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You sail above the mist. Below you, the long-fall — and a world that has already learned not to look down. Around you, your crew: four faces who know your name, an old captain who does not say his, and a sloop called The Wanderer that is, by all reasonable measures, your home.
Welcome to Where Gods Fall, a long-form D&D 5E (2024) campaign set in the floating-isle world of Aetheria. Four centuries after a cosmic catastrophe nobody quite remembers, the trade flourishes, the harvests come in, and most reach-folk have made their peace with a sky that used to hold nine gods and now holds seven. Most. Some are starting to ask questions.
This page exists to tell you what the campaign is, how it runs, and whether it might be a good fit for you. It is not a teaser for plot beats — you will not find spoilers here. What you will find: tone, format, themes, expectations, and the practical details of joining.
What this is
A homebrew D&D 5E (2024) campaign. Long-form: levels 1 to 20, expected to run two to three years at our pace. Online, via Foundry VTT and voice chat. Sessions run roughly three hours.
The genre is high fantasy with cosmological mystery. The setting is fully homebrew — Aetheria, the world of floating isles, owes a debt to Skies of Arcadia, Treasure Planet, Final Fantasy IX, and Princess Mononoke in roughly equal measure. The system is standard 2024 PHB; the world is not.
You will be playing the crew of an airship called The Wanderer. How you came to her, what you do for work, who you are to each other — all of that is decided together at Session 0. Once we set sail, we sail.
The world, briefly
Aetheria is what was left after the Unmaking — a cosmic event four hundred years ago that broke the continent into floating fragments. Between the isles drifts the Mistsea, an ethereal expanse that ships sail through. Nine gods became seven: one went out within reach-memory; one is gone longer than that — older than the present world. The seventh seat at every altar is dressed but not prayed to.
The trade flourishes. Children are named, harvests come in, ships return — most of them. But the world is changing in ways nobody quite explains aloud. Distant isles are being overrun by something called the Verdant. Some Mistsea currents are not where the charts say they should be. And reach-folk have a long, polite tradition of not asking too many questions about what came before.
You walk into a world that has already learned not to look down.
For more on the world before you arrive at Session 0, the public lore pages cover the geography, the religion, the calendar, and the working knowledge of any reach-folk. Read what catches your interest. None of it is required.
Who you’ll play
Your character is a Skyfarer — competent at sea-life, comfortable on a ship, used to the Mistsea. You are not a peasant on your first adventure. You start as someone who already knows the trade.
The party is the crew of The Wanderer. Four players claim four of six crew positions (Captain, Navigator, Boatswain, Gunner, Quartermaster, Ship’s Mystic); the remaining two are filled by NPC crew. You will already know each other when Session 1 begins — Session 0 establishes how, and why, and what your shared history is.
All standard 5E 2024 PHB races and classes are open. The setting includes specific homebrew flavour for several races: Mistborn humans, Starwatcher elves, Ironvale-clan dwarves, Skydrifter halflings, Verdant-Touched half-elves, Reach-Tieflings, patron-bound Reach-Aasimar, Stormborn dragonborn, Bloom-Born and Tinker-Skyfarer gnomes, Peak-Born goliaths, Iron-Sworn orcs, Reach-Born half-orcs, and Bilge-Born goblins. Two race-options carry deeper plot-weight if you choose them; the rest are free in the usual way.
For full details on races, classes, crew positions, and step-by-step character creation, see the Character Creation and Races of Aetheria pages in the player section.
What kind of stories
This campaign is interested in:
- Change as it actually happens — slowly, awkwardly, often by accident. Not a chosen-one prophecy
- Legacy and inherited weight — what your character carries that is not their fault
- The cost of knowing things — discovery is not free; some doors do not close behind you
- Crew as family — what people choose, return to, and protect when most of the world is too large to hold
We are interested in stakes that are real. Characters can die — though not arbitrarily. Choices have weight. The world responds to what the players do.
The campaign begins small: a delivery contract, a quiet harbour town, a captain who does not speak. It grows — slowly, in stages — into something larger. We start at level 1 with everyday concerns, and we end (if all goes well) at level 20 with the kind of question that makes ordinary towns hold their breath.
What this is not
To be honest about what we are not playing:
- Not grimdark. The world is unsettling in places, but the tone is closer to Treasure Planet’s warmth than to Game of Thrones’s bleakness
- Not “evil party” gameplay. You are heroes, in the broad sense. Edgy backstories are welcome; predator-PC concepts are not
- Not constant-lethal-stakes combat. Encounters are meaningful, not a meatgrinder
- Not body horror as central tone. Some of the world is strange. That is different from horror
If you are looking for a hard-grimdark, kill-everything, betray-your- party experience, this campaign will not deliver that. If you are looking for a long, slow, occasionally-melancholic campaign about a crew finding out what the world actually is — welcome.
Tone and comfort
We use safety tools:
- Lines and Veils — collected privately before Session 0. A line is a topic the campaign will never touch. A veil is a topic handled off-screen
- Pause signal — anyone can pause the game at any moment, no questions asked
- Open door — you can always step out of a session
Romance, faith, loss, mortality, and sacrifice are themes the campaign will engage with thoughtfully. Sexual violence, torture, child harm, and graphic body horror are not on the table at all. If your line list includes anything else, that line is held — no exceptions.
We will play with respect, with care, and with the assumption that everyone at the table wants the campaign to go well.
Practical details
Format. Online. Foundry VTT for the visual layer; voice chat (Discord) for talking. Webcams encouraged but not required.
Session length. ~3 hours, including a short break.
System. D&D 5E 2024 (PHB). The campaign uses the standard ruleset with light homebrew additions for crafting, ship-mechanics, crew-positions, and reputation.
Software you’ll need. A Foundry VTT account — the GM provides access to the campaign world. A Discord account for voice. A 2024 PHB (digital or physical) is recommended; you can borrow if needed.
Group size. 4 PCs.
Schedule and current openings. Contact the GM for current schedule and slot availability.
What you bring to the table
- Willingness to engage with a long campaign with the same group of people for two to three years
- About an hour of pre-Session-0 reading — the player-guide and a couple of lore-pages of your choice. Nothing is required, but reading saves time at the table
- A character built for a crew — no lone wolves, no characters who would walk off the ship in Act I. Your PC has a reason to be aboard and a reason to stay
- Showing up — for sessions, for each other, for the story
You do not need to be a rules expert. You do not need a fully-written backstory before Session 0; we build that together. You do need curiosity, and the patience for a campaign that will, by design, take its time.
Next steps
If you are interested:
- Read the player guide and character creation in the player section. These cover what to expect at Session 0 and how to build a PC for this world
- Browse the public lore — start with the world-overview, the pantheon of seven, and one or two of the geography-pages. Whatever catches your eye
- Contact the GM to discuss whether the campaign is a good fit for you and to confirm slot availability
If you are just curious — welcome. The lore-pages are open. Read what you like. The world is, in a quiet way, glad you are looking at it.
See you above the mist.