Taldorei campaign setting pdf free download

Will you find one of the revered Vestiges of Divergence or perhaps discover part of the Chroma Conclave's legacy? Can you help the Ashari in their sacred charge to prevent the elemental vortices from overwhelming the world, or will you find yourself embroiled in the machinations of the Clasp? This setting book takes an in-depth look at the history, people, and places of Tal'Dorei, and includes new backgrounds, magic items, and monsters for the Fifth Edition rules"--Amazon.

Soar on a skyship from the metropolis of Emon to the distant haven of Whitestone, venture into wilderness rife with terrifying monsters and wayward mages, and uncover magic items that range from simple trinkets to the legendary Vestiges of Divergence. This campaign setting is newly revised and expanded to cover the exciting conclusion of the Vox Machina campaign and the characters lives in the years following.

Let your footsteps, too, shape the fate of Tal'Dorei and perhaps the wider world of Exandria. This definitive, art-filled tomb is revised and expanded, containing everything you need to unlock the rich campaign setting of Tal'Dorei and make it your own:- A guide to each major region, with story hooks to fuel your campign- Expanded character options, including 9 subclasses and 5 backgrounds- Magic items such as the Vestiges of Divergence, legendary artifacts that grow in power with their wielders- Dozens of creatures, including many featured in the Critical Role campaigns- New lore and updated stat blocks for each member of Vox Machina.

This new medium has allowed the playing of games to become a digestible, consumable text for individuals to watch, enjoy, learn from, and analyze. Bridging the gap between the analog and the digital, actual play is changing and challenging our expectations of tabletop role-playing and providing a space for new scholarship.

This edited collection of essays focuses on Dungeons and Dragons actual play and examines this phenomenon from a variety of different disciplinary approaches. She was grievously wounded by always paramount in any visual representation.

Her devout now twenty-second day of the ninth month. In Emon, each worship in private, spreading knowledge, philosophy, neighborhood celebrates by dancing around great bonfires and lore anonymously through traceless channels.

The efforts of the books and scrolls. Create new the city bears little resemblance to the knowledge-seek- places and colonies, build where inspiration hits, and ers of old. Those who would pervert the tran- sition of the soul must be brought down. Many light and the autumn season, as well as the patron of funerals call to her blessing in hopes that she will pro- illusions and misdirection. Widely worshipped within tect the deceased from the terrible curse of undeath. Those who work in darkness and mortal to have ascended.

Her rise instantly obliterated trickery often ask for her blessing. However, rites of ascension. Those that do depict her, how- the shadows. Many high and haughty rise to divinity is unclear, but the Night of Ascension is elves use this festival as an excuse to be sly and mischie- nonetheless celebrated on the thirteenth day of the tenth vous; some younger elves use costumes and illusions to month.

Many people of Emon see this cheery celebration of prank their peers. Most, memories and experiences. There is no pity for those The pillar of justice, protection, nobility, and honor, the who have fallen.

Those who pridefully attempt of order and good, and is revered by most metallic drag- to cast off their destiny must be punished. The crest of the Platinum. Often with beard and short, curled hair, most depictions have the Stormlord in enfold us. The Day of Challenging is one of the most raucous hol- idays in Emon, and thousands of spectators attend the Let me resist temptation and falseness, as your annual Godsbrawl held in the Temple of the Stormlord heart guides us.

I lift up your name, O First of Dragons, and pray to uphold your sacred charge. There is no glory in cowardice. To seas shift and the land grows over. Keeper of the wil- follow him is to look after those who cannot look after derness, she represents the wild creatures of nature, the themselves.

Elves take up her worship, as do hunt- shields and armor, both functional and decorative, in the ers of natural lands, accepting her guidance to exist form of a brilliant silver dragon head in profile.

Temples harmoniously within savage lands. Those seeking safe and art pieces present a massive, glittering dragon of passage across dangerous waters give prayers to her to vibrant platinum sheen and seemingly endless wingspan. It is said that the This is a day of remembrance, solemnity, and respect to two goddesses grow furious when this balance is upset, those who have fallen in the defense of others.

He brings exploitation and destruction. Exist in harmony with it. Those known as the Betrayer Gods are the deities who But perhaps the Cloaked Serpent is merely biding his time, strayed from the ideals of the Founding, taking to the waiting for the proper moment to unleash his hidden armies destructive chaos of the Primordial Titans, or were taken by upon the world once more. Rarely The Cloaked Serpent loathes the Lawbearer and the do the Betrayer Gods work together, considering each other Wildmother, for he despises life, order, and love above all threats more than allies.

