"Before the first cleric lifted a holy symbol, before the first wizard penned a scroll, they were already here, gathering in moonlight."
- From the Journal of Larina Nix
A lot of what goes into the assumptions of D&D, or really any fantasy RPG, is that there were once glorious empires (or terrible ones), long before the current age. Civilizations rose, ruled, and collapsed. Names were lost. Gods were forgotten. Ruins now dot the land like scars on old skin. And the heroes of today walk through the bones of that forgotten world, looting what little wisdom and gold remains.
It’s a familiar formula. And it works. Even the Greeks did it with the Egyptians, and that’s where some of the myth of Atlantis comes from, trying to make sense of a culture already ancient when theirs was young.
We build that same idea into our games.
Why does this dungeon have magic no wizard understands? Why is this sword sealed behind twelve runes in a language no one speaks? Why are there pyramids on this island when no one remembers building them?
Because something came before.
And whatever it was, it was older, deeper, and probably stranger.
But for me, “Ancient” doesn’t always mean “a thousand years ago.” Sometimes it means before memory. Before civilization. Before the gods got organized.
When Larina speaks of “they,” she means the ones who practiced the old ways before spells had names and magic had schools. The ones who made offerings in stone circles, who brewed potions by feel, who danced naked in the moonlight, not because it was part of a ritual, but because that was the ritual.
They didn’t even call themselves witches. They didn’t call themselves anything. They were simply those who knew.
And sometimes… still do.
That’s one of the things I love about Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age.
It flips the paradigm. The world isn’t ancient yet, but you’re playing in the mythic past that future bards will whisper about. You are the ancients, carving out the foundations of legend. The ruined towers in your 5e game? Yeah, maybe your hero built one of those. Or destroyed it. Or died there.
There’s a strange beauty to playing in the age before the age. You’re not unearthing forgotten relics, you’re making them.
And for witches, who remember too much and live too long, every new age is just another layer of dust on a story that began long before gods had names.
How. Contemplative. Character.
I often will contemplate what a bit of writing means from the point of view of the characters, or a specific character. With the quote above, I often view my witch writing from the point of view of the witches in the game. Like Larina or Emse or Amaranth. When doing my Forgotten Realms reviews I'll often take the point of view of the characters in that. Moria, Jaromir, or Sinéad.
It helps me get immersed in what the world looks like to those in it.
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