JackRackham
2012-08-06, 02:15 AM
Lyria is a single continent, very much like Europe and a strip of North Africa. There are no powerful spellcasters, no monumental architecture, no Empires, great kings or ancient dynasties. This is a world without a history, myth, direction or peace.
The people of Lyria have adapted to a world in which the elderly, the wise and powerful are struck down from on high, and the great cities and architecture - save temples to the Gods - are destroyed by natural disaster within a generation.
The world is fractured, broken and yet aside from minor luxuries like exotic fruits and spices, and with no basis for comparison, the peoples of Lyria live little differently than in past ages - a bit less glamorously, perhaps.
History
Many thousands of years ago, there lived a great King and powerful mage in the West named Palinpac (think Qin Shi Huang, 1st Chinese Emperor, megalomaniacal, a conqueror, uniter of the equivalent of the Americas). Palinpac was all powerful in his realm (Think Aztec, but with organization and bureaucracy on par with China) and grew fat and content off the sweat of his many subjects and trade with the Lyriac Empire. It should come as no surprise, then, that he was little worried when the Oracle for Viracotcha (Known in the East as Pelor), his Patron God, foretold his downfall at the hands of a second son from Lyria, when the Dawnstar (a meteor that passes near Ulum every 175 years, so called because it is the herald of a new age) bloodies the sky. As time passed, however, the date drawing ever nearer, the King grew more paranoid and came to dread leaving his life of luxury behind for an afterlife of servitude to the God.
Initially, he focused on defense, building a great wall and refusing entry to Easterners. Trade he restricted to a foreign quarter located in a tightly watched and quarantined island off the Eastern coast of his vast domain. Still his dreams were haunted by the spectre of his death. He began to research epic spells - terrible in effect - which he was convinced could prevent his downfall.
Leading up to the event, he amassed and trained a great force, bolstering their abilities with powerful, permanent abjurations and binding them forever to his will. Then, he personally killed the most powerful Lyrian mages from afar, or bound them to his will, the better to lead his host. A month before the event, he teleported them all to the heart of the great Lyrian cities. They slaughtered every second son, every pregnant woman with a single son, every scholar, astronomer, bard, mathmetician and all the most powerful kings, sweeping through the countryside. They gathered all the most powerful magic items, every history, every epic, every mathematical and astronomical treatise. They destroyed all copies and took the originals to his capitol. All the great statues, the monuments and wonders of thousands oif years of civilization - he reduced them to rubble.
The worst was yet to come. His forces returned and his kingdom enriched, he summoned every mage in his empire to aid with the casting of a series of world-shattering spells. Summoning all their strength, in rituals lasting days, they tore the Lyrio-Honnic and the Noiric continents asunder at the edge of the greatest advance of the Lyrian Empire - stealing away the vast remainder for Palinpac - lifted Lyria, created the illusion of a vast and terrifying abyss around it, and prevented anyone from returning after crossing the threshold. The huge, jagged islands off the Southern coast of Noirra and the Eastern coast of Honnica stil bear witness to the unthinkable violence of the event.
Shared Culture and Religion
The religion and culture of Lyria have adapted to these realities. It is believed that elders, academics, mages and the most powerful rulers are struck down by the Gods to punish them for their hubris and that buildings built to glorify man are likewise doomed to failure. Humility is the highest virtue, Pride the lowest sin.
Ostentatious display of magic and wealth is extremely taboo, illegal in many places (at the extremes, some townships even outlaw magic entirely). Academic pursuits are admired and piously discouraged by turns. Excellence is admired and feared by turns.
It was noted along the way that shrines to Pelor provided the best protection and a monotheistic cult was born, which now rivals the pantheonic worship of the ages. Still others believe in only a select group of Greater Deities.
As a side note, magic items above CL 10 are all but nonexistent as well - artifacts in the truest sense. These artifacts are awe-inspiring, but are very much to be feared, as their possessors have been known to disappear along with their trinkets. These too are often illegal.
Geography (Lyria)
In the extreme North, a small island chain lies off the coast of a huge, jagged dogleg peninsula, which swings around to the Southwest, almost touching another fist of an outcrop, cordoning off an expansive, frigid sea. Such are the lands of the Norden.
