Setting

Courts Unbound

Twenty years ago the War of Thorns ended with all seven High Lords of Prythian dead within a single bloody season. A High Lord's power does not die with its bearer; it chooses the next. This time it chose no one. It slept, unbound, in the earth of each court.

Regents, councils and ambitious cousins held the courts together. They walled their borders, buried their dead and raised a new generation on stories of the war. Then, this spring, the seven powers stirred. Heirs and strangers alike began to dream of thrones.

Now is an age of learning, and of knives. Courts are rebuilding. Old houses are bleeding out and new ones are rising. Every throne in Prythian is open.

Whom will the power choose? Whom will you serve, and whom will you betray?

What is canon here

Courts Unbound keeps the world of A Court of Thorns and Roses and none of its people.

• Kept: the map of Prythian, the seven courts with their seasons and powers, the Wall and the Treaty, Hybern and the continent, High Fae and lesser faeries, Illyrians and Peregryns, winnowing, glamours, bargains, mating bonds, the Cauldron and its legends.
• Gone: every canon character, and every canon event after the Treaty. Nobody you have read about exists. The War of Thorns replaces the canon wars.
• Unwritten: anything staff have not written. Ask in #ask-staff before inventing history that touches a court, a throne or a relic.

Timeline

• About 500 years ago: the war between fae and humans ends with the Treaty. The Wall divides Prythian from the mortal lands.
• 25 years ago: the War of Thorns begins, court against court, with Hybern arming every side.
• 20 years ago: the seven High Lords die within one season. The war ends in exhaustion. Regents take over.
• Now, spring of the 20th year after the Thorns: the court powers stir. The thrones open. Play begins.

In-character time runs at twice real time: one real week is two weeks in Prythian.

Geography

The Solar Courts hold the north; the Seasonal Courts hold the south; the wild Middle lies between them.

• 🌙 Night Court: the largest court. Velaris, the City of Starlight, hidden from the rest of Prythian; the Hewn City inside its mountain; the Illyrian steppes.
• ☀️ Day Court: gold plains and white cities. Scholars, spell-cleavers and Peregryn aeries.
• 🌅 Dawn Court: cliffs where morning comes first. Healers and inventors.
• 🌸 Spring Court: eternal spring along the Wall.
• 🌊 Summer Court: a sun-struck coast and its island capital, Adriata.
• 🍂 Autumn Court: forests that burn red and gold all year.
• ❄️ Winter Court: snow, ice and long nights.
• 🗻 The Middle: the sealed court Under the Mountain, the woods where something weaves, the bogs of Middengard.
• 🧱 Mortal Lands: human kingdoms south of the Wall.
• 🌍 Beyond the Sea: Hybern to the west, the continent across the sea.

Court relations

Relations between the courts are cold. No court has sent an ambassador since the war, and most guard their borders with wards and sentries.

• A foreign courtier met on the road is a threat until proven otherwise. The usual reaction is to fight or flee.
• Crossing a border needs a writ of passage from your court. Without one, you are a trespasser.
• Neutral ground exists: the Crossroads, the Halls of Healing, and any market where every court needs the same goods.
• Characters may work to open diplomacy. Peace is earned in play, never assumed.

Peoples

• High Fae: human-shaped, long-lived, gifted with magic. They rule every court.
• Lesser faeries: every other kind of fae, from naga to pixies to river-spirits, as staff approve.
• Illyrians: winged warriors of the Night Court's mountains, born with grudges; the strongest wear siphons.
• Peregryns: winged scholars and soldiers of the Day Court.
• Humans: mortal, short-lived, without magic, armed with iron and ash.
• The Made: humans or fae remade by the Cauldron. Rare, feared, and only by claim.

Details are in Character Creation.

Glossary

• Winnowing: stepping through space from one place to another.
• Glamour: illusion laid over oneself or one's surroundings.
• Daemati: one who can walk into minds.
• Bargain: a magical promise inked on the skin, binding both parties.
• Mating bond: a rare bond between two souls. It exists, is never assumed, and needs both players' agreement.
• Faebane: a poison that blocks fae magic.
• Ash: wood deadly to fae. Ash arrows kill.
• Writ of passage: a court's permission to cross its borders.
• Renown, Bounty, Marks: fame, infamy and money. See Renown, Bounty & Marks.