My Fantasy RPG World, Feedback and Ideas appreciated

[pendrake]

This sort of ties in with Feature #4. I like it a lot, but sadly my players made it clear they are not really interested in a sea epic and I didn't want to force a sea story on them.

The half sunken city can just be something that forms the basis of distant rumors from far away shores. It also gives that Goblin Tribe @Warden came up with a place to be from.

A second reason The Black Fish Tribe could be raiding coasts (besides needing timber; and just being goblins) could be that they are looking inland for the Sister City (long lost of course) to Nabylob ( <—their name for the place and not its lost Lizwardian-Reptilothian name for itself...)

All of my suggestions in this thread are meant to be idea kernels. “Pound to fit; Paint to match” as needed.

 

[pendrake]

The dwarves lost control of the Great Stone centuries ago and then liberated it much later. In response, the dwarves now have a pan-national knightly order, The Guardians of the Stone, whose sole purpose is to defend the Great Stone and defend dwarf pilgrims visiting it.

This ^ guardians of the stone ^ business is excellent stuff.

In Dwarf country there could be little Shrines to the Stone. Havens for Dwarf pilgrims, with one or two aged knights on station, who are now retired from that life and now serve as RunePriests.

For a donation they will create a rune-charm for any traveler. A rune charm is carried in the pocket or pouch. In combat it will randomly decide to absorb hit points of damage if its owner would otherwise be hit. (Your game, insert your detailed, approved rules here.)

 

[pendrake]

The Spire of Calendarva

a Spire that is so tall it pokes its way out of the atmosphere or at least so high an ordinary man cannot breath

That's a cool concept, but we need to figure out who built it and why. Now the Dragons made a bunch of spires and towers in the First Age but they pretty much all fell down. I figure a sideways tower would make a cool basis for dungeon ruins.

It is OK to leave some things a total Mystery. Sometimes players find that irresistible.

You could modify the intial idea to:

The Spires of Calendarva

The second one is fallen. Twin mountain peaks. Either side of a valley. One of the spires fell, ages ago. By the way, real physics converts a toppled Tower made of stone into a heap of stone **rubble but! magical dragonstone, tempered by dragon-breath, the like of which is not found in the world anymore....that could perhaps topple but leave a few rooms kind of intact.

**And it does not fall in a linear heap either. Mostly lands very near the base. Think ragged oval (if sticking with semi-real Physics).

 

[pendrake]

Eternal Rains

The first is pretty easy. Eternal Rains. Where water and air elementals fought, it NEVER stops raining. I haven’t decided if these should be permanently rooted down or if they should slowly drift around.

Larry Niven created a world (part of the known space series**) where there was a human colony stuck on a world that was nearly all water Ocean. The one bit of habitable land was a long North-South island. A portion of it was continuously lashed by a permanent cyclonic storm. (Think hurricane + the Great Red Spot of Jupiter = perpetual cyclonic storm system)

That could be the case on your cylinder world, and where the storm lashes one of the twelve land masses is where The Plains of Endless Rain are located.

The intensity and fringe of the storm change constantly ...never the same on any two days... but it is always there.

(Edit— (**the book was called Destiny’s Road: https://www.amazon.com/Destinys-Road-Larry-Niven/dp/0812511069 ...the book and the road begin in an odd city which has a single paved road which spirals outward from the central circular plaza, circling about three times before winding away to the North and off into the hills. ))

 

[Scalenex]

Spoiler: Everything you wanted to know about Swynfaredia but were afraid to ask

Swynfaredia (Sween-far-red-eeya)

Spoiler: History

History: In the days earliest days of humanity four dragons (known to Swynferidians as the Great Ones or the Four) decided to take an active role in shepherding the Humans in their area. Note at this point I am open to making the Four into the Five, the Six, or the Seven. Until I decide how many illustrious dragon founders the nation has, I will refer to them as the Great Ones.

The Great Ones sired half-dragons to lead the early Swynfaredians in their stead. These Half-Dragons married ordinary Humans and diluted the line but a talent for sorcery remained strong in the noble lines.

They formed a feudal monarchy similar to what was found in other regions though the vast majority of their nobles had sorcerous talent. The talent for sorcery gradually thinned and at one point the heir to the monarchy had no innate arcane talents at all. His younger brother challenged his right to the kingship and this initiated the First Dragon Blood War (because most of the fighting feudal lords were related by blood).

The sorcerer nobles won. They rewrote succession rules to apply to the eldest male direct descendant with sorcerous ability. Otherwise they picked the closest blood relative with sorcerous talent they could find.

The Second Dragon Blood War occurred when there was a relatively high proportion of female sorcerers. The daughter of the king declared that she was the rightful monarch and not her male second cousin. When the dust settled, the daughter of the previous king was declared the rightful monarch. The succession rules were rewritten again. From this point on, titles would pass to the eldest direct descendant who has sorcery, regardless of sex.

The Third Dragon Blood War occurred when a powerful sorcery claimed that mystic power was more important than birthright. He argued that Swynfaredia should have a meritocracy where the strongest sorcerers ruled. He lost. Unlike the previous two civil wars, at the end of the Third Blood War, the status quo was not changed. No major law changes followed.

A fun fact about the three civil wars. The first civil war had a lot of armies clashing but most of the actual damage to the fighting men came from magical spells. The second civil war utilized much smaller armies. The third civil war had very few soldiers mobilized at all. Basically the rebel sorcerers flew around magically committing acts of terrorism against the populace while the loyalist sorcerers tried to counter them. This broad tendency led to Swynfaredian nobles as a whole pairing down their traditional standing armies a fair bit.

