D&D- Campaign Setting flailings
Dec. 25th, 2008 01:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
weirdletHear you now, of the Empire of Alucia. Alucia, light of the civilized world, brings together the far-flung reaches of a continent to serve, trade, debate, represent their peoples to the senate and to pay tribute to the Emperor, both political and religious. His knights defend order, his messengers travel the kingdoms, his blessing is upon the land and its peoples.
But obviously nothing's perfect, or else you wouldn't be here, would you?
Players Guide
Maps-
Latest Version-
Introduction
Well- I’ll have a better introduction at some point when I actually know who would be doing what and what direction we’d be going in. Basically, you’re in a world where the last major organizations and kingdoms had a huge collapse during which humans were introduced to orcs and mortal elves, and during which anarchy reigned. Out of the ashes comes the first Emperor, Lucien, who establishes the kingdom and then the Empire of Alucia, by legendary accounts a gift from the many divinities, intent on bringing some measure of order back to the world.
Six hundred years later, the continent on which our intrepid heroes find themselves is full of several different types of people, overlaid in many parts with the Empire’s gloss but still retaining plenty of dark fringes and hidden corners away from the law and the light. Call it a mix of early to mid Rome, medieval times as if Rome had been in existence instead of just a title granted to German kings for pleasing the Pope, basic D&D fantasy and a little bit of old fairytales, creeping in on the edges of the night.
Or at least, that’s what I’m going for. One of the original things I’d been thinking of was the Five Hundred Kingdoms of Mercedes Lackey’s latest series, wherein there’s a land called the 500 Kingdoms, a ton of little patchwork lands flavored from Russia to France to Germany to China and Japan and Arabia and even classical Greece, that all have the Tradition strong at work, a force that pushes people down fairytale paths but which can be guided or redirected by clever Godmothers- that’s not so prevalent anymore, but it was where I started out at. I figured another name for Alucia might be the Patchwork Empire or the 300 Kingdoms, but I figured it would be a good idea to have at least a couple large patches of land named and organized. I’m also trying to both insert my ideas, make them workable, and not crib too much off of Rob, Terry, or Betsy. Am also worried I’ve set out far too ambitiously, as seen by the large blank of Imperial territory on the second map.
• Use either Dex or Strength as your basic melee bonus, whichever best fits your ethos (this means pick one or the other at first level, and stick with it as your main thing. Write it down on your sheet. In ink.).
• Show me and talk to me about things from other sources. I’m flexible. Be prepared to lend me the book to scavenge from.
• There have been some alterations to race and classes- see below.
• Same dying rules as for Crystalmarch- disabled at 0 to negative Con modifier, dead at negative Con score.
• Drop alignment. See me if this causes problems.
(The more I think about this, the more appealing it is.)
Available Races:
One extra feat at first level, 4 extra skill points at first level and 1 extra at every level thereafter. Humans are, at least nominally and for the most part really, the dominant race and culture in Alucia. They occupy territory from the enlightened and refined heart of the empire nestled into the base of the northern mountains, to the moldering desert
To the Northeast is Svartlund, a cool region of rich farmland and dark woods, divided into many small baronies. People from there have a reputation of being dour and sober, though with good reason- with the Black Woods encroaching from the east, the cold mountains full of dragons to the north, and the savage Running Tribes always looking to gnaw away the southern tip of their lands, they take a diligent and stubborn approach to bulling through the next task.
The Running Tribes themselves are fast-moving raiders over the extent of the coastal plains, so named for their famed (if inaccurate) disdain for riding, in favor of being as fleet of foot as horses themselves. While it is noted that youths are encouraged to toughen themselves and avoid dependence upon their mounts, nevertheless, they are fearsome mounted combatants. There have been efforts to include them in the empire, or at least get them to agree to stop raiding, but unfortunately, their leadership has proven too fractious and prone to switching (or being thrown over) as soon as the ink’s dry on the treaties.