This weakness allowed the Prime things. His surviving worshipers relish in using poison Deities to defeat and banish them, ending the Calamity. A another world. Life and death do not exist within the human body with a half-dozen arms that houses a gar- Chained Oblivion, an engine of utter destruction and gantuan serpent head, fanged and frilled in aggression.

Even the other Betrayer Gods treat this mad Strands of thick, dark hair that sprout from the scaled god with caution. In its endless imprisonment, it dreams body swirl around to form layers of shadow, obscuring the the infinite depths of the Abyss into reality, along with entire form of the entity. The Prime Deities had thought it locked away during the Founding until it nearly returned Commandments of the Cloaked Serpent to ruin the world during the conflicts of the Calamity. The night is your Now, its chaotic mind has fallen into more frightful greatest ally.

Blind the target with cultists work without word from their twisted patron, await- their own confusion. Or worse, make them enjoy it. His tears of pain life.

Some say the Knowing Mistress can only be fully and anger carved the pathways under the world, and his restored if the Chained Oblivion is destroyed for good. Those who rob others of their Oblivion exist, and the existing texts speak of a creature freedom offer prayers to him in cellars and other sub- of rolling, hungry ink and darkness; of a spreading cloud terranean domains, and other creatures who live in the of lightless destruction born from a thousand ravenous darkness below worship him and seek his guidance.

Current references constrain the nightmare with The Dawnfather and the Everlight defeated the Crawling chains of black and gold, barely keeping the dark at bay. King during the Calamity by drawing their nemesis above ground. The tears of suffering and rage the Crawling liberation comes. The Lord of the Hells the evil hordemaster push orcs and other evil, savage crea- tures to devour the world around them, giving in to the Alignment: Lawful Evil Domains: Trickery, Blood chaotic and selfish nature of the predator.

His words are honeyed and carefully crafted, less band of orcs and goblins who delight in slaughtering soothing and corrupting the mortal heart. The Lord of the innocents across the Dividing Plains. Evil entities pay him tribute alongside his can return the favor twofold. Those who serve the Ruiner devils, while warlocks are drawn to his power. Two curling horns rise from his brow, Primitive clay representations can be found in savage and his lips ever bear a knowing grin.

The missing eye has among the Betrayer Gods, many of whom only follow the shifted as a minor fold, the prominent eye now central to archdevil for fear of his immense power. The Lord of the the face like a nightmarish Cyclops. Be the strong. The rest are weakness. Show your Queen weaves a complicated web of schemes and treach- strength of will in the image of the Lord. If others alike to gain power.

Compassion is unwarranted aberrant minions. It is said that the Spider Queen can for the weak. The The Ruiner commands roving hordes of barbaric maraud- Spider Queen and the Ruiner also share a burning hatred ers across the lands to destroy, pillage, and slaughter for for the Archeart—whom she claims drove her children the joy of it. Conquer yours, and draw it from your foes.

Chained Oblivion; she dreads its alien mind and is furious over what its madness is doing to her children. Death to all ons have a reverence for their tyrannical queen, but many their allies! To serve his will is to accept the call to his justice. Her worship has for centuries been limited to conflict, seeking lesser people to break and subjugate.

The Strife Emperor twists all living things to his iron Most visual representations of the Scaled Tyrant exist will, even forcing nature itself to bow to his whims. A dark reflection of the honorable warrior, the Strife She is often shown as a drake of frightful size, massive Emperor is often depicted as a brutish ogre-like man clad leathery wings birthing clouds of poisonous mist with from head to toe in jagged black armor.

Heads dangle every flight, while she shouts from five vicious dragon from his belt, and the shadow that obscures his helmeted heads, each head depicting a different chromatic color of face does not hide his unblinking, piercing yellow eyes. The gold, and the power ing noble creatures into monsters and destroying the wilds that comes with it, is sufficient reward. Let no Beynsfal Plateau. Those without the strength to defend city of a ruthless hobgoblin empire.

Today, people come from all reaches of the world to escape hardships in their home country, whether the iron rule of Wildemount, the religious imposition of Issylra, or the brutal heat of Marquet. The game statistics of each race are identical to those in the PH. The Some dwarves felt confined within their subterranean halls, mountainous stronghold still stands as the central heart of and sought to move their families into the open lands of dwarven society, and many of the most celebrated heroes the Dividing Plains.

