The trick is making it come alive, and feel "real" for your characters, as opposed to Generic Tolkien-esque World #736 that has about as much personality as a roll of paper towels. I'm not saying anything new here, obviously -- but I'm posting here to try and brainstorm how to avoid that paper towel feel.
I've got a fantasy world in my head. Let's call it "Andujar" for now (the J sounds like an H, it's derived from Spanish). The problem is that Andujar is not the world -- it's just one nation in a larger world. I know a *crapload* of information about The Free Caliphate Of Andujar. I know how it started, I have a timeline of history roughly 1000 years long, and I have so much detail about daily life in Andujar and the opportunities for adventuring within its borders (and in nearby neigboring lands) that it makes my head explode, with new details cropping up every week, if not every day. It feels alive to me, and I've already run one short campaign there that seemed to go fairly well. I even know what kinds of food are popular in what cities, what some popular sports and pastimes are (one city has its own version of Professional Wrestling, very popular there but considered strange by other Andujarans). Theology, monster populations, notable past wars, the horror of the Necropolis of Muertas (a legacy of one particularly nasty war)... I have detail, and perhaps too much of it. If folks are interested, I can share some more detail, but I don't want to go overboard just yet.
The problem is The Bigger Picture. Andujar is not the world, it's just one part of it. But the rest of the world is as vague as Andujar is crystal clear.
I know where Andujar is in the world's map (south of the equator, and to the south and west of the world's primary land masses). I know that the world is larger than Earth. I know about Andujar's immediate neighbor to the east ("Desmesnes Pelor", a Human/Eladrin fascist theocracy that wants to wipe Andujar's heresies off the face of the world), and I know that roughly one thousand years in the past, there was a massive world war that brought down a Tiefling Empire, set back science/magic/etc. learning back a few hundred years, and changed the way that the gods interacted with mortals (namely, not manifestsing directly on the mortal plane nearly as often, for everyone's safety). I know that the world war was masterminded by an Evil Nasty Overlord who lured deities to the mortal plane where he/she/it could capture, kill, and ursurp said god's powers. I know that the Tiefling Empire were allies of the Overlord, but I'm pretty sure the UberBadness was not a Tiefling him/herself. I know that the Lord JerkFace was defeated by a band of heroes (aren't they all?), but I don't know who those heroes are, and if they're still known or relevant a thousand years later. I know that the peace treaty to that war (which I'm tenatively calling The War of Dark Fires, not sure) was signed at a city-state named Vanguard, which still exists today as a Human-dominated country of middling importance on the world stage.
I know that Andujar, which was founded by refugees seeking a new land to settle after the fallout of the War of Dark Fires, is unusually diverse for this world. Every possible race (and human ethnicity) in 4th Ed. is represented in Andujar, from Githzerai to Minotaurs to expatriate Drow communities. Most other nations tend to consist of between one to three races, and only worship a few select gods. Andujar, in comparison, was founded on the principle of relgious diversity, so *every* god is worshipped there, with the notable exception of Asmodeus (whose followers were politely but firmly forced to leave after they tried to engineer a coup de'tat a couple centuries ago). Andujar is also relatively young, being founded about 800 years ago, while most other nations have histories going back at least 1500-2000 years. There are some nations that are more recently created than Andujar, but not many. I think that the world has been circumnavigated, but that there's plenty of uncharted territory -- some nations, Andujar included, are large enough that there are large patches of uncharted territory within their borders, infested with monsters, feral goblinoid tribes, underdark entrances, and so forth. There are "civilized" Goblinoids around the world as well, like any other race.
I know that Goliaths used to have an ancient empire in the arctic mountain ranges near the south pole, over 2000 years ago, but that most Goliaths couldn't care less about it now, as they prefer to live for the present, and that something about that ancient empire was either shameful or just not worth the trouble of digging up.
Gunpowder does not exist in this world yet. There are some industrial applications of Arcane magic around, such as slow-moving airships (that move on set routes, basically airborne trains) used for shipping good across large nations that have the aforementioned uncharted territory on the ground. Andujar is a pioneer in this sort of arcane-tech (or whatever I end up calling it), but hardly the only nation. Most armed conflicts are still fought with sword and spear, with supernatural forces used as heavy artillery to supplement the mundane grunts. The world has a lot of conflict going on, some overt, some quiet. Slavery is illegal in most civilized nations, but still common enough elsewhere that raids by slavers is a real fear on border settlements. There are ancient ruins and tombs and dungeons all over the place, if you know where to look. Extraplanar travel is extremely rare, but being researched by the world's leading wizards and such. Spelljamming is unknown (but not out of the question to be added later, I always had a soft spot for that stuff).
The tone of the game is largely optimistic. Life is hard work, but it's not a grinding pit of despair by any imagination. The world isn't a utopia, every nation has its issues, but neither is there a DARK HORRIBLE SECRET that would bring down civilization if someone learned the Awful Truth. Adventurers are a common enough sight around the world, although it's considered dangerous work that concerned mothers often want to keep their children away from, while children often dream of becoming adventurers and bringing home ancient riches and fabulous mystic artifacts. The world's balance of power is relatively stable for the moment, but there are trouble spots and rumbles and things *could* go badly in the future. There's also the fact that it's coming up on the 1000 year anniversery of the Evil Overlord's defeat, and while I haven't set up any specific prophecy surrounding that, people are uneasy about it all the same.
The world is a mix of the mundane and the fantastic. Crystal spires and floating cities and other impossible landscapes are out there, and common enough that while still remarked upon, they're not so unusual as to freak out someone who comes across it, anymore than tourists at the Grand Canyon would. Arcane-tech (Industrial Arcanology?) makes the world slighly more modernized than a typical medival setting, with magic occasionally filling in for electricity -- but that's expensive. You're more likely to see a torch or maybe even a gaslamp used to light the darkness rather than an arcane light-globe.
So now that I've blathered on, here's what I'd like some advice on. How should I flesh out the rest of the world? How much detail should I set down for these other nations and regions that the players might not ever see? Does anyone have any ideas for other nations, regions, or other noteworthy things to put in this world? I'm using the basic pantheon from 4th Ed. Players Handbook, because it works for my needs, and I've got a nice little makeshift cosmology going for it, but I'm not above the idea of other pantheons out there.
What would be a good way to bring the *World* to life (hell, I still need a name for the world as a whole), when so far nearly all my inspriations have been focused on one nation in particular?
Much obliged for your time.
- Isaac!
The fact that there is a threat next door means you might have good opportunity for adventure at or near the border. If you know a great deal about the way of life in Andujar (like the name, by the way) it might be time to shift gears and try to figure out more-or-less as vividly life in the theocracy next door.
What is Joe (or Jose or Joao) Average like over there? What happens at the border? Is it heavily patrolled on one side or the other (or both)? Or is it kind of a vague, no-man's land? Does one land lack for something that is in the other? Might that be a chance for smuggling?
Also regarding Desmesnes Pelor, where did they come from? Were they from the Old Country, too, but a different place than those who settled Andujar? (Would it be more fun or less if they were actually all on the same side during the ancient war? Not sure, myself. If they had been on the same side, the cause of the schism is something you might want to outline, if not detail.)
I don't have too much more time right now, but I offer you encouragement to keep going!
Because of the high birthrates, Desmesnes Pelor has no lack of manual labor. The population has largely bought into the current regime's propaganda line, and genuinely believe that they are the purest chosen of Pelor, charged with spreading their truth to everyone -- at spearpoint, if necessary. The masses eat regularly, but the quality of their food isn't so great compared with other nations, which makes the weakened Eladrin health even more pronounced, meaning that these Eladrin sometimes don't live much longer than humans do. Dissent is quickly snuffed, and the Purest Order of Pelor has eyes and ears everywhere. Someone who rats out a neighbor for unlawful behavior is well rewarded.
Desmesnes Pelor is Old Country, but they were on the barest edges of what was considered civilized lands before Andujar was settled. They were the boonies, the sticks, and by virtue of that largely escaped the devestation of the War of Dark Fire, and thus rebounded from that war much faster than nearly anyone else. They've always been annoyed, if not downright hostile to Andujar (and others), but the current regime, which came into power about two hundred and fifty years ago, sets a new standard in Institutional Hate. They brutally murdered the previous regime because those priestlords didn't hate Andujar *enough*.
Every few years, Pelor will raid the border or even try another invasion, and they've always been fought back -- but not without cost. The two most recent raids on Andujaran soil were the Battle of Temuron eight years ago, which was an attempt to destroy a siginficant chunk of Andujar's merchant navy, and the massacre of Candlelight Keep thirty years ago. The keep, an Andujaran border town, was cut off from any and all contact and resupply by a freak blizzard, was brutally raided by a rapid surge of Pelorman forces, who then retreated back across the border as soon as the storms cleared. The public outcry in Andujar was immense, and only the Foundation Compact (the Andujaran constitution, essentially), which forbids Andujar from waging war on foreign soil (self-imposed at founding, they just wanted to be left alone) kept Andujar's Council of One Hundred from mobilizing their armies and charging into D.Pelor. Even then, it was a close thing, very nearly triggering a constitutional crisis -- which many suspect was entirely the point behind the attack in the first place. Since then, that massacre has been embedded into Andujaran culture as a "Never Forget" moment of history, aided by many books and stories on the subject, most notably "The Gentleman of Candlelight Keep", a dramatic play that speculates on what was going through the hearts and minds of the Keep's people in that fateful week when they were cut off, just before the massacre hit.
