Post/Author/DateTime	Post
JulesCARV 05-19-07, 07:08 PM	So, here are some basic ideas I have. Further elaboration will follow. If anyone has thoughts on this, I'd be glad to hear them. Basic Ideas of Suridea 1. Default D&D religion and cosmology, with a few additions. Pelor, Hextor, Obad-Hai, etc, all exist in Suridea, as do the Outlands, Baator, Sigil, etc. There are additions to the religions, planes, etc, but not subtractions. However, deities and planes may be subject to new interpretations. Suridea is not, by default, "cosmologically isolated" or uniquely in its own set of planes, as with Eberron or the Forgotten Realms -- other material plane worlds might be accessible through planeswalking, spelljamming, or the like, although it is up to the DM to decide which material plane worlds (such as Oerth or Krynn) exist or do not exist in her campaign. 2. New interpretations of old conventions. For instance, most drow women are still female chauvinists, but many speak of their domination of males in chivalrous terms, as an onerous obligation of the female to protect the irrational, temperamental, and unperceptive male, and claim that the females of other races are selfish for abandonning their males to fend for themselves without adequate guidance and protection. (Many drow males believe these rationalizations, even if more of them resist the system than females) 3. Satirical, light-hearted, humorous tone. Parodies of common fantasy tropes, satire of real-world issues, and the inherent absurdities of life in a D&D campaign setting governed by D&D mechanics are all fitting subjects of humor in Suridea.1 4. Optimistic worldview. Note that Suridea is optimistic, but not utopian: the world is one in which injustice and misery are common, but this is not some inevitable, unchanging law of the nature of the world, but a mere contingent reality -- one that PCs might change in an enduring and real fashion, if they have the means and the will to do so (and one that many good NPCs are trying to change as well).2 5. Many mid-level characters, fewer level 1 and very few high level characters: typical middle-aged humans in Suridea are level 2-4 characters, not level 1 as with the default D&D: level 3 is the most common level for human NPCs. There are no NPC classes as found in the DMG, although some classes exist which are best suited for non-adventuring NPCs. Very high-level characters, however, are quite rare: no currently-existing mortal human NPCs are higher than 14th level (although there are higher level liches, elves, elans, unbodied, etc).3 Footnotes 1. Surideans are not aware of D&D mechanics, but they do not necessarily sweep the observable, in-game impacts of the mechanics under the rug, either. (For example, they might know that a frail, venerable wizard who knows how to cast Symbol of Persuasion is better able to withstand a hit from a greataxe than a young, healthy apprentice wizard only capable of casting Disguise Self, and this fact is a matter of scholarly study and debate, folk rationales, and crank doctrines alike). 2. Even in the outer planes, it is not a law of existence that evil and suffering have a necessary and significant place in the world. A hero capable of redeeming the Gray Wastes themselves, ending the torment of its petitioners, and turning the native yugoloths and night hags to goodness would require immense power, luck, skill, and dedication, but even this is not beyond possibility, at least in theory. Another aspect of Suridea's optimism is in holding goodness to a high standard: for instance, a "traditional fantasy kingdom," with a monarch at the top of a feudal warrior-aristocracy and a church which compels worship, tithes, and obedience (but isn't too harsh in its treatment of unbelievers), both of which rule over an impoverished peasantry which has some limited rights but little real freedom, whose knights, mages, and clergy fight against marauding bugbears and ghouls, and occassionally neighboring kingdoms, might be considered good in some D&D settings, but in Suridea it is likely to be considered neutral. 3. Roughly, NPC level demographics follow a binomial distribution, with p = 1/6 and n = 18 in the case of humans: in effect, the level of any given random NPC is the result of rolling 18d6 and summing the number of dice that come up as ones to find the NPC's level, with level 0 characters representing children and those with severe developmental problems which prevent them from taking a first class level. (Elves, having more time, might have p = 1/3 and n = 18, and dwarves might have p = 1/4 and n = 18)
queenfange 05-20-07, 05:46 AM	I recommend reading Candide by Voltaire. It's a great short story which satires how ridiculous always being optimistic is. It could give you some amusing ideas. That said, I would recommend keeping a somewhat serious tone overall, and not making satire the main object. The tone of the campaign often ends up several shades less serious than its aim, depending on the characters of your players, so even slight hints at satire may be enough to get them very riled up and amused. So, making a campaign that is designed to be light-hearted may become merely a series of jokes (or is that what you're looking for?) and will destroy any amount of focus the players have. That said, if you have a mature group of players who will be able to enjoy and explore the world without treating it from a metagame perspective (which would include actions such as having their character attack people randomly throughout the town claiming, "everyone's optimistic, so my excuse that I was confused should work... they want to believe me, right?"), it could be a lot of fun. Your new idea on drow is highly amusing. Good luck with your campaign.
