What Do You Want To See Next in "Sundara: Dawn of a New Age"?

Regular readers know that since 2021 I've been releasing content for my own fantasy RPG setting Sundara: Dawn of a New Age. This setting is available both for Pathfinder Classic, as well as for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, and my goal with it was to upend a lot of the old stereotypes and conventions that come with fantasy RPGs, but without throwing the baby out with the bath water.

While I covered some of this in my blog What is "Sundara: Dawn of a New Age" All About?, the short version is that I wanted to make a game setting that tossed out monolithic aspects by adding more organic details, and which focused more on embracing new solutions and ways of doing things instead of feeling like it was constantly trying to re-capture some lost, mythic golden age.

Some of the things I've already done include:

- Removing alignment entirely.

- Making the gods more mysterious, and variable.

- Expanded non-human species so they are just as (if not more) varied than humans.

- Removed the concept of countries as we know them today, making power structures more varied.

- Added a bunch of weird guilds, technologies, and uses of magic across the setting.

Stuff is getting strange as the setting spreads out.

While I have plenty of ideas that I could spin up going forward, I wanted to take this week's Monday update to ask what you, the readers, would like to see?

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What Would Get You More Interested in The Setting?

When I started this series off it began with Cities of Sundara, providing guides for places like Ironfire: City of Steel and Moüd: City of Bones. After I'd established several of these locations I put out a guide to how gods and the divine work in the setting (which is a lot less structured and established than in many other settings I've seen, where the mythology we hear is often taken as fact), and then moved on to Species of Sundara where I laid out broader diasporas and cultures for dwarves, elves, gnomes, halflings, orcs, and the Blooded (a combination of so-called half-elves and half-orcs). The most recent release, Sellswords of Sundara, covered famous and infamous mercenary companies, and soon there will be a collection of 10 towns with full details.

My question for you, as a Game Master or a player, is what would you be interested in seeing more of going forward? Not just in a, "This would be neat," sense, but in a, "I would pay money to support that," sense.

It's what makes the wheels turn, after all.

Current possible plans include:

- Expansion of locations in the setting (more town and city guides).

- Expansion of species guides (with more creatures and unique player options for them).

- Campaign modules (so players could actually explore some of the setting in more detail).

- World detail guides (moving on from mercenaries to guilds, cults, and other organizations).

While these aren't the only options, there are two projects that are not currently on the roster, and that's releasing a full-sized setting guide, and releasing a full pre-written campaign. The big reason for this is not because I wouldn't be interested in these things, but because this is a one-man show, and those kinds of projects take a lot of time to put together. So, generally speaking, anything that can't be completed in 1-2 months isn't feasible with the audience size Sundara currently commands. If audience demand grows then those things might be possible down the line, but not for the immediate future.

Which is, incidentally, the main reason so much of this content is designed to slot into homebrew games as well. Because if you just want one or two aspects, you can pluck them out of the setting without requiring a bunch of strings to come with it.

Well, most of the time, at least.

Also, for added clarity, I am not the publisher for this setting. I'm just the writer; Azukail Games is the one who's putting out all these splats. So I'm not just asking you what folks would like to see going forward because I want to sell more copies (though that is part of it). It's also because I need to be able to show growing interest in the setting, and to create a track record of positive sales, in order to get further books approved for writing and release.

So tell me what you want to see! Leave a comment below, or reach out to me on social media, but my ears are open for what would get more folks interested in checking out this setting as I add on to it.

Lastly, if you're not familiar with the releases to-date, I've linked them all below with a general description for you. And if you do choose to check them out, I hope they surpass expectation! Don't forget to stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, as well, where I have several videos talking about Sundara, the philosophy behind it, and covering some of what I'm trying to do with this particular world. Consider subscribing, as well, as we need to hit 1k followers there, and we haven't even broken 300 yet.

Take a Look For Yourself!

I took a brief break on making new Sundara content at the start of the year, but I'm already back on the wagon! Sellswords of Sundara (available for Pathfinder Classic as well as DND 5E) is full of unique archetypes/subclasses for mercenary companies that come with their own themes, histories, NPCs, rumors, and more, and that should be coming out shortly. Coming soon you'll also have Towns of Sundara, so that folks have some smaller places to put between the cities that are just as interesting and unique in their own ways (and which acts as a good follow up to 10 Fantasy Villages, which kicked this whole project off in the first place).

