I thought this was common understanding ... that it was pretty obvious it was meant to be a fictional history of the world "before the Egyptians/Sumerians" type of deal. The elves left, the hobbits died off, and all that's left are Men who backslid to cavepeople and had to work their asses back up alone. Or something along those lines.
Earthdawn had a similar concept ( there's a magical field that waxes and wanes, and when it's at its strongest, the world is a nightmare shithole of reality-bending Horrors, best left forgotten, but causing civilization to reset in the aftermath. And then Shadowrun happens when the field starts up again in the modern age (I think the first elves and orcs are supposed to have been born in the 2000s, originally.)
yah! Didn't humanity (or whatever, sentient races) have to go to ground / sleep during the shithole years in Earthdawn? Like massive underground civilizations to wait out the demons? I don't remember much from playing that in the 90's, but I do remember my fighter gliding around like he had rollerblades (but magic or skill or something) in fights.
Massive underground cities, yes. Our GM put us further in the past than the book suggests; we were one of the forward parties from a major underground settlement looking to see if anyone else opened their doors yet; he ran it as kind of a creepy-as-shit horror game.
The magic was way OP, the Step system of scaling was nuts. But at least it did come with a Strain mechanic.
I thought this was common understanding ... that it was pretty obvious it was meant to be a fictional history of the world "before the Egyptians/Sumerians" type of deal. The elves left, the hobbits died off, and all that's left are Men who backslid to cavepeople and had to work their asses back up alone. Or something along those lines.
Earthdawn had a similar concept ( there's a magical field that waxes and wanes, and when it's at its strongest, the world is a nightmare shithole of reality-bending Horrors, best left forgotten, but causing civilization to reset in the aftermath. And then Shadowrun happens when the field starts up again in the modern age (I think the first elves and orcs are supposed to have been born in the 2000s, originally.)
yah! Didn't humanity (or whatever, sentient races) have to go to ground / sleep during the shithole years in Earthdawn? Like massive underground civilizations to wait out the demons? I don't remember much from playing that in the 90's, but I do remember my fighter gliding around like he had rollerblades (but magic or skill or something) in fights.
Massive underground cities, yes. Our GM put us further in the past than the book suggests; we were one of the forward parties from a major underground settlement looking to see if anyone else opened their doors yet; he ran it as kind of a creepy-as-shit horror game.
The magic was way OP, the Step system of scaling was nuts. But at least it did come with a Strain mechanic.