JulesCARV 07-25-07, 01:55 AM	BTW, the idea of this setting being "upbeat" is actually sincere. It's not a cruel joke or deception -- the setting is actually supposed to have a sort of attitude of progress and hope (its people don't necessarily, but the setting does). Think Condorcet, or Adam Smith, or Star Trek. (I don't mind "dark" settings, but they're already fairly abundant, and I wanted to try this to see if I could make a more upbeat setting work.) Note: most of the "action" in Suridea is below the equator, so usual "south" means "toward the colder, less sunny parts of the world," and "north" means "toward the hotter, sunnier parts." Anyway, here are some ideas for the major powers of Suridea. The Confederation of Free Tribes This is a loose group of independent tribes, which initially formed as a mutual defense pact against the advances of the Amarid Caliphate. The Confederation has certain criteria for membership, requiring that all of its members be "free tribes," a somewhat vague legal term which conveys an attitude of popular sovereignty, equality under the law, and liberty. Not all of the free tribes are exactly democratic -- for example, the Orono have a constitutional structure in which all can vote, but in which votes are weighted by how well-informed a tribal member is, as determined by randomized, standardized testing procedures which test knowledge of history, politics, science, and other issues. However, none of the tribes are based on hereditary monarchy or aristocracy, rule by a self-perpetuating ideological or theological clique, or similarly exclusionary, hierarchal structures. As a whole, the Confederation enjoys the benefit of sophisticated magic and psionics, relatively advanced non-magical technology, a high standard of living, and broad freedom of expression. Many seek to immigrate to the confederation, an issue that each of the tribes deals with in its own manner. The Confederation itself is primarily involved in encouraging a common foreign policy among the tribes, encouraging free trade among them, and ensuring mutual respect for each other's laws (such as the extradition of criminals). Although the nominally the Confederation's military serves as the common military force of the confederation, it is in reality small, poorly equipped, and weak compared to the militia of even the average individual tribe, and is a small fraction of the Confederation's military resources as a whole. For major actions, the Confederation must attempt to persuade its members to act in concert, uniting their tribal militias into a more formidable force. For more covert actions, however, the Confederation leverages its credibility by deputizing groups of adventurers to act on its behalf in small-scale, covert operations. Smaller and cheaper than a full scale army, these freelance agents might secretly meet with rebels fighting against states which oppose the confederation, uniting disparite rebel factions and promising confederate support on the condition of such unification (such freelance, adventuring agents were instrumental in the coordination of the revolution which lead to the breakaway of much of the Amarid Caliphate's southern territories), and use other tactics leveraging their authority as deputized agents of the confederation to advance its interests, or sometimes even act on the Confederation's behalf out of more idealistic motivations, such as to halt extreme ongoing atrocities. The Amarid Caliphate Founded almost two-thousand years ago, the Amarid Caliphate is a theocracy dedicated to the worship of Hextor. In spite of its recent setbacks, it is probably the most powerful state in Suridea. It ended the era of mage-warlordism that plagued the former Kingdom of Jalbiddit following the end of the Aboleth Era by creating a strong, centralized theocracy, which protected ordinary people from the ravages of sorcerers, druids, and other powerful spellcasters who ruled towns as plundering despots constantly at war with each other in the wake of the collapse of the Aboleth-backed kingdom. The Amarid Caliphate maintains a state monopoly on magic. In the early years, the sole magic users were the clergy of Hextor. Shortly thereafter, an order of wizards who had their loyalty Hextor tattooed into their flesh -- the Red Wizards -- were founded, and the clergy and the red wizards remained the sole sources of magic for most of the Caliphate's existence. Recently, though, in the past two decades, the Caliphate has tentatively tried to expand its resources, allowing state-sanctioned psions, sorcerers, druids, and others, although all must worship Hextor. Those who practice magic without state sanction are swiftly burnt as witches by the Hextorian Inquisition. Two types of magic users receive particularly brutal treatment by the Inquisitors -- ur-priests who seek to destroy the gods, and clerics of