Manifest

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What’s your campfire story?

Trails and crossroads.
Wings and hooves.
Whistles and Sunsets

Manifest is a mythic western setting that combines the legendary creatures of North America with a Western aesthetic and folk magics. Explore the West as never before  - calling on spirit and iron as a Duskmott, Mugwump, or any of four other Kinships.

Tell a tale as tall as a western sky.

Setting

Manifest is a world built for those who want to explore a rugged new fantasy with old western themes. Destron, the setting for Manifest, is a world teetering between an unexplored future and a brutal past. The Kinships, mortal races of Destron, are fighting for their place in a world dominated by god-like foes. From the Whistler spirits of nature to the tyrannical Host Kings, monsters wear many faces on the frontier.

Western Theme ~ Fantasy World

Manifest is a world heavily influenced by the Cryptids and Legends of the Americas, and is where their kinships (races) come from. Play as a clever Duskmott (Mothman), an unseen Mugwump (Bigfoot), a curious Hangman (Silbon), a determined Pardrin (Jersey Devil), an imperious Hokflatzul (Flatwoods Monster), or a venomous Wudrigar (Pukwudgie). These disparate ancestries must either become kin or stand on their own.

Kinship

One world’s magic is another world's tech. Radio waves and splitting infinitely small particles is all well and good in a world where such things exist, but Destron's natural laws look a little different. Most of Manifest's technology lies in the use of powerful Spike Irons, strange metals that fall from the five mountainous World Spikes. From the bluish spin-iron that makes six guns fire, to the fiery-orange of bell-iron that passes vibrations across continents - the technology of Destron is vast and still being explored.

Spike Iron Technology

But that ain't to say there ain't NO magic here. On the contrary, magic is the only way the kinships have ever survived! Two magics are most common on Destron:  Knacks and Crafts. Knacks are small magical talents that cannot be learned, with new ones only coming about at birth. From Blackteeth who can print books at a touch to Whisperers who can speak with animals, knacks offer quirky sparks of magical know-how. Crafts, on the other hand, must be learned and make up essential professions on Destron, meant to keep the kinships safe. From the stoic Undertakers who pass knacks from one generation to another to the protective Midwives who keep the corruptive Fesk at bay, crafts stand between the kinships and total destruction.

Knacks & Crafts

Praise the ‘Gons!

Maybe you're used to raising your voice to some god in your world, but don't you do that here! Ain't no gods anyway. Not really. God-like Kings and Spirits - ones who'll take your life and your will without a thought? Now those, we got. But if you want something praiseworthy, I suggest the Paragons - mortal kin who stood up for the kinships against those who would destroy them and who taught us the right of the world. Maybe you feel a connection to Esmund Appletree (Johnny Appleseed) who wrote the Good Book or you might want to follow after Gideon Splints (Paul Bunyan) who fought and killed a Host King with his axe. Whichever 'Gon you prefer, best bring your own power, because they can't share.

Meet The Kinships

Duskmotts

Once oppressed by the Host Kings, duskmotts declared their independence and founded the 'Mains. Now that power is within their reach, it draws them like moths to a flame.

Hangmen

Created by the maddened Whistlers to frighten and hunt the kinships, 
hangmen 
instead 
joined them.
Feeling responsibility 
to their fallen hosts, they seek vengeance and knowledge.

Hokflatzuls

Once the tools of the Host Kings, hokflatzuls have fallen in grace since they lost the Allegheny Colonies. Now forced to either 
find new ways to manipulate 
their old subordinates, the duskmotts, or flee to the frontier, hokflatzuls must adapt or die.

Mugwumps

Fooled into hunting and murdering their brother kinships long ago, the mugwumps abandoned the genocidal Whistlers to live in peace. But refusing your creators has a price ... and vengeance cannot abide peace.

Pardrin

 Pardrin are the guardians 
of Westilver, a land 
that must never be settled. They wander the plains, 
removing any who dare 
settle on their cursed land, for fear that an unimaginable horror will blanket the world in evil.

Determined religious zealots, Wudrigar build Missions to 
protect their valuable 
Westeride deposits. But with 
the power of six guns dependent 
on westeride, a storm is clearly blowing into their mountains.

Wudrigar

Roadmap

GuideS to Allegheny

Manifest will be launched as a series of Kickstarter projects that will ultimately make up the entire setting. Each guide will delve into a fascinating aspect of Allegheny, focusing on the intricate details of one part of the setting. In addition, each volume will cover the basics of the rest of the world, including summaries of kinships, magic, countries, religions, and weapons. Each of these fully illustrated sourcebooks will also provide a fleshed out adventuring location complete with adventure hooks and NPCs that set Manifest’s tone.

Each guide will also be produced alongside one or more companion books that will give stats compatible with Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition and Pathfinder 2nd Edition.

Kith and Kin

June 2024

For our introduction to the frontiers of Manifest, we will be releasing  Kith and Kin" via Kickstarter. This beautifully illustrated campaign guide will include detailed information on each of the Kinships appearing in Manifest, including backgrounds, customs, family life, adventuring hooks, and plenty of art. Get to know the people of the world in this exciting volume!

Mappers, Tincturers, and Tamers

June 2025

On our second outing into Manifest, our focus will be on the intricate magic of Manifest in "Mappers, Tinctures, and Tamers". Each page will detail how magic has affected all the peoples of Manifest, including information on Way Irons, Knacks, each of the six types of Framing, and the wicked magic that has come to be called witchery.

Other Media

Bringing Manifest to life in the form of an RPG setting is an important step for the Manifest setting, but it is far from the end of our plans for Allegheny. Manifest is a robust setting with characters and locations that our creators are excited to continue exploring in other mediums in the future.

Look Daniels and the Famine at Nocka Gnarl

Comic - 2025

Wranglers rarely make their way to the North-West corner of Steps, but Look Daniels is nothing if not rare. One of the few duskmott wranglers, Look always had an interest in the uncommon, and the sudden starvation of settlers on plentiful land certainly fits the bill.

Cuffed

Novel - 2026

An infamous mugwump outlaw awakens handcuffed to the unconscious sheriff sent to detain him. With nothing but miles of wilderness on all sides and some powerful binding set on the cuffs, they must traverse the wilds while avoiding criminal gangs, the blood-thirsty dark lawmen, and even that whistling sound rising from beyond the trees.

Lastborn

Video Game - 2028

Play as Connor Elman, the leader of a band of hangmen, who has just discovered a new kinship, created by the dangerous whistler, Eighth-of-the-West. Flee westward in this Real-Time Strategy style game, planned for release on PC and Mobile.