Adlanthea is a vast continent caught between old magic and a rapidly advancing industrial age. Ancient noble houses still hold immense political power, but railways, firearms, airships, clockwork machinery, and aether-driven invention are reshaping society faster than tradition can contain it.
At the heart of this transformation is aether, a naturally occurring form of concentrated magical energy. Refined aether powers lamps, engines, laboratories, communication systems, weapons, and much of Adlanthea’s modern infrastructure. Its discovery brought extraordinary prosperity, but dependence on it has also created new dangers no previous age was prepared to face.
Adlanthea remains unmistakably magical. Humans share its cities with elves, dwarves, tieflings, half-orcs, halflings, dragonborn, gnomes, and other peoples, while newer populations such as the Aetherborn, Clockbound, Cindren, Veyari, and Umbrin have emerged alongside the industrial age. Sorcerers and wizards walk the same streets as gunslingers, machinists, artificers, and aethermancers.
The continent’s great cities each embody a different piece of the modern age. Crownspire stands at the center of politics and high society. Emberholt feeds the continent’s hunger for industry. Vespera cultivates scholarship, fashion, and secrets. Aerwyn Reach commands the skies. Mourningvale studies death and the occult. Ironveil guards the dangerous edges of civilization.
But progress has not made Adlanthea safe.
Factories disturb ancient ground. Railways cross territories once left untouched. Aether exposure creates monsters, alters living beings, and causes phenomena scholars cannot fully explain. Old ruins awaken beneath new streets, while powerful factions compete to decide who will control the future.
Adlanthea is a world of velvet and soot, polished brass and ancient stone, noble etiquette and loaded pistols.
It is an age of invention.
Whether it becomes an age of ruin remains to be seen.