Thanks.
Aside from the sources you've already mentioned... The 2e Running the Realms sourcebook has a few details about the end of the kingship in Sossal.
From Ed's scrolls, we know that on the topic of the use of surnames in Sossal, people who marry into other families, are granted a surname which passes down in a matrilineal fashion.
There's also a little in the Warriors and Priests of the Realms supplement. See the 2e The Horde boxed set as well.
The short story "The Greatest Hero Who Ever Died" by J. Robert King in Realms of Infamy has a little on Sossal too.
Other than that though, it's still a pretty undeveloped region of the Realms in terms of source material.
-Hmm...I believe that the novel Frostfell features some Sossalan bad guys.
Actually, not from what I recall. I could have forgotten something, though.
There's some Sossal lore in The Ruin, though (book 3 of the Year of Rogue Dragons).
Other than that though, it's still a pretty undeveloped region of the Realms in terms of source material.
-Undeveloped region? But, I thought that the Forgotten Realms are too cluttered and overdeveloped for anyone to develop their own stuff, because everything is already written about. Yeah, that's it...
-I always find it funny when these claims are thrown around, and yet, most of the entire planet is a vague allusion. 75% of Faerûn proper has plenty of room.
Actually, not from what I recall. I could have forgotten something, though.
-I could swear that the..."lackies", for a lack of better words, that kidnap the child of the protagonist are described as being Sossalan, or whatever the proper term is.
I'm discarding all canon after 1383 DR. Sigh.
-I always find it funny when these claims are thrown around, and yet, most of the entire planet is a vague allusion.
And the evidence for it pops up again and again.
-You know, I don't even have much of a cold-lands region to share for homebrew stuff. I have one peninsula, and one island, but both are really animistic, spirit-worship places, resembling Rasheman more than anything.
-Hmm...I believe that the novel Frostfell features some Sossalan bad guys.
There is an FR novel called Frostfell?
Were you aware that that is the name of an Eberron locale, and it was with that locale in mind that the 'core' splatbook Frostfell was written?
Why can't these guys EVER come up with new names?
there is also one semi-official lore that I like, from Candlekeep Compendium IV, it mentions goddess of Sossal, gem dragon Kaliyet, locals worship her
-I could swear that the..."lackies", for a lack of better words, that kidnap the child of the protagonist are described as being Sossalan, or whatever the proper term is.
I remember them being Tuigan. Maybe there was a Sossalan in there though.
I haven't read that book in a while.
See Dabron Sashenstar's writeup in Power Of Faerun. Not much to do with Sossal itself, beyond was Dabron was doing, though maybe there's an implication: "I've shared a fire with the Sossrim" sounds important.
There's a little bit in The Horde campaign setting, mentioning the port of Naupau and a bit about the Sossrim.
The Sosser breed of horse is covered in Champions Of Valor.
The Grand History Of The Realms reveals a few snippets of Sossal's history.
Ed Greenwood passed on a little about the place here:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fr/20010509b
Sossal's a bit of an odd place. Some material implies primitive tribes wandering the icy wilderness, others a kingdom with castles and stuff. Once they were humans with high cold resistance, then they gained some strange powers of wood shaping and tree walking.
I guess we have a classic case of wild rumours and unreliable reports, leading to a place where a DM or player can spin in any direction they like.
Personally, I see a kingdom where shamans and druids occupy the place of mages, and are usually mistaken as such. There could be Court Shaman, for example. They produce the wooden goods using their powers, and fuel the speculation that all Sossrim are like them.
Anyway, I once compiled a document with all known information about Sossal that I could obtain from sourcebooks, out of sheer curiousity. If anyone's interested, I could email it. PM me.
There is an FR novel called Frostfell?
Were you aware that that is the name of an Eberron locale, and it was with that locale in mind that the 'core' splatbook Frostfell was written?
Why can't these guys EVER come up with new names?
The core sourcebook on arctic environments was called Frostburn, though it named the area as the Frostfell. The rest is sadly true. I guess the author of the novel was inspired by the sourcebook.
-- George Krashos
Maybe we should be calling them the Sossialites (the 'lost tribe' of the Muhjari/Semites). ;)
Hmmmm... that just reminded me... I already linked them to the lost tribe of Issacortae that 'disappeared into the Northern wastes' and was never heard from again. If you look at the arctic-projection map on pg. x of the FR Atlas, it wouldn't have been as far a walk as one might think.
'page x' does not mean I don't know the page, BTW, annoyingly that product has a dozen pages numbered that way BEFORE page 1!
