Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Koofoo95 08-09-07, 10:39 AM	The Pasvalkian Empire at a glance: Population: 23,920,000 (80% Human, 15% Halfling, 5% Other) Government: Autocratic fiefdom, Emperor Juozapas Calamer XIV Fiefs, Rulers, and pronunciation: Lord Aras Gaulle ruler of Taurage (pronounced Toor-Age) Lord Mykolas Dwar ruler of Kalvarija (pronounced Kal-Var-iya) Lord Vadimas Nordman ruler of Raseinani (pronounced Raz-in-ani) Lady Gintare Eleina ruler of Kelme (pronounced Kell-may) Lord Herkus Menc ruler of Linkuva (pronounced Lin-KU-va) Lady Svajone Deam ruler of Visaginas(pronounced Vis-gin-eeas) Lord Jurgis Deam ruler of Naujoli (pronounced Now-holy) Lady Ona Anian ruler of Arigoloa (pronounced R-go-lo-ah) Lord Karolis Natin ruler of Rasvilikis (pronounced Rahz-veeli-kiss) Lord Algis Carmatin ruler of Tytuvenai (pronounced Tie-too-venee-i) Capital City: Pasval Major Religion: the Church of Kalkos, the Cult of the Ascenders, the Host of the Heavens (various local cults do exist but are too numerous to list) Government and economics: The awe inspiring vastness of the Grand Empire of Pasval can only truly be seen in the few maps of the world that exist. Over twomillion miles of territory are under the control of the Empire. The lands consist of rivers, seas, forests, and mountains. These lands are broken up into ten provinces. The provinces are massive areas of land governed by one of ten Noble families. The nobles must pay a yearly tithe in goods, coin, and soldiers for the Imperial Army. Nobles are expected to regulate the taxes, create military fortifications, and form province defense legions. The Nobles of the Empire are responsible for leading astronomical amounts of land, making it impossible for them to govern each part individually. They divide their lands up into Duchies and appoint a Duke to control the Duchy. The number of Duchies varies depending on the size of the province. Dukes are responsible for the public works, military fortifications, and training soldiers. The Dukes are responsible for paying a yearly tithe to the Nobility, some of the tithe is used to pay the Emperor, and the rest is used to line the nobility’s pockets. Duke’s attention can only go to some many projects at once, therefore a Duke divides his Duchy into Baronies, and the Baronies are under the control of an appointed Baron. Dukes also have the ability to appoint Counts. Counts are minor nobles who raise armies using their own wealth as a treasury as opposed to requisitioning funds from the Empire’s coffers. These Counts are given groups of Fiefs to increase their assets. They are essentially minor barons. The Baronies are smaller areas of land given to a Baron. The Baron’s are responsible for constructing cites, aiding in public works, and collecting taxes from the Lord Vassals. Barons also control the cities in their Baronies, to aid in governing they appoint a ruler to each town, the Lord Mayor. They also are required to create knightly orders and supply these orders with soldiers. Common payment for the knights is given them the title of Lord Vassal. Knight or not, the Barons give the title of Lord Vassal to their appointed rulers of fiefs. The Lord Vassal controls land that consists primarily of farms. They are responsible for creating villages, raising militias, and collecting taxes. The Lord Vassals distribute plots of land to Vassal Minors and Serfs who in return pay a tax of coin and a tithe of goods. Minor Vassals are free men who are given land in exchange for payment or as a reward. They work their land and sell their goods, but are forced to pay taxes and a small tithe. Serfs are essentially slaves who work the land given to them in return for protection or to pay off a debt. A serf’s debt is expected to be paid in coin; they don’t pay taxes, but are tithed heavily in goods. They must work the land until they can sell enough of whatever goods are left over after tithes and must use whatever coin is left after buying the necessities to pay off their debts. A debt is to a family and is passed down to children so it is possible for a debt to be in a family for generations. The Lord Vassal sends the taxes and tithes up the chain of command and can set tithe percents as they see fit. Society: The Empire unintentionally enforces a strict caste system. As a result of their feudal economics, wealth controls ones status. The highest class consists of individuals whose wealth surpasses decadence. The Emperor and his nobles are the only ones who can claim to be part of this unofficial caste, their power is supreme and unattested. They control armies of mercenaries and bodyguards who would kill at the jingle of some coins and are far above the law. Below them is the aristocracy. The Dukes, the Barons, and the Counts are quite wealthy who could, and occasionally, do get away with murder. Their power is a lot less permanent, theirs is a constant existent of dancing to the tune of those above