My Fantasy RPG World, Feedback and Ideas appreciated

[Aginor]

If you haven't read The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan yet you should probably consider that as well.

Edit: and probably the Painted Man books by Peter V. Brett. I haven't finished the series myself but there are some nice non-standard fantasy things in there.

 

[Lizards of Renown]

Semi-related note, I can write a World Anvil prompt pretty easily, but I have been in a long dry spell for writing stories.

I didn't enter the last short story contest, I have no ideas for the current one. I have three Warhammer fluff pieces that have been stuck in WIP mode a very long time and are essentially rotting on the vine.

More importantly, I have been able to trudge forward writing my hypothetical Scarterran novel.

Two things are holding me up (but they are probably just excuses).

1) I cannot decide where on the spectrum between realistic action and cinematic action.

2) I know I want Nilen to have a motley crew of sidekicks but I'm not sure who the sidekicks should be.

I need to cut back on streaming videos and video games (especially video games), but I have been saying that over and over again to no avail. It's not enough to stop doing unproductive things, but I need to fill that time with productive things.

Now that the libraries in my area are no longer severely restricted due to the CCP virus, I'm going to read more fantasy novels other people have written to see if this shakes anything loose.

I'm open to suggestions but I think I'm actually going to start reading A Song of Ice and Fire. I was avoiding starting this because I hate to leave something unfished and I'm 99% certain George R. Martin is not going to complete his series before he dies, so I should stop making excuses not to read the most influential fantasy author of the 21st century even though I'm 70% he is not going to finish book 6 and 99% sure he is not going to finish book 7.

I'm also going to read the original Conan the Cimmerian series, the inspiration for the Conan the Barbarian franchise.

Conan and A Song of Ice and Fire are two very different styles. Conan is very high on cinematic action. Conan can routinely fight 20 men and win. George R. Martin is very big on realistic action. Even the best warriors in his world cannot take on 5 men and win.

If you haven't read it already, I would highly recommend The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.

Some excellent examples of world building in there.

 

[Lizards of Renown]

If you haven't read The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan yet you should probably consider that as well.

Edit: and probably the Painted Man books by Peter V. Brett. I haven't finished the series myself but there are some nice non-standard fantasy things in there.

Ha! Posted before seeing this.

 

[Scalenex]

This one is important because while it coincidentally hits a writing prompt, it covers an elite organization that a PC belongs to. The player wrote a lot of this material (note the section on the uniform worn, I rarely go into that sort of detail). This article is likely to see a bunch of revisions in the future.




Entry For Worldbuilding Summer Camp 2021
Answering: "a religious order founded or based in your world's history"
Order of the Lantern
The Brotherhood of the Lantern is a militant order within the Keepers of the Way. The brotherhood’s mission is to combat dangerous arcane magic.

Due to its mission and likely enemies, the brotherhood is not structured for pitched battles and does not field mounted knights. Members are trained to fight dismounted and operate singly or in small teams, investigating and then eliminating threats. Teams may be given assignments from regional leadership or operate independently.

That vast majority of order members are theurgists of some sort. While a person with some exceptional skills but no talent for theurgy may occasional be admitted, the brotherhood believes divine magic is the best shield against arcane magic. The brotherhood contains a few chaplains who are ordained priests, but most members are non-priest warrior monks.
Uniform
The brotherhood’s habit consists of an ankle length tunic of rust brown. The tunic is tighter and more form fitting than many religious habits because it is designed to be worn under armor. The tunic is split in the front to ease riding and running. The scapular is chest width and stretches almost to the ankles, though it will be a little shorter when worn over armor. The scapular is red with yellow trim and the brotherhoods symbol on the left breast, so it is still visible if a brother wears a baldric. The habit can be worn with a quilted outer habit of slightly more reddish color that will protect from cold and some damage. The tunic can be worn with mail, but the preferred armor is brigandine with front the same style and color as the tunic. Weapon and armor issued by the order tend to be well made but unadorned.
Public Agenda
To safeguard Scarterra by curtailing the actions of reckless and nefarious arcane spell casters.
Assets
The Order has a small number of loyal, elite and well educated soldiers who cannot just fight dark mages, but find them.

What they lack is material resources. The Order has very few permanent assets of their own and relies on donations and support from the Keepers and Guardians.
History
Murnauz, the founder of the brotherhood, believed that unchecked magic precipitated both the First and Second Unmakings. Thus, to prevent a Third Unmaking becoming a reality, magic must be regulated, and dangerous mages eliminated. He selected a lantern as the group’s symbol because a lantern is used to bring light to the darkness, as Murnauz hoped to bring evil spellcraft to light, but also because a lantern is used to control and constrain light, as he wanted to do with magic. Since Murnauz’s time the Brotherhood has spread throughout Scarterra. It is a small but active order, with dedicated members.
Territories
The Order of the Lantern has a few temples and headquarters scattered throughout Scarterra, usually very unassuming temples and headquarters.

Members are encouraged to be mobile and self-sufficient as possible. They also tend to borrow the buildings and resources of other organizations to accomplish their short-term needs.

Since most members of the Order of the Lantern are also ordained as holy warriors of Khemra, they find shelter and aid from most Keeper temples and bases quite easily. Given their alliances to other groups, the Order of the Lanterns can often appeal to other priesthoods for shelter and aid.
Religion
Apart from a rare few nihilistic Children and Testers, most members of Scarterra's mainstream religious organizations would very much like to prevent a Third Unmaking.

The crux is that most priesthoods disagree wildly on what means to pursue the end of safeguarding the world from cosmic horrors.

The Guardians are, in general, very supportive of the Order of the Lantern and regularly provide them assistance via supplies and soldiers. It is rare, but not unheard of for Guardians to join the Order of the Lantern outright. Usually these are Guardians that for whatever reason, are extremely prejudiced against mages.

The Stewards and the Masks have their own separate semi-secret organizations dedicated to preventing a Third Unmaking. These organizations are bound by treaties of alliance to the Order of the Lantern, at least on paper. In practice, these organizations seldom ever cross paths with the Order of the Lantern.

The Cult of the Compact is informally allied to the Order of the Lantern and they help the Order keep tabs on powerful mages passing through areas the Cult has some sway.

