Fireborn
is a world on the edge of a storm. One it has weathered before at the cost of
great losses: the loss of countless lives, of the world’s great civilizations,
of magic. The scions alone know that there was a mythic age, know what happened
to the world at its end, and know what needs to be done to stop it from
happening again. They know... because they were there.
Scions are at once human and more than human. While born of flesh and blood,
their souls are far older. Within their bodies are the reincarnated spirits of
dragons from an ancient past. Throughout the ages, scions have been reborn in
human form, each time remembering less and less of their former selves. As magic
fled the world at the end of the mythic age, so did the wyrms’ strength of
spirit. As the last ice age receded and the modern age began, the memory of the
mythic age was all but gone.
How that's changing. None are sure why... a prophecy fulfilled, the stars
aligned, a ritual completed? Regardless, karma, the force that Westerners call
“magic,” that wise men of the East call “ki,” and that the ancient Egyptians
called “ka,” has returned. And with it all manner of beasts and wonders.
But magic is dangerous and unknown, and the modern mind is far from accepting of
the impossible. That, after all, is what monsters, magic, and myth must be:
Impossible. Everyone knows that. We’ve been told that from the beginning. And
surely, if anything was out there, the police and the government would know.
They’d tell us how to protect ourselves.
So magic remains hidden from the light of day. No one talks about it.
Second-class citizens are hunted by beasts in the slums. Superstitious drifters
draw pentagrams in railyards to keep the rain and the dogs away. Tales of
werewolf maulings appear in the tabloids with alarming regularity and amazingly
clear photos, and most folks don’t talk to their neighbors anymore.
And amidst all this, the scions begin to remember that there’s something else
beneath the magic and the beasts and the fear. Something older than man and
dragon alike, something that, in an age of myth and legend, almost consumed the
world.
The scions grow in power, one flashback at a time, and hope that they’ll be able
to remember, in time, the secrets that their enemies never forgot.
The action in Fireborn takes place in both the modern day and a mythic age. The
base setting for campaigns is modern London just a few years from now, a place
of cosmopolitan dealings, venerable age, and dark mysteries. Characters in the
modern age may have many directions and goals, including monster hunting,
political machinations, treasure seeking, avoiding the authorities, and anything
else the Game Master throws at them. Between and during adventures in the modern
age, however, comes every scion’s main priority: rediscovering who and what he
was.
This re-discovery occurs via a game mechanic called flashbacks, in which players
remember and play out, collectively, a dramatic event that occurred to their
previous selves in the mythic age. During these flashbacks, the characters take
the role of immensely powerful dragons of all shapes and kinds. The times and
locations of the flashbacks can be spread throughout several aeons and across
many lands, all collectively known as the mythic age. During these visions, the
players control their dragons as if playing them in the here and now, slowly
learning more about their capabilities and the world they used to inhabit.
Mythic age flashbacks may give their modern age selves clues to important events
occurring in the modern day, a chance to meet and interact with figures that may
play roles in their futures, or even an opportunity to leave behind powerful
items for their human selves to find and use. With every flashback, the scions
in the modern age remember more of their previous powers and can access greater
amounts of draconic strength.