A world of magic and adventure, where different peoples, fantastical creatures and kingdoms in conflict bring countless stories to life. In Varnur, small journeys meet epic sagas: every character has their own path, and every story opens up new possibilities.
A world to discover. Stories to lose yourself in.
Six years in the making, and still being refined.
VarnurFor childrenGamebooks to read together, with choices and a die.Series in development
VarnurFor readersThe Algeo saga and the Tales of Varnur.Saga coming soon · one free taleWith three times Earth's land area, Varnur remains a largely untamed world. Sixteen sapient races share one world. There are trains, ships and airships, and nearly every technological advance relies on magic. Yet swords and spears remain the weapons of everyday life.
Sixteen races think, speak and work magic in Varnur. Some live in peace with the others. Some live off them.
*Orc, vampire and beastfolk: single individuals, not racial averages. Common scale: height from head to feet.
The most numerous and most political race in the world, split into nations that never stop fighting each other. The average human is middling at almost everything. Some are very far from average.
There is nothing to draw: a demon has no body of its own. It wears someone else's, person or beast, and only one thing gives it away: an eye with no white at all.
Almost no one in Varnur knows what that means. In the villages they only say: a bad beast doesn't die, it changes skins.
The purest embodiments of the elements, and the most selfish. A complete dragon can trade its dragon form for a humanoid one, and only then does it speak. Most of what common folk call a dragon is actually a dracoling.
Red, its body as hot as the flame it breathes.
A blue-and-gold serpent that flies without wings and spits boiling water or ice.
The smallest and fastest, all white, with a scream that stuns its prey.
The largest of all, shelled in stone. It cannot fly, but it swims through the ground.
Extremely rare and nearly invisible. It shines like the sun or darkens like night.
Covered in plants and extremely rare. It prefers to go unnoticed among the trees: those who strike at it may swear their blow landed, only to find the dragon was somewhere else.
Pitch black, with lightning running across its skin.
Here, magic has rules, and the rules make the story.
In Varnur, almost everyone uses some magic. Nine in ten people know the basics of at least one school, learned as life demanded it. And no one is entirely defenseless. When faced with death, anyone's body will thicken the air around it into a defensive barrier on its own. This happens across all races, even to people who have never studied magic and cannot explain what their body is doing. Raising that barrier deliberately requires training in Wind magic.
Magic is common. Mastery is rare.
Two paths of study. Level measures a mage's control over their own mana: beginners need gestures and words, experienced mages need only will it, and the rare few at the top draw on the mana in the air as well as their own. Form measures how well they know a school: first they control what already exists, then they create, then they master its most demanding techniques, until they command everything known to be possible with that matter.
The schools. Water, Earth, Fire, Wind and Light. Transmutation, Summoning, Enchantment and Molecular. Alongside them are Body Reinforcement and Object Reinforcement.
Magic follows physics. Each school works on real matter, and that matter behaves as it would in the real world. Combining elements yields what physics and chemistry would: water and fire controlled together make ice; fire and earth make lava.
Magic comes from imagination. A school defines what is possible; the shape, the glow and the way a spell is cast grow out of the caster's life. Two people at the same stage in the same school may reach the same effect by very different paths.
All magic has a price. Every effect costs mana. A mage can exhaust their reserves or injure themselves by channeling more mana than their body can handle.
No one is made of steel. Reinforcing the body has a limit, and there is no magical healing. Even a great mage must live with their wounds. In Varnur, almost anyone can bring down almost anyone.
In these adventures, children don't just listen to the story—they take part in it. Page by page, you choose your path together, and when chance comes into play, the die decides. Each choice can take the adventure in a new direction and lead to a different ending. The series is in development, with a book planned for each age group. Magic follows the same rules here as it does throughout Varnur.
Play Your First AdventureAlgeo is eleven when, one night, soldiers storm the village at the foot of the mountain where he lives with his family. He flees into the woods alone, with little more than what his father taught him about tracking and survival.
Written for adults: it contains war, loss and violence.
Explore the Saga and TalesGet updates on upcoming Varnur releases: the Algeo saga, chapter by chapter, with the Tales of Varnur along the way. Choose what you want to follow.
If you enjoy this world and want to see more of it, you can help. Every contribution helps Varnur grow.
