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View Full Version : [4E] Spirits of Eden Campaign Setting (PEACH) (Topic II)



Meek
2008-11-23, 04:10 PM
Thread's closed, check my blog

Meek
2008-11-23, 04:11 PM
Thread is Closed

Meek
2008-11-23, 04:12 PM
Thread is closed

Meek
2008-11-23, 04:13 PM
Thread is closed

Meek
2008-11-23, 04:14 PM
Thread is closed

Meek
2008-11-23, 04:15 PM
Eden Campaign Guide

Short of it – there isn't much of one yet! But you can help, by telling me what you'd like to see in one! I'm already planning on doing some small write ups of the different nations so that they can actually be run somewhat before they get more thorough articles. So suggest any specific and Eden-related topics you want to see covered, basically any questions or concerns you as a DM would have running Eden that I can help you with. I'll take this into consideration when writing.

Things I will NOT do:

–Write mini-adventures. I'm not good at that and I don't like those. Plus there's nary enough space in a wordpress article or blog post, and it requires things like maps and whatnot that I'm not currently equipped to produce.

–Items, Rituals, crunch of any sort. That's for other articles.

Here's what's already written down:

Eden and D&D 4th Edition: Spirits of Eden requires a D&D 4th Edition Player's Handbook, and preferably also a Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide. Spirits of Eden is not compatible, and will likely not try to be compatible, with anything beyond these three books. Swordmages, Artificers, Barbarians, and any other additional material, is up to you to include, and will not be assumed nor accounted for in this writing. Spirits of Eden materials will concern the eight classes in the first player's handbook.

Why does Eden not support any material beyond this? Because I know a lot of people who liked the old OGL for 3.5 because it was just three books and they didn't have to buy any more to use a wealth of material that was available from third parties and online homebrewers. Furthermore, I believe quite sternly that the first eight classes (From Cleric to Wizard in the first 4th Edition Player's Handbook) are so amazingly flexible if you do a bit of work, that they can encompass so many of the supplemental classes that are later being added. So my work will be to expand the first core eight classes, rather than adding a lot of new ones that'd require more work to balance, to differentiate from the core eight, and to keep from redundancy.

Any power names, flavor texts, and effects written for Eden being reproduced by an official source is almost inevitable. If an Eden power is similar to a power from another source, it's purely coincidental – my powers are balanced, typeset and checked only against the Player's Handbook and nothing else. If you wish to include powers from another source, and there is a redundancy, consider which power you like best, and use that one.

Eden And Other Races: A lot of the old races of D&D, such as humans, elves and halflings, have been mostly wiped out by the circumstances in the Spirits of Eden Campaign Setting. They are at the twilight of their race. Though they serve as important minorities in a number of areas, you can search a number other areas and find little or none of them. This was done in order to differentiate the flavor of Eden from the other settings and to produce something new.

Some races iconic to other settings do not, canonically, exist in Eden. Warforged do not exist. Genasi do not exist. Monstrous races like Minotaurs, Dopplegangers and Gnolls are rare. Goblinoids and Orcs are the more common of these types. Shadar-Kai do not exist. Tieflings and Dragonborn would be greatly, greatly diminished.

If you want to really exemplify the flavor of Eden, it is best to discourage those races and use the core races mentioned in the main Eden article, along with the new races of Eden. As a rule, most material in Eden is balanced against the Core 4th Edition books, not against every setting and its creatures and their features. So using the “eden-approved” races is what the setting tends to assume.

However, if your players are very dead-set on wanting to play a race from another source, you can tweak it to fit into Eden. Genasi could remain the same, and be humans that survived being caught in a freak shift or surge or elemental essence. Warforged could be a select few golems created by a magic elite in Andaliel, or a terrifying new weapon from Vedaria. So on.

If your players only want a certain race because its racial modifiers fit their class better than another Eden race, you might allow them to change the ability modifiers for an Eden race to be +2 to any one ability score to coax them towards the race. It’s better than saying “No” to everything they try to do. Ultimately though, consider what you are doing, both mechanically and thematically, in allowing other races.

Meek
2008-11-23, 04:17 PM
Thread is closed

Meek
2008-11-23, 04:18 PM
Thread is closed

Meek
2008-11-23, 04:45 PM
Thread is closed

Meek
2008-11-23, 04:46 PM
Spirits of Eden FAQ:

Q: Is there any sort of conflict between Eden-bound Dromidae and In-Space Dromidae? Do space Dromidae think Eden bound Dromidae are an embarrassment? Would the average Edenborn person be able to tell the difference between a Dromidae born in the world to one born in space?

