Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Swordbreaker 03-11-07, 10:30 PM	Books Used: PHB, DMG, MM1, MM2, A&EG, Eberron Based on Faery Tale Adventure, released on the Amiga, Sega, etc. Overview: Welcome to Holm, a land shaped by its magic and people. Home to great beauty and great ugliness, the land of extremes. Although this is based off of the early 90's video-game, the adventures will take you beyond Holm to the Dragon Islands, Thule, and even Gong, the continent of the gnomes. As with everything, I usually start with religion, so lets get started... Religion This is the list of Gods Brave Brother: He is part of the Trinity. He represents the Good with the temperence of Law. His favored weapon is the longsword (named Lionheart). His Domains are Law, Good, Bravery*, Protection, Passion, and Strength. His symbol is A rising sun in front of a sword. Clever Brother: He is also part of the Trinity. He represents the Good, but with the flow of Freedom with it. His favored weapon is the glaive (named Ravenwing). Domains are Chaos, Good, Luck, Cleverness*, Charm, and Travel. His symbol is a blue opera mask. Gentle Brother: He is the youngest of the Trinity. He represents the purest good int he universe, unadulterated by law or chaos. His weapon is the shortbow (named Goatbane). Domains are Good, Gentleness*, Healing, Life, and Community. His symbol is a dove surounded by a halo Red Knight: He is a mysterious knight from Vermillion. He is the highest zenith of Law in existance. His weapon is the greatsword (named Megiddo). Domains are Law, Exorcism, War, Strength, and Red Knight. His symbol is a blood red helmet. Dark Dragon: They say that his claws created both the Burning Waste and the Plains of Grief. Commonly worshipped by orcs, he has become their patron. His weapon is the battleaxe (Sunder Claw). Domains are Law, Chaos, Evil, Animal, Maddness, and Dark Dragon*. The symbol is a seven-headed dragon (think Revelations) Mother Nature: She is one of the oldest gods, and one of the only female. She is Father Time's wife and the mother of life. Her weapon is the quarterstaff (named Yggdrasil). Doamins are Animal, Plant, Fire, Water, Air, Earth. Her symbol is a great oak tree with a rainbow Father Time: Mother Nature's husband, and the Dark Dragon's eternal enemy. He created the order of existance, but believed that the spirit should rule on its own accord, but on the lines of good. His weapon is the Bastard Sword (Esperenza). His domains are Good, Time*, Sun, Commerce, Magic, and Community. Nature: The elves of Grimwood hold nature on a more sacred accord than the common-folk hold their Mother Nature. They believe that the natural world itself is a divine being. It seems to mix the aspects of the Mother and Father, but also with the Drak Dragon as well, which angers the orcs to no end. The symbol is a green sun. Domains are Plant, Animal, Sun, Moon*, Magic, and Weather. The Four Flows: In the Dragon Islands, the Half-Dragons grew away from the religions of the other races. They uphold the belief in balance of the four aspects of the universe: Law, Chaos, Evil, and Good. There is no true god in this belief, just the upholding that one cannot exist without the other. Domains are Law, Good, Evil, Chaos, Balance*, and Meditation. Death Gods: There are two sects of this religion. They hold death above all else. The weapon is the scythe (Lifestealer). The two sects are neutral and evil. Both sects get the Death, Shadow, and Knowledge. Neutral sect gets the Repose and Necromancy, and Evil sect gets Evil and Decay. The religions might not agree with the way the world should be worshipped, but they uphold the common belief in the Over-God. No one knows who or what this being is, but they say that he took the flat plane of the universe and created all of existance with his wand, placed int he middle making a ripple. That created the stars, planets, moons, etc. Since there are separate religions, favor comes into play. The separate religions help themselves, but rarely eachother, and those who worship the main pantheon of Holm help each other. The Four Flow also helps all, to keep with the accord of balance. Nature and Death gods are more "every man for themselves". And maybe a little bit of history... History The history of the world has been shapped by war, religious teachings, and travel. Noone is shure of the true history of the world, but science has tried to give us a look. The Four Flows and Nature religions accept this as part of existance, but the Holmish Church still holds that the world of Holm is approximately 6,000 years old, when created by the Mother and Father. Scientific History states earliest humanoids rose up 30,000 years ago this 24,000 year period was called prehistory. There are really no records from this time except a few cave drawings. These drawings state that the Dragons rulled over the humanoids, and after a long time, they gave them technology. The dragons