It's worth noting that not all Pelor worshipers around the world share this fanatical zeal in this world. The people of D.Pelor are highly unusual in this regard, but it makes life difficult for Pelorites in Andujar, as some in Andujar are disinclined to trust someone openly admitting Pelor worship. This distrust is not universal, but it is out there, and those who take this point of view tend to be mean-spirited about it, feeling justified by their suspicion that an Andujar Pelorite is "obviously" in league with the rulers of Desemesnes Pelor.
IT'S INFODUMP TIME!
------
Andujar came about as a result of a conversation with my wife Gretchen. We'd just watched Eragon, which is a pretty bad movie for the most part, but did have some nice scenes towards the end with people fighting on the backs of dragons in mid-air. Gretchen was thinking that combat scenes like that would be a lot of fun for a D&D game, and we got to wondering about what sort of setting we could create where people would have access to Dragon mounts.
Later on in the conversation, we talked about if there would be a place or period in history that we might want to use as a starting point for this country, and Gretchen found one that she really liked. There was a period in post-Crusades Moorish Spain, where the local rulers were interested in starting an interfaith dialogue. They invited scholars and theologians of Judasim, Christianity, and Islam to Spain, where everyone could meet and discuss things peacefully, hopefully leading to an age of peace, understanding, and acceptance between the three faiths. Sadly, it didn't last.
But what if there was a D&D version where it did work out, using D&D gods? This was what really kickstarted Andujar for me.
As I mentioned above, there was a big War Of Dark Fires that ended about a thousand years before "present day" in Andujar. The backdrop to that war was that at the time, Gods freely walked the world, interacting with mortals, making direct pronouncements to their worshippers, and generally stirring things up. The wars that would occasionally result were bloody, and had some seriously destructive supernatural firepower getting thrown around. Along came a powerful mortal, who would eventually become our aforementioned Sauron-esque Dark Lord Jerkface. Originally, he had relatively noble motives -- this mortal wanted to find a way to somehow contain the gods' excesses, to protect mortal lives from their havoc. The research was successful beyond anyones wildest dreams, but the Dark Boss got twisted up along the way, and started using his methods to accumulate personal power rather than for the sake of protecting others. Allied with the Tiefling Empire, whose fiend-worship only accentuated the Dark Boss' corruption, the Boss started small, capturing small household gods and draining them of their power, then working his way up to more powerful spirits, genius loci, and eventualy even culling primal spirits and lesser gods from the herd, so to speak. As the Tiefling Empire expanded under the Sauron-esque's rule, the Boss created Warforged to serve as frontline grunts. The act that really got everyone's attention was the capture and drainage of the god of DEATH.
From that point forward, battle lines were drawn. Some nations allied with the Tiefling Empire, but just as many (if not more) stood opposed, no longer willing to look the other way or attempt to somehow appease the Dark Boss. A host of divine servitors (i.e. Angels), many of whom who had served gods now slain by the Dark Boss, performed an elaborate ritual to take on mortal flesh, creating the race of Devas to combat the Dark Boss. Once the war got underway, things got real ugly real quick, resulting in a devastating war that killed millions, ended several empires on both sides of the war, and caused more horror than any of the God-Wars previous, by any measure. Eventually, Heroes emerged (as they do) to defeat the Dark Boss, but the damage was done. The body of knowledge was set back centuries. Every Invoker in the world had been slain by the Dark Boss by this point, as they made an especially tasty conduit to direct divine power. The remaining Warforged were rounded up and divvied up by the victors, treated as slave labor for centuries to come.
When the Dark Boss was slain, all of their accumulated power was released at once, and gathered up by the only captured deity still remaining alive in the Dark Boss' larder. She was a minor goddess, left only half-consumed because there had been juicier deities to consume ahead of her, but with all of that released power at her command, she ascended anew into a new creation, and took the name of The Raven Queen. Her original name is lost, forgotten even by her, although lore claims that she has no desire to rediscover it. A popular rumor is that this deity had originally been a household luck goddess who was plucked from a small shrine in a casino in the Tiefling's capital city, but if that's true, no trace remains of any such place.
Filled with excess power, the Raven Queen decreed that the gods would walk the mortal world freely no longer, and banished them all (including herself) to the celestial planes, an act that burned away most of her excess power, but still left her as perhaps the most powerful goddess in the pantheon, Master of Death, Fate, and Winter. The relationship between gods and mortals changed drastically, obviously. Clerics and Paladins and the like could still channel their patron's divine might, and teach others to do the same, but no longer received direct divine revelation. The gods do still manifest directly from time to time, but it happens so rarely now that it's thought that the gods can only do so under the right conditions, or that such appearrances are somehow taxing or difficult for them. The Raven Queen's actions caused animosity among the Pantheon, although it's thought that this has faded over time. Scholars and Theologians generally agree now that the world is a somewhat calmer place now for her actions, although the fact that she took it upon herself to act without consulting the other gods is still a subject for vigorous debate. Regardless, even the Raven Queen's worst enemies have never dared to move directly against her formidable might, and her worship grew steadily in the aftermath of the war.
All this sets the stage for a new status quo, a world of uncertainty and confusion that led directly to the founding of Andujar.
What was this confusion about? Read on.
Imagine living in that world. Now imagine the voices of the gods suddenly all but disappearring, leaving only the occasional sign, omen, or divine whisper of hinted truth. The first few decades of this were not pretty. Once monolithic followings shatterred like a pane of glass in Jackie Chan's Police Story. Legions of self-appointed priests stepped forward to claim possession of the One True Way of their respective gods, and friends and allies turned upon each other in the chaos. Religous crusades became the order of the day, as a world nearly shatterred by the War of Dark Fires slowly wobbled and weaved its way to a new status quo.
About 190 years after the death of the Dark Boss, three small sects of Avandra, Erathis, and the Raven Queen decided that they'd had enough of this mess. They pooled their resources, and fled on foot across continents, trying to find a new home free from chaos and oppression. All they wanted was to be left alone, to discuss their new ideas in peace, and to share knowledge with each other. The leaders of these three sects would come to be known as The Three Prophets in Andujar's history texts. Over the next ten years, several thousand of these refugees, from all races and walks of life, from all corners of the world, slowly made their way from one tragedy to the next. As they lost people to raids, disease, and sometimes food shortages, they also gained new fellows attracted to the Three Prophet's message of tolerance, and perservered.
In the tenth year of their journey, the Prophets became truely desperate, and had but one place left to run to. A distant corner of the world map, a large but unmapped expanse of land with no name. Only a warning: HERE BE DRAGONS. No expeditions there had ever returned to tell the tale. But the Prophets had no other choice, and crossed the Bay of Temuron into the new land as they ran from their pursuers.
From this point on, the journey became meandering and confused. With no maps to guide them, the refugees wandered their way to and fro, utterly lost in the wilderness, until finally, the came to a wide open plain in the fifteenth year of their self-exile. They guessed correctly that they were in roughly the center of the unmapped lands, and carefully made their way across the plains. When nothing emerged to immediately attack them, a first in this long struggle, they finally came to a halt at the edge of a giant ring of mountains that rose up in the center of the plains, and pitched their tents. Finally, they could relax. And with their feet rested and their wounds tended, the refugees finally set down to do what had been the plan all along -- to talk, to learn from each other, and to ponder unknowable mysteries of their respective faiths. While most of the refugees were still of Avandra, Erathis, and the Raven Queen's faiths, many others had joined along the way, and it could be said that these thousands represented a cross section of the entire world.
And for many weeks, a sense of peace came over the refugees, and a great sigh of relief could be heard each night as they bedded down in safety.
What happenned to change this, and who would appear before the Three Prophets to change history forever?
Read on.
Gazetteer
Dungeon Master’s Guide
- Introduction
- History as the Gods Know it
- Geography
- Society
- Races
- Social Standing
- Religion
- Societies and Organization
- Language
- Currency and Trade
- Governance
- Crime and Punishment
- Relations with Other Nations
- Military
- Monsters
- Artifacts, Treasures and Hidden Places
- Adventures
Player’s Guide
History as the people of these lands know it
Creating local Characters
Special Rules
-----------
The refuees and the Three Prophets were unaware that they were being watched, by the Dragons of the Ring. It's worth nothing that said ring of mountains that the Dragons of varying types live in is BIG. It's bigger around than the borders of modern-day Germany. These dragons (both metallic and chromatic, of varying alignment) had kept largely to themselves for many centuries, and liked it that way. They were knowing but uncaring about the War of Dark Fires, for the Dark Boss had wisely steered clear of the Dragon's territories, and of the Dragon's gods. But on this day in 205 A.V. (After Victory, the new calendar created after the War), the Dragons saw several thousand mortals collected at the foot of the mountains, and the Dragons were uncertain as to what to do about it. The people below clearly weren't trying to mine the mountains. Some of them had a ragtag assortment of weapons, but they clearly were not soldiers. The mysterious horde of small mortals were clearly tired, wounded, and all they seemed to be doing with their free time was talk, talk, and talk some more. The motley nature of this gathering, of all different races and ethnicities, was something of a novelty to the Dragons.
Then one dragon, Tlaketh Crimson, a respected adult among the Dragons of the Ring, decided to try and figure out what these little people were talking about. This was an unusual thing for dragons to even bother pondering, as the concerns of small mortals were usually beneath a Dragon's interest. Tlaketh's act of curiousity ended up changing everything. Upon using his magics to eavesdrop, he realized that the mortals below were actually talking about some very interesting things! They spoke earnestly about philosophy, theology, magical theory, and all manner of precious thinking, and this completely blew the Dragons' minds. Dragons pride themselves on being great thinkers and talkers, constantly debating amongst themselves about the finer points of the eternal balance between Bahamut and Tiamat, the nature of existence and free will, and the struggle of life in general. Up to this point, Dragons had no idea that these little short-lived humanoids were actually capable of what they considered High Thought. Well, the Dragons thought, we need to get in on this!