Most Children aware of the Order of the Lantern are insulted that Keepers dare to try to limit or regulate @Greymoria's domain. A few Children are openly hostile to the Order of the Lantern but most have more hated enemies to focus on instead.

The Lanterns, Tenders, Rovers, and Testers are generally indifferent to the Order of the Lantern though individuals within these groups may support or oppose the Order for their own personal reasons.

(sidebar)
What About Zarthus' Lanterns?
The brotherhood’s symbol is a yellow sun inside a black lantern. Zarthus' priesthood's main symbol is a lantern framed by the phases of the moon. In fact Zarthus' priests are nicknamed Lanterns because lantern iconography is very prevalent in their rituals.

When Murauz chose a lantern as the symbol of his fledgling order, Zarthus' core followers were not nicknamed "Lanterns", they were nicknamed "Seekers."

In the present day, the term Zarthus' Lanterns is very well known throughout Scarterra of the Order of the Lantern while the Order of the Lantern is so obscure it is practically a secret organization. The similar names sometimes cause confusion, but the leaders of the Order are generally stubborn traditionalist and refuse to change their name or symbol.Zarthus' Lanterns, (assuming they are even aware of the Order of the Lantern), are not hostile towards the Order, but they are not friendly either. Nearly all Lanterns are completely on board with the idea of preventing dark mages from unleashing a Third Unmaking, but they do not believe that the Keeper's inflexible tactics will work.

Zarthus' more scholarly Lanterns will point out that while arcane magic precipitated the First and Second Unmakings, the ultimate cause of these disasters was corrupt absolute monarchs overreaching and the Keepers are very bad at preventing monarchs from abusing their power.

 

[Scalenex]

Here's a short one.

Entry For Worldbuilding Summer Camp 2021
Answering: "a plant or animal that lives in an inhospitable region"

red grass
Red grass is the most common foliage in the Fire Plains, fields of it stretch all the way to the horizon. Red grass is similar to normal grass in most respects but is notable in that is immune to damage from non-magical fire and very resistant to magical fire.

Red grass is not actually red, it is dark green. Red grass temporarily changes to a red hue only when exposed to fire.

Patches of red grass have been recorded at growing 12 feet tall, but it rarely gets this high before something grazes on it. More often than not, fields of red grass are between four and seven feet tall.

It needs to be between two and half and three feet to seed.
Basic Information
Ecology And Habitats
It still relies on soil, sunlight, and water like all other grass, but it doesn't need much water. Red grass needs periodic exposure to fire to stay healthy. It is theorized that it can draw sustenance from fire somehow and this is why the grass requires very little water.
Additional Information
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Red grass loses a lot of its fire resistance when it's pulled from the ground or cut, so no one has figured out how to make fire proof grass mats.

With proper alchemy, red grass can be processed into reagents, but the process is so time consuming that few alchemists bother.

The main use of red grass is indirect. Without red grass forming the staple of the region's biomass, even fire proof animals could not survive in the Fire Plains.
Geographic Origin And Distribution
Red grass grows almost exclusively in the Fire Plains. Attempts to cultivate red grass elsewhere have been marginal successes at best. Red grass can grow elsewhere, but without frequent exposure to non-magical fire, it will sicken and die.

 

[Scalenex]

Here's another short one. I mentioned the Bow of Zimoz a lot in passing, so I thought I'd pad it out to 300 word article.

Entry For Worldbuilding Summer Camp 2021
Answering: "an ancient and/or powerful artifact"

The Bow of Zimoz
The Bow of Zimoz was a magical bow that Zimoz the Archer found in a dungeon during his adventuring days, though Zimoz did not call it "the bow of Zimoz." He called it "Silver Striker."

The history of the bow before Zimoz attained it is unknown. Zimoz the Archer was a deadly archer with an ordinary bow. Armed with Silver Striker, he became a true terror to his enemies and even more potent ally to his friends.

When Zimoz the Archer became the first Duke of Zimoz, his bow became a symbol of his new noble house of the same name The Bow of Zimoz, is crafted out of Silverwood and magically enchanted for greater accuracy and damage while like many magic bows. More impressively, the bow will allow arrows fired out of it to hit incorporeal targets.

The Bow of Zimoz has not been fired in combat in over 200 years. It is mostly kept in a vault and only brought out for major ceremonial events in court.
Significance
While it is a powerful weapon, it is mostly valued for its history now. It is viewed as a priceless heirloom of the Zimoz family and formal regalia for the office of the Duke of Zimoz.

(sidebar)
Item type
Weapon, Ranged
Current Location
Duchy of Zimoz
Related ethnicities

• Fumayan humans

Owning Organization
House Zimoz
Rarity
Unique, though a small number of very similar bows have been crafted based on this construction, including a recent copy made by Neshik the gnome as a boon for his friend Aranil the elf.

 

[Scalenex]

I unsubmitted Desert of Tears from "an area or geographical landmark wrapped in myth, legend or superstition" and reclassified it as "an inhospitable region or geographical landmark"

The new version of an inhospitable area wrapped in myth and superstition is the Screaming Fields.

Go to Scarterra Homepage
Screaming Fields
The demon lord known as the Successor did not try to wipe out mortals entirely like the other demon lords tried to do, the Successor attempted to set up massive prison complexes to house mortals, force them to breed and feed from these soul farms indefinitely.

The Successor did not discriminate but mostly focused on farming goblins over farming other races because of the mortals of the the Second Age, goblins were the fastest breeding mortal race.

Most, if not all, of the Successor's prisons were torn down brick by brick. It is believed that the Demon Lord known as the Corruptor was allied to the Successor and used the Successor's prison farms for test subjects for the Corruptor's experiments.

The largest and most well-known prison occupies the ruinous site now known as the Screaming Fields. The Screaming Fields are so called because the very stones are believed to cry out in terror at night.

The land around it was and is fertile but no one dares clear the overgrown ruins for farming because the taint of the the Void clings to the location millennia after the end of the Second Unmaking.
Localized Phenomena
The area is haunted by many incorporeal undead creatures. Most of the undead spectral remnants have supernaturally augmented auras of fear and attack the sanity of identity of mortals they encounter.
Fauna & Flora
The area has been reclaimed by nature. During the day, the Screaming Fields seem normal almost pleasant, with wild flowers and pleasant trees while rabbits and deer run through and birds singing in the trees.

