From: jerifindley578@gmail.com   
      
   And now for something completely different:    
      
      
      
    The Dark Eye    
      
      
      
      
      
    Introduction    
      
      
      
    Hello, hypothetical non-German roleplaying enthusiast! I'm sure you have a   
   lot of questions about The Dark Eye. No worries, we'll tackle them one at a   
   time!    
      
      
      
    What is The Dark Eye?    
      
      
      
    The Dark Eye aka  Das Schwarze Auge  is Germany's roleplaying game No. 1.   
   Since its debut in 1984, it has become our D&D: The huge, dice-flinging   
   juggernaut dominating the market. No other game is quite as popular or as   
   garnered quite as many grognards -   
    not even D&D itself (especially not after WotC abandoned the German market   
   shortly after the first batch of 4e books; not sure what was up with that).    
      
      
      
    Currently, The Dark Eye is in its 4th edition (or rather 4.1, but we're   
   getting ahead of ourselves) and has been there since 2001, making it the   
   longest-running edition of TDE so far. A 5th edition is likely to come out by   
   the end of the year.    
      
      
      
    If its that big, how come I've never heard about it?    
      
      
      
    Depends. If you were a PC RPG gamer in the 90s, chances are you might have   
   come across a little trilogy called "Realms of Arkania", which was nothing   
   other than the "Northland Trilogy", a PC adaption of 3rd edition TDE. "Realms   
   of Arkania" was    
   apparently chosen for the international release because it sounded better or   
   something.    
      
      
      
    (There were also a few translations of the giant library of TDE novels   
   released under that title, but don't ask me which. I'm not into roleplaying   
   novels.)    
      
      
      
    Fun fact: If you've ever played the first Divine Divinity or Sacred, let it   
   be known that both games (or at least their engines) were at some part of   
   their development lifes supposed to be yet another adaption (with Sacred   
   originally going to be an    
   adaption for  Armalion  , TDE's miniatures skirmish wargame). At least Divine   
   Divinity retained a little easter egg in the form of a grave from that time.    
      
      
      
    More recently, there has been quite the catalogue of TDE video games, from   
   more direct adaptions like Drakensang and Blackguards to point-and-click   
   adventures.    
      
    If the rumors are to be true, there is supposed to be an official TDE movie   
   coming this winter. Seeing how sparse informations about this movie are*, it   
   is anyone's guess whether this movie will actually happen, or if it will be as   
   memorable as the    
   first official D&D movie.    
      
      
      
    *) The only plot synposis I could find a year or so was that it was going to   
   be about a newly-discovered continent, which is like making a Forgotten Realms   
   movie without the Forgotten Realms. Suffice to say, the enthusiams is a bit   
   limited.    
      
      
      
    Interesting. But what about the name? What  is  this Dark Eye?    
      
      
      
    Dark Eyes (since there's more than one) are essentially a cross between a   
   Palantir and an Immovable Rod. Crafted out of a fallen meteor, these   
   orb-shaped artifacts become fixed in place and allow its owner to gaze through   
   time and space (though most    
   Eyes are very limited in scope, usually only allowing to see a couple places   
   in the present).    
      
      
      
    So is the metaplot about fighting for control over these Dark Eyes? Like some   
   kind of Dragon Ball without the collecting part?    
      
      
      
    Not really. Dark Eyes play a surprisingly little role in the overarching   
   story. They're just something major NPCs happen to own.    
      
      
      
    Then why is it called The Dark Eye?    
      
      
      
    Well, it was originally supposed to be called  Aventuria  after the main   
   setting, but that apparently didn't sound marketable enough. So Dark Eye it   
   was.    
      
      
      
    Weird. Anyways, what about this Aventuria?    
      
      
      
    Well, its the main setting of the game, with at least 90% of all TDE products   
   dedicated to it.    
      
      
      
    To keep it short for now, Aventuria is your typical fantasy affair with   
   humans, elves, dwarves and orcs. Instead of the eternal Middle Ages, Aventuria   
   is set in a Renaissance era without gunpowder.    
      
    Of course, there are more primitive regions - of note being two countries   
   that actually seem to be eternally stuck in the Middle Ages, making the the   
   laughing stock of the continent.    
      
      
      
    On the magical side of things, Aventuria is run by something the writers call   
   "fantastical realism" - aka "magic follows clear rules and can't do everything   
   (except when one of our major NPC wizards goes off the rails)". The setting is   
   low fantasy in    
   the sense that PCs are never required to arm themselves to the teeth with   
   magical equipment like their D&D counterparts. There are however a few things   
   preventing me from calling this a true low fantasy setting (though more on   
   that later).    
      
      
      
    A very odd quirk about Aventuria is its size. See, your standard fantasy RPG   
   setting has this monolithic, gigantic continent that doesn't even completely   
   fit on its iconic map, leaving only one side of the map (usually the left)   
   free for a bit of ocean.    
      
    Aventuria on the other hand is about 1/4 of Europe. Mind you, this isn't   
   strange per se since Europe has seen plenty of weird stuff over the centuries.   
   And it cuts down on having to use teleport spells and other shenanigans.    
      
    What  is  strange is that Aventuria still follows the standard fantasy RPG   
   setting convention of including every climate zone known to man. There is a   
   houserule of sorts around that just doubles the contintent's size, which makes   
   this whole deal a bit    
   more believable.    
      
      
      
    Odd. Are there more settings than Aventuria?    
      
      
      
    There are. And since information about them is either sparse to begin with or   
   won't be covered by me in greater details, let's have a rundown of them all!    
      
      
      
    First up, all of these alternative settings are set in  Ethra  (an anagram   
   for Earth, just like how the German name  Dere  is an anagram for  Erde  ),   
   the same world/planet were Aventuria can be found.    
      
      
      
    Myranor    
      
      
      
    Also known as the Gyldenland by the Aventurians and seen as this mythical   
   continent to the far west from which most Aventurian humans originally came   
   from, Myranor is in fact your monolithic, gigantic continent that doesn't even   
   completely fit on its    
   iconic map (though this time the ocena is on the  right  side).    
      
    The lands of Myranor are dominating by a thousands of years old Empire that   
   has seen much, much better days. Its also a lot more on the high fantasy side,   
   with airships, flying cities, lionmen, dudes with four arms and more powerful   
   wizards employing a    
   freeform magic system unheard of in Aventuria.    
      
      
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)