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Kaethos283 notes · 3 chapters

The Quiet Year — World Building

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The Quiet Year · World Building · Session 1

The community has survived the end of the world. Now they have one quiet year to build something worth saving before the Frost Shepherds arrive.

CampaignEpisodeDateDuration
The Quiet YearWorld Building2023-11-093h 30m
SystemSeason ReachedStatusArc
The Quiet YearWinter (Complete)CompleteKaethos Origin

Five survivors sit around a map and decide what the world that ended looked like — and what grows in its ruins. One hundred years later, their choices become the world of Kaethos.

Five players gathered around a hand-drawn map of the island-continent of Kouréas, off the coast of Eritessa, playing through The Quiet Year — a card-driven world-building game covering one year in the life of a post-apocalyptic community. The apocalypse was caused by a lecherous necromancer Lich named Zen au Kouréas (formerly Zen au Lycoris, progenitor of The House of Lycoris), who set off a cataclysm that killed countless people of every species and ancestry. A small group of survivors on the island are attempting to rebuild. The game is not a story of heroes — it is a story of what a community becomes when it has one quiet year before the Frost Shepherds arrive.

The session covered all four seasons — Spring through Winter — building the geography, politics, religion, technology, and conflicts that would become the foundation of the Kaethos campaign setting one hundred years later. By the end, the island had a powerful church built directly over an ancient stargate, a female assassin clan at war with a religious inquisition, a fiendish city growing in the swamp, and demons spilling out of a Veil-Tear on Eritessa of Eritessa.

The Builders

PlayerRole
DaveBuilder
SteveBuilder
ChrisBuilder
HayleyBuilder
JesseBuilder

World Events — Spring

  1. Week 1 — A boy named Terry Ringer explores the outskirts of the city. In his childish enthusiasm he falls into a pit and dies. At the bottom are three mysterious doors leading deeper underground. The community grieves. The pit will become the most important location in Kaethos.
  2. Week 2 — Lashara, an inventive artificer, convinces everyone to build a workshop to improve their technology. Construction begins. The earliest movements of a new religion begin — anti-technology, unwilling to explore the pit further.
  3. Week 3 — In the pit where Terry died: Spirit Engines — ancient magical portals that no longer fully function. Debate erupts: destroy them, use them as a weapon, study them, or relocate them to the Pearl Dunes.
  4. Week 4 — Guilds begin to form, consolidating power in the artisan class. A project begins to formalize the guilds — takes one week.
  5. Week 5 — East of the city, in the middle of the channel, a mysterious bell tower springs up — enormous, with a massive bell that rings sporadically. No one knows where it came from. A pier and boats project begins to investigate it.
  6. Week 6 — Basic tools becoming scarce. A six-week mining expedition launches to the southwest. Lashara’s workshop completes.
  7. Week 7 — The earliest religious impulses formalize into The Church of ITYS — “The Church of I Told You So.” Primary doctrine: gallows humor over the founding prophet’s accurate prediction of doom. A temple begins construction over the hole where Terry died. Six weeks.
  8. Week 8 — A submersible washes ashore. Inside: an Aarakocra female, injured and unconscious. She cannot be roused — she falls into a coma. Far south, an earthquake causes the Veil-Tear to break free of the island — a chunk of earth is now floating hundreds of feet above where it was. Shipyards in the north complete.
  9. Week 9 — The Swamp of Souls gains notoriety — people who enter come back changed. Skinwalker rumors. Old Man Jenkins spreads a rumor that Terry’s older brother Mahonri Teri Ringer is a wendigo. The Church of ITYS believes the brother of Terry should die.
  10. Week 10 — Something hideous happens to Old Man Jenkins — records are corrupted, no details remain. A nightly aurora appears south of the Swamp of Souls.
  11. Week 11 — The mining expedition finds an oasis in the Pearl Desert, apparently formed by the earthquake. On the now-floating chunk of the island, an almost Edenic area begins forming.
  12. Week 12 — Guilds begin accepting children as apprentices. A school project begins — education, trade training, church indoctrination. One month. The miners return with information about the Veil-Tear, the earthquake, and the oasis.
  13. Week 13 — Choldrith (natural predators) spotted in the foothills. Darkmantle from the sea, kobolds on the plains, bullywugs in the swamp. Danger everywhere. Kobold hides discovered as useful leather/cloth. The Church of ITYS temple completes — golden statue of Terry on its spire.

