Gwaednerth
2017-05-22, 11:55 PM
Lately, I've been working on a setting that's more than a bit outside my comfort zone, which I'm tentatively calling it the Whispering Desert. Unlike my usual experiments within the medieval stasis, this world draws on a vibrant magi-schizotech style (for which I'm having to massively homebrew on the crunch side of things, but I'll keep that to a minimum here). I'll mostly be using this thread to compile and share all the information, but I'd also love to hear feedback.
Basic premise
This world is a post-apocalyptic world, but not immediately so. The refugees who fled to the Whispering Desert during Huxley's Tribunal, the apocalyptic event, have grown into fully-fledged societies. However, their world and their cultures have been fundamentally shaped by past catastrophe.
Geology, ecology, and geopolitics
The region around the Whispering Desert is generally known as the Four Rings, named for the four concentric bands of terrain that compose it (though none of these are circular). The outermost ring is a high, inhospitable mountain range. Below the mountains stretch the foothills. As the foothills flatten and the baking sun sears away the snowmelt, they transition into the harsh desert. Towards the centre of the region, there is a smattering of oases and a very large, geologically inexplicable lake.
Beneath the foothills and the mountains, the dwarves have carved out a niche. Though technologically advanced, their primary livelihood is in raw materials. Above ground in the foothills, orcic civilisation flourishes on a combination of coal and magic. There is no stable ruler, but a bureaucratic elite remains constant as successive empires rise and fall. Around the lake and on constructed chinampas, the humans have established a loose confederation of city-states. Their technology is mostly oil-powered, but they have recently begun building their first nuclear reactors. They also possess a modest degree of magical power. In smaller settlements around the lake and smaller oases, small elven farming communities use magic to provide a surprisingly bountiful harvest. Meanwhile the gnomes and gnolls do not generally settle, but rather travel back and forth across the desert between the lake and the foothills, acting as merchants. The gnomes, experts at combining magic and technology, have also been known to hire out as engineers for short periods, while gnolls have a reputation as caravan guards and mercenaries.
The races are somewhat aesthetically different in this world. The primary differences are that the orcs have very dark skin and somewhat leaner figures, the dwarves more closely resemble duergar, and the elves have bright reflective skin.
Geopolitically, the humans and orcs are hegemonic powers. Though they are producers of raw materials, they produce more finished goods. They also facilitate trade. The elves and the dwarves exist in a tributary relationship with the hegemonic powers. The elves provide produce for the humans, the dwarves provide raw materials for the orcs. Materials, produce, and finished goods are then traded across the desert by the gnomes and gnolls.
As a result of Huxley's Tribunal (more on that below) the lands beyond the mountains are even more inhospitable than the desert. Powerful radiation and wandering magical effects are deadly to those who don't take extreme precautions. Even then, survivors tend to be driven mad. None who have ventured more than a few days beyond the mountains have ever returned. The exception is the goblinoids, warped monstrosities resulting from a combination of mutation, self-mutilation, and perverse eugenics. They call the wastes home, crossing the mountains only to raid. They have been known to eat victims alive, carry off captives, and display the desecrated bodies of the dead to be found by the living.
History
As yet I haven't established much of the history. However, I have fleshed out the apocalyptic event known as Huxley's Tribunal.
According to fragmentary history and imaginative mytho-history, the world was once home to a magnificent and elegant civilisation. Verifiable details are scarce. Some say that in those days the gods were not yet divided and ruled the planet with benevolent power. The Searchers take this theory one step further and propose that the all deities were joined into one consciousness; the Great Godhead. Others say that the gods did not yet exist, and that it was a paradise of mortal invention. Scholarly sources scoff at the idealism of these legends, but there is universal agreement that it was a time of tremendous artistic, technlogical, and magical flowering. But that was not to last. Most official histories claim that the war began with the elves and the dwarves (and indeed those two races still blame each other for the decline of their respective civilisations, as well as the general state of the world). Eventually the gods turned on each other and civil war raged across the globe. The Acroreitine War (ak-row-right-een) scarred the planet. Many died violent deaths, others were transformed into hideous malformed creatures, and yet others were driven mad.
The precise biography of Dr. Ajita Huxley is unknown, and many scholars consider him an apocryphal figure. The commonly accepted legend is that he was a brilliant engineer and wizard. Conscripted into a specialised division of psychic warriors, Huxley watched his colleagues become violent murderers, he watched people so transformed and warped by magic that they brutally slaughtered their own loved ones, he witnessed starvation and fire and death. He decided to end it all. The device was called Huxley's Tribunal. A thaumatonuclear device melding devastating magics with the blast yield of advanced nuclear weapons, Huxley's Tribunal was intended to leave no survivors. It failed. Small enclaves survived, creeping out into the warped and scarred post-apocalyptic landscape.
Much of the world proved inhospitable. Wandering magical effects, intense radiation, and secondary effects on the planet's ecology made vast areas unliveable. It is unknown how or why the whispering desert was spared, or indeed how the denizens of the region came to live there. However, over time, the refugees settled in the foothills of the surrounding mountains, the oases, and the central lake.
