North and west of the Iceclaws, beyond the domain of the Frost Giant Jarls, is the great step of Zara. This vast chilly grassland is home to a civilization of Child sized humanoids, with hairy limbs and keen reflexes. A hardy race, these people make a living as the tenders of large herds of wild and semi-wild ponies that live on the steppe.
These nomads have in recent years discovered a reliable pass through the Iceclaws, down into the peninsular. As a result they have opened the first land Trade route between the east and the peninsular, which has brought tremendous new wealth to Highmarch, the Halflings and the kingdoms of the continental north west.
Halfling
The term halfling is the usual term used by these people to describe themselves, it means Free-People, and has strong positive connections with their nomadic life style, their refusal to engages in arable agriculture (which they distain), and their adherence to the Path of Freedom, their non-theistic religion.
It is, by coincidence, a term in several of the closely related languages of the northern peninsular that even though it has no recorded use before the arrival of the Halflings, sounds like it should be applied to them, as a description of their diminutive stature.
Culture and Religion
The Halflings as a culture do not worship gods, and in fact, they considers the idea that people believe in them at all somewhat quaint. That does not mean that they lack a religion, however. They are strick adherents to the Path of Freedom, a non-theistic religion which blends an ethical code, with economic theories and anarchist philosophy. The Path of Freedom is non-hierarchical and has no priesthood.
Laws are to followers of the Path of Freedom, a form of blasphemy; the idea that they should submit to accept the rule of another goes against the entire nature of the Path. Yet, the pony people of Zara experience no more and no less violence against the person or theft than most people living in the law bound nations of the peninsular. They are as a group largely self governing. While they have no central government or ruler, the people of Zara, are uncommonly communal. While they have a good deal of personal property, they do not accept the ownership of natural resources or land as a legitimate concept, for the Path of freedom asserts that the ownership of land is fundamentally impossible, and those who claim to are tyrants. This has caused more than a little social conflict between them and the humans of the penicular, as the people of Zara have travelled further into their lands.
Sex and Gender
The halfling are very much more sexually dimorphic than humans or elves. Males tend to be about six inches shorter, considerably more slender, and skittish. Their eyes tend to be further set appart, and their ears about half a big again as females. Females tend to be stouter, tougher more gregarious, and less easily startled.
Before the formation of the way of Freedom, Halfling society was one of totalitarian rule by a now dead religion that enforced concreate gender roles and selective breeding in the Proto-halflings. Males are born to be scouts and craftpeople, while females defenders of hearth and home, as well as the hunters of large prey.
The pressures that once were placed upon the species, may no longer be present, but the gender roles of their society, are so deeply engrained as this point that it is rare that anyone within the society questions it. Despite a significant imbalance of power within the society, favoring females, the society is relatively benign and stable.
Friday, 16 October 2015
Thursday, 15 October 2015
5e Setting Building: Making Orcs matter; or how to improve on Genocide FTW.
The border marches are about tough
choices. Orcs don’t represent a tough choice. When I say Orcs here, I am in
fact using them as a stand in for all sentient monstrous species who are
bipedal, social, land dwellers. Creatures such as goblins, kobold and gnolls,
as well as orcs.
The traditional approach to dealing with orcs and their ilk can be summed up as "committing war crimes against a sentient species because you happen to be in resource competition with them; while not considering it evil, because they are evil because we happen to want the same thing as us and happen to be less good at killing us than we are at killing them", or as I like to put it for brevity “Genocide, FTW.”
There is a school of thought that, orcs and other such social sentient humanoid
foes should be treated as bad guys and that critical examination of their role
in the game should not be undertaken because, as Charles Akins , author of the Dyvers
blog puts it, “It's not that complicated. The monsters are evil because we're
the good guys and fuck 'em because they're not us.”The traditional approach to dealing with orcs and their ilk can be summed up as "committing war crimes against a sentient species because you happen to be in resource competition with them; while not considering it evil, because they are evil because we happen to want the same thing as us and happen to be less good at killing us than we are at killing them", or as I like to put it for brevity “Genocide, FTW.”
That approach is fine. If people want pure escapism, and aren’t interested in examining such elements and the ways it mirrors the behaviour of European colonial behaviour by dehumanising and demonising indigenous populations, that is cool. There is for many people, a lot of fun to be had in that.
But what this approach to orcs certainly does not involve is tough choices. You turn up, you kick their butts and you save the village, everyone it totally okay with the massacre because they are the bad guys and that the end of it.
Not my idea of fun.
For great social justice (and you know, fun).
Clearly, Orcs and their ilk, need to be handled
differently if they are going to be useful for the bordermarches.
For one thing, the whole turning a blind eye to Genocide
FTW thing kind of urks me. There are those who will genuinely claim that it is
morally good for characters to kill communities of orcs in games, because they
are “evil”, and the PCs are good. There have been plenty of points in earth’s
history when one group of hairless monkeys have massacred another such group
with almost exactly such an argument. Ignoring that annoys me.
So what to do with them instead? The most obvious
approach would be to not include them, but frankly I have included two whole-dimension
for weird species of monster to inhabit, and such creatures run deep in DnD lore.
A second approach would be to focus on developing orcs as a rich and vibrant
culture, to challenge the way that people the players interact with them. But,
honestly, if the players are going to choose to commit war crimes for fun and
profit, getting them to face up to their characters actions is going to be much
easier if their targets are humans, (or at least without the baggage of
traditionally evil species.)
What is the best way to change this? Create a different story model for orcs, one that allows for the fun of a dungeon crawl, but adds interesting questions.
What is the best way to change this? Create a different story model for orcs, one that allows for the fun of a dungeon crawl, but adds interesting questions.
Orcs are the symptom, not the disease.
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| CC BY-SA 3.0 |
This plague continues so long as the underlying conflict affects the community. Given the hidden nature of these conflicts, it is often difficult to resolve an ongoing orc incursion. No matter how many are killed, the problem persists However, adventurers who delve into the fey realm, are able fight their way into the heart of an orc blight, down into the caverns. There in the dark and rot, they may find the Blightheart, a physical object, from the material world, which signifies the underlying conflict. Blighthearts can be used to identify the cause of the conflict and overcome the orc blight.
Orcs have pig snouts! No, they don’t.
As fey creatures, the exact details of the appearance of
orcs vary wildly. Their tends to be consistency within a blight, but between
blights there can be drastic differences. Their skin tones can be almost any
colour, they can have pig snouts or tusk, they can appear oddly human. No two
are exactly alike, and not two blights are the same. However, they always appear
large and brutish.
Wednesday, 16 September 2015
5e Setting Building: Changelings; both Fosterlings and Fetches
Come away, O, human child!
To the woods and waters wild
With a fairy hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping that
To the woods and waters wild
With a fairy hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping that
you can understand.
- W. B. YEATS
- W. B. YEATS
The creatures of the Fey Realm have no children; they spring full formed into adulthood from the stuff of that realm. Many kith and many kin feel the generative instincts, which are frustrated by their very nature.
The result are the Fosterlings and the Fetches
The result are the Fosterlings and the Fetches
Fosterlings
Occationally a fey creature adopts a new born human child, taking them into the Fey Realm. The children are treated to lives of luxuary and wonder than no normal human child can ever hope for. Feed on magic and stories their entire youth, they mature into creatures indisputably fair and great talent. Each and every one has the potential to be a great hero or villain. However, this talent is almost always turned to the exploration of the hundred and one great tales of the the Fey Realm, where the fosterling may live a life of constant adventure, safe in the knowledge that nothing that they do not expect will ever happen, for it is in the nature of the Fey Realm to conform to the rules of stories, and for the fosterlings to be treated at their ultimately invulnerable protagonists. For some the few however, these adventures hold little appeal. There is no risk of failure, nor truly any opportunity for the outcomes of them to be meaningful. So it is that some jaded fosterlings emerge into the material world, where they almost innevitably take it upon themselves to become wandering heroes or terrible villains of some kind. They are almost always jaded creatures, soured on any earthly pleasure by a lifetime of wonders
Fosterlings are not only changed by their experiences. The very nature of the fey realm alters their morphology. Their visage is shaped into an exagerated example of the way that a local culture describes beauty in their folk tales. Thought in almost all cases ears become elongated and pointed. They also tend toward Neoteny. Which gives their beauty an alien and uncomfortable quality.
Fosterlings are not only changed by their experiences. The very nature of the fey realm alters their morphology. Their visage is shaped into an exagerated example of the way that a local culture describes beauty in their folk tales. Thought in almost all cases ears become elongated and pointed. They also tend toward Neoteny. Which gives their beauty an alien and uncomfortable quality.
Fetches
When the fey adopt human infants, it is often without the consent of the infants parents. Most fey who take children in this manner leave in the place of the child a fey construct, known as a fetch.
These creatures a small carved wooden dolls in the rough form of the child. They are animated with rough spun enchantments, and most last only a few weeks or months. This is not out of malice on the part of the fey, so much as their misunderstandings about the the material world.
A rare few, however, survive to maturity. They are forever other. Separate from the members of their community and intrinssically aware their nature is a secret. They often seem distant to those around them.
Friday, 21 August 2015
5e Setting Building: Dwarves; the sons and daughters of Tir Varnrag
When the people of the borderland speak of Dwarves, they think of the The Dwah of Tir Varnrag. They are creatures of myth and legend, peerless smiths. Tireless miners, greatest artificers of any world, but cursed by their fey nature too.