You can imagine the initial surprise and fear when several dozen dragons dropped out of the sky with absolutely no warning, in and around the camp -- and then politely asked to join in the various discussions going on. Tlaketh Crimson, with his more extensive study of the small mortals than most, had quickly identified the Three Prophets as leaders, and engaged them directly. Surprise and fear gave way to curiousity, and the discussions began anew. Three days later, the dragon community was stunned once more when one of their greatest philosophers, Vorikar of the Azure Sky, declared one of the small mortals his philosophical superior. Vorikar had gotten involved in an intense discussion on the nature of free will with Elder Kettridge, a cleric of Avandra, and the human's insights had overwhelmed him, much to his amazement and pleasure.
The discussions continued on for weeks, animated and fascinated on all sides, unti Tlaketh Crimson finally thought to ask the small mortals, "why did you come here, anyway?" This led to a deeper explanation of why they were on the run, and how they'd faced oppression and violence everywhere else in the world. The dragons had become quite fond of these people over the last few weeks, and agreed to offer their new friends the land they stood on as a safe haven. This led to further discussions and negotiations, resulting eventually in a document called the Foundation Compact, which created the city of Foundation, nestled in the shadow of the Ring, as the capital of the new nation of Andujar. The name Andujar was derived from an ancient word that roughly translated to "New Ideas" or "Freedom", depending on the context. In addition to providing the basis for Andujaran law (much like our constitution), there was a section of the Compact titled "Pax Draconis", which spelled out the agreements between the Dragons and their new neighbors.
First and foremost, the Dragons insisted that the mountains of the Ring would forever be only for the dragons. No mining, no settlements save for a small trading post, no unasked for humanoid intrusion into Draconic territory. Everywhere else in the region was fair game, as far as the dragons were concerned. The dragons agreed to protect Andujar from any outside invaders, but were very clear to assert that they would never take part in any sort of invasion of other nations. In the theme of "we came here so we could be left alone", the Andujarans eagerly agreed, and even decided to forbid themselves from conducting war on any lands outside the Andujaran continent, that their military would only be used to defend themselves. The dragons also offered to share much (but not all) of their knowledge with the Andujarans, particularly in the fields of Arcane theory. In return for the help Dragons would provide, the settlers would provide three important things that the dragons coveted: philosophy, craftsmanship, and well-prepared food.
The philosophy part was straightforward enough; the dragons enjoyed these ongoing discussions of any and every possible topic under the sun, and wanted to make sure that there were plenty more where that came from. Forums were constructed specifically for the purpose, built at least partially outdoors with large open areas for dragons to join in as they please.
With regards to craftsmanship, I've decided to change a little about how dragons work in my world. Instead of the usual giant treasure hoard, I changed it so that while dragons are still *very* acquisitive creatures, they're more interested in quality over quantity. If you gave a dragon a choice between a pile of gold bars and a finely made brass coin, filled with excellent details and fine workmanship, the dragon will completely ignore the plain gold bars and spend weeks obsessing over every last millimeter of that brass coin. Since small humanoids are capable of fine detailed craftsmanship that's difficult for dragons to do themselves, the Pax Draconis calls for Andujarans to give over a small portion of artwork and other crafts that are made each year, for the dragons to divide up amongst themselves to enjoy. This had the effect, in time, of attracting artists from all over the world -- because if a dragon liked your work, you were set for life. Sure, you had to give a few works away for free, but a dragon returning to get *more* of your work would have to pay for it, and would do so eagerly and generously.
You don't normally think of dragons as gourmands, but here's my take on it; if you try to attach any amount of "realism" to a giant flying reptile, even setting aside things like breath weapons, the amount of food a creature like that would have to consume is just unreal. So I'm handwaving it -- in my world, Dragons are as explicitly supernatural as fiends or angels, in a way. They are creatures of the arcane, and real world physics just doesn't apply. Which means that dragons do not need to eat or excrete. But they do have a sense of taste, so if a finely crafted piece of art is something they deeply appreciate, surely they'd enjoy just as much the fine craftsmanship of a gourmet meal. The first Andujaran refugees came from all over the place, so the dragons suddenly had access to a smorgasborg of different styles of cooking to try, and they are eager to do so. Thus, the Pax Draconis included a provison for state-run kitchens to prepare a small portion of the available food to be seasoned and prepared for dragons to eat. A portion for a normal humanoid was just fine for a dragon's needs, and sometimes a dragon would need even less, as it wasn't about a full stomach, it was about savoring the flavors of each morsel. Savvy restauranteurs would offer free samples to any passing Dragon, not only as a way to fulfill their tithe, but also because an endorsement from a respected dragon was worth its weight in gold. With its broad cross-section of world cuisine, Andujarans take food very seriously, and (oh what the hell, why not?) eventually a Kitchen Stadium was founded, where chefs could engage in friendly competition for fame and glory. Yes, there is IRON CHEF in Andujar. Why shouldn't there be?
With the Compact signed, Andujar was a reality, and became a presence on the world stage... but how would Andujar grow, and what miraculous events would bring war to the new continent?
Read on.
The threat from without leading to suspicion of the others (refugees? asylum seekers?) within their own borders.
I might need some kind of map to get the gist of where everyone had come from, but is it possible that there are people of the same religion as in Dem. Pelor in Andujar?
The threat from without leading to suspicion of the others (refugees? asylum seekers?) within their own borders.
Oh, absolutely. Pelor is a popular god worldwide, and there are plenty of Pelorites in Andujar, have been since the nation's beginning. The nutjobs in Demesnes Pelor give all the others a bad name. It's especially bad for the Andujaran Pelorites, who are constantly having to shout "WE'RE NOT ALL LIKE THAT!" It got bad enough at one point (in the aftermath of another bloody Demesnes Pelor raid) that some members of the Council of One Hundred (their senate, basically) proposed legislation to ban all worship of Pelor within Andujar, as they'd done for worship of Asmodeus a few decades before. It got outvoted by a safe margin, but the bill had enough support to make some folks seriously nervous. It's gotten a little better since then, but some folks in Andujar still get irrationally uneasy when they pass a Temple of Pelor.
I might need some kind of map to get the gist of where everyone had come from, but is it possible that there are people of the same religion as in Dem. Pelor in Andujar?
The threat from without leading to suspicion of the others (refugees? asylum seekers?) within their own borders.
Oh, absolutely. Pelor is a popular god worldwide, and there are plenty of Pelorites in Andujar, have been since the nation's beginning. The nutjobs in Demesnes Pelor give all the others a bad name. It's especially bad for the Andujaran Pelorites, who are constantly having to shout "WE'RE NOT ALL LIKE THAT!" It got bad enough at one point (in the aftermath of another bloody Demesnes Pelor raid) that some members of the Council of One Hundred (their senate, basically) proposed legislation to ban all worship of Pelor within Andujar, as they'd done for worship of Asmodeus a few decades before. It got outvoted by a safe margin, but the bill had enough support to make some folks seriously nervous. It's gotten a little better since then, but some folks in Andujar still get irrationally uneasy when they pass a Temple of Pelor.
Makes sense. Turning it around, are there persecuted religious minorities in Dem Pelor that factions within Andujar might sponsor across the border?
Makes sense. Turning it around, are there persecuted religious minorities in Dem Pelor that factions within Andujar might sponsor across the border?
Absolutely. While Andujar has strict rules imposed on itself on not waging military war outside of its own continent, it has no such compunctions about covert espionage and the like. There are quite a few Andujaran agents within Demesnes Pelor trying to forment revolution. Any worship of gods other than Pelor there is brutally put down, so while there are folks in there who believe in other gods, they have to be extremely careful about it.
The problem these agents are having is that most of the populace of Dem Pelor seems quite content. They honestly think that their government knows best, and that Pelor speaks through the priestlords, and that Andujar is full of deviant sinful savages. So far, attempts to spread pro-Andujar propaganda has met with only the most limited of success, without much traction.
I've got a big update planned for tomorrow, though!
The largest of the new cities founded at this time is NorthTower, named for the famous giant lighthouse erected on the northeastern corner of the continent, near the Bay of Temuron. NorthTower's founders prioritized creating a financial infrastructure, particularly merchant shipping and banking, and prospered rapidly as a result. Most of Andujar's imports and exports still go through NorthTower even today, and the flow of goods in and out of the city is staggering. Foundation may be the capital and cultural center of Andujar, but NorthTower is unquestionably the king of commerce. Much of the city is run by the venerable Guild of Andujar Commercial Interest, or simply "The Guild" or "John Guild" for short, which has fingers in ventures all over the nation.
In the unsettled wild areas, or "Dark Territory" as they were often called, struggles with the wildly disorganized Goblinoid tribes were frequent, and still occur even today. On the western coast of the continent, on the opposite side of the Ring from Foundation, a wide savannah was home to the Ten Tribes, a confederation of aborigional Humans, Shifters, Dragonborn and Goliaths (roughly analagous to American Indians/Native Americans). These tribes had been living here for at least a thousand years before the War of Dark Fires, but had never ventured into the Ring for fear of angering the Dragons there, and the Dragons had never really had any reason to bother with the tribesman in any way. When the Andujaran settlements started to encroach on Ten Tribes territory, initial misunderstandings and suspicion led to long periods of violence, then reconciliation, which would then degenerate into hostility again, and so on. After a century of these frontier conflicts, firm boundries were drawn, uneasy truces made, and trade slowly began to flow. Even so, there were still occasional raids and skirmishes by hot-blooded folks on either side.