The gods
For my religious system, see my earlier post here:Dualistic Gods (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?524728-Gods-duality-and-forbidden-mysticism)
More will follow.
Basic premise
This world is a post-apocalyptic world, but not immediately so. The refugees who fled to the Whispering Desert during Huxley's Tribunal, the apocalyptic event, have grown into fully-fledged societies. However, their world and their cultures have been fundamentally shaped by past catastrophe.
Geology, ecology, and geopolitics
The region around the Whispering Desert is generally known as the Four Rings, named for the four concentric bands of terrain that compose it (though none of these are circular). The outermost ring is a high, inhospitable mountain range. Below the mountains stretch the foothills. As the foothills flatten and the baking sun sears away the snowmelt, they transition into the harsh desert. Towards the centre of the region, there is a smattering of oases and a very large, geologically inexplicable lake.
Beneath the foothills and the mountains, the dwarves have carved out a niche. Though technologically advanced, their primary livelihood is in raw materials. Above ground in the foothills, orcic civilisation flourishes on a combination of coal and magic. There is no stable ruler, but a bureaucratic elite remains constant as successive empires rise and fall. Around the lake and on constructed chinampas, the humans have established a loose confederation of city-states. Their technology is mostly oil-powered, but they have recently begun building their first nuclear reactors. They also possess a modest degree of magical power. In smaller settlements around the lake and smaller oases, small elven farming communities use magic to provide a surprisingly bountiful harvest. Meanwhile the gnomes and gnolls do not generally settle, but rather travel back and forth across the desert between the lake and the foothills, acting as merchants. The gnomes, experts at combining magic and technology, have also been known to hire out as engineers for short periods, while gnolls have a reputation as caravan guards and mercenaries.
The races are somewhat aesthetically different in this world. The primary differences are that the orcs have very dark skin and somewhat leaner figures, the dwarves more closely resemble duergar, and the elves have bright reflective skin.
Geopolitically, the humans and orcs are hegemonic powers. Though they are producers of raw materials, they produce more finished goods. They also facilitate trade. The elves and the dwarves exist in a tributary relationship with the hegemonic powers. The elves provide produce for the humans, the dwarves provide raw materials for the orcs. Materials, produce, and finished goods are then traded across the desert by the gnomes and gnolls.
As a result of Huxley's Tribunal (more on that below) the lands beyond the mountains are even more inhospitable than the desert. Powerful radiation and wandering magical effects are deadly to those who don't take extreme precautions. Even then, survivors tend to be driven mad. None who have ventured more than a few days beyond the mountains have ever returned. The exception is the goblinoids, warped monstrosities resulting from a combination of mutation, self-mutilation, and perverse eugenics. They call the wastes home, crossing the mountains only to raid. They have been known to eat victims alive, carry off captives, and display the desecrated bodies of the dead to be found by the living.
History
As yet I haven't established much of the history. However, I have fleshed out the apocalyptic event known as Huxley's Tribunal.
According to fragmentary history and imaginative mytho-history, the world was once home to a magnificent and elegant civilisation. Verifiable details are scarce. Some say that in those days the gods were not yet divided and ruled the planet with benevolent power. The Searchers take this theory one step further and propose that the all deities were joined into one consciousness; the Great Godhead. Others say that the gods did not yet exist, and that it was a paradise of mortal invention. Scholarly sources scoff at the idealism of these legends, but there is universal agreement that it was a time of tremendous artistic, technlogical, and magical flowering. But that was not to last. Most official histories claim that the war began with the elves and the dwarves (and indeed those two races still blame each other for the decline of their respective civilisations, as well as the general state of the world). Eventually the gods turned on each other and civil war raged across the globe. The Acroreitine War (ak-row-right-een) scarred the planet. Many died violent deaths, others were transformed into hideous malformed creatures, and yet others were driven mad.
The precise biography of Dr. Ajita Huxley is unknown, and many scholars consider him an apocryphal figure. The commonly accepted legend is that he was a brilliant engineer and wizard. Conscripted into a specialised division of psychic warriors, Huxley watched his colleagues become violent murderers, he watched people so transformed and warped by magic that they brutally slaughtered their own loved ones, he witnessed starvation and fire and death. He decided to end it all. The device was called Huxley's Tribunal. A thaumatonuclear device melding devastating magics with the blast yield of advanced nuclear weapons, Huxley's Tribunal was intended to leave no survivors. It failed. Small enclaves survived, creeping out into the warped and scarred post-apocalyptic landscape.
Much of the world proved inhospitable. Wandering magical effects, intense radiation, and secondary effects on the planet's ecology made vast areas unliveable. It is unknown how or why the whispering desert was spared, or indeed how the denizens of the region came to live there. However, over time, the refugees settled in the foothills of the surrounding mountains, the oases, and the central lake.
The gods
For my religious system, see my earlier post here:Dualistic Gods (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?524728-Gods-duality-and-forbidden-mysticism)
More will follow.