them. Below the aristocrats would be the upper class. Knights, vassal lords, and wealth merchants make up this class. They are rich and well respected, even envied, but they know their place in society. The majority of Imperial citizens fall under the category of freemen. They are the professional soldiers, skilled craftsmen, and teachers. They could care less of what the upper echelons of society do and they are far too busy living their own lives to worry about the poor and the serfs. They are a conglomerate of the middle and lower class. Below the freemen are the serfs. While the Freemen are the most numerous, it’s only a thread. Serfs are quite common and their exploitation is largely ignored. The occasional serf rebellion flares up from time to time, but is brutally suppressed. Life in the Empire is bleak. Once the crown jewel of the world, the cancers of decadence and corruption have slowly begun to affect the body of the Pasvalvian Empire. A string of brutal, insane, and warmongering Emperors has gutted the treasuries and created and atmosphere of fear among the population. Failed attempts at conquer have created dozens of enemies waiting to descend upon the Grand Empire like flies on a corpse. Art and Music As a result of the dark times the Empire is facing, art and music has taken a dreary tone. Paintings are in shades of black and blue. Mostly done in oil paints, these works of art pay close attention to detail and a good artist is a highly prized commodity. The oils mostly consist of; famous, brutal battles; dour looking portraits; and people toiling away at work. Almost every town plays host to statues of former emperors, Imperial heroes, and important members of the nobility. These statues are carefully crafted works of art that show every curve, line, and blemish of a subject. They are commonly made of marble or bronze, but at the Imperial Palace is Pasval, a gallery of golden statues depicts every emperor. The most music the average Imperial hears during his life is that of a minstrel in a tavern, spitting out a tune for a few coins. Peasant Tunes, as the traveling bards call them, are jolly songs of heroics and poke fun at the nobility. Tunes use a wider variety of drums to set a beat and stringed instruments to fill the room with a happy tune. Lyrics are sung in the form of an add-a-verse song. The bard would sing a few verses, then someone from the crowd would add one verse, then someone else another, and so on. Popular tunes are How Many Feathers are in Calamer’s Hat?, and The Duke of Doogery Crossing. A stark contrast to Peasant Tunes, the Grand Imperial Symphony that the nobility listen to fills the ears of its audiences with dreary songs of violent defeats and lost loves. The Symphony maintains conservatories throughout the Empire where students are trained to use great brass instruments and wield a violins bow like a saber. The songs and operas are overpowering, designed to bring tears to the eyes of its audiences. Fashion In an empire as vast as the Pasvalkian one fashion varies on region. To the north where the weather is cold and dry, men and women wear warm furs and wool. Their clothing is functional, keeping them warm while barring them from the whipping northern winds. Earthy shades of brown, green, and black are common, but for the nobility a stark white is all rage. In the more wealthy and decadent south, the citizens use clothing to show off their wealth and power. Rich and colorful silk shirts and trousers for men, the gaudier the better, is the current fashion. Bright shades of black and yellow in a checkered pattern with a plumed cap are common for the lower levels of nobility. For women, the clothing tends to be much more revealing, including massive amounts of jewelry and fur. This is partially due to the incessant heat of the mid day sun, but mostly it’s a fashion statement. Cuisine Food is another example of the gap between the nobility and the common people. For the Freemen, food is a blend of vegetables, porridges and breads, with the occasional piece of meat thrown in. To make up for their poor selection of food, the middle class uses a variety of seasonings and spices. Boiled potatoes with cinnamon served over a bed of wheat paste, considered a delicacy by the common man, is also a favorite of minor nobles who enjoy ‘slumming’ or traveling to poorer districts of cities to be with the ‘common man.’ Dessert is a time to shine for all Imperial cooks. Poor or rich, a meal always finishes with a variety of sweets: pastries, sugar bread, or simply a biscuit covered in honey. Questions, comments, great thoughts? My only concern is size. I have no idea how mcuh land should be included so I went with the vague, days by foot, measurement. Does two million square miles seem like too much? Too little? I will post a bit more regarding the military, relgion, and a few other cities when I get the chance. I will also post a map as soon as I figure out the size allowed.
