Mikeavelli
2012-09-08, 11:50 PM
Good day! A little over a year ago, I posted a thread for music-themed plot hooks (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=207595).
Since then, the campaign has been going on once a week or so for the past year, and it's finally drawing to a close, I wanted to wax nostalgic on the history of the game, and share it with you all; hopefully even inspire some ideas in other people.
A few notes on the world: It's a homebrew world roughly based on Earth (Europe, Africa, Asia, and Antarctica so far), with geography and empires changed around whenever it's convenient for the plot, and notes taken so that it remains consistent in the future. High magic, completely anachronistic, etc.
Religion is a healthy mix of real-world (The Norse Pantheon features prominently) and deities made up to suit the story (the Church of St. Anger!)
Names are either made up, or liberally cribbed from a wide variety of sources, internet in-jokes, video games, etc. Of special note is Rome, which originally had a fantasy-equivalent name I no longer remember, but was so blatantly based on Rome, and influenced by Roman gods, the players just kept calling it Rome. So we just kept that as its actual name.
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In the Beginning
The Campaign opens as the headmaster of the Bards College in Tarant (A London-analog for those keeping score) has made a most marvelous discovery. When a member of any particular race of peoples sings, their song can be distilled through a secret process he has developed into a word or phrase in the very words of creation themselves.
Interestingly, the only change he has been able to detect is in the race of the singer. Any song, sung by any given member of a race, distills down to the exact same word or phrase. But, the very same song, sung by a member of a different race, will distill down to a different word entirely.
Upon learning this, and testing his process with the songs of several of his associates, he theorized that the words could then be combined in the proper order to reveal a message, embedded in the very souls of all living things that cover the world. He had, potentially, the answer to the mystery of life itself!
While he could have simply assembled any group of bards who could hum one word after another, he (and the rest of the Bard's College) immediately decided that they must gather the greatest singers of ever race in the world, and have them perform in a celestial choir, allowing the full message to be heard.
Invitations have been sent out, and all those who received them immediately joined Marcus in Tarant (for who could pass up such an opportunity?) - but Bards, being Bards, are sometimes hard to reach, and sometimes indisposed. Marcus needed independent contractors to journey forth into the world, inform great singers of his choir, and escort them back to Tarant.
He has advertised high and low, across the full breadth of the world for capable contractors to contact his choir. These are the players that have answered that call:
Rugard Battleglamour: Dwarven drummer and... Archer? Left his clan on a self-imposed exile due to his eccentric nature, quests to find the tomb of his ancient ancestor, Raiva, the player's character from a previous campaign in this same world. He hopes to track down information on the tomb's location from one of the many bards he'll be encountering
Harkin: A mostly-human singer, and lorechaser (custom internet class) with a hint of draconic ancestry. He considers it his personal mission to collect obscure lore from all corners of the world.
Cory: Human Tomb warden from an area of the world based off ancient Egypt; received a dream vision from her gods telling her to come up north, and be a part of this group. Not a talented musician at all, plays the triangle.
Shauna: Elven flutist and Cleric, one of many seekers of the Misty Isle; rumored to be the ancient homeland of the Elven people, and the resting place of the once and future king who will return rock to his people in their darkest hour. The legendary Elvis Pendragon.
Since then, the campaign has been going on once a week or so for the past year, and it's finally drawing to a close, I wanted to wax nostalgic on the history of the game, and share it with you all; hopefully even inspire some ideas in other people.
A few notes on the world: It's a homebrew world roughly based on Earth (Europe, Africa, Asia, and Antarctica so far), with geography and empires changed around whenever it's convenient for the plot, and notes taken so that it remains consistent in the future. High magic, completely anachronistic, etc.
Religion is a healthy mix of real-world (The Norse Pantheon features prominently) and deities made up to suit the story (the Church of St. Anger!)
Names are either made up, or liberally cribbed from a wide variety of sources, internet in-jokes, video games, etc. Of special note is Rome, which originally had a fantasy-equivalent name I no longer remember, but was so blatantly based on Rome, and influenced by Roman gods, the players just kept calling it Rome. So we just kept that as its actual name.
------------------
In the Beginning
The Campaign opens as the headmaster of the Bards College in Tarant (A London-analog for those keeping score) has made a most marvelous discovery. When a member of any particular race of peoples sings, their song can be distilled through a secret process he has developed into a word or phrase in the very words of creation themselves.
Interestingly, the only change he has been able to detect is in the race of the singer. Any song, sung by any given member of a race, distills down to the exact same word or phrase. But, the very same song, sung by a member of a different race, will distill down to a different word entirely.
Upon learning this, and testing his process with the songs of several of his associates, he theorized that the words could then be combined in the proper order to reveal a message, embedded in the very souls of all living things that cover the world. He had, potentially, the answer to the mystery of life itself!
While he could have simply assembled any group of bards who could hum one word after another, he (and the rest of the Bard's College) immediately decided that they must gather the greatest singers of ever race in the world, and have them perform in a celestial choir, allowing the full message to be heard.
Invitations have been sent out, and all those who received them immediately joined Marcus in Tarant (for who could pass up such an opportunity?) - but Bards, being Bards, are sometimes hard to reach, and sometimes indisposed. Marcus needed independent contractors to journey forth into the world, inform great singers of his choir, and escort them back to Tarant.
He has advertised high and low, across the full breadth of the world for capable contractors to contact his choir. These are the players that have answered that call:
Rugard Battleglamour: Dwarven drummer and... Archer? Left his clan on a self-imposed exile due to his eccentric nature, quests to find the tomb of his ancient ancestor, Raiva, the player's character from a previous campaign in this same world. He hopes to track down information on the tomb's location from one of the many bards he'll be encountering
Harkin: A mostly-human singer, and lorechaser (custom internet class) with a hint of draconic ancestry. He considers it his personal mission to collect obscure lore from all corners of the world.
Cory: Human Tomb warden from an area of the world based off ancient Egypt; received a dream vision from her gods telling her to come up north, and be a part of this group. Not a talented musician at all, plays the triangle.
Shauna: Elven flutist and Cleric, one of many seekers of the Misty Isle; rumored to be the ancient homeland of the Elven people, and the resting place of the once and future king who will return rock to his people in their darkest hour. The legendary Elvis Pendragon.