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Introduction:

The purpose of this document is to introduce players to the Riverine campaign setting, the setting of the first Therran 3rd edition D&D campaign. All events of this campaign assume that the historical events in the previous 2nd edition AD&D campaign occurred as played.

The World:

The year is 5535. It is 21 years after the Great War of the Gem, as the momentous and world-shaking events surrounding the defeat of the Deceiver are known. Enough time has passed so that much of the world has healed, at least from its surface wounds. Even the southernmost kingdoms felt the ravages of the war as, in their final desperate gambit, the Free Folk withdrew most of their homeland defenders to form the last army that marched upon Mordasht itself.

The Empire of Antorium escaped much less scathed than even its southern neighbours, as the Emperor, wisely or rashly, withheld a greater portion of his troops from the final assault upon Mordasht and so better warded the Imperial Heartland. In addition, the massive boatlift of Imperial troops into Vosh-gerr successfully diverted the now flanked forces of the Deceiver thrusting deep into Upper Antoria and located much of the fighting into Vosh-gerr.

Jaggarth and Imtorr were decimated during the war, but have managed to fully rebuild, and Jaggarth even now begins to expand its borders north into the wild frontier formerly known as the War Plains. Doughty priests perform cleansing rites on that blasted land, exorcising the trapped and lamenting spirits in order to make the lands fit for the living. Still, all but the southern quarter of the War Plains is a haunted and dangerous land.

The Wolf Riders have begun to migrate into and reclaim the Wolf Lands, ancestral homelands from which they were ousted by the forces of the Deceiver. Nonetheless, the Wolf Riders have found trouble from both the wild beasts and remaining evil humanoids of the area and from encroachments from both Imtorr and Vilgum, both seeking to claim portions of this valuable land. Fighting between the Wolf Riders and the forces of Imtorr and Vilgum has become more frequent in the last 5 years or so.

Vilgum, torn by civil war before the War of the Gem, is now reunited. Decimated by the Great War, the factions of Vilgum had a choice to either continue their warfare and further decimate an already decimated land, or to forge some sort of compromise. This was forged, with the help of many wise personages such as Jerregobe the White, and the two factions intermarried. The compact, known as the Forge of Vilgum, has thus far held the rival factions of the Vilgumese into a cautious union, though the factions still compete in matters of mercantilism. The Vilgumese now press northward to reclaim the Death Marches from the tribes of evil humanoids that infest the land and move into the peripheries of the Wolf Lands as well.

The Lost Kingdoms, which were fully allied with the Deceiver, have certainly lost a great deal of their cohesion. When the Deceiver departed, the city states immediately fell to internecine war, especially when they determined that the forces of the Free Folk were far too decimated to turn and wage a punitive campaign against the city states. This internecine warfare proceeded for several years, with the holdings of various city states expanding and contracting, but the warfare stopped quite suddenly in 5526. The reasons behind this sudden cessation remain a mystery.

The Mountains of Ill Repute are now generally referred to by their ancient name, the Grashtilim. The dwarves of Bleton and the West Mountains have sent a call to all dwarven kind to unite in a great war to reclaim their ancient homeland, culminating, they hope, in the retaking of the great underground city of Helkazum. Almost all of the dwarves of Bleton mustered, and the dwarves of Aynayjor also sent a sizeable force. This force marched into the mountains and, if reports and tales tell true, they have liberated much of the West Mountains, save the northernmost tip, and have even wrested control of the Ironaxe Clan holdings from the drow who held it. In fact, the dwarves have reported, the drow fairly abandoned the clan holdings before the dwarves arrived, and the taking of the holdings involved merely the flushing out of numbers of evil humanoids and other creatures.

The Woods of Terror are now often referred to by their ancient elvish name of Blanthil. Many elves have traveled north to reclaim the woods from evil, and the departure of Demogorgon has removed a great deal of the twisting and warping of the area. However, the woods are vast and the evil deeply entrenched and even after over 20 years the elves only hold the eastern most stretch of the woods, nearest to the Kingdom of Slumber. The rest of the forest still bears a haunted reputation.

The Kingdom of Slumber is a nation bequeathed by the gods to the Heroes of the Gem. These have formed a series of five holdings stretching from the Hall of Slumber south to the verges of the Blanthil Forest. The kingdom, though small, attracted a population of hardy souls, many of whom sought to leave behind the blasted lands of the south and rebuild their shattered lives to the north. Many of these were the remnants of sundered families who met other forlorn souls and formed new families out of the ashes of their despair. The kingdom now prospers under the guidance of the Heroes.

The Far Coast and Thaneer were pretty much untouched by the Great War directly, though many Imperial veterans who settled in the Far Coast were recalled to service and fought and died for the Imperium. Many Thaneeri used this to their advantage, stepping up their raids on the Imperial settlements of the coast, but fortunately, the Thaneeri did not unite and wage full scale war on the under-manned coast.

Prestige Classes:

The following prestige classes are technically available to PCs in the Riverine Campaign. Notes follow each class.

Please keep in mind that this listing is ONLY a listing of the prestige classes possibly available to the PCs. NPCs encountered may be members of other prestige classes.

As with all advancements, there must be a good rationale for a character to pick up a prestige class.

These classes are found in the DMG as well as the official class guidebooks and some Faerun sources.

Assassin - professional assassins are used throughout the Byzantine political landscape of the Imperium. There are no assassin guilds, but many thief guilds support assassins, and the various trading houses and political institutions of the Imperium also do the same. In addition, the Emperor himself maintains of cadre of elite assassins, and even the hint that the Imperial Assassins might be called against someone is usually enough to cow opposition. However, the Emperor is usually smart enough to let his assassins remain a rarely used threat-in-being.