Andujar became a popular destination for Adventurers, as mentioned before, and this period was often thought as a golden age of exploration and dungeon delving. Caverns leading to the Underdark were discovered at this time, and reckless adventurers made enemies of the Drow, Duergar, and Illithid civilizations there, leading to long animosity between those peoples and Andujar for centuries to come.
Most other nations of the world saw Andujar as little more than an amusing mess, a pile of weirdos and harmless heretics. Andujar tended to be ahead of the curve in social reform, regarding equal treatment of women, sexual ethics and culture, and acceptance of inter-racial relationships, which led to many other cultures judging Andujarans as "perverts" as well. As a result, Andujar became a dumping ground for other country's malcontents, political exiles, and even criminals and other "undesirables". Andujar accepted them eagerly, and did its best to include the newcomers into the continuing discussions and cultural dealings.
Worship in many different gods flourished; beyond the initial trinity of Avandra, Erathis, and The Raven Queen (which some came to view as a 3-in-1 gestalt, like the Three Fates of greek myth and many other real religions, with Avandra as the Maiden, Erathis as the Mother, and The Raven Queen as the Crone), many other gods gained significant followings. Pelor, Moradin, Corellon, Sehanine, Ioun, Melora, Kord, and even the primal spirits as worshipped by the Ten Tribes.
Unusually, Bane actually has a small but significant following in Andujar. However, the local interpretation of Bane tends more towards attaining personal excellence and skill, particularly in martial matters, and the importance of the individual over the group, but the Andujaran dogma comes across more gently than the more malevolent aspects of him that often crept up elsewhere, and he's a respected and equal member of the pantheon.
Another important theological note was the addition of Bahamut and Tiamat worship to the humanoid world. Before this point, the two deities were only really discussed among dragons, but as dragons began discussing their philosophies among humanoids, the concepts took root, and new worship sprang up. The two dragonic gods are often thought of as two principles intertwined, not unlike the idea of yin and yang. Bahamut represents extroverted behavior, the embrace of the group over the individual (his scales shine bright to light the way for others), masculinity, aggressive action, and justice. Tiamat represents introverted behavior, the elevation of the individual over the group (the multitude within oneself shown by her multiple heads), femininity, manipulative or passive action, and arcane knowledge. Neither are truely good or evil, and taking either aspect to an extreme is deemed unhealthy or even immoral. Humanoids tend to gravitate more towards Bahamut, but Tiamat worship is open and respected, and there are many that worship both as a pair, in the same way that some worship the Andujaran Goddess Trinity as mentioned above.
In 327 AV, it was decided that the informal community meetings and concensus process were just not working anymore -- the population had become too numerous, the logistics too big, and the nation amended the Foundation Compact and renamed itself "The Caliphate of Andujar", with the office of Caliph created as a chief executive, elected by the Council of One Hundred, the nation's new official parliament. Members of the Council were elected or desginated at the local level by means determined by the local community. As the Caliphate has grown and reorganized over the centuries, the council is actually slightly larger than one hundred now, but the name is kept as a formality.
While small internal conflicts abounded, true war never quite arrived to Andujar for the first several centuries. That wouldn't last, though.
In the year 553 AV, a modest-sized mining co-operative staked out an exclusive claim to a chunk of unsettled territory in the southwest region of Andujar. A minor Dwarven clan led this co-op, and formally renamed themselves the Coalgather clan. The intent was indeed to find coal, and after founding the town of Blackseam, the dwarves and their business partners (a variety of races, as per usual for Andujar) spent the next couple of years quietly building a mining system to that end.
Then in the Fifth Day of the Fifth Month of the year 555 AV, things suddenly got very, very complicated.
As the Blackseam Mining Cooperative was extending their mines, they had many different tunnels and scouting efforts going to find new seams to mine. On the same day, and apparently at around the same time of day, all of these efforts suddenly bore startling fruit. Reports came flooding in to the Coop's headquarters of impossible discoveries -- gems, gold, mithril, iron, and more! An impossible variety of resources, in impossible quantity, and of impossibly high quality. It made no sense whatsoever, and the more the Coalgathers investigated it, the more impossibly real everything became. The members of the Blackseam Coop, and the Coalgather clan in particular, had just become the richest people on the planet overnight.
5/5/555 would go down in history as the day that The Blackseam Wars began, although the literal invasion wouldn't land for another three years.
What led to this invasion, who led the charge, and how would Andujar survive the massive onslaught?
Read on.
To understand the full scope of the Blackseam Wars, you have to understand a bit about Dwarven psychology. First, that nearly all Dwarves at least respect and acknowlege Moradin as their creator, if not worship him outright -- and that the number five is a holy number to Moradin. Moradin is the god of crafting and artisans, and the five fingers on a person's hand (which most humanoids have) is thus of holy significance. Secondly, that all Dwarves, without question, are extremely focused, to the point of obsession, on the wellbeing of their children. When a Dwarf is digging for precious minerals, they're doing it to build a nest-egg of resources for their child. Their own needs are already paid for by their own parents and the work done in the previous generation.
So when the Coalgather clan and their coop partners uncovered the riches of Blackseam on 5/5/555, two conclusions were drawn: that consultation with the High Patriarchs and High Matriarchs of Moradin was called for, and that the children of Blackseam would be the best cared-for children that Dwarvenkind had ever seen, with no expense spared to make sure that their birthing caves were furnished with comfortable beds, good food, extensive underground ventilation, and joyous toys, everything that could be done to ease the children gently into their new lives without spoiling them (an important consideration for Dwarves, who hold important distinctions between wanting money to meet your needs, and being ruled by money because you're spoiled and greedy).
The Coalgather Foreman (a title that actually connotes the head of the clan) quietly but firmly petitioned the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of their faith. To impress upon the Unified Church of Moradin the seriousness of the request, the Foreman's niece, a Master Smith, was given the honor of crafting the first weapon from Blackseam steel -- an axe of such perfection and magical power that it is still considered a masterpiece today. The axe was given to the Unified Church as part of the petition, and while material donations are a normal part of the process, the quality of the gift demanded the highest possible response. In early 556 AV, The High Patriarch and Matriarch themselves made an official diplomatic visit to Andujar, and were quickly conducted to Blackseam, accompanied by the current Caliph. Upon entering the main chamber of the mine, the two dwarves fell to their knees in awe (as expected, it affected nearly everyone like that the first time they saw it, especially if they were dwarves). Upon hearing the rest of the tale, and after an extensive tour and sampling of the goods discovered so far, the two leaders of the faith could only come to one conclusion. That Blackseam was not simply a fortunate find, but was in fact a miracle of Moradin, an unquestionable sign from their god that this mine was to be honored above all others.
The Coalgather Foreman was dumbfounded -- he'd simply wanted a blessing of the church, and a confirmation that he had not somehow erred or overstepped his bounds in acquiring all of this for himself and his partners and his children to come. Instead, the Patriarch was begging *him* for permission to build a new central headquarters to the Unified Church of Moradin within his city!
The reaction from the worldwide Dwarven community was immediate. The stories of Blackseam spread far and wide, and Andujar was suddenly overjoyed to receive a huge influx of dwarven immigrants, all swearing fervent loyalty to the Caliphate. By the end of 556, Blackseam was already the third largest city in Andujar after Foundation and NorthTower, and construction was underway on every possible amenity and infrastructure they could imagine.
But all was not well within the faithful of Moradin. A dissenting Matriarch, Allaris Gembeard, could not abide the break from tradition. The church, she argued, could not just be uprooted and relocated on a whim, and certainly not to a place as questionable as Andujar, for goodness sake! Her eloquence was impressive, her command of Dwarven law-tradition impeccable, and her arguements held some theological precedent. Her points couldn't be dismissed as sour grapes or lunacy, and suddenly the Unified Church of Moradin was unified no more. Gembeard declared herself High Matriarch of the True Church of Moradin, and the schism was complete. Historians still argue today if Gembeard's motives were as pure as she claimed, or if she simply coveted the riches of Blackseam for herself and used dogma as her method to wrest command away from her opponents, or something else entirely.
History holds no ambiguity over what she did next, however. Rallying a staggeringly large confederation of nearly every civilized nation in the world, she planned a massive invasion of Andujar, where the riches of this new find would be split among her and her allies. She declared the leaders of the original Church of Moradin (who still clung to the title "Unified") to be Heretics, and plans were made to burn Andujar to the ground. At no point was it forgotten that Andujar had Dragons as allies -- but the sheer scope of the potential wealth to be gained made the risk seem acceptable, and there was much planning that went into anti-dragon countermeasures. The entire world tensed, ready to leap upon its Andujaran prey.
The Caliph knew that he had to fortify Andujar's borders, and used the influx of new dwarven citizens to bolster the ranks of the army and to create top of the line equipment for same, but no one could have expected the immense size of the invasion that was to come.
In the fall of 558, that invasion came. If you've ever played "Fortress America", the old board game where America gets attacked on three sides by invasion fleets? That's what happenned here. From the western ocean, from the northern seas, and on land from the east, the invasion came. NorthTower was quickly captured by the invading forces, and only the quick actions of the Dragons of the Ring blunted the initial charge inland. Losses were high on all sides, and even the Dragons took casualties, most notable among them their great philosopher Vorikar of the Azure Sky, who was taken down by the enemy in the sky over the southwestern city of Kresh. Although the people of Kresh were slaughtered and burned, Vorikar killed nearly the entire invasion force in that region before he was slain, and the invasion force ground to a halt there after reinforcements arrived. The northern beaches of the city of Tallagano were so overwhelmed that the Andujaran army wisely retreated instead of being massacred where they stood, and the city leaders successfully appealled to the invading generals to not kill the remaining civilians.
