It is not uncommon to see a Dwarven blacksmith hammering away at the beginnings of a longsword while next door a consumer electronics shop displays laptops in the front window and members of the new guard force patrol the streets with nine millimeter pistols on their hips and broadswords on their backs.
The central “hub” of the game is Sigil, the City of Doors. Branding itself as the “Crossroads of the Multiverse”, Sigil is split into various wards which occupy the inner surface of a torus-like structure sitting atop the infinitely tall Spire which is located at the center of the infinitely expansive Outlands. Ruled by the enigmatic Lady of Pain, this paradoxical metropolis serves as the unofficial heart of the Planes. There are few things that one cannot find in Sigil, and few places one cannot go by traversing one of the city’s innumerable portals, which serve as the only avenues of entry or exit from the city that locals have dubbed “The Cage”.
It is in this city and this strange new multiverse that our players attempt to make their way in life. Nothing is impossible, everywhere is within reach, and anyone could offer you the next big adventure that could make your fortune… or spell your demise.
Stark Raving Sane 