While the royal family only has only had three seriously disputed successions. There were several dozen disputed successions among the noble houses for lesser titles. Each time they were resolved succession laws were amended slightly. The precedents for various situations of who inherits under what circumstances fills an increasingly thick book of Succession Laws. Sometimes the king or queen intervenes before things get out of control but all too often disputes are settled with magical duels, poisoned cups, illicit bribes, and other dark elements of intrigue.

Their tendency to elevate sorcerers to high positions caused many sorcerers not descended from the Great ones to flock to Swynfaredia (which helped the royal families avoid inbreeding issues to an extant). With a high number of sorcerers they were able to expand militarily multiple times in their history.

Spoiler: Economy

Economy: Swynfaredia has an agrarian economy based primarily on staple crops. They are generally self-sufficient in other regards. They have ample timberland and respectable mineral wealth, many of these latter resources were gained by past conquests.

With possibly the highest number of arcane spell casters in the entire world, there is substantial trade in magical items. Many sorcerers on are on a spell registry that lets others know what spells they have which sustains a barter system of spell-casting services among the upper classes. While technically second-class to sorcerers, Swynfaredia hosts many wizards who make a substantial business out of selling scrolls and potions that cover obscure spells which sorcerers rarely have access to.

Spoiler: Government, Titles, and Status Symbols

Government: Swynfaredia is a feudal monarchy ruled by a king and queen or a queen and consort. Like most feudal societies, each lord or lady manages a parcel of land, takes a portion of the peasants’ crops and pays a portion of their land’s wealth to their liege. The king is served by dukes/duchesses who are served by counts/countesses and barons/baroness. Counts and barons are on the same tier for managing lands of similar sizes, but barons are feudal lords who are not sorcerers, and thus given less esteem.

The royal throne, as well as the ducal and county thrones all pass to the eldest direct heir with sorcery if possible. If no direct heirs have sorcerous ability, then the titles pass to indirect relatives via complicated rules (often modified by political jockeying). Baronies are lifetime appointments, but barons and baroness do not normally get to pass to their titles to their children. Baronies are kept as consolation prizes for favored non-sorcerer children of high ranking nobles. Swynfaredia does not include covens or bishoprics as part of their feudal system.

Much like feudalistic lords elsewhere, lords owe their liege military service under specific guidelines. In theory, lords and ladies can demand their vassals to cast magic on their behalf at any time for any reason. In practice, a wise ruler will exercise this feudal power only in limited circumstances and wise rulers choose to phrase their demands in the form of a requests.

Every lord from barons up to the king are served by one or more personal knights. While some lords do have military inclinations and will lead their soldiers into battle, most military leaders that take the field, are knights not higher ranking nobles. Most knights are the non-sorcerer children of nobility, Some knights are sorcerers, especially knights who serve the royal family directly though relatively few sorcerer knights can trace a lineage to the Great Ones.

Even without a title, sorcerers are given high social standing and enjoy more privileges then the general populace. The ruling all at least have a tenuous link to one of the Great Ones (by now most have ties to all of the Great Ones due to generations of intermarriage), thus they are known as True Bloods. Sorcerers who can definitively trace their lineage to a known dragon (or they can successfully fake having a draconic ancestor) are known as Dragon Bloods. Non-royal Dragon Bloods are typically the most prized knights. It’s not hard for Dragon Bloods to marry into the nobility, as the Royal Bloods want to maintain their sorcerous potency while avoiding inbreeding. All sorcerers (in theory) are allowed into Swynfaredia if they ask, a powerful sorcerer with definitive dragon relatives will probably be invited in with enticements.

Sorcerers without definitive draconic lineage are known as the Witch Touched, or more politely “Greymoria’s Favored.” They can obtain the position of knighthood pretty easily, but higher positions are largely closed ot them. Many attain the position of Ancillary, an authorized agent of a noble without a knight’s lands or status. It’s fairly uncommon for Witch Touched sorcerers to marry into the nobility unless their magical powers are truly amazing. Non-human sorcerers are often serve as an Ancillaries, but it is very rare for one to be knighted unless they are exceptionally powerful.

There is a very complicated system for ranking the social standing. The gist of it is magic users are above non-magic users and sorcerers are at the top of the heap but birth order and family factors in, so a non-sorcerer son of a duke could likely outrank a Witch Touched sorcerer with no special titles.

Swynferidian law states that no one is born into serfdom, but the peasants don’t have a whole lot of mobility options unless they develop sorcery (with probably means their local Dragon Bloods were slumming with the peasants and siring bastards). The burgher class has a fair number of social divisions based on their craft and there is a secondary layer of nobility for the non-spellcasting descendants of the ruling class.


Titles and Sigils: In other lands, noble houses like to make their heraldry distinctive from their noble peers. In Swynfaredia, every noble wants a dragon as their sigil. Every noble wants their sigil to resemble one of the Great Ones. That means to an outsider (or even a typical Swynfaredian peasant) it can be extremely frustrating to tell one the symbols of different noble houses apart because they differ in extremely small and arbitrary ways. “Of course that dragon is not my sigil, the wings are pointed down!”

Besides titles that come with land, the royal family loves to bestow their allies with flashy titles and the lesser nobles follow suit. Swynfaredian sorcerers collect titles like jewelry and display them proudly. They love to be announced with their full titles and they often wear iconography to display their various title which means a savvy person can guess a Swynfaredian noble’s magical aptitude by studying his/her clothes.

