Initially, there was one God who loved His people. Over time the people turned to God and challenged Him, asking Him to prove His power. God created earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Still the people pestered God, not satisfied by what they witnessed. God became so angry He called forth toxic clouds that rose up, killing everyone who wasn’t able to get to a high enough altitude.
Thus society was reformed with civilizations trapped in their islands of mountaintops poking out from above the lethal toxic seas.
Travelers on the Toxic Seas is a 5e setting by Jeran Jenks. Producers are Jeran Jenks, Jade Davies, Blayney Walshe. The primary artists include Alba Palacio, Yexil, and Laura. The game is being released by The Light Tracer’s Archive. The setting is wrapping up a successful kickstarter. Light Tracer’s Archive is prepared to deliver finished books by May of 2002.
In this nightmarish landscape there are two dominant groups that control life in the world as we know it: the Church of the Sacred Mist and Balloon Corp. The Church rules the lands as a theocracy, preaching about their angry One God and how difficult it is for anyone to now get into heaven. Many pages of the sourcebook are devoted to the scriptures of the Church.
People who don’t follow the teachings of the Church are persecuted or even killed. One group targeted by the Church are Unmakers, magic users and scientists who want to undo the toxic seas that plague the world. The Church believes the toxic seas are creations of God and hence God’s will, so it is working against the will of God to try to destroy the toxic seas.
Several pages are given to the interesting history of the Balloon Corp. The story is compelling, but I’m not sure how it would ever come into play with a standard gaming session. Essentially, an inventor found a way to travel over the toxic seas, uniting all the lands, allowing for trade. It isn’t made very clear whether this involves balloons flying over everything or more of a watercraft model that can actually ride the fumes as if it was water.
The inventor met an entrepreneur and they forged an alliance that created the most powerful corporation in the world, Balloon Corp. To get anywhere in this setting, expensive passage needs to be made. At first glance, this is very limiting for adventures. The adventurers are stuck on their little mountaintop until they’re rich enough to book passage to another mountaintop. Then again, adventuring by tiers usually start out by having the first tier take place in the adventurers’ local area, then it spreads out to be more global in the upper tiers. This makes sense that once the adventurers reach tier 2 of play, they’ll be able to afford travel to another location.
Jenks developed this gaming world for a series of campaigns he ran, then developed the world into a sourcebook. “I created the setting from little more than the novel idea of a world covered in mist and a big nasty corporation (the Balloon Corp) that has ships that can sail the mists. The inception of the idea came as far back as 2016, but I didn’t start my campaigns until 2017, and didn’t start writing the book until at least 2018,” Jenks said.
Another interesting idea in this book is that the conflicts between races have been worked out, since all races have been stuck together on their mountaintops for hundreds of years, forming a melting pot culture. Even the traditional issues of half-elves (and even half-dwarves) not fitting into either of their heritage cultures have been eliminated. The half-elves now have a set of parents and their relations who love them equally.
What the book lacks is an idea of the current age’s typical problems as far as monsters and incursions. The writers talk about a great goblin war that took place after the city-state of Imtaraya, led by the Church of the Sacred Mist, set out to expand further up the mountain. It sounds like events that would make excellent adventures. Alas, it’s in the distant past. The goblins have been pacified, and the land taken over by the cities.
I don’t know if there are devious hags plotting from caves somewhere, or if tribes of goblins are digging to infiltrate and conquer Imtaraya. The sense of peril and the types of setting-shaking events are not spelled out. There isn’t even a beginner adventure at the end of the book to set Dungeon Masters on a course for starting adventures in the Toxic Seas.
If you want to play in a setting dominated by isolation, dominating churches, corporations and with racial stereotypes turned on their ear, support Travelers on the Toxic Seas’s Kickstarter today.