Alucia itself is a bustling metropolis surrounded on three sides by fertile farmland, backed by high mountains, divided by a powerful river with a direct route to the jaunty trading grounds of the
Rogahn and Eiran directly borders the Roaming Lands. There is bad blood between them and the orcs, and they continue to needle each other across the border to this day, although there has been some cultural exchange (although, as usual, no one will budge on admitting who had the bagpipes first).
Tian-Og- a kingdom close to the warm marshes. They still have the nature-worshippers that Rogahn pushed out in favor of the sun-god Luc.
Daanlan- a very civil kingdom, very picturesque. Farms, monasteries, good-natured jousts, and a lot of cheese. Somewhat holier-than-thou to everyone, including the Imperials and the Akyosians.
+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 to Intelligence and Charisma, Darkvision 60 ft., Scent ability.
“You humans fail to understand even the most basic things- respect between warriors, honor between hunter and prey, love for you goddess- all you know is survival!” Translation from the Orcish, Kergash son-of-Irg.
Your average orc is a rough sort, and though craft and guile are valued, booklearning and manners (or what those soft flat-toothed sorts call manners) often fall by the wayside- but while they can lack tact, they are rarely fools. Compact and tough, they are often considered coarse and ill-favored by human standards, even bestial- but say that to an orc-man’s face and he’ll either laugh at you or punch you, and you’d better hope his shield-sister didn’t hear you ‘cause she’ll do worse.
In the bounds of the Empire, you find a lot of orcs in the legions, where they have a long history of serving with honor and sheer bloody-mindedness, as well as populating the laboring classes. While they are considered Imperial citizens, though, not all of the Empire’s component kingdoms have a large population or a great love of them. This may have to do with some people remembering a time when orcs were the screaming invaders from the West, or the fact that a large swathe of land was granted them for their mercenary services when they turned to the fledgling empire for leadership when their own was destroyed.
In the lands outside the empire’s borders, orcs default to wandering tribes, but there are camp-like settlements and even villages that can be found in both their granted lands and those countries where they are welcome. There are cities that are primarily orcish in nature, usually built around large forts or keeps along the western borderlands, meant to keep both sides apart- but the Roaming Lands, as they are called, are mostly undeveloped in a deliberate attempt to hold to tradition.
Ethnicity among orcs is along clan lines, while society is along tribal lines. Your clan is what kind of orc you are; your tribe is the band you live and travel with, and your family is your mother and siblings- fathers come and go. One tribe is most often of one clan, but may have adopted or captured members of others (above a certain rank or number of battles survived, a warrior may take (or be taken) as war-mates from amongst captured fighters, keeping them captive for a certain number of years before allowing them to return to their original tribe). Each tribe will have a priestess to the Allmother, and a shaman to the totemic god that the clan is named for, such as Boar or Snake or Raven. Some groups are more aggressive and isolated than others, squabbling over territory and driving off or destroying competitors, but such reckless behavior carries the risk of being ganged up on by smaller tribes, as well as being vulnerable to forest beasts and monsters.
City-dwellers intermingle more freely, while still tracing their lineage and taking pride in it. Some of the stauncher traditionalists, however, have taken to calling ‘civilized’ orcs members of the “Dog”-clan, something changed from the wild to the purposes of men. Some think the name accurate and take it as funny, and some take it as a deadly insult.
I had a long blab here that was full of my usual turn of phrase, and I really want to simplify/expand on it here. Basically, what I wanted to say was- all the writeups of orcs I’ve seen, those that promise to make orcs deeper than just XP with green paint on, have made good on their promise by laying out, in no uncertain terms, that orcs are utterly depraved and evil forms of life, incapable of love or warmth or assigning any worth to life, hating beauty and despising those who are other than they.
That doesn’t work for me.
I like my orcs rough and tough, but while they can be just as savage and vicious as humans, they aren’t utterly and inescapably evil, a form of life designed to be unsympathetic and antagonistic to all others. They’re a people with a religion, a worldview, divisions, and pride and prejudice the same as any other set of beings.