At night most animals, even predators, keep a low profile, staying in their nests and burrows dead quiet and try to avoid the things out there.


I've sort of been on a kick expounding on variants of goblins lately. I might add a goblin based undead here, but most of the ghost based undead I have are non-species specific. A goblin ghost or allip has the same powers as a human ghost or allip.

I guess a lot of the undead monsters here wear goblin faces but that won't impact their stats any.

 

[Scalenex]

Entry For Worldbuilding Summer Camp 2021
Answering: "an ethnicity surviving in an inhospitable region"

East Colassian mountain goblins
The East Colassian Mountains provide a natural barrier between the dark elves of Kahdisteria and their sworn enemies of the Colassian Confederacy.

The East Colassian Mountains also split the fertile coastal lands of Kahdisteria from the foreboding Great Colassian Desert. As dangerous as the mountains are for goblins, the desert is usually even more dangerous.

Goblins that escape slavery in Kahdisteria usually only have one direction to flee: the mountains. Most would-be escapees are caught or killed by their elven masters or they starve to death in the mountains. Over the centuries, enough goblins have survived that bands of runaway slave goblins and their descendants roam the mountains and the tunnels underneath them.

The mountain goblins hunt, forage, and scavenge a sustenance living in the mountains while trying to avoid dark elf patrols (or turn the tables on them) and feuding with the kobolds and Independent Chay tribes over food and territory.

The mountain goblins are aware that most humans in the area are staunch foes of the dark elves, but the goblins know that the enemy of my enemy is not always my friend since some humans who are staunchly opposed to human slavery are okay with enslaving goblins, or worse want to eradicate goblins. They know that there are some humans that are sympathetic to goblins, but not many and the mountain goblins are too pragmatic to take chances with any seemingly friendly non-Chay humans they encounter.

Because of this, mountain goblins are almost as hostile to the Colassian Confederacy as they are to their sworn enemies the dark elves.
Culture
Major Language Groups And Dialects
Like most goblins, East Colassian mountain goblins speak their own variant of Elven. Because these goblins are less removed from elven slavery than most other goblins, their grammar and diction is closer to "proper" Elven than most other goblins.
Average Technological Level
The mountain goblins have much accumulated lore on finding food, shelter, weapons, and tools from their mountain home, but for almost anything else, they have to scavenge or steal technology from humans and elves.
Common Dress Code
East Colassian goblins wear a patchwork of furs from animals they hunted and fabrics stolen or scavenged from humans and elves.



I might create a tribe of East Colassian desert or ice goblins later, but I'm not sure such a goblin tribe would be feasible (unless they mutated new supernatural abilities).

In addition to surviving the elements and trying to find food (and avoid dark elf patrols), ice goblins would have to compete for land and resources with the yeti. Desert goblins would have to compete with gnolls and Mereshnari.

 

[Scalenex]

Entry For Worldbuilding Summer Camp 2021
Answering: "an old or ancient organization which still casts a shadow"

Note, I only need 300 words to get credit for my writing prompt, but I feel like this article deserves much more because this is one of the biggest events in my backstory. Vladimir's attempt at world domination is the biggest disaster to hit Scarterra apart from the First and Second Unmakings.

Vladimir's kingdom probably needs a better name than "Vladimir's Kingdom." I don't know what name he would choose. Vladimir was a narcissist and a brutal tyrant but he wanted to appear as a benevolent protector. I'm not sure what name he would choose.

There's a good bet, his many enemies had nicknames for his kingdom, I'm not sure what those would be.

Also, what heraldry would Vladimir probably choose to use? Presumably he had different banners for his many different vassals but would have had a personal banner. Quick, activate the @Warden signal!

Also, I'm not sure whether Vladimir's style of heraldry would be avoided by most/all feudal nations to follow him or be emulated by most/all feudal nations to follow him.

I suppose I haven't even set in stone what vampires can and can't do.

Vladimir is a true vampire and was much much stronger than a normal vampire. I'm not sure what powers to give his lineage. Vladimir was a jack of all trades vampire, so his progeny probably would have jack of all trade powers.

Rallark was the best fighter, so his lineage would probably only get physical enhanced. Dalak was the most charismatic so his lineage would have the strongest mind control, Vralic had the most wilderness skills so his lineage would have the most beast based powers, and Lorshellis was a super skilled equestrian so her progeny can conjure bad ass spirit horses.

Note Vladimir created more vampire progeny than Rallark, Dalak, Vralic, and Lorshellis put together, so to most Scarterrans a "normal" vampire is of Vladimir's lineage. In fact as far as many Scarterrans know, Vladimir was the first and only vampire lord.

This is not set in stone yet, but this what I'm leaning towards.

-Moderately enhanced strength
-Moderately enhanced feat
-Moderately enhanced endurance
-Drastically enhanced resilience
-The ability to have 6 dot ratings in non-magical abilities as opposed to the usual 5 dot maximum everyone else has, if and only if they devote decades to practicing the skill.
-Innate mind control gaze, but it is not very reliable generally only working on low Willpower targets
-Ability to change into a wolf and a bat (or equivalent animals for different biomes)

Vladimir's kingdom
Vladimir the Conqueror is the most infamous and hated vampire in Scarterra's history.

Vladimir created dozens of vampires, and these vampires created more vampires who created more vampires. At the peak of the so called Era of Vampires, it's estimated that there were somewhere between one thousand and two thousand vampires of Vladimir's lineage on Scarterra. Vladimir claimed millions of subjects, and two thousand vampires cannot keep ten million plus humans in life by naked force.

Despite some accounts, Vladimir did not want destroy the human race or wash the world in his undead minions. Vladimir's made a declaration that vampire rule was good for the human race and that he would actually elevate humanity. In supposed his utopia, only criminals would be fed on. Few believed this because Vladimir's definition of what constitutes a criminal was vague. To his credit, there were multiple confirmed accounts of Vladimir harshly disciplining his vampires for unauthorized feeding.

While his top lieutenants were all vampires, most of Vladimir's midlevel and low level bosses were ordinary humans and the overwhelming majority of his soldiers and servants were ordinary humans.

