History Main / Eon

* ''Literature/{{Eon}}'', the first novel in Creator/GregBear's ''Literature/TheWaySeries''.

* ''Literature/{{Eon}}'', the first novel in Creator/GregBear's ''TheWaySeries''.

[[redirect:TabletopGame/{{Eon}}]]

[[re*direct:TabletopGame/{{Eon}}]]

Eon is a Swedish Fantasy RPG set in what is essentially a StandardFantasySetting, but with a surprising amount of nuances. Every race, nation, and individual described has a perfectly reasonable explanation for what they do, and no-one is ever in it ForTheEvulz. There is no good or evil, [[GreyAndGreyMorality there are just sides]]. Unlike DungeonsAndDragons Eon relies heavily on world description and story hooks rather than rule expansions, and there are very little "crunch" in all but the core books. This has over the years resulted in a ''very'' detailed and complex setting that can't quite decide whether it wants to be DownToEarth or HighFantasy; in practice, it's a mix of both, somewhat like {{A Song of Ice And Fire}}. The rules are vaguely [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Role-Playing BRP-based]] and very detailed and gritty with a lot of bookkeeping, and a common complaint is that combat resolution takes too much time, although later editions has made the rules much more stream-lined and introduced various options for simplifying stuff. An unusual feature is the "scientific" system for how magic works, with the rules corresponding closely to a broad range of "magic theories" in the intellectual traditions of the gaming world. The rules in particular make Eon somewhat like a hot potato on the Swedish gaming scene; it's a love-or-hate thing.

For Greg Bear's novel ''Eon'', see TheWaySeries.

Eon shows examples of:

