ST Spotlight: La Notte Eterna

We often talk about how the campaigns and storylines we create (like The Black Ballad) are compatible with other game systems. Let’s showcase how. I present to you a high-fantasy setting created by Jason R. Forbus called La Notte Eterna, a wickedly beautiful setting with amazing artwork that caught my attention by scrolling through Instagram. One deep-dive into their Kickstarter later and I was already picking up hardcovers and imagining running our Black Ballad with La Notte Eterna as the main material plane.

Campaigns and storylines can be effortlessly interwoven, and I passionately believe all storytellers can benefit from plucking their favorite elements from different game lines. Occasionally, the perfect setting material crosses paths with the perfect campaign, and it’s a match akin to peanut butter and chocolate.

So, what is La Notte Eterna, and why am I about to geek about it? Let’s find out.

The cover hooked me alone…but I also think that orc just needs a hug.

"Heaven will shed tears of blood on the eternal darkness. Angels will fall to the earth, mortals will drink the blood of their kin."

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"Heaven will shed tears of blood on the eternal darkness. Angels will fall to the earth, mortals will drink the blood of their kin." 〰️

The Lore:

La Notte Eterna is a world where the sun no longer rises. All living (and undead) creatures have long since adapted or succumbed to eternal darkness. Mortal races put aside their ancient differences to forge alliances against new threats—nocturnal creatures and undead who benefit the most from a world of perpetual night. Meanwhile, the gods continue fighting their Celestial War, and their powerful blows send artifacts, angels, and demons crashing down into the material plane.

Adventurers travel this perilous material world and commit their entire lives in search of these “meteors” that fall from the heavens. They travel lands fighting horrors found at the edges of one’s imagination and often uncover tales of unsung heroes from an old world overturned by the current catastrophe. These adventurers have the opportunity to use Sphere Magic in order to summon these forgotten heroes to fight alongside them. With enough experience, they might find the secrets of True Magic and speak the very language of the gods themselves to bend reality around them.

Their allegiance and devotion to a god will confer upon them blessings and miracles and, for a select few… transform them into a living avatar.

The Hook

Just off that lore alone, I knew instantly I could tell the entirety of The Black Ballad using La Notte as my material plane. The Black Ballad is set entirely in the afterlife, in the setting of the Sunless Crossing. The characters and players in our campaign—are all dead (mostly). As we’ve begun advertising for our own crowdfunding, we lean heavily into the “You died. Now what?” element for our setting. Yet only our trailer talks about the storyline. The Sunless Crossing, once a sacred place for the souls of the dead to pass through, becomes violated by the bloodshed and brutality of the material planes as their holy wars spill over into the afterlife.

I can already paint the picture in my mind: Gods in La Notte fight and wage their war, the sun grows dark, and their battle spills over into the material plane. Warlocks and Clerics battle for prized divine possessions until hatred stews enough, and a holy war sends the Accursed Guard crashing down into Nox Valar. Throughout the events of The Black Ballad, players will have the opportunity to visit the material plane multiple times…and this is one example of a perfect world for it.

It also highlights how we write our campaigns to plug into other worlds. By focusing on the story and a self-contained setting, we allow other elements of the world that we aren’t focused on to be filled in by different creators!

If you are interested in learning more about La Notte Eterna, you can browse their Kickstarter Page here! They are currently funding at the time this blog post was written. Our Black Ballad will be live on March 7th, and you can find that link here!

Featured Image Credits: La Notte Eterna