Typewriter
2009-08-14, 02:44 PM
Hello all.
I do actually have a campaign name but I cant risk any of my players stumbling upon this forum and getting plot hints from it.
What is this?
Basically I became a big fan of campaign journals during SilverClawShifts telling of the Crystal Cantrips and wanted to give campaign journals a shot myself. I had to wait until my next campaign was going to start because I didn't want to just start one mid campaign. Well, the last campaign ended, and my planning has finished, tonight is the night we start out the new campaign using Pathfinder.
The World
The world is a cusom world called Arana that my last three campaigns have taken place in. Every campaign somehow relates to the players actions in the previous campaign, therefore causing the players to start every campaign intrigued without me having to do a whole lot.
The world is split into four continents and an arctic. The four continents are named after the world itself. Most cities are named after different fonts because I'm an unoriginal bastard. I...I'm sorry.
Ar is a one of the smaller continents and it is divided into two major kingdoms, that of Seir* and Serif**.
*Seir is ran by an Elan named Vidar and his vampiric advisor Zeke. The overall alignment of this land would probably be lawful neutral, leaning towards good.
**Serif is the other large kingdom and it is famous for having the largest port in the world. The port is large enough to hold hundreds of fishing, merchant, or other larger ships, and the entire dock has a massive stone wall built out into the ocean to defend it. Because of its well protected port it gets a lot of travel and this city is famous for being one of the worlds largest marketplaces.
Ara is a continent completely overrun with a forest that seems to exist upon some sort of properties of undeath. The trees are resistant to fire, and are incredibly hard to cut down. Anything that dies in the forests boundaries comes back as an undead. There used to be cities on the continent, but when everything started to turn against them they moved underground, creating a bit of an underdark type vibe.
Nara was instrumental in the worlds last great war and the players dont know anything about it in the current campaign so neither do you guys :)
Aran. This continent is divided in two, seemingly by the will of the gods. A mountain range divides the land. To the north of the mountains is a forest similar to that found on Ara that extends all the way up to a mountain range, and its river. The two different halves are controlled by different kingdoms, Azraphaele*** and Sen Ta'Naren****.
***Azraphaele - This capital city is massive. Towards the center of the city is a massive spiral tower. Inside the tower the ruling bodies of Azraphaele lie. Everything is decided through one of three methods:
1. Relgion. Clerics say what is right and what is wrong.
2. If something is put before any of the (many) different councils that exist and they will decide what to do with it.
3. Combat. The parentage of a child is in dispute between two men? Fight to the death, obviously the one who lacks conviction will fall.
****Sen Ta'Naren - This is the single largest city in the world originally used as little more than a body farm for the armies of undead. Now that war is over things have settled down a bit and they're more aligned with the rest of the world. Their king is a ruthless man who holds great spite for many of the worlds other leaders, but for this reason he has a hero of the previous wars act as his emissary, a half battle dragon.
Religion:
This world has a total of 7 (or 8) gods. Two of the gods exist in a somewhat different nature than the rest of the gods.
The Overgod(Spirrax) - Spirrax saw himself as a force of nature working as part of the world until he found a way to attain godhood. No one knows what his plans are or why he answers the prayers of some but not others, but those who know of his existance do not mock his power.
Baby Death(True name unknown) - Like Spirrax she holds herself apart from the normal cycles of life and death. She rarely grants prayers, considering herself to be above foolish mortals whims. She is an arrogant god whom few favor, and none respect. This bothers her greatly.
The gods of the cycle - the remaining gods all exist as part of a cycle of life and death allowing the spirits of the dead to find their way to peace (or torment), and then allowing that same energy back into the world to grant life.
The Titan - The Titan wields a polearm even larger than himself, the tip made of brilliant energy. It is said that any time a war takes place he is present. He does not take sides, but will instead all members of a war equally. He is an undead, and is part of the balance of death.
The Vampire(Kyzo) - He feels that restraint is against the natural order, and continually strives to aid any who feel trapped, whether it be helping them to die, or simply be free of some captor. He is an undead, and is part of the balance of death.