* AbusivePrecursors: The Kamorfs, a race of über-intelligent LizardFolk.
* AllGenesAreCoDominant: Averted in the case of half elves. Humans and elves are the only main races who can get offspring together. The main difference between elves and humans is the elvish curse and a half human child has exactly 50% chance to inherit the curse, making it elvish, or not, making it human.
* AllTrollsAreDifferent
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Averted; capital-E "Evil" does not exist in Eon.
* AncientConspiracy: "The Society", "The Order of the Star", "The Path of Illumination", "Priori con Sabriean", "The Council of the Lily" and many, many more.
* AnyoneCanDie: The rules for pain and injuries are, generally, very unforgiving. Eon uses a system of "unlimited dice" where any roll of a 6 is rerolled with two new dice which may in turn be sixes and thus rerolled with two new dice each, which makes certain that even dragons may die from a single wounding hit, although it is ''extremely'' unlikely. (It has reportedly occurred at least once in the game's existence).
** A note here, the "6" doesn't STAY a six, it's converted to two new dice, so you don't easily get numbers in their hundreds even with dozens of'em.
* AStormIsComing: [[spoiler:Very much so. In Eon, civilization exists in cycles of 10,000 years, whereupon {{The End of The World As We Know It}} occurs by way of demon invasion. The game starts in the year...10000.]]
* AutomaticCrossbows: The Dwarves have semi-automatic versions of these.
* BarbarianTribe: The Kragg, the Rauns, the Tiraks and many others.
** In the case of the Tiraks, only the Frakk are really true barbarians. The Marnakh live and work in human cities, and the Bazirk are generally out at sea most of the time. Sure, some Bazirk might settle down and start tribes on the island of Takalorr, but for the most part they're just merchants, fishermen and pirates.
* BoxedCrook / YouAllMeetInACell: The beginning of the adventure [[spoiler:De Fördömdas Sista Hopp.]]
* TheButcher: The former Grand Prince of Damaria Pelgrin the Butcher and his son, Pelgrin son of the Butcher.
* ChurchMilitant: The church of Daak has multiple orders of WarriorMonks and Crusader Knights. The Samori faith has the Order of Zorián. The temples of Cirza and Imay both have special temple warriors.
* CivilizedAnimal: The Ulvs are a race of [[BigBadassWolf direwolves]] who differs from regular wolves by their [[AnimalsNotToScale huge size]], intellegence and possesion of a soul. Their mentallity and culture is stil rather wolf-like.
* ContemptibleCover / LadyNotAppearingInThisGame: "De Fördömdas Sista Hopp".
* CoversAlwaysLie: Well, not always. But in many of the earlier modules the covers featured fantasy art not specifically drawn for the modules in question, such as covers made by Keith Parkinson for TheElenium. Even if they are not directly irrelevant or contradictory to the material in the books, you occasionally need some imagination to make them fit the text within.
* CursedWithAwesome: The elves call themselves "the people of the curse", which refer to the magical effect that all elves have that differentiate them from humans. The curse grants them longer lifespans, the ability to sense if someone is watching them and to stop their own bleeding if they get hurt. However, the fact that elves starts to experience the passing of time more and more intensely as they grow older and usually become clinically depressed and catatonic sometime around 200 to 300 years of age explain why they consider this to be a curse.
** [[InformedFlaw Wait, it's a curse because they might get sad about their long lives after a mere 3-5 times a huan's lifespan, and then commit suicide with no other ill effects?]] [[SarcasmMode Those poor, tragic figures.]]
* CrystalDragonJesus: The Daak faith and to a more limited degree, the Samorian faith.
** The Mhîm's law religion could be seen as a Crystal Dragon Allah, but the similarities between the religion and Islam is almost completely "cosmetic", it's theology almost being closer to certain forms of Hinduism.
* CuteMonsterGirl: Female gûrds (the smallest race of tiraks) have claws, [[CuteLittleFangs fangs]] and some fur but are considered a lot more attractive and intelligent than other tiraks or male gûrds by humans.
* DarkestAfrica: Notably averted; there are highly civilized black cultures in Eon, who even send missionaries to the whiteys.
* DeadlyDecadentCourt: Many of them, but the imperial court of Jargia and the court of the notoriously paranoid Grand Prince Thamas of Damaria stands out.
* DragonRider: Some elves and humans ride the relatively small and unintelligent Heavé-dragons. Then there are the immortal Dragonguardians, who are soul-bound to a true dragon that they occasionally ride.
* DreamLand
* DreamWithinADream:[[spoiler:Ultimately, the universe exists entirely inside the dreams of Aeon, the Enity of Time. If he were to ever wake up then everything, including Aeon, would cease to be.]]
* DungeonCrawling: The system does not really favor it, but many of the official adventures include at least some elements of this.
* EldritchAbomination: Many demons and creatures from the Abyss.
* EldritchLocation: The Shadowland, the surreal home of the FairFolk that might be located somewhere between the real world and the world of dreams.
* ElvesVsDwarves: In this case, it is explained by the fact that the elves and dwarfs have fought five highly destructive "great wars" against one another. According to legend, the first one ironically started when the dwarfs accidentally made a terrible diplomatic faux paus that the elves wrongfully interpreted as a declaration of war.
** And the conflict is easily fueled by the extreme differences in mentality and culture. The elf greets a visitor with "Welcome beloved stranger, what brings you to our humble city?" while a dwarf, even a sensitive one, rarely welcomes a visitor with more than "What do you want?", so they both have their issues.
* FaceFullOfAlienWingWong: The basilisk reproduces by turning other creatures into stone, laying an egg in the petrified persons mouth and then remove the petrification. Later on the baby basilisk emerges from the stomach of the host as a ChestBurster.
