Midnight (role-playing game)
Encyclopedia
Midnight is a campaign setting
for the role-playing game
Dungeons & Dragons
, released under the Open Gaming License
. It was published by Fantasy Flight Games
from 2003 to 2009.
In April 2009, Fantasy Flight
dropped the whole Midnight game line from its catalog and removed it from its website. Its products are no longer distributed in print form. Fantasy Flight also discontinued sale of PDF editions from its online shop, although old PDFs are still carried by third-party online vendors. Publication of new products has since ceased.
minions controlling the lives of the downtrodden humans
. Elves
and dwarves
are hunted mercilessly, while the gnomes
toil for the Shadow and halflings
are often enslaved.
into devils
and demons
. He lost the war, so the gods punished him by banishing him to Eredane for all eternity. But, as Izrador fell, he managed to create a force field, the Veil of Izrador, that prevented the other gods from influencing the land.
When Izrador fell to earth, his first thought was of reaching godhood again, and what better way to do that than make all of the humans and elves and dwarves give him all their magic? Izrador has since taken over the land, so now there is no magic in Eredane but his own, and Izrador has become "the Shadow".
The world has not always been like this. In the First Age of Eredane, a sorceress named Aradil came to the elven throne. She brought peace to her people and this peace spread across the land, creating a new age of peace and trade in magic and science, until it seemed that magic would have no bounds. There was no dispute between the cultures, and customs were passed along. But 3,950 years later, a new race came from an unknown land. The gnomes and halflings opened their arms to this new people, a human race called the Dorns, who had lost their land across the sea due to the betrayal of King Jahir III. Hoping to claim land for themselves, they slaughtered all they found and wiped out most of those who had wished to help them. War had finally arrived.
The Dorns quickly attacked the elves and dwarves, As these races were used only to fighting undisciplined orcs, they were quickly outmatched by the war-hardened Dorns. But the elves and dwarves developed their tactics, until the sides were even. The ensuing war tore Eredane apart for 300 years.
After this time, the dead began to rise again. The souls of the dead had no place to go, so they lingered and animated the corpses of the dead, as the "Fell
", making them hungry for flesh. Many times, after a battle, the dead would rise, and both sides would drop their weapons and flee these abominations. After a few years of fighting these creatures, their resources spent, the races of Eredane adopted a new method of burying their dead and the rising of corpses was slowed to a trickle. The land looked to a new age of peace, science
, and magic as the war ended.
For 700 years, trade routes reopened and the Dorns were finally came to be trusted again. But the Shadow was not so quiet. It massed an army of orcs, goblins
, and countless other things. The Shadow knew that the elves were its greatest foe, so it attempted to destroy them quickly, but to no avail. For five days the races of Eredane fought, until the rivers ran red with blood and the forest groves turned to swamps with the blood of the orcs. And so the Shadow was finally driven back to the North.
This was the dawn of the Second Age of Eredane, which began with 230 years of peace, growing economies and widening frontiers. A wall was built to face the North so that the Shadow would not come again. But it a new threat appeared instead: The dominating Sarcosans with their steel
and horses, which had not been seen until then. The Sarcosans had driven the Dorns out of the far-distant land of Pelluria and wished to take this new land for their own. The Sarcosans liked the elven forest of Aryth, and tried to conquer it. They came with catapults and attempted to destroy groves and draw out the elves to fight, but the elves placed wards around the trees and protected them. It took the Sarcosans a hundred years to realize that the elves would not be drawn from the trees and they finally sued for peace. And they were not trusted for years even after that. And then again came a period of 800 years of peace, the longest lapse of peace since the Dornish invasions more than 3,000 years ago. The Shadow then came again to Eredane.
The Second Invasion of the Shadow consisted of a series of raids on the wall, which was breached in a number of places. The Shadow's army poured out again, attacking in many places at once, to split the races energies. Worse still, the dragons
of Eredane aided the Shadow. For many weeks, the battles raged with the Fell rising every night. All seemed lost for the people of Eredane, when a new army of dragons came from the south and fought the forces of the Shadow. When the battle was over, both sides had suffered greatly. The orcs were scattered and the people of Eredane had lost all their faith. They quietly returned to their homes again, thus ending the Second Age, and beginning the Third Age.
