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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Halfling in the Playground
     
    GreenSorcererElf

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    Default Alrune (Setting)

    Alrune is a campaign setting I have tossed around in my head for seven years. It has gone through many revisions and overhauls, and you can find them on the internet. Do not look for them, they are bland and suck. Alrune will be a ridiculously detailed homebrew setting that you might not even be able to play because of the sheer amount of material I will be using from various sourcebooks. Alrune will be 3.5 and I will not update it. Okay, maybe a little, but I will ignore crappy 4e stuff like elves and eladrin being one.

    Okay, an overview...

    Alrune will be a setting that will be both familiar, and at the same time, exotic. Orcs and elves still hate each other, for example. But at the same time, Alrune will bring a fresh look at races. Alrune's theme will be diversity. Not wishy-washy-join-hands-and-sing diversity, but rather, a world where one culture hasn't dominated everything.

    Okay, since I decided to start from scratch, I'm still in the brainstorming process. I will occasionally ask questions, they will usually be specific, like "What should this tribe be like?" not "What random crazy idea can I insert into the campaign." Random crazy ideas may rarely be included, if I really like them. If your ideas make it, whether asked for or not, I will give you credit.

    First of all cosmology. I toyed with the idea of making my own cosmology, but I've since thrown that idea out the window. I'm connecting my cosmology with the Great Wheel, and Spelljammer will be occasionally referenced.

    The reason for this is because I love the planes way too much, spelljammer makes my inner science fantasy nerd happy, and if I had too make new planes I would probably go way too much into detail with them and start referencing them way too often once I actually started on Material Alrune.

    Alrune will have many gods, every ethnic group will have at least one (And remeber, Alrune is highly diverse, thats a lot of ethnic groups), but they will all be original, no gods from any other sources will make it in, except for these three (or two and a half):

    Anubis-just because (I have a bad feeling I'll be saying that a lot)
    The dual goddess of Yondalla and Dallah Thaun-because I liked the concept.

    Also, some planar entities like the Lords of the Nine or the Celestial Hebdomad will be worshipped in some places.

    The creation story will be that the Elder Gods created the world and the LeShay, elf-like beings of immense power. However, their experimentation led to the opening of massive portals to the Far Realm, from which crept the Elder Evils. These beings fought in a war with the gods that almost destroyed the world. All the Elder Gods were slaughtered save one. What the Grey Lady was goddess of is unknown, and it is said that to lift the masquerade mask off her face and stare into her sad eyes will haunt even the soul of a god in grief for all eternity.

    The LeShay realized their grave error and each and every one willingly donated their souls to save all of reality. This formed a holy willow tree that burned with the radiance of a thousand suns, casting the elder evils back from whence they came and sealing the portals.

    When the Grey Lady cast her eyes back to the world, she dissapated the tree, leaving the soul stuff of the world floating around. She set the up a new world, one that reflected the beauty of the Elder World but was still a mere shadow in comparison. It is often said that the Shadow Realm is the twisted remains of the Elder World, though planar scholars know better.

    The Grey Lady (and I mean gray, but I like the idea of the alternate spelling for the word) created many races, and she knew gods would spring up shortly after.

    She took a few fragmented souls of LeShay and imprinted them on the souls of the first elves. Obscure legends have it that in those wild, young days when the laws of magic weren't fully written, powerful elven spellcasters were able to recreate LeShay. Rare dusty tomes speak of LeShay sightings throughout history. This is D&D, dusty books are almost always right.

    Okay, you might find this creation myth a bit cliched. But I like it, it is sufficently tragic that when I write the full version I'll have to have a Family Guy DVD on hand to stop from getting depressed.

    Okay, I like to think that the Grey Lady would create the willow tree in memory of their sacrifice. In the old LeShay langauge, which I most now make a will save to stop from getting up from this computer right now and creating, okay...succeded, "Willow" means "sorrow of the sacrifice".

    I'm going to rule that live willows turn abberations, and have a soothing affect on the minds of the mentally ill, and are thus planted at insane asylums and known entrances to the Underdark.