Most of these title involve dragons. If a sorceress’ official job is to magically blast enemies of the royal family with Invocation spells, her title will probably be “Gwendoline of House Insert Name Here, The Dragon’s Breath.” A sorcerer who provides magical Scrying on behalf of the king might have the title “The Dragon’s Eye.” A sorcerer who focuses on mobility spells could have the title “The Dragon’s Wing.” You get the idea. A powerful sorcerer or sorceress that can cast lots of varied and powerful spells could conceivably have six or seven such lofty titles.

This provides an avenue for social advancement for sorcerers of lowly birth. Even if a sorcerer of lowly birth will never have a title that comes with land, he can wield a lot of influence by gaining these titles. Officially these servants to the king (or duke or count) are called thurakel, after the ancient title from the First age though many view “sorcerous retainer” as a more polite term. There is no rule prohibiting a landed noble from also being a sorcerous retainer. In fact many lords and ladies seek out these titles in addition to their hereditary titles as they are great status symbols.

Dragon imagery is still used on lower levels of the hierarchy. It’s not good enough to be served by simple knight. Instead of referring to a knight by the prefix “Ser” or “Dame” knights are referred to as “Talon Insert name here.” If the knight has sorcerous ability they are referred to as Fangs.

In every nation, nobles treasure heirloom magical items. Swynfaredia doesn’t really have substantially more magic items than nobles in other lands but they do show them off. They tend to wear or carry their magical items in public a lot more than their noble counterparts in other countries who tend to keep their magical items locked away when not in use. The fact that Swynfaredian nobles lose a lot of magical items to thieves and robbers has done little to discourage this practice.


The Arcane Registry: This organization used to be a minor functionary arm of the royal family that is supposedly apolitical, but over time they have grown to become very powerful. Their job is to take censuses frequently to figure out what spells every sorcerer resident and visitor in Sywnfaredia can cast. This is primarily, so the king or queen (and dukes and duchesses) can know what mystic power they can bring to bear to solve their problems.

Knowledge is power and the Register's hold valuable knowledge indeed. It’s also helpful to know what your allies and rivals can or cannot do so the Arcane Registers are major players in courtly intrigues. Of course many sorcerers choose to lie about their magical abilities to the census takers so the Arcane Registers have to use divination magic to verify what they know or do not know. And of course these Registers would never collect and store any information they come across not related to their official job and keep it for personal use...

Two sorcerers procreating only gives roughly a 50% chance of passing on sorcerous ability to any one child. A lot of superstitions say that certain magical aptitudes mix well in the bedroom and certain ones don’t. For instance, an invoker that specializes in fire attacks is advised not to marry an invoker that specializes in ice attacks. Any event, due to the hundreds of little superstitions, the Arcane Registers have become unofficial matchmakers. Their word is not law when it comes to marriages, but their input is generally considered. And of course who marries who has big political consequences as well as magical consequences.

Finally the Arcane Registry facilitates the construction and sale of magical items, especially relatively cheap and common magical items like potions and scrolls. Sometimes they sell magic items on installment and this practice and evolved that now they also act as generic bankers offering loans to the general populace giving the Church of Phidas a true competitor in a field they are used to monopolizing.

Spoiler: Religious Practices and Priesthoods

Religious Practices: Swynfaredians have a not entirely undeserved reputation for a lack of piety. The nobles have faith in their own powers and their dragon ancestors. It provides them mystical might and political legitimacy. Mystical might and political legitimacy are something highborn in other lands lean heavily on the priesthoods to provide. Dragon Blooded do not need the priesthoods support to the extent of nobles elsewhere, so they do not tend to be outward in their shows of piety. Many clergy view the nobility’s veneration of the Great Ones as being sacrilegious but they aren’t really in a position to do anything about it.

The nobles' prevailing attitudes trickle down to the lower classes. A few commoners are so terrified by their powerful and alien lords that they seek solace in devotion to the Nine, but for the most part they tend to be less pious than their counterparts elsewhere. The peasants don’t need a distant being of terrifying power as much when they have beings of terrifying power living in the castle right over there.

There are roughly as many temples and shrines in Swynfaredia as most other human nations but they don’t have as many tithes and donations as their counterparts elsewhere and this shows in the austerity of their temples and shrines.

Their rarefied positions and rarefied powers can easily feed arrogance, but most Dragon Blooded are aware that the Nine are bigger than they are. Attitudes and preferences vary from individual to individual and house to house but most nobles try to give all the Nine their due, within reason. It is relatively uncommon for a Dragon Blood to declare one of the Nine as his/her patron. Less uncommon than a patron, but still far from universal is to have a clear least favorite god or goddess that is publicly known.

The Nine’s priesthoods generally like to think their temple’s traditions and values transcend all nations’ borders and this largely true, but Swynfaredian values and prejudices have spilled over. Swynfaredian temples recruit fewer non-spell casting priests than their counterparts elsewhere and non-spell casting priests have fewer advancement opportunities than their counterparts elsewhere. If a priesthood has to communicate with a Dragon Blood, it is generally considered mildly insulting if the representative is a non-spell caster.

Some Dragon Bloods consider favored souls to be kindred spirits since their spell casting powers resemble sorcerers. This results in a favorable bias towards favored souls, though it’s hardly universal and Swynfaredia has about as many favored souls as most other nations which is to say, not many. If a temple is lucky enough to have a favored soul as part of their retinue, they will certainly make every effort to figure out which Dragon Bloods favor favored souls and take advantage of this.