A thousand years passed, and it was still no better. The Dorns fought over the new kings, for all the rest had been slain. The dwarves were forced into the mountains by some still-resilient orcs, and were confined there. The elves knew the Shadow would come again, but the shorter lived races had lost their memory of the great battles. In the end, all the races but the elves and dwarves were reduced to tribes.
When the Shadow came again, he did not send a huge army, but he corrupted the minds of men. He promised men wealth and power in exchange for black promises of vengeance and death. There was a battle that lasted a day and only briefly delayed the Shadow. Now, there is no freedom, and any relations with dwarves or elves is punishable by death. In the land of Eredane, there are no trials or appeals. Punishment includes the whip, enslavement, or death and is carried out brutally and with no mercy.
creatures with black eyes, thick dark skin, and large jaws sporting tusked canines. They have been known to sire halfbreed children with dwarven women, which are called "Dworgs". These unfortunate outcasts suffer a life of scorn and violence.
, use of magic, and the ownership of weapons by anyone not authorized by the Church. Legates and their minions punish infractions of these rules with maiming, enslavement, or death.
that bleach magic from the land. They require sacrifice, more blood for the higher-ranking Mirrors. The Mirrors are rated as Pale Mirrors (which require five sacrifices a month), Blood Mirrors (five a week), and Grand (five a day). In the Shadow's language, they are called zordrafin corith, or Black Mirror of the Shadow. They have stone basins next to them that are at least ten feet in diameter and three feet deep, and filled with a vile recipe of blood and unholy water.
One of the humans was a priest that always wanted a god's blessing. His name was Suudael. The Shadow took his mind. The dragon and the other human were captured and brainwashed.
rules, and using the Player's Handbook
as a basis, Midnight alters the standard rules in some fundamental ways. Magic is more difficult to cast and harder to learn, the magic system has been replaced with a feat and spell point based system. As a result, many of the standard classes have been removed, with alternates in their place.
, ranger
, or paladin
character class
es.
(+1 weapons, for example) are markedly less common, with all magic in the world tracked and watched. Magic items function as they do in other settings but the meaning and rarity are different. There are two magic item types - Covenant Items & Charms.
Covenant Items equate to standard D&D magic items. However, they differ in that they 'grow' with the user. Only those with the touch of Heroic Path can activate their power, and this power grows as the user increases in level. Items can come in all the standard D&D forms (e.g. weapons, armor, cloaks). Items may be detected by Legates and the Shadow when they are activated. There are Covenant items spanning from the First Age through to current game time, with older items being of greater power. PCs will tend to get only two or three covenant items at any one time, with these 'destined' for the PC's use.
Charms are magic items of lesser power. All but True Charms are single use, with True Charms lasting longer but usually fading over time. Charms usually have small bonuses and are not detectable by the enemy; they are only empowered items and trinkets. Characters may have several charms at any given time.
Campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
for the role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
, released under the Open Gaming License
Open Gaming License
The Open Game License may be used by game developers to grant permission to modify, copy, and redistribute some of the content designed for their games, notably game mechanics.-Language of the licence:The OGL describes two forms of content:...
. It was published by Fantasy Flight Games
Fantasy Flight Games
Fantasy Flight Games is a Roseville, Minnesota-based game company that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games. Fantasy Flight Publishing was founded in 1995 by its CEO, Christian T. Petersen. Since the release of its first game product in 1997, the company has been doing...
from 2003 to 2009.
History
The Midnight Campaign setting book (MN01) was first released in 2003. It proved popular enough to drive the release of several expansion sourcebooks and adventure modules. The Second Edition Midnight Campaign setting book (MN11) was released in 2005; it expanded upon the material in the first book and incorporated material from the sourcebooks.In April 2009, Fantasy Flight
Fantasy flight
Fantasy flights are charity flights operated by a host airline for locally disadvantaged and terminally ill children to fly to a fictitious destination.The destination is often the North Pole, the home of Santa Claus' workshop...
dropped the whole Midnight game line from its catalog and removed it from its website. Its products are no longer distributed in print form. Fantasy Flight also discontinued sale of PDF editions from its online shop, although old PDFs are still carried by third-party online vendors. Publication of new products has since ceased.
