# THE BLADE AND PEN

*A Biography of a World*

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Cartographers still have not been able to accurately map the shores of Panyara. No one knows where the sea ends and where the forest begins anymore — because neither of them stands still as before.

Once upon a time, the world was simple, or so it was thought. The soldier carrying the sword, the peasant ploughing the land, the beast howling in the depths of the forest — each knew his own place. Then Abırt came and burned all the rules about what meat could be. One morning, a farmer's child woke up to find a piece of skin shaped like a membrane between his fingers. A soldier's spine stiffened throughout the night, his bones ached, and by morning he had a stiff hand. Some called it a gift, some a curse, and some a weapon—and as soon as they got their hands on it, they began to conquer the world anew.

Yalanorsis bursts out under the ground, like an old voice asking where death ends and life begins. The Empire of Drudgery, on the other hand, is waiting for its resentment; because according to them, this changing world is imperfect, and everything that is imperfect must be corrected. The problem is that the ancient peoples of Panyara never wanted to be corrected.

Ngawhenu's lineage has completely forgotten the boundary between the human body and the island land — Where one ends and the other begins no longer concerns anyone. The people of Urtik are much older than the names the Empire has given them, and they have no intention of bearing this name. Wuro leaves the most difficult question on the table: If the person in front of you thinks as much as you do, suffers as much as you do, can choose his own path as you do, will you think one more time before you turn your anger towards him?

The Empire does not always give the same answer to this question. Neither do the people. Nor will you.

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## THEN YOU WILL COME

Perhaps you are a master craftsman, perhaps you are a scholar who emerged from the depths of a dusty library. Maybe it's a deserting soldier, a nobleman who has escaped from the palace, or just a passenger who happened to have the wrong night at the wrong inn.

When creating your character, you don't just choose who they are – you also choose why they're still standing. But you do not decide what will happen on your path; the Lord of the World determines it. You roll the dice, you draw your sword, you knock on the door – and the world gives you its own answer.

Change is not a single thing here. It's not just big, it's not just a disease. Sometimes a person's throat becomes sore, and they consider this a sign of salvation. Sometimes a body's flesh, bone, a mold that Nature has never tried before is transformed and its neighbors no longer call it human. And sometimes the deepest change is not in the flesh—it occurs in the way a man looks at his neighbor, a soldier looks at his enemy.

You can choose to side with the change. You can shape it with your own hand, with your own craft. Or you can swear to cut him off from the neck. You don't have to stand on one side — maybe when you consider one transformation sacred, you will be disgusted by another, maybe when you defend freedom, you will want some doors to remain locked all the time. And one night, at the beginning of the fire, you will realize this: the line between changing something and destroying it is thin in its sharpness.

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## WHERE IS THE BLADE AND PEN?

A tabletop role-playing game set in the world of winter, bigness, changing flesh and crumbling Empires. You concentrate your character with your own hands; wander through battlefields, palaces full of intrigue, forgotten forests and strange roads opened by ABYURT. Some peoples draw their weapons against you, others shake your hand – no one can decide in advance which is which.

The Master of the World establishes this world. You live in it. But no blueprint is as solid as the dice that people around the table will roll. You can keep an EMPIRE afloat, you can see a people under the ground, you can witness the first breath of a new species or you can spend all night trying to return a worked-up October to its true owner.

The pen is still in his hand. But remember: every pen has a shadow, and that shadow knows how to be a friend when needed.

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**THE BLADE AND PEN**

*Changing the world is easy. The real question is what will survive after the change.*