Monday, December 3, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
Oh, god, the poor Welsh and the poor Halflings for me to do this...
Stop me before I kill another ancient culture....
The halfling kingdom does a pretty awful job of plagiarising Welsh mythology. The name of the kingdom is lifted right out of 6th century Welsh mythology, including the name of the king and queen. Also, this means Taliesin exists and he is a halfling. I almost used Pryderi's parents (Pwyll and Rhiannon) except for two things: One, Rhiannon is probably from the same root as another barbarian horse goddess (Epona) - because of a stupid joke made while playing Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess all I hear now is ePony.com, and because of an irrational hatred of Stevie Nicks. Why must everything be ruined by lame baby-boomer music?
Thank you Wikipedia for providing me with cultures to browse and destroy.
The halfling kingdom does a pretty awful job of plagiarising Welsh mythology. The name of the kingdom is lifted right out of 6th century Welsh mythology, including the name of the king and queen. Also, this means Taliesin exists and he is a halfling. I almost used Pryderi's parents (Pwyll and Rhiannon) except for two things: One, Rhiannon is probably from the same root as another barbarian horse goddess (Epona) - because of a stupid joke made while playing Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess all I hear now is ePony.com, and because of an irrational hatred of Stevie Nicks. Why must everything be ruined by lame baby-boomer music?
Thank you Wikipedia for providing me with cultures to browse and destroy.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Added a bunch more location descriptions to the website during the last two days. All of the continents have descriptions and a vague sense of history. If it comes down to needing more detail in the history beyond X number of centuries ago Y happened I'll make a timeline, but I think for now having the history a little cloudy is good. As in "Big stuff happened before and now the world is out of warranty and breaks down at every opportunity".
One NPC is up, the head honcho of the dwarven psionicists. Cool what you can do with psychic warrior and the slayer prestige class. Not many powers but a lot of feats. A LOT of feats. At 16 he's got 6 plus 8 bonus feats and Weapon Specialization for free. He used the PC chart for character wealth. I think I'll go with PC wealth for special NPCs and use the NPC table for regular NPCs.
No barbarian levels or monk levels and he moves 65, can make 90 degree turns while charging, and can run up walls. He's also got a nifty psionic feat called Stand Still, if you haven't seen the psionics book, whenever another creature's movement gives him an attack of opportunity he can give up that attack to attack their movement. If he hits he does no damage but instead the target has to make a fort save at a DC of 10 + damage, if they fail the they lose the rest of their move. He's an experiment in mobility effects and denying the same. A little gimped without Quick Draw, may give up Psychic Weapon for that.
One NPC is up, the head honcho of the dwarven psionicists. Cool what you can do with psychic warrior and the slayer prestige class. Not many powers but a lot of feats. A LOT of feats. At 16 he's got 6 plus 8 bonus feats and Weapon Specialization for free. He used the PC chart for character wealth. I think I'll go with PC wealth for special NPCs and use the NPC table for regular NPCs.
No barbarian levels or monk levels and he moves 65, can make 90 degree turns while charging, and can run up walls. He's also got a nifty psionic feat called Stand Still, if you haven't seen the psionics book, whenever another creature's movement gives him an attack of opportunity he can give up that attack to attack their movement. If he hits he does no damage but instead the target has to make a fort save at a DC of 10 + damage, if they fail the they lose the rest of their move. He's an experiment in mobility effects and denying the same. A little gimped without Quick Draw, may give up Psychic Weapon for that.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Nature Aspects
Four eternal dragons watch over the world, one in each continent. Each dragon was tied to one of the four continents by the old gods in the distant past. They are capable of exerting great control over the lands and the living creatures within them. Over time, changes to the land or inhabitants are reflected in the aspects themselves.
Silan is the nature aspect of Ephrace, land of the old Human kingdoms. Ancient histories document Silan as very wild and untamed, but as the lands under his sway became more settled so did he. Tends to be fairly conservative in his manipulations, but did unite the tribesman of the northwestern portion of Ephrace to form the kingdom of Telace to stymie the environmental "improvements" the wizards of Ranier were creating.
Silan's dragon form is that of a moderate (100 ft. length) silver dragon, only colored pale blue. Strange electric-like arcs jump around his body. His other common form is that of a middle aged human dressed in leather armor dyed pale blue matching his dragon form.
Listhan is the nature aspect of Surraneltha, land of elven forests and dwarven volcanic strongholds. Listhan is very involved with the land's inhabitants, but only very rarely exerts power over the land. She can be found on any given day visiting random cities or villiages in elven or dwarven form. She is revered in the land, but not
Listhan's dragon form is that of a 120' green dragon with stone grey mottling. She most commonly is seen in elven or dwarven form, dressed in the styles of the area she is visiting.
