Content Warning

Read this page before you commit to a campaign. Ithasen is a mature, gritty setting. The fiction includes violence, cruelty, and the abuse of power. The design intent is to give players hard things to push against in play, so the choices they make at the table carry weight.

Adjusting the defaults at your table

Use a shared tool in session zero to override the world’s defaults:

• Cuts. A player can declare any element a hard cut. It does not appear in the game at all.
• Fades. A player can ask any element be faded to black. It exists in the fiction but stays off-page.
• Open Door. Any player can leave a session at any time, without explanation. The table does not press them on it.

If something lands wrong mid-session, any player or the GM can call a pause. The GM should offer to fade the scene, rewind, or skip ahead. No one at the table owes anyone a reason.

Cuts and Fades adapt a tool first published by Ron Edwards (Adept Press, 2003).

Always present

These are structural to the world. A campaign cannot remove them without unraveling the setting.

• Violence: hunting, combat, gore, death
• Cultural tension: friction between peoples, faiths, and worldviews as ambient context
• Body horror and the corruption of living things: tied to spirits and certain antagonists

The world’s configurable defaults

Most heavy content beyond the always-present list is either kept off-camera by the world or framed as something for the Rennim to push against. Your table can shift these defaults in session zero.

Cut by default (not included in the fiction at any level):

• Sexual abuse of children: cults. Does not appear at any level of play or in the lore.

Faded by default (off-page, fade to black, referenced only):

• Sexual violence: Haqol under Janim oppression, Castborn ritual abuse. Backstory and motivation, never played out or described in depth.

Present but easily faded (on-page by default; the GM should fade graphic moments on any request):

• Graphic cruelty against children: cults, the daemon sect. Aftermath, scars, and indoctrination patterns remain on-page; the most graphic acts default to fade.

Things to push against (on-page antagonist material the Rennim engage):

• Coercive institutions, abuse of authority, manipulation by leaders: cults, certain noble houses, any organization can rot into this. The standard antagonist material for Rennim.
• Physical and psychological abuse, graphic cruelty, torture: cults, certain noble houses, the daemon sect. Antagonist methods the Rennim are built to push against.
• Slavery and kidnapping: Haqol kin, Janim history, pirates. Standing antagonist content for affected characters.
• Racism: Nyl, Janim, and treatment of Haqol. Lived experience for affected characters.
• Genocide and persecution: Haqol historical experience is on-page in flashback and research. Present-day persecution is referenced unless the campaign heads into Haqol-coded plots.

A note on children as characters. Children exist as characters in this world. Many awaken to Ren as kids and can face hardship, violence, and danger like any character. The defaults above carve out what specifically does not appear or fades.

A note on lineage choices. Some character pasts summon content. A Haqol character in Janim territory is signing up for protection by a highborn house, or pursuit by them, slavers, or both. That is gold for a player who wants something to fight against. However, a decision like this impacts the whole party, so be sensitive and respect others’ boundaries. For a player who would rather not carry that weight, or interact with it, pick a different lineage and/or talk with your GM to cut this content out and set that expectation with the group.

Before you commit

If the always-present list is more than you want to engage with, this setting is likely the wrong fit. That is a reasonable conclusion to reach. If a friend reaches it, respect their decision.

If the configurable list is the concern, talk with your GM before character creation. The world is large enough that most campaigns can be built around a player’s lines.

Why Ithasen contains this content

Metanoia is built on the premise that games are practice for real life. The fiction is a lens, a pressure test, and a rehearsal space for beliefs, values, and choices. That premise only works if the world has weight.

A character’s Values and Polarities are tested by what the world brings against them. A Rennim with a Value tied to compassion in a world without cruelty has nothing to choose, nothing to risk, and nothing to stand for. Ithasen contains hard things because the choices the game asks players to make require something to push against.

The structural content (violence, cultural tension, body horror) is the friction the world generates. The configurable content (institutional abuse, slavery, racism, persecution) is the specific shape that friction takes for specific characters and stories. Both exist as antagonist material. The world is hard, and the Rennim are the ones who shape it.

The cuts and fades a table draws are part of authoring the version of Ithasen they will play in. The defaults make the world functional out of the box; the overrides make it theirs.