A: Outer Dromidae don't, in general, have a conflict with Adel Dromidae. Individuals can, and do, find problems with Adel Dromidae, and do find them inferior. One major point is that most Adel Dromidae escaped from the Dromidae Empire because of the social pressures there. Blood Priestesses, for example, have their lives mostly controlled by the Queen and her servitors, without any say in their destiny. Not that it's a bad destiny per say. But some just don't like the responsibility.

To wit, most of the Dromidae who wind up on Adel are either children of diplomats and legitimate immigrants (many of whom went down there just to see what was going on with all the earthbound monkeys, then decided to settle down to study them), or criminals and vagrants who went down solely to escape responsibilities or the Dromidae law. And since only the criminals affect life on the Empire directly, the common Outer Dromidae can easily associate Adel as being full of Dromidae vagrants and criminals, rather than actual decent people. But as in all things, it depends on the individual.

So it's much like what we have today. Some people think all black people are criminals, others don't, but a fair government in general has to have a positive attitude towards them. The Outer Dromidae and their Empire have a positive attitude in general, but individuals can think all sorts of nasty things about Adel Dromidae. Adel Dromidae in turn either don't care about the Empire, or think they're a bunch of socially oppressed sheep being stomped on by the Queen. Your mileage may vary.

Though, one type of Dromidae is UNIVERSALLY hated by Outer Dromidae – Illegitimate Queen Dromidae born on Adel are an insult to the Queen in the Voids, and Outer Dromidae have nothing but contempt and hatred for illegitimate queens. They wouldn't just go down to Adel explicitly to kill one (that would violate the sovereignty of whatever Nation was harboring that Queen, even unwittingly), but if they ever found one by chance when exploring Adel, or if one ever tried going up, they'd catch and do horrible, horrible things to her.

The average person can't tell the difference physically, because there isn't any. However, most Adel Dromidae won't have fleshcraft stuff. They'll be wearing cloth and leather, they'll have normal swords, and things like that. Outer Dromidae are decked out with fleshcraft loot – they have robes full of eyes looking around, diadems or crowns with eyes, swords that can open up and bite somebody, whips with snake-heads that bite down on people, rods with mouths on them that can spit out acid or fire, and things of that nature. (Outer Dromidae typically don't know any better than to appear decked out in alien gear, or they just don't care to be subtle.)

Q: Do people eat spirits?

A: They could, but for a number of reasons, unless they're pretty much clinically insane or chaotic evil, nobody really does.

To begin with, the weakest Spirits are Soulseekers and Pekor. Pekor move around in enormous swarms and are usually shaped like bugs, so most people wouldn't find them palatable. Soulseekers are little humanoids, and most people would be repulsed by eating what is essentially a small person.

A lot of spirits are humanoid or humanoid anthropomorphisms, and most people would have an empathic response to their appearance that would make them not want to eat them. Just like most people aren't cannibals, they also wouldn't eat a humanoid spirit. Exceptions exist, like I said.

Another factor is religion. Spirits, even the bad ones, are still afforded a measure of respect. Eating a spirit is likely to be subject to a taboo or associated with a bad omen. Superstitions are likely to abound about this subject. The Ainu people of Japan have a couple of legends about eating the wrong thing and being killed by it, and most indigenous cultures do too. Assume that same level of superstition is at play in Eden.

One last detail is that most spirits will cause great harm to any normal human being that accosts them. You would not go hunting for creatures that can do magic or move faster than you can see, to eat for breakfast. There are plenty of sources of food far less dangerous. So to answer your question shortly, no, people don't eat spirits.

Meek
2008-11-23, 04:47 PM
One more for an even ten! I'm OCD like that.

Reverent-One
2008-11-25, 12:40 AM
Well, you have my general comments already in the other thread. I do have a question though, about the Eden Campaign guide you're working on. What exactly would that involve? More detail on areas, conflicts, plot hook type stuff?

Meek
2008-11-25, 11:30 AM
Yeah. Basically, it'd be like a Campaign Guide for 4e usually is, but then I'm also making separate fluff articles that really go into detail in each place. But I also want to include tips and guidelines for playing in Eden the way you want, because I've already received emails and comments about Eden being one way, which is not true. One such example was "It seems impossible to play a war campaign in Eden since all the states are very stable." The guide will have a part about breaking such assumptions and letting you play the games you want within the context of the setting. And using the things in the setting to emulate your favorite classic fantasy stuff, even if it isn't exactly classic D&D fantasy and diverges from it on many counts.

TheCheshireHat
2008-12-06, 08:51 PM
Wow, this is certainly... massive. I´m only skimmed over a few pieces but I like what I see so far. I won´t comment just yet because I´ve only been able to scratch the surface so far, but I´ll do my best to set aside few umm, hours to read all this properly :smalltongue:

Seriously, how long have you been developing this?