To the South, Aluvia, in central Lyria, is a vast and variegated flatland. Forests and plains, by turn, stretch for hundreds of unbroken miles. Rivers flow gracefully across the landscape from the mountains in the Northeast, Far East, and South. The Baltic Sea is a border to the North and an Ocean to the West. The Alemen call these lands home.
At the Southwest end of Alemen lands, beyond the Pyrrhic mountains, lies a barrel-shaped peninsula, called Durosia, surrounded by an Ocean to the North and West, and the Lyrian Sea to the South. Durosia is warm of climate, ringed by hills and low mountains. Dry grasslands give way to patches of desert in the very center of the peninsula. By reputation, the Durosi elves who call this land (As well as much of the Southern mountains) home are a fitting reflection - they said to be beautiful, strong and hot of temper.
A couple miles off the Northern coast (of Durosia), no more than a couple miles from the Western coast of Aluvia lies a cluster of three large islands (and many much smaller ones off the North and West coasts) separated by narrow channels. Together with much of the Northwest coast of Durosia and parts of Western Aluvia, these are Kellic lands.
The largest Island, Anglia, is flat in the South (angled such that the lowest point is in the Southeast corner) growing ever more hilly until reaching low mountains in the north, with white cliffs along the West coast of the island separating it from Feyreland (FAY-ruh-lund).
Feyreland, West of Anglia, is the smallest of the three islands. It's East coast is dominated by white cliffs, save an area at the center of the Island, where a large, fast-flowing river from the mountains in the North empties on a Southeasterly course into the channel.
Northernmost, rockiest, and most mountainous of the three is Gaultland. Gaultland is most mountainous in the South, leveling into high green hills in the North, with a small plain extending into the Northern sea.
East of Durosia on the Lyrian Sea, and South of Aluvia in the West and the Great Steppe in the East, are the Etrurian, Achaean and Anatolian peninsulae. Along with the Eastern and much of the Southern coast of the Lyrian Sea, these lands are the domain of the Elegos, erstwhile rulers of all Lyria.
Anatolia, the largest of the three, is shaped like a cleaver, aligned East to West, and sticks out from the Northeastern Lyrian sea. It has a smoother coastline, healthier, more varied climate, and much more farmland than the other two - though a small desert hugs the Mountains Southeast of the peninsula.
The Etrurian Peninsula is long and elegant of shape, with mountains running parallel to its Western coast. The capitol of the Lyrian Empire was somewhere in Etruria, though its location is lost to history. The Achean peninsula is a short, fat, jagged peninsula with many small inlets dotting its coastline and thousands of islands cluttering up the surrounding sea. This is believed to be the original homeland of the Elegos. These share much in the way of terrain (though Etruria has a greater abundance of plains) and climate - hot, humid, and mountainous.
Elsewhere, Noirra is covered in tall-grass savannah, right up to the thick jungle clinging to the sides of the mountains in the south. The islands off the Southern coast are home to myriad bizarre creatures and are little populated. Honnica, meanwhile, is heavily populated, with large cities and intense rice farming in the countryside. In the wilderness, however, away from the cities, Honnica is covered in thick, ancient woods. It is also mountainous at the coast and the Western perimeter. Much of the Golden Orc population resides in the islands lay off the Eastern coast which boast a variety of environments from mostly barren to islands whose inland is covered in impenetrable jungle.
Real-World Comparisons: The world map looks very much like the continent of Europe, minus the area we call Germany, along with a bit of Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa (So, the Mediterranean, Western Europe, and the bare minimum I needed of anything else to prevent it looking ridiculous). There are large Islands of the Eastern and Southern coastlines where Asia and most of Africa have been ripped away.
(Asia).
Races
There are four subraces of Humans. The Norsemen are about what you'd expect. They are hardy, Northern mountain men. They'll inhabit the Baltic up through Scandinavia. They raid coastal settlements in longboats. They tend to be tall, with light hair and blue or green eyes being fairly common. This subrace will get the standard human package plus skill focus: profession (Sailor).
The Alemen will act like a combination of Dwarves and Medieval German stereotypes. Their name (Alemen) will be well earned. They'll live in the the France-Germany amalgamation and across Southern-Central Europe to just North of Greece. This subrace will get the standard human package plus skill focus: Craft (Armorsmithing).
