Greetings, readers! This week’s blog post is all about one
of my absolute all-time favorite campaign settings: Birthright. This setting
was initially created for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition
and was released in 1995. I first encountered it in 1996 when playing Dungeons
and Dragons in the army at Fort Knox. At first, I wasn’t sure about all this—players
are kings? Prior to reading Birthright, my main exposure to a fully-developed
campaign setting was the Forgotten Realms, so it was with some suspicion that I
picked up the boxed set and began reading.
Michael Roele falls before the Gorgon and ends the reign of Anuirean Empire.
Overnight, I became a Birthright nut. It’s fair to say that
I am one of the most ardent fans of the setting in the world—I’ve ran or played
in over a dozen campaigns, both tabletop and through the internet; I
contributed to the 3rd edition Birthright fan-made sourcebook; I negotiated
for original art with the main artist of the setting, Tony Szczudlo; I tracked
down the creators at every opportunity to thank them for making such an awesome
setting; I read all the novels and played the hell out of the computer game. I’m
proud of being known as “The Birthright guy.”
So it should be clear by now that the Birthright setting is
very important to me as a gamer and is a significant part of my gaming history.
Writing this blog post is something I’ve wanted to do for some time, but I
wanted to make sure that I took care to do it right!
The Creators
When you talk about Birthright, there are four names you
need to know.
Rich Baker and Colin McComb were the architects of the main
setting and rules, while Ed Stark and Carrie Bebris fleshed out much of the
rest of the world of Birthright.
The talent of this group is remarkable—consider that these
folks created 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons, built the Forgotten
Realms we know today, developed the best iteration of the Planescape setting,
and helped craft amazing games like Planescape: Torment and Fallout 2—and that’s
just a highlight reel.
It should also be mentioned that the art of Tony Szczudlo
really brought the setting to life; he brings a stark and grim style that still
feels epic and fantastic and encompasses everything Birthright was about in his
paintings.
The Setting
Birthright is a fantasy setting that has a distinct feel
from other “D&D-like” realms. I enjoy Baker’s quote about Birthright from a
Dragon Magazine article (and referenced in his Wikipedia Page): "I'm very
proud of it. It represents an entirely new approach to the traditional fantasy roleplaying
campaign, and the world itself is filled with a strong sense of history."
A glorious battle scene by Tony Szczudlo.
The main focus of Birthright is the continent of Cerilia and
the default region known as Anuire. Birthright’s Wikipedia page contains some
info on the other regions if you’re curious.*
*Note: I’m going to be careful to try and not re-state info
from Wikipedia, and if you really want to know more about Birthright, I’m
including some links below to a number of freely available materials on the
web.
More about Birthright after the break! (This is a long one,
folks)
Death of the Gods
Probably the most significant element of Birthright is that
a major war between the gods occurred over fifteen centuries ago; the god of
evil, Azrai, gathered a huge force of monsters, men (mostly the tribes of
Vosgaard), and elves (whom Azrai had seduced with promises of support to root
out the humans from their forests and restore their ancient glory). The other
gods gathered their own armies and together these two forces met in battle on
the slopes of Mount Deismaar. The battle was apocalyptic in scale—the elves
switched sides at a pivotal moment, tipping the balance against Azrai.
The
battle ended when the gods sacrificed themselves to destroy Azrai before he
could unleash his vengeance. Thus, the gods died—their divine essence rained
down onto the battlefield, raising new gods from those closest to the
confrontation and imbuing hundreds more with divine power in their bloodlines
that connected them to the lands they ruled.
Broken Empire
Anuire forms the ruins of a shattered empire. Once, the
rulers of Anuire straddled most of Cerilia, having conquered vast portions of
the continent over generations of war. However, the last emperor perished
roughly 550 years prior to the current campaign date, plunging the empire into
disarray and civil war. In the current time, Anuire is a fractured realm, with
many smaller kingdoms struggling for dominance. There are a handful of
contenders for the Iron Throne of the Emperor, but there is plenty of room for
a resourceful and strong player character to unite Anuire beneath his banner.
Anuire has a strong historical and cultural link to Britain, and there are many
parallels that one can draw between struggles in Anuire to the War of the Roses
and other civil conflicts in Britain’s history.
A cleric invests a scion's heir with his bloodline as he lays dying on the field of battle.
