Hoplite
2008-10-13, 12:51 PM
Well, I tried to create a setting that is noticably not "generic" and that has a certain feeling. I would like some advice and all.
• In the last few years the human cities in the human kingdom have encountered large numbers of elven immigrants coming from the war ridden wastelands in the East. Most elves integrated well in society (although they don't loose their culture) and the percentage of half-elves increases each year with almost 10%. However there are some radical elven groups who are afraid of losing their culture and traditions and perform ethnic cleansing amongst their group, killing all the elves with impure “human spoiled” bloodlines. These elf extremists often do not learn Common and refuse to talk in anything other than elven. The government has unsuccessfully tried to fight these groups.
• Most people are religious, but perform the daily rituals more out of habit than conviction. The traditional deities are the fertility goddess Dennari, the nameless dark moon god, the gnome trickster god of disguise and the female thunderbird. However with the coming of the elves a new kind of religion had come to the human lands. Animism quickly gained more and more followers and the traditional churches powerlessly saw their followers decreases. Envious, some churches spread bad words about the elves and their culture and religion, trying to keep their followers from being converted to animism.
• The elven wars started with a disagreement between the elven animists and elven wizards on how magic should be used. The wizards viewed magic as a tool, while the animists viewed it more like a partner and viewed themselves as part of nature and magic. They see the need for wizards to control it as an abomination. Not much is left of the elven culture and tradition as most of their monuments and cities have been torched by war.
• The waters of the human lands are rich of fish and whales. The gnome nation in the North, at the other side of the sea, also fishes in the same sea. There is a perpetual strive as both nations claim that the waters and the whales are theirs to hunt. However it never comes to war as both nations are economically dependent on each other. The gnome nation doesn’t have enough grain to sustain their big culturally rich cities, while the human lands are dependent on the gnome nation for craftsmanship.
• Far behind the dark snowy mountains in the West is a land known as Aitheles. Not much is known of it, but sometimes strangers come from over the mountains with strange tales and abilities.
• To be able to cast arcane spells your must have been bathed once with a magical oil made from certain barnacles. There is only one place where they make this oil and that is in the North-east, the beaches of the Corona Coast where these special barnacles grow. Strangely enough this oil isn’t needed when you have an inherent magical ability such as is the case with sorcerers or if you gain your spells from pacts with supernatural beings. How this is possible is unknown and still subject to debate and research.
• In the south-east lie the lands of the orc. They are thickly muscled, their body is covered with coarse hair and their skin is often between dark red and dark orange. They have large tusks, pointy ears and sometimes one or even three eyes instead of the normal two. Their societies are martial and they often wage war against each other. Although humans view the orc lands with distrust as they have suffered orc raids before they do not view orc as evil by nature and individual orc do well within human society. Many Orc warlords have shared their strategic knowledge of warfare with the elves to aid one group or another in their wars.
• The dark and snowy mountains are inhabited by dark elves/dwarves. Their sense of honor equals that of the noblest knights and their ideas of justice are well known. They are also great architects and build huge structures inside the mountains. The are also very isolationist.
• Halflings mostly are illiterate barbarian nomads who keep herds of sheep in the south-westerns regions of the human lands.
• Many lawful neutral paladins and lawful neutral bards united under one banner, the banner of the platinum crow, and took upon them the responsibility to enforce law and justice. Most major governments approve of them as they have a strict moral code and respect the law.
• Other than the churches the druids have accepted the new animist ideas of the elves without difficulty and merged it with their own cosmologies.
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/6898/map001ta9.png
This is a general map to give an overview of how the world looks like. The red cities are big capital cities while the green cities are usually smaller. These are not all the cities and there are many other big and small cities, but this is just to give you an idea. Players may invent cities as part of their background of course. The lands of Aitheles are used as a kind of escape-route if players want to play something like psionics or samurai for example that do not fit anywhere else in the world so they could be foreigners from Aitheles or something like that.
Small descriptions of cities
Elgard: The main gnome capital. Very rich and full of artisans and merchants.
Hod: ….
Darkfire’s hall: Called after a great dwarven warlord this ancient city has the largest libraries in the world and inside its halls are also the most well informed historians.
Venyr:A small settlement of Halfling farmers.
Lutarum: The main human capital. Full of other races and other nationalities. Economical and political center.
Traecum: City of scoundrels. The small city of Traecum is comepletely lawless and thugs and thieves rule it.
Da Dao: Largest orc citystate.
Cor El: Biggest elven city yet in tact.
