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An Exodus NDS Universe

IX

The World of Dort

The gods are persons. The planes are next door. Your soul is worth something,
and everyone with an appetite knows it.

Read It Online Download the PDFs Open the Map
The world map

The World of Dort

Six lands and the islands between them, drawn city by city. Open it at full size, or any of the six regional maps.

Open the map Cities and Realms

World map of Dort: the six lands of Irna, Shoing, Jazirah, Antaea, Funta, and the Second Lands around the Rhodian and Hatcona Oceans, with the island ports of the Oceanic Reaches between them, every sea named, and the planar disturbance in the Bay of Blood.

Map by Luis Leopardi

The world you are entering

This is Dort. It is not a world that waits for you.

Dort is a feudal world under strange pressure. It is medieval enough to have lords, guilds, and muddy roads between walled towns. It is also a place where flying ships carry ore, passengers, soldiers, and envoys across mountain ranges, while priests argue over what their gods' latest omens mean.

Ix is the name of the primordial being that was shattered by its own creations before recorded history. Its pieces became the Shattered Domain, the plane where the gods live. Everything in Dort lives downstream of that act.

A death-keeper in a black-painted skull cap is arguing with a city watchman about jurisdiction over a body. The body is not moving, but it is not unoccupied. Ix Player's Guide, Chapter One
What makes Ix different

Three pressures. All of them on you.

I

Planar Geography

The Arcana plane, the four elemental planes, the Hells, and stranger places are real, reachable, and politically relevant. A rift at a crossroads market is a hazard to be managed, not a crisis to be solved. Some have been open so long the local economy depends on them.

II

Divine Pressure

The gods are not background flavor. They hold territory in the Shattered Domain, keep alliances and grievances, and hire mortal agents, sometimes through clergy and sometimes through contractors who never learn the client's name.

III

The Soul Economy

Souls are real, countable, and valuable. Infernal contracts claim them before death. Necromancers traffic in them. Death-keepers guard a dying person's passage as a practical profession, because an unguarded soul can be intercepted at the threshold.

Who you play

Backgrounds and careers, not classes.

Your background is where you came from. Your career is what you do now. Together they decide which skills are cheaper for you to advance. They lock you out of nothing. A former temple librarian can learn swordsmanship; it simply costs more, because it was never their trade. Anyone can attempt anything.

Eleven peoples of Dort are ready to play, and magic runs in three traditions, Arcane, Divine, and Primal, with a full spell list from cantrips to High Magic.

  • Human
  • Smaling
  • Dwarf
  • Elf
  • Orc
  • Drakin
  • Goliath
  • Vaelhari
  • Serren
  • Zerren
  • Gnome

What is in Ix

Three complete books, free to read online: a Player's Guide with eleven playable peoples, backgrounds and careers, and Arcane, Divine, and Primal magic from cantrips to High Magic; a GM Guide to the world of Dort, its gods, planes, and soul economy; and an Adversary Catalog of dragons, devils, demons, undead, and more.

  • 54 chapters, free to read
  • 358,000 words of setting and rules
  • 34 skill cards
  • 160 talent cards
  • 119 spell cards

Use Ix in a Genesys game

Ix is written for Exodus NDS, a free narrative dice RPG that shares its dice structure with the Genesys Roleplaying Game. Genesys players and GMs can run it with the dice they own.

  • Use the Adversary Catalog as a fantasy bestiary for Genesys. Every creature is a Minion, Elite (Rival), or Nemesis with narrative dice stat lines.
  • Drop the spell list into a Genesys fantasy campaign. Every spell is cast with a skill check and lists what extra Boons (Advantage) buy and what Banes (Threat) cost.
  • Run Dort as your Genesys fantasy setting: gods who hire mortal agents, planar rifts at crossroads markets, and a trade in souls.
  • Lift the species, careers, and talents as new options for a Genesys fantasy table.

Genesys to Exodus NDS conversion table

Reading it as a Genesys player

  • Boon and Bane are Advantage and Threat. Breakthrough and Calamity are Triumph and Despair.
  • Boon, Ability, and Mastery dice are Boost, Ability, and Proficiency. Bane, Trial, and Crisis dice are Setback, Difficulty, and Challenge.
  • Might, Savvy, and Charisma are Brawn, Cunning, and Presence.
  • Elite adversaries are Rivals. Minions and Nemeses keep their names.
  • Resistance stands in for Soak, and counts half of Might where Soak counts all of Brawn.

Good for: Genesys fantasy setting narrative dice fantasy RPG Genesys bestiary Genesys magic and spells

Downloads

Read it online, free, or download the PDFs to keep at the table: the books, character sheets, and printable cards.

  • Cover of Ix Player's Guide

    Book

    Ix Player's Guide

    Eleven playable peoples, backgrounds and careers, and Arcane, Divine, and Primal magic.

    PDF · 291 pages · 53.0 MB · Updated 18 October 2026

  • Cover of Ix GM Guide

    Book

    Ix GM Guide

    The world of Dort for the GM: its gods, planes, and soul economy.

    PDF · 200 pages · 28.1 MB · Updated 18 October 2026

  • Cover of Ix Creature Catalog

    Catalog

    Ix Creature Catalog

    Dragons, devils, demons, undead, and more, with stat blocks for the GM.

    PDF · 442 pages · 102.6 MB · Updated 20 October 2026

  • First page of Adventurer Record

    Character sheet

    Adventurer Record

    The Ix character sheet, two pages. Type into it, then print.

    PDF · 2 pages · 277 KB · Updated 14 October 2026

The rift at the edge of town is already open.

Ix is free to read online, all three books. You need the Exodus NDS core rules and a table willing to find out what is on the other side.

Exodus NDS Core Rules Recommended · Compatible with all Exodus NDS Universes