Eldritch Empires is my homebrew campaign setting. It is the culmination of years of work that I was finally able to complete as a direct result of 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons, and its very approachable, streamlined, design. It started in 2nd edition, and I continued working on it through 3rd and 3.5 but due to the difficulties of coming up with homebrew material for both of those rules sets, I could never finish the work. Eldritch Empires at its heart is a fairly typical high fantasy Dungeons & Dragons setting. Despite this it has its own flavor and its own uniqueness throughout.

During the Dawn War, the gods imprisoned a great threat to their newly formed world within its core. This entity sleeps within the core even now, and the world’s magic weave is dedicated to trapping the entity. Thus arcane magic, when cast, pulls from the substance of the core itself, and weakens it. However there is a way to avoid this – the use of eldritch crystals. Eldritch crystals are crystalized growths of excess magic from the core that grow in areas where ley lines are strong.

The dragons taught the lesser races of magic and the use of the crystals, and empires formed and grew. These empires relied heavily on magic to function and they had even found ways to synthesize eldritch crystals. At some point, several centuries ago, a mad priest sought to awaken the entity in the core. This led to a war that many thought would end with the destruction of the world. It was stopped but not before he nearly completed his task and causing a sundering of the world.

The great empires are now dead, ripped apart by primal arcane forces. The continents are now separated and distant from one another. Despite the destruction various peoples survived the sundering. At this time those people have managed to rebuild and form small nations that now exist. Centuries have passed since the sundering, and each of the nations has had their troubles, but on the brink of several of them becoming great once again, it seems that darkness is rising from the vast wilderness that separates these nations. Heroes will rise to fight against this growing tide of darkness. Heroes will be called upon to protect the nations that so many have worked so hard to build. Now more than ever, heroes are needed.