thebax2k 08-09-07, 11:49 AM	Pasval is a setting for fantasy rpg, so it can make as big or as small as you want ;) However, I assume you want an answer based on comparisons to countries and entities in the real world, and by that standard your empire is way to big or the population is way to small. Turning to wikipedia, here are some sizes of some current and historical countries and empires: Germany 137,858 sq mi France 260,00 sq mi Spain 195,364 sq mi United States 3,718,695 sq mi Byzantine Empire 1,737,460 sq mi (at its greatest extent) Macedonian Empire under Alexander the Great, Roman Empire under Emperor Trajan and the Ottoman Empire under Suleiman the Magnificent: about 2,000,000 sq mi Guessing population is a bit dicier, but according to this site (http://www.unrv.com/empire/roman-population.php), the Roman Empire's population was about 65 million. Note, that a high medieval/early Renaissance level of technology was capable of supporting more. Using a spreadsheet at (http://qzil.com/kingdom/) based off of John Ross's excellent Medieval Demographics Made Easy essay and assuming a population density of 60 people per square mile (a bit low, but lets be conservative) and an empire age of 2000 years, your Empire should have a population of 120 million with a capital city with a population of 175,000. Personally, I like the start you've made, but you have a ways to go. There are a couple of areas that seem rough to me. For one, history. How old is Pasval? Whats its story? Why is it in decline (inertia, apocalyptic cult, corruption by a world menacing villain)? Second, the provinces feel vanilla-like compared to real world examples. Did Pasval colonize all the lands it now comprises or did it conquer other countries? If so, there should be a lot more provinces (Rome had about 25-30), of all different shapes and sizes, as well as protectorates, city-states, allied kingdoms, and states that are nominally independent but are really puppets (the Romans were past masters of this, one ancient monarch actually left his kingdom to Rome in his will when he passed). Third, communications and control. Two million square miles is huge! Magic can cut that down a bit and function in someways like modern communications do, but there's going be communication lags and imperial overstretch in a pseudo medieval based society. I can't believe that no fringe provinces or realms have not been able to successfully break off. Even if the Empire is as brutal as described, thats of little use when news of a revolt might take 6 months to reach the capital. Fourth, neighbors. What types of countries surround Pasval? Is it blessed with trackless wilderness and natural barriers as the Romans were (excluding the Parthians) or are there powerful leagues and states that covet its territory and are vying for influence such as with the Ottoman Empire and neighboring Russia and Austria-Hungary? As I said, you've got a good start. Hopefully, some of what I've pointed out and asked above will help you. Keep working and fleshing it out and you'll end up with something quite useful.