(This is not limited just to the main region of Anuire. Much
of Birthright’s setting is based on real-world historical cultures and
conflicts. The region of Brechtur, for example, is modeled upon the Hanseatic
League.)
What I like about Anuire: While it’s fair to say that I
really like all of the Birthright regions (I have a special fondness for the Khinasi
Cities of the Sun and the Brechtur Havens of the Great Bay), Anuire is my
favorite. I love that you can find nearly every example of Birthright’s
touchstones in Anuire, from dangerous Awnsheghlien like the Gorgon and the
Spider to mysterious elven realms like the Sielwode. Powerful wizards like the
Sword Mage can be found there, as well as lawless regions crying out for a hero to
forge them into a realm—such as the Five Peaks. The goblin kingdom of Thurazor,
the wonders of the Imperial City, unexplored islands lying temptingly close to familiar
shores, ancient ruined keeps and deep-delving dwarves—Anuire has it all.
The region of Anuire is also chock-full of interesting
personalities and NPC’s. The Gorgon is the most powerful awnsheghlien on the
continent and constantly schemes to claim the Iron Throne. Rhoubhe Manslayer
represents the resentment and hatred of the Elves towards the tribes of
humanity who drove them out of their forests. The Mhor of Mhoried holds the
unwelcome position of the realm most likely to suffer the Gorgon’s wrath; he
must be ever-vigilant to raise his defenses against an inhuman and implacable
foe. The Archduke of Boeruine schemes to position himself as the pre-eminent
candidate for a restored Empire. The wizard known as the Eyeless One conducts
mysterious experiments among the lawless mountains of the Five Peaks.
You can practically /taste/ the epic. If you’re like me, you’re
probably hearing the Skyrim (or the Game of Thrones) theme in your head right
now.
And these are just a handful of the cool characters to
encounter in just one region!
The Shadow World
Cerilia has a dark twin, a twisted reflection of itself
known as the Shadow World. This is a parallel dimension where shadows and night
linger and take the forms of nightmare. The undead draw strength from the
Shadow World, and it is a sinister place of great danger for any living thing.
The Halflings claim that they once dwelt in the Shadow World, but the dimension
slowly changed into its current form and drove them away.
The Raven is a powerful Awnshegh with ties to the Shadow World.
There are still
places in Cerilia where the boundaries between it and the Shadow World are
thin, and creatures may pass from one to the other easily. There are some
advantages to doing so, for each step travelled in the Shadow World is hundreds
of paces in Cerilia, allowing for extremely fast movement between two points.
There are many who claim that Azrai’s divine essence corrupted the Shadow World
and exists there as a foul and murderous avatar known only as the Cold Rider.
Divine Right
Take your Dungeons & Dragons game, place it in a kickass
setting, and add a dash of Highlander. Now, you’re getting closer to
Birthright. Since the destruction at Deismaar, the divine essence of the old
gods has been passed down through bloodlines. These bloodlines vary in
strength, and grant unusual powers (known as Blood Abilities) to the Blooded.
Known as Scions, creatures with a divine bloodline can increase their power
either through wise rulership or (more commonly) through slaying other blooded
creatures with a blow through the heart to steal that divine essence. This
process is known as Bloodtheft.
Some old-school miniatures of Blooded Scions and Regents of Cerilia.
Those scions possessing the bloodline of Azrai face a
particular danger—if their bloodline gains significant strength through
bloodtheft, it is possible that the blood may corrupt them into inhuman
monsters of great power known as Awnsheghlien (“blood of darkness”). Several
Awnsheghlien roam Cerilia—some of them even rule vast realms and command armies
of loyal followers. Others are nearly-mindless beasts who occasionally rampage
through civilized lands.
The impact of blood abilities is to add a new layer of
interesting things to do and react to in the game. For example, a noble paladin
might have the blood of Azrai in his veins, and must struggle against that part
of his nature. A stealthy theif may have the blood of the sun goddess and find
he has powers over light. A character with a minor bloodline may scheme to
improve it, whilst a character with a great bloodline may be pressured to live
up to his dynasty’s ideals.