Vladimir tired to elevate a human aristocracy and rewarded them generously to win their loyalty. After Vladimir's death, a lot of his human collaborators were rounded up and brutally executed, some by religious inquisitions and government sanctioned justice, but all too often by unruly mobs of vigilantes. Historians believe that more of the few of the victims from these purges were innocent or at least had their supposed crimes trumped up.

To manage his massive and growing realm, Vladimir established a system of interlocking feudal obligations.

While few Scarterrans admit it, most feudal nations today are modeled after the system that Vladimir created. It's also worth noting that the continents of West Colassia and Umera have very well entrenched and wide spread feudalism while East Colassia and Penarchia have far less solid feudal traditions. It is not a coincidence that Vladimir focused most of his efforts on conquering West Colassia and Umera first while only sending what were essentially expeditionary forces to East Colassia and Penarchia.
Structure
Vladimir was king and claimed all of Scarterra as his fiefdom (reaching about a third of Scarterra at his peak). Vladimir's top lieutenants were arch dukes, who had the fealty of duke who had the fealty of counts who had the fealty of barons. Everyone, from Baron up through Vladimir had personal knights.

Every feudal position came with land.
History
Vladimir gathered power in secret for centuries quietly subverting many powerful human nobles before moving out into the open and declaring his openly intentions of world domination.
Demography And Population
While Vladimir planned to dominate all mortals on Scarterra, Vladimir planned to conquer humanity first and then mop up the others. He only went after non-humans that specifically got in his way.

Most but not all demi-humans did their own cultural equivalent of staying home and boarding up the doors and windows. After Vladimir's defeat, this would cause racial tensions for centuries to come as humans were mad their supposed friends did nothing, or worse seemed to sell them out to vampires.

To their credit, the gnomes of Scarterra almost universally opposed Vladimir's regime. While they rarely took up arms, they were instrumental in setting up the alliances which eventually took him down and they were the main couriers for secret messages between disparate allied groups.
Territories
At his peak, Vladimir controlled roughly half of West Colassia and Umera while establishing footholds in Penarchia, East Colassia and what is the island that is now called Khemarok.
Military
Vladimir had a massive conventional army made up of well trained and well-equipped human soldiers with a wide variety of weapons and styles of fighting.

Vladmir's vampire minions would mostly stage guerilla style raids at night to sew general terror and confusion among their enemies, assassinate leaders, or sabotage enemy supply lines.
Technological Level
Due to handpicking his direct vampire offspring for merit, Vladimir had the best wizards, engineers, generals, alchemists, and sages humanity had to offer at the time.

One of the positive repercussions of Vladimir's attempt to take over the world is that it spread knowledge. One of the benevolent gestures he made for public relations was set up free schools (though admittedly there was plenty of "obey Vladimir!" indoctrination mixed in with legitimate knowledge.
Foreign Relations
While Vladimir had several warlords join him initially (all at once in a pre-planned move) and Vladimir had spies and saboteurs to undermine the most powerful nations he could not subvert entirely, eventually Vladimir had more enemies than he could handle where it almost turned into Vladimir versus the entirety of Scarterra.

Vladimir made his initial move when a lot of major Scarterran political powers were at war with each other. Vladimir sorely underestimated how quickly the warring factions could make peace and unite against them. Ditto for the competing priesthoods. They major priesthoods were able to put aside their preexisting issues surprisingly well to take on the threat Vladimir posed. Even the normally undead friendly Children chose to remain neutral and did not take advantage of the chaos of the vampire wars to strike at their traditional rivals.

He also faced opposition from many rival vampires, both within his own lineage and without.

 

[Scalenex]

The prompts that are left are

"A coming of age ceremony."

"An often undervalued but vital profession."

"A famous letter or message."

I have ideas for these things that I know I can write 300 words about but none of these ideas make me proud.

Basically because I don't like the "famous letter or message." is kind of a weak prompt and I already two rite of passage articles that I don't think I can top Merfolk Swim Days and Karakhai Teething Days.

I'm not super stoked about writing about a profession and feel like my article on dwarf rangers would also be hard to beat.

 

[Aginor]

I don't like the "famous letter or message." is kind of a weak prompt

I am surprised by that.
In real world human history there are quite some famous letters/messages, I would have assumed that your Scarterrans have something similar.
Maybe you will find an interesting spin on something like the Ems Dispatch, the american Declaration of Independence, Epistola de litteris colendis, or the Unam Sanctam Bull from 1302 that fits your world.

 

[Warden]

Entry For Worldbuilding Summer Camp 2021
Answering: "an old or ancient organization which still casts a shadow"

Note, I only need 300 words to get credit for my writing prompt, but I feel like this article deserves much more because this is one of the biggest events in my backstory. Vladimir's attempt at world domination is the biggest disaster to hit Scarterra apart from the First and Second Unmakings.

Vladimir's kingdom probably needs a better name than "Vladimir's Kingdom." I don't know what name he would choose. Vladimir was a narcissist and a brutal tyrant but he wanted to appear as a benevolent protector. I'm not sure what name he would choose.

There's a good bet, his many enemies had nicknames for his kingdom, I'm not sure what those would be.

Also, what heraldry would Vladimir probably choose to use? Presumably he had different banners for his many different vassals but would have had a personal banner. Quick, activate the @Warden signal!

Also, I'm not sure whether Vladimir's style of heraldry would be avoided by most/all feudal nations to follow him or be emulated by most/all feudal nations to follow him.

I suppose I haven't even set in stone what vampires can and can't do.

Vladimir is a true vampire and was much much stronger than a normal vampire. I'm not sure what powers to give his lineage. Vladimir was a jack of all trades vampire, so his progeny probably would have jack of all trade powers.

Rallark was the best fighter, so his lineage would probably only get physical enhanced. Dalak was the most charismatic so his lineage would have the strongest mind control, Vralic had the most wilderness skills so his lineage would have the most beast based powers, and Lorshellis was a super skilled equestrian so her progeny can conjure bad ass spirit horses.

Note Vladimir created more vampire progeny than Rallark, Dalak, Vralic, and Lorshellis put together, so to most Scarterrans a "normal" vampire is of Vladimir's lineage. In fact as far as many Scarterrans know, Vladimir was the first and only vampire lord.