queenfange 08-10-07, 09:43 AM	The setting looks quite interesting. Thebax2k has some very good suggestions, and I'm very glad to see he discussed population densities and geographical area, both of which are good starting points to give one's setting a realistic foundation. A few of his points I would like to address further... 1. History: A reason for the decline is necessary, and should be well known or at least widely speculated. Some GMs prefer not to get too bogged down in historical details, myself included, but the major things like reasons for a widespread defeatist attitude (as seems to be popular with the nobles in your setting) require explanation. 2. Again, history, this case in the origin of the provinces. I think if you look at each individually and flesh them out, they will develop a unique flavor. Some ideas you could include to make them unique: local myths, favored building materials, unusual diets, characteristics (phyiscal or otherwise) of its inhabitants, preferred magic styles, etc. 3. Communication has already been well-addressed by thebax2k, but it bears mentioning again- so vital! Now that the suggestions are all there, I have a few more bits from your initial description of the empire that I would like to point out as, in my opinion, excellent. I love food and good descriptions of it. It is certainly a major part of everyday life, and I'm pleased to see you also found it important enough to include. The 'slumming' of minor nobles is a great idea, and, whether intentionally or not, I see it fitting in with their general attitude. While nobles are much more powerful and see themselves as superior, they have an unusual sort of (false?) humility enforced by the depressing culture with focus in art and music of defeat, the unidealized pastoral lifestyle, and harsh realities (like war) of life. To feel a connection with the peasants by sharing their food through slumming furthers this sort of pitying self-punishment, fascination with the imperfect, or both. If I'm completely missing your intended idea, my apologies- let me know. :blush: So, please post more! I'm intrigued!
Koofoo95 08-10-07, 02:00 PM	Thanks for all the great replies so far, they’ve gotten me thinking. A quick note on geography: The Grand Empire of Pasval contains all the territory on the continent of Basalgor. Their nearest neighbor is east of them, the Gracian League (think Rome mixed with 300 style Sparta), their territories are separated by the Kalkonian ocean. To the west lies the continent Tasaldor, many kingdoms call this massive land home. To the North is a massive area of frozen land nicknamed the Frigid kingdom, here lies the remnants of a previous, world spanning empire of elves destroyed during a thousand year conflict called the Sundering(way before Pasval was around.). All manner of demons and aberrations reside there. History: The Age of Merchants 500 K.S to 1000 Hundreds of years ago the continent of Basalgor consisted of ten distinct kingdoms, all different in their own way. The only thing shared by these kingdoms was a reliance on the free port of Pasval for international trade and travel. Pasval made sure any attempts to send cargo out of Basalgor without going through their port met with “accidents” at sea. While the other kingdoms were militarily more powerful than Pasval, they all needed the port, so if one kingdom attacked the free port, the other kingdoms would come to Pasval’s defense. While Pasval slowly accumulated wealth and power, a new threat to Basalgor as a whole emerged from the Frigid Kingdom. An army of aberrations had secretly gathered in the tunnels and caves beneath the continent, emerging to try and claim the surface in the name of their vile overlords. The true threat of the aberrations was unknown to Giedrius Calamer, the merchant king of Pasval. His greed blinded his reasoning and he shut down the crucial port to all those who refused to give twenty percent of their kingdoms to him. The kings, needing the port to ferry troops and send supplies, grudgingly accepted the demands and the Empire of Pasval was born. The aberration war raged for ten long years, all the while the southern Empire of Pasval felt no ill effects, the war was a boon for them. They routinely closed their down their fleet in demand for more wealth and territory, the Basalgor kings knew that they could not afford the resources needed to conquer Pasval, so they continued to appease. When the war finally drew to a close, northern Basalgor was in ruins. The kingdoms were shattered, hundreds of thousands were dead, and Emperor Calamer decided the time to strike out was upon him. The Age of Conquest 1000 K.S to 1200 K.S The Empire had been accumulating