Meek
2008-12-06, 08:59 PM
About 5 months on and off for the 4e version. Like nine months on and off for the 3.5 version.

Having the 3e version certainly sped up a lot of things though, because the bottomline was nearly the same for the two. A lot of the feats could almost have been translated verbatim, if it weren't that they were kinda lame in 4e and needed to be made interesting enough that I just decided to rewrite them.

Thanks for your interest! Hope you enjoy.

Also, I'm doing some tweaking, everyone, so expect a small update soon. I'm notoriously bad at comparing my revisions, but it's mostly the races that got a bit of a cleanup.

Vic_Sage
2008-12-06, 09:05 PM
One thing I've been wondering, why don't Inaw have a racial power? As is there one of the weaker (if not the weakest race) in the setting?

Meek
2008-12-06, 09:13 PM
That's part of the tweaks I'm working on :)

The Inaw aren't really meant to have a racial power though, from the beginning. I'm looking to increase their potential in other ways. I have just been terribly busy and these tweaks have been coming along slowly.

One other thing is that I work mostly off of feedback and testing. I can't do a whole lot of testing nowadays due to all the bloody work I've been getting, so I depend on feedback. And not many people gave me feedback on the Inaw...they were mostly convinced that the Dromidae were broken in half and the Athirua were stupid, and that's the bulk of the Eden mail I got...

Thanks for reminding me of that.

Meek
2008-12-06, 09:28 PM
If any interested parties are still around, here's the new look of the Inaw thus far:

INAW:

From the flesh of another, a new race is born...

(Blood Servant)

Origin: Shadow (Undead)
Average Height: 5′4″-6′0″
Average Weight: 115-180 lbs
Ability Scores: +2 to any one physical ability score, +2 Wisdom
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Darkvision
Languages: Common, One other
Skill Bonuses: +2 Athletics, +2 Acrobatics
Undead Traits: Inaw do not need to sleep, eat, drink or breathe, though they can pretend to do these. This does not render them immune to any effects, and they must still rest in order to recover powers and action points as normal.
Components: Inaw can attach components to the arms and shoulders. They suffer only a -1 penalty for attaching two-handed weapons to component slots.
Killing Mastery: Inaw have a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls against bloodied creatures and creatures suffering from conditions that saving throws can end. These bonuses improve to +2 against grabbed or helpless creatures.
Combat Defense: Inaw have a +1 bonus to AC and Fortitude saves.

(Adept Vassal)

Origin: Shadow (Undead)
Average Height: 5′2″-5′8″
Average Weight: 100-150 lbs
Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, +2 to any one mental ability score
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Darkvision
Languages: Common, One other
Skill Bonuses: +2 Arcana, +2 Religion
Undead Traits: Inaw do not need to sleep, eat, drink or breathe, though they can pretend to do these. This does not render them immune to any effects, and they must still rest in order to recover powers and action points as normal.
Components: Inaw can attach components to the arms and shoulders.
Fortifying Mastery: Powers that grant bonuses to attack rolls, ability checks or skill checks grant bonuses +1 higher when used by an Inaw. This bonus improves to +2 if the creature to whom the benefit is conferred is bloodied.
Spell Defense: Inaw have a +1 bonus to Reflex and Will defense.

Note: Rules for component parts can be found here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20080606b). Inaw use the same rules as the Warforged in this regard.

Play an Inaw if you want...

•To play as an undead character manufactured by another.
•To have once been a servant to a dark and terrible lord.
•To be a member of a race that favors the Fighter, Ranger and Rogue classes (Blood Servant).
•To be a member of a race that favors the Wizard, Warlock and Cleric classes (Adept Vassal).

Vic_Sage
2008-12-06, 09:40 PM
Thats better but something about them just seems missing IMO. It seems like the skill bonuses should be switched all so.

Meek
2008-12-06, 09:48 PM
Thats better but something about them just seems missing IMO. It seems like the skill bonuses should be switched all so.

I'm not really sure what could be missing. The Blood Servant is a killer undead thing that hops around with a big weapon stuck in its slots (or two little ones), and the Adept Vassal is like a Lich's assistant caster/secretary.

I added a Wisdom bonus because the Blood Servant would want to have a good awareness of its surroundings and a good instinct, and the Constitution bonus to the Adept Vassal because you'd want your assistant to be able to handle weird substances, and to be decently hardier. They also have some pretty good racial feats. I think the flexibility (which fluffwise is important as each Inaw is made to a specification), components, darkvision, +2/+2 stats (which are often hardset), the Mastery and the defense bonus make up for not having a racial power. I didn't want to give them racial powers from the start.