Most sorcerer nobles are at least vaguely aware that the Nine are bigger and stronger than they are, so they at least pay the Nine lip service.


Hallisan’s Guardians: Hallisan worship is broad but not particularly deep. Given Hallisan’s issues with Greymoria, and the number of sorcerers in the army, the army is not the usual haven for Hallisan worship it is in other lands. As a result, Swynfaredian Guardians tend to be a lot less martial than elsewhere in Scarterras but Hallisan is a god of not just warriors, but craftsmen. With less call for arms, Guardians focus more heavily on their crafts.

A big challenge is that feudal ties in Swynfaredia are based more on personality loyalty and charisma then abstract bonds of honor. Guardians are used to fighting against opposition to their principles, but they are generally ill-equipped to fight indifference. Few parents oblate their children to Hallisan and few adults volunteer to take up the cloth. Almost half of Swynfaredian Guardians are transfers from another nation. This is viewed as something of a punishment assignment for Guardians forced to move thusly.


Khemra’s Keepers: Khemra is the closest thing the Swynfaredians have to a patron deity. She has temples in the more sizable towns and most nobles’ castles have a well-kept shrine to her on the grounds.

After the third civil war, the Keepers chose to back the loyalists rather than staying neutral like most of the other priesthoods. This paid off well. The Church of Khemra is a popular place for nobles to send sons and daughters who have no sorcerous talent. The downside is that Khemra worship is not very popular with the lower classes. Commoners often view the Keepers as agents of their oppressors.


Phidas’ Masks: Phidas worship is fairly strong in the towns and cities while Phidas is almost ignored in the countryside. Phidas temples in Swynfaredia are as much banks as they are places of worship. The Pontiff of Phidas has made it a goal to make Phidas the state patron of Swynfaredia within fifty years. To this end, Masks give nobles more favorable loan terms than elsewhere and are more generous providing divine magic aid.

As of yet, this has not yielded many positive results, which might trigger the Masks to reverting to cloak and dagger tactics as Plan B. It should be noted that in many lands the masks that are part of their formal wear are mainly ceremonial but in Swynfaredia the Phidas priests are sticklers for wearing masks. They try to never show outsiders their true faces.

A few ambitious children of nobility without sorcery sign up to become priests of Phidas, usually against their parents’ wishes. These Masks often become very powerful puppet masters pulling the strings of their social betters with secrets and gold, but most of the Masks’ recruits come from the merchant classes or transfers in priests from other nations.


Mera’s Tenders: Mera is the most widely worshiped deity by the lower classes. Swynfaredia has absorbed enough surrounding cultures that there is a roughly even mix between Terrawan and Walchese temples. If a commoner needs to divine magic, their best bet is usually to go to the nearest Mera priesthood. Swynferedian Tenders tend to be active in the community seeking out ways they can help. The Dragonbloods support this. They view Mera as a non-threatening deity and have no problem with the Tenders offering the commoners protection and healing while encouraging community and peace. Mera’s popularity with the peasants is unassailable.

Given the popularity of Mera with the masses, nobles normally at least pay her lip service. Those that don’t make some effort to worship Mera publicly often get a reputation for being elitist snobs. Most sorcerer nobles are elitist snobs but the savvier among them don’t want to look like elitist snobs. While the Tenders haven’t accepted a priest or priestess of noble birth in over a century, they have lots of adults volunteering to join or parents requesting their children be allowed in. This means Mera temples can afford to be pickier than most of the other priesthoods.


Korus’ Stewards: Relative to other civilized nations, Swynfaredia has a lot of Stewards of the Dominion relative to Stewards of the Gift. Generally the sorcerer nobility and the Stewards acknowledge each other politely, but generally stay away from each other. The Stewards don’t want to push the Dragon Bloods too far because the nobles have the mystic power to crush them. The Dragon Bloods don’t want to push the Stewards too far because they don’t want Korus to strike the nation with a famine.

There is a small temple to Korus in the capital and the other larger cities, but the Korus priests do not perform the typically mediating duties there that they traditional perform in larger cities. Few sorcerer nobles would take the judgments of a Steward mediator seriously. Most Stewards are recruited from the lower classes with a few coming from the merchant classes.

Once per year, the Stewards of the Gift accept any and all applicants to joint their priesthood. Large numbers of commoners volunteer to join every year. Every applicant is considered, but the pool is gradually winnowed down with a lengthy series of increasingly difficult tests. If they pass, they are officially inducted in the next year just before the new batch of applicants is accepted. The Stewards of the Dominion tend to handpick their recruits on their own timetables testing them far more informally.


Greymoria’s Children: Swynfaredians have a love-hate relationship with Greymoria. As the goddess of arcane magic, many Swynfaredian nobles believe they have kinship with her. Given how disliked she is by commoners, nobles would prefer not rub their Greymoria worship in their subjects’ faces. Also many Greymoria worshipers elsewhere claim wizards are closer to Greymoria than sorcerers are, point Swynfaredians usually disagree with.

Swynfaredian wholehearted acceptance of the so-called Sorcerers’ Heresy estranges the local Children from Children elsewhere. The Sorcerer Heresy’s chief rivals, the Bearers of the Book and the Shadow Hunters should best keep their religious views secret while passing through Swynfaredia. Even the Sorcerers’ Heresy isn’t a perfect fit since Swynfaredians who view Greymoria as their patron deity tend to put little stock in the nobility’s supposedly pure draconic heritage. According to them, draconic heritage only provides sorcerous ability by Greymoria’s good graces. They claim that Swynfaredia’s dropping percentage of sorcerer births is a result of the nobles losing face with the Dark Mother.