    Speaking of trees...flora and fauna. I noticed the presence of dinosaurs in the monster manuals. I failed my will save on that one. All prehistoric animals, from the ice age to the triassic to the cambrian, all coexist and are slightly more uncommon that present day animals. Yay my low wisdom score!

    How about the planet itself? Spherical, twenty four hour days, resolves around the sun, sun rises in the west and sets in the east.

    One moon, needs name, dead world, still has LeShay ruins almost no one knows of, composed of red, yellow, and blue minerals that glow, creating a white light that makes up for the fact that the moon is only ever on the dark side of the planet, does not have phases, the same side is not always the showing, one side has a large bulge several miles high that causes tides on Alrune.

    Okay, I have several continents and sub continents in mind, each loosely based of a cultural area from our world. I don't want them to line up nicely. For example, western-euro-land and eastern-euro-land can be on opposite sides of the world.

    I'm asking for your opinions on how I should distribute the following:

    -Pre-Colombian North America
    -Pre-Colombian Central America
    -Pre-Colombian South America
    -Caribbean
    -West Europe
    -North Europe, Central Europe
    -East Europe
    -Mediterranean
    -Russia, Siberia, Central Asia,
    -Oriental Asia
    -Polynesia
    -India and Southern Asia
    -Middle East
    -Savanna Africa
    -Ancient Middle East and Egypt
    -Rainforest Africa

    Please feel free to comment. Good or bad, I thrive off them.
    Last edited by Eladrinstar; 2007-11-04 at 10:06 AM.
    I'm liberal, and a scientific christian.

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Halfling in the Playground
     
    GreenSorcererElf

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    Default Re: Alrune (Setting)

    I was bored, so I have been drawing the map. I guess I don't really need help with the placing of the continents.

    Names of the continents and subcontinents.

    North Central Europe: Ylseria
    West Europe: Jalserf
    East Europe: Evelisia
    Mediterranean: Iphates
    Russia, Siberia, Central Asia: Ulabatas
    Oriental Asia: Machuna-Jenji
    India: Aekrya
    Polynesia: Chituloosa
    Middle East: Khajid
    Ancient Middle East: Sodorrah
    Africa Savanna: Moziquewa
    Africa Jungle: Oswanda
    Caribbean: Autica
    South America: Vepiguando
    Central America: Uxocuatal
    North America: Clicwas
    Northern Polar Continent: Aurora
    Continent I'll explain later: Jeerhaak
    I'm liberal, and a scientific christian.

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    Fuum Bango's Avatar

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    Default Re: Alrune (Setting)

    Hey, I don't know how much stuff you've actually got for this setting...

    But when I first wanted to make a world I drew the whole world, made tons of gods and races and it ending up being very sparse on details, have you thought about maybe making one city and describing it and how your races interact with it and each other? Maybe Caribbean/Autica?

    Its a great way to set up your worlds flavour, and it'll actually be playable when you've finished.

    I orginally wanted to make a world, but me and my friends have been playing on "Black Barb Coast" for months now. :)
    Last edited by Fuum Bango; 2007-11-04 at 01:49 PM.

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    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    Piedmon_Sama's Avatar

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    Default Re: Alrune (Setting)

    I know a bit of Nahuatl from studying the Aztecs so maybe I can give you some help with names for the Central American place?

    These are common locational endings in the Nahuatl language:

    -co, "the place of"
    -pan, "atop"
    -tica, "with"
    -tlan, "amongst"

    For example, you could call some lovely little garden spot "Xochitlan" (Among the Flowers), and name a heavy mining/quarry town "Zocuico" (The Place of Mud).

