About Our Nentir Vale Campaign The Valelands & The Nerath Timeline The current year for our Valelands campaign is set during the year 103AE. Inspired By Gary Gygax

This is just me rambling on about what I want to do with this setting and my campaign in my own words, about things that I want to do with my "Nentir Vale" and adventures that I plan to add into this region so humor me lol. It should be a lot of fun because I have so many ideas that I want to do with Nentir Vale and I can't wait to include these ideas.

One thing to remember is Nentir Vale is a post-apocalyptic setting. The world ended, "in a manner of speaking", and Nentir Vale somehow survived the end, and is now in the aftermath. The assumed "starting year" of this Nentir Vale campaign is set roughly 100 years after the fall of Nerath, between the last great war of the age, that destroyed an empire that controlled and shaped the culture of all the known world, and the rise of the next world-spanning power, which might be centuries away. And that means that in some sense, Nentir Vale is in a state of decline. It's a very dark themed setting.

In Nentir Vale there is no such thing as a "Kingdom", unlike in the classical D&D worlds. There is no Waterdeep and its Lords’ Alliance, or any other forces with enough power to enforce their laws in the land that would save the world when the next horde of evil monsters attacks or that will maintain in check "the Evil Kingdom", thus allowing for a life of peace and prosperity in the smaller settlements. And if some kind of evil befalls the world, then the people of Nentir Vale are on their own and usually on the losing end.

Nentir Vale is a very dangerous place. Many small settlements and strongholds were founded, flourished for a time, and then fell into darkness. The wild lands are filled with abandoned towns and outposts. The common folk look upon the wild lands with dread, few people are widely traveled. There is a small amount of trade and travel between the existing settlements of Nentir Vale, a civilization would fall without it, but it is limited to a few courageous merchants and some ambitious, desperate individuals in search of easy riches.

These individuals are careful to stick to the well-known roads with a few that use the waterways, because the lands between settlements are wild and empty. If you stray from those roads, you’ll quickly find yourself in monster-infested wilderness.

When traveling from one place to another, the journey will undoubtedly be very dangerous, things can go from hard to deadly very quickly. Anything could be waiting down the end of the road: an old watch tower can be the lair of a monster, a lonely village along the way is under the sway of a demonic cult, or the forest near it is full of ghosts who thirst for the blood of the living. In a world without an authority to enforce the law, there is also the possibility that roads are often closed by bandits or monsters. The simple mission of driving off whomever or whatever is preying on unfortunate travelers in the roads can be an adventure on its own.

Another implication of this is that, in a setting with no overarching authority and little travel (which means news travels very slowly), settlements afflicted by troubles can only hope for a band of heroes to luckily arrive and set things right or they are doomed. In a city such as Fallcrest, beyond the city walls it’s still largely covered by unexplored wilds full of danger. The soldiers of the city might do a passable job of keeping the lands within a few miles of their hometown free of monsters and bandits, but most of the outlying towns and villages are on their own.

In closing, I want to say once again, our campaign setting will be set within Nentir Vale, not Nerath - even though we will be using the pantheon of Nerath, the history and stories of Nerath, we will still just be using Nentir Vale and using the Nerath history to give our Nentir Vale campaign setting additional flavor. Even though Nentir Vale is located in Nerath, we will be adventuring within the Nentir Vale region only. One day, we may venture outside of the confines of Nentir Vale but that is far far down the road, if ever.