Edit: I'd like to hear more on the subject...I'm completely against giving them a racial power, but does anyone else find the Inaw weak/overpowered? Could you explain why?

Meek
2008-12-06, 10:07 PM
The overall changes to the races have now been added to the new Eden blog:

Spirits of Eden Player's Guide (http://spiritsofeden.wordpress.com/spirits-of-eden-players-guide/)

They will, as soon as I get the time to properly format everything, be here too.

One idea I've been toying with is giving the Inaw a saving throw bonus for being undead, much like Eladrin get one against Charm and such. Perhaps +2 against poisons, sleep and charm? (Roughly comparable to +5 against Charm an Eladrin would get.) Sound off on it before I add it.

Vic_Sage
2008-12-06, 10:19 PM
Sounds good and makes sense.

Meek
2008-12-07, 04:34 PM
Bumping this up. In other news, I just finished an outline for an article on the Rulers of Eden, the most powerful political figures in Eden, and for the Nation-Spirits of each of the 7 areas. The only exceptions are Periterim and Selvage, which don't have a central figure of leadership (and selvage also doesn't have a nation-spirit). But the rest do: Andaliel has the Prime Minister, Emderuer has a King, Sargasso has a Queen (well, to be precise, it's ruled by the Queen's mother), Vedaria has the Vizier, and Noshiki has the Mithral Throne.

The interesting bit is that none of these characters have powers at first that are threatening to PCs (or anyone else). But their Nation-Spirits can give them powers, by whatever oath of rulership they took, that will thus propel them to a Paragon-Level challenge. The only one of the rulers who has her own power and doesn't need a Nation-Spirit's oath is Magdalena Keehl of Vedaria, who's a Level 20 Solo Controller by her own power (and indeed, Vedaria has no real Nation-Spirit anyway).

Anyway, I think this article will be fun to write and interesting to read :smallsmile:

Meek
2008-12-08, 09:23 PM
Spirits of Eden has been accepted into the RPG Blogger's Network (http://www.rpgbloggers.com/). Wooo!

To that end, I wrote a little preview of the stuff Might of Eden will be giving casters (http://spiritsofeden.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/might-of-eden-preview-casters/). Expect a Ranger, Rogue and Fighter preview, then a Paladin/Warlord/Dragonseeker preview sometime after.

Meek
2008-12-14, 12:38 AM
Sadly, very little was actually accomplished today on any front due to my enormous lack of attention span leading me to want to work on everything at once. While putting up Christmas decorations. And running a test game on some of the Might stuff (coincidentally, I think my Fighter powers will piss off a lot of people, but I never minded any of that before.)

Daracaex
2008-12-16, 08:31 PM
Posting so you don't feel ignored here. :smallsmile:

I haven't read much, but I like what I've seen thus far. Reading this completely is on my "list."

Meek
2008-12-17, 12:14 AM
Great! Hope you enjoy it.

Meek
2008-12-17, 12:08 PM
Designing new rogue powers is hard. I don't know why. They just seem all over the place mechanically. Rangers have the opposite problem – they're so focused on this thing, or that thing, that you wonder "Well, how does MY power contribute to this class? How can it not just be a mirror of every other 'I slash you with two swords' or "I shoot you with two arrows' power?". I think I've managed to make some powers, but it's not satisfactory. Now I'm worried that I'll only be able to make a few rogue and ranger powers, whereas I'm bursting with ideas for viable cleric, wizard, fighter, paladin and warlock powers. Warlord is sort of in-between these scales of inspiration/difficulty.

Reverent-One
2008-12-18, 09:46 PM
Designing new rogue powers is hard. I don't know why. They just seem all over the place mechanically. Rangers have the opposite problem – they're so focused on this thing, or that thing, that you wonder "Well, how does MY power contribute to this class? How can it not just be a mirror of every other 'I slash you with two swords' or "I shoot you with two arrows' power?". I think I've managed to make some powers, but it's not satisfactory. Now I'm worried that I'll only be able to make a few rogue and ranger powers, whereas I'm bursting with ideas for viable cleric, wizard, fighter, paladin and warlock powers. Warlord is sort of in-between these scales of inspiration/difficulty.

Have you gotten the Martial power book? The addition builds for each may help provide a spark.

Meek
2008-12-18, 10:04 PM
I did get Martial Power, but haven't been able to give it the kind of read that I want (I got it as a PDF, whereas my core set are physical books.)

Meek
2008-12-20, 12:38 AM
Today's update is a juicy one! I finally got the races crunch synched between here and the Eden blog. As my apology for it taking so long to do a simple copy and paste job, I added some good stuff to Post #9 up there, one of the ones I reserved. It's a special preview of Might of Eden, with powers from 1-13th levels for the iconic 4 of D&D, as well as the Spirit Pact Warlock!