If drawn to more Very few ever set foot within the Verdant Expanse, how- dangerous pursuits, many dwarves turn to mercenary ever, knowing the animosity that the elves of Syngorn hold work, wandering the southern end of the Bladeshimmer for those born beneath the mountain.

Even so, the rare Shoreline to scavenge lost treasures, or even beyond the expatriate dwarf has found kinship within elven home- Stormcrest Mountains to mark a new life outside the poli- steads, though they are never fully trusted by the Wardens. Duergar Mountain Dwarves Fires flare from the darkness and hammers ring in the More than any other trait, mountain dwarves are known deep, alerting wary travelers of the underworld to the for their stubbornness.

The lightless depths as unmoving as the mountain they sit under. As the majority culture in their kin of the mountains. Kraghammer, mountain dwarves One question plagues the are shaped by a long history of suspicion. For centuries, new peoples and new ideas in Kra- ghammer meant danger. They spelled the death of monarchs and incursion by dark, subterranean agents.

In the mind of a dwarf, this suspicion is perfectly justi- fied—though people used. The prevailing theory among dwarven historians is that there was once a sixth noble house of Kraghammer that fled or were cast out, but the dwarven archives—the library that contains the most comprehensive histories of the North anywhere in the world—give no mention of a sixth noble house breaking off from Kraghammer.

Elves The elves were the first people of this land. The common origin of most elves lies within the wooded lands of the Verdant Expanse, and many elves—wood elves and high elves alike—still call the great forest their home. Though the city of Syngorn is a wondrous thing, many a young elf takes to the road to see what else the world has to offer. This curiosity is considered foolish, and those who leave the comfort of Syngorn for this reason rarely return to open arms.

Wood Elves High Elves Hunting across the many Syngornian outposts, most wood elves find their survival skills keenly matched for the wilds Within the city of Syngorn itself, many high elves focus of the forest. Wood elves have a long history of dutifully their crafts on culture and learning, weaving magics with protecting their homeland, and their people make up much grace and aplomb.

It is understood that protection of their of the Verdant Guard that patrols Syngorn and defends the home is key to their continued prosperity, so many elves forest around it. Of the elven races, wood elves are typically walk abroad to the Emerald Outpost to watch over rela- more venturesome than their kin and prone to bouts of tions with the neighboring civilizations.

The high elves are wanderlust, making them ideal adventurers. For guardelves, so named for their innate magical knowledge; a blessing this manifests as a longing to be stationed in more remote they attribute to their supreme deity, the Archeart.

Many garrisons, such as the Emerald Outpost. This penchant for high elves become highly religious sorcerers, explor- exploration has led to the spread of wood elf civilization far ing their latent powers through their faith.

Others still beyond the Verdant Expanse. Rarely do these elves wander from their jungle Few elves wish to be associated with their degenerate, sub- home except to trade with the other denizens of the pen- terranean cousins—while many humanoids call them dark insula. But rumors speak of a rare few of these elves who elves, the elves of Syngorn instead call them drow. In times leave their jungle home to see the wider world. When the Spider on wyvernback. But another power existed in these dark.

The whispers of Oblivion reached the ears of the drow nobility as their servitors struggled to stave away the Halflings aberrations that encircled their cities. When aberrations can of the Calamity. After surviving such harrowing times, take any form—or fool the mind into seeing any form— halflings began to wish for a simpler, happier life away who can be trusted? Unable to stop their citizens from from such dark deeds and higher purpose.

Centuries have mass rioting, the drow elite have grown ever more author- passed, and contentment and peace have become the core itarian, commanding their royal guards to keep order of halfling culture. Wanderlust nevertheless simmers by violently suppressing their people. Some drow society was fractured: the Stoutheart Clan supported fighting nobles have fallen entirely into devotion to the Spider against Drassig, while the Lightfoot Clan prefered staying at Queen, and have willingly sought the Blood of the Spider home and waiting for this war to blow over.

Halflings across Queen to become driders in her service. After the war, many halflings even to escape the madness of the underworld. Nevertheless, returned to their farms, but others began to assimilate with some still choose this dishonorable path.

If any ever sought the human townships that now dotted the land. Adventuring refuge in Syngorn, they were killed by the Verdant Guard halflings, regardless of their allegiance, found the need to before they reached its gates.

