Introduction to Trid
Long ago, in the Dim Ages, the saurians—a cruel race of magic-using lizards—built a sprawling empire on the backs of dwarfs, humanoids, and men. They manipulated arcane magic to travel quickly across the Continent and impose their tyranny.
To escape, the dwarfs tunneled into the The Deepreach while the humanoids hid themselves in the wilds. Men became nomads, ever retreating before the saurians, until they encountered the elves, who alone resisted the saurians and taught man how to reap, sow, build, and fight. Together, elves and men defeated the Saurian Empire, giving rise to the Age of Fable.
The great alliance between elves and men celebrated their victory and ensured their future peace the Ardic Republic, uniting two-thirds of the Continent. But in their ill-judged bid to control the arcane, the elves tainted Trid's magical field and brought the Ardic Curse upon themselves, depriving them of their innate magical ability. The balance of power shifted to humans, and the Republic collapsed in violence. Those elves who survived abandoned Trid to seek the Fey Realm.
The elves' departure turned settled areas to wilderness overnight and ushered in the current Age of History. Today, man stands alone against humanoids and monsters surging from the wild places, but the lure of rich treasure and magic from ancient ruins feeds the ambitions of power brokers who would reshape Trid to serve their own needs.
Trid as a Campaign Setting
Trid is a low-fantasy campaign setting for B/X-style RPGs. Many concepts are based on the "implied setting" of the classic rules to create a foundation familiar to fantasy RPG players. This approach relies on two pillars of old-school settings: an appropriate lack of detail about campaign fixtures and a dependence on random results. Together, these provide each referee a solid framework to support their own creative preferences and style of play. It's helpful to view Trid as a sandbox of sandboxes, each with its own set of environmental conditions, challenges, and rewards. Referees may isolate these regions or connect them in whatever combinations they see fit. Though Trid is vast, action plays out at a local scale—referees can add their own populations, magic, monsters, patrons, treasures, and power struggles with minimal effort or disruption to the (loosely coupled) whole.What Everyone Knows
Trid hosts three major landmasses: a pangeaic expanse known simply as The Continent, a large southern island called Eremus, and a trio of islands across the western ocean known as The Far Isles. These lands are separated from the Continent by the Serpent Sea to the east and the Shoreless Ocean to the west. The Gazetteer is written from the perspective of Continental inhabitants, whose populations—given the vast area—are highly varied. However, world events have created a shared canon of sorts, and everything written in the Gazetteer is considered common knowledge (though that doesn't mean it's entirely accurate).History is Deep
Trid's long past exerts a strong influence on the present. There are four distinct Ages, each marked by the passage of empire: The Before Times: Trid was a warm and verdant world populated by giant lizards and two dominant races: the learned elves and the reptilian saurians. Primitive human and humanoid tribes struggled to survive in the wilderness, while the elves and saurians warred for supremacy. Dim Ages: As the conflict between elves and saurians escalated, the saurians created the Far Paths and used them to spread across the Continent to expand their empire. The dwarfs retreated underground, humanoids to the wilderness, and humans became nomads. The elves, pressed by the saurians, raised man to civilisation and groomed them as allies. Together, they defeated the Saurian Empire. Age of Fable: Following the saurians' defeat, the alliance of humans and elves unified much of the Continent within the Ardic Republic, and prosperity reigned for generations. Ultimately, however, the elves' progressively reckless arcane experiments tainted Trid's magical energy field, fostering the Ardic Curse and their ability to control arcane magic. The elves' loss of leverage allowed humans to assert a greater role in the Republic, prompting an increasingly despotic response from the elves that provoked the Republic's Fall. Age of History: With the Republic gone and humans dominant, the elves abandoned the Continent in search of the Fey Realm, leaving broad swaths of wilderness for man to tame.Humans Dominate
Since the departure of the elves, humans have ruled the Continent as the only practised custodians of civilisation. Anywhere man hasn't settled or doesn't control is considered wilderness. While each of the nine human ethnicities are concentrated in ancestral territories, holdings are relatively small as local warlords, self-styled kings, and moneyed power-brokers fill the power vacuum. As a result, there are no truly established nations, but rather pockets of patrolled territory separated by stretches of lawless wilderland.Borders are Fluid
The nation-state does not exist, and a territory's size is the physical extent to which the settlements within can push back against (or expand into) the surrounding wilderness. Maps of Trid define political divisions by their capital settlements, which control a certain amount of the surrounding area. Wherever possible, borders are suggested by rivers, natural features, or Elven Roads, while less tangible borders (or those defined by accord) are almost always in dispute and require enforcement. Either way, warlords intent on dominion rarely honour established boundaries, and borders can change quickly.Technology is Limited
Trid's technology is analogous to 10th-century Earth and advances at a snail's pace, primarily because humans spend the majority of their resources either securing their borders or advancing on someone else's. Until the Age of History, magic was the driving force behind alchemy, engineering, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine—man, wary of all things arcane, has only recently begun to expand these fields through mundane means. Only the Midlanders have achieved sufficient social stability to make advances in metallurgy, remedies, and navigation, and their innovations are highly prized.Religion is Varied
The predominant religious tendency among Continental cultures is that of the Ethos Gods, a trio of deities representing all things Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic. However, the Ardic Gods of the Republic are still worshipped in places, most notably in the Sea Holds, and of course, the Local Gods still command followings among more isolated peoples (most wildermen tribes for certain, but also the kingdoms of Nordland). For those whose spiritual appetites require more varied fare, there are dozens of cults dedicated to various and esoteric Elder Powers.Magic is Real
Both arcane and divine magic exist. The former results from ambient energies that trained casters may channel and control (despite disruptions caused by the Ardic Curse). Divine magic is bestowed by a host of immortals with varying degrees of interest in the affairs of Trid's mortal population. Attitudes toward divine magic are mixed—if the recipient has faith in the caster's intent, it's considered benign (of course, the opposite is also true). Arcane magic, inexorably linked to the elves and the violent fall of the Republic, is almost universally mistrusted.Conflicts are Prosaic
World-spanning battles between good and evil are the stuff of religion. Trid's conflicts are motivated by more immediate and tangible prizes: territory, wealth, and power. Of course, some power brokers couch their ambition in altruism, but rarely do their goals serve the common good better than themselves. Conversely, adventurers may have aspirations to change the world, but they advance through the accumulation of riches and go where the money is. A side effect of these banal motives is that actions tend to play out on a local stage, and it is rare for conflicts in one region to influence significantly the conditions in another.Organisation & Formatting
The World of Trid is purpose-built for use with the Basic/Expert/Old-School Essentials (B/X/OSE) core rules. The following conventions provide a consistent presentation of Trid's many wonders:Site Structure
The World of Trid is partitioned such that referees can pick and choose the parts they like:- Gazetteer: A solid, but purposely high-level perspective for referees who want a firm foundation for their own creative ideas.
- Tridopedia: An encyclopaedia of Trid's people, places, and things for referees who want more setting-specific context with the flexibility to inject their own creative elements. Available by subscription, the Tridopedia is the scaffolding built upon the Gazeteer's foundation.
- Sandboxes: Fully statted hexcrawls for referees who want ready-made hexcrawls to run as-is. Avaiable by subscription, sandboxes are fully furnished floors bolted onto the scaffolding.
- Rules Tome: Trid-specific conventions and optional house rules that referees can use or ignore as desired.
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