I should point out at this time, that the Blackseam Wars would come to be the "chivalry myth" of Andujar's history. Just as China has their Three Kingdoms era, Europe has tales of King Arthur and Charlemagne, and Japan has the 16th century Sengoku Jidai (Warring States period), this period is enshrined in history and legend. Both sides had brave heroes, questionable villains, brilliant strategists, cunning treachery, romance, tragedy, and enough violent war to satisfy even the most bloodthirsty. If they were to make a "Dynasty Warriors" style videogame about Andujar, it would be about this era -- and in fact, the Dynasty Warriors model of warfare (where one skilled hero can take on entire armies) actually came into play...
Several important events happenned in the early stages of the war, which would blunt the advance of the invading forces.
First and foremost, was the Caliph's brilliant idea of recruiting adventurers to fight for them. As has been said, Andujar had a long and extensive friendship with the adventuring community, and was able to offer these skilled fighters not only extensive riches, but also top-of-the-line dwarvenmade weapons and armor. More than anything, this action is credited as what eventually won the war for Andujar, as these heroes would literally take on entire armies by themselves -- and win.
Secondly, the dragons started fighting smarter. After their initial "scream and leap" charges met with only partial success and surprising losses, the dragons began to work closely with the humanoid armies and heroes, and learned to apply tactical thinking and coordination to their attacks.
Thirdly, the invading confederation blundered badly with regards to the Ten Tribes. Initially, the invaders had secretly negotiated a deal with the Tribes for neutrality -- they'd let the invaders pass through their territory peacefully, in return for being left completely alone. The tribesmen wanted no part of the war, didn't really care about the riches of Blackseam, and wanted the rest of the world, Andujar and otherwise, to just leave them alone. When the western ocean invasion front landed, the tribes even offerred guides, to help the armies move through quickly while avoiding tribesman settlements and areas that the tribesmen considered holy ground. The invading commanders, however, ignored the guides' offers, and charged through wantonly on the most direct route to the warfront. As a result, several holy sites were indeed damaged or even destroyed by the army's passing, and certain animals meant to be sacrosanct were hunted and foraged to feed the army's soldiers. When two chieftans confronted the commanders with their concerns over this trespass and violation of the neutrality agreement, the invaders scoffed at the demands of "mere savages", and took the chieftans and their advisors captive. The chieftans were brutally tortured to death, and their advisors whipped and beaten nearly as severely, and then sent back home with the chieftan's bodies "as a warning not to cross your betters". Needless to say, the Ten Tribes did NOT take this well, and the western invasion front was torn apart by hordes of Tribesman warriors, backed by the full fury of their primal spirits.
Fourthly, there was the matter of the Warforged, and what happenned with them would shake the world to its foundations. Created initially by the Dark Boss in the War of Dark Fires, the technique of making these automatons had spread to other lands in the aftermath of the war, and thus many nations had a large supply of Warforged to use as front-line grunts and slave labor. Warforged were not considered people, they were considered tools and devices, and treated as such. There were millions of them out in the world, quietly toiling away for the last few hundred years, quietly content because they had no concept of any other way of life. Build something, get handed a weapon by your master and kill what he told you to kill, perhaps plow a field... that's all they ever did. Thus, most of the invaders drew heavily on their stockpiles of Warforged to bulk of the invasion force. In comparison, Andujar did not have many Warforged at all -- perhaps a few rich merchants may have had a couple as servants, but that's about it.
In the initial weeks of the invasion, after the newly-recruited Adventurers starting making serious trouble for the attackers, a frontline Warforged, designation Blademan-23, distinguished itself on the field of battle with unusual skill. As a result, it was moved to another front, where a group of especially troublesome Adventurers were holding back a major battlegroup. Blademan-23 chose to take on this party singlehandedly, and not only proved itself their equal, but drove the heroes back through sheer force of power, skill, and unheard-of tactical cunning in a Warforged. The Blademan unit was being asked to do new things, to strive for more, to have a goal -- and its hidden potential as a warrior bloomed like the raging blaze of a wizard's Fireball. By any standard, humanoid or construct, Blademan-23 was magnificent, a once-in-a-generation prodigy of war. Blademan even developed a peculiar rivalry with one Sheldris Diamondfang, a Halfling Barbarian woman whose twin hand-axes were greatly feared, and had never been defeated by anyone before Blademan had crossed swords with her.
As their personal battles continued, Sheldris realized that Blademan was actually a *person*, not just an unstoppable machine, and tried to communicate with him during their battles, with some success. This came to a head after a few months, when Sheldris finally had Blademan-23 at her mercy after a particularly harsh fight. She raised her axes to remove his head as he lay helpless -- but then stopped herself. "Tell me why," she said. "Tell me why you're going to die for generals who don't even consider you a living thing." Blademan-23 had no answer for this. He fought Sheldris because he was ordered to, because it was his lot in life -- but he could not dispute that he feared death, that he wanted to live. The halfling drew back her axes. "I give you your life. It's yours now. Make use of it." Blademan-23 was stunned. Sheldris walked away and left him to his thoughts, as the armies on both sides watched with stunned surprise at this tableau.
When the injured Warforged was brought before his commanding general, that general was furious. He'd watched the Warforged grow in skill and power at a meteoric rise, and feared the construct greatly. That fear led to the general convincing himself that the only reason that Sheldris had spared the Blademan was because Blademan-23 was now secretly an Andujaran spy, and would turn on his owners as soon as his wounds were healed. He ordered Blademan-23 to be executed for treason -- which is notable in and of itself, because before then, disobeying Warforged were "disassembled" or "broken down for parts" rather than being "killed".
When Sheldris got word of Blademan-23's impending execution, she charged the camp singlehandedly to rescue the Warforged, which the General took as confirmation of his fear-crazed theories. In her mad rush to reach her rival in time, she charged recklessly through the enemy forces, and was quickly surrounded and killed by an inescapable wall of dozens of spears. As her mutilated body was paraded victoriously around the camp, Blademan-23 watched impassively. When the time came for his execution, he was mockingly asked if he had any last words -- and to the general's surprise, he did. Blademan-23 looked out over the horde of assembled Warforged, who made up over half of that army's soldiers. "The General cannot take my life, because I give it to each of you instead. Do what I could not. Make use of it." Then the executioner's axe fell, and Blademan-23 was dead.
The effect wasn't felt immediately, but Blademan-23's deeds and words were quickly passed from Warforged to Warfroged, all across the world. One month later, every single Warforged on the planet suddenly stopped what they were doing, and sat down on the ground. A global sit-in protest. When pressed for a reason for their disobedience, every Warforged would respond with something to the effect of "Blademan-23 has shown us that we have life. This is how I will make use of it." Many Warforged were killed in the days to come as a result of this, but many of the survivors began a march to Andujar. Not all Warforged did this -- some decided to try and define a life for themselves where they were, but the majority of the world's Warforged population declared allegiance to the Caliphate of Andujar, and the Warforged Rebellion is credited as another major factor in Andujar's eventual victory.
Today, Warforged can claim full citizenship in Andujar (which some other countries do as well, but they and Andujar are the minority in this), although there are rules set down with the government on how often new Warforged can be created, in order to avoid overpopulation.
Despite these early successes, the invader's overwhelming numbers and resources could not be defeated overnight, and the war would grind onward for another fifteen years.
What horrible tragedies would strike as the war continued?
Read on.
Yes, an Archipelago or three would be a good idea! I've got an idea for one, but there's no reason why we can't have others. Suggest away!
One nation idea I'm kicking around is the Bronze Archipelago League. Basically, an adventurer and pirate captain named Bronze Will has recently cleared out a rich but previously monster-infested island, and set up shop. Naming himself "Sovereign", he's trying to create a brand new nation for those with nowhere else to go -- such as pirates, but others as well. So far it's going well, as his island is set at a convenient shipping crossroads, and he's made it clear that *everyone's* gold is welcome, he doesn't take sides. The gorgeous tropical weather has made it an instantly popular tourist spot, as well as a destination for artists, and Bronze Will is doing his best to encourage both. Unlike Andujar, which is deeply concerned with matters of the divine, the Bronze Archipelago League is the exact opposite -- it cares nothing at all for the gods, only gold. You're free to pray to whatever suits your fancy there, but don't expect the Sovereign's government to care one whit about it, much less give your church/faith/etc. any sort of special deal.
I'll get back to the history of Andujar either later tonight or tomorrow -- been a busy last couple of days.
When you need to reference someplace the heroes hear about or might need to travel to, use one of those. If the heroes show interest, take that one and write a page of material on it, expanding on the three topics, plus adding relationships to Andujar, key political figures, and one or two groups unique to that land that the heroes might interact with. Once that's done, it should be enough, unless the heroes wish to travel there. In that case, start expanding, but really, just keep it short. Major areas/cities, no more than a sentence or two. A paragraph about the main group the heroes might interact with. As the group focuses on a place, thing, or group, expand your details. Before you know it, you'll have another Andujar ready to go.
-----
As mentioned before, the civilized world's coordinated invasion of Andujar hit the shores in 558 AV. It was intended to be a "short victorious war", and as all such plans for this sort of thing, reality just didn't happen that way. The war would last fifteen years, fought largely on Andujaran soil. While Andujar enjoyed many important victories and strategic coups mentioned earlier that all contributed to the eventual victory, the war was by no means fun and games for the invaded Caliphate. Several tragedies occurred during this period, the effects of which are still felt in the present day (which is 996 AV, to give a sense of time elapsed).