Heironeous, who, demonstrating amazing courage, form secretive cults within the Caliphate, seeking to end the Hextorian Church's rule. The Hextorian Church rules public life, imposing its own sense of morality on the Caliphate's subjects: not only does it burn witches (i.e., unsanctioned magic users), but it excludes women from public life, relegating them exclusively to the domestic sphere, prohibits any form of sexuality other than heterosexuality in marriage, prohibits the consumption of alcohol, enforces tithing and church attendance, and relegates those not of the Hextorian faith to crowded, enclosed ghettos (in the case of urban infidels) or locates them in rural villages on the poorest lands (in the case of rural infidels). Although early in its history, the Caliphate simply killed all who refused to convert, it switched early on to ghetto or pale confinement, although some heretics view this limited tolerance of infidels as a violation of Hextor's will, and believe that the Caliphate should slaughter all non-believers. Although, as an organized movement, this so called Maratian Heresy was brutally crushed centuries ago, it still survives in some secretive, underground cells. Recently, the Amarid Caliphate has faced troubles, about, with a sudden revolution leading to the breakaway of many of its southern provinces (secretly instigated by adventurers working for the Confederation of Free Tribes). This crisis lead to a conclave which called for extensive reform and modernization, clamping down on the pervasive corruption within the clergy, reinvigorating repression of social deviants, incorporating of new forms of magic (other than clergy of Hextor and Red Wizards) into the Caliphate's services, and other measures. Although the Caliphate has lost about 1/3rd of its territory, it remains a strong state, and spurred by the shock of the revolution, it is becoming increasingly efficient, well-organized, and resourceful. It is probably the most centralized major power, without the administrative division seen in the Empire of Halrind or the Confederation of Free Tribes. The Empire of Halrind The various mages -- sorcerers, druids, psions, and others -- who had ravaged and plundered the territories formerly constituting the Kingdom of Jalbiddit, following its collapse after the disappearance of its aboleth patrons, were not quick to surrender their lives and privileges to the advancing Amarid Caliphate or the Hextorian Church. Nonetheless, the superior organization and resources of the Caliphate made it clear that they faced only two options -- to flee, or to die at the stake after a swift and predetermined inquisitorial trial. Fleeing to the Halrind peninsula, these warlords-turned-refugees realized that their old ways of each being an independent ruler in a war of all against all could not be sustained in light of the Caliphate's advances. They swiftly united, fortifying the narrow land entry into the peninsula and declaring themselves lords of the Empire of Halrind, magically crushing any indigenous resistance to their ascension. The Empire is a feudal, electoral monarchy. The Emperor is elected for life by the elector-lords, the mightiest houses of the land. Since the elector-lords prize their own autonomy, the Imperial Throne has historically been a fairly weak position, occupied by a series of unambitious, well-bred mediocrities chosen for their willingness not to interfere with the affairs of their nominal vassals. Membership in the Empire's feudal aristocracy is determined primarily by hereditary, inborn magical potential, or by usage of magic based on restricted, heriditary knowledge. Most houses are sorcerous, although psionic, divinely-touched, and other forms might be seen as well. Those not already in the aristocracy are forbidden from learning or using magic, and their ignorance of magic bars them from the aristocracy. Those who independently discover innate magical potential within themselves, such as independent favored souls or sorcerers, are incorporated into the aristocracy if they are pliable, or punished for their use of magic as commoners (with a variety of punishments, ranging from exile to death). Generally, the noble houses are of the same race as the commoners in their jurisdiction. For instance, elven nobles usually rule over elven commoners, human nobles over human commoners, goblin nobles over goblin commoners, and so forth. It is rarer, although not unheard of, for nobles to rule over large numbers of commoners of a different race. Commoners have no rights in the Empire. They are traded among the lords, who demand whatever labors they feel appropriate of them, exercise their Jus Primae Noctis, and serve as judge, jury, and prosecution with regard to all crimes allegedly committed by commoners in their jurisdiction and disputes among commoners. Although the various feudal mage-houses of the