That said, your basic orc in my universe is short but thickly built, compact and barrel-bodied. Skin ranges from leaf-green to nearly black, usually even but occasionally mottled, and sometimes there can be greys and browns mixed in, and hair is usually black but can have some variation, usually to browns or reddish tints. Eyes are a mixed bag, but black, gold, yellow, green, tan-browns and the occasional reds are the norm. Orcish faces are different from the average run of humans, but they aren’t pig-faced or noseless green apes. They do have stronger jaws, heavier brows, and a tendency to slope, with sharp upper and lower canines, the latter of which often protrude beyond the lips. They also aren’t as chinless as Neanderthals.
Orcs traditionally live in relatively small hunter-gatherer bands, wandering the forests and wherever the prey is plentiful, clashing when there is too little territory or too great insult but not being psychotic about it. That’s where they started out, at least- during the Great Wars, something happened that has affected the orcs to this day. Somehow, they came under the leadership of a powerful, charismatic and very nasty man, a classical Evil Overlord, who essentially moved almost their entire population down to the continent where they reside today. Possibly their first home succumbed to a fast and wide-spread desertification, as well as the man pushing them having kidnapped some of their major religious leaders- that might be the only reason why they would have gone to this length.
Trained and marched across miles and generations, the orcs made a pretty badass army. Naturally tough and inclined to value martial skill, the addition of discipline and organization on a military scale combined with the more traditional hit-and-run/anything that works attitude to make for a frightening onslaught in the face of already-engaged human armies that were spread too thin.
The training and the support came at a very heavy price, though. Orcs were in the service of a man and a regime who sought obedience and control- just because they served as promised didn’t mean they were exempt from attempts to break their spirits and mold them to others’ desires. One of the reasons tattooing became so popular amongst the warriors was to help camouflage the priestesses, who held much history as well as clan- and status-markings tattooed on their skins, and who were being subtly targeted for disappearing.
The orcs were far from guiltless. They knew their jobs and did them well and with gusto. But they were one side of a many-sided war.
No one’s really sure (read, I haven’t decided yet) what happened, whether someone else took out the Overlord, or one of his own experiments failed, or his own troops turned on him and tore him apart when they found out exactly what he’d been doing to them. But fall he did, leaving not just an entire army but an entire people stranded in a strange land that had little welcome for them. Napoleon has nothin’ on this guy.
They got on as best they could, which tended to have unpleasant results for local humans and orcs alike. Things were chaotic and violent, and until the call came from the new fledgling organization headed by then-King Lucien, they looked like they were going to stay that way. Lucien offered a deal- remain as an army, and serve me and mine. We shall be allies, and you shall be citizens of my realm, as well as having lands to call your own that shall be yours for as long as you choose to hold them. Help me bring order to the madness that has afflicted this world, and you shall benefit from this order.
A lot of orcs were very, very mistrustful of this- after the last time someone had come to them saying ‘trust me’, who could blame them? But the priestesses considered Lucien’s words, and the signs, and communed with their goddess to come up with the answer that yes, he could be trusted, and that this would be a very fruitful deal for the orcs if they went through with it.
So far, it looks as though they were right.
Today, they are partly ‘civilized’ and partly wild, with a strong population living in the traditional hunter tribes in the Roaming-Lands, the name given to the broad stretch of forest and mountainous foothills that they were allowed to settle. There’s been a conscious effort to not clear the land, but to live on it- call it like a super-sized reservation. Closer to the border, however, are those who are still a bit more affected by their time in the army, settling into a long series of more permanent settlements, even a couple cities. These are moderately seasonal, though- the larger population is oftenest out and about in the spring and summer, only really coming home to roost in the meanest cold. Meanwhile, other orcs have settled into the Empire itself, becoming model citizens, if usually active and retired army or laboring classes with occasional offshoots into the upper strata when someone gathers enough money on retirement to start business or gain political power. Some kingdoms, however, do not have a great love of their orcish population, remembering when they were first the screaming invaders under the Dark Lord’s command, then the obnoxious conquerors of the Emperor’s command.