This stuff is exclusive to you guys, as my blog's preview articles only go up to level 7, and the Fighter/Rogue/Ranger article isn't even posted there yet (nor finished!). Some of it has not been too thoroughly playtested, but isn't ragingly broken from what I can see. Also, it will piss you off if you're a grognard who likes his fighters completely and utterly mundane, as it gives them some pseudomagic if they have action points, thanks to Eden's extremely high-magic atmosphere.

Meek
2008-12-27, 09:49 PM
Deleted a bunch of the old bumps.

UPDATES!

•Post #2 has received major updates to bring it to line with the fluff in the blog. This include a slightly expanded write-up on the player's guide summary of Andaliel and Periterim, and a major upgrade to the Culture write-up, to match the culture write-up now present in the player's guide. Things such as spirituality, fashion and art culture are now touched upon, instead of it just talking about poverty levels. :smallredface:

Meek
2008-12-28, 02:15 PM
Bump. Added another interesting FAQ question.

Also, I like your new avatar Vic :smallsmile:

Vic_Sage
2008-12-28, 06:30 PM
Also, I like your new avatar Vic :smallsmile:
Thanks, been hitting up image sites a bit more for avatar use and character portraits.

Just one slight question, could you give some basic info on the rest of the Dragon bosses?

Meek
2008-12-28, 08:18 PM
The Eden Campaign Guide isn't ready yet for inclusion, but you lucked out as I DID complete that part already, so here you go:

Boss Bolg – The boss of the Blue Dragons, Bolg is an old, rather lazy creature who's lightning strikes have lost some of their youthful speed, and who's scales look dulled blue from age. Bolg has only one adult female mate, Trevita, who resides with him, and who handles a lot of his "public relations". Bolg has five grown children, the whereabouts of which he does not care for, and two small ones which do reside with him.

Bolg has a quirky characteristic, in that his speaking draconic is almost gibberish to other dragons thanks to his slow, babbling drawl, which Trevita interprets for others. Bolg rarely moves from his home in a low-lying crack in the wastes of Vedaria. He relies on his lackeys to do things for him. Bolg is generally more generous with money than he is with favors. He has lost his lust for gold and jewels in his old age, and would rather pay away his lackeys than have to do them favors. If he absolutely cannot send Trevita to complete the favor, he will go himself – and despite his lack of energy he is a fearsome opponent, who can revert to his youthful fury for just enough to defend his lackeys. Bolg is big on respect and honor.

To become a lackey of Bolg's, a prospective member must perform an important task for Bolg that he himself (or Trevita) might have had to go out and do. Money cannot buy Bolg's protection. He does not care for it. He only cares for deeds, so that he need not waste his time on them. Bolg's greatest assets for prospective lackeys include a network of kobolds and dragonborn inside of Vedaria's government that can give information, smuggle goods or sneak people into critical facilities. Outside of Vedaria, Bolg's lackeys also have access to many substances and materials illegal in other nations, such as certain drugs or explosive arcane reagents or tomes of aberrant or necromantic magic, in which they trade, since they can produce them in Vedaria (where they are legal) and sell them elsewhere where there is demand. All of Bolg's lackeys are branded with a scar of lightning. To any not aligned to Bolg, the scar would look like any other burn scar. It has illusory magic that allows lackeys to see it as a lightning shape.

All dragon bosses are mostly cordial to each other, but Bolg hates bosses Urg and Crag most, perhaps for slights done to him as a youngster. In humanoid form, Bolg looks like a dark-skinned, well-built, balding middle-aged man in meditation, with his eyes almost always closed. Bolg is considered the mafioso of the dragon bosses.

Boss Dalv – The boss of the Green Dragons, Dalv is a cunning, hands-on creature and one of the two female dragon bosses. She has no mates personally with her, but has had seven adult children with mates no probably dead, and is raising a small female as a successor of sorts. She inhabits the jungles of selvage, having excavated herself a large, many-chambered tunnel of sorts in the center of the Fey Jungle, which she is quite aware of how to navigate properly.

Dalv takes great advantage of the war between the pseudo-government of Selvage and the Vedarian conquerors. Her lackeys are either mercenaries, smugglers or guides in the jungles, playing both sides for their coffer's worth and fueling the fires by provoking more attacks and more warfare. Lulls in the combat mean less gold and jewels for her, so Dalv might even attack a settlement personally to instigate more fighting. She is wary of the illegitimate elven communities in Selvage and tries not to become involved with them. Even so, it is difficult not to kill a meddling elf or two while in the midst of the conflict in Selvage.