So meeting one of the creatures who on occasion walk the physical world referring to themselves as dwarves, comes as a shock to most. For legends are not meant to walk the land, nor should they insist on doing so, should they so thoroughly confound the tales that are told of them.
But every so often, that is exactly what happens.
Every so often, a handful of short but tough creatures with the look of the fey emerge into the world. They travel widely, have adventures, learn all manner of things, for a hundred years or more. Then, as suddenly as they appeared, they disappear back into the Fey Realm.
They describe themselves as the sons or daughters of Tir Varnrag, but the importance of this statement is lost on humans. For The Dwah are not born, nor do they breed as man would know it. Rather they spring full made from the stuff of the feyrealm, and disappear just as quickly if no one is paying attention. Understanding why the Dwarves call themselves the children of Tir Varnrag is the secret to their existence.
The Dwah are the greatest of all artisans, no other hand can craft so finely as theirs. Their work is perfect and none may claim it is other wise. But they are cursed, for while their work can be surpassed by no other, in terms of quality, even the lowliest child can surpass them in creativity. The Dwah are entirely incapable of creative thought or invention, it is simply not part of their nature. They do not learn, and cannot innovate in anyway, rather, if the knowledge of how a thing is crafted, exists as a schema, within the the book of iron, at the heart of Tir Varnrag, they simply know how it is done, and they can produce it, in its most perfect form.
This truth is a large part of why it is that the Dwah are always gruff and angry, for their failure is well known to them. Every so often, when confronted with something new, the Dwah, must confront their inability in a very personal and intimate manner. As attempt after attempt fails, they find themselves growing angrier and angrier. Eventually, they will start to hammer at some part of their own being, usually a hand or a foot, and they beat it and beat it, until it is useless. That achieved, they cut it of, and beat it some more. Though they do not intend it, they shape that flesh into a new born baby. This new child, is a dwarve, and such creatures are usually raised by members of other fey races until they are old enough to hold a hammer. The Dwah being ageless artisans who come into existence as ancient and grumpy have little understanding of children, and will as soon as the child appears able to hold a tool, try to put them to work. It is at this stage that the Dwah discover the most horrifying thing about their children. The new born dwarf does no know how to perform any craft, let along anything else. To the Dwah, this is unthinkable and a source of great shame.
It is for this reason that the children are called Dwarves, for it is a term that in the tongue of Tir Varnrag means "poorly formed". Despite this, Dwarves are blessed in ways their parents are not, for they can learn and innovate.
They often feel the call of adventure strongly, and enter the physical world, to their learn and experience new things. Over the course of the next hundred to two hundred years, they learn new things and engage in much excitement, before returning home, and their forge all the new techniques they have learned in iron, adding them to the sacred book.
Before you go, check out todays world building blog on the progess with the town of Mistley
So meeting one of the creatures who on occasion walk the physical world referring to themselves as dwarves, comes as a shock to most. For legends are not meant to walk the land, nor should they insist on doing so, should they so thoroughly confound the tales that are told of them.
But every so often, that is exactly what happens.
Every so often, a handful of short but tough creatures with the look of the fey emerge into the world. They travel widely, have adventures, learn all manner of things, for a hundred years or more. Then, as suddenly as they appeared, they disappear back into the Fey Realm.
They describe themselves as the sons or daughters of Tir Varnrag, but the importance of this statement is lost on humans. For The Dwah are not born, nor do they breed as man would know it. Rather they spring full made from the stuff of the feyrealm, and disappear just as quickly if no one is paying attention. Understanding why the Dwarves call themselves the children of Tir Varnrag is the secret to their existence.
Born from frustration.
The Dwah are the greatest of all artisans, no other hand can craft so finely as theirs. Their work is perfect and none may claim it is other wise. But they are cursed, for while their work can be surpassed by no other, in terms of quality, even the lowliest child can surpass them in creativity. The Dwah are entirely incapable of creative thought or invention, it is simply not part of their nature. They do not learn, and cannot innovate in anyway, rather, if the knowledge of how a thing is crafted, exists as a schema, within the the book of iron, at the heart of Tir Varnrag, they simply know how it is done, and they can produce it, in its most perfect form.
This truth is a large part of why it is that the Dwah are always gruff and angry, for their failure is well known to them. Every so often, when confronted with something new, the Dwah, must confront their inability in a very personal and intimate manner. As attempt after attempt fails, they find themselves growing angrier and angrier. Eventually, they will start to hammer at some part of their own being, usually a hand or a foot, and they beat it and beat it, until it is useless. That achieved, they cut it of, and beat it some more. Though they do not intend it, they shape that flesh into a new born baby. This new child, is a dwarve, and such creatures are usually raised by members of other fey races until they are old enough to hold a hammer. The Dwah being ageless artisans who come into existence as ancient and grumpy have little understanding of children, and will as soon as the child appears able to hold a tool, try to put them to work. It is at this stage that the Dwah discover the most horrifying thing about their children. The new born dwarf does no know how to perform any craft, let along anything else. To the Dwah, this is unthinkable and a source of great shame.
It is for this reason that the children are called Dwarves, for it is a term that in the tongue of Tir Varnrag means "poorly formed". Despite this, Dwarves are blessed in ways their parents are not, for they can learn and innovate.
They often feel the call of adventure strongly, and enter the physical world, to their learn and experience new things. Over the course of the next hundred to two hundred years, they learn new things and engage in much excitement, before returning home, and their forge all the new techniques they have learned in iron, adding them to the sacred book.
Before you go, check out todays world building blog on the progess with the town of Mistley
Thursday, 20 August 2015
5e Adventure Building:Introduction and brainstorming setting intro adventure
World building a great! But world building with a purpose is better. In the posts to follow, I am going to start building encounters and adventures set in the borderlands to delight my players with.
Legacy of Adder's keep
Below you is a scan of my brain storming for legacy of Adder's Keep
Something that is really important to me as a GM, is that their be many paths to success.
If you your skill based encounters are achievable by a number of approaches, with different difficulties and different rewards, you have a situations where players are faced with meaningful choices. While they do the thing that offers them few rewards but they are unlikely to be challenged by, or while they take the greater risk and greater rewards. Will they make an enemy for the future to ensure their success today? It also rewards players who generalize rather than specialize.
For Adder Keep, I amd going to be using the Chainspire Fortress map by Dyson Logos.
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| Cartography by Dyson Logos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. |
Sunday, 16 August 2015
5e Setting Building: Proper nouns, Map making and the PCs initial base of operations.
Again we have a, with a region of northern Arnel being without name. Lets fix that right now. The river flowing through this area is the Ashwater, and the region is commonly known as the Ashwater vale.
I love mapping, and it is a huge chunk of what this project is all about. So, before we get further into describing the region, lets look at the progress in mapping it since last post.
I love mapping, and it is a huge chunk of what this project is all about. So, before we get further into describing the region, lets look at the progress in mapping it since last post.
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| This is where things were. Boarder and coastline drawn, grid added |
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| Base colours added, coast fractalised, rivers added. Grid made lighter |
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| First few roads added, along with the outline of one section of woodland |
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| More woodlands added, and base colour for woodland added. Villages added at a distance from each other of about a mile. |
Most of the detail is in the bottom right hand corner, it is in this hex that the campaign will begin, with the PCs arriving in Mistley. There are also the villages of Boxford, Borrow, Blackwell, Higham, and Ornley
Mistley
Mistley is a large village (on the cusp of becoming a small town) on the banks of the Ashwater, where it flows into its estuary. Mistley is going to be the first location that the PCs spend anytime, so it is going to need to be fairly well detailed, Which sounds like the kind of thing for another blog post, all it's own.
Friday, 14 August 2015
Augh!!! I am bored of high level planning....
...so lets get a little closer in and start thinking about where the campaign will start. So lets dig down into what the Province Scale of world building and look at the starting region. The campaign I am going to be running is going to to start in Northern Arnel, near the border with the bleakmarsh. Northern Arnel has been designed to be a place where traditional governmental structures have fallen to pieces, there by allowing PCs to fill that void, either creating a new aristocracy, or building towards something new. The form of this collapse is the destruction of a great many northern aristocratic families during the civil wars, the slow collapse and corruption of southern lines put in their place, and abandonment of the region by the south, who frankly have enough on their plate as it is. Were the high King even aware of the players actions, it is questionable if he would act on them in the early stages of their rise to power, thanks to his inherited delusional state.
Worse still, society is in a state of apocalyptic shock.The great plague killed 1 in 10 adult and 1 in 5 people under the age of 5, just fifteen years ago*, and this after only a hundred years of rest from a civil war that had been very nearly as devastating to the north. Even before this the north suffered huge economic privation, as the wealth of the nation concentrated in the south.
It is also a place rich in a history of connection with the fey and the dead, but with relatively weak modern understanding of it thanks to the witchhunts sponcered by High King Tobin and his decendents.
All these fact make for a place that desperately needs saving, and a political climate might actually allow a few mercenaries to become the solution
Scale
Worse still, society is in a state of apocalyptic shock.The great plague killed 1 in 10 adult and 1 in 5 people under the age of 5, just fifteen years ago*, and this after only a hundred years of rest from a civil war that had been very nearly as devastating to the north. Even before this the north suffered huge economic privation, as the wealth of the nation concentrated in the south.