** This is also the case with the Satyrs and the [[ALoadOfBull Minotaurs]], two examples of [[OneGenderRace all-male races]], who can only reproduce with other humanoids.
** Some [[HornyDevils Demons]] and Shadowcreatures can breed with humanoids, creating a HalfHumanHybrid (who usually end up mostly human).
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Obvious in many cases, but others less so:
** Tokon = Scotland/Ireland
** Consaber = England/France
** The Jargian Empire = Roman/Byzantine empire
** Rauns = Mongolians/Huns
** Damaria = Romania/the Balkans
** Soldarn = Scandinavia in many aspects (the politics in particular)
** Mûhad = Arabia/Persia
** Veddo = Yupik/Inuits
** Ausians = Nomadic Native Americans
* FunctionalMagic: Taken to a mechanical extreme; magic is ingrained into the physics of the world, and is treated the same as the real world treats, well, science.
* GiantSpider: There is a number of subspecies.
* GrailInTheGarbage: In the Drakväktar- trilogy of novels, a cutscene shows how the highly sought after artifact [[spoiler: The Imperial Staff of the Colonian Empire]] currently lies on a beech, were it has become a plaything of some local children who completely fail to realise it's value.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: And HOW! Gods exist, but are not measured by "alignment", instead different religions have different teachings, often seen as wrong and evil by the followers of other faiths, and judgment is based on that. Not even most demon- or death worshiping cults consider themselves bad people, it's the "good guys" that are wrong.
* GrievousHarmWithABody: One of the improvised weapons that have been given stats are Gûrds, a smaller species of Tirak. However, they are very heavy and don't do much damage, making them pretty useless weapons.
* TheGrimReaper: Dibuk, the god of death is often depicted like this. He even carries a SinisterScythe and likes to [[ChessWithDeath play games]] with his intended victims.
* HiddenElfVillage: Some of the more isolationist Elves and Dwarfs. Also, the empire of Menon-Aun.
* HitPoints: A rather unorthodox version. Pain, physical trauma, blood loss and rate of bleeding are tracked separately, as is exhaustion. Only physical trauma and blood loss can outright kill you, though, and you don't die "at zero hit points", but instead begin making saving throws vs. death after the damage reaches a certain threshold. The rules concerning broken bones, dismemberment etc. also don't factor in the hit points of the target, beyond the penalties it takes to saving throws. This can, naturally, get [[ForMassiveDamage messy]].
* HiveMind: [[spoiler:The god Xinu has multiple avatars in different parts of the world who are all part of him.]]
* {{Hobbits}}: The Misslas are the settings stand ins for hobbits. The main differences between them and Tolkien's halflings lies in their slightly "elfish" looks and incredibly cheerful personality.
* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: The Black Forest of Kirath, The Coast of Shipwrecks, the Dead Forest and others.
* KungFuWizard: The monks of Sung.
* LadyLand: Momolan and, to a more limited extent, the Tiraks.
* LivingShadow: There are both demonic and undead creatures that looks like this.
* LizardFolk: The Kamorfs and... well, the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Lizard Folk]].
* LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces: Eight kinds of human, six kinds of [[OurElvesAreBetter elf]], four kinds of [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame dwarf]], NINE kinds of [[OurOrcsAreDifferent tiraks]]... Justified since the different kinds are not only racial, but also cultural. For example, a human from a civilised, urban culture will have different stats from one from a civilized rural culture, who will both be entirely different from a barbarian nomad.
** Also, one could argue that compared to fantasy [=RPGs=] in general and [[DungeonsAndDragons D&D]] in particular, there are very ''few'' races in Eon, since there are ''only'' humans, elves, dwarfs, almost-orcs, and hobbit-stand-ins as playable races, not stuff like gnomes, half-elves, goblins, snake-men, etc.
*** But then again, goblins, lizardfolk, insectoids, arachnidians and even the wolf-man race of Vulfen do exist, it's just that they don't have their own books... Yet...
*** And some of the Missla variants could very well act as stand-ins for fairies. The thing with Eon is that they're trying to follow a path of what seems believable in a fantasy world, so they constantly have to dance on a thin line between having lots of fantasy elements, and still making it all fit together, so we have all these races and monsters, but they rarely meet each other (and adventurers are not common at all, it's too dangerous and boring to trek for days into uncharted wilderness for some ruins, and then just find a spider's nest because someone has already looted the place) because of the huge stretches of nothing between settlements and nations, so for most people, bestial races or even elves/misslas (they get this the most) are considered fairy tales by huge populaces.
* TheMagnificent: The mage Max Guilk who styles himself Maxander the Magnificent. [[SmallNameBigEgo He is the only one thinking so]].
* TheMagocracy: Thalamur, Ebhron and the Sanari Elves.
* ManEatingPlant / WhenTreesAttack: The Skogsrå is a malicious, soul sucking monster that looks like a tree and who has the ability to create powerful illusions to ensnare it's victims.
* MedievalStasis: Mundana suffers under a pretty extreme case of this trope. For the last 10.000 years, technology and science has moved forvard, but only from bronze-age technology to late medieval.