Arcane Archer - these are available to elves and half-elves.

Loremaster - these are available and merely represent a shift of focus towards knowledge and lore.

Cavalier - technically available, as the Emperor does keep some knightly orders, but very unlikely to mesh well with the intrigue of a Merchant House campaign. PCs are advised to consider this when choosing this prestige class. It also requires formal induction into a knightly order.

Devoted Defender - very common in the Imperium, where assassination is a way of solving differences. Schools in the Imperium are devoted to teaching the art of bodyguarding, and this class can also be gained from dedication and practice.

Duelist - duels are also fairly common in the Imperium, though less so on the frontier. Nonetheless, there are schools that teach the dueling style and a character may also simply develop the expertise on his own.

Gladiator - the Empire revels in Gladiator spectacles, and even frontier outposts often hold gladiator spectacles.

Lasher - a little exotic and bizarre, but allowable.

Weapon Master - available only to monks. You must have at least 3 levels of monk to qualify for this prestige class.

Arcane Trickster - a blending of wizard and roguery, available to multi-classed rogue/wizards with no special training other than the standard prerequisites.

Bladesinger - available to elves or half-elves.

Candle Caster - many strange sideshoots of wizardry exist in the Imperium. This prestige class can only be added to wizards, so the prerequisite is changed to the ability to cast ARCANE spells of 3rd level or higher.

Elemental Savant - available, essentially involves delving into the mysteries of the various Tul entities.

Mage of the Arcane Order - available, however, the mage must be invited to become a member of a guild.

Spellsword - available, spell levels added through this class must be to wizard.

True Necromancer - available, though with possible ramifications from society at large.

Thief-Acrobat - available.

Virtuoso - available.

Exotic Weapon Master - available.

Foe Hunter - available, though the PC must have a very dire reason to so hate a single foe.

Frenzied Berserker - available only to those from certain Thaneeri tribes.

Geomancer - available.

Tempest - available.

Gnome Artificer - available to gnomes.

Incantatrix - available.

Master Alchemist - available.

Spelldancer - available, usually to bards.

Demonologist - available, and the alignment prerequisite is actually what the demonologist will slowly become as he rises in power. Characters taking levels in this prestige class must more and more tend to Chaotic Evil or they will be denied higher levels of the class.

Diabolist - available, as per Demonologist (q.v.) but tends towards Lawful Evil.

Disciple of Maug - equivalent to the various Disciple prestige classes in the Book of Vile darkness. Not for the faint of heart.

Thrall of Maug - as Disciple (q.v.)

Elemental Archon - available, similar to Elemental Savant, except that while the Savant delves into one aspect of Tul, the Archon is openly hostile to the other aspects and seeks to raise one of the four Tul gods to supremacy. Only available to priests of one of the Tul gods.

Goldeye - available only to priests of Indolle.

Heartwarder - available only to priests of Mustiglior.

Stormlord - available only to priests of Hindarr-quag.

Waveservant - available only to priests of Hotor. Servant contacted for the prerequisites may be of any alignment.

Silverstar - available only to priests of Vinstarria. Alignment prerequisite is Chaotic only.

Nightcloak - available only to priests of Heleniarr, but no alignment requirement.

Doomguide - available only to priests of Mergurr.

Auspician - available only to priests of Flupnir.

Arcane Devotee - available, but the wizard must align with a temple closely.

Archmage - available as an alternate branch of magic specialization.

Divine Champion - available to some temples, even temples such as Indolle employ Divine Champions as temple avengers and patrol leaders and champions of the roadways.

Divine Disciple - available to any priest.

Divine Seeker - available to any priest of a god who might have use of such talents. Indolle is definitely a religion well disposed to the training of divine seekers.

Guild Thief - available to any person who joins a thieves' guild.

Hierophant - available to any quite powerful priest.

Mordanti:

While, with the defeat of the Deceiver, the basis of the conflict between Mordants and Polytheists has disappeared, the millennia long hostility between the two has barely thawed, though now it is simply a case of prejudice pure and simple as opposed to an actual philosophically-based difference.

Mordants still exist in Therra, exalting in worship of all of the gods of Therra.

Mordant priests are also known as Theurgists.

A player must choose to be a theurgist when he first gains a clerical level. Theurgists may choose spells from any domain when they are praying for spells. This represents the Mordant's ability to appease any of the gods rather than just one. The Mordant must made a Knowledge (religion) check (DC 15 + spell level) for each spell, failure indicating that they have not properly connected with the dreams of one of the gods and may not receive that spell for the day. As potent as it may be to access domain spells from any of the domains of the gods of Therra, theurgists do not receive any domain abilities.

They also receive a -2 CHA penalty to all skills used upon non-Mordants.

Theurgists may only access spells from the domains represented by the 32 gods of Therra. This means they cannot access domains represented solely by the Deceiver or various Maugs or greater spirits or intermediate divine beings.

Feats:

There are a great many feats available outside of those in the Player's Handbook. Players are encouraged to utilize those in the various class supplements (such as Tome and Blood) and the various Faerun supplements. There are also a few new ones in the Manual of the Planes and some rather evil ones in The Book of Vile Darkness.

However, do note that any feat that allows a PC to take an extra partial action does not, like the Haste spell does not, allow a person to cast a second spell in a round.

Spells:

There are a great many spells available outside of the Players' Handbook. These are to be found all over the place, including the Faerun supplements, the class supplements, Manual of the Planes, Book of Vile Darkness, Deities and Demigods, and the third party supplement called Spells and Spellcraft.

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