(from the back of the book)

They say there have been eight worlds before ours. Eight times the people of Earth, over vast millennia, built their civilizations. They reached heights we cannot even imagine now: they spoke to the stars, reshaped the creatures of the world, and mastered form and essence. They built cities and machines that have since fallen to ruin, leaving only their vast outlines and barest remnants.

This is the Ninth World. The people of the prior worlds are gone--scattered, disappeared, or transcended. But their works remain, in the places and devices that still contain a spark of their former function. The uninformed call these magic, but the wise know that they are our legacy. They are our future. They are the . . .

NUMENERA

Numenera Discoveryincludes everything you need to create characters and venture into the Ninth World:

• Complete streamlined rules for a fast-paced, story-based tabletop roleplaying game experience.
• An intuitive, concept-driven character generation system, with scores of options for building just the character you imagine.
• Detailed information on a vast swath of the Ninth World, including a giant poster map.
• A bestiary of more than fifty creatures and characters.
• Hundreds of unique numenera items.
• Three complete adventures to launch any campaign.

Numenera Discoveryis one of two corebooks.Numenera Destinyexpands the game with new character and campaign-building material that lets you use the remnants of the past to build a future of your choosing.