soldiers and equipment under the guise of preparing a defense against the aberrations. Calamer sent his men out from behind their fortresses and into the kingdoms of his one time allies. They conquered the weakened states and gave no quarter to those who resisted. When Giedrius Calamer fell to an assassins blade, his son Marijus took up the banner of the Empire and continued his father’s conquests. Kingdom after kingdom fell to the Imperial legions of Pasval. Within one hundred years only the northernmost realm remained out of the shadow of the Empire’s banner. A long stretch of mountains called the Peaks of Journey’s End barred the way into the northern peninsula of Basalgor. The few paths through the Peaks were infested with the remnants of the aberration’s armies and the seas around the peninsula contained vast armies of sea born monsters. Unable to break through, Emperor Steponas Calamer annexed the territory and proclaimed it part of Empire, none of the few reaming citizens of the province argued the claim, and all of Basalgor became the Grand Empire of Pasval. The Age of Empire 1200 K.S to 2000 For two centuries, the unbroken Calamer line of Emperors was content with building the wealth of their empire. As Empress Viktorija Calamer was sworn in, she promised the people of the sun would never set of the Pasalvakian Empire. She invaded the eastern realm of the Gracian Alliance and initially gained territory. Her advance was halted when the full might of Gracia was mobilized against her and a long, bloody stalemate ensued. After the Empresses death twenty years after her coronation, Emperor Arturas sued for peace and the Gracia Pasval war ended. Arturas spent his life rebuilding what Viktorija destroyed. The military was refurbished, cultural exploits were promoted, and a time of great peace fell upon the Empire. The Age of Decadence 2000 K.S. to 2200 The peace established by Arturas was occasionally broken by skirmishes with the Gracian Alliance, but neither side wanted another drawn out conflict. The imperial citizens were more then happy to accumulate wealth through trade rather then conquer. Colonies were established in the southern continent of Teklamdor providing the empire with an endless supply of exploitable resources. Discovers and inventions in seafaring and cartography made the Imperial Merchant Fleet the most powerful in the world and internal peace compiled to make the Grand Empire of Pasval a near utopian society, for the upper-class of course. During the reign of Emperor Henrikas the Vain, the Empire nearly collapsed. Henrikas mothballed the military and redirected funds towards massive beautification projects. He believed that no one would attack a place so beautiful, he was sorely wrong. During the later years of his reign, the aberration armies from the frigid kingdom opened a Rupture Hole in the northern province of Kalvarija. A Rupture Hole was the greatest weapon in the aberration’s arsenal during the Sundering; it opens a tear in the fabric of reality and allows access to different planes of existence. Vile, insane creatures poured through the gap and cut through the Journey’s End Peaks in an orgy of violence and destruction. Emperor Henrikas refused to believe the reports his commanders were giving him regarding the threat. He thought that such creatures as Beholders and Mindflayers couldn’t exist. As the aberration hordes continued to attack the Empire, his eldest daughter Audra took action. She had her father drawn and quartered, and proclaimed herself Empress of the Grand Empire. Although frightfully brutal, she was able to lead her forces to victory against the hordes of aberrations. She became known as Audra the Martyr when she charged into the Rupture Hole. No one knows what happened to her, but the portal was closed and her sister Irena became Empress. As the second aberration war drew to a close, the Empire was at its weakest point. The decadence of the nobility and the weakened military almost tore Pasval apart. The Age of Decline 2200 K.S to present Decadence, war, and the ever growing gap between the rich, poor, and middle class have begun to take its toll on the Empire. The current ruler, Emperor Juozapas Calamer passed a law allowing the Lords of the provinces to have near dictatorial control over their regions. They are responsible for snuffing out the flame of rebellion using any means necessary; so far this has allowed the upper class to maintain a hold on their power, but only by a thread. Communication: I would like to keep this kind of a low magic, but that may be hard to do given the size. What I was thinking was a kind of a pony express type messanger service, maybe using flying mounts?