The Unbound(Ryn) - The unbound is a small man who favors the life of the innocent, and supports whatever weapon a man can make for himself. He feels that freedom, choice, and a willingness to coexist with nature are the most favorable attributes a mortal can possess. He was a living creature, and is part of the balance of life.
The Twin Arhcers - The twin archers rely on sneakery and their bows to lure their opponents into traps. They are the ones who watch the thieves, and assist those who seek ways to damn themselves in an attempt to garner favor. The god of rogues and assassins. He was a living creature(or two - Dvaati), and is part of the balance of life.
The Gateway(Azir/Riza) - This deity was a Dvaati who lost one of his bodies and slowly went insane. Before losing himself completely the spirit of the fallen body was placed into the corpse of another creature. His psyche was back, but it was somewhat fractured without the proper balance a Dvaati mind needs, so each body took on a different personality. Azir has a tendancy towards planning and is a fan of turning ones attacks against him. He favors those who wish for goodwill, but is not above scheming to fulfill good wishes. Riza feels the call to war, but responds most of all to cries of retribution. He is one half on one soul, but his psyche is fractured and he does not fully understand this. Because of his dual nature, and his ability to exist on both sides of the cycle at the same time he serves as the gateway, and without him the cycle would begin to deteriorate.
The Premise of this Campaign:
During the great war many years ago refugees from the city Papyrus were sent across the ocean to Azraphaele. When the war was over they didn't really have a hometown to return to so after a few years the requested permission to build a new city in Azraphaelian lands. It took a few years, but the people of Azraphaele finally gave them permission to build their city.
The land they wanted to use had always been revered, so the condition was made that the builders would minimize the amount of damage they did to the land.
At first everything went fine, a simple fishing community sprung up using the trees from the forest, and catching from the river that went nearby. Directly on the other side of the river was the undead forest, but they knew that the forest and its abominations were unable to cross the water. The city was named Ligurino.
A few years went by before the people began to realize that the water from the river and the fruit of the forest had mystical properties. They requested permission from Azraphaele to harvest these things and to sell them. The fruit would fall and die on its own, and the water would simply flow out to the ocean, so the Azraphaelian council agreed.
After a few more years went by the people of Ligurino grew curious about the 'center' of the blessed land, the mountain that the river flowed out from. They discovered strong veins of gold and other precious minerals and began mining - without telling the people of Azraphaele.
Ligurino flourished. They hired crafters from all over the world to come and build new houses, a wall to block the view of the undead forest, and more. Azraphaele doesn't yet realize how all of this is being paid for.
After a few years the original wooden houses were simply referred to as the poor district with much nicer houses spotting the landscape. Buildings of political interest were erected, the wall was completed, and with all the traffic the city gets - a new marketplace is being built. Azraphaele imposes a fairly light tax on Ligurino and knows that something is going on, so they send periodic investigators into how all of this is being paid for.
Worried about Azraphaele finding out about them mining into the blessed mountain the Ligurinian council decided to try and play off of their love of combat, beginning work on a massive arena in the hopes of it serving as a distraction.
This works for a while, but something happened in the mines that caused a few deaths, and a huge amount of ruckus. This led the investigators to find out about the mines, and seal it off.
Ligurino has crafters from all over the world in it's city that they can no longer afford to pay due to them losing 90% of their income, the marketplace is incomplete, their host nation is incredibly unhappy with them, and the worst of it all - the arena was supposed to be completed this season, and the city is full of aspiring warriors from all over the world.
Tensions are high in the city, and things could burst at any moment. To make matters worse people in the town have been going missing, and no one seems to know why.
The first session is tonight. If between this write up and the write up of the first session I'm able to get some interest going I'll keep posting. I'm open to criticism (as long as it's not things like 'Hey you're dumb') so if you have something to say feel free. I love writing, but I've never been very good at explaining the concepts I have, so I'm hoping that writing this campaign journal will help with that.
If you are curious about any aspects of the world feel free to ask, but I do have to limit answers a little bit just in case my players stumble upon it.
Final Note:
If you want a more in depth account of the history of this world follow the link in my signature, but I warn you now - everything written there was done from memory and it really suffers from it. And I was using a jacked up keyboard that stuck all the time so it's full of typos. A map of the world is the only thing in the downloads section of the site.