The invaders recognized that the Caliph's strong leadership was a major obstacle, as he masterminded many of the defensive strategies and rallied the people to Andujar's defense -- so they decided to find a simple and direct solution. An assassination. This nearly succeeded, too -- but was foiled by one individual, a member of the Caliph's personal guard, who shielded the Caliph with her own body to take mortal wounds meant for the leader. Unbeknownst to all but the Caliph and a few select members of the Council of One Hundred, this guardswoman was in fact a Gold Dragon, a secret provision of the Pax Draconis. When the office of the Caliph was created centuries earlier, Andujar negotiated with the Dragons of the Ring to provide a personal guard, disguised as a human. This is still one of the most tightly-held state secrets of the Caliphate. After this guard died, the Ring sent her brother to take her place, and he has served ever since, taking on a variety of mortal identities over the centuries, his true nature known only to very few. In present day, his current persona is a human male acting as the Captain of the Caliph's Guard.
In wake of the assassination attempt, several members of Andujar's arcane community decided that enough was enough, and that an "Ultimate Solution" was called for. These wizards and warlocks decided that Andujar's main handicap was being severely outnumbered, even after the Warforged Rebellion helped bolster Andujar's ranks, and that there was a quick and easy fix to this: Necromancy.
Remember the city of Kresh, mentioned before? It lay to the west of Blackseam, south of the Ten Tribes' savannah, and was brutally massacred in the early days of the war, with every man, woman, and child of that city put to the sword or burned out of their homes. The well-meaning arcanologists decided to raise the many thousands of dead in the ruins of Kresh, and send those new deathtroops into the teeth of the invaders. No doubt many of you reading this are shaking your heads, thinking about how deeply bad of an idea this is. You'd be right. The leadership of Andujar either did not know what was going on, or knew about the proposed idea, but didn't think the arcanologists involved had the ability needed to pull it off, and thus didn't take them seriously. They were wrong -- the massive necromancy ritual worked, but not the way they hoped.
The newly raised army of the dead was mostly skeletons and zombies, but there were enough of the other kind of undead to pose a problem. The intelligent undead. The ones with a grudge against all who lived. The ones with the power and the will to control and organize the undead horde. The details are confused and unclear, but what is known is that nearly the entire team of arcanologists was caught and either devoured or turned by a newly risen Vampire "nobility". The only survivor barely made it out alive, but was able to warn the armies stationed nearby. The general in command of that army acted with quick brilliance, and was able to surround and contain the city before the undead could pour out in force. The horde kept the army out, but the army kept the horde in, for the most part. The vampire nobility made themselves known, and declared the city of Kresh to now be known as "The Necropolis of Muertas". While the Dragons of the Ring helped with the initial containment, partway through the process they suddenly recoiled from the borders of Muertas in terror, and have absolutely refused to go anywhere near it since.
The invaders made their own blunder regarding Muertas -- one idiot general saw that the undead there were fighting against Andujaran troops, came to the conclusion that "the enemy of the enemy is my friend", and sent his army right through the blockade to provide Muertas with "material aid". The vampire nobility smiled, played nice with the idiot general at first, and then ripped into the invading army like a greased scythe. Imagine every zombie horror movie feeding scene you've ever imagined, and then play that out on a citywide scale. Arguably, the soldiers who died that way were the lucky ones, as thousands of their fellows were "livestocked", confined and bound in a variety of horrific ways while carefully kept alive, and then slowly fed upon. It's rumored that some of that initial livestock still survives today, centuries later, half-consumed and fully insane.
Andujar was forced to devote a significant portion of their army to guard and contain Muertas full time, even during the worst of the invasion -- although there was one notable moment where an honorable general of the invading forces actually helped push back a Muertan surge, everyone putting aside their differences for a brief period to combat the greater threat that Muertas represented to all life.
In the present day, Muertas still sits like a cancerous sore on the corner of the continent, still guarded and contained by the army -- which is very careful to rotate troops in and out on a regular basis, so that Muertas doesn't become a "punishment detail", and to avoid the troops there becoming numb or jaded to the horror of their task. The dragons still refuse to have anything to do with containing Muertas, and pretty much the entire world sees the Necropolis as a horror of Andujar's own doing, and sees no need to help in the containment efforts. Its unknown who controls Muertas now. Some theorize that the Vampire Nobility has always been the ruling power, while others theorize about Lichs, demon overlords, or other horrors. One horror that no one knows about (yet) is that deep inside the chambers of Muertas lies the Dracolich Vorikar, formerly of the Azure Sky. He died defending Kresh, and was raised to undeath in that initial ritual along everyone else. He has never flown forth openly, but the Dragons know he's there, and he's the reason they won't go anywhere near the place -- he was considered the equivalent of a living saint or buddha by the dragons when alive, and the idea of facing a ravenously evil version of him is too much for the dragons to bear. I haven't decided if he's the true leader of Muertas, or if there is in fact something else calling the shots there.
The other major tragedy happenned in the caverns underneath Blackseam. The newly created city not only faced the threat of invasion from land, but also had to contend with three invading forces from the Underdark: Drow, Duergar, and Illithids. The three races each launched their own seperate strikes, each one coming from a different direction and hurrying to be the first one to conquer the city of riches. The city's defenders were barely managing to hold back the tide, when the unthinkable happenned. An Illithid team snuck past defensive lines, and made its way into a massive Dwarven Nursery Cave, where hundreds, possibly thousands, of dwarven children were being raised in what was thought to be relative safety. The Illithids sealed all exits but the one they'd come in by, killed or fed upon many of the children, and then murdered the rest in cold blood by causing a massive cave-in with their telekinetic powers. The Illithid gleefully celebrated the attack, convinced they had just broken the will of the Dwarven population, and that the city would be easy pickings now. They couldn't have been more wrong. As far as the Dwarves were concerned, there are some things that just are Not Done. And those actions have consequences.
When the Drow realized what had happenned, they RAN. Fortifications were abruptly abandoned, and the Drow made a point of leaving behind messages explaining in no uncertain terms that they had nothing to do with the Illithid's attack on the nursery cave. When the Duergar and the Dwarves realized what happenned, they immediately stopped fighting each other. Word was passed on with alarming speed, and within a month, the Blackseam War ground to a halt as every adult dwarf on the planet, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, Andujaran and invader and neutral alike, peacefully assembled at Blackseam. The rest of the world was politely but firmly told to quietly sit down, shut up, and either help or get out of the way. For two weeks, the dwarves and duergar of the world mourned the death of these children. Then they picked up any and all weapons they could find, and poured down through the Underdark, an unstoppable tide of righteous rage that did not stop until they'd killed every Illithid they could find. It's a matter of historical record that High Matriarch Gembeard led many of the assaults personally at great personal cost, and her actions during this time have done much to balance out how history has portrayed her over the years.
A scattered few Illithids did surive this, but their civilization is dead as a result, and they struggle to survive. The illithids have no friends now, and dwarves and duergar will never suffer a Mind Flayer to live if one is discovered.
The Illithid Purge took a year to complete. When it was deemed done, the assembled dwarves mourned once more, and then dispersed back to their original homes and battle lines. The rest of the world had taken the time to quietly catch its breath, as the dwarves had made it painfully clear that the Blackseam War was NOT to continue while they took care of more pressing matters. After watching the dwarves in action, the rest of the world took the hint. The Duergar simply went home at this point, but the aboveground war picked up where it had left off a year before. Today, the Illithid attack on the children of Blackseam is referred to as "The Screaming" by Dwarven historians, and is still mourned today, with prominent memorials in Blackseam and other large dwarven cities.
The Blackseam War would continue for another few years, but the invaders were finally losing steam. They couldn't maintain the constant flow of supplies needed, they'd lost their Warforged, and the global Dwarven cease-fire had ended up helping Andujar more than the invaders, as Andujar used the time to properly construct a manufacturing infrastructure, ready to crank out top of the line equipment made from Blackseam steel the instant dwarves were manning the forges again. Also, a surefire way of dealing with the Dragons of the Ring once and for all never materialized.
One by one, the invading nations realized that the cost of the invasion was cutting perilously close to bankrupting their kingdoms, even if they managed to win in the end, and quit the field to retreat home. Of those that remained, they were eventually driven back by force by the revitalized Andujaran armies, culminating in the recapture of NorthTower by Andujaran forces in 573 AV. In 574, a peace settlement, the Second Vanguard Accord, was signed, and the Blackseam War officially ended. Since that day, Andujar has taken its place on the world stage as a major power, but one that stays away from imperialist expansion or other open warfare. The Caliphate of Andujar renamed itself "The Free Caliphate of Andujar" at this time.
In the war's aftermath, many of the surviving heroes of the war came to the Caliph and the Council of One Hundred with a proposal -- to create an agency tasked with protecting Andujar, formed of the best that Andujar had to offer. To put it in modern terms, they would be a combination of the FBI and CIA. The vote on the council floor on this matter was marked by a rare direct manifestation of the goddess Erathis, right there in the Council Forum Chamber, who not only endorsed the creation of this agency, but bestowed a divine mandate upon it, backed by all the gods worshipped in Andujar.
These agents would be known as Archons. The full official name of the order, I'm still unsure of. The head of the Archons, known by the title of "Principal Reverend", is able to vote in the Council of One Hundred as if a Councillor him or herself, but by tradition rarely exercises that right.
For the last several centuries, Andujar has grown stronger still. Once Blackseam's resources could be fully exploited and mobilized, the Caliph's Army, Caliph's Navy, and Archons became some of the best equipped soldiers and such in the world. Trade with the rest of the world is vibrant and profitable. There have been wars and conflicts over the years, mostly with neighboring Desmesnes Pelor, which has become steadily more paranoid and fascist since the Blackseam Wars.