This is not set in stone yet, but this what I'm leaning towards.

-Moderately enhanced strength
-Moderately enhanced feat
-Moderately enhanced endurance
-Drastically enhanced resilience
-The ability to have 6 dot ratings in non-magical abilities as opposed to the usual 5 dot maximum everyone else has, if and only if they devote decades to practicing the skill.
-Innate mind control gaze, but it is not very reliable generally only working on low Willpower targets
-Ability to change into a wolf and a bat (or equivalent animals for different biomes)

Vladimir's kingdom
Vladimir the Conqueror is the most infamous and hated vampire in Scarterra's history.

Vladimir created dozens of vampires, and these vampires created more vampires who created more vampires. At the peak of the so called Era of Vampires, it's estimated that there were somewhere between one thousand and two thousand vampires of Vladimir's lineage on Scarterra. Vladimir claimed millions of subjects, and two thousand vampires cannot keep ten million plus humans in life by naked force.

Despite some accounts, Vladimir did not want destroy the human race or wash the world in his undead minions. Vladimir's made a declaration that vampire rule was good for the human race and that he would actually elevate humanity. In supposed his utopia, only criminals would be fed on. Few believed this because Vladimir's definition of what constitutes a criminal was vague. To his credit, there were multiple confirmed accounts of Vladimir harshly disciplining his vampires for unauthorized feeding.

While his top lieutenants were all vampires, most of Vladimir's midlevel and low level bosses were ordinary humans and the overwhelming majority of his soldiers and servants were ordinary humans.

Vladimir tired to elevate a human aristocracy and rewarded them generously to win their loyalty. After Vladimir's death, a lot of his human collaborators were rounded up and brutally executed, some by religious inquisitions and government sanctioned justice, but all too often by unruly mobs of vigilantes. Historians believe that more of the few of the victims from these purges were innocent or at least had their supposed crimes trumped up.

To manage his massive and growing realm, Vladimir established a system of interlocking feudal obligations.

While few Scarterrans admit it, most feudal nations today are modeled after the system that Vladimir created. It's also worth noting that the continents of West Colassia and Umera have very well entrenched and wide spread feudalism while East Colassia and Penarchia have far less solid feudal traditions. It is not a coincidence that Vladimir focused most of his efforts on conquering West Colassia and Umera first while only sending what were essentially expeditionary forces to East Colassia and Penarchia.
Structure
Vladimir was king and claimed all of Scarterra as his fiefdom (reaching about a third of Scarterra at his peak). Vladimir's top lieutenants were arch dukes, who had the fealty of duke who had the fealty of counts who had the fealty of barons. Everyone, from Baron up through Vladimir had personal knights.

Every feudal position came with land.
History
Vladimir gathered power in secret for centuries quietly subverting many powerful human nobles before moving out into the open and declaring his openly intentions of world domination.
Demography And Population
While Vladimir planned to dominate all mortals on Scarterra, Vladimir planned to conquer humanity first and then mop up the others. He only went after non-humans that specifically got in his way.

Most but not all demi-humans did their own cultural equivalent of staying home and boarding up the doors and windows. After Vladimir's defeat, this would cause racial tensions for centuries to come as humans were mad their supposed friends did nothing, or worse seemed to sell them out to vampires.

To their credit, the gnomes of Scarterra almost universally opposed Vladimir's regime. While they rarely took up arms, they were instrumental in setting up the alliances which eventually took him down and they were the main couriers for secret messages between disparate allied groups.
Territories
At his peak, Vladimir controlled roughly half of West Colassia and Umera while establishing footholds in Penarchia, East Colassia and what is the island that is now called Khemarok.
Military
Vladimir had a massive conventional army made up of well trained and well-equipped human soldiers with a wide variety of weapons and styles of fighting.

Vladmir's vampire minions would mostly stage guerilla style raids at night to sew general terror and confusion among their enemies, assassinate leaders, or sabotage enemy supply lines.
Technological Level
Due to handpicking his direct vampire offspring for merit, Vladimir had the best wizards, engineers, generals, alchemists, and sages humanity had to offer at the time.

One of the positive repercussions of Vladimir's attempt to take over the world is that it spread knowledge. One of the benevolent gestures he made for public relations was set up free schools (though admittedly there was plenty of "obey Vladimir!" indoctrination mixed in with legitimate knowledge.
Foreign Relations
While Vladimir had several warlords join him initially (all at once in a pre-planned move) and Vladimir had spies and saboteurs to undermine the most powerful nations he could not subvert entirely, eventually Vladimir had more enemies than he could handle where it almost turned into Vladimir versus the entirety of Scarterra.

Vladimir made his initial move when a lot of major Scarterran political powers were at war with each other. Vladimir sorely underestimated how quickly the warring factions could make peace and unite against them. Ditto for the competing priesthoods. They major priesthoods were able to put aside their preexisting issues surprisingly well to take on the threat Vladimir posed. Even the normally undead friendly Children chose to remain neutral and did not take advantage of the chaos of the vampire wars to strike at their traditional rivals.

He also faced opposition from many rival vampires, both within his own lineage and without.

::appears in a flash of fire and brimstone::

Interesting prompt!

Is there any animal form or symbol routinely attributed to Vladimir? His name sounds like it could have Romanian and/or Eastern European origins, I confess I don't know much about Romanian heraldry other than their national coat of arms.



For a unique look I always liked the pattern used by the medieval French coat-of-arms, where the fleur-de-lys is used in a repeating fashion.



[one quick visit to gimp later]

Perhaps with some skulls? I haven't done one like this before, I like the look:



Could represent the thousands or millions of undead soldiers he has had at his command? Or perhaps the millions of lives he has claimed and is proud of?

I am not sure if this is a good direction or not. Its a simple scheme that leaves lots of room for easy customization, variation for his family and branches of his household, as charges for loyal subordinates, quartering, etc.

 

[Scalenex]

I am surprised by that.
In real world human history there are quite some famous letters/messages, I would have assumed that your Scarterrans have something similar.
Maybe you will find an interesting spin on something like the Ems Dispatch, the american Declaration of Independence, Epistola de litteris colendis, or the Unam Sanctam Bull from 1302 that fits your world.