Unlike in most human lands, Swynfaredia has far more public Greymoria temples rather than secret ones, but these are fairly modest temples. Swynfaredian nobles pay homage to Greymoria at the prescribed times of the year and then go about their business. Most nobles treat all the Nine this way in fact.

It used to be very popular for nobles to oblate their non-sorcerer children to Greymoria’s priesthood. That was before the Children chose to back the losing side in the last civil war. Now many children of nobility still join the Children, but more often than not, against their parents’ wishes. They hope they can gain divine magic to make up for their arcane shortcomings. The Children love to recruit arcane spell casters as priests. A lot of Children are sorcerers who are not of noble birth. Given that a lot of Children are estranged children of nobles or non-nobles who believe they are unfairly kept out of power, most of Greymoria’s orthodox worshipers in Swynfaredia would love to see Swynfaredia’s magical aristocracy replaced with a magical meritocracy.


Zarthus’ Lanterns: Zarthus has a few temples in the most populated areas and Swynfaredian nobles make a show of their patronage of the arts, but this rarely satisfies Zarthus’ worshipers. Especially in areas conquered relatively recently, Zarthus temples tend to be secret and Zarthus worshipers are generally a thorn in the side of Swynfaredia’s ruling class. Because of this, Swynfaredian Lanterns and their followers tend to be much more opposed to arcane magic than Zarthus’ worshipers elsewhere. There are zero Lanterns with any arcane ability at all, not even arcane bards.


Nami’s Rovers: Like in many places Nami is worshiped heavily on her holy days as an excuse to party then ignored most of the year. Shrines to Nami are not hard to find. They usually empty, but they are packed to the brim on her holy days. Most Swynfaredian Rovers are circuit priests. A few large Nami temples serves as a support centers for circuit priests. These temples also serves as a havens for nomadic Rovers and their followers of all types, including the Bachites and Liberators. Thus far, the Swynfaredian nobles have yet to seek action against the temple, but it may only be a manner of time before the nobles decide it’s time to come down hard on these extremist factions.


Maylar’s Testers: Officially, Swynfaredia allows worship for any of the Nine, but unofficially Maylar worship is generally not tolerated. Maylar has a few shrines here but Maylar only has one public temple in the capital, and this temple is a mostly a farce. Testers are generally indifferent to Swynfaredia as whole. They don’t like the lack of Maylar worship in Swynfaredia, but for now the Swynfaredian nobles are demonstrating strength. The strong can do what they want.

Not every Tester in Swynfaredia feels this way. More than a few Testers are belligerent thorns in the sides of the sorcerer nobles and lowly peasants alike. Very few of these beligerent Testers survive a whole year in Swynfaredia.

Spoiler: Demographics

Demographics: Swynfaredia’s population is about 90% Human. Less than 1% are sorcerers or descendants or sorcerers. Sorcery can show up in any race. Non-human sorcerers can move to Swynfaredia and secure a prestigious job that pays lots of gold, but realistically they will never hold a prestigious title or any land.


Gnomes make up about 5% of the population. They generally live in quiet all-gnome communities and pay their taxes like everyone else. There are proportionally as many gnome sorcerers in Swynfaredia as anywhere else (in other words they are quite rare). Most non-foreign wizards in the country are gnomes. Gnomes who are not wizards generally prefer to keep Swynfaredian nobles at arm’s length, but some serve jobs such as tutors to wealthy merchant families. There is nearly always at least one Swynfaredian gnome sorcerer or sorceress at any given time, if not two or three.

The King or Queen usually chooses one of these exceptional gnomes with the title Speaker for the Gnomes. The Speaker for the Gnome’s job is to travel around visiting gnome communities and make sure that the gnomes are being treated well. Nowadays this is a simple job, but generations ago there was a king who hated gnomes and this triggered a violent response from the Order of Delas, the world-wide organization for gnomish welfare. The Order of Delas is a friendly benevolent order for the most part, but they have a dark underbelly of thieves, saboteurs and assassins.


Most Dwarves do not see a lot of appeal in working in a land controlled by human sorcerers. Dwarves in Swynfaredia typically find employ working in mines, usually as foremen. They often sell their wares in the larger townships. If a miner or craftman is willing to tolerate stuffy condescending human sorcerers, a dwarf can quietly pocket a lot of gold for his services.


Elves visit, but they rarely stay. The rare sorcerer from the Elven Empire occasionally does move to the area given how the Empire is not particularly sorcerer friendly. A lot of wood elves visit Swynfaredia on their rumspringas but few choose to stay. A few enterprising dark elves have sailed to Swynfaredia to engage in above board trade but this is not a common event.


Few elves means few half-elves too. Half-orcs are marginally more common given how Swynfaredia is relatively close to orc lands, but they are still pretty rare.


Kobolds have a lot of sorcerers amongst them and kobold sorcerers are allowed in, but they rarely get many accommodations for their non-sorcerer family members. Given how clan-centered kobold culture is, few kobold sorcerers stay long. Those that do are probably outcasts among their own kind.


Paradoxically, half-dragons are generally discouraged from moving in. Given how much of the political legitimacy is tied to having “Dragon Blood”, the powers that be do not want the status quo challenged by outsiders with far more obvious ties to dragons than the ruling class. Many nobles publicly proclaim they want to find dragon descendants of the Great Ones, but they are secretly terrified that one might actually show up because that would lessen the existing nobles' legitimacy overnight.