Land of Legends
The Birthright setting is a curious mix of low-magic and
epic fantasy. On the one hand, most magic-users in Birthright practice what is
known as “Lesser Magic,” essentially illusionists who are restricted from
casting truly powerful spells that affect the real world. Blooded Wizards and
Elves, however, practice “True Magic” and can cast any of the normal Player’s
Handbook spells. This means that wizards who practice True Magic are
vanishingly rare—a blooded Wizard is often a figure of legend and fear. Most of
these wizards have a particular name or title that reinforces that feel, such
as the Sword Mage, the Eyeless One, and so forth.
True magic is impressive stuff...
When it comes to True Magic,
there are three distinct tiers. The first is the normal adventuring magic found
in the Player’s Handbook. The second are known as Battle Spells—these incantations
are very similar to the ones in the Player’s Handbook, but take longer to cast
and can affect entire units of soldiers on the battlefield. An example of a
Battle Spell is the Storm of Magic Missiles. The third and most powerful tier
is known as Realm Magic—these spells can affect large regions of a realm, known
as provinces, and can have an impact on hundreds of people with a single
casting.
Similarly, many of the more fantastical monsters of D&D
are missing in Cerilia—beholders, ropers, and illithids are unknown, for an
example. Instead, many of the classical D&D monsters—Dragons, Griffins,
etc. exist in Cerilia, but in small numbers (there are roughly only twelve
Dragons in the known world) and are possessed of awesome power. A Cerilian
Dragon would probably wipe the floor with most Dragons from other D&D
settings, to give you just one idea.
This is expressed even in the nature of player characters—Elves
are immortal, capricious beings who haunt their forests like beings of fey.
Dwarves are as tough as the rocks they live amongst. There are no known gnomes,
tieflings, or other such races in Cerilia.
There are no generic orcs in Birthright… instead, the main
foes are the Goblin races (Goblins, Hobgoblins, Bugbears), Gnoll raiders, and
Orogs (massive, ogre-like evil humanoids who tunnel up into the world from
below and a major enemy of the dwarves). Many of these monstrous races control
realms and kingdoms of their own, often right next to (or carved out of!) more
civilized lands of men and elves.
The Awnsheghlien, mentioned above, are legendary foes that
all have histories, and occasionally special abilities or weaknesses hidden in
the stories whispered of them by minstrels. Each Awnsheghlien is simply a
fantastic enemy—just reading about them makes it seem like would be eminently
satisfying to defeat such a monster! Part of this feel is reinforced by
observing the map of Cerilia and understanding that each Awnsheghlien rules
over hundreds or thousands of (usually) oppressed subjects and threatens any
surrounding realms with death and war. This escalation of importance of the bad
guys really brings home the level of threat… and consequently, the potential
rewards of finding victory in combat against such a dire foe. The Elven realm
of Cmwb Bheinn (pronounced Coom Veen) is threatened by two Awnsheghlien realms,
and reading about it never fails to make me want to draw my sword and defend
that lonesome forest against the encroaching darkness.
Domain Rules
One of the most interesting features of Birthright is
another layer of rules that encompasses ruling a realm. Again, the Wikipedia
entry covers this in pretty good detail, so I’ll limit myself to commenting on
my own feelings about the Domain rules.
An Awnshegh known as the Ogre destroys a noble's knights... only a blooded hero can face such a threat and survive.
The Birthright Domain rules were one of the first of its
kind—before this, there hadn’t really been any decent rules for running a
country or for roleplaying at the level of a king. The rules for running a
domain are quite well-developed, robust, and innovative. It all turns on the
nature of the regent, of course, meaning that Fighters generally run law
holdings better and Rogues get a free Espionage action, as examples. The way
the Domain rules are laid out it is entirely possible to run a game without any
of the traditional D&D tropes of dungeon crawls! Many, many play-by-e-mail
campaigns have been set up using the Birthright Domain ruleset where the rulers
of each realm struggle for dominance without ever once setting foot in a
dungeon or drawing a blade against a dragon.
The Domain rules are not without some flaws; there’s no real
way to run or create secret holdings—regents are generally always aware of all
holdings inside their realm. Druids tend to be somewhat screwed compared to
other Divine Casters, in that they don’t really benefit from high levels of
civilization. The default setting is that Wizards require unspoiled lands to
have high level holdings, which can be rather counter-intuitive for other
campaign settings (such as the Forgotten Realms), which limits the versatility
of the ruleset somewhat.