thebax2k 08-11-07, 12:14 AM	You definitely might want to think a little deeper about communications--a pony express would help, but there will be significant gaps. Pasval is a massive place, and without the modern conveniences we take for granted (good roads, railroads, telephones, radio, etc.) getting word from one end of the Empire to the other can take months. Take a look in the PHB to get some idea of what I'm talking about. Most horses, ponies, and donkeys (the "car" of the middle ages if you will) move anywhere from 16-48 miles--not per hour, per DAY. The avg is somewhere around 30. Now take a continent thats 2000 miles wide (using the U.S. as reference, that would be a straight line stretching from the Pacific to a moderate distance west of the Mississippi). To get from one end of your Empire to the other, it would take (using the avg) 67 days of straight travel! And thats assuming that it was all over good roads with no natural barriers (major rivers, mountain ranges, deserts, swamps, etc.) to slow the couriers down. Griffons or flying mounts can cut that distance, but I have trouble believing that they would be so plentiful as to allow 100% coverage of all areas of a country simultaneously (a circuit is plausible, but that would still have them covering the entire country every couple of weeks). Dovetailing into communication is the political situation. If the Empire is in its decrepitude, I'm still having a tough time believing that a ruler or two has not been able to break off (of course, with dm fiat, anything's possible ;). If the culture is so depressing and grim, surely it must have occurred to a ruler or two that things might be better if they struck out on their own (even with the threat of deadly imperial retaliation/vengeance). Also, what's to keep the Lords and Ladies from acting (as the English term it) like an overmighty subject (being a feudal subordinate whose raw power (manors, wealth, knights, troops) approaches that of the sovereign) and striking to replace the sovereign with themselves. There's got to be an ongoing reason the empire has not disintegrated utterly before this. Does the Emperor possess some kind of crackerjack espionage/internal security/inquisition/assassination group? (Which is also a good plot hook for getting pc's involved with imperial and political matters.) Or does he or she have some kind of "hold" over the nobility? (Such as family hostages (which the Shoguns of Japan demanded from each noble daimyo to cut down on revolts), or have them addicted to some exotic drug/poison that only the Emperor has the supply/cure for (think Thufir Hawat in Harkonnen hands in Dune), or is it some kind of magical or psionic control (the Court of the Essence in the Great Kingdom in Greyhawk comes to mind--hard to plot treason when the sovereign has a magic artifact that compels people to tell the truth). I would suggest that your Emperor has some kind of inquisition he can sic on his enemies. According to your history, aberrations have attacked en masse before, so the Empire has to have developed some type of institution to make sure people are not working for them or controlled by them (a very valid concern when the aberrations are partly made up of mindflayers). I also have no clue if you allow psionics in your game, but if you do, than many of the psionics that were found in the Empire would be in the inquisitions employ (ferreting out traitors, aberration thralls, etc.). The economic development of your Empire I would flip. The Roman Republic grew into a mercantile power with shipping concerns all over the Mediterranean. It became an empire when it decided it didn't just want to trade around the Mediterranean, but also politically control the entire sea! (Which it ultimately ended up doing.) The irony is the conquests weakened the Roman social and economic fabric due to the economy being severely distorted by all the easy (easy as in gained through conquest--not in the actual production of economic goods) money flowing in (which also happened to Spain after its conquests in the new world) and the entrepreneurial ethic being dimmed by the simple fact of having slaves to do all the work instead of relying on one's own efforts. I'd also make the serfs the largest class by far in your Empire. I can't site the source, but I've seen stats that suggested that 80-90 percent of all denizens in Europe during the middle ages were serfs/subsistence farmers. The nobility, upper, and middle classes should be no more than 5-10% of the population. Plus, given the amount of backstabbing and conquering the Pasvalian Emperors did, I can't see them just turning around and giving conquered populations citizenship--they'd reduce the majority of them to slaves or serfs--thus providing a major source of the unrest that racks the Empire. I also have a problem with wealth being the determinant of status. When the Empire was still a city, that's plausible. But for a country as old and as spread out as yours, the social distinctions would have hardened and calcified after a few centuries. Plus, with most of the peasantry usually being illiterate and innumerate (universal education is a primarily modern feature and I just don't see a crew as despotic as the ones running your empire doling out learning (with its broadening of horizons) to the masses), whats to guarantee that they'd be fully aware when their debts had been paid? (Ah, greetings to you Farmer Eodric. So you are here to pay off your debt at last. Oh no, you don't owe 100 crowns--you still owe 1100. Why its right here in the agreement your Grandfather put his mark on. Can't read it, here let my scribe do so......) You can go overboard trying to be to realistic, but the critical thing to remember about the medieval world (or even a pseudo-medieval one) is scarcity. Scarcity of food, good communications, and learning just to name a few. Generally those in power will monopolize what resources of the above are to be had (to maintain and expand their power) which may explain why the medieval world could be so turbulent at times. Regardless if you find any of the above useful or no, keep posting. Your world has good promise. With enough hammering it into shape, you should get something quite useful.