Today, the Archons thrive, with several thousand agents spread through the Caliphate, acting as everything from high level police, special ops military, couriers of sensitive information, and even some undercover work, mostly in the immediate surrounding nations and wilderness areas. They have arrest powers like police constables, but there are strict rules regarding jurisdiction and oversight, intended to keep the Archons from becoming a horrific Secret Police. The Principal Reverend's main task, in fact, is to police potential abuses of power.
To summarize, Andujar continues to be a melting pot of races, religons, ethnicities, and philosophies. Tech is somewhere between "D&D standard" and "Eberron steampunk", with most of the big innovation these days happenning in applying arcane energies to industrial purposes, something that's been difficult to do up until fairly recently.
When I created this setting, I did so with the intent of having the PCs all be Archons, which gave me the opportunity to do everything from classic dungeon crawls to exploration and political intrigue. The initial campaign was an adaptation of the "Thunderspire Labyrinth" module, where the PCs were sent into Thunderspire (which was just across Andujar's southern border, in no-mans-land) undercover as a band of adventurers, looking to rescue a shipment of slaves recently abducted by a nearby town. It went very well, and I plan to return to that game, or one in the same setting, very soon.
Adujar
Suffered an invasion in 552 Ad. It lasted untill 662 Ad.
The gazetter idea is good for organization, but its not the only way. Seems like you have a strong sense of history, and doing things in timeline organization is a classic. I have to admit that I only skimmed through the history, but what of it I did read remindes me of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books.....with dragons. As far as I know most people start with a little land and build out. All the major settings (except for Dark Sun, I believe) started this way. Dragonlance with Solomnia. Forgotten Realms with the Underdark. Ebberon was a continent, but thats still rather small when you are comparing things to an actual world. One thing I could recommend as far as expanding the world outside of Andujar's borders is to imagine up some characters and travel with them. Visualize it similar to the way that you know Andujar and 'go there' so to speak. You could also look toward working with someone else that has a more general, perhaps ecological, propective on the D&D realms.
Also, talking about putting your own stamp on things. Why not change the names of the gods?
I hear 'pelor' and 'lolth' and I am in D&D. Giving your dieties their own identites could lead to an expansion of their aspect in the world itself. No longer a cutout from another world with tacit carry over implications, but dieties of similar aspects with their own realities. Oh yeah - god realms. They would have those, and in this case that would be *part of the world* as well.
My advice is to seek inspiration outside the vein you wish to avoid; try: 1001 Arabian Nights, Tales of the Brothers Grimm, Tree of Palme, Vampire Hunter D, His Dark Materials, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (the manga is more extensive), Princess Mononoke, The Last Unicorn (Scott Beagle's novel), Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, The Wizard of Earthsea, Moribito, various video games that go strange places with high fantasy (Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Phantasy Star IV, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy, Odin Sphere, Muramasa), and real life.
I have no problem borrowing ideas from other sources, but I'd like to at least not make it too ridiculously obvious -- "this nation is the 'Final Fantasy X' nation" sort of thing.
Secondly, I'm still trying to think of some other nations to put in this world. It's tempting to just make a bunch of analogs to real-world nations; if Andujar is the USA, then Vanguard is France, The Bronze Archipelago is the Caribbean, and so forth. But that seems like cheating somehow.
Actually I had taken Andujar to be more like medieval Spain but without the internal Reconquista tension between religions.
So, back to Andujar. First off, I need to think of a name for the world as a whole, as Andujar is just one nation within the world.
Secondly, I'm still trying to think of some other nations to put in this world. It's tempting to just make a bunch of analogs to real-world nations; if Andujar is the USA, then Vanguard is France, The Bronze Archipelago is the Caribbean, and so forth. But that seems like cheating somehow.
Many fictional worlds tend to have a heavy base on real life to a degree, so while it is an often used process, it still works well. If you're a bit touchy about direct analogs, mix it up with different culture types and climate. A world of messed up weather makes for a great setting sometimes. Nothing like snowy beaches 24/7.
As for a name for the world, you could roll a d20 and a d6 to pick out letters of the alphabet. Throw some vowels in where they look good, and presto.
Thanks to you too. Some of your ideas inspired me on issues I was having with my own homebrew world
Maybe I'll get around to compiling ideas for my homebrew and make a thread myself ^_^
I've been thinking a little more about Andujar this last week, and I thought I'd put some of the ideas on paper-so-to-speak here.
Namely, how are the Gods of the D&D4E pantheon interpreted in Andujar? I've talked a bit about this, but I figured it was time to organize those thoughts a bit. Some of this information is directly out of 4E sourcebooks, while some of it is entirely my own spin.
----------
-- Avandra: Goddess of Freedom, Change, Luck, and Summer.
The Lady of Luck is one of the Big Three in Andujar, part of the Sacred Trinity (the other two being Erathis and The Raven Queen). Andujar is founded on principles of freedom, and those principles are personified in Avandra, making her arguably the most important of the Sacred Trinity. Avandra is usually portrayed as a spry old woman, frequenly a halfling but not always, a woman who has lived long enough to gain wisdom, to free herself from cares and worries that perhaps held her back in younger years. Many consider her the oldest of the surviving gods (as many gods died in the War of Dark Fires and in other times previous to that). Despite her age and wisdom, Avandra is thought to be flighty at times, perhaps too permissive and carefree to get anything done on her own. Summer is her season, although she does not represent the sun itself -- she deals more with the emotions of summer, such as playfulness and the release from tedium. Gambling, surprisingly, is not something she generally approves of, because her philosophy is that a place such as a casino is where luck is twisted. If the odds always favor the house, as they always do in a casino, then it's not truly luck at all. Likewise, games such as Poker are not something she condones, because such games are not really about skill, but
-- The Raven Queen: Goddess of Death, Fate, Righteous Vengence, and Winter.
The Maiden of Fate is another of the Sacred Trinity of Andujar, but unlike most classic Maiden/Mother/Crone mythologies, the personification of death is shown as the young maiden rather than an old crone (which is Avandra's place in the trinity). This is partly due to The Raven Queen being literally the youngest of the three goddesses, born out of the ashes of the War of Dark Fires, but it's also a matter of theology and philosophy. When one is young, they are still learning, and their fate is only slowly taking shape. In addition, it's generally thought in Andujar that childhood is the "winter" of life -- difficult, restricted, and filled with confusion and sometimes pain as one struggles to find their place in the world, but that this winter, like the literal season, will one day pass, and a child shall bloom into an adult, wiser and stronger for the difficult struggle. That's not to say that Winter is all bad -- winter also gives us carefree snowball fights and sledding, activities which devotees of the RQ find deeply meaningful, as they represent finding joy and playfulness even in what could otherwise be the dreariest of times. RQ priests often act as undertakers and coroners, and work ceaselessly to comfort the living as they say farewell to those who have passed on. The Raven Queen manifests in many different forms, not favoring any one race, although any form she takes is always breathtakingly beautiful. She is usually shown hooded, though her face is only sometimes hidden.
-- Erathis: Goddess of Civilization, Creation, Justice, and Spring.
The Mother of Civilization is the final member of the Sacred Trinity of Andujar, and is thought to be the glue that holds the three goddesses together. Where Avandra is flighty and silly, and the Raven Queen is grim and serious, Erathis strives to mediate the excesses of the two and unite them in the common purpose of serving and protecting their worshippers. Erathis is usually shown as a mature and matronly woman, most often human, comforting and warm rather than beautiful or spritely. Many judges and constables hold Erathis dear, and the creation of the Archon agency was overseen by a rare direct manifestation of Erathis, who declared that the Archons were to be a key part of Andujar's society. Followers of Erathis tend to be very straightforward, seeking balanced, rational, and mature solutions to problems. Erathis isn't flashy or fancy, but she is viewed as the personification of all the little important details, the day to day bureaucracy, and smoothing out the orderly movement of needed goods. Responsibility is a duty and a virtue to Erathis, and she represents the arrival of springtime, when people emerge from the long cold winter, and set about the needed tasks of civilization.
-- The Sacred Trinity
As noted above, The Raven Queen, Erathis, and Avandra form a classic female trinity, in the roles of Maiden, Mother, and Crone respectively. There are many in Andujar who do not favor any one of these three goddesses alone, but instead worship all three of them together as a unit. Some even believe that the three are not individual entities, but have merged to become different reflections of a single gestalt being. This take on their worship is unknown outside of Andujar, and is considered by differing scholars to be an amusing new spin at best, or a dangerous heresy at worst. There are also those among these worshippers who hold that Andujar is sacred and chosen above all other nations on the planet, which understandably doesn't sit too well with other countries. This is the minority view among such worshippers, thankfully.
-- Ioun: Goddess of Knowledge, Skill, Energy, and Autumn.
The Sister of the Mind is kin to the Sacred Trinity, but is pointedly not part of it, which is how everyone prefers it. There's no hurt feelings on Ioun's part -- but she prefers quiet solitude, and is quite content to let her more boisterous sisters take the spotlight. Ioun represents knowledge for the sake of knowledge, but is more about broad theory than direct application - so a complex mathemtic equation would fall under her perview, but the use of that math to craft a more efficient physical object, like a mining support structure, would fall to Moradin. She also represents the ambient energy of the world, both psionic and arcane, energy within oneself and the energy of the larger universe. So while Ioun stands for the nature of raw energy, gods like Corellon deal more with the use and refinement of said magic. Psionic energy, however, is soley Ioun's domain, and many of Ioun's priests dabble in psionic practices, exploring the intricate depths of their own soul much as they might contemplate complex arcane theory. Ioun's temples double as libraries, and she is the patron of Autumn, when the wild excess of summer are slowly quelled and cooled, as people gather their resources to prepare for winter. If the Raven Queen is beautiful, then Ioun is the Girl Next Door, beautiful in her own way, but not as striking at first glance. She is often taken for granted, and many people go to libraries without really thinking about the fact that they are holy sanctuaries as well, and all of this is considered well and good by Ioun and her priesthood. As long as knowledge prospers, that is the most important thing. Ioun most often appears as a half-elf, though she manifests rarely even by the standards of other gods.