** There is some logic to it though, as Magic is the stand-in for this world's physics, so scientists generally focus on researching magical fields and their effects on people instead of inventing new ways to harness electricity. Unfortunate, yes, but also reasonable.
* NoWomansLand: Most human nations are male-dominated, but often less so than many real-life medieval equivalents. There are, hovever, a few extremely patriarchal societys, for example Sindarea and Miam before the Aunurian invasion. Inverted by Momolan, which runs on what is essentially gender-flipped sharia law.
* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: They are short, stocky humanoids. Both sexes are bearded and they mostly live in great underground cities were they drink a lot of beer. They are honest, honorable, industrious, grumpy and really doesn't like Elves. However, the Drezin clan are mostly known for sorcery, reclusiveness, and clandestine alliances with the Orcs. Clan Zolod are known for living above ground and trading.
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: They're subtly based on the [[AbusivePrecursors Vorlons and Shadows]] of {{Babylon 5}}, with one kind, Lumian, being benevolent and intellectual, and the other, Mortuach, chaotic and brutal, but both kinds work in their own way to salvage the world from the {{End of the World As We Know It}}.
* OurElvesAreBetter
* OurFairiesAreDifferent: The Shadowlandpeople.
* OurGnomesAreWeirder: The Tomte.
* OurOrcsAreDifferent: Very much so, the settings Orc stand-ins are the Tiraks, a race of cultured politicians and merchants mixed with fishing- or pirate villages ruled in a violent form of matriarchal democracy, combined with very primitive tribe societies working with a philosophy similar to natural selection. The entire race consisting of three separate sub-races (Gûrd, Tirak, Trukh) and three different "families" (Marnakh, Bazirk, Frakk), all having extremely different views of life and existence. Completely possible to be played as savage nobles, psychotic assassins, farmers, priests, dockworkers or traders without anyone raising an eyebrow as of why. But they do excel in warfare, however.
** It's worth noting that the basic structure of the races has more in common with the Dungeons & Dragons goblinoids than anything else, where goblins and gûrds, hobgoblins and tiraks and bugbears and trukhs correspond quite closely to one another in their societal roles and behaviour.
* OurSoulsAreDifferent: They very much obey a Cartesian model of souls, that is, most animals lack souls and only humanoids and certain other creatures such as ulvs have them. A trained medium can make her soul leave the body and try to possess other creatures or drive the soul out of another ensouled being. Without a soul, an ensouled creature die, but shamans use tame souls who temporary possess their bodies while they are away. Creatures without souls can still be intelligent and have feelings, but their personality and memories stop existing at death. When a soul leaves the body, it travels trough the plane of spirits, which is also the home of unmanifested demons, gods and ghosts.
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: The Lamias are quasi-undead and mostly female servants of the mysterious goddess called [[EldritchAbomination The Queen of the Night]], who constantly whisper in the ears of her undead followers. They create new vampires by ritually bleed the recruit to death and then feeding them the blood of other Lamias. All loyal lamias belong to one of three religious orders who worships their goddess. The non-loyalists mainly hang out in the underground desert cities of Momolan, keeping slaves and living nobles' lives.
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: They are a race of savage humanoids who can change between a human and a wolf/human hybrid form at will. Their most obvious giveaway is their inability to speak human languages.
* PettingZooPeople: The Wulfen, the LizardFolk, the Minotaurs. Arachnids and Insectoids might also count, but you most certainly don't want to pet them.
* PlanetOfHats: Used straight at first, but just as quickly subverted. The game supplies a stereotype for every nation and racial group, then goes out of it's way to provide you with exceptions.
* PuppeteerParasite: The Vrakylak.
* ReviveKillsZombie: Due to how the magic system works, healing any undead neutralizes some of it's necromantic energy, effectively damaging it.
* ShoutOut: [[BabylonFive Delenn and Kosh]] are both words in elvish, meaning ambassador and riddle, respectively.
** The most common incantation for casting a fireball is apparently "[[LordOfTheRings Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul]]."
** A common curse in Consaber is [[MontyPython "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!"]]
* TheFairFolk: The Shadowpeople
* TheVonTropeFamily: Most of the noble houses of Damaria in general and the van Culnar family in particular.
* {{Uberwald}}: Damaria has some tendencies of this, especially the countship of Culnar.
* WarriorMonk: The White Monastery, the monks of Sung and some of the orders in the Church of Daak.
* {{Whatevermancy}}: The magic system is based around 21 magical aspects, like Pyrotropy (Fire), Ataxatropy (Chaos), Heliotropy (the Sun) and Psychotropy (the Mind). There are also additional scientifically un-proven aspects like Oneirotropy (Dreams) and "anti-aspects" to some of the established ones.
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Immortality is generally seen as a pretty bad thing that slowly makes people go mad from depression and boredom. The most obvious example are the Elves, who because of their immortality call themselves "The People of the Curse". Other examples include the Lamias, Emperor Jargius and [[spoiler:Koch Katre]].
* ZombieApocalypse: The Helm massacre and the War of the Dead in Chadarian.

<<|WesternRPG|>>

** The most common incantation for casting a fireball is apparently [[LordOfTheRings Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul]].

* PuppeteerParasite: The Vrakylak

Unrelated to Greg Bear's novel ''Eon.''