“Evil turned out not to be a grand thing. Not sneering Emperors with their world-conquering designs. Not cackling demons plotting in the darkness beyond the world. It was small men with their small acts and their small reasons. It was selfishness and carelessness and waste. It was bad luck, incompetence, and stupidity. It was violence divorced from conscience or consequence. It was high ideals, even, and low methods.”
First Law is set in the Circle of the World created by Joe Abercrombie. A world where ancient magic has dwindled and become rare, the stuff of folk tales and legends. Despite superstitions, people are not truly worried about demon lords and necromancers. Most people will not see any magic or non-human beings during their entire lifetime. The struggle against evil is much more mundane: pettiness, greed, violence and power abuse of their fellow men is what makes life miserable. There are no monsters other than that depraved thug down the street or those brutish bandits … although the Northmen might tell you different things. The Order of the Magi is nothing but a tall tale, the witch burned on last week's fair was probably just a poisoner… or was she?
The genre could be best described as gritty, low-level Fantasy Noir. Although there are heroic actions and sometimes acts, there are no real heroes. Besides, any hero is someone's villain anyway, right? Yet, there are those who try their best against a harsh and careless world. Your characters might be those individuals, but the best intentions sometimes do the worst harm.
“Honour, eh? What the hell is that anyway? Every man thinks it's something different. You can't drink it. You can't fuck it. The more of it you have the less good it does you, and if you've got none at all you don't miss it.”
Anyway, your charakters are the protagonists of their story, and protagonists are trouble magnets. The average man might not see magic, flatheads, or even a demon during his whole lifetime, but your characters probably will get more of their share than they might care for….
"Every man has his excuses, and the more vile the man becomes, the more touching the story has to be. What is my story now, I wonder?”
Although quite complete First Law RPG still is in working progress, so there will by typos and wrong references...