Empire are often at odds with each other, they present a united front against any prespect of revolt by the non-magic using commoners. The most persistent foe of the Empire of Halrind is the Amarid Caliphate, and border clashes followed by periods of unstable peace have been a pattern since the two states were founded, the Empire shortly after the Caliphate. As such, during some eras, the border nobles of the Empire have encouraged the Church of Heironeous -- although many have been disappointed with the Church of Heironeous's inconvenient independence from the nobles' objectives. Meanwhile, some of the common people secretly pray to Hextor for deliverance from their tyrannical and arbitrary lords, hoping that the Caliphate will liberate them from their lords as it previously liberated the former lands of Jalbiddit. The Former Southern Caliphate Provinces With their old masters, the Amarid Caliphate, to the north, and the Confederation of Free Tribes to the south, the former southern Caliphate provinces are generally parts of the Amarid Caliphate that have broken away to achieve independence, in a revolution that occurred two decades ago. A bewildering variety of states have arisen in the wake of the end of Hextorian rule. Instability and rapid change characterizes this region, as its constituent states struggle to find stability. Some are considering -- and seriously being considered for -- membership in the Confederation of Free Tribes. Others are in a state of chaos or civil war with no centralized authority. A beholder openly rules in Karbindal, while a druid-ruled state governs Hamatign, while the pre-Caliphate royal line, dating back to the Aboleth age, has been reestablished in Mertinia after centuries of obscurity and exile. With the exception of their newfound independence, these states have little in common with each other. Population transfers -- sometimes forced by the Caliphate's armies, and sometimes voluntary -- have left many states with minorities while their new governments seek homogeneity. In some cases, provinces are have gained independence that were wholesale creations of the Caliphate's administrators and bureaucrats, consisting of mixtures of identities with no real single majority tribe. Each of the major powers seeks to influence the small states in their own fashion, the Confederation of Free Tribes encouraging the states toward a form of popular sovereignty, the Amarid Caliphate seeking to bolster the local Churches of Hextor, which still frequently retain large (albeit minority) followings in the former provinces, and the Empire of Halrind attempts to encourage the political power of mages and revanchist anti-Caliphate hostility, in an attempt to open a second front and further weaken its historical enemy. Adventurers, working on behalf of the major powers, some private party, or simply following their own conscience or opportunities for gold, glory, or power, are common in the former Caliphate provinces, whether they seek profits in the instability and weak legal systems or seeking to liberate the new states from whatever oppressive regime has arisen since the end of the Caliphate's rule. The Mar'klad Union A military-ruled goblinoid supremacist state, dominated by hobgoblins, the Mar'klad Union has a tiered doctrine of racial hierarchy, ranging from the hobgoblins on top ("Status A") to races which are deemed fit only for genocide, such as mindflayers, at the bottom ("Status E"). Other goblinoids, such as goblins and bugbears, are full participants in Mar'klad society, but are excluded from the highest positions of authority. Most common races, such as humans and elves, fall somewhere in the middle: the Mar'klad union generally subjugates these races and sets up indigenous collaborator regimes, partially independent but ultimately responsible to the Union. More persistently hostile races, such as dwarves and gnomes, are enslaved. (I don't really have much more on these guys yet) The Kalan Archipelago This chain of islands extends in a ring southward and eastward from the southern tip to the northeast of the continent of Macronissos (the continent which includes the Amarid Caliphate, most of the Confederation of Free Tribes, the Empire of Halrind, etc). The islands nearest to the southern tip of Macronissos are frequently inhabited by tribes of the Confederation. Beyond these, its islands and atolls are often unexplored by the majority of Suridea. Some are uninhabited. Some contain isolated, primitive societies. Some contain the ruins of Aboleth-era research facilities, as the archipelago was frequently used by the aboleths for experimentation, magical and mundane. A few Aboleth-era ruins might still have enough magic to be of inestimable value to those who find them -- or inestimable danger. (more to come, perhaps)
Sliversun 07-27-07, 12:48 AM	Looks interesting. Please update soon!