Since I've pegged the Issacortae as an eastern tribe of Celtic-like people (they use Torcs), you could easily go that route and follow all of BadCatMan's suggestion for the place (which is probably a much better way to go then my Muhjari suggestion above - lord knows we have enough places with 'Middle-eastern' cultures).
The core sourcebook on arctic environments was called Frostburn, though it named the area as the Frostfell. The rest is sadly true. I guess the author of the novel was inspired by the sourcebook.
I stand corrected. :embarrass
As you say, there are numerous references to the 'Frostfell' in that tome, and thats what lead to my confusion.
I remember them being Tuigan. Maybe there was a Sossalan in there though.
I haven't read that book in a while.
-Me neither. Maybe I'm wrong. I'll deign to your better judgment.
-Me neither. Maybe I'm wrong. I'll deign to your better judgment.
LOL, well, I could be wrong too. But thanks.
Firstly they're descended from the Rashemi, after a Rashemi warrior named Soss settled the land in -2320 DR. (GHotR) Of course, the Rashemi came from the Raumvirans, who are long time removed from the Imaskari, aren't they?
Later, in -1648, "human hunters from the northern reaches of Kara-Tur travel west across the polar ice cap and settle for a time with the Sossrim before moving on to the Great Glacier" and became the Ulutians. (GHotR, Great Glacier). These are probably the Issacortae out of Kara-Tur.
Around -900, they were dominated by Raumathar.
So there's a few waves of population coming in, the early Rashemi and Raumvirans, the later Raumathari, and the Issacortae-Ulutians. That's not including the time they were forced north by Impiltur (-72 to -1 DR), and the mercenaries who fought in Thay, Mulhorand and Unther (-1967 DR, the Mulhorand-Unther war, and -1076, the Orcgate War), and merchants who went down to Impiltur before the Great Glacier's retreat. All the time, they must have been picking up stray bits of culture and peoples.
Hmm. For Auril-worshippers, a fire is not a good thing, it's something to be stamped out, and a necessary evil to survive in the cold, while the Sossrim are bunch of cold untrusting hard-asses. I wonder if "sharing a fire" is not necessarily a pleasant activity, but a tense and suspicious time where people are forced together for warmth.
Anyway, the Auril of Sossal is said to be relatively benign, I guess because the people have no choice but to live in an frozen wasteland.
The Frost Folk race from Frostburn seems almost perfect for the Sossrim, except for the wierd thing where they shoot snow from their left eyeball.
Ah well... time to re-write my history of the Taan... AGAIN.
The Frost Folk race from Frostburn seems almost perfect for the Sossrim, except for the wierd thing where they shoot snow from their left eyeball.
-Anything out of the right?
-We're talking about people who shoot things out of their eyes, and I said, "I see". Furthermore, we're talking about people who live in frosty places, and I said "I see", which sounds like "Icy".
-I crack myself up...Whoops...Another pun! :D
;) :P
I never liked those adds to the GHotR.
Ah well... time to re-write my history of the Taan... AGAIN.
I'm sorry to hear that.
-- George Krashos
I was going in another direction with them (making them the lost tribe of Issacortae), but you turned them into the Ulutians, which actually makes more sense (having a definate 'Oriental' appearance about them).
Of course, I wasn't picturing the Issacortae with Oriental features, so now I'll have to re-think them to.
However, every time I re-think the east, my outline for them gets better (if I do say so myself), so making me re-visit it just continues bringing it closer to perfection.
Thats why I've yet to show much about what I have done - its an ever-evolving process. Any new canon lore that gets added (like the stuff about Sossal) is just one more brick I get to mortar into place. ;)
In fact, I just completely re-vamped my Taan history anyway - the east needs at least one Kingdom of non-humans, and Hobgoblins are just beggin' for an Oriental makeover.
...and Hobgoblins are just beggin' for an Oriental makeover.
-Oriental Adventures presents Oriental Goblins, I believe. Mechanics.
In fact, most of the Oriental demi-humans/Humanoids would fit into the 'small' category, being subraces of Halflings, Gnomes, or even Brownies.
Edit:
Just double-checked, and I found something I hadn't noticed before - whereas Kara-Turan Bakemono are winged, Rokugon (OA) Bakemono are not. In fact, it appears TSR and AEG went completely seperate ways for their rendition, requiring me to come up with sub-races.
18DELTA ;)
Intersting - I had forgotten about that article.
I'll need to go through it again; is it canon that gem Dragons rule in Sossal?
Considering Brian's on the team now, I would think a lot of his early work will start to become more and more canon.
18DELTA
-Gem Dragons might not even exist in 4E.
