# Setting

**Generic medieval fantasy.** Swords and dungeons, bubbling cauldrons, candle-lit libraries, foggy moors, hooded figures. We lean on the player's existing fantasy vocabulary rather than building a world from scratch.

## What this means

- **No worldbuilding burden.** No proper-name continent, no original pantheon, no faction-history primer. The world is the world the player already knows from D&D, Warhammer Fantasy, Tolkien-descended fiction, *every fantasy game they've played*.
- **Standard vocabulary works.** Elves, dwarves, gnomes, orcs, mages, knights, druids, necromancers, paladins, rogues. Iron, mithril, oakwood, moonsilver, dragonscale. Forge, alchemy, enchantment. None of it needs explaining.
- **Standard visual library applies.** Stone keeps, oak doors, hearth-light interiors, tapestries, candles, ironwood doors, parchment maps, banded leather, plate armor, glass vials, clay pots.
- **Players bring their own headcanon.** When someone meets *Mira the Devout, paladin*, they fill in a paladin from their own imagination. We don't have to teach them what one is.

## What we explicitly don't include

- Science fiction, modern, or near-modern elements (no firearms beyond hand-cranked oddities in gnomish corners, no electricity, no laser-swords, no plasma, no holograms)
- Specific original-world lore ("This is Aelorian, the Eternal Realm of...")
- Original pantheons or religions that require setup
- Factional politics that need a primer
- Made-up vocabulary the player has to learn

## Flavor pockets (allowed sub-tropes)

These are well-established fantasy sub-tropes that give us visual / mechanical variety without breaking the generic-fantasy permission:

### Gnomish steampunk
- Visual vocabulary: brass, copper, gears, steam, monocles, goggles, leather aprons, clockwork creatures
- Item variety: clockwork fittings, gear-driven mechanisms, brass-tubed contraptions, pressure-glass vials
- Zone: a workshop enclave (think Gnomeregan / Mechanus / Dishonored's Karnaca lite)
- Patrons: tinker-magnates commissioning clockwork prosthetics, brass armor, steam-augmented weapons
- Tonal note: lightest pocket — quirky, inventive, not grim

### Dark elf necromancy
- Visual vocabulary: obsidian, bone, purple-black gemwork, ritual circles, drip candles, shadow-veins, sigils
- Item variety: necrotic reagents, bone components, cursed bindings, shadow-touched gems, soul-glass
- Zone: subterranean enclaves, ancient crypts, moonless groves
- Patrons: cabalists commissioning dark blades, anti-paladins in disguise, secret cults
- Tonal note: darkest pocket — sinister, secretive, not edgy-grimdark

### Mainline (the rest)
- Standard medieval-fantasy human / dwarven / elven / mixed cultures
- Standard knights, mages, druids, clerics, scholars, merchants
- Standard zones: forests, mires, ruins, mountains, river valleys, ancient roads
- Tonal middle — mature, atmospheric, neither gnomish-light nor dark-elf-shadowy

## Naming conventions (quick reference for procgen pools)

- **Human** names lean Latin / Germanic / Celtic roots: Theodric, Mira, Theora, Aelis, Bran, Caewin, Roderic, Una
- **Dwarven** names lean Norse / Germanic-hard: Brokk, Durin, Tora, Halgrim
- **Elven** (high) names lean Latin-flowing: Aelandir, Sylvana, Faedron, Elara
- **Dark elven** names lean sibilant / apostrophe: Vae'shar, Drael, Lys'thala, Karovar
- **Gnomish** names lean alliterative / quirky: Tinkin Tappet, Wibble Wickum, Glia Greaseworth, Pim Pendlebrass
- **Place names** use generic fantasy conventions: the Mire, the Ironwood, Greybell Hollow, Ashfen Marsh, the Cracked Tower, Last-Light Crossing

## Why this works for the game

- **Patron variety.** Three tonal pockets × multiple class archetypes = a wide patron board without needing original lore. A patron is "gnomish artisan named Glia who wants brass-fittings for a clockwork hawk" or "dark elf cabalist named Vae'shar who needs a cursed dagger pommel" or "Knight-Captain Roderic who wants ten Fine longswords for his guard."
- **Zone variety.** Three pockets × multiple environments = many distinct expedition destinations. Players see meaningful art variety without the world-building cost.
- **Recipe variety.** Mainline crafting + clockwork + necromantic = three overlapping but distinct material/component vocabularies in the recipe book.
- **Visual variety per zone.** The tone doc's muted palette guidance still applies, but each pocket gets its own warm-vs-cool / earthen-vs-shadowed bias.