Shadow Lords is a multi-genre rpg set in a multiverse full of different settings and opportunities.
Many of its settings can be used also for other rpg systems, because they are created to be flexible and a springboard of ideas to create your own stories. Some are full-developed settings with a backstory and a theme. Others are more like campaign books, that give you the tools to play their story or personalize it to your heart’s content. Since Shadow Lords took inspiration from Cortex+ / Cortex Prime, it’s very easy to adapt these worlds to that system, but also to FATE and other more narrative games where the emphasis is on storytelling and not stat-blocks.
What follows is a list of the settings already developed or in development for it:
Anubia: the veilless world
This setting is presented mostly in the Core Book and somewhat resembles our world: a parallel dimension were some things are recognizable while others are different.But Anubia is at the very center of the Eternity Wars and this means it influences the reality of our own world! When a catastrophe known as “THE MAUL OF ANUBIS” stroke our planet our temporal line shattered into several parallel ones, and while our world (also known as “Dogmatic Earth”) exists on a line with little magic and strong technologic advancement, Anubia exists in a very different one where magic is still abundant, time flows differently and Shadow Lords have not won yet (yes, a couple of them won in our world and that’s why you can see only what they allow you to see).
The EMPIRE of ROMA AETERNA rules most of European Anubia with the support of the CHURCH OF THE DIVINE ORDER. This faith, that loosely resembles a mix of medieval Christianity and Cabalistic mysticism, venerates the Prophet Steno and its SACRED HEART: a powerful mystical stone that protects the Lands of the Empire from the creatures from beyond the VEIL.
Bloody Principalities
This setting details the lands of Eastern Europe, just bordering the now-desolated and demon-infested Lands of Anubis. Just recently annexed to the EMPIRE, these lands are a place “where everything is worse” and where demons crawl the night and ghosts can trap you in a corner if you walk into dark alleys.
The fall of Atlantis
Play in the times of the Titans and Grigorii, when Angels fought with and against mortals in the War Between Heaven and Earth. Survive the Maul of Anubis or turn it against the Heaven! Change the ancient history of Anubia to craft your own!
Mysteries of Stygia
Discover the family of Ra and play as one of the Egyptian Gods that came here to establish an illuminated Kingdom of light and order. Or fight against them to preserve your freedom!
The Swampwatch!
The Legion known as “the Swampwatch” patrols the border of the Empire that lies in the misty bogs where the cannibalistic Shargs live and worship the forgotten Belial. But something is stirring in the bogs: the drums song incessantly hammers the hears of the legionaries and mystic signs and glows show that some powerful creatures roams the already dangerous swamp. Play the role of young recruits, seasoned veterans or legendary champions of the Swampwatch and be ready to struggle for your life and your soul in the suffocating dampness of the Shargs’ bog.
The Labyrinth
Situated at the very center of the SHADOW, the Labyrinth was created by Lucifer, maybe with the help of Samael. It’s a living world that touches all other worlds and influences them, because it is the reflection of their Cosmic Forces, Deities and beliefs. But it also became the holding of the Shadow Lords, who grasped its control from Lucifer when he fell from the grace of Heavens and that now use it both to influence the realities and to move between them…
Hierophany: a cosmic tale
In this original sci-fi setting, you start from an underground city without knowledge of the vast Cosmo outside. Flee this metal prison and its demonic guardian to discover what happened to your barren world. Find a way to reach the stars and take revenge on the beings that planned its destruction!
Defenders of the Universe
A sub-setting of Hierophany where you play Legendary SUPERHEROES that fight to defend their Galaxy against catastrophic events such as the creeping SINTAGMA infection and an alien invasion of cosmic proportions!
Keras: the dying world
Keras is a cancer in the multiverse. A dying world that periodically connects to other universes to suck their vital energies to survive. It’s ruled by the God-King and its lieutenants the Demon-Kings but its people are just like me and you and just want to live. Hard choices, hard world. How to survive in a dying world.
Bethen: after the Apocalypse
The world has we know it has been destroyed by an apocalypse. But it wasn’t a nuclear Armageddon nor a zombie invasion, but something stranger: two realities collided and our got the short stick. Can you survive in a reality where space, time and even personal identities have no more sense? Who you can trust?
Aster: the end of the ages
A world so ancient that it is on the verge of dying, the few stars remaining flickering out like fireflies at dawn. A world where everything has already been done, any interesting story already told, any heroic feat already undertaken. A world where the powerful keep up a masquerade of society, religion and spirituality to keep the simple minds occupied and keep the chaos and the Abyss from devouring everything. A world where SAMAEL had won…
Valinor: the flying island
The world of DALIA is almost a classical fantasy world, would it not be for the victory of the Lords of Darkness commanded by ARHIMAN. Now, the world lies in ruin, a chaos-ridden land where the last humans, elfs and dwarfs chased endlessly for sport and food by the minions of Arhiman. Just a place remain unconquered: VALINOR, the flying island of the sorcerors, where the four arcane universities managed to flee from the grasp of darkness. But there is not enough space on Valinor for all people remaining in Dalia and only the most intelligent, brave and promising get offered the TRIAL: either they will have success and join Valinor, or they will die trying…