Historica Arcanum - Empires of the Silk Road Intro

The Silk Road has been the heart of civilization for over two millennia. Never in world history has humankind had such an important network (until perhaps the internet) that connected not only goods but also facilitated the exchange of ideas, religions, technologies, and cultures among the peoples of the world. With gold, silver, and silk flowing through the veins of the Road, merchants and philosophers - not warlords - were perhaps for the very first time the movers and shakers of society.

Yet with such importance, material wealth, and intellectual prosperity came envy and enmity. In the 13th century, when this book is set, the Silk Road is coveted by the rising and ruthless Khanate in the North, descending to the lands below under the Banner of the Eternal Blue Sky. To the West, the then-impoverished Western Crusader Kings have claimed swathes of lands and eye the East. Stuck in the middle of the collapsing worlds, the Sultanate desperately holds onto the throne of Persia - that they themselves took by force a few centuries ago.

Materials Required: Writing utensil and polyhedral (D&D) dice.