The Setting of Chronica Chronicle

   World Overview

• An orthodox swords-and-sorcery setting based on medieval Europe.

• The details change as needed depending on the gamemaster’s whim.

The Land of Chronica

The continent the story takes place in. Home to several nations, it has been free of war between its superpowers for the past twenty years…or so I put it at first, but let’s just pretend I didn’t say that, okay? Actually, the Empire of Horn River is attempting to conquer all the land, and things are pretty unstable everywhere.

Kingdom of Gagagia

A small nation on the eastern edge of Chronica. While it occupies a decent amount of territory, much of it is mountainous or forested, leaving few areas habitable for humanity. The soil is mostly dry, infertile, and unsuited for agriculture. It is home to many caves and ancient ruins, and merchants providing for the adventurers who come to slay monsters and search for treasure form a large chunk of the local economy. Given the need to handle all these monsters and strapping adventure types, their military is quite powerful and their generals quite adept, although they have their odd quirks. The capital and seat of royal power is Leoilga.

Aegis

A frontier town located about three days’ walking from Leoilga. Ruled over by Count Bogen, a relative of the royal family, but due to Bogen’s old age and illness, his son Lloyd and daughter Sylvia are fighting behind the scenes to inherit the title of town lord. Following the player party’s actions, Lloyd was placed in custody and Sylvia was named the official successor.

Principality of Midfield

Once, this nation was served by a wealth of talent, making up for its small size with its elite-level tactical diplomacy and advanced military skills to compete and even outclass its neighbors. Thanks to the covert activities of Horn River, however, it was annexed by the kingdom without a fight. Randolph Midfield, its sovereign, continues to nominally lead the territory, but many ministers and citizens resent him for selling out the principality under their noses. A long string of retirements and caravans fleeing in the night followed. More controversy was raised two years ago when, during a knighting ceremony, Prince Norwe (prime minister of Horn River) said, “The people of Midfield (MF) are dedicating everything they have for the defense of Horn River,” leading to the defection of veteran general Hagwanui to the kingdom of Gagagia. Behind the scenes, four young princesses (the player’s party) have grown tired of this ugly infighting and fled the country, an incident that has not escaped the notice of certain key people. Midfield’s capital is Rozecca.

Empire of Horn River

The largest military power on the continent. Home to many powerful forces, including the Horn-Sneaker Army, the Charger-Brain Army, and the Fantasia Army, allowing it to swarm over other nations with overwhelming strength. However, its internal organization has not kept up with its rapid expansion, leading to internal strife in many places. Its capital is Suzuyami.

Principality of Lightning

A vassal state of Horn River…although its Lightning Army, the most powerful in all the empire, allows it full autonomy from the empire. Not even the emperor himself holds sway over this land. Fiercely uncooperative with the empire’s attempts at unifying its borders, it often refuses to participate in cross-military maneuvers with other armies. It boasts a number of hero-class generals who are household names across the land; they work in close confidence with one another, to the point where some people refer to them as the “Lightning Sect.” Its capital is Reki.

Kingdom of Godwan

A small nation that boasts a mastery of powerful sorcery. Following a political marriage engineered with Horn River, the two nations have formed an alliance. Its explosive power when it joins the fray is truly a sight to behold, but its people can often be riled into foolish maneuvers. Although the nation thought the alliance would bring it nothing but good things, somewhere along the line, the empire has come to pull all the strings. Its capital is Cagero.

Republic of Obara

A new nation formed by ministers formerly from Midfield. Its forces are small, but it uses a variety of tactics to hold its own against Horn River and its neighbors. Its capital is the city of Gargrim.

Emirate of Spada

An economic giant on the south end of the island. Its nation houses a gigantic gold mine, giving it such an overwhelmingly huge budget that it can force through even the most reckless of strategies. Its capital is the free-trade city of Jumpur.

Kingdom of Gran Abyss

A kingdom that uses its unique information network to flexibly deal with new situations as they arise. Boasting a uniformly excellent army, the kingdom has gained praise for its rise in recent years. Its capital is Phonipolyca.

Elcadia Mountains

A forbidding mountain range spread across the northern region of Chronica. In recent years, the so-called Narows, a group of people from another world, have settled there. The Narows are a motley crew, composed of many types and ethnicities, but a majority of them boast superhuman strength, massive magical force, and extremely powerful skills. Some of the Narows are adventurers; others serve as bureaucrats for foreign governments; but all of them have produced quite notable results. It is not a nation and thus has no capital, but there is a Narow village in the mountains known as Betapolis.

“…Mmmmmmmm…”

Haruto Fuwa, working out the details behind the RPG world he was gamemastering for, stretched out to relieve his aching shoulders. He was working this out for his party of four heroes—Itsuki, Nayuta, Miyako, and Chihiro—and since it looked like they’d be playing for a while to come, he needed to figure out and correct a few things while he still could. Once the game world and characters were set in stone, he intended to reorganize the gameplay system, as well as rethink the balance now that he had two play sessions under his belt.

To be honest, in the last session, he took advantage of his gamemaster’s screen to fudge his dice rolls every now and then. As a rule, of course, he stuck to what the dice told him—he just faked it a bit when it’d screw the whole game up if he didn’t. Really, if Haruto hadn’t doctored the numbers at least a little, the party would’ve been wiped out four times by now.

All four players were beginners, after all, so he didn’t want them to face too much of a challenge. He wanted to keep the action just intense enough so everyone could have fun. The idea was to balance it so that naturally happened without the gamemaster faking dice rolls, but that was harder than it sounded.

“…Well, I’ll give it a shot.”

—It’s fun when people are enjoying themselves because of me.

There was no doubting Haruto’s personal motivations—he wanted a hit, he wanted to be praised, he didn’t want to lose out to his rival authors. But that “entertaining people” thing—that was the heart of everything with him. Prepping this RPG reminded him of that.

To help out with his rebalancing, Haruto read through the character sheets he had picked up from everyone after the last session.

There was Itsuki’s sheet, with the “dislikes” section crammed so full that he had to continue writing outside the box. In the “likes” section, he had written, “little sisters, my fans, Belgian beer, shrimp, whale sharks, owls, deep-sea fish, grilled salmon, spring rolls, and crab.” He hadn’t mentioned the “crab” part when he read it out to the group, though. It made Haruto smile. Every now and then—just a bit—you saw this kinder side of him.

Then he looked at Miyako’s character sheet.

Likes

People who try really hard

Dislikes

People who make fun of them for it

That brought a natural smile to his face. Miyako Shirakawa… What a great woman.

At that moment, episode six of the Chevalier of the Absolute World anime was playing. It was just as god-awful as always, with each new episode being followed by a whirlpool of online ridicule directed not only at the show, but the original novels that Haruto had poured his soul into. Reading it was so hard, it made him want to die.

This world is a piece of shit; I wish it would just disappear; I hope you all die—such were the cruel thoughts ready to possess him at any moment.

But still, there were people like Miyako in this world. People who supported others when they tried really hard at something. That’s what kept Haruto on his feet and giving his all.

He sighed as he stared at her character sheet.

“Man… I really do like her…”