To become a lackey of Dalv's, intelligence and cunning are required. Dalv cannot afford to hire fools. The operations she runs are extremely delicate, and as such she does not have the networks of lackeys other dragon bosses have, instead opting for small groups of intelligent and capable people. The benefit of working for Dalv, is the work itself – it is dangerous, but pays very well. Dalv has little honor for her lackeys – she is not above unknowingly pitting them against each other or having them killed by an opposing group as part of a greater scheme. However, one thing Dalv does honor is a request to leave. She does not need anyone to remain reluctantly and screw up a plan. Dalv has a special frozen chamber in her lair where she keeps a Remuko spirit that can erase the memories of people before Dalv lets them go. The Remuko is paid in fine silk robes and increasingly gaudy jewelry, as well as having Dalv and Dalv's daughter for companionship, which suits her fine. Dalv's lackeys are not specially marked – they learn hand signals and tells they can use to identify each other instead, but these are not always very easy to recognize.

All dragon bosses are mostly cordial to each other, but Dalv specifically hates Crag, whom she believes to be nothing but a vain and worthless creature. In her human form, Dalv is a beautiful blond-haired woman with frightening green eyes dressed in a silk and green-scale robe.

Boss Urg – The boss of the Black Dragons, Urg is a brutal, raucous beast living in the Rotgulch Swamp of Periterim. He lives with his six female children, whom are also his mates, and any new children made have a rather rough life ahead of them. Males are thrown out by Urg himself, and are likely to be killed by poachers for their horns and scales. Females are kept by Urg to grow into fresh meat for his desires – but female wyrmlings are likely to be abused by the other females, who see no attachment to the little creature save as a rival. Urg's mates are constantly bickering with each other.

Urg is a dragon boss with no real initiative and few lackeys. Lackeys who come to him do so out of desperation. Urg is not hard to please. An exotic trinket, a payment of gold, or an epic deed in his name, pleasing his ego is all that's really needed. Urg is also the poorest of the bosses, in that he is rarely any help for the prospective lackey. He might impart upon them some magic, allowing them to become Dragonhearts, or share with them an object from his horde, or protect them from another dragon boss' lackeys. But that is about all the benefits. Urg has no real goals or initiative, and therefore has no need of lackeys except to claim he has some when bragging to other dragons. He is quick to brutally kill any disrespectful lackeys – after all, he has no need of them except to be revered.

All dragon bosses are mostly cordial to each other – except Urg. Urg is loud, brash, annoying and universally despised by the dragon bosses, but his lair is heavily defended, with him and his six mistresses – most dragon bosses do not have such devoted children, and as such cannot make war on Urg's draconic host without incurring heavy loses. Urg especially hates Crag and Dalv, believing them to be females who never had a proper male put them in their place. When in humanoid form, Urg appears as a massive, muscular man and wields a jagged sword. He enjoys physical combat in humanoid form, unlike the other dragons who use their forms mostly to socialize. His mistresses appear as a harem of tan-skinned women, all of whom dote on him.

Boss Crag – The Boss of the Red Dragons, Crag is a vain, royal and arrogant creature that makes her home in the Fern Isles of Shadash north of Andaliel. She lives with two of her children, male and female twins Vut and Lok, who get along surprisingly well for "children" competing for the attention of a very hard to please mother. Of the bosses, she is the most approachable but one of the most demanding. Crag demands not only constant tribute from her subjects, but also constant flattery. The smallest slip can be taken as an insult.

Crag is greedy, but without much of a goal. She lives in a mountain hideout in Shadash that she is constantly having lackeys dig, making larger rooms for more loot and better designed rooms for her hoard. Crag has the largest hoard of all the dragon bosses, and also the employ and admiration of numerous kobold lackeys who pamper her and her children. Prospective lackeys can expect to be allowed to borrow some of her items, or have one of her children take action to help, but Crag herself rarely sticks her neck out for a lackey any further than that. She does leave her hideout however, often to travel to market places in a human guise. Her favorite things are astral diamonds, of which she has only a single, precious one hanging around her neck or under constant guard, protected by runic ritual imprints.

All dragon bosses are mostly cordial to each other, and Crag herself does not consider anyone an enemy. Though she does not consider them friends either. She knows the other bosses have some problem or another with her, but considers them not worth her time. Killing them won't yield her any more treasure than she would have to spend to commit the act. She considers them beneath her. When in humanoid form, Crag takes the form of a dark-skinned woman with an amazing figure and long, lustrous red hair, growing to cover her left eye and ears, and always dressed in the sharpest fashions.