Spoiler: Challenges for Swynfaredia

Challenges: Commoners often are suspicious and resentful of magic users and they are often suspicious and resentful of nobles. While Swynferidian nobles are not particularly cruel as a rule, they deal with a more resentful populace than most. Swynfaredia has conquered a number of lands. Many of their populations wish for a return to self-rule. The barely understood mystical power of their foreign rulers makes things even more intolerable.

Wizards can wield a lot of economic power from trade, but they are constantly reminded of how they are second to sorcerers. Divine casters are much the same way and this creates resentment towards the sorcerer nobility. Despite the prominence put on arcane magic, Greymoria is not given particularly high status. Many of her worshipers seek to rectify this.

The priesthoods of the Nine feud with each other a lot, but Swynfaredian priesthoods show an odd degree of inter-faith cooperation. It’s unlikely but not impossible that six or more of the priesthoods put aside their differences and collectively swing a civil war or at the very least demand concessions from the royal family.

There are a lot of squib children of nobility who feel cheated out of their inheritance by a quirk of chance. Many of these people become adventurers or entrepreneurs and they often accrue substantial influence. Others join the army.

Witch Touched sorcerers often resent being bossed around by so called Dragon Blooded sorcerers with much less mystical power than them.

There are persistent rumors of dragon and half-dragon descendants of the Great Ones living today. Nobles generally squash such rumors. If any dragon or Half-dragons reveal themselves they can easily make a bid for power that few could legitimately deny.

With all the bubbling resentment and oppressed factions, the wrong person sneezing could start a rebellion or a civil war. That is part of the reason why the current Queen of Swynfaredia is looking for a chance to expand. She hopes to channel her subjects’ animosity against an external foe.

Spoiler: The Cutting Room Floor, Hex Blades

D&D 3.5 had a special character class called Hex Blades. Hex Blades are sort of like arcane paladins. A paladin is basically a fighter with as mall amount of divine magic. A Hex Blade is basically a fighter with a small amount of arcane magic.

Back when Scarterra was intended to be a D&D setting, I had the idea that Hex Blades were the results of hereditary sorcerer manifesting incompletely. Swynfaredia naturally had lots of Hex Blades. Hex Blades in Swynfaredia had a social status below sorcerers, above everyone else. With a level based advancement system, Hex Blades are a great way to represent watered down sorcererous talent.

Now my system of D&D10 uses a skill based system, I don't have a clear way to represent a Hex Blade's limited apitude. So until I can think of a replacement, there are sorcerers and there are squibs. There is no middle ground.

 

[Scalenex]

I finally aceded to @Warden's request. Here is my blank map. It's not set in stone, anything is theoretically subject to change. I am thinking I should maybe add some more islands, make the southern landmasses bigger and/or make the coastlines of the northern continents less uniform.

The northern landmasses are East and West Colasia. The little gap in between them is the Demon Strait.

The Crescent moon shaped island is called Lunatus. Below that is the continent of Umera. The middle smaller landmass is Khemarok. The southwest corner is the continent of Penarchia.

Assuming this works out I will edit and add amended maps shortly.

 

[Scalenex]

Behold my Childish Scribbles!

Elves:

Elven Empire------Dark Blue Scribble
Dark Elves of Kahdisteria-----Red Scribble
Half Elves of Apseldia----Yellow Scribble
Wood Elves of Loren----Green Scribble

Dwarves of Meckelorn----Grey Scribble
Dwarves of Stahlheim----Orange Scribble
Dwarves of Mondert----Pink Scribble

Humans of Swynfaredia---Purple Scribble
Humans of Fumaya---Light Blue Scribble

These are the areas that my game is using right now or that people have asked me about. If Pendrake and I can figure out the technical difficulties, I can post my full political map which is slightly better than scribbles but not much.

The northern band of West Colasia is a no man's land of barbarians, orcs, and monsters. The southwest blob of West Colasia is mostly the nation of Kantoc which is based loosely off of Rohan. Lots of plains, lots of horses, nation is pro-chivalry. On the other side is the back biting pit of Byzantine vipers known as Uskala (that's the one with the king who is a dragon pretending to be a vampire pretending to be a human).

East Colasia I haven't actually drawn the borders yet. Below the Dark Elves is a mountain range, then a big desert. Below the desert is 6 to 12 tiny human nations with most of the population on the southern coast. They are a proud independent people but they realize that they are vulnerable alone. These nations have formed a Confederacy of trade and mutual defense. If the Dark Elves mess with one of these tiny nations, the other nations are bound by treaty to respond. The alliance also stands if Uskala decides to sail over and invade.

Penarchia is split between 10 to 20 tiny human nations. They don't have a common enemy, so they fight each other all the time.

The small continent/large island of Khemarok is controlled by the nation of Khemarok.

The continent of Umera is split roughly in half between the nations of Nishi and Azuma with Apseldia awkwardly sharing a border with both. A small mountain range forms the natural barrier with Apseldia in the northern valley.

In the First Age, these landmasses were all part of a massive Pangea like continent with a large fresh water lake in the dead center.

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

I finally aceded to @Warden's request. Here is my blank map. It's not set in stone, anything is theoretically subject to change. I am thinking I should maybe add some more islands, make the southern landmasses bigger and/or make the coastlines of the northern continents more uniform.