Setting
The setting of Midnight is that of the fantasy world of Eredane a hundred years after the dark god Izrador has won a war of domination. The game world centers on Eredane, a large continent with varied geography and inhabitants. It is generally an evil-dominant world, with the Church of the Shadow and its orcOrc (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, orcs are a primitive race of savage, bestial, barbaric humanoid.-Publication history:The orc was one of the earliest creatures introduced in the D&D game. The D&D orc is largely based upon the orcs appearing in the works of J.R.R...
minions controlling the lives of the downtrodden humans
Human (Dungeons & Dragons)
Humans are a race available for player characters in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. Although short-lived by comparison, humans are the most populous of all Dungeons & Dragons races. They are renowned for their diversity and ambition, and although they lack specializations like...
. Elves
Elf (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, elves are a fictional humanoid race that is one of the primary races available for play as player characters. Elves are renowned for their grace and mastery of magic and weapons such as the sword and bow...
and dwarves
Dwarf (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, dwarves are a humanoid race, one of the primary races available for play as player characters...
are hunted mercilessly, while the gnomes
Gnome (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, gnomes are one of the core races available for play as player characters. Some speculate that they are closely related to dwarves; however, gnomes are more tolerant of other races and of magic, and are skilled with illusions...
toil for the Shadow and halflings
Halfling (Dungeons & Dragons)
The halfling is a fictional race found in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Halflings are similar to humans except about half the size...
are often enslaved.
In-game history
An unknown time ago, there was a war in the heavens. Izrador was the god of corruption, and fought the gods, turning many angelsAngel (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, angels are a type of celestial of any good alignment and hail from any of the Upper Planes. Angels are also known as aasimon...
into devils
Devil (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, devils are a powerful group of monsters used as a high-level challenge for players of the game. Devils are Lawful Evil in alignment and originate from the Nine Hells of Baator. True to their Lawful Evil alignment, devils are locked in a strict and brutal...
and demons
Demon (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, demons are the most widespread race of fiends. The demons are chaotic evil by nature, and are native to the Abyss...
. He lost the war, so the gods punished him by banishing him to Eredane for all eternity. But, as Izrador fell, he managed to create a force field, the Veil of Izrador, that prevented the other gods from influencing the land.
When Izrador fell to earth, his first thought was of reaching godhood again, and what better way to do that than make all of the humans and elves and dwarves give him all their magic? Izrador has since taken over the land, so now there is no magic in Eredane but his own, and Izrador has become "the Shadow".
The world has not always been like this. In the First Age of Eredane, a sorceress named Aradil came to the elven throne. She brought peace to her people and this peace spread across the land, creating a new age of peace and trade in magic and science, until it seemed that magic would have no bounds. There was no dispute between the cultures, and customs were passed along. But 3,950 years later, a new race came from an unknown land. The gnomes and halflings opened their arms to this new people, a human race called the Dorns, who had lost their land across the sea due to the betrayal of King Jahir III. Hoping to claim land for themselves, they slaughtered all they found and wiped out most of those who had wished to help them. War had finally arrived.
The Dorns quickly attacked the elves and dwarves, As these races were used only to fighting undisciplined orcs, they were quickly outmatched by the war-hardened Dorns. But the elves and dwarves developed their tactics, until the sides were even. The ensuing war tore Eredane apart for 300 years.
After this time, the dead began to rise again. The souls of the dead had no place to go, so they lingered and animated the corpses of the dead, as the "Fell
Undead
Undead is a collective name for fictional, mythological, or legendary beings that are deceased and yet behave as if alive. Undead may be incorporeal, such as ghosts, or corporeal, such as vampires and zombies...
", making them hungry for flesh. Many times, after a battle, the dead would rise, and both sides would drop their weapons and flee these abominations. After a few years of fighting these creatures, their resources spent, the races of Eredane adopted a new method of burying their dead and the rising of corpses was slowed to a trickle. The land looked to a new age of peace, science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, and magic as the war ended.
For 700 years, trade routes reopened and the Dorns were finally came to be trusted again. But the Shadow was not so quiet. It massed an army of orcs, goblins
Goblin (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, goblins are a very common and fairly weak race of evil humanoid monsters. Goblins and Kobolds are commonly non-human monsters that low-level player characters will face in combat. In D&D, goblins aren't smaller cousins of orcs, but are a part of...
