Savarra

Savarra is the world in which Corruption of Champions II takes place, now under threat from Mareth's demons.

"Savarra is an old world, and recently it's seen a cataclysmic upheaval and strife that has severely retarded the progress of civilization. The regions of the world the PC travels through have been reduced to a late bronze age society, with settlements separated by old roads and plenty of monsters and brigands. Remnants of the previous world's majesty can still be found in the crumbling castles and rare magic relics the Champion finds, but they are just that: echoes of a time on the edge of forgetting."

"There are many worlds, separated by boundaries of reality. Each world is unique, unbound by the laws of the others. New and strange races and magicks exist in each world, tended by their own gods. Passage between them is rare, but possible through portals -- small, fleeting tears in the veil. Most portals are temporary, but some few remain constant, opening each year to allow a single passage each way before they close. One such portal exists near Hawkstone Castle, where a cult of madmen now worship demons from the world of Mareth (much as the elders of Ingnam do), exchanging sacrifices for power and immortality."

"Savarra, our setting, is connected through the multiverse to other worlds -- alien places and times. Unlike Mareth, Savarra is not a pocket world, disconnected from all others: it is possible for characters and creatures to come and go between it and other planes, though this is still a rare occurrence."

– Corruption of Champions II: Public Design Document

History

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For an age, the Belhar Empire stood united. Humans, elves, and a dozen other races lived under its banner in great cities, as powerful as they were decadent and opulent. Towering castles, sprawling cities, and works of wonder fueled by magic and learning stood testament to the empire's greatness, and the just rule of its leaders. They thought they commanded a divine right to unify the world, and built huge ziggurat-temples to honor the gods and show their empire's wealth and magnificence.

History from that era is scarce, kept by word of mouth and rare written histories written since the empire's fall. Conflicting rumors and opinions abound amongst those who've grown up in the wake of civilization's collapse. Many blame the orcs and catfolk for causing Belhara's fall, as their rising nations and armies rampaged across the land in the years that followed. Others blame the gods for abandoning them, or the hubris of men for thinking the gods favored them at all.

In truth, the fall of Belhara began in the empire's crown jewel: Estelore, the empire's greatest center of learning and magical research. No place like it has existed before or since: an entire island dedicated to exploring the arcane arts. There, a cabal of wizards discovered something: the first portal. One of many, they soon realized, which would soon lead them to explore other worlds. Worlds like Eden... and Mareth. The mages accumulated great wealth, power, and prestige from their discovery and the many worlds they visited, but as is the nature of things, they wanted more. The arch-mages began to experiment, pooling the island's collective lore and arcane mastery towards a way to control the portals.

After many years of ceaseless research and dedication, the mages of Estelore finally succeeded in opening a portal of their own. A portal which, they soon learned, had no destination. It went to a space between worlds: an endless void. From this void came creatures, beings of formless entropy and otherworldly vacuity that inhabited that plane of nothingness. They slipped through the portal in the moments it existed and, being creatures of spirit rather than flesh, possessed the archmages of Estelore. Not a week passed before all on the island were under the creatures' dominion.

These spirits were drawn to that which they had never experienced before: physical sensation. First the terror of the mages, who knew not what they had done. Then the wrath and hatred of the imperial soldiers who came to stop them. And finally, the lust and greed that ran rampant in the decadent, opulent cities in the heartlands.