The northern landmasses are East and West Colasia. The little gap in between them is the Demon Strait.

The Crescent moon shaped island is called Lunatus. Below that is the continent of Umera. The middle smaller landmass is Khemarok. The southwest corner is the continent of Penarchia.

Assuming this works out I will edit and add amended maps shortly.

Can't see that version but can see the one with coloured in kingdoms in the subsequent post

 

[Scalenex]

Can't see that version but can see the one with coloured in kingdoms in the subsequent post

Fixed now, Scolenex confirms he can see it now.

 

[pendrake]

...make the southern landmasses bigger and/or make the coastlines of the northern continents more uniform.

They are very smooth and uniform now. I was thinking they want to be more ragged and natural looking.

What if you put the great Eye Storm (the one that causes an area of eternal rain) off to the South (and little beknownst to anyone there are landmasses hidden under it and beyond it??)

 

[Scalenex]

They are very smooth and uniform now. I was thinking they want to be more ragged and natural looking.

I meant to say I wanted to make the coastlines less uniform.

What if you put the great Eye Storm (the one that causes an area of eternal rain) off to the South (and little beknownst to anyone there are landmasses hidden under it and beyond it??)

Possibly, but the hidden land mass would probably be an island, not a continent. Since most older dragons like their privacy I figure such a place would end up as a dragon lair.

 

[pendrake]

If Pendrake and I can figure out the technical difficulties, I can post my full political map which is slightly better than scribbles but not much.

The originals are in a PDF. 4 pages; 1 image per page.

No matter what preparatory steps I do (that is: have done so far...) when I Export to PNG format it always grabs the first image from page one.

~~~~~~~

I need to get back to Idea generating.

8. The Chessmen of the Gods
9. The Coldcano of Thröndwyn
10. The Isle of Deadly Calm

Later today ^ I hope. The ideas are in my head! and they rattle!!

~~~~~~~

Is it Colasia or Collassia? ......how do you spell “colossal” chellspecker? Is the name of the continent supposed to be a play on the word (colossal) @Scalenex ?

 

[Scalenex]

Is it Colasia or Collassia? ......how do you spell “colossal” chellspecker? Is the name of the continent supposed to be a play on the word (colossal) @Scalenex ?

Colassia/Collassia is a made up word, and often is the case with made up words I am not consistent. I ruthlessly edited my earlier posts but did you know there used to be two spellings of "mahrlect." Note, in Scarterra, "mahrlect" is a swear word in Gnomish or possibly Draconic.

Anyway, Colassia is based on the word Collossal. For the entirity of the Second Age East and West Colasia were one big Collassia. Thiat means it was by far the largest mass in Scarterra.

Also, Khemarok is a nation run by a Khemra worshipping theocracy. I am generally not a fan of confusing names.

I don't remember what language I used as the baseline but Penarchia is based on a butchered translation for "wing."

I don't remember if Umera was based on arm, finger, claw, fang or something else and I don't remember what language i used. I'm not nearly as fond of the name Umera as the other ones, so that's subject to change. I might even want to reshape Umera into something a little less phallic.

Along the lines of redrawing map lines. I'm wondering if I should ut a human nation between Meckelorn and Stahlheim. My original concept wanted them to be fairly close but not to share a border. However at the moment, none of my players chose to play a dwarf character so that's not a short term concern.

 

[pendrake]