Girrulan is the nature aspect of Northsuir. He spends most of his time living in a cave high on the Great Mountain in the center of the Morlan Highlands, high above the citadels of the young dwarven kingdom. Some theorize that he was at the heart of the collapse of the old empire, angry at the arrogance and presumption of the imperials.
Girrulan, when in human form, appears as a dour, elderly man dressed in the garb of an imperial beaurocrat. As a dragon, he appears as a 200' gold dragon with large, swirling black eyes, his body covered in what appear to be scars from ancient battles.
Emoran is the nature aspect of Southsuir. 12 centuries ago, with the arrival (or fall from the sky) of the great necromancer and the spread of the dead armies through the last pockets of civilization deep in the south of the old empire, Emoran through all of his energies into the creation of the Eternal Pestilence to hold the line against them. Emoran sleeps, fighting nightmares reflecting his land.
Emoran is only known by his sleeping dragon form. A black dragon 100 feet in length; he appears as sickly and near death. With vast patches of missing scales, infected wounds, and emanating a foul stench, he only shows signs of consciousness when he wakens slightly to cough up blood and bile.
Silan is the nature aspect of Ephrace, land of the old Human kingdoms. Ancient histories document Silan as very wild and untamed, but as the lands under his sway became more settled so did he. Tends to be fairly conservative in his manipulations, but did unite the tribesman of the northwestern portion of Ephrace to form the kingdom of Telace to stymie the environmental "improvements" the wizards of Ranier were creating.
Silan's dragon form is that of a moderate (100 ft. length) silver dragon, only colored pale blue. Strange electric-like arcs jump around his body. His other common form is that of a middle aged human dressed in leather armor dyed pale blue matching his dragon form.
Listhan is the nature aspect of Surraneltha, land of elven forests and dwarven volcanic strongholds. Listhan is very involved with the land's inhabitants, but only very rarely exerts power over the land. She can be found on any given day visiting random cities or villiages in elven or dwarven form. She is revered in the land, but not
Listhan's dragon form is that of a 120' green dragon with stone grey mottling. She most commonly is seen in elven or dwarven form, dressed in the styles of the area she is visiting.
Girrulan is the nature aspect of Northsuir. He spends most of his time living in a cave high on the Great Mountain in the center of the Morlan Highlands, high above the citadels of the young dwarven kingdom. Some theorize that he was at the heart of the collapse of the old empire, angry at the arrogance and presumption of the imperials.
Girrulan, when in human form, appears as a dour, elderly man dressed in the garb of an imperial beaurocrat. As a dragon, he appears as a 200' gold dragon with large, swirling black eyes, his body covered in what appear to be scars from ancient battles.
Emoran is the nature aspect of Southsuir. 12 centuries ago, with the arrival (or fall from the sky) of the great necromancer and the spread of the dead armies through the last pockets of civilization deep in the south of the old empire, Emoran through all of his energies into the creation of the Eternal Pestilence to hold the line against them. Emoran sleeps, fighting nightmares reflecting his land.
Emoran is only known by his sleeping dragon form. A black dragon 100 feet in length; he appears as sickly and near death. With vast patches of missing scales, infected wounds, and emanating a foul stench, he only shows signs of consciousness when he wakens slightly to cough up blood and bile.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Ephrace - The Old Kingdoms
The Old Kingdoms are three human kindoms making up the entire continent of Ephrace. Politically stable for hundreds of years, these kingdoms are healthy and ecomonically prosperous. There are political and philosophical differences, but rather than risk the stability of their own borders aggressive acts are carried out in other lands. This manifests mainly as fighting over control of colonial lands far to the east on the continent of Northern Suir.
Ranier is the oldest of the human lands. It was founded as the ancient Suir Empire began the most visible stages of collapse over two thousand years ago. A fairly powerful group of the imperial family were forced into exile. Lead by the archmage Ranier, they found succor with the elves of the treeland, and gained their aid in converting the arid desert of modern Ranier into a tropical paradise, driving back the humanoid hordes as they recreated the land. Ranier has good relations to this day with the Lasthier Elves, but relations with Telace and Wynn are cold at best, regarding the other nations as unenlightened. While not in command of the vast magics of their forefathers, wizardry is still elevated to the highest regard. Latecomers to colonizing the lands of the old empire, they were left with lands deemed unusable by Wynn and Telace, the snowy wastes they have named in the honor of Ranier's daughter Elia. Working hard to relearn the magics of their past, they have managed to create several comfortable cities in the colonies.