JulesCARV 09-07-07, 01:57 AM	HISTORY Preface My name is Adwalebo Fumanjo. I am, depending on how you count, either forty-seven years old or four years old. I was once a human of the Orono tribe. Now I am no longer a human, but an elan. I was once a prominent medical egoist. Having volunteered to be a test subject the transformation from man to elan, though, nothing but vague recollections of my former talents and skills in that respect remain. What am I now? I do not know, exactly. Given both that I volunteered for this transformation and that I am among the lucky 17% to survive this process, currently still in an extremely primitive stage, I have no right to complain about my new state, but I have nonetheless felt that my future has been wiped clean as surely as my past: I believe that to become an egoist again would be an exercise in frustration, relearning things which remain tentalizingly within my memory but beyond my grasp. However, recently I believe I have found a new topic which interests me. The most prominent scholars of psychometabolism claim that in this new form, I shall be able to live indefinitely. While this has not yet been confirmed empirically, simply because the process is too new for any extensive longitudinal study, I remember reading the papers beforehand when I was still a human egoist and finding the theory claiming that elans have no finite lifespan persuasive. Now, when I look back on those papers, the writing is incomprehenisible and alien, stirring only the faintest recollection in me, but I trust that my former comprehension of these studies was not in error. If I am to live indefinitely, I shall be witness to a broad span of history. I hope to become a historian, recording history as it occurs over the centuries. However, for a sweeping perspective of history, one cannot start now, in the year 1750 A.D., any more than one can start by erecting a building with the third floor. For that, I must rely on the work of previous historians. First, I must give any readers two caveats. The first is that I am not a trained historian, and no history included in this prior to the year 1750 will be based on any original research. The second is that I have never held praxeometry in high regard, and what little I knew of it prior to my transformation, I have forgotten. It is not my place here to attack the beleagered discipline, so I shall neither provide praxeometric explanations for historical events nor their refutations: rather, I shall simply record events as I see them occuring, and for history before the present day, attempt to construct a consensus survey of historical events according to my broad, if inexpert, reading of said materials. I do not know whether my explanations coincide with or contradict the praxeometric analysis so characteristic of my tribe, and it is not a matter of great concern to me. The Aboleth Era Regarding pre-Aboleth Era history, little is known. Civilizations existed; a few even left behind mysterious artifacts, sometimes still imbued with awe-inspiring magical powers, or ruins that survive today, but of their culture, politics, demographics, and history, little is known. One must understand that during the Aboleth Era, the aboleths and their vassals on the surface attempted to wipe previous history away. The aboleths sought to create a regime which had the appearance (to its subjects) of stretching infinitely back into the past and infinitely forward into the future. Archeology, clairsentience, divination, and inquiries to the extremely long-lived beings that remember the aboleth era personally, such as dragons, have all been deployed in an attempt to find the history prior to the aboleth era, but such accounts are patchy, controversial, and contradictory. In the future, perhaps some greater consensus will be achieved about pre-Aboleth Suridea. For my part, I am not, as I have mentioned, an original researcher, and feel I have no qualification in writing any acccount of Suridea before the arrival of the Aboleths. The aboleth era itself was an era of peaceful stagnation. It was no paradise -- crime, poverty, and ignorance were all common, as they remain almost 2,000 years later throughout much of Suridea -- yet because all of the kingdoms that reigned over Suridea's humanoids answered to a single authority (for the aboleths, whatever divisions they had among themselves, presented a single face to their humanoid subjects), there was also no war. New developments, technological and supernatural, was prevented from dispersing throughout the population. Most lived lives as farmers, carpenters, nobles, guards, or in other professions, passed from generation to generation, their line of work stretching eternally into the past and future. For their part, the aboleths were publicly known to be those to whom the kings of this era answered, but they were a distant presence. Their primary interest was not in political authority or power -- so long as the affairs of the surface remained stable, they were content to leave their vassal-kings to their own affairs -- but rather in obtaining scientific knowledge from experimentation on humanoids (and a few other) subjects. The humanoid kingdoms gave the aboleths their pick of criminals and vagrants from their jails. Unbeknownst to most of the surface-dwellers, they then conducting experiments, mixing the bloods of various subjects to create hybrids, testing various spells and psionic powers upon them, vivisecting them, and conducting other experiments, with islands and atolls (many of them on the Kalan Archipelago) divided between the subjects of such experiments and psionically enslaved