The Kingdom of an Ancient Dawn:
Hey all! Hope it’s ok to post here about my latest project from Shieldice Studio. 
It will be released to backers as early as March, on campaign completion! I’ll pop some notes below on how this came to be. I had so much fun creating this digital book from solo playthrough notes, using Shadowdark!
’When beginning my journey into the system of Shadowdark, playing solo, I was reminded of a PDF I had created in February 2025, named ‘The Towers of an Ancient Dawn’. Unintentionally, I had used the Shadowdark font within its design, and noticed the connection. I wondered whether I could use these towers as a jumping off point for my solo wanderings in this new world. There were eight towers in total, and so, I rolled a D8, the tumbling die finally showing the face of a five. ‘The Tower of the Mist-Veiled Knight.’ Here was to be the beginning of Absalom the Highlander’s long quest, inspired also by my ‘Loom’ lore, and the start of many a notebook over the coming months. With no more backstory than the tower itself, and no knowledge of the wider world, I ventured forth with pen and paper…
… As I played, using the Shadowdark system loosely, creating my own lore, and rolling against the tables and many world-building tools of Shieldice Studio and other creators, I began to see patterns emerging. The Sword & Sorcery voices of Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber, Howard, and the great Lord Dunsany loomed large, and were ever present in Absalom’s trials. The kingdom within which he strode was vast, and impossible to map. More and more I had the feeling that this character was a tiny speck upon the grand, arcing canvas of a world alien to our own. My terrible handwriting, torn out pages, and blue ballpoint dungeons on crumpled A4 pages simply wouldn’t do. I began to use my subscription to a site where 3D renders could be used as print-outs for my world. I wished to document my favourite findings within this adventure, and how better to do so than in the style of the original PDF that had set me out on the long road, not as myself, but as the forlorn Absalom… That troubled and weary knight of a failing highland faith…
… So, I set myself the task. Following on from the format of the original PDF, I would come to filter the kingdom into categories for adventure prompts, and scour the scribblings for my favourite eight objects or locations that might match. Where there were more than eight I whittled them down. Where there were less to be found, I constructed anew. The notes on a dark kingdom were being collated.
Strangely, none of the original seven towers, those not rolled when I began this journey, were ever encountered by Absalom, or even thought of as I role-played his sorrowful journey. Yet, I now know them to be out there, within that ruined, uncharted kingdom, awaiting other adventurers, whose feet might find the road long after Absalom fell upon his own sword of Sentient Twilight, at the hands of his new squire, finally ending the curse he had once been forced to choose, from several, at the site of the Green-God’s Tree…
… I have never created for Shieldice Studio in such a way, and I hope, within the words, you can find my passion for Absalom’s quest, and the many oddities my mind conjured throughout it. I have attempted to document the items and locations so that they might be used within any system, and in any fantasy journey. I hope, whoever you might be, that when setting out solo, or planning for a party, you can find new and wonderful ways to expand upon this scattered Kingdom of an Ancient Dawn. Who knows, you may even come across the cairn which covers the bones of Absalom himself.’