It is also a place rich in a history of connection with the fey and the dead, but with relatively weak modern understanding of it thanks to the witchhunts sponcered by High King Tobin and his decendents.
All these fact make for a place that desperately needs saving, and a political climate might actually allow a few mercenaries to become the solution
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| Kingdom Scale placeholder map for Arnel, Alass and Norren (most of). Highlights initial area of play |
As by now, you may have guessed, this is going to be a sandbox campaign. Which means lots of overland travel. Two considerations come of out of this at this stage, scale and environment.
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| First WIP of region level map of initial play area. |
Scale
When planning a Sandbox, getting the scale right is important. You get it wrong and you end up with a setting that makes no earthly sense. To date, the best scale I have found is the six mile hex, with half mile sub-hexs. It is worth checking out this post from Steamtunnel's blog "hydra's grotto", which explains the advantages of the six mile hex far better than I ever could.
Environment
The area in which the campaign kicks off, is going to be the watershed of a river, roughly equivilant to the river stour on the essex and suffolk border, here in the UK. The Stour is known for the painting of the english artist John Constable.
I grew up a short walk from the river, and the areas lush meadows and gently rolling hills hold a special place in my memory. The stour is also interesting for it is in many ways the border of civilisated influence in east anglia. Once you pass the river valley; the land, while still mostly cultivated, becomes wilder and wilder. The influence of the northsea on the wealther and feel of the land grows as you travel eastwards. Woodlands grow larger, heath and fen become more common and houses ever rarer. It is a mixture of these two elements I wish to weave together in this place. It should be a place of great beauty, but also isolation and bleakness.
Next time, I will be talking about the geography of the watershed, and detailing some of it's landmarks.
Wednesday, 12 August 2015
5e Setting Building: Introduction to Arnel and it's History.
The campaign I have planned for my players, will cast them as "great people" from the get go.
Lets be clear, in the real world, the actions of individuals are rarely if ever that important to the outcomes of regional or national events. Even when it appears that they are, very often such outstanding individuals are more an expression of a social trend than the drivers of change. But in the kind of story you tell where the characters aren't the movers and the shakers of destiny, there tend to be a lot fewer fairy knights, and a lot more murder in pubs, than I am aiming for.
Of course, if near superhuman mercenary murder hobo's started plying their trade in the real world (or worse still tried to change the world), governments would squash them with a drone strike and say "no thank you very much" before trying to pretend the whole sorry episode never occurred. The same should be true of any moderately competent fantasy government. So we need a pretty good rational for why adventurers are going to be able to set themselves up as noblity, rise armies, and try and become power players in the nation.
Fortunately, the real world gives us a few situations where skilled, violent and/or charismatic people are able to steer the path of whole nations, as opposed to being steer by the populous or events. Perhaps the most appropriate example is that of warlords in failed states.
That is why Arnel is what it is.
Well the short answer to that is, a mess. War and plague have decimated the nation, at a time when it's past strength is sorely needed. Where once it was a magical nation, with many allies amongst the fey and the dead, it has now lost almost all its knowledge of the arcane art, and the other world.
The times are changing, the nations leader is utterly mad, and their are opportunities a plenty for heroes.
0: To the west, Horran Vard slew Azak, the last of the black kings of Vortmarr. In the chaos and terror that follows, the black fen is formed, as the rivers burst their banks and coastal defenses fail, drowning the greatest cities of Vortmarr, and the remains of their Sorcerer kings.
10: Arnling settlements are common throughout the northern reaches of what will become Arnel. Folk tales and chronicles report that during this time, the Arnling settlements are isolated and fiercely independant. Many are troubled greatly by the fey.
11: Thomas Witt, aged fifteen, becomes the first wizard to be recorded in the folklore the Arnlings. He is said to have stolen magic from a fairy maiden. His adventures over the next ten years form the chronicle of Thomas Witt, and are often claimed to have laid the ground work for nationhood, as his adventures gave every Arnling settlement reason to be thankful to him. The roguish nature of Thomas Watt is the foundations of a view of wizards as tricksters and trouble makers in Arnling cultures. Simon and Tasha Osret are born to the Caleb Osret Chief of woodsedge, and Meli, a priestess of the war goddess.
12: Aaron of Redford, is born Elspeth of Redford, a blacksmith in that village. Katie Waterchild found wandering aged two near the rivers edge at Tallowback ford. Her parents are never identified, and she is adopted by Thomas Witt, who is travelling in the area.
21:Thomas Witt builds home atop the cliffs of the coast of daggers. He names it the High House, and fills it with many treasures, magical and otherwise. In the centuries since, many have tried to enter the High House to steal from it, most have not returned, and those that have, are almost always changed by the experience (rarely for the better).
22: The Frost Giantess Aslaug leads a small raid down from the Iceclaws, destroying the settlement of Holm. The spreading news of this raid and its perpetrators caused panic. Two more raids though out the year are slightly less devastating for the targets, thanks to the warning left by Holm.
23: Giantish raids continue. Thomas Witt, gathers Arnling leaders, persuading them to forge and alliance. On the winter solstice, the alliance and a force of giants clash in what will be known as the battle of Black Axe Field, giving the Arnlings their first glimmer of hope as they successfully drive of the giants. During this battle, Tom Witt scorches out Aslaug's left eye with magic flames. She takes the name Aslaug One-Eye, swearing the destruction of the Arnlings.
24-27: Arnling-giant conflict continues.
28: With no solution to the war with the giants in sight, Thomas Witt gathers 4 young men and woman from across the Arnling settlements, they are Aaron of Redford, the twins Simon and Tasha Osret, and his own adopted daughter Katie Waterchild. He binds these exceptional young people together by powerful oaths, creating the first Oathbound in the process. He leads the young heroes into the fey realm and the underworld, there forging alliances and seeking artifacts to help defeat the giants. Meanwhile, Aslaug One-Eye gathers more giants to her cause, and the Arnlings suffer two terrible defeats.
29: Aslaug One-Eye marches on Whitehold, the greatest remaining Arnling settlement. As Aslaug One-Eye leads the attack on the settlement, the Oathbound return at the head of an army of fey knights and the dead, driving the giants back into the mountains. They carry with them the corpse of Aslaug One-Eye atop her shield. Aaron of Redford and Tasha Osret marry, and are declared high king and queen of the Arnlings. The Nation of Arnel is born.
30-372: Arnlings spread southwards along the coast of daggers and the edge of the forest of slumber, settling the wilderness*. During this time, Arnel transforms from a collection of loosely allied settlements, to a full feudal system. Kate Waterchild and Thomas Witt slowly by surely spread the art of wizardry. It never becomes common, but the nation does have a near monopoly on wizards in the peninsular, which while they are mostly isolated from events elsewhere, earns the nation a reputation that will last for generations to come. Giant raids remain a threat, even if they are uncommon.
373: Arnel's expansion brings it border into contact with the border of the kingdom of Halwick for the first time. King John the second of Arnel meets with the Kings Oleg Ironhand of Halwick, and they agree a common border. This meeting is cordial, thanks in part to generations of sea trade between the two nations. The folk of Halwick are Endels, and Ironhand informs King John of several other Endel nations to the south, and west, including Halwicks neighbours in Alwick.
374: Arnel's southern border expands to meets the kingdom of Alswick. King John the second of Arnel meets with King Skath of Alswick. The two are unable to agree a common border, and tensions run high. This is in part due to both Arnlings and Endel's having settled much of the same land along the boarder region.
378: Banditry and raiding between Arnling and Endel lords in the border region draw Arnel and Alswick into war. For the first time, a major nation feels the effects of Arnels magical and martial traditions. The war lasts fifty day, before Alswick sues for peace, seeding the borderlands to Arnel
385: King John the second dies, his war-like son, Ethelred the first(also known as "the Goblin King"), is crowned. The economy of Arnel, driven by it's constant southwards expansion has suffered since 373, and Ethelred the first invades Alswick. At the same time, he calls forth a horde of goblins from Alswicks forests with a magic horn. Arnel's forces and the goblins progress deep into Alswick.
387: On the eve of total victory in Alswick, two events set Ethelred's plans to chaos. From the north, the largest Giant raid since the days of the Giantess Aslaug One-Eye, comes down from the mountain, and a bannerless force of raiders strikes at Ethelred's supply lines. The Goblin king is forced to flee back into Arnel to deal with the threat, however, he is ambushed on route, and slain. Most historians believe that these raiders were in fact the forces of King Oleg Ironhand, king of Halwick, who feared that his nation would be next to suffer Ethelred's attentions. Ethelred's younger brother, is crowned King Thomas the third. He gathers Arnel's forces, and marches north to face the giants. His wife, Morgan Stormchild, a priestess of the goddess of war travels into the battered nation of Halwick, there she meets with the elderly King Skath of Alswick and an envoy of King Oleg Iron hand. In a masterful example of diplomacy, she is able to convince King Skath to seed a third of his nations original land, in exchange for one hundred years of Oathbound piece between Arnel and Alswick. In addition to this, she is able to ensure nearly thirty marriages between Arnling and Endel noble lines, and favorable trading conditions. Meanwhile Thomas the third, drives back the Giantish invaders, but looses an arm in the process.
