Ascendancy: the Far West (a Developing Setting for a Narrative Game)

**Anti-Eagle** · 2020-01-05, 06:44 PM (ISO 8601)

Ascendancy: the Far West

Hello. This is my third attempt at running my homebrewed game systems, built off of games that came before it. To give you an idea of events so far and where we are... "Mythopoeia" was a game about gods and nations rising in the world. "Only Ruins" was a world barely held together after an apocalypse set in the future of the world of Mythopoeia, in which people were trying to begin again amongst the ruins of an age of wonder. "Ascendancy" is a game set 726-826 years in the future of that world as society begins to come together again. "The Far West" is set in this time period on a continent to the West relatively unaffected and ignorant of the rest of the world.

Below is a thread index, this is to be an introduction to the rules and the setting with details to be filled in over time. Currently I'm developing the rules and setting guides for the Far West and 2000. I'll keep anyone interested in the loop as best as I can. Feel free to speak, discuss, and critique should you feel the need to in the Discord or OOC thread in the forums. I'll be patching holes and building upon things as directed and as I see need to.

Spoiler: Mythopoeia Thread Links

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Original Recruitment: https://v1.escapistmagazine.com/foru...-RP-Now-closed
Second Recruitment: https://v1.escapistmagazine.com/foru...iting#21144859
Game Thread: https://v1.escapistmagazine.com/foru...losed#20769330
Group: https://v1.escapistmagazine.com/grou...thopoeia-group

Record Thread: https://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=485175

Spoiler: Only Ruins Thread Links

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Setting Thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?506647
Rules Thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?506645
Original Recruitment Thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?506837
Second Recruitment Thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?522244
Third Recruitment Thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?545504
Out-Of-Character Thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?508062
Game Thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?508138

Setting: https://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=482264
Rules: https://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=482265
Applications: https://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=482266
Sheets: https://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=482267
Maps: https://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=482269

Spoiler: Ascendancy 1900 Thread Links

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Spoiler: Ascendancy 2000

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Main Links
Mythweavers Forum: https://www.myth-weavers.com/game.php?g=32204
Grand Index: https://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=478805
World Anvil: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/ascendancy-luminen-walker
Tumblr: https://luminenwalker.tumblr.com/
Discord: https://discord.gg/EeHvCUk

Setting
Overview: https://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=478801
Existential Threats: https://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=483905
a Light in the Dark: https://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=483735

Spoiler: The Far West

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**Anti-Eagle** · 2020-01-05, 06:45 PM (ISO 8601)

Spoiler: Quetzals, the Wings of Death

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the Quetzals
Wings of Death

Spoiler: Art

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Role: Imperial Cult (Primary Concept)

Alignment:
- Lawful Evil (Traditional)
- White/Red (Colour Wheel)

Symbol (Marks): Three drops of blood in a triangular pattern.

Race: Quetzals, cousins of the noble Krakari in the East, are an avian race with sharper more aggressive features and deep hungers born of their creator god.

Long, lean and lithe, the Quetzals have rainbow feathers varying in coloration as much as human's hair and eye colours. Their faces carry large eyes for spotting prey from afar and jagged, serrated beaks. Their creator designed them in the image of birds of prey so much of their body resembles those creatures, though with humanoid concessions made. Also, they have highly honed hearing; better than that of humans by comparison.

Spoiler: Quetzals, under examination

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Quetzals' necks turn from side to side like those of a human but they have a natural hunch in their back whenever their attention isn't piqued. When they are detecting noise, searching, listening intently or trying to intimidate something they raise their necks and reveal their true height. When they spread their wings, their wingspan are almost double their height. An average male Quetzal is usually between five and six feet tall with the females between four and five feet tall.

Their arms are deceptively long but are usually tucked at their sides with their small hands in the middle. Their arms are proportional to their bodies and they use the muscles in their hands to hold on to their wings to making it seem like they have their hands in the middle of their wings, when at full length. Their hands have long, wiry digits with three fingers and a thumb with a perpetual cold feel to them despite the Quetzals being warm-blooded. They fold their arms and keep them at their sides making their wings tuck neatly next to their body. It acts as a natural cloak if need be and water usually slides right off their feathers.

The Quetzals have very strong legs that bend slightly backwards with talons at their feet. Their talons are razor sharp and deadly in addition to being jagged and serrated to help grip the earth as well as to help them hang off of things. They have a very recognizable sound when they walk, especially on flat stone, which leads to a certain noise in their cities. Their talons tear and grab instinctively and of recent the wealthy have taken to dipping their talons in gold to show their wealth.

