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Post by Daos on Mar 3, 2022 16:22:09 GMT -8
Haha, yep, I've never been to DC. I grew up in Mississippi, spent a good chunk of time in Oklahoma, Texas and Utah, and have spent the last decade or so in Washington state.
Anyway, good idea. We'll start with Year 0. The Cataclysm. No, the Sundering. No, Zero Dawn. No, the Happening. Alright, well, I'll come up with a name for it later. What matters now, is that there was a vast and powerful civilization with high level magic that ruled the entire continent, and now they are gone. All that remains are ancient ruins. As for what happened, let's leave that shrouded in mystery for now. Maybe each of the new civilizations have their own explanations. For instance, these nature worshipers maybe believe that the Ancient Ones abused nature (polluting, excess consumption of natural resources, etc.) and their goddess struck back. The Planet itself awoke and shrugged her shoulders, throwing them all out into space. Or something. So the new civilizations revere her, out of fear and respect, to avert the Ancient Ones' mistakes. I need a name for her. Gaia? Terra? The Planet? The Lifestream? Hmm, for now I'll call her Elonna (the original goddess of nature from Lost Souls, before I simplified the pantheon).
About 500 years later, the survivors have spread and rebuilt, but nowhere near the power of the Ancient Ones. Mostly Bronze Age era level of tech, nomadic tribes wandering the area, fighting each other over land and resources. But then, a great warrior appeared, a follower of the goddess, and he managed to unite the warring tribes, forming an empire. However, while this brought peace and prosperity, and spread the good word of Elonna, it wasn't always easy. The empire united four different tribes into one. And while all four embraced Elonna's faith, they maintained their own languages and cultural aspects.
After the emperor died, and his heir and heir's heir died, as well (so sometime in the 600's), something happened that caused the empire to break up. Maybe there was a war, or a succession crisis or just plain ol' political subterfuge. Regardless, the empire broke up into about a dozen smaller petty kingdoms. These kingdoms are in danger of being gobbled up by invaders from the north, east and south. Maybe these various kingdoms have alliances or rivalries with each other, and each one feels they can restore the empire by conquering the others, either with military might, diplomacy, or economics.
This should create a setting rich with opportunities for adventurers, to work for or against these kingdoms, help stave off invasions, discover lost mysteries of the old world, and so forth.
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Post by GravityEmblem on Mar 3, 2022 16:58:14 GMT -8
That sounds awesome! I'm looking forward to playing a campaign, there.
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Matt4
Paragon
Posts: 3,540
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Post by Matt4 on Mar 3, 2022 17:12:59 GMT -8
That's all really cool, I like it!
As for your problem with drawing maps, once I found a website that created randomized maps but it was really cool because it allowed you to set up a bunch of different criteria you wanted the map to have once it was created (number of countries/kingdoms, etc). If you're interested I can try finding it again.
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Post by Daos on Mar 3, 2022 17:49:43 GMT -8
Thanks, but I'm just getting started. Maybe I'll work on the faith next.
And yeah, if you can find the map generator, I'll give it a look.
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Post by Daos on Mar 4, 2022 15:06:08 GMT -8
Okay, so the faith of Elonna (adherents can be called Elonnari).
The Elonnari believe in a number of spirits of nature, but the biggest and most important is Elonna, Mother Nature, a divine spirit interconnected to all living things. They believe that men brought about the end of the Ancient Ones by neglecting the planet, and were wiped out when Elonna awoke and struck back. This means that this is humanity's second chance, and if they don't do things right, Elonna may wipe them out entirely next time. Overall, they are peaceful and prefer not to make war; but they will defend themselves and nature from anyone who threatens them.
Most Elonnari cultures have Enatic and Enatic-Cognatic succession, meaning that either only women can inherit titles or women take priority over men. Consequently, most authority figures are women, as are most druids, clerics and paladins. Men can become druids, clerics and paladins, but they have to be pretty exceptional to ever rise in rank. Priests are allowed to marry and inherit titles. Also, since inheritance follows the mother's bloodline, most men take their wives' surnames when they get married. (Instead of a maiden name, I'd guess it'd be a bachelor name?)
I imagine there are a number of holy sites that the Elonnari would consider sacred, like the equivalent of Mount Rainier. People can take pilgrimages there, using well worn hiking trails.