The Antiken will have a semitic feel. They're very much WIP, but will be the ancestors of all humanoids. They'll be human sized with slightly pointy ears and brown skin. I'm looking to blend East African, Hebrew and Arabic cultural quirks into a suitable fantasy race. I'll probably use standard human stats, but with Skill Focus: Knowledge Religion as a free bonus feat.
The Kellic people will be like Medieval Celts, Gauls, and British. They inhabit the British Isles and a bit of Iberia (I'm still working on renaming some of these areas). They'll be pretty barbaric in areas. In others, they'll be a bit less so (In line with Britain in the early 11th century). This subrace will get the standard human package plus skill focus: Survival.
The two subraces of Elves correspond roughly to Eastern and Western Mediterranean peoples. The Elegos will have been the leaders of the Lyrian Empire. Magic use will feature prominently in their (decaying) culture. They will use the Gray Elf stats with the addition of Skill Focus: Spellcraft or Knowledge (Arcana).
The Durosi, meanwhile, are "Badass Spaniards," as explained on TV Tropes (Think Inigo Montoyo or the Bravosi from "A Song of Fire and Ice", if you're not familiar with TV Tropes). Their culture will have adapted more readily to a world in which lifespans - even for elves - are shorter. In other words, they will have a more flexible culture. They will use the standard D&D Elf stats except that they'll get a bonus skill point at every level and favored class: any.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DashingHispanic?from=Main.BadassSpaniard
The two subraces of Orcs are WIP. The Great Orcs will correspond to the stereotypical Tartars, Mongols and Turks of the Steppe. They will be horse bound raiders from the East, interested in pillaging, more so than building Note that this is actually a reasonable response to the world I've described. These are not Always Evil. Rather they are struggling to survive in a world in which cities are wrecked periodically and large buildings and infrastructure is summarily destroyed from above. They will very much fit the mysterious, warrior race archetype, but will be hated ferociously by every other race. They'll get a +2 to STR and DEX and a -4 to CHA.
Golden Orcs are fantasy Asians (WIP). By that, I mean stereotypical Chinese traditional culture except with Samurai and Ninja. They'll look almost like elves, or thinner, golden skinned Orcs with fangs, rather than tusks.They'll take a -2 to STR and CON and get corresponding bonuses to DEX and WIS.
Plot Outline (Seriously, Blake, stay out)
Leaving out the details....
My intention is for the adventuring party to start on a very small Kellic island off the coast of one of the larger islands. Their characters will have lived there their entire lives, will never have left. One of them will be a second-son himself. Hopefully one of the others will have a younger brother, too.
At the outset, the village headman will send them to investigate a nymph rumored to be seducing the local menfolk (half of the PCs will be total newbies, I feel like this is a fun and instructive introduction to the game). While they are away, a force will come from the East, killing every second son and burning much of the village (conveniently missing the PCs).
When they return, the village elder, dying, will explain that this has happened before, that he remembers his grandfather telling him of a day much like this, in which his younger brother was killed. He will implore them to end this once and for all (very dramatic; hopefully not too cliche; hopefully the PCs will remember that their characters are people and that many of their friends and family and livestock has just been brutally slaughtered).
They'll then proceed to the Big Island, where a few gather information checks and some RP will lead them to some crazy, mysterious academic on the mainland. He will have disappeared further inland. When they reach his stronghold, they'll find a book he was working on and clues to his whereabouts. When they find him, he'll suggest they search some ruins (the ruins of the old capitol of Lyria) for a spell believed to have been lost there many years ago - legend lore (iirc).
The spell will give them the history above, or most of it. If the players can't figure out what to do from there, they can return to the academic or seek out some other wise man. Either way, the solution will be to sail off the edge of the world. Of course, they'll have to find a crew willing to do so.
When they reach the Western Empire, I think it'll be kind of an Aztec steampunk or Aztec Magitech world. Ultimately, I intend for them to topple Palinpac in some very roundabout way (think of the Jolee Bindo story about Andor Vex), possibly dying heroically (or stupidly, depending on how the PCs are playing) in the process.