, and countless other things. The Shadow knew that the elves were its greatest foe, so it attempted to destroy them quickly, but to no avail. For five days the races of Eredane fought, until the rivers ran red with blood and the forest groves turned to swamps with the blood of the orcs. And so the Shadow was finally driven back to the North.
This was the dawn of the Second Age of Eredane, which began with 230 years of peace, growing economies and widening frontiers. A wall was built to face the North so that the Shadow would not come again. But it a new threat appeared instead: The dominating Sarcosans with their steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
and horses, which had not been seen until then. The Sarcosans had driven the Dorns out of the far-distant land of Pelluria and wished to take this new land for their own. The Sarcosans liked the elven forest of Aryth, and tried to conquer it. They came with catapults and attempted to destroy groves and draw out the elves to fight, but the elves placed wards around the trees and protected them. It took the Sarcosans a hundred years to realize that the elves would not be drawn from the trees and they finally sued for peace. And they were not trusted for years even after that. And then again came a period of 800 years of peace, the longest lapse of peace since the Dornish invasions more than 3,000 years ago. The Shadow then came again to Eredane.
The Second Invasion of the Shadow consisted of a series of raids on the wall, which was breached in a number of places. The Shadow's army poured out again, attacking in many places at once, to split the races energies. Worse still, the dragons
Dragon (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game , dragons are an iconic type of monstrous creature used as adversaries or, less commonly, allies of player characters...
of Eredane aided the Shadow. For many weeks, the battles raged with the Fell rising every night. All seemed lost for the people of Eredane, when a new army of dragons came from the south and fought the forces of the Shadow. When the battle was over, both sides had suffered greatly. The orcs were scattered and the people of Eredane had lost all their faith. They quietly returned to their homes again, thus ending the Second Age, and beginning the Third Age.
A thousand years passed, and it was still no better. The Dorns fought over the new kings, for all the rest had been slain. The dwarves were forced into the mountains by some still-resilient orcs, and were confined there. The elves knew the Shadow would come again, but the shorter lived races had lost their memory of the great battles. In the end, all the races but the elves and dwarves were reduced to tribes.
When the Shadow came again, he did not send a huge army, but he corrupted the minds of men. He promised men wealth and power in exchange for black promises of vengeance and death. There was a battle that lasted a day and only briefly delayed the Shadow. Now, there is no freedom, and any relations with dwarves or elves is punishable by death. In the land of Eredane, there are no trials or appeals. Punishment includes the whip, enslavement, or death and is carried out brutally and with no mercy.
Orcs
The Odrendor, commonly called Orcs, are a fey race that serve Izrador loyally as fighters. They are large, muscled humanoidHumanoid (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, humanoid is a type of creature, or "creature type". Humanoids are any creature shaped generally like a human , of Small or Medium size, with few or no supernatural or extraordinary abilities...
creatures with black eyes, thick dark skin, and large jaws sporting tusked canines. They have been known to sire halfbreed children with dwarven women, which are called "Dworgs". These unfortunate outcasts suffer a life of scorn and violence.
Shadow Church
The Church of the Shadow worships the god Izrador. Thrown down from the celestial kingdom, he has cast his veil of evil and corruption across Aryth, sundering the world from all other gods. The various Orders of Legates hunt those who resist his power, aided by intelligent beasts who can sense magic and disloyalty to Izrador. A legate enjoys a greater quality of life than the average human, but must serve under strict rules for life: those who go "Pale" and flee their vows are hunted and captured by " Redeemer " legates. The Church prohibits literacyLiteracy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
, use of magic, and the ownership of weapons by anyone not authorized by the Church. Legates and their minions punish infractions of these rules with maiming, enslavement, or death.
Black Mirrors
Black Mirrors are slabs of obsidianObsidian
Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock.It is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimum crystal growth...
that bleach magic from the land. They require sacrifice, more blood for the higher-ranking Mirrors. The Mirrors are rated as Pale Mirrors (which require five sacrifices a month), Blood Mirrors (five a week), and Grand (five a day). In the Shadow's language, they are called zordrafin corith, or Black Mirror of the Shadow. They have stone basins next to them that are at least ten feet in diameter and three feet deep, and filled with a vile recipe of blood and unholy water.