Koofoo95 08-12-07, 12:46 PM	thebax2k thank you for the great amount and quality of aid your providing me! This is a just a quick note on how the emperors subjugate their populace. Any comments are welcomed. Control In an empire as large as Pasval the subjugation of the populace continues to be a problem. Fear is the essential tool that the Emperors use to stop rebellion. To keep the nobility under control the Emperors of Pasval have implicated a mandatory “finishing school” for children of the ten Lords and many of the Dukes. This school is constantly under guard and the employees are made up of former soldiers and intelligence operatives. If any of the Lords attempt to rebel, a purge is incited to stop their rebellion, starting with their kids in the school. The children are released only when another child from the same family takes their place. To subjugate the commoners rumors of gathering aberration hordes or an imminent invasion are used to make the commoners believe that they need the Empire’s protection. A shadowy secret police group exists in the Empire. Called the Vigil Eyes this group of highly trained spies and assassins spreads its agents throughout the towns and cities, kidnapping and executing those who speak out against the Empire. Rumors spread by the Vigil Eyes tell tales of aberrant demons who kidnap people out of their homes in the middle of the night. While not as vast as they once were, the Vigil Eyes make up for their lack of numbers with the aid of an aberration. The Mindflayer Yuxolica was captured during the third aberration war by the Vigil Eyes. He was dominated and his will was broken through the use of a powerful geas forcing him to aid the Emperor in any cause. In return for his aid, the Vigil Eyes feed rebels and criminals to him. Yuxolica hates the humans with every fiber in his soul, but he enjoys the steady supply of brains. His identity is perhaps the greatest secret of the Empire. Only the Emperor himself and the grandmaster of the Vigil Eyes knows of his existence. Are Mindflayers immune to charms/enchantments? My monster manual is in another country right now :'(
thebax2k 08-13-07, 09:18 PM	Mind flayers are not immune to enchantments, but they do have sr25. The "finishing school" is a good start, but you might wish to tweak it a bit. Having "students" that are in their 20's and 30's (most families, especially noble families, will be large, but there are always exceptions, such as families with an only child, a family that is just starting out or has no children, or families with a wide spread in ages between children) would wear a bit thin, so you might wish to make them "guests of the court" after they "graduate". I like the bit with the Vigil Eyes and the mindflayer. Still, I would have a telepath or two in their employ (or if you don't use psionics, a mindbender or mages that specialize in enchantment/charm). The spreading of rumors is a nice touch, but I don't buy the bit about external invasion. The Eyes will likely pin internal rebellions on "aberration sympathizers", but unless the Empires enemies across the seas have managed to mount effective raids or deep penetration strikes, it doesn't fly. Now if they've managed to occupy pockets of land at the coasts or you alter the geography so that there's a potent land based enemy (excluding the north) behind a formidable natural barrier (high mountains or deserts) than that's another matter. One cool thing you might want to incorporate is a series of portal towers. It was detailed in an adventure in Dungeon Magazine many, many years ago. The towers would provide a means for the Empire's operatives to quickly and secretly travel and would provide fast communication in an extremis (i.e. the magic of the towers are not normally or publically used, they're cleverly disguised as watch or signal towers with only a few key personnel knowing the secret--a sort of ace in the hole that a paranoid emperor would love, at least until nosy pc's stumble across the secret ;)