    Back when I was working on a Nahuatl setting, I came up with a few place names using a Nahuatl lexicon. The setting's been scrapped and I don't think I'll ever use these myself, so you can do so with a clear conscience:

    -Ameyatlan ("Amongst the Fountains")
    -Aminico ("The Place of Hunters")
    -Colotico ("The Place of Scorpions")
    -Cuahuitlan ("Amongst the Trees")
    -Cemanapan ("Atop the World")

    In historical Central America, the city-state was the primary unit of community (actually it was your neighborhood inside the city, but there's no need to get that detailed). People would identify themselves by what city they came from, even if they were both part of the ostensible "Aztec Empire." (The "Aztec Empire" is something of a myth, btw. Ask if you're interested and I'll go into detail on that).

    Some other useful vocab... "tlatoyayotl" means "Kingdom," and "tlatoani" means "king," although the actual translation is more like "speaker" (with the Aztec King's title of Huey Tlatoani translating as "First Speaker.")

    In brief, a Nahutal pronunciation guide: "tz" sounds like the english "ch," while "ch" in a Nahuatl name is hard (like "Zach"), while "x" sounds like "sh," and "tl" is simply a "tlah" sound.

    As just a final note, off the top of my head here are some real City-States of central Mexico.

    -Tenochtitlan
    -Tlatelolco
    -Texcoco
    -Tlacopan
    -Tlaxcalla
    -Huexotzingo
    -Cholula
    -Azcopaltzalco
    -Tzingtzungtzan (not a Nahuatl-speaking city state, it actually belonged to the foreign culture of the Tarascans; I include it however, because it's pretty much the coolest city name ever).

    As far as fleshing out an Aztec setting with demihuman races.... Aztec Mythology is not a big help there. Their legends don't have many inhuman beings that aren't horrible forest-dwelling monsters that want to kill you. The closest thing I could think of is the Aztec legend of the five suns. The story goes that the four divine brothers (their identities vary; I go with the version that has the water god Tlaloc, the sorcerer god Tezcatlipoca, the harvest god Xipe Totec and the wise, kind god Quetzalcoatl) vying for the preeminent position over creation; that is to say, the sun. Each won the position from his brothers at some point, but each in turn was overthrown. And once the sun was destroyed, the earth beneath it was destroyed in a cataclysm.

    The peoples of each earth would then become an animal. The First-Worlders were giants who were devoured by Jaguars. The Second-Worlders were drowned and became fish. The Third-Worlders were destroyed by a storm and became monkies. The Fourth-Worlders were destroyed by a rain of fire and became Turkeys. So this provides an avenue, if you want, for fish-men, monkey-men, turkey-men and giants. I think having Jaguar-Men would probably be a bad idea due to that animal's religious status in the historical culture; a race of Jaguar-Men would probably be worshipped.

    Go with Turkey-Men IMO.
    Last edited by Piedmon_Sama; 2007-11-04 at 02:46 PM.

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Halfling in the Playground
     
    GreenSorcererElf

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    Default Re: Alrune (Setting)

    Thank you. I have trouble with Mesoamerican sounding names.

    I had an idea for Uxocuatal. I'm going to have it be under siege by the Ethergaunts from the Fiend Folio. The idea is that long before they retreated into the ethereal after a war with a vanished race, they had a mighty empire. Now they have returned, and the nations of Uxocuatal are falling one by one. People are fleeing the continent in mass. Some good nations are sending armies to fight. Evil nations are taking advantage of the panicked natives to set up colonies.
    I'm liberal, and a scientific christian.

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    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    Piedmon_Sama's Avatar

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    Default Re: Alrune (Setting)

    It's interesting you're going with the "lost culture" aspect. A lot of Aztec culture was replicated (to the best of their accounts) from ancient nations like Teotihuacan and Tollan. While present archeology suggests Teotihuacan was built sometime in the 3rd Century A.D and abandoned by the 9th, the Aztecs (who only entered into history out of the northern deserts around the 12th Century) believed it was built by the Gods and stood as their earthly home. The Aztecs essentially copied the religious beliefs of those older city states while making one addition: their own patron god, the warrior Huitzilopoctli, now took the head of the pantheon.