Night Kings
The four Night Kings were once two humans, an elf, and a dragon. Ardherin is the elf, and he was once a powerful spellcaster. Extraordinarily arrogant, he seized what he believed was a minor demon. He hoped to force this demon to teach him arcane knowledge that would allow him to defeat the Shadow. In fact, this demon was Izrador in disguise. It slowly corrupted Ardherin's mind until he was too weak to resist. At this point, Izrador took him for his own; forever trapping the once beautiful elf prince in an eternal world of torment and shame.One of the humans was a priest that always wanted a god's blessing. His name was Suudael. The Shadow took his mind. The dragon and the other human were captured and brainwashed.
Spirits
As the world became covered with the magical "Veil of Izrador", the planes of the afterlife were blocked from Aryth. Now the spirits of the dead can no longer depart in peace. At times, they become attached to the recent dead, and walk the land as "Fell". These are corpses that have returned from the grave. Having no place for their souls to go, their souls stayed inside of their body, hungry for flesh.The Veil of Izrador
Izrador placed a veil over the mortal plane to prevent the other gods from speaking to their subjects and vice-versa.Rules
Based on the Dungeons & DragonsDungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
rules, and using the Player's Handbook
Player's Handbook
The Player's Handbook is a book of rules for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons . It does not contain the complete set of rules, but only those for use by players of the game...
as a basis, Midnight alters the standard rules in some fundamental ways. Magic is more difficult to cast and harder to learn, the magic system has been replaced with a feat and spell point based system. As a result, many of the standard classes have been removed, with alternates in their place.
Heroic Paths
One major factor that separates the Midnight d20 game system from other fantasy games is the choice of a heroic path during character creation. Since magic is proscribed, these paths instead give spell-like abilities to characters. As the characters advance in levels, they get new spell-like abilities, skills, or feats.Magic
Three types of magic are found in the Midnight d20 world: "divine", which generally is connected with Izrador; innate magic sourced from within, generally found in elves and other fey creatures; and channelled. The latter is using the energy of Aryth to powerful effect. This is a feat-based system, and thus all character classes can cast some spells at appropriate levels. Only the Channeler character class truly specializes in it, however. Due to the magic changes in the game, Midnight does not have the monkMonk (character class)
The monk is a character class in a number of table-top role-playing and computer games. In those games which follow the Dungeons & Dragons traditions, monks are characters with martial arts skills and have very powerful strategies....
, ranger
Ranger (character class)
A Ranger is a type of warrior appearing in fantasy fiction and role-playing games....
, or paladin
Paladin (character class)
The Paladin is a character class in Dungeons & Dragons and many later computer and pen and paper role-playing games - many of which were influenced by D&D...
character class
Character class
In role-playing games, a common method of arbitrating the capabilities of different game characters is to assign each one to a character class. A character class aggregates several abilities and aptitudes, and may also sometimes detail aspects of background and social standing or impose behaviour...
es.
Magic Items
Midnight is different from other D&D settings in that magic itemsMagic item (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, a magic item is any object that has magical powers inherent in it. These may act on their own or be the tools of the character in whose hands they fall into. Magic items have been prevalent in the game in every edition and setting, from the...
(+1 weapons, for example) are markedly less common, with all magic in the world tracked and watched. Magic items function as they do in other settings but the meaning and rarity are different. There are two magic item types - Covenant Items & Charms.
Covenant Items equate to standard D&D magic items. However, they differ in that they 'grow' with the user. Only those with the touch of Heroic Path can activate their power, and this power grows as the user increases in level. Items can come in all the standard D&D forms (e.g. weapons, armor, cloaks). Items may be detected by Legates and the Shadow when they are activated. There are Covenant items spanning from the First Age through to current game time, with older items being of greater power. PCs will tend to get only two or three covenant items at any one time, with these 'destined' for the PC's use.
Charms are magic items of lesser power. All but True Charms are single use, with True Charms lasting longer but usually fading over time. Charms usually have small bonuses and are not detectable by the enemy; they are only empowered items and trinkets. Characters may have several charms at any given time.
Appearance in other media
A live-action movie based on the Midnight setting was produced with the intention of being used as the pilot for a TV-series. However, it was not picked up and remains as a stand-alone movie.External links
- Midnight Chronicles, a Midnight film/TV project