Any suggestions you may have to improve this, suggestions as to how best to pull this off (critiques welcome too, of course), pitfalls, etc, would be awesome. Please, tell me what you think.
The people of Lyria have adapted to a world in which the elderly, the wise and powerful are struck down from on high, and the great cities and architecture - save temples to the Gods - are destroyed by natural disaster within a generation.
The world is fractured, broken and yet aside from minor luxuries like exotic fruits and spices, and with no basis for comparison, the peoples of Lyria live little differently than in past ages - a bit less glamorously, perhaps.
History
Many thousands of years ago, there lived a great King and powerful mage in the West named Palinpac (think Qin Shi Huang, 1st Chinese Emperor, megalomaniacal, a conqueror, uniter of the equivalent of the Americas). Palinpac was all powerful in his realm (Think Aztec, but with organization and bureaucracy on par with China) and grew fat and content off the sweat of his many subjects and trade with the Lyriac Empire. It should come as no surprise, then, that he was little worried when the Oracle for Viracotcha (Known in the East as Pelor), his Patron God, foretold his downfall at the hands of a second son from Lyria, when the Dawnstar (a meteor that passes near Ulum every 175 years, so called because it is the herald of a new age) bloodies the sky. As time passed, however, the date drawing ever nearer, the King grew more paranoid and came to dread leaving his life of luxury behind for an afterlife of servitude to the God.
Initially, he focused on defense, building a great wall and refusing entry to Easterners. Trade he restricted to a foreign quarter located in a tightly watched and quarantined island off the Eastern coast of his vast domain. Still his dreams were haunted by the spectre of his death. He began to research epic spells - terrible in effect - which he was convinced could prevent his downfall.
Leading up to the event, he amassed and trained a great force, bolstering their abilities with powerful, permanent abjurations and binding them forever to his will. Then, he personally killed the most powerful Lyrian mages from afar, or bound them to his will, the better to lead his host. A month before the event, he teleported them all to the heart of the great Lyrian cities. They slaughtered every second son, every pregnant woman with a single son, every scholar, astronomer, bard, mathmetician and all the most powerful kings, sweeping through the countryside. They gathered all the most powerful magic items, every history, every epic, every mathematical and astronomical treatise. They destroyed all copies and took the originals to his capitol. All the great statues, the monuments and wonders of thousands oif years of civilization - he reduced them to rubble.
The worst was yet to come. His forces returned and his kingdom enriched, he summoned every mage in his empire to aid with the casting of a series of world-shattering spells. Summoning all their strength, in rituals lasting days, they tore the Lyrio-Honnic and the Noiric continents asunder at the edge of the greatest advance of the Lyrian Empire - stealing away the vast remainder for Palinpac - lifted Lyria, created the illusion of a vast and terrifying abyss around it, and prevented anyone from returning after crossing the threshold. The huge, jagged islands off the Southern coast of Noirra and the Eastern coast of Honnica stil bear witness to the unthinkable violence of the event.
Shared Culture and Religion
The religion and culture of Lyria have adapted to these realities. It is believed that elders, academics, mages and the most powerful rulers are struck down by the Gods to punish them for their hubris and that buildings built to glorify man are likewise doomed to failure. Humility is the highest virtue, Pride the lowest sin.
Ostentatious display of magic and wealth is extremely taboo, illegal in many places (at the extremes, some townships even outlaw magic entirely). Academic pursuits are admired and piously discouraged by turns. Excellence is admired and feared by turns.
It was noted along the way that shrines to Pelor provided the best protection and a monotheistic cult was born, which now rivals the pantheonic worship of the ages. Still others believe in only a select group of Greater Deities.
As a side note, magic items above CL 10 are all but nonexistent as well - artifacts in the truest sense. These artifacts are awe-inspiring, but are very much to be feared, as their possessors have been known to disappear along with their trinkets. These too are often illegal.
Geography (Lyria)
In the extreme North, a small island chain lies off the coast of a huge, jagged dogleg peninsula, which swings around to the Southwest, almost touching another fist of an outcrop, cordoning off an expansive, frigid sea. Such are the lands of the Norden.