World Events — Summer

  1. Week 1 — Old Man Jenkins attempts a coup of the community. Lashara steps in — uses clear logic to publicly dismantle his arguments. He fails. Disgraced but alive. Debate: exile, exoneration, or execution. No decision. Multiple contempt tokens taken.
  2. Week 2 — A schism between the brother of Terry and the Church of ITYS. Mahonri has been affected by the Swamp of Souls — validating Jenkins’ claims. A six-week expedition launches into the swamp to find a cure or cause. As they leave, Old Man Jenkins says: “Hold tight to each other.”
  3. Week 3 — New technology discovered in the Aarakocra’s submersible: a personal transportation device that hovers over the ground and moves by weight-shifting. Lashara believes further modifications are possible. A medicinal herb study expedition launches to the Choldrith Mountains — four weeks.
  4. Week 4 — Jacques-Bjorn gathers 10 community members and sails east to Eritessa. Not a project — a private decision. A military training program project begins.
  5. Week 5 — Project Failure: A robber band called the Radiantons arrives and kills the would-be soldiers. New requirements for joining the armed forces implemented, including pre-enlistment circumcision. The dead are displayed in the Pike Garden. No one resists. The Church calls it divine judgment.
  6. Week 6 — The community is quiet — still recovering from the massacre. Caves discovered deep in the mountains. The Aarakocra awakens (exact time unclear) and begins repairing her submersible. Two weeks of work. Townspeople agree to help.
  7. Week 7 — The head of the Church of ITYS goes missing. All belongings gone except his journal. Lashara finds it — shares one page: “I will now reveal the most important piece of doctrine: The name of the church. And that name? I Told You So.” The medicinal herb group should be back — records are silent on whether they returned.
  8. Week 8 — Records incomplete. No information exists for this week.
  9. Week 9 — A group of ~100 outsiders arrive at the outskirts of the city — not hostile, not friendly. They want to trade. The medicine from the mountains counteracts Choldrith venom. Multiple projects complete: the Aarakocra finishes her sub; the medicinal group returns; and the swamp expedition returns — but only Mahonri, the brother of Terry, walks out. He is physically enormous and clearly stronger than before. He insists nothing is wrong. Asked where the others are, he whispers: “They’re here.” Then dies.
  10. Week 10 — Darkmantle leviathans eating the coastal crabs — food supply dwindling. Community debates defense. A Children’s Crusade of 1,000 kids as border guards is floated. Negotiations with the 100 outsiders considered (the Radiantons have left at some point).
  11. Week 11 — Lashara’s lab is infiltrated by spies — possibly Church agents. They find the missing leader’s belongings. Set the lab on fire. A wave of crabs and water douses the flames before major damage — source of the wave unknown. Graffiti left on the walls. The Church begins fortifying its temple. Captain Romoni leads the project. One week.
  12. Week 12 — A greenhouse project begins to address the food problem. Jacques-Bjorn discovers a new Veil-Tear on Eritessa. The Church completes its hasty fortifications.
  13. Week 13 — Records incomplete for this week.

World Events — Fall

  1. Week 1 — The Church of ITYS’s leader is found naked and murdered. A single note on his corpse reads: “Romoni did it.” Community launches an investigation — Joe Sef is tasked with infiltrating the Church as a new convert. Four weeks.
  2. Week 2 — Jacques-Bjorn returns from Eritessa — plants and minerals not found on the island. Also discovered: the new Veil-Tear, and the men Mahonri led into the Swamp of Souls. They’re on Eritessa, utterly entranced and comatose — but alive.
  3. Week 3 — Food concerns dominate. Jacques-Bjorn reports a forest of massive magical trees on Eritessa. The greenhouse completes.
  4. Week 4 — The Church places the leader’s body in a sarcophagus. Days later — lid off, body missing. Believers claim he is walking around, using a sandwich board reading “He is risen.” He is physically enhanced. Old Man Jenkins proselytizes. Further temple fortifications begin — six weeks.
  5. Week 5 — One of the 100 outsiders approaches the community: “Beware of those who come from above!” She sprints into the ocean. A darkmantle devours her. The Joe Sef infiltration has apparently failed — he has not returned. Either caught or converted.
  6. Week 6 — Disease strikes the city. All projects halt — quarantine. A clandestine project begins: Lashara’s followers create a female-only assassin clan — the Lashïngs. Designed to overthrow the Church. Five weeks of training.
  7. Week 7 — The community invests in basic housing for the 99 remaining outsiders. Meanwhile — the Lashïngs’ enthusiasm is so powerful they complete their training in five days instead of five weeks.
  8. Week 8 — A natural disaster destroys the outsider housing. Resources wasted. The Church hears rumors of the Lashïngs and launches an Inquisition to prosecute “evil” — especially assassins. Five weeks.
  9. Week 9 — An aasimar flies above the island, heading south toward the floating rock by the Veil-Tear. Meanwhile — the Church’s Inquisition is permanently thwarted by a Lashïngs strike.
  10. Week 10 — Violence between the Church and Lashara quells. The 99 outsiders begin rioting and causing disturbances. The Church wants to banish them. Others want them absorbed into the community. The Church may have completed its temple fortifications — records unclear.
  11. Week 11 — Winter stores ruined. Desperation. The outsiders steal from the greenhouse. A black market booms. Jacques-Bjorn launches a quick two-week expedition to study Eritessa’s Veil-Tear.
  12. Week 12 — When Jacques-Bjorn arrives at the Veil-Tear, demons emerge — polar opposite of the aasimar, armed with vicious weapons. They do not attack. Meanwhile, in the Swamp of Souls — Oovuan, a fiendish city, begins to rise out of the muck. The bullywugs flock to it.
  13. Week 13 — Autumnal winds drive the demons away from the Veil-Tear. Jacques-Bjorn analyzes the magical aura — the Veil-Tear emits leaking teleportation magic, likely connected to the bell tower and the oasis.

