For some months I’ve been working on my own Fantasy rulebook and setting designed ideally for mass battles.
Over the coming weeks I’ll be using this series to explore the development of the setting, factions, mechanics, and themes behind the game. Some articles will dive into rules and battlefield systems. Others will focus entirely on lore, cultures, or narrative concepts.
Previous Articles
- Orders & Omens: A World in Balance
- Orders & Omens: The Orcs
- Orders & Omens: The Stone-Kin
Humans are perhaps the most difficult race to make interesting in fantasy. We already know the shape of them. Kings, castles and religion.
At their worst, the Humans often become the default faction. Ordinary people surrounded by exotic races.
While building Orders & Omens, I tried to make Humanity feel distinct. Not more heroic or wiser, just shaped by the world around them.
Humans in Orders & Omens find themselves in the shadow of their past. What would a civilisation terrified of forgetting their past look like?
This gave me the idea of the Faith of Memory.
The Kingdoms of Humanity
Humanity is divided, though old chronicles speak of ancient Kings of Kings who once held sway over all the realms, though the last King of Kings died two hundred years ago.
Humanity exists as a collection of rival Kingdoms, each shaped by their own fears and ambitions.
Hawkmor
Hawkmor is often referred to as the frontier kingdom. Generations of Orc raids and border wars have created a hard people who value martial skill above all else.
Young nobles of Hawkmor proudly undertake Tusker Hunts, riding south in search of Orc warbands, and hoping to return bearing tusks as proof of their bravery.
Heartmere
Heartmere lies towards the centre of the Human lands and is possibly the most prosperous being sheltered from many external dangers. Heartmere thrives through its fertile lands and trade.
Heartmere sees itself as the future of the Humanity and believes that its King, King Sedric VI should be the new King of Kings.
Norrwyn
The northern kingdom is still scarred by the devastation of the Ash Years, and distrust of the Elves runs deep within its borders. Though conflict with the Elves has long ended, memory of their unprovoked fury lingers.
Eastmark
Eastmark is the eastern seafaring kingdom, a land of merchants and explorers. Its rulers once dreamed of distant colonies and lands beyond the sea.
I increasingly found whilst developing Humanity that every kingdom feels shaped by what it fears the most. But above their rivalries, there is one institution almost all Humans trust.
The Faith of Memory
The Faith of Memory stands at the centre of Human civilisation, and at first glance it appears comforting. Its halls are lined with books and scribes quietly preserve knowledge.
Its Chroniclers travel between kingdoms recording everything the humans learn of the world. The Faith exists for one purpose above all others, ensuring Humanity remembers its past. To the Faith, forgetting is dangerous and has caused kingdoms to collapse because wisdom was lost.
History repeats itself because people fail to remember what happened before. This shapes every part of Human society.
The scribes of the Faith endlessly copy books by hand and maintain their libraries obsessively. Histories are preserved, not because they matter now, but because they may matter in the future. What knowledge they have has become sacred.
Scribes and Chroniclers
The Faith maintains vast orders of scribes who spend their lifetimes preserving humanity’s history.
As books age, they are carefully copied by hand. Then copied again. And again. Much of Humanity’s understanding of the world survives because generations of anonymous scribes refused to let knowledge vanish.
Travelling Chroniclers move between kingdoms documenting rulers, wars, disputes and treaties. Some rulers welcome them, while others tolerate them, but few trust them.
“If Humanity forgets itself, what remains?”
– Belen the Chronicler
Redaction
The Faith does not possess inquisitors in the traditional sense, instead they have the Redactors.
Those judged dangerous to Humanity may be erased from memory itself their names struck from records. Portraits burned and books altered. Mentions are quietly removed from official histories.
The intention is not death. Death is remembered. Because to the Faith there is no greater punishment than being forgotten.
Officially, Redaction is rare but necessary. Used only against those who threaten Humanity itself. Yet there are whispers that have spread in recent years after the Faith’s military arm intervened in the city-state of Miamor. The Faith claimed its rulers had strayed too far from Humanity’s path. The city still stands, but many who once governed it no longer appear in records.
Fear and Preservation
Humanity in Orders & Omens is not tolerant, or entirely unreasonable in its fears. After all, Orc raids remain real and the Stone-Kin seem to grow increasingly distant. The Elves are viewed with suspicion, particularly in the northern kingdoms.
Many Humans believe the world grows more dangerous, and perhaps they are right. But fear has a way of strengthening institutions, especially those that promise safety, and in Orders & Omens, especially those promising memory.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed the most whilst building Humanity has been trying to avoid portraying them as either heroes or villains. But I wanted them to feel understandable, a civilisation frightened of its demise and terrified of repeating old mistakes.
Even if doing so slowly changes what Humanity itself becomes, because in a world obsessed with memory perhaps the most frightening question is:
Who gets to decide what deserves remembering?
Next Week
I’ll possibly explore the unsettling role of the Elves, and why maintaining balance in this world may sometimes demand terrible things.