Cities of Sundara

The setting first began with the Cities of Sundara splats. Self-contained guides to some of the larger and more powerful centers of trade, industry, arms, and magic, these unique locations provide plenty of fodder for character generation and plots. Not only that, but each one comes with unique, mechanical goodies for players and GMs alike to take out for a spin!

- Ironfire: The City of Steel (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Built around the Dragon Forge, Ironfire is where the secret to dragon steel was first cracked. The center of the mercenary trade in the region, as well as boasting some of the finest schools for teaching practical sciences, Ironfire is a place where discovery and danger walk hand in hand!

- Moüd: The City of Bones (Pathfinder and DND 5E): An ancient center of trade and magic, Moüd was lost to a cataclysm, and then buried in myth. Reclaimed by the necromantic arts of the Silver Wraiths guild, this city has once again become a place teeming with life. Despite the burgeoning population, though, it is the continued presence of the undead that helps keep the city running, ensuring that Moüd is not swallowed up once more.

- Silkgift: The City of Sails (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Built on the cottage industry of Archer cloth (an extremely durable material used for sails, windmills, etc.), Silkgift is a place that prizes invention and discovery. From gravity batteries that store the potential of the wind, to unique irrigation systems, to aether weapons, the city positively churns out discoveries... and then there's the canal they cut through the mountains that makes them a major center of trade across the region.

- Hoardreach: The City of Wyrms (Pathfinder and DND 5E): A center of power across an entire region, Hoardreach is ruled over by a Cooperation of five different dragons. A place for refugees and outcasts of all sorts, Hoardreach boasts some of the most unusual citizens and creations from across Sundara. Infamous for their sky ships, which require the cast-off scales and unique arcane sciences of the Dragon Works to take to the air, one never knows just what they'll find in this city built atop a mountain.

- Archbliss: The City of The Sorcerers (Pathfinder and DND 5E): A floating city in the sky, Archbliss has been a refuge for sorcerers for thousands of years. It's only in relatively recent years that the city has allowed those from the ground below who lack the power of a bloodline to join them in the clouds. However, while there are certainly amazing wonders to behold, there is a darkness in Archbliss. Something rotting away at its heart that could, if not healed, bring the city crashing to the ground once more.

Gods of Sundara

- Gods of Sundara (available for Pathfinder and DND 5E): In a world with no alignment, and where the gods are often genuinely mysterious forces that are far too large for mortals to truly comprehend, the divine feels genuinely strange and unknown... something that really does have to be taken on faith. This supplement provides a sample pantheon for Sundara, but also provides instructions on how to easily make your own gods in a world where you can't cast a spell and tell whether someone is good or evil.

Species of Sundara

Sundara is filled with creatures that many of us recognize, but I wanted to give greater depth to their cultures, and a wider variety of options. After all, humans always get 15+ ethnicities, languages, and unique histories, while elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, etc. are almost always left with footnotes, or maybe with a handful of offshoots. So, in short, I wanted to give all the fantastical creatures the treatment that humans usually get in our games.

And there is no human book yet. If readers demand to know more, then I may sit down to pen one... but I figured that humans didn't need to be front-and-center in this setting just yet.

- Elves of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Elves are one of the most quintessential fantasy creatures... but if you want to see more than just high elves, wood elves, and elves of the sun and moon, then this supplement has you covered!

- Dwarves of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): The children of the primordial giants who were meant to fill in the details of the world they'd made (or so the myths say) there are as many kinds of dwarves as their are kinds of giants... and possibly more, depending on who is keeping count.

- Orcs of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Supposedly a creation of the elves, none can say for certain exactly how or why orcs have been made. What most agree on is that these creatures are far more than most may think at first glance.

- Halflings of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Little cousins to the dwarves, halflings are tough, clever, and not to be underestimated. From living beneath the hills, to taking up residence in the deep forests, halflings in Sundara come in quite a variety!

- The Blooded (Half-Elves and Half-Orcs) [Pathfinder and DND 5E]: When orcs and elves mix their bloodlines with other creatures, the result is one of the Blooded. This inheritance takes many forms, and it can even wait generations before manifesting when the right combination of individuals come together to have a child.

- Gnomes of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Gnomes are strange creatures, found in places where the spirit of the land has coalesced and made children of its own. The sons and daughters of the ancient nymphs, they are the stewards of these places, and they change as often as the weather and the land.

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