Quetzals lay eggs like other avians and are fiercely protective of their young. They guard their eggs with their life and when the eggs are hatched, they care for them deeply. Often the parents of a newborn egg will guard their offspring until the baby emerges from the egg. The initial period where the baby emerges from the egg are when the parents see the characteristics of their child. A child may burst out of an egg showing their strength or even crack the egg at certain places to weaken the structure to signify its intelligence. But newborn that do not emerge at all are cast down.

Quetzals are clever and voracious hunters and can often be found in their empire in the midlands. They have a song burning in their blood and minds which drive their thoughts and practices to the will of their absent primordial creator, binding them together as a people and pushing them ever forward.

Land: The Quetzals land occupy the central lands of the continent between the Vahariel in the South and the bands of Deer Men and Luug in the North. Their lands are warm jungles split by a river, developed and cultivated to house and feed the vast appetites of the Quetzals, with cities of Stone (think Mesoamerican, Aztec, architecture) and staple croplands of wheat and corn.

Culture: The Quetzals are an ancient civilization born of the days of the primordials, though the world has forgotten their creator and gods, they have not. They are compelled by a song in their blood urging them to make sacrifice, to engage in cannibalism and the consumption of sentients, and to offer the remains to the sky. Through these practices they gain unearthly powers, long lives, and a deep understanding of reality.

Because of these practices they are considered a theocratic society built around service to the priesthoods and their unearthly abilities. They hunt to fulfill their hungers and bring glory to their nearly forgotten creator. They construct cities of stone and cultivate crops taken from across the lands and, as loathe as they are to admit it, they are particularly fond of the Southerner crops. Beyond their priesthoods they are militaristic with an importance placed on service and discipline, but at the same time particularly prize "rare" metals (like magpies like shiny things) taken from Luug lands being known to dip their talons in the shinier metals as a show of their wealth.

They have a deep tradition of philosophy behind their priests and soldiers, and though their education is lacking in some places they as a society seek a deeper communion with their creator and the natural forces of the world.

**Anti-Eagle** · 2020-01-05, 06:46 PM (ISO 8601)

Spoiler: Coatls, the River Serpents

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the Coatls
River Serpents

Spoiler: Art

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Role: Tribal Bands (Primary Concept)

Alignment:
- True Neutral (Traditional)
- Green/White (Colour Wheel)

Symbol (Marks): A Coiled Snake

Race: Coatls are a relatively humanoid race of amphibious serpent-folk, resembling scaly, snake-like humans. They are capable of breathing air and water, and are known to spend time beneath the waves.

Land: The homeland of the Coatls is an archipelago in the Southwest, off the coast of Quetzal territory, known as the Fang. The Fang is a tropical archipelago that is mostly agricultural with a few mines. The inhabitants living for the most part in wooden structures. The Coatls are spread across the continent, however, and have integrated into the lands and nations outside of the Fang.

Culture: The Coatl are an ancient and relatively servile people living in the Southwest made up of merchants and mercenaries. The Coatl have an age-old agreement to serve the Quetzals. They move goods and work (mine, work the fields, etc.) in Quetzal territory and in exchange they are exempted from the flesh tithes and receive military protections.

Beyond the Fang their mercenaries and traders are known across the lands as they travel the world seeking profit and collecting various coins and trade goods, all to return to and benefit the Fang.

**Anti-Eagle** · 2020-01-05, 07:11 PM (ISO 8601)

Spoiler: Shrage, the Lost Children

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the Shrage
the Lost Children

Spoiler: Art

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Role: Tribal Bands (Primary Concept)

Alignment:
- Chaotic Neutral (Traditional)
- Red/Green (Colour Wheel)

Symbol (Totem): Their totems usually involve antlered deer skulls.

Race: Odd "people," Shrage are a generally misunderstood creatures that most agree appeared almost 2000 years ago. It is not generally known what their origin is or what they really are outside of Shrage society. They are generally described as predatory "Deer Men" for lack of a better term. Most Shrage are tall figures covered in a thick hide and dark fur, with large bone claws, and covering their heads with the skull of a deer. It is unknown if these are helmets or their actual heads, and if any know then they have not talked about it. The Shrage are strong, agile, and unnaturally quick and are terrifing to most aside from the Luug.

Spoiler: Shrage from the viewpoint of the Shrage

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The reality of the Shrage is that they are undead shapeshifters, born from other races and called to the North by an ancient power. Taken by the call as children, they are driven to forget their former identities as they take in the souls of the dead and finally join the Shrage as new predatory creatures. Their forms vary but they are most commonly seen as in the image above of the god that calls them to their new "lives".