To the South, Aluvia, in central Lyria, is a vast and variegated flatland. Forests and plains, by turn, stretch for hundreds of unbroken miles. Rivers flow gracefully across the landscape from the mountains in the Northeast, Far East, and South. The Baltic Sea is a border to the North and an Ocean to the West. The Alemen call these lands home.
At the Southwest end of Alemen lands, beyond the Pyrrhic mountains, lies a barrel-shaped peninsula, called Durosia, surrounded by an Ocean to the North and West, and the Lyrian Sea to the South. Durosia is warm of climate, ringed by hills and low mountains. Dry grasslands give way to patches of desert in the very center of the peninsula. By reputation, the Durosi elves who call this land (As well as much of the Southern mountains) home are a fitting reflection - they said to be beautiful, strong and hot of temper.
A couple miles off the Northern coast (of Durosia), no more than a couple miles from the Western coast of Aluvia lies a cluster of three large islands (and many much smaller ones off the North and West coasts) separated by narrow channels. Together with much of the Northwest coast of Durosia and parts of Western Aluvia, these are Kellic lands.
The largest Island, Anglia, is flat in the South (angled such that the lowest point is in the Southeast corner) growing ever more hilly until reaching low mountains in the north, with white cliffs along the West coast of the island separating it from Feyreland (FAY-ruh-lund).
Feyreland, West of Anglia, is the smallest of the three islands. It's East coast is dominated by white cliffs, save an area at the center of the Island, where a large, fast-flowing river from the mountains in the North empties on a Southeasterly course into the channel.
Northernmost, rockiest, and most mountainous of the three is Gaultland. Gaultland is most mountainous in the South, leveling into high green hills in the North, with a small plain extending into the Northern sea.
East of Durosia on the Lyrian Sea, and South of Aluvia in the West and the Great Steppe in the East, are the Etrurian, Achaean and Anatolian peninsulae. Along with the Eastern and much of the Southern coast of the Lyrian Sea, these lands are the domain of the Elegos, erstwhile rulers of all Lyria.
Anatolia, the largest of the three, is shaped like a cleaver, aligned East to West, and sticks out from the Northeastern Lyrian sea. It has a smoother coastline, healthier, more varied climate, and much more farmland than the other two - though a small desert hugs the Mountains Southeast of the peninsula.
The Etrurian Peninsula is long and elegant of shape, with mountains running parallel to its Western coast. The capitol of the Lyrian Empire was somewhere in Etruria, though its location is lost to history. The Achean peninsula is a short, fat, jagged peninsula with many small inlets dotting its coastline and thousands of islands cluttering up the surrounding sea. This is believed to be the original homeland of the Elegos. These share much in the way of terrain (though Etruria has a greater abundance of plains) and climate - hot, humid, and mountainous.
Elsewhere, Noirra is covered in tall-grass savannah, right up to the thick jungle clinging to the sides of the mountains in the south. The islands off the Southern coast are home to myriad bizarre creatures and are little populated. Honnica, meanwhile, is heavily populated, with large cities and intense rice farming in the countryside. In the wilderness, however, away from the cities, Honnica is covered in thick, ancient woods. It is also mountainous at the coast and the Western perimeter. Much of the Golden Orc population resides in the islands lay off the Eastern coast which boast a variety of environments from mostly barren to islands whose inland is covered in impenetrable jungle.
Real-World Comparisons: The world map looks very much like the continent of Europe, minus the area we call Germany, along with a bit of Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa (So, the Mediterranean, Western Europe, and the bare minimum I needed of anything else to prevent it looking ridiculous). There are large Islands of the Eastern and Southern coastlines where Asia and most of Africa have been ripped away.
(Asia).
Races
There are four subraces of Humans. The Norsemen are about what you'd expect. They are hardy, Northern mountain men. They'll inhabit the Baltic up through Scandinavia. They raid coastal settlements in longboats. They tend to be tall, with light hair and blue or green eyes being fairly common. This subrace will get the standard human package plus skill focus: profession (Sailor).
The Alemen will act like a combination of Dwarves and Medieval German stereotypes. Their name (Alemen) will be well earned. They'll live in the the France-Germany amalgamation and across Southern-Central Europe to just North of Greece. This subrace will get the standard human package plus skill focus: Craft (Armorsmithing).
