In addition to working on the rules for Wardens of the Blue Rose as adapted from the SAGE System (but with many other elements, especially for story generation) we’re taking a new look at Aldis itself. You might have noted a hint of it when we called it the “Commonwealth” for the first time.

Aldis and its world, Aldea, are over 20 years old, and haven’t been updated in a decade. There are a number of areas where we think, at least for Wardens of the Blue Rose, it’s time to evolve things a bit. But don’t fear! No Time of Troubles, Judgment, or Other Epic Event will happen. But here’s what’s going to happen:

Name Shifts: We’re going to rename a few things for clarity and atmosphere. Aldis has a whole lot of things called “councils,” for example, and a few places with unnecessarily gendered language. Note that no actual name changes have happened in Aldis! Instead, we’ve retranslated the original Aldin for clarity. 

Aldis Is Not a Park: There’s a tendency to look at Aldis as a sort of golf course of a country with the odd problem spot, but the original intention was to emphasize that it makes up the former heartland of a Shadow-haunted technomagical empire. The Blue Rose setting isn’t just post-apocalyptic in the Shadow Barrens. Yet this is not Blue Rose 40K (but imagine, eh?); people live, love, thrive, and build better ways of living. For three centuries, they’ve turned ruins into homes.

Aidis Is Not Utopia: In the present time, in our real world, it’s relevant to remember that Aldis isn’t shallow liberal fantasy wish fulfillment where some magic doohickies keep people honest. Aldis is the state created by the winners of a revolutionary war against a literally soul-destroying enemy, and even while they shook off the blood and ash of their accomplishments, they were determined to never let the Shadow reign again. 300 years later, with the obvious remnants of the enemy in remote Kern, debates have arisen about what it means to be on guard against Shadow. Should adepts bear a special burden? What exactly might risk the rise of a new Shadow power? Aldins aren’t paranoid, but they’re the children of the Great Rebellion, and will never forget it. 

Aldis Is Magical! Aldea is a world of spirits and arcana phenomena, of lost magic and dangerous secrets, sorcery, and Shadow. I want to make the “metaphysics” a bit more flavorful and cohesive without eliminating too much mystery.

General Updates: We’ve wanted to make some definitive changes to the Roamers, Night People, Vata, and other places where developers have long wanted to make some changes but didn’t want to be overly disruptive.

So, it’s not going to be much in the way of factual changes, but more in presentation. However, keep in mind that Wardens of the Blue Rose is a compact book, so this stuff will be described concisely compared to classic Blue Rose. For an epic treatment of Aldis, see the current AGE edition of Blue Rose, or think upon the possibility of games to come . . . .

Malcolm Sheppard, SAGE Developer