Culture’s kind of a mix- in the Roaming-Lands it’s almost Native American with touches of Viking in the coating, while the settled-lands are a mix of Scottish and Viking, feuding clans and drunken raids, while still trying to maintain an air of meeting-peace.
Great Orcs- +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -4 Intelligence, -2 Charisma. Darkvision 60 ft., Scent ability. (Basically, these are the Uruk-hai- taller than most humans, built like body-builders, tall skulls and more even features than craggy standard-orcish ones, more brownish tones than green. They started out mage-bred, and while they are organic beings, they're a little more- orderly in their construction, and there's some speculation that there were humans in their genepool.)
Divided into the Bear, Bull and Jaguar clans, great-orcs are regarded as the really orthodox orcs. They don’t like humans, and they mostly retreat into unspoiled areas to live in feral tribes, trading with other clans but not outsiders (as they regard humans and especially elves). This doesn’t preclude them from wandering into civilization entirely, but does often set the tone for their encounters with others. There have been unkind but not entirely unfounded comparisons of great-orcs with some of the larger apes- shy, living in family groups well away from the glare of civilization, speaking little and using unsophisticated tools- and prone to showing anyone who messes with them just how dangerous five hundred pounds of muscle and teeth are when provoked.
The Bear clan occupies mountainous, wooded areas above the snowline, preferring a colder clime than their smaller cousins. The Bull clan, however, is generally found on the plains, chasing (usually) wild herds for food, and often killing their prey bare-handed to show strength and bravado- a contingent of Bull and Horse clan orcs have made their way to the land of the Running Tribes, and have established themselves as nomads there. The Jaguar clan is rarer, hailing from the hotter forests in the lands they originally came from, but can still be found in small numbers near Akyos.
(I was thinking, if I did that bonus-feat thing for the different clans, Bear would get Hibernation, the ability to recover lots of hitpoints by extended resting. Actually, to account for their misbegotten origins as the Evil Overlord's improvements on his natural orcish soldiers, I was thinking both Hibernation and Ferocity would be useful, showing how they're made to be tough, unnaturally durable soldiers)
Elves-
+2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution. Immunity to sleep effects, +2 against enchantment spells or effects. Low-light Vision, +2 to Listen, Search and Spot, Search check on being within 5 feet of a secret door. Rare beings in the world of men and sunlight, elves have the grace to get themselves out of trouble, but are oddly frail for this rough world. Their uncanny senses are said to mark them as slightly off, just a little bit away from the here and now.
Which is absolutely true.
Elves as mortals know them are exiles from Underhill, cast out with little memory of what they were, and much reduced in glory from their immortal brethren. An elf either appears in a grove near where fae are known to dwell, barred from returning- or he is born to parents who arrived in this manner, growing up never knowing the legacy that many imagine might be his. Some are even found as youngsters in the empty cradles of human children- changelings, traded or rejected for some unknown reason. Such a being may yearn for the legendary Underhill and the immortality promised there, or may throw himself headlong into the several centuries he can expect of everyday hustle and bustle that makes up mortal living, wandering the roads or staying in the small enclaves of his fellows scattered throughout the kingdoms. After centuries of appearing and with their long life-spans, even given their few numbers a small, but viable, population has built up. Beautiful and not well-understood, even by themselves, there is a human fascination with elves that some are confused by and some take advantage of, becoming entertainers, scholars, even politicians.
Half-Elves-
Immunity to sleep effects, +2 against enchantment spells or effects. Low-Light Vision, +1 to Listen, Search and Spot. These guys need something, for sure. Especially given the boosts other races are getting, or already have (lookin' at you, dwarves...) But as is- bleh.