Land: The Shrage live in the Northlands, a wide and freezing forest. There is a general lack of industry or settlement, Shrage are generally hunters and live off of foraging otherwise. Small villages are not unknown and are generally marked with totems of the dead, though such settlements tend to be temporary. The Shrage are generally Nomadic.

Culture: The Shrage are generally considered predatory creatures and pack hunters that wander the North seeking prey. They are a tribal and shamanistic society, with a liquid hierarchy, and an odd echoing language that most cannot understand. It is, in reality, one of the primordial languages of the ancient past. They commonly create totems from corpses, and have a deep understanding of the underpinnings of the world: the realms of the Dead and the Aetherial Sea.

Their magic is not limited to shapeshifting, but other uses are uncommon. They seek to improve themselves and to forge themselves into more effective predators through practice and experience, wandering the world for vast amounts of time outside of their "society."

As a group they commonly come into conflict with the Quetzals, but are mostly at peace with the Luug with whom they have no reason to compete. Though it is rare, they will attempt to speak with curious beings, assuming they aren't hungry, though few understand them. They have been known to hunt and wander south of their lands, but this is also rare.

**Anti-Eagle** · 2020-03-23, 09:13 PM (ISO 8601)

Spoiler: the Luug, Ancient and Abandoned

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the Luug
Ancient and Abandoned

Spoiler: Art

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Role: Tribal Bands (Primary Concept)

Alignment:
- Lawful Neutral (Traditional)
- White/Blue (Colour Wheel)

Symbol (Marks): A Diamond

Race: A hulking, grey, stone skinned, and hard-headed breed of beast, the Luug are literally of the earth. The Luug are spawned from large pools of a primordial substance and are beings of living stone. Apparently immune to the ravages of time, the Luug's rocky scabs grow over their body and eventually come to form a boulder upon the Luug's back. When the Luug has become this old, they start to catalog their personal history on their own back; their life story engraved for all to see. Then, finally, when a Luug desires death, or has fallen in battle, they give themselves back to the pool that spawned them. In giving themselves to the pool, they feed it, keeping it "alive" and able to spawn more Luug. New pools can be made when several Luug die with each other in a place where their liquid remains can pool.

Individual Luugs' appearance is dependent on their surroundings during their first years of development, along with the location of the spawning pool. Once the Luug reach adolescence, their skin is like that of the minerals around them.

Born warriors, the Luug value strength, but they also see strength in places that others might not. In the runes the elders carve on their back, the Luug see wisdom, which hones strength and directs their fury. In the crawling of newborn Luug from the spawning pools, the Luug see perseverance, which keeps one strong in the darkest times. In honor, the Luug see the practical restrictions of strength, for the raging beast destroys its own home, as the Luug have seen firsthand.

Land: The Luug mostly live in the mountainous North, living underground in caverns they dig for themselves. Though, they have been known to travel in their "youth."

Culture: The Luug are a tribal society led by their patriarchs in service to the Granite tribe in the North. Each tribe has a corresponding material, which they work with and live around, working into their spawning pools. To them "might makes right", and they are a very strong people when angered.

Most of their time is spent mining through their mountains, with few settlements above ground. The collection of wealth by their tribe is considered somewhat paramount, all with the intent to bring greatness to their people. They aren't very advanced technologically, but have traded in the past for knowledge from lesser creatures. Though they are rare, their kind has its scholars and those few tend to become great amongst their kin.

Their laws are literally written in stone, handed down to them by their creator Therax in ancient times. They believe they are destined to rule the world and are generally xenophobic as a society, though not as individuals.

**Anti-Eagle** · 2020-05-28, 06:19 PM (ISO 8601)

Spoiler: Vahariel, the Children of the East

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the Vahariel
Children of the East

Spoiler: Art

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Role: Tribal Bands (Ascendant Concept)

Alignment:
- Neutral Good (Traditional)
- Green/Blue (Colour Wheel)

Symbol (Flag): a Red Nautilus on a Cream Background.

Race: The Vahariel are a race of tall humanish creatures descended from the survivors of the crash of sacred Gokvahar. The chosen sons and daughters of their goddess Ashlif and in turn her daughter the city of Gokvahar, Vahariel roughly resemble humans typically with tanned skin, white partially-crystalline hair, and pure blue eyes. Beyond these comparisons their body plays host to a symbiotic organism known as the Nautilus Coral, bonded to the flesh of their backs, lower arms and hands, and their lower legs and feet. The coral forms an armour-like surface and is shaped by the desires of the Vahariel, forming into weapons, tools, armour, and ultimately a vessel for their souls.