The Antiken will have a semitic feel. They're very much WIP, but will be the ancestors of all humanoids. They'll be human sized with slightly pointy ears and brown skin. I'm looking to blend East African, Hebrew and Arabic cultural quirks into a suitable fantasy race. I'll probably use standard human stats, but with Skill Focus: Knowledge Religion as a free bonus feat.
The Kellic people will be like Medieval Celts, Gauls, and British. They inhabit the British Isles and a bit of Iberia (I'm still working on renaming some of these areas). They'll be pretty barbaric in areas. In others, they'll be a bit less so (In line with Britain in the early 11th century). This subrace will get the standard human package plus skill focus: Survival.
The two subraces of Elves correspond roughly to Eastern and Western Mediterranean peoples. The Elegos will have been the leaders of the Lyrian Empire. Magic use will feature prominently in their (decaying) culture. They will use the Gray Elf stats with the addition of Skill Focus: Spellcraft or Knowledge (Arcana).
The Durosi, meanwhile, are "Badass Spaniards," as explained on TV Tropes (Think Inigo Montoyo or the Bravosi from "A Song of Fire and Ice", if you're not familiar with TV Tropes). Their culture will have adapted more readily to a world in which lifespans - even for elves - are shorter. In other words, they will have a more flexible culture. They will use the standard D&D Elf stats except that they'll get a bonus skill point at every level and favored class: any.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DashingHispanic?from=Main.BadassSpaniard
The two subraces of Orcs are WIP. The Great Orcs will correspond to the stereotypical Tartars, Mongols and Turks of the Steppe. They will be horse bound raiders from the East, interested in pillaging, more so than building Note that this is actually a reasonable response to the world I've described. These are not Always Evil. Rather they are struggling to survive in a world in which cities are wrecked periodically and large buildings and infrastructure is summarily destroyed from above. They will very much fit the mysterious, warrior race archetype, but will be hated ferociously by every other race. They'll get a +2 to STR and DEX and a -4 to CHA.
Golden Orcs are fantasy Asians (WIP). By that, I mean stereotypical Chinese traditional culture except with Samurai and Ninja. They'll look almost like elves, or thinner, golden skinned Orcs with fangs, rather than tusks.They'll take a -2 to STR and CON and get corresponding bonuses to DEX and WIS.
Plot Outline (Seriously, Blake, stay out)
Leaving out the details....
My intention is for the adventuring party to start on a very small Kellic island off the coast of one of the larger islands. Their characters will have lived there their entire lives, will never have left. One of them will be a second-son himself. Hopefully one of the others will have a younger brother, too.
At the outset, the village headman will send them to investigate a nymph rumored to be seducing the local menfolk (half of the PCs will be total newbies, I feel like this is a fun and instructive introduction to the game). While they are away, a force will come from the East, killing every second son and burning much of the village (conveniently missing the PCs).
When they return, the village elder, dying, will explain that this has happened before, that he remembers his grandfather telling him of a day much like this, in which his younger brother was killed. He will implore them to end this once and for all (very dramatic; hopefully not too cliche; hopefully the PCs will remember that their characters are people and that many of their friends and family and livestock has just been brutally slaughtered).
They'll then proceed to the Big Island, where a few gather information checks and some RP will lead them to some crazy, mysterious academic on the mainland. He will have disappeared further inland. When they reach his stronghold, they'll find a book he was working on and clues to his whereabouts. When they find him, he'll suggest they search some ruins (the ruins of the old capitol of Lyria) for a spell believed to have been lost there many years ago - legend lore (iirc).
The spell will give them the history above, or most of it. If the players can't figure out what to do from there, they can return to the academic or seek out some other wise man. Either way, the solution will be to sail off the edge of the world. Of course, they'll have to find a crew willing to do so.
When they reach the Western Empire, I think it'll be kind of an Aztec steampunk or Aztec Magitech world. Ultimately, I intend for them to topple Palinpac in some very roundabout way (think of the Jolee Bindo story about Andor Vex), possibly dying heroically (or stupidly, depending on how the PCs are playing) in the process.
Any suggestions you may have to improve this, suggestions as to how best to pull this off (critiques welcome too, of course), pitfalls, etc, would be awesome. Please, tell me what you think.