As usual, I'm probably going to introduce a few different sects. Maybe a sect of the Vengeful Mother, who are far more violent and extremist in protecting nature. I might do a different sect for each of the four tribes, so even though they all follow the same faith, they still disagree over the minutia.
I might also introduce a heresy, maybe a small cult who worship a sky father, or a sun god, and seek to reestablish the patriarchy. But they operate in secrecy.
Naming conventions probably lean more toward nature-oriented names. People probably like to name their children things like Summer, Dawn, Ocean, etc.
I'm thinking the head of the church will be the Grand Druid. I might borrow the druidic titles from 2E for this. So under the Grand Druid are the Hierophants, the Great Druids and then the Archdruids, the Druids and finally the Initiates at the bottom. Clerics take orders from the Grand Druid, as well. I imagine most will take the Nature domain, or perhaps Life or Grave, but depending on the sect, there might be a few other options.
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Matt4
Paragon
Posts: 3,540
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Post by Matt4 on Mar 4, 2022 15:59:28 GMT -8
Here's the map generator I used: azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/It has a lot of features so it may appear complicated, but once you get the hand of it I think it's really fun to play around to build a detailed map.
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Post by Daos on Mar 4, 2022 19:16:17 GMT -8
Wow, that is complicated. I'll have to spend some time on that when I get the chance.
Anyway, I mentioned there were four tribes that once made up a greater whole. They're basically the Northerners (Canadians), the Southerners (Northern Californians), the Westerners and the Easterners (Washingtonians/Oregonians on the west side of the Cascades and the east side). Those aren't what they are called, by the way, I'll try to come up with better names.
Each tribe has its own language, and its own idea of what Elonnarism looks like. They have similar cultures, but there are differences between them.
I envision the westerners as being more 'civilized' as the easterners. The easterners are more tribal, more aggressive and more xenophobic. A comparison might be, if the westerners are like the high elves, then the easterners would be like the wild elves. I think the aforementioned Sect of the Vengeful Mother would be popular with the easterners. In fact, they might have played an important role in the fall of the empire. Maybe there was some big natural disaster, like an earthquake or wildfire, and the easterners took it as a sign that they aren't doing enough to appease Elonna, and decide to break away to go back to the old ways. And this led to other rebellions, until the entire empire broke up.
I don't have much yet for the Northerners and Southerners. The Northerners would be up in the British Columbia equivalent. The Southerners would be near the Siskiyou Mountains. This puts both tribes in danger of invasion. The southerners are threatened by a massive 'Celestial' Empire south of them, which views their lands as rightfully theirs. The northerners are threatened by the aforementioned viking-esque raiders that are slowly conquering all of the British Columbia equivalent.
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Post by Daos on Mar 5, 2022 15:47:14 GMT -8
Let's start discussing the petty kingdoms now. By far the largest is Riverton. Riverdom? Riverlands? I'll come back to that.
This tribal nation covers pretty much all of eastern Washington and a good chunk of eastern Oregon, as well. It extends from the Cascade Mountains as far east as Spokane, and as far south as the Columbia River Gorge. While by far the largest and most powerful of the splinter nations, it's also one of the least stable. It contains the majority of the Easterners (Inlanders?). The people favor the Sect of the Vengeful Mother, and believe that other Elonnori have slacked off, favoring convenience and prosperity over true connection to the planet. Thus, they live a much simpler and harsher lifestyle, going as far as eschewing things like metal smithing and even farming. They prefer to hunt in the wild, gather what the planet provides, and see raising livestock or planting fields as taking more than they should.
They are ruled by a powerful chieftainess. About seven years ago, she managed to unite the Inlander tribes into one, declaring herself Warden Chieftainess.
However, her grip on her lands is weakening. While devout, she's a bit obsessed with the Feywild, believing that to protect the planet, it may be necessary to shatter the borders between it and the prime material plane, merging the two to create a true utopia. There are rumors that she spends a lot of time researching dark and forbidden magics to find a way to do this, perhaps going as far as to engage in outright heresy. (Some even whisper that her connections to the Feywild are what allowed her to form the nation in the first place; that she has doppelgangers among her court who serve as spies and assassins.)