A natural outgrowth of elfin curiosity and human fascination with otherworldly beauty, half-elves are often considered just as exotic as their full-blooded parents, without the frailty that causes so many to stay so close to home. Frequently, they are used as emissaries by the elfin enclaves, and far from being rare hybrids, they're starting to outnumber their pure-elf counterparts, much to the elders' consternation.
Half-orcs aren’t precisely a specific player race- plain ol’ orcs are everywhere. Interbreeding just tends to happen when the beer’s flowing, but the strength of orcish features plows it under again in short order. In cities it’s a more common sight to see orcs who’ve clearly got human blood, but who remain recognizably orcish; simply a little taller and less densely built, skin more grey than green, occasionally with different hair or eye-color than average. Their mixed heritage can be represented by the 1st level-only feat Human Blood, which grants +4 skillpoints at 1st and +1 per level thereafter, and signals one as human for all effects related to race. Alternately, they may trade their +2 to Strength for removing the -2 penalty to either Intelligence or Charisma.
A relative newcomer on the scene of Alucien politics and trade, the dwarfish mountain-kingdoms tend to keep their secrets and their silence, floating down their trade-goods from the mouths of rivers and marching back up in stoic standoffishness. For the most part they present a united and highly sober front- it is said that a dwarf-man and a Svartlund-man can have an entire conversation in ‘harumphs’. Recently, though, a dissident group has apparently broken off from the fellowship of underground sovereignties and moved to establish itself across the Lake of Stars from the last known dwarven trading post, at the point where the foothills of the orcish mountains meet the corner of the lake and the edge of the Bad-wood and the Akyosian desert. Some people are getting edgy about their intentions, but so far it looks as though all they are doing is settling in on some unoccupied territory, technically outside the Empire’s borders, and trading up a storm. Emissaries from King Olmrei, leader of this odd expedition, are showing up in the nearby major courts and making polite and highly opulent overtures, such as invitations to the king’s upcoming wedding.
--Have run up against the post limit- to be continued...
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Date: 2009-01-13 03:12 am (UTC)Don't worry about borrowing from other people. As you start mixing things in and changing stuff it becomes your own and the layers of borrowings give the world the feel of having a real history. My own world started off, pretty much, lifted from Tolken. The maps were even my flawed memory of the Tolkin maps. Then I started mixing in Norse myth, then Earthsea, then Elric of Melnibone, then Celtic myth, etc. And as I mixed more and more in I bumped the time forward. So, I started in an early medieval world and now I'm running in a late 1700s to early 1800s world.
Dropping alignment has worked real well for me. With no alignments you never know whether somebody is capable of acting altruistically or committing horrible crimes until they do. The free choice, in some ways it makes good seem even more good and evil even more evil. As far as mechanics go, the way I do it is: races all still detect as good, evil, chaotic, lawful, etc, but that doesn't necessarily translate to behavior. A demon is just as capable of doing good deeds as an angel. For the paladin class, what you might want to do is have the player maintain a code of honor rather than sticking to restricting the class to lawful good behavior.
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Date: 2009-01-13 03:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-13 04:54 am (UTC)Squirrel clan - LOL - One of my friends said she saw a hawk sitting on an electric pole in back of her house. Then one of those crazy black squirrels came racing across the wire right at the hawk, stood in front of the hawk and jeered at it for a few moments, then ran. All the while the hawk was just looking at it like WTF.
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Date: 2009-01-13 05:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-14 03:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-14 04:16 am (UTC)My reasoning is- well, the elves we get in the PHB certainly do get the royal treatment, but they aren't actually very much like the mythical versions of themselves. Not even the Tolkeinian versions. They're just- mortals who get a moderately sweet deal in terms of lifetime and a lot of hype. So someone has to be the purveyors of the mythical reason that elves are so... elfy, so mysterious and impressively 'better-than-thou' on first glance.
So there must be a reason for both the version we see in circulation, and the mythic personas they call on.
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Date: 2009-01-14 04:10 am (UTC)