399: Queen Svella Ironhand, daughter of king Oleg, invades Arnel, with her nations armies, and a large force of mercenaries. This war will last two decades, and eventually result in the subjugation of Halwick by the sword
405: The true scale of the cunning of queen Morgan becomes clear, as Arnel absorbs Alswick as a Duchy, thanks to economic and social colonisation over the intervening years. This becomes official when skath's only grand child, Sara, marries prince Aaron, son of Thomas the third and Morgan Stormchild.
421: The annexation of Alswick secure and the subjugation of Halwick complete, Arnel finds itself with new neighbours in the form of Alass and Norren.
423: Modern borders of Arnel formed. Increasing sea trade in the Sundel Sea and with the ocean beyond, a near complete end to giant raids, and the growing shadow of Highmarch to the west, ensure a two hundred year period of peace in Arnel. This is widely considered the golden age of Arnel. During this time, the center of Arnel's political life moves south into the lands which were once Alswick and Halwick, with traditional Arnel lands being seen as backwards and superstitious. Meanwhile the high king sells the services of his vessels as mercenaries throughout the peninsular.
650-655: Several Barons of Northern Arnel refuse the call to service of High King Tobin the first, a short lived civil war ensues. During this conflict the king commits a number of Attrocities against his own people. Many historians see this as the end of the golden age of Arnel. After the massacre at Blackhill, it is said that Thomas Witt appeared to King Tobin, and pronounced the doom of the line of Redford. This is the last documented claim of the appearance of the wizard, who had been believed dead for hundreds of years. Since the King was the only witness to this appearance, it is uncertain if the wizard truly appeared, but none doubt the sincerity of Tobin's belief in it. From this time on, madness is a common ailment of the line of Redford. High King Tobin banished wizards from his court, and bans consorting with the fey.
656: The high king levies taxes against the north as a form of collective punishment. Additionally King Tobin attempts to lay siege to and destroy the High House of Thomas Witt, but his armies are unaccountably unable to find it. Serveral laws are past, banning wizardry, druidry and other non-religious magics
671: Plague decimates the northern city of Redford. King Tobin orders the inhabitance slaughtered and the city burned to the ground to stop the plagues spread.
700: An alliance of northern lords and wizards, along with fey allies strike against the south and Tobin's son Ethelred the second. A century of civil war ensues, literally decimating the north. Even by the present day, the north has not truly recovered
800: Weakened by a century of war, the south withdraws from politics in the penincular. Highmarch takes this opportunity and invades several nations which had historically recieved protection from Arnel. While the royalty of Arnel grows weaker and stranger thanks to its heritable madness,a new middle class of merchants rises from the shadow, spreading out from the capital. Mercenary companies become increasingly common, and individual lords start to use their feudal rights to raid one another, rather than protect the kingdom.
850: The renewed Merchant endevours across the eastern peninsular and in the lands beyond the Sundel sea bring unprecedented wealth to the merchant classes of Arnel. This success brings them into conflict with the merchant houses of Salerna.
900: A great plague sweeps the peninsular, brought by trade with other nations. In Arnel the slowly recovering north is hit hard, but not nearly so hard as the south. In desperation the high king retracts laws banning consorting with the Fey, and the practice of wizardry, in the hope of finding a solution to the plague, however, the traditions of magic in the south that might have aided have been utterly lost.
910: With the plague past, rebuilding begin. International trade continues to spur the rise to power of
merchant houses. The north is in ruins, and the king has utterly given up trying to rule it, focusing on ensuring the recovery of the south. New technologies of war and culture flood into the great cities of the south. Perhaps most importantly, is the rise of the Pike. professional soldiers armed with Pikes have started to challenge the battle field supremacy of the heavy cavalry of the noblity. highmarch looks set to invade Vodda, causing the alliance of princes.
914: First Bombard used on peninsular soil
915: The present day.
*these lands were ofcause not truly wildernesses, nor was the land they first settled when passing through the forest of slumber. However, the people of Arnel have a strong cultural myth of having been the first to settle the area.
Lets be clear, in the real world, the actions of individuals are rarely if ever that important to the outcomes of regional or national events. Even when it appears that they are, very often such outstanding individuals are more an expression of a social trend than the drivers of change. But in the kind of story you tell where the characters aren't the movers and the shakers of destiny, there tend to be a lot fewer fairy knights, and a lot more murder in pubs, than I am aiming for.
Of course, if near superhuman mercenary murder hobo's started plying their trade in the real world (or worse still tried to change the world), governments would squash them with a drone strike and say "no thank you very much" before trying to pretend the whole sorry episode never occurred. The same should be true of any moderately competent fantasy government. So we need a pretty good rational for why adventurers are going to be able to set themselves up as noblity, rise armies, and try and become power players in the nation.
Fortunately, the real world gives us a few situations where skilled, violent and/or charismatic people are able to steer the path of whole nations, as opposed to being steer by the populous or events. Perhaps the most appropriate example is that of warlords in failed states.
That is why Arnel is what it is.
What is Arnel?
Well the short answer to that is, a mess. War and plague have decimated the nation, at a time when it's past strength is sorely needed. Where once it was a magical nation, with many allies amongst the fey and the dead, it has now lost almost all its knowledge of the arcane art, and the other world.
The times are changing, the nations leader is utterly mad, and their are opportunities a plenty for heroes.
The origins of Arnel
The time before: The black kings of Vortmarr ruled a terrible kingdom of dark magic on the western coast of the Solenel peninsular. It expanded ever outwards, consuming nations and tribes. Their kingdom is said to have lasted a thousand years. At sometime during the late stages of their rule, the Arnlings pass through the forest of shadows, and settle to fey haunsted lands beneith the Iceclaws, the forest of shadows, and the Sundel Sea. Meanwhile, a warlord named Horran Vard goes to war with Vortmarr, and for the first time in hundred of years, hope is granted to the people of the penincular as it becomes clear that the black kings may be defeated.0: To the west, Horran Vard slew Azak, the last of the black kings of Vortmarr. In the chaos and terror that follows, the black fen is formed, as the rivers burst their banks and coastal defenses fail, drowning the greatest cities of Vortmarr, and the remains of their Sorcerer kings.
10: Arnling settlements are common throughout the northern reaches of what will become Arnel. Folk tales and chronicles report that during this time, the Arnling settlements are isolated and fiercely independant. Many are troubled greatly by the fey.
11: Thomas Witt, aged fifteen, becomes the first wizard to be recorded in the folklore the Arnlings. He is said to have stolen magic from a fairy maiden. His adventures over the next ten years form the chronicle of Thomas Witt, and are often claimed to have laid the ground work for nationhood, as his adventures gave every Arnling settlement reason to be thankful to him. The roguish nature of Thomas Watt is the foundations of a view of wizards as tricksters and trouble makers in Arnling cultures. Simon and Tasha Osret are born to the Caleb Osret Chief of woodsedge, and Meli, a priestess of the war goddess.
12: Aaron of Redford, is born Elspeth of Redford, a blacksmith in that village. Katie Waterchild found wandering aged two near the rivers edge at Tallowback ford. Her parents are never identified, and she is adopted by Thomas Witt, who is travelling in the area.
21:Thomas Witt builds home atop the cliffs of the coast of daggers. He names it the High House, and fills it with many treasures, magical and otherwise. In the centuries since, many have tried to enter the High House to steal from it, most have not returned, and those that have, are almost always changed by the experience (rarely for the better).
22: The Frost Giantess Aslaug leads a small raid down from the Iceclaws, destroying the settlement of Holm. The spreading news of this raid and its perpetrators caused panic. Two more raids though out the year are slightly less devastating for the targets, thanks to the warning left by Holm.
23: Giantish raids continue. Thomas Witt, gathers Arnling leaders, persuading them to forge and alliance. On the winter solstice, the alliance and a force of giants clash in what will be known as the battle of Black Axe Field, giving the Arnlings their first glimmer of hope as they successfully drive of the giants. During this battle, Tom Witt scorches out Aslaug's left eye with magic flames. She takes the name Aslaug One-Eye, swearing the destruction of the Arnlings.
24-27: Arnling-giant conflict continues.
28: With no solution to the war with the giants in sight, Thomas Witt gathers 4 young men and woman from across the Arnling settlements, they are Aaron of Redford, the twins Simon and Tasha Osret, and his own adopted daughter Katie Waterchild. He binds these exceptional young people together by powerful oaths, creating the first Oathbound in the process. He leads the young heroes into the fey realm and the underworld, there forging alliances and seeking artifacts to help defeat the giants. Meanwhile, Aslaug One-Eye gathers more giants to her cause, and the Arnlings suffer two terrible defeats.
29: Aslaug One-Eye marches on Whitehold, the greatest remaining Arnling settlement. As Aslaug One-Eye leads the attack on the settlement, the Oathbound return at the head of an army of fey knights and the dead, driving the giants back into the mountains. They carry with them the corpse of Aslaug One-Eye atop her shield. Aaron of Redford and Tasha Osret marry, and are declared high king and queen of the Arnlings. The Nation of Arnel is born.