The family of Ranier still holds the seat of power, but has little to do with day to day internal affairs other than sitting in judgement of major criminal trials. Most local issues are handled through direct democracy locally. Sorcery has been outlawed since the foundation of the nation, due to the lack of discipline (and elegance). Due to the high regard for magic, even the lowliest farmer with enough aptitude is taught a few basic cantrips. Magic handles the health and wellbeing of the people, sanitation, and provides a fairly comfortable life.
Telace is the youngest of the three human lands, but the largest. Ephrace's nature aspect, Silan, feeling the effects of the magical changes to the land, appeared to the barbarian tribes of the region as a great leader nearly 800 years ago. He began uniting the tribes of the region into a great kingdom to stop Ranier's slow advance to the north. After a decade of rule he passed rule to Arman Telace, a brave, competent, and good hearted tribesman, trusting him to create a great and peaceful nation.
Telace is the most accepting of the three. Various humanoid tribes have homelands in the area, pushed north many years ago. There are occasional disagreements, but the civilizing effects of being part of a strong, modern nation have dulled their violent edge. The king holds total power. Kings are selected by their predecessor when they reach old age, guided subconsciously by Silan. Of the three, Telace most closely resembles a traditional fantasy kingdom.
Telace is the poorest in terms of resources and in terms of historical connections with the east. This pushed them to establish a foothold in the east to gain access to valuable spices and minerals. Sailing west, they reached what woudl become New Telace three centuries ago. The encampments became cities, eventually establishing control over a large area.
Due to the work of Silan, the people of Telace remain subconsciously very wary of Ranier. The result is a level of mistrust. Trade has created nominally warm relations with the border states of Wynn.
The Wynn Confederacy is a constitutional monarchy originally founded as a group of plutocrat city-states by the heads of various trade guilds leaving the remains of The Suir Empire a millenia ago. Not long into it's existance there were simultaneous slave revolts throughout the region.
Ranier is the oldest of the human lands. It was founded as the ancient Suir Empire began the most visible stages of collapse over two thousand years ago. A fairly powerful group of the imperial family were forced into exile. Lead by the archmage Ranier, they found succor with the elves of the treeland, and gained their aid in converting the arid desert of modern Ranier into a tropical paradise, driving back the humanoid hordes as they recreated the land. Ranier has good relations to this day with the Lasthier Elves, but relations with Telace and Wynn are cold at best, regarding the other nations as unenlightened. While not in command of the vast magics of their forefathers, wizardry is still elevated to the highest regard. Latecomers to colonizing the lands of the old empire, they were left with lands deemed unusable by Wynn and Telace, the snowy wastes they have named in the honor of Ranier's daughter Elia. Working hard to relearn the magics of their past, they have managed to create several comfortable cities in the colonies.
The family of Ranier still holds the seat of power, but has little to do with day to day internal affairs other than sitting in judgement of major criminal trials. Most local issues are handled through direct democracy locally. Sorcery has been outlawed since the foundation of the nation, due to the lack of discipline (and elegance). Due to the high regard for magic, even the lowliest farmer with enough aptitude is taught a few basic cantrips. Magic handles the health and wellbeing of the people, sanitation, and provides a fairly comfortable life.
Telace is the youngest of the three human lands, but the largest. Ephrace's nature aspect, Silan, feeling the effects of the magical changes to the land, appeared to the barbarian tribes of the region as a great leader nearly 800 years ago. He began uniting the tribes of the region into a great kingdom to stop Ranier's slow advance to the north. After a decade of rule he passed rule to Arman Telace, a brave, competent, and good hearted tribesman, trusting him to create a great and peaceful nation.
Telace is the most accepting of the three. Various humanoid tribes have homelands in the area, pushed north many years ago. There are occasional disagreements, but the civilizing effects of being part of a strong, modern nation have dulled their violent edge. The king holds total power. Kings are selected by their predecessor when they reach old age, guided subconsciously by Silan. Of the three, Telace most closely resembles a traditional fantasy kingdom.
Telace is the poorest in terms of resources and in terms of historical connections with the east. This pushed them to establish a foothold in the east to gain access to valuable spices and minerals. Sailing west, they reached what woudl become New Telace three centuries ago. The encampments became cities, eventually establishing control over a large area.
Due to the work of Silan, the people of Telace remain subconsciously very wary of Ranier. The result is a level of mistrust. Trade has created nominally warm relations with the border states of Wynn.
The Wynn Confederacy is a constitutional monarchy originally founded as a group of plutocrat city-states by the heads of various trade guilds leaving the remains of The Suir Empire a millenia ago. Not long into it's existance there were simultaneous slave revolts throughout the region.
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