Unknown Shores Where Will The Stars Guide You?
Out of the ruins of lost civilizations and ancient magic, in a world at the crossroads of reality a new age of exploration, intrigue and high adventure is about to begin.
The world of Unknown Shores is one of profound mystery and boundless opportunity, shaped by both catastrophe and miraculous discovery. At the heart of this setting lies the cataclysmic event known as the Shattering, a magical apocalypse that abruptly halted the flow of arcane energies 700 years ago. For three centuries, the people of Aerith endured chaos and collapse, struggling to survive as the magic that once powered their cities, preserved their knowledge, and shaped their lives was suddenly and completely gone. It was a dark age in every sense.
But from the end of that era rose the Great Umbra, an extraordinary phenomenon that bridged Aerith to the infinite realms of the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse. Over the last 400 years, Aerith has clawed its way back from the brink. Civilization has rebuilt itself, albeit in new and sometimes fractured forms. Magic has returned—scarred and changed, but alive once more. And now, with the Great Umbra beckoning, a new age of exploration and opportunity has begun.
The world of Unknown Shores thrives on this spirit of rediscovery. Adventurers seek not only to reclaim their own world’s lost histories and forgotten relics but to explore the countless paths beyond the Umbra. Each step forward is a chance to piece together the mysteries of the Shattering, harness the rekindled arcane energies, and navigate the endless possibilities of the multiverse. It’s a setting where the past is never fully buried, the future is a wide-open frontier, and every journey promises danger, discovery, and the chance to shape not only Aerith’s destiny but the fate of the worlds beyond.
Welcome to the Unknown Shores
I've been writing this setting for over 30 years and it encompasses a large body of work that I have decided to bring to World Anvil for long term preservation and as a way to finally share this setting with the world. I began to collect my work into a single body for the first time for the 2002 Create a Campaign Setting contest held by Wizards of the Coast. While it didn't even come close to winning, it did prompt the preservation and ongoing research and writing the compounding layers of detail over the years.
This world has always been a sort of shared canvas for me and a group of brilliant and maddening though harmless lunatics. What started as a humble homebrew setting scribbled in the margins of a social studies notebook next to some dick graffiti, has grown into a sprawling, layered world with stories as complex as the people who’ve helped bring it to life. We’ve argued, laughed, cried, everything short of filming and broadcasting it. Mostly because our games would be immediately heckled into oblivion, demonetized and probably get all our names on some kind of scary government list.
Things are a mess all over. I'm still learning the platform and getting the amount of data I have to World Anvil is going to take time. So if you're patient, I hope it will eventually worth keeping an eye on things. In your explorations, you will notice a great deal of stubs and obvious placeholder articles. If you're really paying attention you will notice some things from name changes to conflicting lore. This is because I am at the point where I'm not trying to write so much as I am trying to edit some three decades of worldbuilding. So don't worry so much about articles that have something like no text to a maybe a paragraph or two about something. For now, those are for me. To the point that the only thing that you need to be concerned about the title.
Enjoy your time exploring this world. If you have questions, I'm not hard to find.
Enjoy!
Start Here....
Areeott is where the mask never slips, but the eyes behind it are always watching. A land of silent perfection, where every street gleams and every festival is orchestrated to the last note—yet behind that immaculate order lies something far colder. Secrets are currency, history is written by unseen hands, and those who disrupt the peace often simply… disappear. Magic lingers in the bones of the land, not in grand displays of arcane power, but in eerie traditions, whispered prayers, and the quiet certainty that the past never truly dies. While Unknown Shores is a setting of discovery, exploration, and adventure into the unknown, Areeott is different. This is dark fantasy at its finest—where conspiracies unravel in shadowed corridors, where the supernatural is more unnerving than wondrous, and where every answer only leads to another question. Play here, and you’re not chasing treasure—you’re walking a knife’s edge between knowledge and oblivion. Areeott is also the original seed location of what eventually became this entire campaign setting. While the related content isn’t the newest, it’s being uploaded first for long-term preservation—because some things shouldn’t be forgotten.Announcements
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