30-372: Arnlings spread southwards along the coast of daggers and the edge of the forest of slumber, settling the wilderness*. During this time, Arnel transforms from a collection of loosely allied settlements, to a full feudal system. Kate Waterchild and Thomas Witt slowly by surely spread the art of wizardry. It never becomes common, but the nation does have a near monopoly on wizards in the peninsular, which while they are mostly isolated from events elsewhere, earns the nation a reputation that will last for generations to come. Giant raids remain a threat, even if they are uncommon.
373: Arnel's expansion brings it border into contact with the border of the kingdom of Halwick for the first time. King John the second of Arnel meets with the Kings Oleg Ironhand of Halwick, and they agree a common border. This meeting is cordial, thanks in part to generations of sea trade between the two nations. The folk of Halwick are Endels, and Ironhand informs King John of several other Endel nations to the south, and west, including Halwicks neighbours in Alwick.
374: Arnel's southern border expands to meets the kingdom of Alswick. King John the second of Arnel meets with King Skath of Alswick. The two are unable to agree a common border, and tensions run high. This is in part due to both Arnlings and Endel's having settled much of the same land along the boarder region.
378: Banditry and raiding between Arnling and Endel lords in the border region draw Arnel and Alswick into war. For the first time, a major nation feels the effects of Arnels magical and martial traditions. The war lasts fifty day, before Alswick sues for peace, seeding the borderlands to Arnel
385: King John the second dies, his war-like son, Ethelred the first(also known as "the Goblin King"), is crowned. The economy of Arnel, driven by it's constant southwards expansion has suffered since 373, and Ethelred the first invades Alswick. At the same time, he calls forth a horde of goblins from Alswicks forests with a magic horn. Arnel's forces and the goblins progress deep into Alswick.
387: On the eve of total victory in Alswick, two events set Ethelred's plans to chaos. From the north, the largest Giant raid since the days of the Giantess Aslaug One-Eye, comes down from the mountain, and a bannerless force of raiders strikes at Ethelred's supply lines. The Goblin king is forced to flee back into Arnel to deal with the threat, however, he is ambushed on route, and slain. Most historians believe that these raiders were in fact the forces of King Oleg Ironhand, king of Halwick, who feared that his nation would be next to suffer Ethelred's attentions. Ethelred's younger brother, is crowned King Thomas the third. He gathers Arnel's forces, and marches north to face the giants. His wife, Morgan Stormchild, a priestess of the goddess of war travels into the battered nation of Halwick, there she meets with the elderly King Skath of Alswick and an envoy of King Oleg Iron hand. In a masterful example of diplomacy, she is able to convince King Skath to seed a third of his nations original land, in exchange for one hundred years of Oathbound piece between Arnel and Alswick. In addition to this, she is able to ensure nearly thirty marriages between Arnling and Endel noble lines, and favorable trading conditions. Meanwhile Thomas the third, drives back the Giantish invaders, but looses an arm in the process.
399: Queen Svella Ironhand, daughter of king Oleg, invades Arnel, with her nations armies, and a large force of mercenaries. This war will last two decades, and eventually result in the subjugation of Halwick by the sword
405: The true scale of the cunning of queen Morgan becomes clear, as Arnel absorbs Alswick as a Duchy, thanks to economic and social colonisation over the intervening years. This becomes official when skath's only grand child, Sara, marries prince Aaron, son of Thomas the third and Morgan Stormchild.
421: The annexation of Alswick secure and the subjugation of Halwick complete, Arnel finds itself with new neighbours in the form of Alass and Norren.
423: Modern borders of Arnel formed. Increasing sea trade in the Sundel Sea and with the ocean beyond, a near complete end to giant raids, and the growing shadow of Highmarch to the west, ensure a two hundred year period of peace in Arnel. This is widely considered the golden age of Arnel. During this time, the center of Arnel's political life moves south into the lands which were once Alswick and Halwick, with traditional Arnel lands being seen as backwards and superstitious. Meanwhile the high king sells the services of his vessels as mercenaries throughout the peninsular.
650-655: Several Barons of Northern Arnel refuse the call to service of High King Tobin the first, a short lived civil war ensues. During this conflict the king commits a number of Attrocities against his own people. Many historians see this as the end of the golden age of Arnel. After the massacre at Blackhill, it is said that Thomas Witt appeared to King Tobin, and pronounced the doom of the line of Redford. This is the last documented claim of the appearance of the wizard, who had been believed dead for hundreds of years. Since the King was the only witness to this appearance, it is uncertain if the wizard truly appeared, but none doubt the sincerity of Tobin's belief in it. From this time on, madness is a common ailment of the line of Redford. High King Tobin banished wizards from his court, and bans consorting with the fey.
656: The high king levies taxes against the north as a form of collective punishment. Additionally King Tobin attempts to lay siege to and destroy the High House of Thomas Witt, but his armies are unaccountably unable to find it. Serveral laws are past, banning wizardry, druidry and other non-religious magics
671: Plague decimates the northern city of Redford. King Tobin orders the inhabitance slaughtered and the city burned to the ground to stop the plagues spread.
700: An alliance of northern lords and wizards, along with fey allies strike against the south and Tobin's son Ethelred the second. A century of civil war ensues, literally decimating the north. Even by the present day, the north has not truly recovered
800: Weakened by a century of war, the south withdraws from politics in the penincular. Highmarch takes this opportunity and invades several nations which had historically recieved protection from Arnel. While the royalty of Arnel grows weaker and stranger thanks to its heritable madness,a new middle class of merchants rises from the shadow, spreading out from the capital. Mercenary companies become increasingly common, and individual lords start to use their feudal rights to raid one another, rather than protect the kingdom.
850: The renewed Merchant endevours across the eastern peninsular and in the lands beyond the Sundel sea bring unprecedented wealth to the merchant classes of Arnel. This success brings them into conflict with the merchant houses of Salerna.
900: A great plague sweeps the peninsular, brought by trade with other nations. In Arnel the slowly recovering north is hit hard, but not nearly so hard as the south. In desperation the high king retracts laws banning consorting with the Fey, and the practice of wizardry, in the hope of finding a solution to the plague, however, the traditions of magic in the south that might have aided have been utterly lost.
910: With the plague past, rebuilding begin. International trade continues to spur the rise to power of
merchant houses. The north is in ruins, and the king has utterly given up trying to rule it, focusing on ensuring the recovery of the south. New technologies of war and culture flood into the great cities of the south. Perhaps most importantly, is the rise of the Pike. professional soldiers armed with Pikes have started to challenge the battle field supremacy of the heavy cavalry of the noblity. highmarch looks set to invade Vodda, causing the alliance of princes.
914: First Bombard used on peninsular soil
915: The present day.
*these lands were ofcause not truly wildernesses, nor was the land they first settled when passing through the forest of slumber. However, the people of Arnel have a strong cultural myth of having been the first to settle the area.
Sunday, 9 August 2015
5e Setting Building: The Gray Elves of Nil
The Underworld of the Bordermarches is home to ruins long lost to the living, and native horrors which have never lived. Perhaps strangest of all, is the city of Nil and it's elfin inhabitants.
The city is built of empty towers, long, covered arcades, and beautiful monochrome gardens. During the day, the low grey clouds scrape the top of the towers as they scud across the sky, and the towers sing with sonorous tones, like giant pipes, as the wind plays across their tops. At night, the towers appear to reach towards the few stars in the inky sky. The Grey Elves dwell as nomads within the city, living in isolated camps beneath the arcades or at the base of one of the singing towers.
The Grey Elves of Nil
The Grey Elves of Nil are a strange lot. They make their living in the underworld as crafts people, herders and hunters. Outsiders who have observed them, are often puzzled as to how it is that the grey elves are able to support what appears to be an advanced culture. In the rest of the borderlands their economy would mean a culture of hunter-gatherers. The Grey Elves do not farm, yet their tables are laid with bread. They do not gather firewood, yet their fires burn ever brightly. When asked about this, the Grey Elves have no answers for their questioner, for it is simply the way of things in their experience. Indeed, in human lands they struggle, for concepts such as trade, money and labour are entirely alien to them.
Despite this, the grey elves are a people who have elevated their crafts to the highest levels of excellence; they are capable of weaving complex geometric patterns so finely that they appear to be blocks of pure darkness and light, while their furniture has a fluidity and grace, found nowhere else.
The grey elves dress exclusively in black, white and shades between, though despite the lack of colour in their fashion, their is great care and beauty in their garments. Both males and females tend to wear floor length robes, a tight sash to hold the robe closed, with a shorter, loose fitting coat over them.The lower layers of clothing are patterned with complex tessellating shapes in black and white. Outer layers are exquisitely fabric painted with pictorial scenes from the myths of the Elves of Nil or with beautiful star fields.
The Grey Elves of Nil have thousands of stories, and an oral tradition that no other culture can compare. This is strange, for all evidence suggests that if they are not immortal, then they are so long lived as to make no difference to the mayfly species of the borderland. Many of the subjects of the tales must still live, and certainly members of their kind who share the names and appearances of those mentioned in the tales can be found in the city of Nil.
Grey Elves have a memory of experience and events which erodes in a matter of years, but they have a profound capacity to remember stories. So it is, that the grey elf who tells the tale of a great hero slaying of a hoard of hungry ghosts, maybe said hero. They may have neither memory of the event, nor realization that they are the subject of the story, despite it having happened but a human lifetime ago. Skills that a grey elf neglects are also quickly eroded, meaning that said elf may also be an apprentice weaver, with no idea how to swing a sword or cast a spell. Despite their inability to understand this aspect of themselves, the Grey Elves are gripped by a profound and lasting sorrow at all they have lost. This sorrow is lessened only through creation and the forging of new stories in the role of hero.