I didn't mean it was a bad prompt. It's not. I just don't think it's a good prompt for me. Reading the entries other people have made, almost everyone else has written out their thing. Not just the explanation for why it's important but the statement or document itself and that is daunting for me.

Also, the Declaration of Independence is important to me as an American but how many non-Americans care about it? I'm not a Scarterran. I have trouble getting personally invested in say the Swynfaredian Charter or something.

 

[Scalenex]

::appears in a flash of fire and brimstone::

Interesting prompt!

Is there any animal form or symbol routinely attributed to Vladimir? His name sounds like it could have Romanian and/or Eastern European origins, I confess I don't know much about Romanian heraldry other than their national coat of arms.

I didn't chose the name for the Hungarian connotations. I chose it because Vlad is a stereotypical name and Vladimir's lineage is made up of fairly stereotypical vampires. The other four vampire bloodlines diverge from the stereotypical norm in some fashion.

Note, I have five vampire lineages so far. If I come up with an idea I like later, I can boost this to six or seven. At one point, there were 12 true vampires (and none of them had vampiric offspring), but a lot of them died and then the survivors started creating new vampires.

Even if Vladimir was from a nation like Hungary, he was roughly 1000 years old by the time he tried taking over the world and wandered up and down Scarterra a lot. It is unlikely that he started his empire in his original homeland and it is unlikely that his original homeland kept it's same national identity for 1000 years.

I don't have any reason to tie his heraldry to the Hungarian coat of arms, though the Hungarian court of arms does look kind of kick ass...

Perhaps with some skulls? I haven't done one like this before, I like the look:

Could represent the thousands or millions of undead soldiers he has had at his command? Or perhaps the millions of lives he has claimed and is proud of?

This also looks kind of kick ass.

The nice thing about working a menial job is that my body can do my job on autopilot while my brain thinks about Scarterra.

Vladimir is/was an undead monster but he didn't want to be viewed as an undead monster. He wanted to be viewed as a benevolent protector and downplay his blood drinking.

It occurred to me that Vladimir's human vassals would be concerned that they were not taken seriously either by their Vladimir's vampiric lieutenants or Vladimir's enemies, so Vladimir would probably downplay the death based imagery on his personal coat of arms while his human minions would probably lean heavily into death based imagery.

Then my mind drifted to Warhammer Empire imagery. A lot of skulls and dead men on their banners for a group of supposed good guys. Maybe this is the direction to go.

I could rename Vladimir as Sigmar or Karl Franz if I wasn't afraid of being sued...

I will point out that Vladimir did use zombies, skeletons and other expendable undead troops in his armies but he himself was not a great wizard. He had the magical equivalent of a learning disability and it took him centuries to learn the magic that most human wizards can learn in a single decade.

Personally, Vladimir could personally command hundreds of undead shock troops. Impressive, sure, but hundreds of soldiers is not enough to create an empire with even with constant replacements of casualties. Vladimir had necromancers on his payroll, both other vampires and living humans but not as many as he would have preferred.

If Vladimir the Conqueror's army was represented by Warhammer figures, I would guess 80% of his army points would look like the Empire or Brettonians (minus the gunpowder) and 20% of army points would go towards undead axillary troops, the latter of which are used mostly as arrow catchers (which he tried to use a selling point when recruiting human soldiers showing them that he wouldn't sacrifice their lives needlessly when he had plenty of undead fodder).

I am not sure if this is a good direction or not. Its a simple scheme that leaves lots of room for easy customization, variation for his family and branches of his household, as charges for loyal subordinates, quartering, etc.

I noticed Hungary's coat of arm has many pictures and icons within it. I suppose Vlad's coat of arms could be similar. He would have icons for his top three lieutenants the archdukes, at least one icon to represent a happy safe humanity, at least one icon representing his undead wrath, and maybe a couple miscellaneous symbols here and there all under the aegis of whatever beast or icon his personal mascot is.

Maybe a bat, maybe a wolf. Actually, I'm leaning towards wolves. Now that I think about, I personally like wolves but wolves are conspicuously absent from all the heraldry I either created or described thus far.

If Vlad took the wolf as his personal sigil, that would explain why modern Scarterrans are loathe to accept the wolf as a positive symbol because of the native connotations associated with heraldic wolves.

A lot of vampire lore in the real world has vampires commanding werewolves or vampires at war with werewolves or both. I probably am not going to give Vladimir a direct werewolf connection.

Werewolves and vampires are not directly tied to each other. Vampires are the result of a mad lich's desire to create immortal super soldiers and lycanthropes are half-failed/half successful attempt by a Demon Lord to create a weaponized disease. Here is the link to Scarterran lycanthropes btw. Unlike in D&D and other fantasy settings, there is no real cultural or behavioral difference between a werewolf, werebear, or a weretiger. And infected lycanthrope will take the animal form of whatever animal he or she has an affinity with. If a person does not have a special affinity with a predatory animal (as is the case the majority of the time), an infected lycanthrope will take the animal form of the lycanthrope who infected them, so a werewolf will usually but not always create a new werewolf.

 

[Scalenex]

The muse of world building gave me a metaphorical kiss this evening and I wrote a lengthy article to one of the remaining prompts.

I wish I had a professional artist. I bet a Swynfaredian magical party would look awesome though if I could afford a professional artist I would have him or her start with drawing more important things first. This picture would be perfect for Mera, but the artist doesn't work cheap. I would love to have him do a portrait for all of the Nine though this guy rarely paints male nature deities.

Entry For Worldbuilding Summer Camp 2021
Answering: "a coming of age ceremony"

Swynfaredian Otectum Parties
Like most things related to Swynfaredia's upper class, Otectums metaphorically relate to dragons. "Otectum" loosely translates into "hatching" or "egg breaking" even though in this case the hatching is metaphorical.

The Swynfaredian Otectum is kind of like the unisex equivalent of a debutante ball in the real world.

On paper, the age of legal adulthood in Swynfaredia, as it is in most human nations, is sixteen but to a be a true member of Swynfaredia's ruling class, a person must have some talent for sorcery.

Signs of sorcery can manifest as young as four or five, but it is some time before a child's random magical events are tamed into concrete spells that a budding sorcerer or sorceress can cast spells consistently with a level of control.

