Background

Once, the world stood whole.

Then came Ruin.

In the final days of the Age of Power, the Weave shattered and the land itself was destroyed. Civilization would end in fire and falling stone.

In desperation, the Last Heroes performed the impossible. With their final strength, they tore fragments of the world free and cast them upward, sealing them with ancient wards and sending them into the heavens.

The sky became the new world for the lucky few.

It is now the year 205 After Ruin. Magic stirs. Arcane forces that have been silent for generations whisper back to mortal hands.

Seven nations of the sky now fight for supremacy. Across the endless blue, airships groan and thunder along the currents, bearing all that sustains the sky-bound peoples from grain and timber to iron-clad armies. Every vessel is a lifeline, every cargo a gamble.

Below lie broken continents, drowned cities, and warped wilderness. Ancient vaults, lost kingdoms, and relics of impossible power buried beneath ash and time. Few descend willingly. Those who do are called divers. Some seek fortune, some knowledge. Most pray only to return with their lives.

The Nature of the Campaign

This is not just a game of questing in dungeons. Shattered Sky is a living, strategic campaign played on multiple levels at once:

• Adventuring. Traditional D&D quests, exploration, combat, and discovery.
• Intrigue and diplomacy. Espionage, negotiation, sabotage, alliances, and betrayal.
• Domain and nation play. Control fleets, resources, territory, and ideology.
• War. Airship battles, sieges, raids, and large-scale conflict.

All with Braunstein-style play: multiple independent human players pursue their own goals under a fog of war.

• Nations and factions act even when PCs are not present.
• Choices create consequences beyond any single party.
• There is no "main plot," only competing ambitions.
• 1:1 time is used, where 1 day in the real world is 1 day in the game.
• The world moves whether you act or not, so use your time wisely.

Who Will You Be?

• An adventurer, delving into ruins of the old world?
• A diplomat, shaping alliances and treaties?
• An airship captain, trading, raiding, or exploring?
• A spy, manipulating events from the shadows?
• A privateer, sanctioned (or not) to prey on rivals?
• A religious zealot, scholar, engineer, or revolutionary?

What Nation Will You Serve?

The seven nations of the Shattered Sky:

• The New Kingdom of Shor Whistan. A populous agrarian state seeking stability through food, order, and expansion.
• Khazrim Kharum-Zuld. A dwarven mountain-fortress rich in industry but dependent on the sky for survival.
• Orthelian Elarion. An elven realm devoted to preserving the last living echoes of the old world.
• The Tradehold Merchant Company. A commercial power built on trade, contracts, and shrewd power.
• The Halcyon Enclave. Scholars guarding dangerous knowledge as magic slowly returns.
• The Free Tribes of Goblor. Nomadic clans who live by motion, reputation, and sudden violence.
• The Grand Immortal Empire. A theocratic crusader-state imposing order through faith and force.

None are complete. None are secure. All risk everything.

Rules and System

The campaign uses Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, with:

• Core rules. Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual.
• Expanded options. Xanathar's Guide to Everything.
• Airships and naval rules. Ghosts of Saltmarsh is used extensively to model airships, fleets, and sky combat.
• Some additional official sources as noted.
• Domain management and war systems will be noted clearly.

What Will You Do?

The ground is dead. The sky is crowded. Magic is returning. The future is undecided.

Will you rebuild civilization? Exploit its weakness? Burn it down again?

The choice is yours. Welcome to the Shattered Sky.

The Seven Nations

After Ruin, survival is not measured in borders, but in air, supply, and belief. The world persists as broken fragments drifting through the sky: cities torn open, fields half-lost, institutions cracked but not dead. Alliances are fragile. Scarcity is constant. No one is whole.

Each nation is struggling to answer the same question: how do you rule when the ground is gone, and the past is rubble?

New Kingdom of Shor Whistan (Eliminated)

Abundance and Ambition.

Shor Whistan was the largest surviving political entity and the closest thing to a traditional kingdom. But much of it lay in ruin. Its cities survived the ascent, but order did not arrive intact. Fields had to be reclaimed, granaries rebuilt, and authority reasserted.

What Shor Whistan had, more than any rival, was people and arable land. Even damaged farmland produced food, and even fractured bureaucracy could organize labor at scale. The kingdom's leaders believed this would make them indispensable to the sky realms.