World Events — Winter

  1. Week 1 — Old Man Jenkins dies in the stocks. His body is relocated to the front of the Church of ITYS’s temple doors — discovered by Joe Sef, who apparently remained committed to his espionage. Odd runes cover Jenkins’ body. The guilds and Lashara take his remains to study them. One week.
  2. Week 2 — Weather worsens. The community holds a memorial for “The Forgotten Hour” — the commemoration of the apocalypse’s worst moment. On Eritessa, people left by Jacques-Bjorn venture past the magical forest and discover a new, previously unknown civilization.
  3. Week 3 — The End arrives.

Notable Moments

Dave on Old Man Jenkins 01:17:45

“It’s like if someone were on Alex Jones and started spouting a conspiracy theory and Alex Jones was like… that seems weird.”

On the Floating Island 01:07:09

“The whole chunk of the island flew off and floated up. It’s up in the clouds.”

On Lashara 01:18:57

“Lashara stands up to him and uses just great school-level logic to kind of break down some of his arguments.”

Mahonri's Last Words (Week 9 — Summer)

“They’re here.”

Church Leader's Journal

“I will now reveal the most important piece of doctrine: The name of the church. And that name? I Told You So.”

The Outsider's Warning (Fall Week 5)

“Beware of those who come from above!”

Locations

LocationDescription
The PitDeep hole at the edge of the settlement — three doors at the bottom, the Spirit Engines / stargate behind one. Terry Ringer died here. The Church built its temple over it.
Lashara’s WorkshopInventions and reclaimed technology — outskirts beneath location 11. Burned by Church spies, saved by a mysterious wave of crabs.
The Trades DistrictHighest-status area of the community — tradesmen govern here
The Bell TowerMysterious structure that appeared in the ocean channel east of the city — enormous, rings once daily at a random time. Connected to the teleportation network?
The ShipyardMaritime hub — community can build and sail ships
The Church of ITYSBuilt directly over the pit and the Spirit Engines — bishop claims it as sacred ground. Heavily fortified. Politically dominant.
The Swamp of SoulsNear the settlement — people who enter come back changed. Known for dark magics and unusually warm/tropical climate.
The Floating IslandLush Garden-of-Eden chunk that broke free in the Spring earthquake — drifts in the clouds. Contains its own bell tower. An Edenic area has formed there.
The OasisNight-only apparition in the Pearl Desert — formed by the Spring earthquake. Connected to the teleportation network?
The Veil-TearMagical rip in the land from which arcane power flows — broke free of the island and now floats. Leaks teleportation magic. A second Veil-Tear exists on Eritessa — demons have emerged from it.
OovuanFiendish city growing out of the Swamp of Souls — bullywugs flock to it. Emerged in Fall Week 12.
The Pike GardenWhere the Radiantons displayed the bodies of would-be soldiers — now a grim landmark
The Choldrith MountainsMountain range to the west — home to Choldrith spiders, medicinal herbs, and deep caves
The Pearl DunesDesert beyond the mountains — oasis discovered here after the earthquake
The GreenhouseBuilt in Fall to address food scarcity — outsiders eventually stole from it