I do actually have a campaign name but I cant risk any of my players stumbling upon this forum and getting plot hints from it.
What is this?
Basically I became a big fan of campaign journals during SilverClawShifts telling of the Crystal Cantrips and wanted to give campaign journals a shot myself. I had to wait until my next campaign was going to start because I didn't want to just start one mid campaign. Well, the last campaign ended, and my planning has finished, tonight is the night we start out the new campaign using Pathfinder.
The World
The world is a cusom world called Arana that my last three campaigns have taken place in. Every campaign somehow relates to the players actions in the previous campaign, therefore causing the players to start every campaign intrigued without me having to do a whole lot.
The world is split into four continents and an arctic. The four continents are named after the world itself. Most cities are named after different fonts because I'm an unoriginal bastard. I...I'm sorry.
Ar is a one of the smaller continents and it is divided into two major kingdoms, that of Seir* and Serif**.
*Seir is ran by an Elan named Vidar and his vampiric advisor Zeke. The overall alignment of this land would probably be lawful neutral, leaning towards good.
**Serif is the other large kingdom and it is famous for having the largest port in the world. The port is large enough to hold hundreds of fishing, merchant, or other larger ships, and the entire dock has a massive stone wall built out into the ocean to defend it. Because of its well protected port it gets a lot of travel and this city is famous for being one of the worlds largest marketplaces.
Ara is a continent completely overrun with a forest that seems to exist upon some sort of properties of undeath. The trees are resistant to fire, and are incredibly hard to cut down. Anything that dies in the forests boundaries comes back as an undead. There used to be cities on the continent, but when everything started to turn against them they moved underground, creating a bit of an underdark type vibe.
Nara was instrumental in the worlds last great war and the players dont know anything about it in the current campaign so neither do you guys :)
Aran. This continent is divided in two, seemingly by the will of the gods. A mountain range divides the land. To the north of the mountains is a forest similar to that found on Ara that extends all the way up to a mountain range, and its river. The two different halves are controlled by different kingdoms, Azraphaele*** and Sen Ta'Naren****.
***Azraphaele - This capital city is massive. Towards the center of the city is a massive spiral tower. Inside the tower the ruling bodies of Azraphaele lie. Everything is decided through one of three methods:
1. Relgion. Clerics say what is right and what is wrong.
2. If something is put before any of the (many) different councils that exist and they will decide what to do with it.
3. Combat. The parentage of a child is in dispute between two men? Fight to the death, obviously the one who lacks conviction will fall.
****Sen Ta'Naren - This is the single largest city in the world originally used as little more than a body farm for the armies of undead. Now that war is over things have settled down a bit and they're more aligned with the rest of the world. Their king is a ruthless man who holds great spite for many of the worlds other leaders, but for this reason he has a hero of the previous wars act as his emissary, a half battle dragon.
Religion:
This world has a total of 7 (or 8) gods. Two of the gods exist in a somewhat different nature than the rest of the gods.
The Overgod(Spirrax) - Spirrax saw himself as a force of nature working as part of the world until he found a way to attain godhood. No one knows what his plans are or why he answers the prayers of some but not others, but those who know of his existance do not mock his power.
Baby Death(True name unknown) - Like Spirrax she holds herself apart from the normal cycles of life and death. She rarely grants prayers, considering herself to be above foolish mortals whims. She is an arrogant god whom few favor, and none respect. This bothers her greatly.
The gods of the cycle - the remaining gods all exist as part of a cycle of life and death allowing the spirits of the dead to find their way to peace (or torment), and then allowing that same energy back into the world to grant life.
The Titan - The Titan wields a polearm even larger than himself, the tip made of brilliant energy. It is said that any time a war takes place he is present. He does not take sides, but will instead all members of a war equally. He is an undead, and is part of the balance of death.
The Vampire(Kyzo) - He feels that restraint is against the natural order, and continually strives to aid any who feel trapped, whether it be helping them to die, or simply be free of some captor. He is an undead, and is part of the balance of death.