experimenters, who meticulously conducted the experiments demanded by the aboleths. This system began to change in 72 years before the Departure of the Aboleths. In this year, public rumors broke out in the Kingdom of Carmatille that their queen, Murine, was sending prisoners to the aboleths, where horrifying experiments were performed on them. Although this was not the first time such rumors had broken out, this was the first time such rumors were confirmed by leaked documentation of such actions on the part of royal government. Although this revelation initially had little effect besides a few protests, one riot, and several resignations among royal officials within the kingdom, it began the transition in popular consciousness in Carmatille, from viewing aboleths as benevolent, if distant, protectors to being malign overlords. In the year 45 B. D., after several years of drought and the attendant food shortages and inflation, a rebellion wracked Carmatille. People blamed their aristocracy, their king, Alphor II, and the king's aboleth patrons for their woes, claiming that the royal government's limitations of magic prevented weather manipulation which would have prevented the droughts. This rebellion obtained widespread popular support, and a number of nobles defected and joined the rebel cause. King Alphor II was forced to flee the country for a time, and in 44 B. D., a rebel baron, Kalen, took the capital, Carmattum, usurped the throne, crowning herself as the new Protector of the Realm (although she did not style herself "queen"), promising an end to Aboleth domination and improvements in agriculture through mundane irrigation projects and through increased magic (although she was, in truth, unable to deliver much in the way of either, having no magi capable of such widespread weather control and little spare water to distribute through irrigation). Alphor rallied his forces in the neighboring Kingdom of Harmatin. The remnants of his army were joined by a contingent of Harmati warriors, as well as aid from the Aboleths themselves -- units of skum. How the aboleths could have made such an error of sending skum to march on humanoid cities remains a mystery to many historians: some believe that the aboleths believed that they could intimidate their subjects into obedience with such a display of monstrous power. Others claim that testing the reaction to such blatant actions was just another experiment on the part of the aboleths, probing the limits of tolerance for their rule as they might test the elasticity of a tendon. I lack sufficient expertise to off an informed opinion. Although Alphor's forces were militarily victorious, retaking Carmattum in 42 B.D., the sight of the king riding through Carmattum at the head of a force populated with foreign soldiers from Harmatin and, far more shockingly, skum lead to further alienation among the populace. Moreover, the notion of the Aboleths as oppressors spread beyond Carmatille, to Harmatin, Jalbaddit, Halrind, and other Aboleth-backed kingdoms. Rebellion spread throughout the lands of Suridea, but the aboleths responded in force, producing skum en masse from captured rebel prisoners of war. Many of the aboleths' vassal royalty themselves renounced their obedience to the aboleths. Those who replaced them when the armies of skum and increasingly sparse humanoid loyalists crushed them were no longer hereditary monarchs with some nominal independence, but directly enslaved puppets, often selected on the basis of weak wills and drawn from the lower ranks of the gentry when no sufficiently weak-willed higher nobles could be found. Although the aboleths had by this time lost support from the overwhelming majority of their humanoid subjects, their armies of psionic slaves and skum nonetheless grew, and eventually managed to stamp out the rebellions as conventional, organized military forces. Although large-scale wars were fought for most of the two decades decades starting 40 B.D., by approximately 20 B.D., it appeared that a new equilibrium might have been achieved -- the aboleths would no longer rule through a system of tradition and consensus as they previously had, but through intimidation, supernatural enslavement, and brute force. Overt resistance was militarily defeated. Covert resistance was met with brutal collective punishments. Heavily armed skum patrolled the streets of many towns. A semblance of stability and normality returned, and resistance faded into a minor, manageable problem, and a grudging acceptance of the inevitability of aboleth rule returned to most of the populace. In 5 B.D., this began to change. The reasons for this are uncertain. It was certainly not due to the untenability of aboleth rule over their humanoid subjects, which had been roughly stable since 20 B. D. Most historians believe that it was a group of ancient dragons, known as the Guardians, who had previously had an agreement with the aboleths allowing them to rule, who put an end to it. The Guardians themselves have refused to confirm or deny this claim. A minority of historians claim that the aboleths withdrew simply because they found so much of their time occupied by administration of the recalcitrant humanoids that they no longer found much time for research, and believed that ruling Suridea was a waste of their time. The aboleth's skum forces increasingly withdrew, disappearing from the streets. Contact between the aboleths and their humanoid clients declined. In the year 0 -- the year of departure -- a final message was sent by the aboleths to their humanoid client royalty: that they were withdrawing from this world.
Sliversun 09-17-07, 04:38 AM	bump.