Even so, these Domain rules are overall well-designed and
could be used to portray nearly any fantasy campaign setting with a few
judicious tweaks. Even if the other aspects of Birthright don’t really light
your fire, definitely check out the Domain ruleset.
My Thoughts
Given what I said at the beginning of this post, gentle
reader, it should be clear by now that I love Birthright fiercely.
I feel that the setting fits together really well. Every
piece feels interrelated and part of one, singular vision. I think one possibly
explanation as to why Birthright feels so solid to me is that it had a short
and limited print run—there was never an opportunity for things to go off the
rails like so many other settings. This is not to say that Birthright is
perfect… some of the Player’s Secrets books are particularly flawed, but others
are fairly good, so overall I would call it a wash.
The names of the setting are all very cool, although often
difficult to spell and pronounce… especially the Welsh-derived Elven words and
names!
The Domain rules and divine bloodlines are unique elements
of Birthright that I feel were elegantly executed and make the setting stand
out as a truly memorable place to set your campaign.
Swept Under The Rug
Unfortunately, Birthright did not enjoy great commercial
success—some have said it was due to the products arriving near the end of TSR’s
“setting glut,” a time in which the market was saturated with different D&D
settings from Mystara to various flavors of Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk,
amongst others.
Heartless indeed!
In many ways, Birthright never really got the attention it
deserved… after the initial release, the line ended prematurely with several
products still in development, and few nearly complete (such as the Book of
Regency and Blood Spawn).
Possibly the greatest oversight is that the Birthright
setting was left entirely out of the 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons retrospective book… a
book that covered every other D&D setting ever published.
Player’s Secrets
I’m pleased to say that I was involved with the 3rd
edition fan creation of the Birthright setting, found at Birthright.net.
In addition, many of the products of Birthright were made
available for free by the Wizards of the Coast in 2005. Amongst these is
probably the best of the Birthright novels (written by Rich Baker himself), The
Falcon and the Wolf.
Also created for Birthright was a very popular boardgame
known as Legacy of Kings. Although this board game had non-stop lines at Gen Con
every year it was shown, the board game was never produced.
Just as a side note, if anyone from Wizards/Hasbro is reading this--please release this board game! You seem really into doing D&D board games right now, and this one is a surefire hit! Thank you.
Sierra created a computer game for the setting known as Birthright:
The Gorgon’s Alliance. Although this video game had poor sales, I consider it
to be very fun and enjoyable as a Birthright fan.
I won’t share links on this blog post, but the original free
downloads of Birthright products made available by Wizards of the Coast are
still out there on the internet if one has sufficient google-fu.
Hi Ross. You might be interested in my own post on the Birthright campaign which this review of yours inspired: http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/2012/08/taking-another-look-at-birthright.html
ReplyDeleteThanks Joseph! I appreciate the link--and I agree with you that there's a lot of interesting potential in the domain rules.
DeleteGreat post! I think that anyone who enjoys a political aspect to their RPG game, like Game of Thrones or Dune, would potentially be a fan of this campaign setting. I reffed one campaign where the players were all nobles in one region (Tournen), and played in one where there were 2 DMs and 3 or 4 groups of players. It was quite a different feeling when you never knew if the problems in your country were being caused by the DM, or another faction of players. Initially we did not even know what the player led factions were...
ReplyDeleteYou have brought back some wonderful memories! It's a bit sad, given that Birthright is not well known, that I don't think I will get to play in a campaign again. After a hiatus of many years, I am getting back into AD+D with a group of 30 something married couples that have never rpg-ed before. It would be fun to ref, but I am not sure how it would work with beginning players.
Looking forward to reading more of your blog.
take care,
David S.
Minnesota, USA
Hi ! We're editing a new expansion set (online sticker booster) for the late Spellfire game and would maybe like to use the picture called “Michael Roele falls before the Gorgon and ends the reign of Anuirean Empire” (we have a permission to use D&D art in a non-commercial way). Do you happen to have a version of it in higher resolution (we’d zoom on Michael Roele’s face to design a new blood ability card).
ReplyDeleteHello Ross. Great review, it echoes my own views on the Setting. Im prepping a BR campaign on 5th edition, but I've never ran this setting before (in any system(.
ReplyDeleteMay I email/WhatsApp you to share some thoughts and ideas?