The basic premise/conceit of the campaign is this: all the gods have been subverted and destroyed save three draconic gods, all of the same blood. These are drawn directly from Arneson's Blackmoor and modified slightly for the narrative. At least in the lands bound to the Empire of the Wyrm, the other gods have been killed or driven underground. Likewise, patrons seeking influence have had little success and found their followers slain or reclaimed by The Three. Some demon cults have been able to stay viable and underground, but there is no public and widespread alternative to to the rule of the three and their children. The Empire of the Wyrm has shattered all other nations and the rest of the world is waste or barbaric and filled with orcs or other fell and wild beasts.
The Three are Insellegath (lawful, the father), Tsartha (neutral, the mother) & Chambur (chaotic, the son). The three's children rule in their stead, and the most powerful and ancient among them serve as patrons for the wyrm-blooded and their thralls.
The Elder Races & Their Thralls
Dragons achieved dominance by defeating the Djinn, the Giants, and the Kraken. Each of the elder races created a race and held it in thrall as servants and minions (Part of the narrative arc is debunking this and reclaiming the lost history of the races). The dwarves were thralls to the Giants, the elves to the Djinn and the merfolk to the Kraken.
The giants have been hunted to near extinction, although their thralls have been absorbed into the Empire of the Wyrm. The dwarves have done well in servitude to their new masters. Many among the giants have cast off their old thralls and actively hunt the dwarves when the can. The goblinoid races were the thralls last shaped by the giants. Their open rebellion and active resistance to all elder races led to the destruction of their masters and their balknanization. They are tribal and driven into the inhospitable corners of the world. The Djinn have withdrawn into far and distant places, awaiting a re-birth of their fallen might and scheming for their return. Some of their thralls remain with them and prosper as their masters prosper. Rumors persist of an independent island elven nation, where the elves govern themselves and work great magics. The majority of elves are a fallen race, living in wild places in harmony with the land, but barbaric and short-lived. Halflings are an orphaned race, sprung from the distant east and migrating in caravans. Some have settled and achieved the status of thralls. Others are persecuted travelers and have a well-earned reputation as entertainers, vagabonds and thieves.
The Empire of the Wyrm
The Empire of the Wyrm is comprised of 12 provinces each governed by an elder wyrm and the children of its blood line. Any cluster of habitation large enough to pay tax, has someone of "The blood" as a sheriff, earl, count or other noble. The wyrm-blooded are the descendants of thralls who have mated with dragons or are descended from thralls who were warped by the taint of a Dragon patron. These individuals form the bulk of administrators, soldiers and minor functionaries in the Empire. True Dragons of young adult status often prove their worth to their blood line in governing a village or town ship. Older dragons gain responsibility as they age, governing larger civic bodies or taking administrative roles within their province or at the seat of the empire. The political maneuvering and constant intrigue & violence of dragons is the stuff of drama, art and literature in the empire.
The First Adventure
Players get to pick their relationship with the dragons based on the choices they make during the first adventure. The players are peasants in a small town. Their Blooded reeve, an arrogant but just woman is carried back into town by three of her guards. The players know that the reeve and her house guard had been escorting an Imperial courier to next fief. This is a relatively rare event, but about once every year the reeve is called upon to provide security to some Imperial caravan or courier.
This time, they were ambushed. The players have any number of motivations to rally the townsfolk and go rescue the courier. There could be a reward, their village could be subject to inquisition and/or decimation because an agent of the Empire was harmed on their territory, or they may just be nosy or eager to adventure. They also may recognize the best way up the food chain as a thrall is to do something that is of direct service to the empire and that requires a heroic bent.
The courier was carrying a packet of communication and a spell book as part of a broader negotiation between two draconic houses. A demon cult struck and ambushed the courier, killed or drove off the thrall and her men and carried of the courier and his bag to a nefarious fate.
Players eventually will track the cult into the hills, find their altar in some old ruins, and have to defeat the cultists and the demon they have summoned before the courier is sacrificed. Classic DCCRPG!
The players will have a choice at this point. The courier is a double agent, and will suggest that they let him report the book and documents as destroyed. In return, he will introduce them to The Cabal, an alliance of wizards and free-thinkers who want to find out what the REAL history is and want to liberate the thralls, or at least give them a stronger role in governance. Alternatively, they can turn him in and seek patronage from their local dragon. This will place them on the side of the government. The long term story will either be told as someone on the inside defending a system from a rising cult of the Old Ones and demonic infestation. One of the draconic houses will be complicit in this. Or, the players will be revolutionaries bent on liberating their province from the dragons. Their choice. Their consequences.
My goal in the narrative will be to constantly blur the lines and distinctions between wrong and right and lay all the ramifications of each choice on the table. There will also be many bad guys to kill.
