Everything is New.

It’s 1365. There are living beasts who remember the birth of our world thirteen centuries ago. On that first day, the Beast Mother Pirhoua chose a menagerie of her favorite animals. We stood up, and she showed us the horizon. In the centuries following, we built cities and societies spanning our world and beyond. We formed homelands, five broad cultural and geographical identities. Then, our young reality’s rulebook was rewritten. 

In 1350, we repelled a human army’s invasion. Humans were curious creatures from a parallel world we didn’t know existed. The war surprised us, and a grueling conflict followed. After three years of occupation, we pulled freedom from the precipice of defeat. The Invader War redefined our world, but change was just beginning. 

Victory solved the beasts’ plight, but defeat left humanity with theirs. Millions of desperate humans were still trapped in their Broken World. Fallow soil would starve most and thin air would suffocate the rest. We learned that their invasion was motivated by a catastrophe threatening their existence. 

We learned that sometimes, forgiveness requires deliberate effort. Despite their crimes, we looked to the future and prepared to accept humans into our world. No longer as invaders, but as brethren. We declared our forgiveness and pleaded with our goddess to help rescue our enemy. 

Pirhoua performed her second great miracle: the Pilgrimage of humans. In an instant, millions were swept from the final closing of death’s jaws. Humans were here to stay. The Pilgrimage redefined our world again, but more change came with it. 

The Pilgrimage rescued the brethren, but something else came along. An entity spread out underneath the world: the Dungeon. Its mysterious power manifests labyrinths and ruins, monsters and traps, and other bizarre challenges. 

Invasion transformed the world. The Pilgrimage transformed it again. Now, the Dungeon is transforming it once more. Heroic beasts and brethren take up arms to chase it away wherever it may appear. More bold adventurers join the cause every day to win the unimaginable riches waiting in the Dungeon’s belly. The Delve has begun. 

Delvers fascinate us with their eccentric lifestyle. Post-war reconstruction is complete, and the homelands are flourishing! Pestering dungeons need constant and diligent attention, but things have never looked brighter. 

We write our history today, at this crossroad. We don’t live in the shadow of ancient traditions and millennia-old prophecies. The future is open. Our everyday stories will become the legends that inspire future people. Today’s Beast World is the setting.