Ionistos/Corona Coast: Magical center of the world. If you want something magical, it can be found in Ionistos.
• In the last few years the human cities in the human kingdom have encountered large numbers of elven immigrants coming from the war ridden wastelands in the East. Most elves integrated well in society (although they don't loose their culture) and the percentage of half-elves increases each year with almost 10%. However there are some radical elven groups who are afraid of losing their culture and traditions and perform ethnic cleansing amongst their group, killing all the elves with impure “human spoiled” bloodlines. These elf extremists often do not learn Common and refuse to talk in anything other than elven. The government has unsuccessfully tried to fight these groups.
• Most people are religious, but perform the daily rituals more out of habit than conviction. The traditional deities are the fertility goddess Dennari, the nameless dark moon god, the gnome trickster god of disguise and the female thunderbird. However with the coming of the elves a new kind of religion had come to the human lands. Animism quickly gained more and more followers and the traditional churches powerlessly saw their followers decreases. Envious, some churches spread bad words about the elves and their culture and religion, trying to keep their followers from being converted to animism.
• The elven wars started with a disagreement between the elven animists and elven wizards on how magic should be used. The wizards viewed magic as a tool, while the animists viewed it more like a partner and viewed themselves as part of nature and magic. They see the need for wizards to control it as an abomination. Not much is left of the elven culture and tradition as most of their monuments and cities have been torched by war.
• The waters of the human lands are rich of fish and whales. The gnome nation in the North, at the other side of the sea, also fishes in the same sea. There is a perpetual strive as both nations claim that the waters and the whales are theirs to hunt. However it never comes to war as both nations are economically dependent on each other. The gnome nation doesn’t have enough grain to sustain their big culturally rich cities, while the human lands are dependent on the gnome nation for craftsmanship.
• Far behind the dark snowy mountains in the West is a land known as Aitheles. Not much is known of it, but sometimes strangers come from over the mountains with strange tales and abilities.
• To be able to cast arcane spells your must have been bathed once with a magical oil made from certain barnacles. There is only one place where they make this oil and that is in the North-east, the beaches of the Corona Coast where these special barnacles grow. Strangely enough this oil isn’t needed when you have an inherent magical ability such as is the case with sorcerers or if you gain your spells from pacts with supernatural beings. How this is possible is unknown and still subject to debate and research.
• In the south-east lie the lands of the orc. They are thickly muscled, their body is covered with coarse hair and their skin is often between dark red and dark orange. They have large tusks, pointy ears and sometimes one or even three eyes instead of the normal two. Their societies are martial and they often wage war against each other. Although humans view the orc lands with distrust as they have suffered orc raids before they do not view orc as evil by nature and individual orc do well within human society. Many Orc warlords have shared their strategic knowledge of warfare with the elves to aid one group or another in their wars.
• The dark and snowy mountains are inhabited by dark elves/dwarves. Their sense of honor equals that of the noblest knights and their ideas of justice are well known. They are also great architects and build huge structures inside the mountains. The are also very isolationist.
• Halflings mostly are illiterate barbarian nomads who keep herds of sheep in the south-westerns regions of the human lands.
• Many lawful neutral paladins and lawful neutral bards united under one banner, the banner of the platinum crow, and took upon them the responsibility to enforce law and justice. Most major governments approve of them as they have a strict moral code and respect the law.
• Other than the churches the druids have accepted the new animist ideas of the elves without difficulty and merged it with their own cosmologies.
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/6898/map001ta9.png
This is a general map to give an overview of how the world looks like. The red cities are big capital cities while the green cities are usually smaller. These are not all the cities and there are many other big and small cities, but this is just to give you an idea. Players may invent cities as part of their background of course. The lands of Aitheles are used as a kind of escape-route if players want to play something like psionics or samurai for example that do not fit anywhere else in the world so they could be foreigners from Aitheles or something like that.
Small descriptions of cities
Elgard: The main gnome capital. Very rich and full of artisans and merchants.
Hod: ….
Darkfire’s hall: Called after a great dwarven warlord this ancient city has the largest libraries in the world and inside its halls are also the most well informed historians.
Venyr:A small settlement of Halfling farmers.
Lutarum: The main human capital. Full of other races and other nationalities. Economical and political center.
Traecum: City of scoundrels. The small city of Traecum is comepletely lawless and thugs and thieves rule it.
Da Dao: Largest orc citystate.
Cor El: Biggest elven city yet in tact.
Ionistos/Corona Coast: Magical center of the world. If you want something magical, it can be found in Ionistos.