Book Building: The Introduction

No, I'm not going to give the book away piece by piece here, but I am going to show parts of it (and have been doing so among the various Building a Fantasy Sandbox entries). However, the introduction is very important to hook people into wanting to check out your product and this is my first pass at said intro. Of course constructive criticism is welcomed (please note, this cold text has not yet seen a pass by an editor).

The world of Deminar has changed, once a glowing marble floating in a black void, teeming with life, it is now shattered, broken, transformed. Generations ago, The Sorrow tore the planet asunder, ripping her to pieces and casting large chunks of earth skyward. And there those pieces hung, floating amidst the clouds, silent sentinels to the world battered below it.

Yet life still clung to those shattered fragments of land, survivors of the great cataclysm that were taken to the skies along with the land beneath their feet. At first, they merely tried to stay alive, finding food, shelter, and avoiding becoming prey to dangerous creatures that stalked what was left of their homes. But as time passed they once again grew to tame the land, reclaiming old cities and towns, plowing farmland and creating new places to live and grow. But they were still isolated, until, once again, their lives changed.

It was the Gnomes that thought of it first, harnessing the very rock that floated beneath them, carving it into great hulls and affixing sails. Thus, the first airships were born out of the very disaster that nearly wiped out all existence. And while the Gnomes had moved onto greater and grander things, including harnessing the power of steam, the other intelligent species took what it was the Gnomes had first created and opened their worlds to exploration.

It was not simple, however, for great danger lurked in the skies. Many island clusters were cut off from others due to large rock fields, encasing them like a shell. Debris that constantly shifted and smashed together, often at random. Those that found safe routes through them discovered that many times so did lurking sky pirates and creatures who lived upon the crashing rock, all who would prey upon those that passed. Many a explorer was faced with the decision of facing potential threat of death from pirates and monsters or from unknown routes and crashing rock. Other clusters, and even lone islands, were separated by vast distances of what seemed like nothing but endless sky. However, these places were just as dangerous, and explorers who set out through them often never returned or found another civilized land, instead falling to slavers, pirates, or vast monstrosities that plied the empty sky, free to grow to enormous size.

To this day many islands and tiny clusters of islands have not seen those outside of their vicinity, and some assume they're the only ones left. However, the inherit trait to explore and discover was not lost, even with these dangers and many an explorer continue to set out to see what is beyond the horizon. Clusters and islands have begun to discover one another, safe routes are established and patrolled, and species that once shared common ground have discovered how different one another are when growing up for generations in isolation. New cultures, worship, and indeed lives, have been made that have separated species that once held common stock and belief. From this new alliances have been forged, new ideas and innovations shared, so have great enemies, unable to allow another of their kind to act so different from them.

In this vast floating tangle of diversity, threat, and evolution sits a cluster of islands known as the Bluestone Isles. It is here, among the seven small masses of land, that new heroes arise, ready to explore not only the mysteries of the lands around them, but the mysteries of the lands abroad. Great danger and vast wealth lies hidden not only among the lands nearby but out amongst the endless blue. You are those heroes, this is your destiny, welcome to the Bluestone Isles. Welcome to Deminar.

The Player's Guide to Deminar is the first in a series of campaign setting sourcebooks for use with Labyrinth Lord and the Advanced Edition Companions, available at http://www.goblinoidgames.com/.