@Scalenex ...important question: Where—Is—The—Equator...??? That has big, Big, BIG implications about climate and the direction cyclones and whirlpools rotate. Are all these island-continents temperate? Some are tropical?

~~~~~~

Supernatural wonder#
8. The Chessmen of the Gods

Where this is I cannot say...but somewhere there is a roughly circular valley with a rocky barren floor. A few small streams zig zag across the nearly flat bottom. They find a common exit at a notch in the valley wall. There are a pair of temples perched at diametrically opposite points on the valley rim. One is made mostly of dark, nearly black basalt. It’s opposite is made of chalk and white limestone. In the valley below and between them there are more than a hundred massive statues scattered all throughout the valley. Some depict animal and bird heads, most are rough hewn and time worn, others look newly carved, and are full figures. They average fifteen feet tall. Some are interpreted as human, demon, elemental, or dragon. There are also incomplete lines and patterns scratched in the valley floor.

The valley frequently fills with fog and it is said that when it does a statue or two will move as if they are pieces is some god’s game of chess.

Each temple has a preisthood who each separately attempt to interpret (and complete) the lines and streams as boundaries of a cosmic gameboard. Their interpretations differ as do their attempts to accurately map the locations and facings of all the “pieces”. The priests of The Pale Temple wear black robes while the priests of The Dark Temple wear white.


Supernatural wonder#
9. The Coldcano of Thröndwyn

Where this is I cannot say...but at a location known only to select scholars and sages there is a tall cindercone which appears to be volcanic in origin. It is not tall enough for the peak to be above the snow line. A plume of white smoke or mist trails away from the peak always indicating the direction of the prevailing winds. Explorers who have ventured to the peak report that the interior of the crater at the top is coated in ice. It is unnaturally cold within. And that the plume is fog, rather than the smoke or gases produced by a hot caldera. Why this is so is a Deep Mystery. Rumours of hostile yetis or even a Yeti King circulate among locale populations of common folk.


Supernatural wonder#
10. The Isle of Deadly Calm

Where this is I cannot say...but I think it lies in Southern waters at the center of a great stationary eye storm. Outer bands of this standing weather feature serve to feed the neverending rain of #5. The island consists of a central peak, belts of hills and jungle, broad beaches of black sand all surrounded by a lagoon. There are small islets and reefs which separate the lagoon from the much rougher seas beyond. Just a thousand yards or so beyond them is the raging eyewall of the storm.

Who or what controls the island or lairs there has never been determined. No ordinary ship has ever returned from this lonely island.

 

[Scalenex]

...important question: Where—Is—The—Equator...???

Just barely north of Lunatus.

That has big, Big, BIG implications about climate and the direction cyclones and whirlpools rotate.

Cyclones rotate which every direction Nami says they rotate. I haven't thought about whirlpools. That might be something Nami does too or it could be something Greymoria does, or something Mera does on off days. Maybe she isn't as nice as everyone says...

Mera is the primary water deity but Greymoria hates Mera and everything she stands for, so she directs her spirit and mortal minions to drown.

Are all these island-continents temperate? Some are tropical?

This is not set in stone, but the major continents are mostly temperate, the extreme north and south is artic cold. The equater is subtropical, not fully tropical. I guess I'm compartmentalizing Lustria-Online from Scarterras. I don't have any great ideas for tropical monsters or tropical nations.

8. The Chessmen of the Gods

Seems a little ta-da! to be honest. Not sure what to do with this.

9. The Coldcano of Thröndwyn

Mysterious Yeti kings is something I can work with.

10. The Isle of Deadly Calm

Where this is I cannot say...but I think it lies in Southern waters at the center of a great stationary eye storm.

Obviously a stationary eye storm is a prison for something or the guardian force for an epic magic item that can only be quested for.

 

[ASSASSIN_NR_1]

I haven't read the whole thing, only most of the first post; I just thought that maybe quests from The Witcher 3 could be used for inspiration, and might not be too far off in terms of how the world is, at least in the sense that people in velen in TW3 are also very much pressed from all sides, and everyone is quite poor.

 

[Scalenex]

I haven't read the whole thing, only most of the first post; I just thought that maybe quests from The Witcher 3 could be used for inspiration, and might not be too far off in terms of how the world is, at least in the sense that people in velen in TW3 are also very much pressed from all sides, and everyone is quite poor.

That would require me playing one of you whipper snappers' new fangled videya games!

The original purpose of this post was to brainstorm for my players to do the next three or four sessions. I figure that out so now this thread has degenerated into gratitious world building.

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

I figure that out so now this thread has degenerated into gratitious world building.

I thought that was the purpose, as you were deciding on building a whole new RPG game and world of your own, and you wanted to bounce your ideas off us?

 

[pendrake]

Just barely north of Lunatus.

That helps

Cyclones rotate which every direction Nami says they rotate. I haven't thought about whirlpools. That might be something Nami does too or it could be something Greymoria does, or something Mera does on off days. Maybe she isn't as nice as everyone says...

This turns out to be good Physics. The physics of a cylinder (if you are sticking with a straight-sided cylinder) are such that there would be little corialis effect. That is what causes the spin. At the equator on a sphere world there is next to no corialis effect but it gets stronger the further toward the poles one goes.

( The Chessmen of the Gods )
Seems a little ta-da! to be honest. Not sure what to do with this.

Here’s a couple of ideas: make changes in scale to suit. Alter it to 40 statues/stone heads most of which are 30 feet tall...but they don’t move on their own.

Or, the rival priesthoods are long gone, or ghosts who haunt two deserted temples, your PCs need to finish the game somehow to banish them?

Or make the whole thing much smaller, 6 foot statues, little shrines instead of big temples, there is a Medusa making the new statues.

Or, Keep the original size/landscape and rival priests (only it turns out a tribe of rock trolls is moving statues under cover of fog to mess with the priests). They live in the valley walls in caves and crevasses. They can disguise themselves as boulders and rocks (priests are clueless...don’t know they exist).

Mysterious Yeti kings is something I can work with.

Cool!

Obviously a stationary eye storm is a prison for something or the guardian force for an epic magic item that can only be quested for.

See Physics comments above. Only epic magic could create one. A Wizard did it..!

 

[pendrake]

Another thing, I cannot make up my mind on is scale. At the moment the world has about half the surface area of Earth but I've toyed with make it bigger or smaller.

The world is not flat and it's not a globe. It's a cylinder. The north and south poles are literally gateways to the Void. The Nine erected a mystic wall called the Barrier to keep the Void from devouring all life but it's not imperemable. The Void passively leeches heat. That's why it's colder near the poles and warmer near the equator. It's just science!

I think we all ^ saw this ^ and just went for it. Help Scalanex build an epic rpg setting!

The goal is to make a medium magic setting. Magic is fairly common and well known but it's not as crazy powerful as it is in traditional D&D game.

When what the Scaly one needed was this ^ things more local, and not quite as earth shattering.

The goal is to create a sandbox where the players characters can bust heads, play politics, or play detective. I think my playing group will lean towards politial solutions.

I will try and focus on things of less than epic scale for a bit. Bandit Kings, Hill Shrines, Goblyn Lairs...

Do your Orcs and Gobbos operate interchangeably in this setting? (Like they do in WFB?)

Or are they completely different societies?

I also want to channel the spirit of Game of Thrones seasons 1-6 to create some interesting noble characters.

I can be of no help here ^ as I have seen none of it.

Make the king a panda as well as all nine deities.

You should totally make a Temple of the Nine Pandas. Because @Scolenex ...explain nothing to your players, leave them with a head scratching Mystery if they blunder into it.