Boss Firl – The boss of the White Dragons and the oldest of the bosses, Firl inhabits the Hetuku Mountains between Emdereur and Sargasso, but he leaves his hideout fairly often and does not keep much of a hoard. He has had numerous children, but none of them have allegiance with him, and he fears that most of them and their disunity might have killed them. Firl is in a constant search for a female mate. He is getting desperate enough that he might proposition Crag, despite their being different races of dragon, whom he feels would be easier to mate than Dalv.

Firl's organization is in shambles. He has few lackeys and has to keep them pleased, but there is little he can really do for them and little they can do for him. What he wants most of all is a mate to rebuild the population of White Dragons, since he knows not what fate it has undergone. He may even be the last of the White Dragons, a pitiable fate if there was any. Under these circumstances, any lackey that can spot another White and lead Firl to it would be greatly rewarded. The reason Firl has not bee wiped out by stronger bosses is one of inherent respect. Firl is the oldest of the bosses by a couple hundred years. Some legends say he survived the cataclysm and forgot he did or how. Despite his age (or perhaps because of it) he is a formidable fighter, and none dare challenge him to single draconic combat. He is like a father to dragons, no matter how much other dragons might begrudge him.

All dragon bosses are mostly cordial to each other and Firl even more so. He seeks no enemies and deals no slights. He believes in a code of honor long since lost to Dragons. Aside from that, he also has better things to do than petty quarrels with the remnants of their extinguished race. He realizes that Dragon's follies in a world now dominated by more subtle spirits and by humanoids has caused them to reduce greatly in number. Firl seems to have taken a fancy towards Crag, and visits her every so often to give gifts, hoping she might allow him to mate her as an experiment to see whether he might be able to continue the White Dragon race even if with a Red Dragon partner. His humanoid form is of a tall, pale, bald, formidable man dressed as though a monk.

Vic_Sage
2008-12-28, 09:36 PM
Good, now one of my players that liked the first three can shut up.

Meek
2008-12-29, 09:21 PM
Glad to hear that :smallbiggrin:

And bump for today.

Meek
2008-12-31, 12:09 AM
I just got a really good look at the Faerun Player's Guide, and I've noticed that my Spirits of Eden Player's Guide page is a little bare-bones in some fluff areas in comparison. Rather than dump all that in the campaign guide, I might as well spruce up the Player's Guide, which I'm doing right now. I really like the layout of the new 4e books, and the way they're laid out has helped me a LOT to write my own stuff. Expect Andaliel and Periterim to be spruced up tonight on the blog, and update to reflect those changes here tomorrow.

Edit: Actually, I decided to update it tonight.

About the only thing I won't be emulating are the "Player Motivations" bits of the Guide...Eden, I feel, isn't as clearly cut in that regard as the Realms. There is a lot of diversity amongst its people, so while I could totally put "Swashbuckler" as a motivation/example background for Periterim, I would rather the players have to think for themselves how to make a character coming out of there, so they can use their imagination and derive from the fluff text what a person from there would be like.

Meek
2008-12-31, 09:43 PM
Happy new year to everyone, and thanks for the posts, comments and emails!

Meek
2009-01-03, 12:47 PM
Bump. Now 6 classes, with powers from 1 through 15th levels, are present in the preview on Post #9. That's like 60-70 new powers! :smallbiggrin:

Lappy9000
2009-01-03, 08:18 PM
Oy! Just noticed from the Library in the Playground thread that you finally posted this thing directly onto the forums. You'll probably get a bunch more feedback now.

Still looks good, although I've just skimmed at the moment. It wouldn't hurt to find some pictures, though.

Meek
2009-01-03, 08:43 PM
I would put a few pictures in there, but I'd likely stuff the whole thing with anime fantasy artwork from people like Tab Rasa, 29, Houru, Kazuaki, and other japanese artists. That's why I refrain. Grabbing something off the Wizard's art galleries and sticking it like everyone else does wouldn't be worth it to me, and posting artwork I like is at best dubious fair use. Besides, in my experience a lot of D&D players hate anime anyway, so I'm sparing myself two crowbars to the face.

And I hope that's true! I'd like more feedback, because all I'm still getting are "The Athirua are stupid and overpowered" emails. (I think 2 out of every emails I received about Eden pertain to the Athirua being some repressed and misogynist adolescent fantasy of mine and/or being broken. The rest are usually about why I bother to work with D&D 4th Edition and that I'm "wasting my talent". If I was anyone else I'd have mailbag posts mocking the horrendous emails I get one by one, but I respect people's privacy.)

