Akashra: After the Fall
Core Concept
Akashra: After the Fall is a Sword & Sorcery setting during the chaotic epoch immediately following the collapse of the Fourth Root Race (Atlantis). The world is a memory of the Akashic Record where history has calcified. The players are survivors in the Fifth Root Race, scavenging the “techno-magical” corpses of a civilization they cannot comprehend.
The Nature of “The Fall”
The cataclysm was not merely a physical flood; it was a metaphysical fragmentation.
- The Shattered Record: The Fall occurred when the Atlantean attempt to rewrite the laws of the universe “glitched” the Akashic Record. The oceans rose, continents sank, and reality itself became unstable.
- The Etched World: The surviving landmasses are memories held together by the collective unconscious. Ruins of the previous age are resistant to time because they are “deeply remembered” by the cosmos.
Mechanical Framework: Dragonbane
The setting uses a modified Dragonbane chassis to emphasize lethality and resource scarcity. (This doesn’t work. The world should feel real in of itself and not a memory. “Truthy”)
- Willpower as Reality Anchor: In a world of unstable memory, Willpower is the stat used to resist environmental corruption and the maddening influence of “un-remembered” entities.
- Sorcery (The Rewrite): Arcane magic is the dangerous act of forcing the Akashic record to contradict itself (e.g., convincing the universe that fire exists where it does not).
- Divinity (The Recall): Divine magic is the act of resonating with the “True History,” healing wounds by reminding the body of its uninjured state.
Thematic Pillars
1. The Weight of Deep Time
The setting adheres to the Theosophical timeline of Root Races of Akshara.
- The Precursors (Atlanteans): The fallen masters of the world. Their surviving tech (Orichalcum) is highly advanced but spiritually radioactive.
- The Inheritors (Humans): The rising cultures of the Fifth Root Race, currently living in a barbarous dark age amidst the wreckage of giants.
2. Psychic Archaeology
HATE THIS - Dungeons are often “Memory Palaces”—vaults where the psychic imprint of the past is so strong that the events of the Fall replay as spectral echoes. Looting a ruin is an act of recovering lost knowledge from the mind of the world.
3. Cosmic Indifference
Influenced by the Lovecraft Mythos, the boundaries of Akashra are fraying. Beyond the “Etched Lands” lies the void where memory dissolves. Entities from this void are not evil; they are simply incompatible with the current version of reality.
- The Fall is somewhere from 500-1000 years after the Fall of Atlantis. Only scholars know for sure.
I wonder…
- How long ago was the Fall? If it was 100 years ago, the wounds are fresh and grandfathers remember the old world. If it was 1,000 years ago, the old world is myth. (Recommendation: 300 Years—long enough to forget the science, recent enough for the ruins to stand).
- What is the “Corruption” mechanic? When a Sorcerer fails a roll, do they suffer physical damage, or do they start to “fade” out of the memory of the world (becoming transparent/ghostly)? NO
- The Sky: Is the sky normal, or does it display auroras/cracks showing the “static” of the Akashic field?
References
- Free League Publishing. (2023). Dragonbane Core Set.
- Blavatsky, H.P. (1888). The Secret Doctrine. (Source for Root Race theory).
- Smith, C. A. (1932). The Empire of the Necromancers. Weird Tales.
- Hancock, G. (2019). America Before: The Key to Earth’s Lost Civilization. St. Martin’s Press.