ABSCURA

ABSCURA

The land beyond the clouds.

Welcome to ABSCURA, a world suspended in the highest of skies by its magic. Despite the wondrous expanses of the skies and the beacon of progress at its epicenter, the parts of the world not exposed to the sun's light may in fact hold more weight; hushed lips and averted eyes guise the truth beneath the open skies, and only time will tell if the world will remain as lofty as it may seem.

Be you an estranged noble, a scruffy street urchin, or someone more deeply entrenched in the dark underbelly of Highspire, you are an adventurer all the same, and it is your actions and grand adventures that shall define the fate of this city in the sky.

Will you raise it ever higher to join the stars above, or will you be the one to bring it down to its knees?

The world of Abscura consists entirely of floating islands, held above the Belowless only by the wanderlite in their cores. The largest of them are only a few hundred square miles, and most are far smaller, with some only being tiny fragments of stone and earth. Many of the creatures living on them have become strange, almost alien reflections of their ancestors; even its people, from humans to aarakocra, have been forced to adapt.

Steam and smoke billow up from the gleaming city of Highspire, a towering monolith of civilization perched upon one of the largest islands. People of all species inhabit its crowded streets, their homes towering up into the clouds as they struggle to make the most of what little space they have left. They value education above all else; the city's ruler, known only as the Overseer, also serves as its academy's headmaster. Most are expected to become engineers, architects, and craftsmen, while those that can’t are relegated to farms, forges, or hard labor. Airships drift between it and its vassals, Viridian and Malleator, to feed the city the coal and grain it needs to keep the steam engines churning.