Spoiler: Under Examination

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Internally the Vahariel are far more complex than the humans they are descended from, clear evidence of high engineering of their bodies by their ancestors is apparent under examination.

Noticeable changes would be: secondary eyelids and eyes capable of perceiving aetheric currents; blue blood containing liquid crystalline structures that work in concert with other similar structures throughout the body to channel spiritual energy; an adaptive triple helix DNA structure which alters itself to adapt genomes to their environments faster than typical mutational processes; altered nervous, endocrine, and musculatory systems designed to better channel spiritual energy and function under extreme trauma. This includes an advanced synesthestic component of the brain tying their senses together to perceive the world beyond the sum of the whole working in concert with the previously mentioned crystals, low quantities of entheogens and stimulants produced by the body to grant the Vahariel the ability to see aetheric currents; a magnet in the brain for navigation; a complicated combined circulatory and respiratory system with the ability to recycle carbon dioxide; a longer digestive and excretory sytem, a high efficiency urinary and renal system, a secondary: liver, set of kidneys, and pancreas; coral bones, nails, and teeth; and a powerful immune system that uses spiritual force to hijack foreign cells, infestations, and cancers to integrate and force them into the service of the body. All tightly packed into a roughly human frame.

They are a naturally curious and experimental lot with quick wits, fast reactions, and a powerful natural affinity for the spiritual arts. Most Vahariel are found in the South settled as tribal groups making up "the Vahariel" nation surrounding the fallen city of Gokvahar. They are a proud but simple lot seeking a peaceful life away from their past.

Land: The Vahariel live in the Southlands, a terraformed landscape of black leaved trees and red moss and plants surrounding the fallen city of Gokvahar. The land is relatively unworked and undeveloped, the Vahariel live a tribal existence, in the shattered lands surrounding their ancient capital.

The plants and animals in the southlands were altered by spores released after Gokvahar fell from the sky and shattered the southern landscape, leaves turned black and all else that was green turned red. Fruit slowly gained luminscent veins, as did berries and all other crops that the Vahariel tended. Medicinal qualities developed in herbs across the South, and new purposes for plants were discovered as the years went on.

Animals changed in the night, developing little mutations year by year. Eyes turned blue like the Vahariel, fur into red and black patterns like the landscape, muscles becoming larger and more efficient, bones altering into new shapes armouring the body under the skin. The land changed and slowly the peoples further North lost familiarity with the South.

Culture: The Vahariel beyond it use as a description as a race, is the generic nationalized name for the tribes of Vahariel across the south. The Vahariel is made up of a number of tribes, the most prominent being the People of the Nautilus, spread out across the Southern lands of the continent of Nova Agerra surrounding the fallen city of Gokvahar. They are a mix of cultures and even races all owing some level of loyalty to the elders of Gokvahar, with a strong drive to protect one another and a fondness for artistic endeavour amongst the tribes.

The people of the Vahariel have an inordinate fondness for the painting of their bodies and the art of tattooing, and when they die their painted flesh is collected and bound into books to remember the dead. The rest of their body is consumed by the Coral and worked into the tribe's "Jotun Tree," a tree-like structure of Vahariel Coral that contains the souls of their dead. The Jotun Trees are awoken in times of great need, to give guidance in communion or protect the tribe as giant 'humanoid monsters' of great strength.

History: The Vahariel came to these lands over 1600 years ago with the crash of their city of Gokvahar from the sky into the Far South, shattering the lands around the crash with magical energy as the city fell apart. Their elders, desperate, turned to their highly advanced sciences and magics releasing clouds of spores into the Southlands to alter and repurpose the plant life and drive off the local Quetzals who viewed them as an offering from the heavens to hunt.

After the spores had done their work, an army of Wraiths and legionaries in Zalya and Huma armour secured the lands and established their territory. Centuries were spent after this point planting new crops designed by their occultic elites across the south, taming the wildlife, and securing the border with their weapons. Their gradually fading magic was spent in developing as many solutions as they could to any number of problems they came across, attempting communion with their gods and having each go quiet one by one until only Gokvahar spoke in its shattered state.

Their most notable developments during this time were creation of the Nautilan Coral from the Silver of Ashlif and the Shattered body of Gokvahar, the modification and repurposing of the Ajivhan people into the Vahariel, and the binding of the Coral to the bodies of the survivors and their descendants.

Slowly, all but the immortal elders of Gokvahar abandoned the city and its magics and its sciences. Their descendants seeking to live simple lives in peace in the lands of their new home and leave their past behind, as was intended by their elders. Freedom from the past.