Meek
2009-01-05, 05:03 PM
An observant reader sent me an email about the fluff for the Primal power source in D&D 4th Edition, and I had a pretty good laugh looking at it. Here you go:

The Primal Power Source

According to legend, when the gods made war against the primordials at the dawn of time, the battles raged across the cosmos for uncounted centuries. The gods slowly gained the upper hand, successfully imprisoning or banishing many of the primordials. However, this war threatened the very existence of the world, as the primordials who brought it forth from the Elemental Chaos clashed with the gods who sought to fix the form of the world in permanence. In the last days of the war, a new force made itself known in the cosmos: the spiritual expression of the world itself. These primal spirits declared an end to the conflict, asserting that the world would no longer be a battleground for the two opposing forces. The gods and the primordials were banished to their home planes, and the primal spirits of the world decreed a balance: world would remain a place where matter and spirit mingled freely, where life and death proceeded in an orderly cycle, where the seasons changed in their unending wheel without interference. The gods and the primordials could still influence the world, but they could not rule it.

These primal spirits are beyond number, ranging from spirits too weak to have proper names to the mightiest incarnations of nature’s power: the Primal Beast, the Fate Weaver, the Great Bear, the World Serpent, and others. They are spirits of winds and weather, of predators and prey, of plains and forests, of mountains and swamps. As the people of the world have come to know these primal spirits and live in harmony with them, some mortal spirits have joined their number after death, just as some mortal souls pass to the dominions of their gods. These great ancestors are among the most potent of the primal spirits.

Characters who use the primal power source stand firmly rooted in the world, between the divine power of the Astral Sea and the primordial churning of the Elemental Chaos. They have some affinity with the native inhabitants of the Feywild, who share their love and respect for the natural world. They are staunch enemies of aberrant creatures whose very existence is a blight on the natural world, as well as of demons that seek to destroy it, undead that violate life’s natural cycle, and (to a lesser extent) those who seek to despoil the wilderness in the name of progress and civilization.

That doesn’t mean that a primal character must be a sworn enemy of the gods, or of a character such as a paladin of Erathis who seeks to settle and civilize the world. There might be some conflict and disagreement between such characters, but they also have many common foes. A primal character’s greatest concern is with creatures and forces that threaten the stability of the world and the balanced cycles of nature. In a broad view, the cities and civilizations of humans and other races are just as much a part of nature as are primeval forests and mountains, and just as worthy of protection.

So do great minds think alike? Or maybe great minds read Spirits of Eden :smallamused:

Wizard's also made their necromantic rituals in Open Grave very close to my own interpretation of them in the Spirits of Eden "Undead In Eden" article. It's rather flattering to know they have some of the same ideas both on fluff and crunch that I do. I must be doing something right!

Meek
2009-01-09, 05:36 PM
Going up for today.

Meek
2009-01-12, 10:35 PM
Yeah, I know, I know. I really shouldn't have started this "Mystic City crap" on my blog, but seriously, I like how my little game is shaping up. And no, Eden is not forgotten – it's just that I've been researching my inspirations and sources, so I can finally finish up the player's guide. I'm making that my priority in Eden right now. Once it's done, we'll get back to other things.

Meek
2009-01-16, 09:23 AM
This week has been hell. Why did I sign up for journalism? It's so much work and in the end I'm going to starve and die anyway because the newspaper industry is on a highway to hell.

Oh and this is a bump.

Meek
2009-01-21, 12:15 PM
I've hit on a bit of a writer's block for Spirits of Eden, made worse by my losing some critical notes with my thumb drive. I'm sure it's somewhere around the house, but the monolithic furniture I have means I'd have to spend a lot of time moving crap around, to find my thumb drive, to get my files, to stare at them for a while and not write anything. So until I get my groove back, don't expect very many updates. Sorry.

Meek
2009-01-24, 11:30 PM
If you have not yet lost all faith in me, you'll be glad to know that I'm back now trying to work on some things. Also, it's my birthday! 20 years, wow. I'm already around 1/4 dead!

Meek
2009-02-01, 02:01 AM
Hey there! Show of hands, who still cares about this thread? Because I'm starting not to! Woo!

Anyway, I wrote some rituals today that have nothing to do with Eden. Swell.

Meek
2009-02-01, 12:13 PM
I decided that keeping this thread has been of far less use to me for the cost of coming here to bump it/adding stuff to it. I had wished for a little more discussion even when I was doing very little (though there wasn't much even when I was working more often). So in the interest of saving myself some time, I'm going to cease updating it. You can still find all of the Eden stuff old and new on my blog along with more of my 4e 'brew. (The four of you who care about this, anyway.)

Thanks to Zeta Kai for his map and to those who posted.

Reverent-One
2009-02-01, 12:28 PM
Well, I still care the setting and all, sorry I haven't been much for discussion on it. So I will be keeping up with your blog.