8.4.2006 - The Brass Tacks
Hello and welcome to world creation.
In previous posts i have talked about general topics, with some marginal specifics.
time for the brass tacks laddies.
Game Worlds need a theme, a unifying concept to help drive them. Lucas used environmental exclusivity, as did Frank Herbert, Roddenberry used ideology. D&D campaign settings like Dark Sun (magical blight) or Eberron (cinematic action) have a distinct idea behind them.
This is one of the reasons that my first world, Derranos, failed. While it was interesting and fun to play on it lacked focus. While on Aqualaria was about trade. There was only one giant continent, and humans were in the minority. Two aquatic races rules the seas and levied high tariffs on sailing vessels. Overland commerce and transportation became a big issue.
What would the focus of the new world be?
Starting from my choice of deities i moved on from there. LAW vs CHAOS. Obviously this world would be in a constant battle of those two forces, even if those two gods were distant. It also logically follows that the push for good vs evil wouldn't matter as much. That would take some getting used to, for me AND the players.
So, to advance that idea why not polarize the world even more? Let's make nighttime a time of Evil and day a time of Good. I summarize it as such: when the sun goes down the monsters come out. Sorta like cosby right? 10 o clock? old weirdharold! the monsters are out, how are we gonna get home?!?
exactly.
So let's think about what that would do to people (this is humans only or now).
1. they would stay inside at night, locking their doors, buying charms, enchantments and hexes to keep the monsters at bay.
2. They would build walls around their cities and enchant those.
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a word on magic.
in D&D and most fantasy RPG's magic is a mainstay. I like it and it is a part of Natralis as well. But it is also well known and has become "part of everyday life." that is not to say it is easily accessible or easy to perform, heavens no. But people are not looking for witches to hunt...
On Natralis, wizards and their ilk are called Castors. a term of respect, awe and fear.
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3. Traveling at night is not an option.
4. Camping by yourself at night is insane.
5. Which takes us to heavily armored caravans that travel between walled cities or kingdoms.
a jump of creation here:
6. Everything is only a days travel away .
now to bring that all together.
There are kingdoms, whose capitals are large cities, with in enchanted walls. Farmland surrounds this city. On all the major trade roads there either, villages, cities or garrisons ( all walled of course) where a merchant or farmer can stop for the night. They are also spaced for the slowest of the population: heavily laden wagons. A man on a fast horse might cover two days worth of land before he would be forced to stop for the night. This would continue all the way to the kingdom's border. This border would most likely be determined by the amount of farmland needed to support all the citizens of said kingdom.
ok. good.
NOW. kingdoms aren't a day away from each other. To reach one another it require some heavy travel through hostile territory. The armored caravans come into play here. As do mercenary guilds that hire themselves out for protection gigs. My friend Allen suggested that even out here there might be heavily armored garrisons or citadels a days travel from each other run by warlords, merchant kings or mighty Castors. Towns might have formed around them. I see good opportunities for racketeering, corruption and vice happening out there.
delicious.
On my map i had decided to place the races now. Humanity had the northland, divided into 6, then it became 7 kingdoms. 4 of which had a treaty signed. One was too far north to consider the treaty, another was separated by two mountain ranges and a large desert to make it efficient and the last one decided not to join.
I gave the Caprians the entire southland with two gigantic empires. Old ones too. They were on the planet before the humans.
The Husken showed up about the same time as the Caprians but on the western coast of the northland. those three large peninsulas are theirs. I also placed the primeval forest there.
The Dwarves ( by far the most ancient race) were under the mountains.
Each race dealt with the Problematic night in different ways.
Humans I have described
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a note on the elves.
elves were the first race on Natralis. Yes, they were there. With assistance from the giants they built a fantastic empire over the northland. Then one day, teh Gods took them. They disappeared. Not their stuff, just them. So there are a lot of elven ruins and nice little items out there to be found.
any Dwarf who happened to be on the surface witnessed this. freaked them out. They retreated down in to the Deep for protection. They have only recently ( according to them0 come back up.
in their culture this is called "the Vanishing."
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Husken were the first to delve into the elven ruins and learn the art of casting magic. They protect themselves with wards, wands and trees, not to mention fierce magic.
Dwarves build massive fortress complexes underground (and now above) that are almost impenetrable. Plus they use their divine magic to keep the monsters at bay.
Caprians just beat the shit out of them with steel, hoof and horn. The added reinforcement of divine and arcane castors made it even easier. I decided that they believe they have controlled the problem but their own hubris will blind them to the truth. In the process of "cleansing" the Southland they found an enemy: the Vampires. The Pale Princes of Shadow (for that is where they come from) and the Caprians have a millennia long feud. The Caprians have one advantage. They are immune to the Turning.
Without the ability to renumber their ranks in the Southland, the vampires have taken a hold of the nightlife in most major human cities.
Nightlife just got a LOT more intense.
I'll really have to describe the races in the next post. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here and there.
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