King's Field Episode IV: A New Hope/bible

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This document looks a lot like King's Field, but do not be deceived. It is an open source character bible for a Sword of Moonlight: King's Field Making Tool project called King's Field Episode_IV: A New Hope.

No definitive King's Field resource based on the original Japanese games exists in English. Even armed with the complete texts of the games, there is no easy way to translate them, and no one qualified to do so has volunteered their services for the job. Even so the aim here is not to compile such a resource, but instead to cobble together a consensus take on the universe for the purpose of making new games that may or may not agree with the original trilogy of games.

Races

Most peoples and creatures of the world are of a mixed heritage even if they know better, but originally there were distinct races.

Dragon

Dragons are the oldest of races. Their existence itself is ephemeral as they existed prior to existence itself. They come in four varieties attributable to the four magical elements each commanded by the gods Sylval, Elfos, Elwin, and Valad.

• Fire dragons are the oldest and most feared dragon, hence their relative popularity among storytelling school children. But were the world ever to witness a fire dragon its doom would almost assuredly be sealed. Some of mankind's elite fire mages have claimed communion with these beasts, but if their claims are to believed, then their audience with the dragons took place in another world between the spaces of worlds.

• Water dragons make their homes in the deep oceans. They are called leviathans, or sometimes mistakenly sea monsters. It is thought that none have dwelt in the world since Elfos deserted it eons ago. These dragons are flightless solitary creatures.

• Wind dragons are known as drakes. Sometimes mistaken as wyverns. They are smaller and fly through the skies, making their homes on mountain tops. Sometimes in flocks. It is thought that these too left the world with Elwin when he with Elfos deserted the world.

• Earth dragons are properly known as serpents. These sly dragons will often display majestic wings and ape other dragons. But do not be fooled by their trickery. They are flightless and independent, but known to make dubious alliances.

Elfkind

Elves are a primordial hominid race resembling taller paler and leaner men and women brought into being by Elfos and Elwin for the sole purpose of acting as perfectly benevolent stewards of the world ecosystem, flora and fauna.

Giants & Dwarves

Valad, the smallest of the gods, created giants to construct large earthworks, so that the world would not be flat from end to end. Giants came in all sizes but man size and hibernate underground to this day, occasionally rising from their slumber to supper and assist heroes along their way. Larger giants hibernate for longer periods of time. Many believe that earthquakes indicate a giant sleeps in the vicinity.

Giants are the most peaceful of the races, but their clumsy scale often lends itself to unfortunate accidents. Giants believe that their sleep is best for everyone and love to dream more than anything in the world.

• When Elfos and Elwin abandoned the world, in his lonesomeness Valad created the dwarf race. Elves would have nothing to do with him, so Valad in his questionable wisdom created dwarves to be the opposite of the elves. Boisterous and competitive but not warlike.

Do not be fooled by the name of Valad's late race. They are dwarfish, but only if you were to ask a giant. In short, Valad was unhappy with his giants. For they provided him little entertainment nor company during his stint as the lone god of the world. Even the smallest of their kind would nap for centuries. This simply would not do.

Mankind

Men are reckoned by many to be no more than an offshoot of one of the many more dominant mixed races. But their features and behavior is curious indeed. And their wars seemingly endless. In the earlier times children would be born with a curious affinity to Fire magic. Within educated circles it is generally agreed that the original men must surely have been the immaculate work of Sylval.

Although those who think so do try not to dwell upon the implications of such an apocalyptic god as Sylval having his hand in any race. There have been many tries to rid the races of mankind for the good of the world. Alas even gambling men know better to bet against the sunrise than to cast their lot with those odds.

Monsters & Demons

Monsters are an unfortunate side effect of Valad's attempt to remedy the mankind situation. In desperation Valad separated himself into the Earth dragons Seath and Guyra so that he would no longer be so lonely and so that the races would be able to rally around the dragons.

Because the magical half of Valad went to Seath and the logical half to Guyra, the disharmony that remained bent and twisted the fertile body of Valad. Where vegetation once had its origins in the Dragon Tree instead of a bed of monstrosities took its place.

Whether or not monsters deserve the respect of the other races is very seldom disputed. To call it racism would be incorrect. But monsters do possess personalities of their own, and some among the religious orders would even argue souls.

• Demons are the product of Guyra's experimentation with monsters in order to create hybrids with properties of anti-magic sometimes called light, or law, considered holy by the men of more recent eras.

Guyra understood well his weakness to magic, and so created an army of his demons to serve as his protectors. The most successful experiments resulted in demons without weakness that would remain forever loyal to Guyra.

Prominent Swords

Frostbite & Firebrand

These swords are each halves of the Dragon Sword Excalibur forged of finest steel and bequeathed by the gods to the Black Dragon Arthur, king of the Four Dragon Kings.

When Elfos and Elwin fled the world in the shadow of ruinous infighting among the kingdoms, they separated Excalibur into Frostbite and Firebrand, leaving Frostbite in two pieces with the secluded pure blooded elves of Melanat to be let loose no sooner than the worlds faintest hour.

Valad misplaced the remaining half. He is sure that he left it somewhere he knows not. Excalibur itself was a double edged blade. As two halves each of the blades are single edged sabres nearly oriental in design.