Factions

FactionLeaderStance
The Church of ITYSThe Bishop (risen, physically enhanced)Anti-technology, controls the pit/stargate, armed inquisition (thwarted), heavily fortified temple
The Progressives / Lashara’s FactionLasharaTechnology, rebuilding, rational thought, secret assassin army
The LashïngsLashara’s followersFemale-only assassin clan — thwarted the Church Inquisition — precursor to [[The Lashïngs
The Tradesmen’s GuildsElected councilPragmatic, highest community status, accepted child apprentices
The RadiantonsUnknownRobber band — arrived in Summer, massacred the militia, left at some point

NPCs

NPCDescription
Terry RingerFirst community death — fell into the pit, discovered the three doors. Golden statue atop the Church of ITYS spire.
LasharaCommunity inventor and voice of reason — defeats Jenkins politically, creates the Lashïngs, her lab is burned and saved
The BishopDoomsday prophet-turned-church-founder — built his temple over the stargate. Murdered in Fall. Body resurrected — physically enhanced, walking around with sandwich board “He is risen.”
Old Man JenkinsTerry’s brother — entered the swamp, returned changed (red eyes, glowing aura) — attempted power grab, disgraced, died in the stocks, body covered in odd runes
Mahonri Teri RingerTerry’s older brother — accused of being a wendigo. Led expedition into the swamp, emerged alone months later on Eritessa — comatose. Returned to island enormous and physically enhanced. Final words: “They’re here.”
The AarakocraUnknown amnesiac found in a submersible — comatose for months, eventually awoke, repaired her sub, and left. Her origin and purpose remain unknown.
Jacques-BjornSailed to Eritessa twice — discovered the second Veil-Tear, demon emergence, the entranced swamp survivors, a magical forest, and a previously unknown civilization
Joe SefCommunity agent tasked with infiltrating the Church — either caught, converted, or still embedded. Discovered Old Man Jenkins’ rune-covered corpse.
Captain RomoniLed the Church’s temple fortification project — named in the note found on the murdered bishop’s corpse (“Romoni did it”)

Lore Discoveries

  • Zen au Kouréas — The lecherous necromancer Lich who caused the apocalypse. Formerly Zen au Lycoris, progenitor of the House of Lycoris. Believed to still be alive on Eritessa (Eritessa). If he returns, it will come from the east.
  • The Spirit Engines — Ancient magical portals inside the pit. Not fully functional. The Church controls access to them via their temple. Possibly the same technology as the Veil-Tear.
  • Teleportation Network — The bell tower, the oasis, and the Veil-Tear all emit connected magical signatures. Jacques-Bjorn’s analysis confirms leaking teleportation magic. The Spirit Engines may be part of this network.
  • The Swamp Corruption — People who enter the Swamp of Souls come back changed. Mahonri emerged physically enormous but dying. The swamp expedition was transported to Eritessa while entranced. Something in the swamp moves people through space.
  • Oovuan — A fiendish city growing in the swamp. Bullywugs worship whatever built it. Connected to the demon emergence at the continental Veil-Tear?
  • The Aarakocra Submersible — Contains personal transportation device technology (weight-shifting hover craft). Advanced enough to suggest a civilization Lashara has never encountered.
  • Old Man Jenkins’ Runes — Covered his body after death. Origin and meaning completely unknown.
  • The Unknown Civilization — Discovered on Eritessa by Jacques-Bjorn’s people in Winter. Never contacted. Never named.

Season Status

SeasonWeeks CompletedNotes
SpringAll 13 weeks ✅Terry’s death, Church founded, Aarakocra arrives, Floating Island, shipyard built
SummerAll 13 weeks ✅Jenkins coup, Radiantons massacre, Aarakocra departs, Mahonri returns and dies
FallAll 13 weeks ✅Lashïngs formed, Inquisition thwarted, Oovuan rises, demons at the Veil-Tear
Winter3 of 13 weeksJenkins’ runes, memorial, unknown civilization — The End arrived

The Frost Shepherds Arrived

Week 3 of Winter: The End arrives. The game concluded here. The community did not complete Winter — the Frost Shepherds came. One hundred years later, their ruins, institutions, and unresolved threads are the world of Kaethos.

Character Creation (Post-Game Discussion)

At session end the group began discussing the D&D campaign that follows 100 years after The Quiet Year ends:

  • Characters start at Level 3 (Levels 1-2 considered “boring”)
  • Dave — Xeros / Eros — bard, K-pop star energy
  • Chris — David Bowie / Labyrinth-style character (eventually becomes TBD / Trivarius Bornegar Dik)
  • Class chosen first, then race
  • The community’s name was never officially decided during the game

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