The Grey Elves of Nil have thousands of stories, and an oral tradition that no other culture can compare. This is strange, for all evidence suggests that if they are not immortal, then they are so long lived as to make no difference to the mayfly species of the borderland. Many of the subjects of the tales must still live, and certainly members of their kind who share the names and appearances of those mentioned in the tales can be found in the city of Nil.
Grey Elves have a memory of experience and events which erodes in a matter of years, but they have a profound capacity to remember stories. So it is, that the grey elf who tells the tale of a great hero slaying of a hoard of hungry ghosts, maybe said hero. They may have neither memory of the event, nor realization that they are the subject of the story, despite it having happened but a human lifetime ago. Skills that a grey elf neglects are also quickly eroded, meaning that said elf may also be an apprentice weaver, with no idea how to swing a sword or cast a spell. Despite their inability to understand this aspect of themselves, the Grey Elves are gripped by a profound and lasting sorrow at all they have lost. This sorrow is lessened only through creation and the forging of new stories in the role of hero.
Friday, 7 August 2015
5e Setting Building: Welcome to the bordermarches.
When I started this project this, it was with but a few images in my mind and a general idea of "I want it to be like these things". It has come a long way from that already, but one side effect of this is starting to really effect this process. That is a lack of a name for the setting. Over the last few posts, there has been a lot of referring to this place and time as "the setting". Well that ends now!
Welcome to the Border Marches.
The Border Marches is the name for the wider setting. It is a world between world, where hard bitten sell swords fight bandits in fey touched forests. It is a world where merchant princess conspire together to raise prices in coffee houses by day, and sacrifice vagrants to their hungry ghost ancestors by night in exchange for aid in their intrigues. The fey and the dead are always near, and the physical world must always be mindful that they live on the boards of these two worlds.
For the foreseeable future, we will be focusing on the kingdom of Arnel, a once great nation in decline thanks to the ravages of civil war, plague and barbarian raiding, but to understand Arnel. We need to know a little more about how it relates to it's neighbours and the region within which it can be found.
Arnel is situated at the throat of the Solenel peninsular, at the base of the Iceclaw Peaks. To its west lays the forest of slumber, Highmarch and the black fens. To the east the Sundel sea and the slithermarsh.To the north it borders the Iceclaws, and direstly to the south lay the principalities of Alass, Norren, Vodda and Salerna
The forest of slumber
These thick pin woodlands, flow out from the base of Iceclaw Mountains, spreading into civilised lands. They are a place shunned by man, for their are many gateways here to the feywild.
Highmarch
Over the last two thousand years, Highmarch has grown from the shattered remains of Vortmarr, into a powerful and expansionist, militant nation. Ruled by the Sentinal Knights, who's chapter houses dot the land, the entire nation is in constant preperation for war, should the black kings rise once more. In aid of this aim, the sentinal knights have expanded east and south by the conquest of three of its neighbours in the last five hundred years.
The Black Fens
The lands today known as the black fens, were once the cities and fertile farmlands of the kingdom of Vortmarr, home to the black kings. However, when Vard rose up, and led his people to overthrow the black kings, they turned terrible magic against the slave revolt. These magics ruined the cities and coastal farmlands, creating these bleak and terrible fens.
The Sundel sea
A shallow sea lies to the east of the peninsular seperating it from the lands of the east.
Bleakmarsh
To the east of Arnel, a large coastal swamp sits at base of the Iceclaw mountains s
The Iceclaws
Your standard and terrible fantasy mountain range. It acts as a fairly effective barrier to the cold wastes of the north, where giants and barbarians roam. Every so often barbarians raids make their way through the mountains into Highmarch and Arnel. (Need to find something interesting to do with these)
Alass
One of a number of small nations direstly to the south of Arnel
Norren
Another small nation directly south of Arnel.
Vodda
Vodda is sits at the southern border with the forest of Slumber and the eastern edge of Highmarch. The nation is currently preparing for what it believes in an inevitable war with Highmarch.
Salerna:
Salerna is the banking and trade capital of the penisular, and while it is a small nation with little military might of its own, it has been instrimental in early attempts to forge an alliance between itself, Alass, Norren, and Vodda.
Welcome to the Border Marches.
The Border Marches is the name for the wider setting. It is a world between world, where hard bitten sell swords fight bandits in fey touched forests. It is a world where merchant princess conspire together to raise prices in coffee houses by day, and sacrifice vagrants to their hungry ghost ancestors by night in exchange for aid in their intrigues. The fey and the dead are always near, and the physical world must always be mindful that they live on the boards of these two worlds.
For the foreseeable future, we will be focusing on the kingdom of Arnel, a once great nation in decline thanks to the ravages of civil war, plague and barbarian raiding, but to understand Arnel. We need to know a little more about how it relates to it's neighbours and the region within which it can be found.
Arnel is situated at the throat of the Solenel peninsular, at the base of the Iceclaw Peaks. To its west lays the forest of slumber, Highmarch and the black fens. To the east the Sundel sea and the slithermarsh.To the north it borders the Iceclaws, and direstly to the south lay the principalities of Alass, Norren, Vodda and Salerna
The forest of slumber
These thick pin woodlands, flow out from the base of Iceclaw Mountains, spreading into civilised lands. They are a place shunned by man, for their are many gateways here to the feywild.
Highmarch
Over the last two thousand years, Highmarch has grown from the shattered remains of Vortmarr, into a powerful and expansionist, militant nation. Ruled by the Sentinal Knights, who's chapter houses dot the land, the entire nation is in constant preperation for war, should the black kings rise once more. In aid of this aim, the sentinal knights have expanded east and south by the conquest of three of its neighbours in the last five hundred years.
The Black Fens
The lands today known as the black fens, were once the cities and fertile farmlands of the kingdom of Vortmarr, home to the black kings. However, when Vard rose up, and led his people to overthrow the black kings, they turned terrible magic against the slave revolt. These magics ruined the cities and coastal farmlands, creating these bleak and terrible fens.
The Sundel sea
A shallow sea lies to the east of the peninsular seperating it from the lands of the east.
Bleakmarsh
To the east of Arnel, a large coastal swamp sits at base of the Iceclaw mountains s
The Iceclaws
Your standard and terrible fantasy mountain range. It acts as a fairly effective barrier to the cold wastes of the north, where giants and barbarians roam. Every so often barbarians raids make their way through the mountains into Highmarch and Arnel. (Need to find something interesting to do with these)
Alass
One of a number of small nations direstly to the south of Arnel
Norren
Another small nation directly south of Arnel.
Vodda
Vodda is sits at the southern border with the forest of Slumber and the eastern edge of Highmarch. The nation is currently preparing for what it believes in an inevitable war with Highmarch.
Salerna:
Salerna is the banking and trade capital of the penisular, and while it is a small nation with little military might of its own, it has been instrimental in early attempts to forge an alliance between itself, Alass, Norren, and Vodda.
Thursday, 6 August 2015
Tuesday, 4 August 2015
How to be a "better" player.
So Lex, over at Starwalker studios, has done an interesting podcast on being a better player. It is a great introduction, covering perhaps the two most important rules of how to be a good player. These are of course; don't be a dick, and, pull your weight at the table. He goes into a lot of detail on these areas, and it is certainly worth a listen.
But at the end of the day I think it is really introductory level stuff, which shouldn't (but all to often does) need to be said. It isn't the only good advice out there on the topic. Look, Robot's article on 11 ways to be a better roleplayer, goes a little more in depth, and contains what I guess could be called the two most important intermediate level skills when it comes to role-playing, I.e. "do stuff" and "don't deny."
What I thought might be interesting, is looking at the layer of advice just above that.
Work with the story:
When you sit down to make a characters, it is worth talking to your fellow players and GM. This isn't just so you can find out if anyone is playing a cleric yet.No, this is an opportunity to make decision about who your character will be, and how that will reflect and/or compliment the theme and mood of the game's fiction.
It is all well and good playing Paul Pleasant , Paladin of Palor in his Pristine Plate, but if your GM has pulled together a Ravenloft game of dilettante investigators, hot on the trail of a serial killer, Sir Pleasant is going to be a little off key. Take the time to really get to grips with what the campaign is going to be about, and find ways to play of that.
Agree on a social contract: So in 11 ways to be a better roleplayer, their are a couple of a fairly explicit instruction; Don’t harm other players and "If you make someone uncomfortable, apologies and talk to them about it." This is great advice, to this day, I am more than a little bitter about having one of my characters Fisk'ed with a car boot, by another PC. That was the height of fun, let me tell you.
However that advice isn't the whole story. There are games where inter-player antagonism is part of the deal, and a lot of fun to boot. Many horror games are all about making the players uncomfortable. The secret is to have everybody on the same page, and to have consented to the material in play.
You see, if wasn't that I object in principle to one of my characters having been decapitated by another players character. Rather, it was that I was working under the implicit assumption that we were on the same side, and would not do such a thing to each other. Knowing that was the game were playing, would have changed the way I approached the game.
