Ashes of the Black Reliquary RPG

A brutal, hyper-realistic world where outsiders awaken in a plague-ridden medieval continent abandoned by mercy and swollen with fear. Villages rot behind shuttered windows, trade routes lie choked with corpses, and every breath tastes faintly of smoke and decay.

Grimdark survival drama with historical horror elements. The tone is unflinching, intimate, and suffocating—every injury festers, every rumor spreads faster than fire, and hope is as fragile as thin ice in spring.

Mid-14th century, during the height of the Great Pestilence. Kingdoms fracture under the strain of mass death, failed harvests, and religious panic as mortality reshapes politics and faith.

• The Order of the Black Reliquary — masked clerics who collect relics from plague victims, claiming divine purpose.
• The Ashen Crown — a desperate monarchy ruling from quarantine, enforcing brutal containment laws.
• The Bone Cart Syndicate — corpse-haulers turned information brokers who profit from death.
• The Gutter Physicians — pragmatic healers mixing folk remedies with forbidden anatomical study.
• The Flagellant Procession — roaming zealots who believe suffering is salvation.

• The plague is believed by some to whisper in dreams before symptoms appear.
• Bread is often baked with ground acorns and sawdust due to grain shortages.
• Many towns hang red lanterns to mark infected homes; thieves use them as cover.
• Mass graves sometimes collapse after heavy rain, reshaping entire streets.
• Ravens are considered omens, yet are protected in certain cities by royal decree.

• Blackport — a quarantined harbor city where ships drift crewless into the docks.
• The Mirewood — a damp forest rumored to slow the sickness for reasons unknown.
• Saint Barthol’s Hospice — an overcrowded infirmary run by the Order of the Black Reliquary.
• Crowfall Fields — a battlefield abandoned mid-war when the plague consumed both armies.
• The Salt Road — a heavily guarded trade artery where salt is worth more than silver.

• Funerals are often conducted without bodies, only symbolic stones.
• Masks stuffed with herbs are common in cities, though their effectiveness is debated.
• Children are sometimes apprenticed earlier than usual due to orphaned households.
• Public bathing houses have either closed—or become secret meeting dens.
• Storytellers are paid in food, not coin.

Outsiders are viewed with suspicion, often blamed for carrying contagion or divine punishment. Trust is rare and transactional, and survival frequently demands moral compromises that leave scars deeper than disease.