Their ambition was clear: restore stability, then expand influence. But abundance drew danger. Supply convoys were vulnerable, unrest simmered among displaced populations, and neighbors watched warily. Shor Whistan stood at the edge of becoming an empire, or collapsing under its own weight. It collapsed.

Khazrim Kharum-Zuld (Eliminated)

Wealth Below, Dependence Above.

Khazrim Kharum-Zuld survived by lifting their mountain stronghold into the sky, but survival came at a cost. Lower tunnels collapsed. Upper halls cracked. Entire districts remain sealed, flooded, or unstable.

What endures is stone, metal, and knowledge of craft. The dwarves are surrounded by wealth. But much of it is buried, inaccessible, or requires time and labor to reclaim. Their forges burn again, but not at former strength.

Food and surface goods are scarce, forcing Khazrim to trade even as they rebuild. Their homeland is defensible, but not self-sufficient. They are a people rich in potential, standing on hoards they cannot yet fully reach.

Orthelian Elarion

Guardians of What Still Lives.

Orthelian Elarion survived because something ancient survived with it. The great living tree at its heart endured the Ruin, though scarred, weakened, and changed. The surrounding forest lives, but only barely.

The elves focus on healing and preservation. Much of their effort is spent stabilizing ecosystems, tending wounded land, and preventing further loss. Their cities are partially abandoned, reclaimed by vines and silence.

They do not necessarily seek conquest. They seek continuity. Yet isolation has costs. The world is changing faster than Orthelian Elarion can withdraw from it, and survival may demand choices they have long avoided.

The Tradehold Merchant Company

Profit Is Power.

Tradehold survived not through land or faith, but through contracts, cargo, and coincidence. Its headquarters and key assets rose intact. But many routes, partners, and dependencies did not.

They are still traders, but now they operate in uncertainty. Warehouses are half-empty. Labor is restless. Old agreements mean little without enforcement. Every deal carries risk.

Tradehold believes that if trade can be restored, stability will follow. Others believe Tradehold profits from chaos. Both may be true. They are rebuilding a network while standing in the open. Rich enough to matter, fragile enough to be broken.

The Halcyon Enclave

Knowledge Without Certainty.

The Halcyon Enclave remains a center of learning. But much of its knowledge is fragmented, dangerous, or untested in the new reality. Libraries survived. Assumptions did not.

Scholars argue over what still works, what has changed, and what should never be attempted again. Entire wings of the Enclave are sealed after catastrophic failures. Magical infrastructure hums unevenly, held together by caution and ritual.

Halcyon lacks numbers, food security, and conventional power. For now, secrecy and distance keep them safe. But isolation is not a plan, only a pause. They know the world will eventually come knocking.

The Free Tribes of Goblor

Chaos, Motion, Reputation.

Goblor survived because it was already moving.

The tribes lost ships, leaders, and clans in the Ruin, but not their way of life. What remains are scattered fleets, bound loosely by reputation, shared enemies, and remembered victories.

They are not unified. Some tribes raid. Others trade. Others simply flee. Supplies are short, tempers are sharp, and loyalty is earned daily. Strength comes from motion, but motion without purpose can tear a people apart.

Goblor is dangerous, unpredictable, and unfinished. Whether they become a legend or a cautionary tale depends on who can make them move together.

The Grand Immortal Empire

Order, Imposed.

The Grand Immortal Empire claims certainty in a world that has lost it. But even they are rebuilding from ruin. Temples lie shattered. Hierarchies are contested. Doctrine must be enforced anew.

What unites them is belief: that the Ruin was not random, and that meaning can be restored through obedience, faith, and structure. Their leaders preach order as survival, and survival as proof of righteousness.

Their forces are disciplined but strained. Every campaign costs resources they cannot easily replace. Every conversion creates resistance. The Empire is determined. But determination alone does not feed armies.

They seek to remake the world in their image, even as that world pushes back.

Common Pressures

Across all seven nations, the same pressures define reality:

• Air control determines survival.
• Supply chains are fragile and contested.
• Expansion invites retaliation.
• Trade, faith, and fear shape power.
• No one has enough of what they need.
• Old miracles are unreliable; systems must be rebuilt.

Wars in the Shattered Sky are not won by glory alone, but by reconstruction, control, and endurance: in dockyards, granaries, trade halls, and whispered promises.

The sky is crowded. The ground is dead. And the future belongs to those who can rebuild faster than their rivals.