    They did keep a legend from the ancient Toltecs, though. It was said that in the 10th Century, there was a Priest-King named Quetzalcoatl. (It was common practice among the Toltec kings to name themselves after their patron god. However, this later created confusion and conflated the historical Quetzalcoatl with his god). Quetzalcoatl was a wise and good man and ended the traditions of human sacrifice. For this, all the common people loved him, yet another Priest named Tezcatlipoca (again, named for the God of Magic and a feared figure in the religion) saw how this change threatened the power structure the Priest-Aristocracy had enjoyed. His followers eventually drove Quetzalcoatl out of the city. Thus exiled, Quetzalcoatl traveled east until he came to the shore of the sea. He then conjured a boat made of serpents and traveled east, promsing one day to return.

    The status of the legend in later Aztec society is uncertain. It was at the least known to Huey Tlatoani Montecozoma II, who was fearful that Hernan Cortez was a returned Quetzalcoatl (that is, until he finally met the European in person). It was said that the return of Quetzalcoatl would throw down all mortal kings and establish a kingdom of heaven for eternity. Montecozoma actually tried to flee his city before Cortez even reached it, thinking Judgement Day had come for him.

    What all this is coming to is, I can easily see how you could plug in this storyline in with actual history. Say the present cultures of your Middle-American region have patterned themselves off these ancient inhumans, but always kept the prophecy they would one day return and throw down all worldly governments. (And instead of creating a Kingdom of Heaven, maybe by this story they just eat everybody or do whatever it is Ethergaunts do). This adds an extra element of terror to the proceedings since the inhuman foes are actually predestined to win.

    Just so you know, I'm really only good for the Nahuatl-speaking Indian nations of the later period. The older Toltec nations that they replaced and the southern Mayan nations aren't my area of expertise. The Mayans and the Aztecs never actually met prior to European contact, incidentally, being separated by literally thousands of miles. No indian culture had horses until the Spaniards introduced them.

    Incidentally, that can create a lot of problems if you want your characters to be able to get from City A to City B in a hurry. I suggest giving your pseudo-indians either horses or some equivalent; giant lizards or, more plausibly, giant tapirs (they are closely related to horses, along with rhinos) would work for travel, although they wouldn't be worth much as cavalry.
    Last edited by Piedmon_Sama; 2007-11-04 at 05:30 PM.

  7. - Top - End - #7
    Halfling in the Playground
     
    GreenSorcererElf

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    Default Re: Alrune (Setting)

    Quote Originally Posted by Piedmon_Sama View Post
    It's interesting you're going with the "lost culture" aspect. A lot of Aztec culture was replicated (to the best of their accounts) from ancient nations like Teotihuacan and Tollan. While present archeology suggests Teotihuacan was built sometime in the 3rd Century A.D and abandoned by the 9th, the Aztecs (who only entered into history out of the northern deserts around the 12th Century) believed it was built by the Gods and stood as their earthly home. The Aztecs essentially copied the religious beliefs of those older city states while making one addition: their own patron god, the warrior Huitzilopoctli, now took the head of the pantheon.
    Exactly. Humanity in Alrune is still a relatively young race, and it's had an easy road to development because of all the old races that have done it before, and they can just adapt these old ways and at the same time create new ones.

    Quote Originally Posted by Piedmon_Sama View Post
    Incidentally, that can create a lot of problems if you want your characters to be able to get from City A to City B in a hurry. I suggest giving your pseudo-indians either horses or some equivalent; giant lizards or, more plausibly, giant tapirs (they are closely related to horses, along with rhinos) would work for travel, although they wouldn't be worth much as cavalry.
    Remember, there is the rare prehistoric life, so dinosaurs and giant mammals can play a role like that too.
    I'm liberal, and a scientific christian.

  8. - Top - End - #8
    Halfling in the Playground
     
    GreenSorcererElf

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    Default Re: Alrune (Setting)

    Quote Originally Posted by Piedmon_Sama View Post
    What all this is coming to is, I can easily see how you could plug in this storyline in with actual history. Say the present cultures of your Middle-American region have patterned themselves off these ancient inhumans, but always kept the prophecy they would one day return and throw down all worldly governments. (And instead of creating a Kingdom of Heaven, maybe by this story they just eat everybody or do whatever it is Ethergaunts do). This adds an extra element of terror to the proceedings since the inhuman foes are actually predestined to win.
    I like that idea. You will certainly be credited in the final work.