Most sorcerers and sorceresses can master this between ages 14 and 16, but there are rare prodigies that can cast spells as young as 11 and rare late bloomers who cannot consistently cast spells until they enter their second decade.

Otectums essentially celebrate a young sorcerer or sorceress magical coming of age. They are not scheduled until the celebrant can cast at least one spell consistently and reliably. Ideally the young man or woman is also fluent in Draconic by this time, but fluency in the language of dragons is not technically required.

About half the time the sorcerer's or sorceress' spells are known well in advance of the ceremony and other times it is kept as a surprise. Often it is popular for the celebrant to reveal one or two spells ahead of time and save one or two spells as a surprise. A big portion of the purpose of the demonstration of spells is to show off and boast, especially if it's a group Otectum rather than a solo Otectum, and surprises are usually pretty impressive.

Richer and more ancient houses tend to have larger and more lavish ceremonies but even a sorcerer of no noble blood can expect a good party which he will probably remember fondly for the rest of his life.


Political Undertones
It's not just a celebration, there is a political purpose underpinning to the party.

A true dragon blood sorcerer or sorceress has blood ties to at least two noble houses and because Swynfaredian titles can pass to men and woman, a young sorcerer can inherit lands or titles from both his mother's and his father's noble families.

Blood ties or not, a young sorceress' chances of inheriting a title goes up if she has a politically connected mentor within the house in question. It is difficult but not impossible for a young sorcerer or sorceress to obtain mentors in multiple houses and thus be in multiple inheritance lines, but most mentors are not willing to share their proteges in this fashion unless the young sorceress in question is truly exceptional.

In generations past, it was mostly a young sorcerer's responsibility to impress an elder and obtain the patronage of a great mentor while the neophytes and losers were cast aside and politically blacklisted. Now more often than, even a sorceress of modest ability can expect to have multiple would-be mentors trying to woo her as every house wants as many skilled proteges as they can get. An unlucky or unskilled young sorcerer might not get the best mentor but nowadays it is very hard to be so inept or unpopular as to not be able to find any mentor.

If a young sorcerer or sorceress is not of noble blood, he or she can still expect older magi to try to recruit them. Everyone wants skilled magical retainers and at this point, very few ruling lords and ladies can afford to limit themselves to exclusively using dragon bloods as their agents. This is why more and more landed nobles are choosing to sponsor laving Otectum parties for groups of low born sorcerers and sorceresses, they are recruitment events.

Gift giving was always part of an Otectum but they used to be primarily inexpensive gifts intended to invoke sentimentality and over the centuries the gifts have become more numerous and more expensive. Now lavish gifts are often distributed as displays of power and status for the givers and to bestow high aspirations on the recipients

Romantic Undertones

An Otectum probably has multiple elders contemplating possible betrothals though in truth such planning probably began at least from the first moment the youngster manifested random magic.

Nevertheless meddling elders are probably going to be hatching new politics-laden matrimony schemes throughout each and every Otectum.

While this is scheming is quietly occurring, a small distance away you have a bunch of boisterous young men and women with overly optimistic hopes for the future in a setting with good food, flowing wine, and good music.

So there is usually some flirtatious under currents in most Otectums is not full romantic "entanglements."

When young mages compete with each other in magical showing off contests, it's often done to impress a would-be paramour or discredit a romantic rival. Sometimes they might magically attack other attendants in unsanctioned duels. If one or more of the adolescent sorcerers present are invokers it would be wise to check how much wine they consume.
History
The tradition of the Otectum dates back almost from the founding of Swynfaredia. It is noteworthy that Otectums used to be fairly informal but over almost 900 years of Swynfaredian history, Otectums gradually have gotten more and elaborate with each successive generation.

Some historians have noted that centuries when over 90% of the children of the dragon bloods "bred true", the Otectum was mostly a simple formality, and an excuse to throw a feast, but now that only about 50% of dragon blood children breed true, each son or daughter of a house manifesting true magic makes the Otectum a cause for celebration.

Originally, Otectums were only for full dragon bloods, but in recent years more and more sorcerers and sorceresses of commoner blood or mixed heritage are receiving Otectums. A lowborn sorcerer(ess) shouldn't expect a Otectum as lavish as a highborn's, but they will still get a fairly nice party all the same.

One new tradition that is quickly gaining traction is to have 2-7 sorcerers and sorceresses have a group Otectum. This is especially common if the young celebrants are not full dragon bloods. Often, these group Otectums are sponsored not by the sorcerers' or sorceresses' families but by the local ruling lord or lady.
Execution
The young sorcerer(ess) sits through a formal ceremony in the Draconic lasting about between thirty minutes and an hour.

Following this, the young sorcerer or sorceress demonstrates his or her magical ability to a crowd of family, friends, and well wishers and then a raucous feast and party begins.

Each house has it's own minor variants and mini-rituals throughout the party and since a lot of sorcerers and sorceresses have mixed heritage a single Otectum can pick up a lot of these.
Components And Tools
Food and drink is usually chosen based on what the party host can afford and what is available in the local area.

Most participants will wear formal garb in the traditional colors of their house(s).There also costumes and decorations based on what kind magic the celebrant manifests. For instance an Invoker's party might have a brass dragon statue with an oil fed fire in it's mouth as a centerpiece. A young necromancer's parties may look like a real world Day of the Dead festival with lots of participants wearing makeup to look skeletal.

A group Otectum is going to probably have many schools of magic celebrated and while uncommon, it's hardly unheard of for an adolescent sorcerer or sorceress to manifest two schools of magic at a young age and in most cases they are happy to show this off.
Participants
The main participants are traditional the young sorcerer or sorceress, the celebrants family and close friends, and the local lord or lady who the young man or woman lives in the land of.

Members of the clergy, usually Children or Keepers, may or may not be invited to take part depending on the subject's family's views on this.

If the subject's family can afford it, many go all out having a huge feast and inviting many guests which may involve giving the local peasants some free food or inviting distant nobles that the young subject never met before his/her Otectum.

(sidebar)
An Alternative Opinion...
Swynfaredians, much like the dragons they seek to emulate, like to boast and show off their prowess.

But there are also dragons that skulk in darkness and deal in secrets. In a such a fashion, there are Swynfaredians that also like to deal in secrets.

