I've been designing the Mythos Engine for a little over a year now, but the going is slow. When this year's NaGaDeMon started up, I decided to start writing the first setting that will use the Mythos Engine, the Age of Mythos.
Cosmic Horror
Age of Mythos will use a dark fantasy setting built on the cosmic horror created by writers such as H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Lord Dunsany, and others. For this year's NaGaDeMon I chose to focus on the northern lands of Lomar and Hyperborea.
Lomar & Hyperborea
Inspired by the land Lovecraft created with his short story Polaris, my version of Lomar was populated by the Hyperboreans when they had to flee their continent due to encroaching ice. When they first came there, it was already inhabited by the primal Gnophkeh and strange Kimpursha.
I avoid using the Inutos as described by HPL in Polaris. Because his description was a blatant racist view of the Inuits. Instead, I'm introducing the half-ethereal ancestors to the Hyperboreans, the Kimpursha, inspired by the second root race from the writings of Helena Blavatsky.
The Hyperboreans chase both the Gnophkeh and Kimpursha further north and founds the land of Lomar. Their first city is called Zobna but they move their capital to Olathoë after Zobna falls to encroaching ice. That is the official story, anyway.
Three stages
All settlements and lands in the Age of Mythos will include a write-up of their three stages: prosperity, downfall, and ruins. This is because the setting is set over thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of years. So while some games will be set in a city during its prosperity, other games might be set after its apocalypse.
The Mist
Another feature of the world in the Age of Mythos is that it is covered by a dense Mist filled with eldritch horrors. Navigating the Mist proved to be almost impossible until the people of the world discovered that some people were able to navigate it. The navigation put them at great risk and before long a guild was founded to learn from these navigators and teach new ones. It became known as the Cartographer's Guild.
The Cartographer's Guild
Dedicated to unlocking the secrets of the Mist and mapping the world, the Cartographer's Guild often doubles as an insane asylum. Navigating the Mist is a taxing experience, especially for the mind of a Cartographer. So many guilds have in-house treatment facilities for those who have lost their minds to the Mist, those of them who managed to escape with their lives intact that is.
The Mistborn
The first Cartographer is said to have been born from the Mist and they were not the only one. Many so-called Mistborn has wandered out of the Mist over the millennia and they all seem to have strange and esoteric knowledge about the world. Their memories go no further back than the Mist though, so the general consensus is that they were created from the Mist.
More to come
This has been a quick summary of what I have written for the Age of Mythos so far but there is a lot more to come! I plan to write up many more lands, including the lands of Yann, Mnar, Lemuria, Atlantis, Mu, and several others; some from my own mind.
NaGaDeMon
I'm participating in this year's NaGaDeMon like last year. It has helped me tremendously in getting started with writing the Age of Mythos setting. I highly recommend anyone who's making a game to join some sort of community that can help push your writing. Just someone to hold you "accountable" for making progress. Feeling obliged to update frequently is a great motivator!
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