    How about this:

    The Ethergaunts are cruel beings, but even their lower class is far more intelligent than humans. They devised an immensely difficult puzzle/labrynth that stretches for miles of ruins and has only so far been deciphered a little. The Ethergaunts figured that if any race was intelligent enough to decipher the warning they placed in the puzzle, then they deserve the forewarning. The humans have been working on the puzzle for a hundred years. At that point all they had deciphered was the exact date of the Ethergaunts return.

    They expected their gods to come down. What they got were horrifying, chitinous, highly intelligent, genocidal monsters appear out of the ethereal mists and blasting the High Priestess of the Feathered Sun to ash, along with a ziggurat the size of a city. Needless to say, panic ensued.

    On to the calender.

    12 Monthes. Each one being 28 days long, seven days a week. The monthes of the Blooming, the Glorifying, the Reaping, and the Freezing all have a numberless day in the middle for the Equinoxes and the Solstices. Vertumn is what spring is called in Alrune.

    Vertumn
    the Thawing
    the Blooming
    the Storming

    Summer
    the Clearing
    the Glorifying
    the Baking

    Autumn
    the Cooling
    the Reaping
    the Dying

    Winter
    the Darkening
    the Freezing
    the Harding

    These names are not appropriate everywhere on Alrune, but are used often do to the spread of the Common tongue.

    There are seven days a week.
    Moonday
    Airday
    Worshipday (not all religions pray this day)
    Earthday
    Fireday
    Waterday
    Sunday

    How should Lycanthropy work if the moon is always full?
    I'm liberal, and a scientific christian.

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    Bugbear in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Alrune (Setting)

    Quote Originally Posted by Eladrinstar View Post
    The Ethergaunts are cruel beings, but even their lower class is far more intelligent than humans. They devised an immensely difficult puzzle/labrynth that stretches for miles of ruins and has only so far been deciphered a little. The Ethergaunts figured that if any race was intelligent enough to decipher the warning they placed in the puzzle, then they deserve the forewarning. The humans have been working on the puzzle for a hundred years. At that point all they had deciphered was the exact date of the Ethergaunts return.

    They expected their gods to come down. What they got were horrifying, chitinous, highly intelligent, genocidal monsters appear out of the ethereal mists and blasting the High Priestess of the Feathered Sun to ash, along with a ziggurat the size of a city. Needless to say, panic ensued.
    So the humans of that region have basically had their religion painfully disproven in their own lifetimes? Interesting; should be a lot of cynicism and general disaffection. Also, how closely are you looking to replicate the tech level of 15th Century Mexico? Some of their developments included obsidian blades (so sharp that obsidian is still used by modern surgeons), rubber (used for making footballs, chewing gum and probably adhesives), the aquaduct (although they didn't have the Roman Arch), cocoa drinks, cigars and steam-houses (all of these were considered luxuries for the nobility).

    How should Lycanthropy work if the moon is always full?
    I'm probably not the person to ask. I don't care much for lycanthropes and haven't used them in any campaigns.

  10. - Top - End - #10
    Halfling in the Playground
     
    GreenSorcererElf

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    Default Re: Alrune (Setting)

    Quote Originally Posted by Piedmon_Sama View Post
    So the humans of that region have basically had their religion painfully disproven in their own lifetimes?
    Not quite disproven. A core tenet of their church is wrong, their holy city is rubble, and they are wondering why their gods never bothered to correct them. So yes, lots of cynicism.

    I'd like to get rid of the idea that the psuedo-Europe regions will dominate the world, so I'm giving them things they didn't have in real life. Wheels and metalworking (but obsidian because of its cheapness and sharpness will remain popular for weapons).
    Last edited by Eladrinstar; 2007-11-04 at 09:23 PM.
    I'm liberal, and a scientific christian.

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