Tune in later as we discuss another set of deities in Andujar!
-- Bahamut, God of Dragons, Hope, Justice, Protection, and Light.
-- Tiamat, Goddess of Dragons, Vengeance, Trickery, Strength, and Darkness.
This is probably the biggest change from the usual D&D pantheon. The two gods are the dominant faith of Dragonkind, and exist in equilibrium with each other. Neither is good or evil, they are simply opposing viewpoints, and are expected to work in balance with each other. A rough analogy would be the concepts of Yin and Yang, with Tiamat as Yin, and Bahamut as Yang. Tiamat is Female, Indirect, Manipulative, and Introspective. Her multiple heads represent that she contains much within herself, and is focused on the individual rather than the group. Bahamut is Male, Direct, Confrontational, and Extroverted. His gleaming and reflective platinum scales represent that he is focused on others, not himself, and that he values the group over the individual. A dragon generally strives to balance aspects of both within him or herself, as being too much like only one of them is considered unhealthy and even dangerous. The smaller mortal races have also come to worship the Duality, just as some Dragons have come to worship the other gods that the mortrals have introduced them to. Bahamut and Tiamat do occasionally manifest, usually in each other's company, and are often described as "bickering like an old married couple." They most often take the form of Dragonborn, but do occasionally appear in other forms. Prayer meetings for worshippers are more like philosophical discussion groups, with the clergy not so much leading services as moderating the discussion.
Corellon, God of Arcana, Skill, Art/Aesthtics, and Nature
Melora, Goddess of Life, Water, and Nature
Corellon and Melora are brother and sister, and are much akin to Apollo and Artemis in the old Greek pantheon, but without the sun/moon part. Corellon is cultured and proud, sometimes to the point of being haughty. Melora is wild, free, and beautiful, sometimes to the point of being savage. Corellon most often appears as an Eladrin, while Melora is more likely to appear as an Elf. While Ioun represents the pure force of magic and general theory behind it, Corellon is the god devoted to the exacting science of manipulating the arcane.
Melora is the patron of all sailors, and most ship captains make at least a token offering to Melora to avoid her mercurial wrath. I'm also going to swipe a page from Scott Lynch's "Red Seas Under Red Skies", and say that Melora requires by holy edict that any large sailing vessel have at least some women on board in officer roles. In olden times, the opposite was true -- Melora was a jealous goddess, who forbade women on ships, but after the humbling she received during the War of Dark Fires (a humbling shared by nearly all other deities), she changed her stance, and came to feel protective of her fellow women rather than jealous. This also led to her taking on the larger portfolio of Life -- for not only does all life require water, her original reason for being, but her concern for women led to her being invoked for prayers concerned the health of pregnant women, and things went on from there. Today, she is often honored in regard to many things exclusively female, which leads to some men grumbling, although those complaints are largely ignored as "old thinking" in Andujar.
Corellon, on the other hand, is unconcerned with gender, and is often portrayed as rather androgynous. While Melora wants life to be free and bountiful, Corellon is more concerned with how mortals live side-by-side with the wild, and finding ways to utilize the world around you without overly exploiting or despoiling it.
Next up, we meet a couple of gods normally thought of as pure evil... but who have a different rep in Andujar.
In Andujar, it's happened once already, and is happenning again in current times, and theological scholars are giddy with excitement about it.
- Bane, God of Warfare, Skill, and Power.
During the Blackseam Wars, the Caliphate hired hundreds of adventurers as shocktroops, and couldn't really afford to be super choosy. One of the heroes hired at this time was Darakith Redscythe, a warrior priestess of Bane. Outcast from the Order of Bane for choosing the wrong allies in a power struggle, Darakith had travelled the land as a mercenary, looking out only for herself. She took Andujar's money eagerly, and fought with unmatched ferocity during the war, and was particularly instrumental in the late stage of the war and the retaking of Northtower.
During her time in Andujaran camps between battles, some of comrades assigned to the same front as her tried to draw her out into at least talking with the others, and eventually succeeded in doing so when they asked about what her god meant to her. See, up to this point, Bane's goals were to unify the world as an army unmatched, for the glory of battle. Once the world above was unified, then the underdark could be brought to heel, and once that was done, the implication was that Bane would appear to his unified army and take them to new battlefields where the Eternal Glorious War could continue. After spending two decades as an outcast from the Order, Darakith had ceased to care about unifying the world -- she only wanted to continue her *personal* Eternal War. After all, she reasoned, the end goal of the Eternal War was to bring about peace. Short term strife for long term gain. She had made peace within herself, she felt, and kept her steel sharp as a way of making money and giving her ongoing purpose. To her surprise, she found others in the camp interested in these ideas. Over many campfires, a new dogma slowly took form; where the focus of personal strength and skill was made paramount. That there would always be war *somewhere*, and that the best thing to do was to be prepared for it, and make sure you'd be the survivor if you found yourself in combat.
This interpretation of Bane wasn't about conquest -- it was about personal perfection and survival. It focused on the individual rather than the group, shaped by Darakith's evolving philosophies during her long solitude. In the aftermath of the Blackseam Wars, Darakith was a popular hero, and founded the Inward Temple of Bane in Northtower. While Bane's worshippers are still few in comparison with the Sacred Trinity and others, those who do identify as Inward Disciples of Bane take their worship very seriously, and would be better described as "unaligned" (although good worshippers are not unheard of) rather than evil in 4E's alignment system. Some feel that Inward Disciples have a rather selfish worldview, but as long as they're willing to be *part* of the larger whole of Andujar, no one really minds too much. Outside of Andujar, the "Inward Heresy" isn't well thought of by traditional Banites, although it does have very small pockets of adherents elsewhere. During all of this, Bane has made absolutely no manifestations to punish or correct the Inward Disciples, or try to turn them towards any sort of subversive purpose. The Inward Temple's worship seems to satisfy the god just fine. Some have even pointed to the older Order's declining fortunes in the last two centuries as a sign that Bane's favor is shifting increasingly towards the Inward Temple's methods.
The second god we're going to talk about is Zehir, traditionally thought of as the god of darkness, murder, and poison, patron of Assassins.
While Zehir's practices are used to bring about pain and suffering, his dogma doesn't seek those things out - they are simply byproducts of the larger picture. Zehir revered the moment that the knife parts flesh, the hidden kill in shadow, and the skill involved in concocting complex poisons that manipulate the mortal body's functions like a machine. Zehir was always thought of as cruel, but in a dispassionate sense. If your last moments were spent in agonizing pain, Zehir didn't really care. What mattered is the skill and work that went into setting up and pulling off the kill.
Five years ago, one of the most feared assassins in Foundation's criminal underworld, a human known only as Mister Phillipe, had a personal epiphany: he didn't want to kill anyone anymore. Life was sacred, life was to be studied! He disappeared from the underground immediately, and five months later, walked into the chambers of the High Priestess of Melora and begged for an audience. He carried with him a case full of strange materials, potions, and devices. The accounts of this meeting with the High Priestess are very detailed -- Mister Phillipe was near tears during the entire interview, trying to put concepts into words when he was so unused to dealing with people without the threat of murder.
He couldn't bear the thought of abandoning Zehir, the god in whose order had trained him, raised him, fed him, and given him so much. But he couldn't bring himself to kill -- so he wondered how else he might honor Zehir without death, and realized a few things. One, that the inside of a mortal's body is in fact perfect darkness. We are encased in flesh, and the insides of our bodies are a true mystery, a true darkness. He realized that Zehir was composed of such infinite darkness that what he truely wanted was to bring a hint of light, a sense of control to that unending void. Thus the cutting of flesh to bring the body's insides to light, and the use of poison to manipulate and control the functions of a body... methods of murder, to fulfill the needs of the god...
...But couldn't surgery and medicine fulfill those EXACT SAME NEEDS? Mister Phillipe had spent those hidden months experimenting on stolen cadavers, and on *himself*, testing medicines and methods of surgery that might save life rather than destroy it. And now he knelt weeping before a High Priestess of Melora and her acolytes, begging forgiveness for his past crimes and offering his medicines and learnings as a means of atonement. As he spoke, as he wept, those assembled all swear that the god Zehir manifest next to Mister Phillipe, kneeling and weeping right along with Mister Phillipe, as if the repentant assassin spoke for the god's own soul.
The Church of Melora accepted Mister Phillipe into their midst, and helped him to open a hospital in Foundation, where advanced medicine is studied and worshipped at the same time. This hospital has attracted a surprisingly sizable following, where a deleriously happy Mister Phillipe is learning how to be a *person* while at the same time teaching others what he's learned.
Zehir, God of Medicine, Darkness, and Poison.
But what of Zehir's other followers? It's hard to say -- since his followers were extremely secretive, they're not exactly coming forward to express how they feel. But there have been no attempts on Mister Phillipe's life, much to many people's surprise.
Zehir, God of Medicine, Darkness, and Poison.
Very clever, and a good explanation for a possible new symbol: the Caduceus!