Norelva Confidential is a police drama, detective noir and action campaign that takes place in the new century metropolis of Norelva. Our heroes are a ragtag team of underfunded but surprisingly qualified detectives working for the Norelva Police Department, stretched as thin as possible among a new wave of crime that comes with the new technological progress: ships used to smuggle drugs between countries, factories hiding weapon production lines, not to mention the ever present danger of magic. Teleportation spells, the constant fight against unregulated necromancy, wizard clan wars in the streets.

Norelva is a bustling city, the city of dreams, the heart of worldwide commerce, but also the city of sin. Will you be able to keep the order and solve every crime, arrest every mafia boss, cut off every smuggling and trafficking route? That’s up to you, detective.

Here I included some of the inspiration I used when making the campaign and setting, they may be useful to convey what the vibes and themes are. These are mostly movies, shows and videogames, and while they don’t necessarily convey exactly what Norelva Confidential is about, they’re good to give you an idea of what the world looks and sounds like. Click on them for more.

Honorable Mentions: Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour, Law & Order, SWAT (1975), Twin Peaks and X-Files, Bad Boys, Se7en, Heat, Die Hard, Hot Fuzz, The Rookie, and of course, LA Confidential.

For all the information you could possibly want, check the other pages, such as the History, Culture and Politics Hubs. The short version is as such: Norelva is a 1910-20s decopunk-adjacent fantasy world. It is, in simple terms, what would happen if a normal fantasy world evolved naturally, leading to the industrial revolution and eventually trains, cars, airships and the first planes. Magic is still prevalent, slowly being surpassed by technology. Other races like orcs, elves and dwarves live in their own nations or in Norelva (visit Little Ky’Pla for some orcish food). The rest of a classic D&D setting has been integrated into the world: necromancers are excellent funeral service specialists, divination wizards work as great meteorologists and financial advisors, and dragons have been enjoying the people’s aptitude to air acrobatic shows. The world is not fully serious and meant to be taken with a grain of salt.

The main themes of the campaign and the world are tied to the industrial revolution, like worker struggles, exploitation, wealth disparity, unrestricted progress. Corporations try to worm their way past the law while the government struggles to control them, and people lose their jobs as they become irrelevant with new technologies. Strikes are frequent, shady mercenaries are operating, and the economic boom brings with it drug abuse, rampant crime and chaos.

The place you’ll mostly inhabit is the parliamentary monarchy of Norelva, a country comparably a little smaller than Poland or Germany. It’s the most famous nation in the world and the most prosperous, but it’s also where most of the world’s magic is mostly located. 

It’s protected by a huge mountain range to the north and a beautiful gulf to the south. The capital is Norelva, a city built on the shore of a lake. The other main cities are:

• Jarmein, an independent commune managed by communist dwarves,

• Hafenblau, the main port with a city built to support it,

• Rotluss, a luxurious city with casinos, bars and attractions,

• Gelfort, a city full of offices and a stock exchange point,

• Havrtal, farming city still behind with the times,

• Sagplass, the university town of the nation.

The capital is a metropolis that spans several kilometers, with a little bit of everything: industry, tourism, offices, brothels, etc. It’s the city everyone aspires to live in. In terms of looks and feel, so you can get an idea, it was inspired by Saint Denis in Red Dead Redemption 2. The residential and more common houses are creole, New Orleans style houses as shown below.