Most dark elf refugees live in seek their potential too strong to ignore. This has led to many secret in the cities of Emon, Kymal, and Westruun, hoping an outstanding halfling hero striking out into the world and to live the rest of their lives in peace. A sizeable group of marking their place in the local history books as champions, refugees made it to the elven enclave of Lyrengorn in the leaders, and even notorious criminals. They look out for number one first, and are more prone to running away from conflicts than meeting the oncoming storm with courage.

Yet within the Lightfoot spirit there is a contradiction; for all their love of the comforts of home, there is a certain unquenchable hunger to explore. Most adventuring halflings are Lightfoots who have given into this compulsion. Halflings who display the same brash personality as the Stouthearts of old are merely described as stout, and in certain communities, that is a very great.

Untrusting of outsiders by nature, Draconian their kind from experiences with meek Lightfoot home- citizens held an aloof and elitist air throughout their inter- bodies, and can be truly cunning diplomats when using actions with the other races of the world, and attempts to this surprise to their advantage.

Diverse in skills and with eyes filled with wonder, wishing to see all there is quick to populate, their cities rose and spread to the eastern to see beyond the rock and chains that marked much of shores, eventually growing into their strong and just nation, their existence. Few ravenites can resist jeering at their though their missteps along the way have often been nothing old oppressors when they meet, and the draconians must short of catastrophic. Humans living along the Silvercut provide the infrastruc- ture for trade across the continent, and as such are often involved in some form of craft, business, or production.

Should they be more industrious with their pursuits, the capital city of Emon is a chaotic, multicultural hub of poten- tial greatness. Beyond the cities, dozens of human-made outposts lie on the fringe of the wilderness. Outlanders, explorers, and hermits take refuge here from the hectic day-to-day of city life, but still find danger enough in the wilder- ness to keep them on their toes.

Dragonborn Dragonborn of Exandria have lived in near isolation for ages, keeping to the lands of Wildemount to guard their culture, their secrets, and their rites from the opportunistic human kingdoms that rule most of that land. All dragonborn, draconian and ravenite alike, can be of any scale color. Draconians The Draconian dragonborn stemmed from a bloodline that developed a tail at birth. Should your character be born from the toil and history their home for a time as the rock gnome village of Witte- of the Ravenite clans, make these adjustments in place of bak.

Others traveled into the Dividing Plains and found the base Dragonborn traits. Age, Alignment, and Size a home among the eastward-bound pioneers. Your Constitution score of the tall folk. While gnomes fight for respect within increases by 1 and your Wisdom score increases by 1. You have resistance to non-magi- cal slashing damage.

Your base walking speed is 35 feet. Rock gnomes prize cleverness over all other traits, and their cultural desire to explain natural phenomena cul-. Yet it did not last. Although humans and rock gnomes both hail in search of sanctuary. Many refugees found homes in from Issylra, most gnomes never had the chance or desire Kraghammer, and are striving to recreate the centuries of to leave their homeland.

Some did migrate over during innovation lost in the destruction of Wittebak. Kymal has the Age of Arcanum and endured the Calamity within also become a center of rock gnome population, and many the deep caverns of the Cliffkeep Mountains, rebuilding enjoy figuring out clever ways to rig its many gambling halls, or practice applying new pocket-picking techniques on their occasional wealthy patrons. A half-dozen small forest gnome commu- nities exist within the Verdant Expanse, hidden from the prying eyes of elves and human explorers.

Forest gnomes are more than happy to help their rock gnomish kin in their search to understand how nature works and how to manipulate it. Not all forest gnomes are as close to their fey identity as those of the Verdant Expanse. Most notably, the Trickfoot clan has made the the Bramble- wood outside of Westruun their home for generations, along with several other families. These distant clans are more practical than their fey kin and less uptight than their distant, rocky cousins, giving them a curious person- ality perfect for the life of a traveling adventurer.

Goliaths Most folk of giant blood ignore the political nonsense of the smaller folk. Living in small, solitary villages along the Cliffkeep and Stormcrest mountain ranges, goliath communities maintain. Some have ventured down into the Dividing Plains to roam as nomadic raid- Half-Orcs ers, taking what they wish from the unprotected few, but the sundering of the Herd of Storms see the Gazetteer Humans do not care for half-orc children.

Lucidian Coast to regain their sense of belonging. Orcs have no love for their half-human progeny, either. A small number of goliaths have Unloved by both parents, half-orcs must find ways to been taken under the wing of the wealthy elite and given survive in a world that cares nothing for them.