**Anti-Eagle** · 2020-05-28, 06:24 PM (ISO 8601)

Spoiler: the Nautilan Council, Ancients of Gokvahar

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the Ancients of Gokvahar
the Nautilan Council

Spoiler: Art

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Role: Ancient Council (Ascendant Concept)

Alignment:
- Lawful Neutral (Traditional)
- Blue/White (Colour Wheel)

Symbols (Markings): a Honeycomb.

City: Gokvahar is the core of the Vahariel people, born of the ancient sciences and magics of the Aetherial Collective and the gods. It was a flying city built of the living metals of Ashlif, and stone quarried from the deserts of Ajivha. It crashed over 1600 years in the South, shattering the lands around it, drawing in the waters of the sea, and releasing the spores that remade the Southlands into a more bountiful if alien landscape.

The remains of the city have rooted into the land, as the council fused their bodies and minds with the city, the city fused to the landscape. Veins of living metal and Nautilan coral surround the ruins of the city and have spread across the South, machinery remaking itself in the wilds amongst the altered nature and the Vahariel. Wandering the ruins and the lands around them an army of statuesque automatons attempt to repair the city, and prepare it for the nearly forgotten threats of the East.

The city as ruined as it may be is considered beautiful by its people, made in memory of Ajivha as it had once been was intended as a reminder of their home and what they were preparing for. A city wrought from the stones of the desert, of the mountain of Ekaki, and the metals of Ashlif it was the capital of the Aetherial Collective and home to their best and brightest. A jewel in the sky. Its temples and libraries astound and inspire those few Vahariel who seek it out their wisdom, and the whole of the city a monument to the triumphs of the past.

History: The Nautilan Council are the Ancient and Immortal inhabitants of the fallen city of Gokvahar, and in most ways the city themselves. The Nautilan council represent the ingenuity and sciences of the Aetherial Collective and the peoples of the East, worked and reworked into creatures of a design only they could manage, merging with what remains of the machinery of the city, and expanding their consciousnesses as they wait.

They made the decision to flee East when the Ascendant ruined the lands and began killing gods, they chose where to crash when the city began to fail, they released the spores across the South, remade the races of the city into Vahariel, and created the Nautilan Coral. Their acts are many, most unrecorded in modern Vahariel history though remembered by their elders, the council appears ancient and unknowable to their descendants though they have their best in mind.

Their magics and sciences are unmatched and approaching the divine, their power over the forces of the world legend, and their influence felt across the South and beyond striking fear in the empire of the Quetzls and all who threaten the Vahariel.

**Anti-Eagle** · 2020-05-28, 06:26 PM (ISO 8601)

Spoiler: Danko, the Painted Man

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Danko
the Painted Man

Spoiler

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Role: Ascendant Demigod (Primary Concept)

Alignment:
- Chaotic Good (Traditional)
- Red/Blue (Colour Wheel)

Holy Symbol: A stylized heart being consumed by flames.

Current Appearance: Danko takes the form of a vahariel man in the prime of his life, dressed in fine silks, and appears... painted? Wherever he appears he appears as if he has been painted onto the very air as if he was the subject of an impressionist painting, colours always shifting a little.

Origin: Danko is the grandson of the Vahariel goddess Ashlif, born of her daughter the city of Gokvahar. He is a brother of the Nautilan Coral, and considers himself a Vahariel having been raised amongst them. Danko has for the most of his life lived amongst the Vahariel, having gained his powers through his blood, something much celebrated by his people.

He has never truly been a leader amongst the tribes as much as others have tried to hoist such a mantle upon him, and he desires to leave and see the world one day. Perhaps soon.

Beliefs: Danko's interests lie in the creation of art and most of all painting. He's a creative mind who seeks to use his abilities for what he considers the greater good, a more colourful world. He knows little of the outside world or divinities but he seeks to better things for himself and his people, seeing them as largely stagnant in their desired peace and ignorance of the rest of the world. He knows why from his meetings with the elders of Gokvahar but he doesn't consider it right, maybe the outside world could help? Or they could help them.

He spends most of his time wandering, painting the lands either literally or on a canvas, or dealing with people and learning their ways.

**Anti-Eagle** · 2020-05-28, 06:36 PM (ISO 8601)

This is an update for anyone interested, I'm going to be posting interest/recruitment threads within the next week. Right now I'm revising the intros.

If you have any opinion on the setting info I've shared feel free to share them either here or in the Discord.

**Anti-Eagle** · 2020-06-20, 04:24 PM (ISO 8601)

This is an update for anyone interested. I've posted a prologue thread on the mythweavers for those who've completed their sheets. I'll update the threads here as time goes on.

Thread: Ascendancy: the Far West (a Developing Setting for a Narrative Game)

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