Evenfall

Camelot was not a myth.

It existed, even if King Arthur didn’t. Inspired by the tales of the heroic king, an actual Camelot was founded sometime in the 12th century as a consortium of nobles sworn to prevent the fall of Britain by pledging cooperation rather than conflict.

But despite the noble intent, as new lords largely replaced the old ones, greed and ambition took hold. Still, the nobles had to tread carefully, lest their growing power trigger a threat response from the Crown.

Over time, the lords’ power and money grew to the point where the Crown felt threatened. The monarch moved against them, but it was too late. The aristocrats forced an abdication, and their Houses took over as leaders of Britain. Meanwhile, the various orders of knights tried to maintain the old codes of chivalry. But even they eventually fell to corruption.

The Industrial Revolution came early and got underway at about the same time as the Renaissance. The Houses eagerly embraced the resulting new clockwork technologies. As a defense, they established new orders of Knights, more like elite security rather than mounted military forces.

The Industrial Renaissance, as it came to be known, also tattered the social fabric. Poverty worsened. The larger cities, particularly London, became near-unlivable warrens of smoke, sewage, and crime.

Into this dark and dangerous world, a new type of predator appeared: Knaves prowl the streets largely at night, taking on jobs too scandalous or dirty for the Houses to do. But a worse predator still has recently emerged, preying on the Knaves. They’re described by the few survivors as “madmen, terrible to behold, with much hair as that of a beast covering the body.” The appearance and bestial behavior of these unfortunates have given rise to tales of “werewolves” stalking the city. No one knows where these werewolves come from or what they want, but they present a clear and present danger to anyone who dares the night.

Evenfall is a clockpunk mini-campaign setting. Intended to be system-agnostic, there are no rules or mechanics for any particular RPG system. GMs (Referees, Judges, etc.) are free to adapt the following to their worlds however they see fit. In a clockwork Renaissance world, the spread of a new menace prompts a concerted — and sometimes violent — containment response from powerful noble houses more apt to compete than cooperate.

Evenfall. Be afraid of the dark.