18DELTA
-Well, they will continue to exist. They just won't have stats.
I'll need to go through it again; is it canon that gem Dragons rule in Sossal?
Actually, it's been the white dragons of Hoarfaern who've dominated much of Sossal. Though the dragons were greatly weakened after their war with the dwarves of Dareth, the warriors of Sossal still hate and hunt them enough
However, Elminster's Ecologies tells us that crystal dragons are not unknown in the Anauroch and High Ice areas. The crystals and whites will usually fight if they encounter one another (I see a war between Hoarfaern and this gem dragon kingdom), and the crystals have wiped out a group of frost giants who attempted to settle in their area.
Mmm, a crystal city on the ice at the top of the world. Cool.
Mmm, a crystal city on the ice at the top of the world. Cool.
Scribbles into notes.Pretty much all there good for, if you ask me. :P
-Bakemon, that's right. That's what they were called. When I picture them, I always think of them very akin to Dekanter Goblins. I never pictured them with wings, truthfully.
Now that Dan's not around anymore, I can go back to using an expression he HATED -
"Great minds think alike" :D
When I was going through all three sources earlier (K-T, Horde, and 3e OA) I noticed a STRIKING similarity to the Dekanter Goblins as well - except not to the Bakmono!
Here are the Forgotten realms Bakemono (from Horde & K-T MM)
Now here is the OA (Rokugon) Bakemono -
They are basilly humanoid dogs in that setting - they are kept on leashes and not even intelligent enough to use weapons (quite a difference from the K-T ones).
Now, here is 3e OA's Bajang and a couple of Dekanter Goblins -
I'm definately making the Bajang somehow related to the Dekanter, because except for the nose-horn, they are pretty damn similar. As for the Bakemono, I'll use both types, but the Rokugon Ones I'll rename "Bakéumbra" or some-such, to denote that they have been corrupted with Shadow-stuff (which is part of their canon Rokugon background).
I also think that those are supposed to be vestigal wings on the K-T version, and un-useable, and although every picture I have seen of them have them (except for OA), the fluff says that they all look different and only some have the wings (they appear to be a Mongrel-man like version of Goblins, with their appearance varying greatly from creature to creature).
I'll slap them with some sort of celestial curse to explain their appearance, but I think there should be a few with working wings...
They remind we of those evil monkey-creatures from Wizard of Oz. :D
-And, remember: Write it down! :P
Gem Dragons ruled an empire in the region of Sossal many thousands of years ago. They do not rule the human nation of Sossal today, though... you may yet find that their influence is still felt here and there.
Hmmmm...
Intersting - I had forgotten about that article.
I'll need to go through it again; is it canon that gem Dragons rule in Sossal?
Considering Brian's on the team now, I would think a lot of his early work will start to become more and more canon.
Now I'm picturing a unigue race of Dragonborn called the Gemdra-gons (say it fast, it sounds cool - rhymes with Gelugons).
Who, of course, fight with the nearby Gelugons that are associated with the Portals of the ancient Frost Giant Kingdom. :D
Now I'm picturing a unigue race of Dragonborn called the Gemdra-gons (say it fast, it sounds cool - rhymes with Gelugons).
-I don't believe that Dragonborn reflect any kind of specific Draconic natures. All of the images I've seen of them, they seem to be generic Dragon-like creatures. No differences in ancestry, if there are indeed differences in their ancestry. Half-Dragons probably are a better fit, as they do reflect their ancestry, with different abilities and such.
I will never play them as-is, because I HATE Draconians!!!!!
But ones that looked like faceted gems, that live in a hidden kingdom in the far north, protecting humankind in secret for untold millenia...
Now thats just a special kind of cool. :D
Its almost like the Blood war, except its Dragonborn vs the Gelugons and Ice Djinn of the North.
I'm re-imagining 4e Pelvuria as quite a different place from its 2e counterpart.
Well, regular Dragonborn suck, but any variants I come up with are cool. :P
-Well, that goes without saying. Dragonborn would be great for Subraces. Red Dragonborn, Gold Dragonborn, Topaz Dragonborn, etc...
I think they had four sub-species, IIRC.
These are Dragonlance Draconians -
They were more like other settings Orcs, though, then a regal, powerful race (as you can tell by that awful pic)
...or the Dracons from Spelljammer. ;)
-Yes, them. The one exposure I had to them was through the Cloakmaster Cyctle, and being as that it began on Krynn, I thought the Tauric ones were the Draconians.
-Having sorted this out, the Draconians remind me a whole lot more of Dragonborn, yes.