Equally, when I sit down to run Call of Cthulhu, I am setting out to make my players uncomfortable. It is for both myself and my players, a big part of the fun of the game. However, I have their permission to take them to that place, and that, combined with my agreement not to touch on certain subjects, frees them to trust me.
So talk with your GM and you fellow players, has out rules as to what is and isn't acceptable at the table. This can be a useful place to cover other things, like those pesky personal hygiene issues which still occasionally plague out hobby, and use of tablets and phones at the table.
Use all your senses:
Two of the best bits of advice Lex gives in his podcast are ask questions and contribute to the fiction. Well I heartily support this advice but would add, use all your senses. Ask what a place smells like, ask about the birdsong that can be heard in the NPCs garden, and describe the taste of the walnut bread at the tavern.
Set yourself goals:
If your character wants things, and will actively pursue them, that is another thing for your GM to grab hold of. It can be a way to steer your character towards plot or a meaningful rewards for success. Most importantly, it helps to make your character more rounded and believable.
Set yourself rules:
An often under-appreciated tool of creativity is working within constraints. Being unable to do the first thing that pops into our heads, forces us out of our comfort zone. It makes us find new and interesting ways to approach a problem. By applying stict rules to our characters, we can create characters much further outside our norm.
Such rules can be things like, "this character never says no to anything", "will not kill another human under any circumstances" or "this character will not willingly be the target of a spell." Next time you play a new character, try taking on such a rule, and see where it takes you.
However, if you take this approach, remember not to deny another players actions(unless you've agreed that is okay ahead of time). If the rule stands to act as a block to the ongoing adventure. Make you response proactive. The answer shouldn't be "my character wouldn't do x" it should be "my character wouldn't do X, but he would do Y, which should get him to the same position.
Be Inconsistent
People aren't 100% consistent. The greatest philanthropists in the world have examined prejudices, and even the most cynically criminals have friends. Heroes can have phobias, and villains can act in the common good. When we make characters who are 100% consistent, what we get, is not a realistic character, but a stereotype. Consider ways in which your character acts outside of what might be expected of him.
Make poor choices:
This is a big one, with effects on various parts of the game, it also acts as the next step on from embracing failure.
The realisation that failure is okay, is a big deal. It allows us to see what else failure might be. Just look at Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Indy's failure to judge the weight properly leads is the trigger for action, as previously established threats are all brought into a new context by the collapse.
Clealy for the viewer, Indy's failure is a good thing. Failure by our characters can be a good thing for us the player too. The prime example of this being the escape of a recurring villain. At this point, I hope we can agree that failure can be a good thing. Before continuing lets take about decision making.
Then there is the fact that people, as a rule, aren't very good at making good decisions, and there are a lot of things that make them worse at it. This is especially true when it comes to making decisions about things we do not understand well. When I say well, I mean things we can and have applied the scientific method too. As a result, your average PC in an RPG is usually ill equipped to good decisions about such vague and abstract things as say, which feats they are taking.
All this combines to mean that making poor decisions at the table CAN lead to more interesting and believable characters, especially when mechanical choices lead to more generalised and rounded characters, or behavioural choices reflect motivations other than success.
Don't be afraid to say, it does not matter that this is the optimal choice, because the other option is cooler.
But at the end of the day I think it is really introductory level stuff, which shouldn't (but all to often does) need to be said. It isn't the only good advice out there on the topic. Look, Robot's article on 11 ways to be a better roleplayer, goes a little more in depth, and contains what I guess could be called the two most important intermediate level skills when it comes to role-playing, I.e. "do stuff" and "don't deny."
What I thought might be interesting, is looking at the layer of advice just above that.
Work with the story:
When you sit down to make a characters, it is worth talking to your fellow players and GM. This isn't just so you can find out if anyone is playing a cleric yet.No, this is an opportunity to make decision about who your character will be, and how that will reflect and/or compliment the theme and mood of the game's fiction.
It is all well and good playing Paul Pleasant , Paladin of Palor in his Pristine Plate, but if your GM has pulled together a Ravenloft game of dilettante investigators, hot on the trail of a serial killer, Sir Pleasant is going to be a little off key. Take the time to really get to grips with what the campaign is going to be about, and find ways to play of that.
Agree on a social contract: So in 11 ways to be a better roleplayer, their are a couple of a fairly explicit instruction; Don’t harm other players and "If you make someone uncomfortable, apologies and talk to them about it." This is great advice, to this day, I am more than a little bitter about having one of my characters Fisk'ed with a car boot, by another PC. That was the height of fun, let me tell you.
However that advice isn't the whole story. There are games where inter-player antagonism is part of the deal, and a lot of fun to boot. Many horror games are all about making the players uncomfortable. The secret is to have everybody on the same page, and to have consented to the material in play.
You see, if wasn't that I object in principle to one of my characters having been decapitated by another players character. Rather, it was that I was working under the implicit assumption that we were on the same side, and would not do such a thing to each other. Knowing that was the game were playing, would have changed the way I approached the game.
Equally, when I sit down to run Call of Cthulhu, I am setting out to make my players uncomfortable. It is for both myself and my players, a big part of the fun of the game. However, I have their permission to take them to that place, and that, combined with my agreement not to touch on certain subjects, frees them to trust me.
So talk with your GM and you fellow players, has out rules as to what is and isn't acceptable at the table. This can be a useful place to cover other things, like those pesky personal hygiene issues which still occasionally plague out hobby, and use of tablets and phones at the table.
Use all your senses:
Two of the best bits of advice Lex gives in his podcast are ask questions and contribute to the fiction. Well I heartily support this advice but would add, use all your senses. Ask what a place smells like, ask about the birdsong that can be heard in the NPCs garden, and describe the taste of the walnut bread at the tavern.
Set yourself goals:
If your character wants things, and will actively pursue them, that is another thing for your GM to grab hold of. It can be a way to steer your character towards plot or a meaningful rewards for success. Most importantly, it helps to make your character more rounded and believable.
Set yourself rules:
An often under-appreciated tool of creativity is working within constraints. Being unable to do the first thing that pops into our heads, forces us out of our comfort zone. It makes us find new and interesting ways to approach a problem. By applying stict rules to our characters, we can create characters much further outside our norm.
Such rules can be things like, "this character never says no to anything", "will not kill another human under any circumstances" or "this character will not willingly be the target of a spell." Next time you play a new character, try taking on such a rule, and see where it takes you.
However, if you take this approach, remember not to deny another players actions(unless you've agreed that is okay ahead of time). If the rule stands to act as a block to the ongoing adventure. Make you response proactive. The answer shouldn't be "my character wouldn't do x" it should be "my character wouldn't do X, but he would do Y, which should get him to the same position.
Be Inconsistent
People aren't 100% consistent. The greatest philanthropists in the world have examined prejudices, and even the most cynically criminals have friends. Heroes can have phobias, and villains can act in the common good. When we make characters who are 100% consistent, what we get, is not a realistic character, but a stereotype. Consider ways in which your character acts outside of what might be expected of him.
Make poor choices:
This is a big one, with effects on various parts of the game, it also acts as the next step on from embracing failure.
The realisation that failure is okay, is a big deal. It allows us to see what else failure might be. Just look at Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Indy's failure to judge the weight properly leads is the trigger for action, as previously established threats are all brought into a new context by the collapse.
Clealy for the viewer, Indy's failure is a good thing. Failure by our characters can be a good thing for us the player too. The prime example of this being the escape of a recurring villain. At this point, I hope we can agree that failure can be a good thing. Before continuing lets take about decision making.
Then there is the fact that people, as a rule, aren't very good at making good decisions, and there are a lot of things that make them worse at it. This is especially true when it comes to making decisions about things we do not understand well. When I say well, I mean things we can and have applied the scientific method too. As a result, your average PC in an RPG is usually ill equipped to good decisions about such vague and abstract things as say, which feats they are taking.
All this combines to mean that making poor decisions at the table CAN lead to more interesting and believable characters, especially when mechanical choices lead to more generalised and rounded characters, or behavioural choices reflect motivations other than success.
Don't be afraid to say, it does not matter that this is the optimal choice, because the other option is cooler.
The mapping of a city; part1.
Here are some work in progress shots from my latest project. The finished product will be a pair of A1 poster maps. The first will be of the region directly around a major city. I have shared it with you before
The second is of the city itself. I thought I would share some WIP shots with you all today.
Thursday, 30 July 2015
5e Setting Building: The Underworld
Third of the three realms, commonly interacted with by man, in this setting is the Underworld. In this setting the underworld is a place of shadow and fading passion, through which the dead must travel, before entering the Great Labyrinth of reincarnation.
The Bleak Moor
This is the part of the Underworld closest to the physical world. It is land with thin air, and gently rolling hills covered in course grass, heather and gorse. Threatening gray clouds scud across the sky as though time has been speed up, in the constant twilight. There is little colour here, and what their is, is almost always muted and drained. Across this land, ruins and tiny abandoned villages are scattered across it. It is in this land that the dead first find themselves after their bodies die in the physical world. It is possible to walk for ever across these desolate moors, and never find anywhere of import, for they are vaster that the imagination of man.
It is through this land that the dead must wander, with only their grave goods, in search of the spiral pathways, or the wardens. Those who are lucky find them, but the Bleak Moor is a dangerous place, and some souls find themselves devoured by the hungry dead, or other stranger things.