More than a few sorcerers and sorceresses believe that you should never let your rivals learn you can or cannot do. Some choose to forgo their Otectum for this very reasons. Others still throw an Otectum but choose to underplay their true power.

 

[pendrake]

@pendrake @Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl, have either of you considered shooting for a badge for World Anvil Summer Camp 2021?

I have barely been popping in for a look at Lustria Online.

Not spending much time on World Anvil

 

[Scalenex]

Running a little bit behind. World Anvil posted prompts 21 through 30 and I still had prompts 19 and 20 left.

Here is prompt #26

Entry For Worldbuilding Summer Camp 2021
"a large business, corporation or trade guild"
The Platinum Consortium (for all you tengku and Border Barony fans).

Here is prompt #19

Entry For Worldbuilding Summer Camp 2021
Answering: "a famous letter or message"
The Treaty of Delas (for all you gnome of East Colassia fans).

I have two days off work, so hopefully I can knock off 5-7 new prompts over the next two days. I got ten prompts left not counting the mystery thirty-first prompt which only appears for the last 24 hours of the event.

My progress page is here. A lot of the remaining categories are tough because I already written similar articles and got the low hanging fruit. A lot of these are character based.

"A brave hero who hides a secret past." That's a common enough trope that it will be pretty easy to write. I actually haven't written about Rallark the vampire anti-hero yet, so that's practically a shoe-in.

"A renown criminal, pirate, or highwayman." That is going to be tough for me because I'm not a big fan of outlaw protagonists.

"A romancer, paramour, or other amorous individual" will also be tough for me because my heart is a chunk of obsidian and I have little interest or talent writing this kind of thing.

"An industrial, logging, or other production settlement" I've done this three times already in the Border Baronies: Platinum Peak, Iron Hills, and Crystal Fields. I'm kind of burned out on this.

"A building associated with crime or justice" I have ideas but they are fairly boring ideas.

"An often undervalued but vital profession" I have ideas but they are fairly boring ideas.

"A unit or squad that guards an important person." I did create a knightly order that protects the King of Kantoc already but that's not a big deal. Almost every kingdom of a large size is going to have an elite group of soldiers to protect the king or queen.

I'm thinking either I'll either write about the Queen of Swynfaredia's bodyguard or King Drosst's personal guard.

Since the PCs in my RPG campaign are eventually going to make war against Swynfaredia, the Swynfaredian royal guard would be of actual use potenially, but writing about Drosst's elite death squad would be interesting given that Drosst is hiding behind an elaborate personal subterfuge, it would be interesting how he would balance his need for loyalty and control with his need for secrecy.


"A vital trade resource that supports a settlement or region" I mentioned the Barony of Crystal Fields a couple times, but I never expounded on what the crystals are actually used for. This should be easy to write.


A settlement known as a pleasure town or for louche behavior. The dark elves' City of Light could qualify but I already wrote that article long ago. I'm thinking of creating a Tortuga-like pirate town in Penarchia. Even though I have created almost zero details for who lives in Penarchia other than "there are many small feuding kingdoms in Penarchia." I think that's an environment that is conducive to piracy.

"A title which cannot be bought, only earned." I don't have any ideas off the top of my head. This seems like a prompt that deserves me putting extra thought into.

 

[Scalenex]

Prompt 23
Entry For Worldbuilding Summer Camp 2021
Answering: "a settlement known as a pleasure town or for louche behaviour"
Free Port of Amstrea, Scarterra's most wretched hive of scum and villainy

Prompt 28
Entry For Worldbuilding Summer Camp 2021
Answering: "a vital trade resource that supports a settlement or region"
haber crystals, a catalyst for metal based magic items

Prompt 29
Ketaresh mining complex, the worst place to be a slave in Kahdisteria.

 

[Scalenex]

I looked over what I got so far for the Summer Camp challenge and realized I had written a lot fewer Scaraquan articles than I initially expected, so I wrote this:

Go to Scarterra Homepage
The Storm Thief, a pirate without a ship


Some time ago, the mermaid known as the Storm Thief sank or disabled over fifty Scarterran ships to plunder them from the water though she claimed to have robbed close to two hundred ships.

The Storm Thief's original name is not known, she used a wide variety of aliases and did not like to talk about her past. Whereas a lot of the Cult of the Storm said that Scaraquans should be able sink Scarterran ships with impunity, the Storm thief actually put these theories into practice. She was a powerful weather witch and usually used storms to sink out right or at least often up her targets. She was a prodigy with Augmentation magic and could turn her fish tail into legs and her gills into lungs, as well as those of her crew quite easily.

She had fewer than two dozen crew mates, but they were all formidable warriors and roughly a third of them had potent magic, including an Ojiongo mage who could summon bubbles of air in the sea to take Scarterrans prisoner or summon bubbles of water in the air to give allies a respite or drown or immobilize Scarterrans. It also helped moving loot safely.

Originally the Storm Thief mostly sank ships, but she realized that looting was often easier form a disabled ship so they could take precautions to protect more delicate loot from taking water damage.

She and her crew became so infamous to the sailors of Scarterra that a great many sailors began attacking Merfolk and other Scaraquans that swam near the surface of the water indiscriminately. This earned the Storm thief enemies below the sea as well above it.

One day the Storm Thief suddenly left on an expedition and never came back, nor did any of crew. Speculation is one her of many enemies finally managed to net the uncatchable fish thief.

It is also a common legend among merfolk children that she had a hidden cache of treasure hidden somewhere in sea, if only a lucky or daring adventurer can find it.

 

[Scalenex]

Prompt 25: "a brave hero, who hides a secret past."

I couldn't write about Rallark because I already wrote about him and forgot about it. I invented someone new.

Ralthor, the rebellious favored soul

Prompt 21: "a building associated with crime or justice"

The Great Sanctuary of Mercy

I noticed in a lot of fantasy, you have the structures topple when there is a regime change, but I figure more often than not, whether you are a good guy or a bad guy, if you take take a sturdy building intact, better to use it than demolish it.

To win a symbolic victory, the Tenders have tried to turn a place of death and tyranny into a place of redemption and healing.

Prompt 30: "a title which cannot be bought, only earned."

Not sure about this one...wait I know:

27 prompts down, 3 to go plus the mystery prompt.