destroyed their documents, as if to cover up their past dominion. The only things they say about this period in history is that they had elaborate temples, and lived in peace with the Over-God. They were allowed to be the head of existance, if only they taught other races the Over-God's power and love. They specifically state the being inside the Cube looked like a humanoid, and ascended the Dragon Gods. Now around what was considered year 1, the Dragons gave the humanoids all of their technology and powers. Humanoids began using magic and bronze weapons instead of their stone weapons. For the next 4,000 years, humanoids increase their magical and technological powers, suffering only minor skirmishes. One memorable one happened 2,300 years ago, known as the Battle of Grief Plains, which was between the orcs and the elves for the now destroyed Dendris Forest, which is now the Plains of Grief. Another notable skirmish was about 3,100 years ago, which was everyone against the humans. Eventually, the Dragons got involved, and protected the humans. ANd to makr their pact, hal-dragons were born. That event was because Humans did not originate on Holm, they came from a land to the north called Thule. Coming to Holm 3,500, they were accepted by orcs first, becuase they were both militeristic. The elves and halflings came next, with the dwarves last to accept. The gnomes came 1,000 years ago, and were acepted almost immediately, for a war was about to brew in Holm, and any help was accpeted. The Blood War happened 1,000 years ago. The mind flayers overstepped their bounds on Aragniro and began to conquer other worlds. For 500 years, their empire grew, with their Beholder tanks enforcing law, until a githyanki named Gith decided to instigate them in war. The half-dragons and other worshippers of the Four Flows were the first on Holm to attack the Mind Flayers, because their multi-planar dominance broke the rules of Balance. From 1,200 to 1,000 years ago, the others had a cold war, until the mind flayers began dominating elves, half-elves, humans, and halflings with their magic, and creating Duegar from dwarven stock. That was tyhe last straw for most of the races, except the Yak Folk and the Orcs. It would be another 50 years until they chose sides, orcs with the people of Holm, and the Yak Folk with the Itthilids. Eventually, in one last battle in the Land's Edge Mountains, Aragniro was invaded, and the mind flayers defeated. Peace rulled until 3 years ago, when Ceilos Bauer and Asmodeus Plainwright began their journey as paladins on a quest of vengence. Ceilos quested to defeat Davis, a sorcerer that raped his friend (now wife) Caelee. Asmodeus was looking for a rogue named Johnathan, who stole not only his grandfather's stuff, but his grandfather as well. They did eventually get their revenge, but when Ceilos only went for davis, to exact justice, Asmodeus did everything in his power, and soon went blackguard, and dissapeared, until a year later, when he threatened to set off the End of the World. Ceilos was discarded into the shadows, until oneday, he reappeared with the Regalia of Good, but Asmodeus had the Regalia of Evil. They fought, until Ceilos threw away his regalia, and upon that act, found the bravery to defeat Asmodeus, and to kill him. Along the lines of religion, the worship of Nature and the Death Gods came first. Next came the Pantheon of Holm, which built over time, and finally the Four Flows. The religions accept each other, but argue on their theological basing. Pantheon and death Gods find Good and Evil as defining forces. Nature says that they don't exist, and the Four Flows say that those two aspects, along with Law and Chaos, must be held in Balance. The only religious founder was Yamato Hoshi, known as the Orochi. He said that everything is a balancing act, and that all aspects should be held in equal regard. There are no gods, just the four defining aspects under the Over-God, or True Balance. The Four Flows was founded about 2,000 years ago. Geologically, they saw Holm is about 2.3 million years old. Holm itself sits on a giant volcano. A prophet who held himself to no religion was taken to the Over-God to get this information just recently discovered. Then land of Holm will end when taken over by all-consuming fire. Floods and thunder will follow, and the very fabric between planes will tear asunder. However, except about 5 years ago, the next time we will be threatened by this is in 4,000 years. However, there is a glimmer of hope. The Over-God also said that once it happens, it will never happen again, and the littlest race will show the way to safety.
Yakman 03-12-07, 12:51 PM	Yeah, I don't like it. The Yakmen get the short end of the stick.
Swordbreaker 03-12-07, 04:44 PM	Most Yak-Folk are modern-day shappers. Although liken 70% of them slipped into atheism (except like half of Shamballa and rogue Yak-Folk), some of them help the gnomes with furthering technology.