Furthermore, the lands around Spokane have started to adopt the faith of their neighbors to the east (Northern Idaho). The chieftainess is, in fact, the daughter of one of these pagans. Her father was one who married her Elonnori mother, and so rather than do anything about it, she is content to let them be. In fact, one of her vassals, the one who rules the Spokane area, is of this faith. They are nature-worshipers, like the Elonnori, but do not believe in Elonna. Rather, they follow the spirit of the Great Plains.
Because of these factors, many of her vassals are currently scheming to try and overthrow her, or perhaps break away and form their own petty kingdoms. History doesn't always repeat itself, but sometimes it does rhyme.
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Post by Daos on Mar 6, 2022 13:12:19 GMT -8
Next up is the land of Whulge (what Puget Sound was called originally; I'm not married to that name, though). This small kingdom covers pretty much all of the south area of Puget Sound's equivalent. That includes Seattle, Tacoma, and even Olympia. While fairly small, it's one of the wealthiest nations in the area, thanks to all the trade that comes through and its numerous great cities. Unlike the Riverdom, they have better technology, too. Culturally, the people are all Westerners (Cascadians?) and of course, Elonnori. They're far less isolationist and xenophobic than the Inlanders, though. Their wealth makes them a tempting target for raiders, however.
The man who rules the land is a direct descendant of the great hero who united Cascadia originally--his great-great grandson, in fact. He's an older man, in the twilight of life, who never married or had children. Thus, his younger sister is his heir at the moment. Rumor is he never married because he isn't interested in women. However, under Cascadian custom, he could adopt an heir if he wished, but for whatever reason never has. He's a good ruler and has helped enrich his lands and made them prosperous, although he himself always spends coin whenever he gets it; so ironically, he's not very wealthy himself. His vassals all like him, surprisingly even his druids, despite the fact that he's not very religious himself.
The main protection his land has is he pays regular tribute to the Riverdom. This keeps them from invading (for now), but also ensures they will swoop in if someone else tries to invade.
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Post by Igordragonian on Mar 8, 2022 15:54:52 GMT -8
So it is native-american-ish in astehtics? Just to know what to imagine
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Post by Daos on Mar 8, 2022 18:01:26 GMT -8
Depends on which area you are talking about. The Riverdom, yes. The areas to the west, however, are closer in aesthetic to elven lands. Tree top towns, crystal buildings shaped from the earth, that sort of thing.
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Post by GravityEmblem on May 5, 2022 17:53:25 GMT -8
It's kind of a shame there won't be a game in this setting for a while, because I already have a character concept I want to play: a westerner Paladin, with a fascination with the different sects of Elonnarism that often gets her into trouble. And I'll probably be using a spear, as a nice little nod to Horizons.
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Post by Daos on May 5, 2022 19:17:32 GMT -8
Will she have flame colored hair, a punny name and something of a savior complex? Maybe I should add some dinosaurs to the area. I've been working on it on my own since my last post. I haven't gotten to paladins yet, but I am working on the different faiths and sects at the moment. It will be awhile before it's done, but even if I finished it tonight, I wouldn't be able to start a new game until at least one of my other ones finished. Same deal with the 2E randomized game; working on it in the background, probably won't be ready for awhile.
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Post by GravityEmblem on May 6, 2022 5:19:43 GMT -8
Right. I also have another game that I'm working on; another one in my Ozymandias homebrew setting that I'm preparing for my IRL group. I don't necessarily have to finish Aftermath of Ozymandias before I run it on here, since it takes place A) Ten years later B) In the timeline of my IRL games C) In an entirely different continent. But I might wait for some games I'm playing in or running to slow down before I start that. It'll be a bit tricky, though, because it's kind of a hard sell. I'm going to be limiting classes, races, and having multiple encounters without opportunity for long rests, which might scare people off. I doubt I'll be able to get the 7 players the campaign is designed for.
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Post by Daos on May 6, 2022 12:56:50 GMT -8
...it's kind of a hard sell. I'm going to be limiting classes, races, and having multiple encounters without opportunity for long rests, which might scare people off. I doubt I'll be able to get the 7 players the campaign is designed for. Limiting choices, restricting rests and 7 players? Sounds like a 2E game. But I feel you. It's hard to find players for a niche game, even harder to keep them. I know that all too well.
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