The Spiral Pathway
The Spiral Pathway is a mystical road way that spans all of the Bleak moor, but which some how, mysteriously, will lead any traveler upon it to the Great Labyrinth, with one year of travel. The road is marked by menhir, which are placed upon it's side. However, the Spiral Pathway is not safe, many threats lurk upon its rout. The path eventually leads into a great tangled forest, before opening into Roan, the city of the dead, who's heart at which can be found the great labyrinth.
The Wardens
Little is know of what exacly the Wardens are, save that their appear to be nine of them, and that the appear to be unique beings. What is known, is that the Wardens will guide the dead to the great labyrinth, and defend them from the dangerous of the Bleak Moor and The Spiral Path.
Roan and the Great Labyrinth
At the end of the spiral path, where the dead are so numerous upon the road that they must walk in unbroken single file for a week before they come to vast clearing. It is filled with a ten-thousand buildings in at least a thousand styles of architecture. These buildings surround the great Labyrinth, a great mass of stone passages, at the center of which re-incarnation can be found. It is here that the dead gather and prepare to make their journey into the labyrinth. Not all venture into the labyrinth immediately. Some, those who's families remember them and continue to make offerings and prayers for them, set themselves up with homes, forming new lives with new friends or lovers, etching out a few more year of passion and pleasure before surrendering their personality and memories to the labyrinth and embracing re-birth. Others orders, such as the Thorns of Roan, striding back along the path, to protect the newly dead, and help them reach the great labyrinth. Lastly, some few, terrified by the prospect of the labyrinth, hide themselves away, long after their families stop making offerings to them, making lives as thieves and vagabonds, or devolving in into hungry ghosts.
The Bleak Moor
This is the part of the Underworld closest to the physical world. It is land with thin air, and gently rolling hills covered in course grass, heather and gorse. Threatening gray clouds scud across the sky as though time has been speed up, in the constant twilight. There is little colour here, and what their is, is almost always muted and drained. Across this land, ruins and tiny abandoned villages are scattered across it. It is in this land that the dead first find themselves after their bodies die in the physical world. It is possible to walk for ever across these desolate moors, and never find anywhere of import, for they are vaster that the imagination of man.
It is through this land that the dead must wander, with only their grave goods, in search of the spiral pathways, or the wardens. Those who are lucky find them, but the Bleak Moor is a dangerous place, and some souls find themselves devoured by the hungry dead, or other stranger things.
The Spiral Pathway
The Spiral Pathway is a mystical road way that spans all of the Bleak moor, but which some how, mysteriously, will lead any traveler upon it to the Great Labyrinth, with one year of travel. The road is marked by menhir, which are placed upon it's side. However, the Spiral Pathway is not safe, many threats lurk upon its rout. The path eventually leads into a great tangled forest, before opening into Roan, the city of the dead, who's heart at which can be found the great labyrinth.
The Wardens
Little is know of what exacly the Wardens are, save that their appear to be nine of them, and that the appear to be unique beings. What is known, is that the Wardens will guide the dead to the great labyrinth, and defend them from the dangerous of the Bleak Moor and The Spiral Path.
Roan and the Great Labyrinth
At the end of the spiral path, where the dead are so numerous upon the road that they must walk in unbroken single file for a week before they come to vast clearing. It is filled with a ten-thousand buildings in at least a thousand styles of architecture. These buildings surround the great Labyrinth, a great mass of stone passages, at the center of which re-incarnation can be found. It is here that the dead gather and prepare to make their journey into the labyrinth. Not all venture into the labyrinth immediately. Some, those who's families remember them and continue to make offerings and prayers for them, set themselves up with homes, forming new lives with new friends or lovers, etching out a few more year of passion and pleasure before surrendering their personality and memories to the labyrinth and embracing re-birth. Others orders, such as the Thorns of Roan, striding back along the path, to protect the newly dead, and help them reach the great labyrinth. Lastly, some few, terrified by the prospect of the labyrinth, hide themselves away, long after their families stop making offerings to them, making lives as thieves and vagabonds, or devolving in into hungry ghosts.
Wednesday, 29 July 2015
The cosmology of death, or resurrecting death.
Death is one of those things that fantasy gaming and literature is always getting wrong. It should matter, it should be the end off, or at least a defining moment in a characters story arc.
In the words of Max Landis, "the death and return of superman, forever broke death in comics". Once you trivially return a major character to life, you can trivially return all characters.
Fantasy roleplaying games, especially those in those forms closest to DnD are generally less that respectful of death. In DnD it is, even for relatively low level characters a trivial thing to return form the dead. Death is also often a relatively boring part of the game, an obstacle to overcome with a bit of money or a spell, or at best, a sources of cool monsters in the form of those that refuse to stay dead.
So how do we get back to a point where death is meaningful once again? Well one possibility, and probably the most important, is to remove magics that allow characters to be brought back from the dead. Being able to return PCs to life is perhaps the single biggest contributor to this issue. Another possibility is to take a leaf from Greek myth, where the underworld is a place which is fairly active. Heroes visit it, are dipped in the waters at its boarder, and rescue loved ones from it's clutches. Being able to explore the world of the dead, and gather from it treasures and knowledge means that it is a living breathing place, which will matter more to the characters and their players.
So, next stop, the shadowfell...
Tuesday, 28 July 2015
5e Setting Building: Brainstorming the feywild.
The feywilds a big thing in this setting, and entire world parallel to the physical world, with which the physical world often collides in strange and awesome ways. That is the traditional awesome by the way. To be full of awe. It is the kind of emotion evoked by forest fires and tornado.
Knowing that it is going to be these things however does little to drill down into the subject so lets set out what the role of the feywilds in in the setting.
Traditional DnD has a whole bunch of problematic aspects which both from the stance of verisimilitude and any reasonable critical reading of its ethics.
The first of these is simple. The existence of a several dozen sentient species, all pressed right up against humanity can be a very challenging concept, given our world had so far as we know only ever seen a handful of species which bared a resemblance to to humanity. If goblins have lairs just a few miles from town and are less powerful than the militia, why are the adventurers dealing with them instead of the lord or the militia?
Then their is the whole "committing war crimes against a sentient species because you happen to be in resource competition with them and they are evil because we happen to want the same thing as us and at less good at killing us than we are at killing them" thing is a real turn off.
Having a parellel world with different laws(especially ones which account for the existence of the diverse and odd creatures of DnD ) helps to create space(both figurative and geographical) for a wide range of monsters to exist in the world, while not making it seem like goblins and man live right on top of each other. It also allows a way to have less problematic monstrous races, if goblins are not an evolved sentient race, so much as the result of human fears and worries .
Denizens highlight reel:
The Feywild is in this setting is to be home to a wide variety of creatures, some of which will be taking on a very different role in the setting to that which they normally take. Here are two examples.
Goblins- In this setting goblins are a fae race, which spring into existence from childhood fears. They congregate in warrens. They take the kind of sadistic pleasure in the death of small animals than only the most horrible and disturbed of children can muster and gather to to trade the spoils of their raid in markets during the dark of the moon.
Driders- Drow bore me. There I have said it. Like more homogeneously evil species in roleplaying, I have very little time for them, while their use in basically every DnD setting leaves me cold. But driders....they are kinda cool. So driders in this setting are called Ariadrin, and they are the members of the mystery cult of Aria, the Eladrin goddess of weaving and intrigue. Ettercaps are humans who have been captures and corrupted by Drider poison into a servitor race to the Ariadrin.
Knowing that it is going to be these things however does little to drill down into the subject so lets set out what the role of the feywilds in in the setting.
Traditional DnD has a whole bunch of problematic aspects which both from the stance of verisimilitude and any reasonable critical reading of its ethics.
The first of these is simple. The existence of a several dozen sentient species, all pressed right up against humanity can be a very challenging concept, given our world had so far as we know only ever seen a handful of species which bared a resemblance to to humanity. If goblins have lairs just a few miles from town and are less powerful than the militia, why are the adventurers dealing with them instead of the lord or the militia?
Then their is the whole "committing war crimes against a sentient species because you happen to be in resource competition with them and they are evil because we happen to want the same thing as us and at less good at killing us than we are at killing them" thing is a real turn off.
Having a parellel world with different laws(especially ones which account for the existence of the diverse and odd creatures of DnD ) helps to create space(both figurative and geographical) for a wide range of monsters to exist in the world, while not making it seem like goblins and man live right on top of each other. It also allows a way to have less problematic monstrous races, if goblins are not an evolved sentient race, so much as the result of human fears and worries .
Denizens highlight reel:
The Feywild is in this setting is to be home to a wide variety of creatures, some of which will be taking on a very different role in the setting to that which they normally take. Here are two examples.
Goblins- In this setting goblins are a fae race, which spring into existence from childhood fears. They congregate in warrens. They take the kind of sadistic pleasure in the death of small animals than only the most horrible and disturbed of children can muster and gather to to trade the spoils of their raid in markets during the dark of the moon.
Driders- Drow bore me. There I have said it. Like more homogeneously evil species in roleplaying, I have very little time for them, while their use in basically every DnD setting leaves me cold. But driders....they are kinda cool. So driders in this setting are called Ariadrin, and they are the members of the mystery cult of Aria, the Eladrin goddess of weaving and intrigue. Ettercaps are humans who have been captures and corrupted by Drider poison into a servitor race to the Ariadrin.
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