Living in such opposition, animosity, but with curiosity. The honor their city, but they are doing their best to work through heaped upon half-orc heroes of the Scattered War and more their instinctive fears. Half-Elves meet half-orcs with disrespect and even open violence.

As such, most half-orcs beyond Emon are still found living on the outskirts of human colonies and villages. Humans adore half-elven children. To them, it is not only a Some half-orcs reject humanity, having seen its ugliest great honor for a family to join their bloodline with that of side. These half-orcs see both halves of their lineage as an elf, but it is also a point of patriotic pride, demonstrating equally monstrous; one side is just better at hiding it.

A tribe of rough-and- on them with contempt. And rior, magical elven blood with that of humanity. Few half-elves find prominence in Syngorn. Many half-elven adventurers are wander- ers not by choice, but because are driven out from the forest by their peers.

These adventur- ers are often untrusting of others because of their trauma, especially if they were cast out at a young age. A surprising number make their home within the sunless depths of Kraghammer, finding kinship with the dwarves in their mutual dislike of elven society.

They have no civilizations of their own, and most Though genasi still bear features resembling their are born of human and orc parents. Their facial features are augmented with elemen- and very few sire children together.

Discussion of parentage tal traces and subtle abilities manifest with adolescence, is a deadly taboo and a source of great trauma among half- becoming alien and something new altogether. A rare few, however, common among the Ashari due to their elemental destiny.

In stories like these, the compassionate orc rarely survives Each of the four genasi elements have one race most long enough to see the birth of their child. Genasi most common parents for air genasi are halflings; for earth genasi are dwarves; for fire genasi are tieflings; and for water genasi are humans.

Tieflings energy constantly flows into the world from elemental rifts across the land, and such powerful primal powers occasion- ally influence or alter the nature of their surroundings. Countless scholars have delved through within their blood. These planetouched folk now harbor the thousands of years of Issylran history in search of the potential to give birth to genasi, people born with facets of origin of tieflings, to little avail.

The most complete extant answer is that, during the Age of Arcanum, a cabal of pow- er-hungry Issylran warlocks consorted with dark entities, and many these unions resulted in children neither wholly human nor fiend.

These children denied their ash-black- ened fate and traveled across the world in hopes of defining themselves through their deeds, not their nature. When Warren Drassig and his sons conquered the elven lands of Gwessar, the tieflings of the continent rose in near unanimous rebellion against the tyrant.

They had seen his kind before, they knew his methods, and they knew others would suffer like they once did. As such, most tieflings stick to the more studied and diverse cities like Emon and Westruun.

Kymal and Stilben are not devoid of tief- lings, and many there gleefully embrace their fiendish ancestry, finding their calling in foul deeds and shady business. Pansophical The Arcana Pansophical is respected, if somewhat feared, in most human settlements.

Kra- at the Battle of the Umbra Hills. Founder of the Arcana wholly prevent supernatural Pansophical, Yurek generally stays within Syngorn as the evil from infringing upon nexus of the order, acting as consultant to the Wardens the world, and the mages of Syngorn. The mistakes of the Maker, Halfling Alchemist. One of the great oracles they formed a private society called the of divination, her visions have sent her to Vasselheim, Arcana Pansophical.

A keen student to member is established at each place of arcane learning. Yurek who has grown into a master of planar travel and Membership is largely kept secret unless out of arcane ley line patterns, Ryn is still mid-study, often dart- necessity, though the existence of the order is relatively ing between realms to complete her research. Anyone found to be practicing magic is logged and checked up on routinely, as misuse Tinkerer Quash Dentdruggle of magic is grounds for arrest, judgment by the Makers, Guide, Gnome Construct Specialist.

Obsessed with the and punishment outside of the local law. Even so, their development of autonomous and living arcane constructs, reach and oversight are not without limits, and many dark he is holed up in his laboratory within Kraghammer. Those arcanists found in gross violation of the Truth will be punished by the full extent of this order—beyond the reach of any local law.

Though the study of Necromancy shall be restricted to none in the interest of magical understanding, the animation of the dead is a violation of the Truth. This helps the player who is playing the game to look at the beings residing in the vast plains and valleys and mountains.

The illustrations used in the book are unique and stunning. You can get ebook pdf free from here. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Sign in. A location guide includes references to Earthly histories to give you context and inspiration. A set of guides for anything from Gods, religions, creatures and organisations will get you started on your plot lines.

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