The Unbound(Ryn) - The unbound is a small man who favors the life of the innocent, and supports whatever weapon a man can make for himself. He feels that freedom, choice, and a willingness to coexist with nature are the most favorable attributes a mortal can possess. He was a living creature, and is part of the balance of life.
The Twin Arhcers - The twin archers rely on sneakery and their bows to lure their opponents into traps. They are the ones who watch the thieves, and assist those who seek ways to damn themselves in an attempt to garner favor. The god of rogues and assassins. He was a living creature(or two - Dvaati), and is part of the balance of life.
The Gateway(Azir/Riza) - This deity was a Dvaati who lost one of his bodies and slowly went insane. Before losing himself completely the spirit of the fallen body was placed into the corpse of another creature. His psyche was back, but it was somewhat fractured without the proper balance a Dvaati mind needs, so each body took on a different personality. Azir has a tendancy towards planning and is a fan of turning ones attacks against him. He favors those who wish for goodwill, but is not above scheming to fulfill good wishes. Riza feels the call to war, but responds most of all to cries of retribution. He is one half on one soul, but his psyche is fractured and he does not fully understand this. Because of his dual nature, and his ability to exist on both sides of the cycle at the same time he serves as the gateway, and without him the cycle would begin to deteriorate.
The Premise of this Campaign:
During the great war many years ago refugees from the city Papyrus were sent across the ocean to Azraphaele. When the war was over they didn't really have a hometown to return to so after a few years the requested permission to build a new city in Azraphaelian lands. It took a few years, but the people of Azraphaele finally gave them permission to build their city.
The land they wanted to use had always been revered, so the condition was made that the builders would minimize the amount of damage they did to the land.
At first everything went fine, a simple fishing community sprung up using the trees from the forest, and catching from the river that went nearby. Directly on the other side of the river was the undead forest, but they knew that the forest and its abominations were unable to cross the water. The city was named Ligurino.
A few years went by before the people began to realize that the water from the river and the fruit of the forest had mystical properties. They requested permission from Azraphaele to harvest these things and to sell them. The fruit would fall and die on its own, and the water would simply flow out to the ocean, so the Azraphaelian council agreed.
After a few more years went by the people of Ligurino grew curious about the 'center' of the blessed land, the mountain that the river flowed out from. They discovered strong veins of gold and other precious minerals and began mining - without telling the people of Azraphaele.
Ligurino flourished. They hired crafters from all over the world to come and build new houses, a wall to block the view of the undead forest, and more. Azraphaele doesn't yet realize how all of this is being paid for.
After a few years the original wooden houses were simply referred to as the poor district with much nicer houses spotting the landscape. Buildings of political interest were erected, the wall was completed, and with all the traffic the city gets - a new marketplace is being built. Azraphaele imposes a fairly light tax on Ligurino and knows that something is going on, so they send periodic investigators into how all of this is being paid for.
Worried about Azraphaele finding out about them mining into the blessed mountain the Ligurinian council decided to try and play off of their love of combat, beginning work on a massive arena in the hopes of it serving as a distraction.
This works for a while, but something happened in the mines that caused a few deaths, and a huge amount of ruckus. This led the investigators to find out about the mines, and seal it off.
Ligurino has crafters from all over the world in it's city that they can no longer afford to pay due to them losing 90% of their income, the marketplace is incomplete, their host nation is incredibly unhappy with them, and the worst of it all - the arena was supposed to be completed this season, and the city is full of aspiring warriors from all over the world.
Tensions are high in the city, and things could burst at any moment. To make matters worse people in the town have been going missing, and no one seems to know why.
The first session is tonight. If between this write up and the write up of the first session I'm able to get some interest going I'll keep posting. I'm open to criticism (as long as it's not things like 'Hey you're dumb') so if you have something to say feel free. I love writing, but I've never been very good at explaining the concepts I have, so I'm hoping that writing this campaign journal will help with that.
If you are curious about any aspects of the world feel free to ask, but I do have to limit answers a little bit just in case my players stumble upon it.
Final Note:
If you want a more in depth account of the history of this world follow the link in my signature, but I warn you now - everything written there was done from memory and it really suffers from it. And I was using a jacked up keyboard that stuck all the time so it's full of typos. A map of the world is the only thing in the downloads section of the site.