Open Lore

What is it?

Open Lore is a multiverse of public domain settings that can both include and be included in just about any other setting. If you'd like to contribute to the project, see here.

Why?

I found myself limited by existing campaign settings for tabletop role-playing games. If I wrote an adventure and wanted to share it, I would either need to create my own setting or be tied up with copyright issues. Now, this is a project I wanted to start anyway, but I realize that other people might not want to write a whole setting from scratch, or have other reasons that lore is the limitation on their creative endeavors. For example, maybe a D&D group records their sessions and shares them with friends, and get told that they have something really high quality, and they should upload it somewhere. If they don't have the resources to write their own setting, copyright muddies this.

What's the premise?

Open Lore's ultimate reason for anything existing at all is that as long as nothing exists, the potential for existence grows. This potential is then discharged like a spark jumping across a gap, and the eternities of known universes exist within that momentary flash.

This is how we get the central dichotomy of Open Lore:

• The description of this spark is abstract enough that it can be included in any setting that allows for any sort of build-up followed by release, but it can also stand alone.
  • The great artificer completed their lightning machine shortly before their death. Now, it sits running forever, slowly charging and discharging. Open Lore is a single one of these discharges.
  • The water of creation drips from the stalactites in the cave into the pool below. Open Lore is a single water droplet in free-fall.
  • The dragon-god breathes slowly in its sleep, enchanting the air that exits its lungs. Open Lore is a single one of these enchanted exhalations.
• Open Lore's cosmology is built to be extremely flexible, including universes with highly variable laws of physics. In the circumstance that a setting truly cannot be represented within Open Lore's multiverse, it almost certainly can exist in a separate existential spark.

Within the Open Lore multiverse, the creation myth describes the first deity within the spark, and how it acted as a seed for countless realms to crystallize from the primordial ether.

How would someone learn more?

To get started learning the cosmology, check out multiverse structure. For a reference of taxa, see taxonomy. For stories that take place within the Open Lore multiverse, go here.

Right now, there are 3 primary settings, or conduits, with a list of genres they'd be suitable for:

• Abrecis
  • Pre-medieval fantasy
  • Medieval fantasy
  • Sailing/pirates (fantasy or non-magical)
  • Steampunk (fantasy)
  • Post-apocalyptic (fantasy)
  • Western (wild or weird)
  • Noir
  • Horror (fantasy or non-magical)
• Softlight Earth
  • Historical fiction
  • Cyberpunk
  • General sci-fi
  • Space exploration (sub-light speed)
  • Horror (sci-fi, modern day, or historical)
• Warble
  • Any sort of high fantasy
  • Multiverse adventures

Additionally, the broader multiverse can be used as a setting for a story that visits several smaller, less fleshed-out settings.