[Hourglass of Zihaja] Chapter 0: How it All Began

[Juhn]

Ask the Cartographer.

[AlmostSkillfull]

Lol I can't I kind of rolled a natural 20 on intimidate. He drew me maps on the spot but something tells me that if he sees me ever, he will run away and get some guards. A 35 Intimidate from a 7 foot tall Aazlai (Lion Man) is enough to make even the boldest of Cartographers quiver in there boots and look over there backs for weeks. He probably has nightmares.

[Juhn]

And on to the prehistory writeup:

Oh, I have one other thing to say about that: Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn! You guys just keep outdoing yourselves.

And, that's not the cartographer I meant. Ask the guy he represents.

[AlmostSkillfull]

Lol I know its Zeta but I found it very nostalgic remembering what happened to the Cartographer in my campaign.

[Juhn]

You know, I've been wondering... would it be too much trouble to get the character sheet for that example MotW NPC again?

[Zeta Kai]

The entire timeline (at the moment) has been posted. That's it for Chapter 1. From now on, if you have a question or comment about content from Chapter 1, please post it in the Chapter 1 thread. Feel free to ask/suggest whatever you want, but I'd prefer if this thread was reserved for discussing the recent postings & other miscellanea. Tomorrow, we'll start on Chapter 2. Thank you all for your support.

[Juhn]

I think I'll make one last post about Chapter 1 in here before I migrate there:

I didn't realize Zihaja subsumed some nine aspects since the fall of the Empire of Admaja. He's been busy lately.

Also, when it said that Sidaru was the oldest Aspect of Zihaja, I didn't know that that meant that Sidaru became an aspect more than 3000 years before the next one! Was Siraaj completely monotheist under Sidaru for all that time?

[afroakuma]

There are some... errors in that timeline. Largely proofing, I would imagine, but as Johoum, Daq, Umaj and Pashati all predate the Pactspell and as devas weren't allocated a terrace until after Najmah brought them in... yeah. Corrections are underway.

[Shadow_Elf]

It also does not mention when the Archmagi rose to power in Admaja...

[apocalypsePast2]

I seriously want to state, for the record, that you guys are geniuses. Or genie,(pun intended) if that's the proper plural. (I understand its a matter of some debate). Thank you all, you three Titans of Homebrew. Thank you.

[Athaniar]

Sorry if it's been mentioned in the past, but why is 4E taking place five years after 3.5E?

[Mercenary Pen]

Sorry if it's been mentioned in the past, but why is 4E taking place five years after 3.5E?

Because that's how long it'll take for 3.5e to break the setting entirely and require Zihaja to impose an edition shift"Seriously, the setting only just converted from 3e"

[InaVegt]

Never seen a breakdown like that before.

Also, what class is that 27th level NPC?

[Athaniar]

Wow, that is detailed. I can't imagine ever going into such detail I I'll ever make a setting (mostly because I'm kinda lazy). Great work!

[Mercenary Pen]

Is there any formal pattern to when the ten and fifty year leap days are placed, or does it depend from culture to culture?

[Zeta Kai]

It also does not mention when the Archmagi rose to power in Admaja...

Pick a date, & run it by Afro & me.

I seriously want to state, for the record, that you guys are geniuses. Or genie,(pun intended) if that's the proper plural. (I understand its a matter of some debate). Thank you all, you three Titans of Homebrew. Thank you.

Thank you as well. We could not have done this without our audience.

Sorry if it's been mentioned in the past, but why is 4E taking place five years after 3.5E?

Mercenary has a better answer than the real one.

Also, look in the timeline. Your favorite pharaoh is canon. Dead, but canon.

Never seen a breakdown like that before.

Also, what class is that 27th level NPC?

She's a druid, & a master of the wastes. You'll find out more about her later. She's mentioned in the timeline, though, if you wanna try & find her.

Wow, that is detailed. I can't imagine ever going into such detail I I'll ever make a setting (mostly because I'm kinda lazy). Great work!

Thank you, but you haven't even seen the maps yet. Go take a look.

Is there any formal pattern to when the ten and fifty year leap days are placed, or does it depend from culture to culture?

It depends. Good question, though.

[Mercenary Pen]

Mercenary has a better answer than the real one.

Of course I did, I just had a suspicion that there would be a certain game within a game in 3.5- I call it "How many wishes does it take to destroy the kamala"

[Elfstone]

Nice formatting. I wondered how the months would turn out and I like how you did them.

[Alteran]

Hell, it's about time.

I realize that I dropped off the face of the discussion threads a while back, but don't think I stopped caring! I've only just looked at the posts, but I am very excited. It's been a full two years, but...you guys did it. Most of the setting hasn't even been posted yet, but it looks immensely detailed, and really just overwhelmingly impressive. I mean, I've been playing in this setting for months now (thaaaaank you Shadow), and I'm still astounded by this.

Fantastic work, thank you all so much. This is exactly what I was hoping for these past two years.

(I'll probably switch over to a banner with an Aspect's symbol later, but I haven't yet chosen my favourite.)

[horngeek]

Imma say this: the spread of levels is a bit too even.

Wouldn't it make sense for there to be some unevenness in the curve?

[Athaniar]

Also, look in the timeline. Your favorite pharaoh is canon. Dead, but canon.

Yay! I am now in your debt.
...and I'm sure you'll find a way to use that against me.

Also, the maps are indeed as awesome as the rest of the project. You could/should be a professional cartographer.

[Zeta Kai]

Of course I did, I just had a suspicion that there would be a certain game within a game in 3.5- I call it "How many wishes does it take to destroy the kamala"

Now, now. Let's not get into an edition war here. Nobody wins those, & we're trying harder than WotC has to bridge the great schism in the fanbase. Let us build together, than to break apart.

Nice formatting. I wondered how the months would turn out and I like how you did them.

Thank you. The years are significantly shorter than Earth standard, but it's a desert planet, so that's not unexpected.

Hell, it's about time.

You're telling me! My wife doesn't recognize me. We might've been done a whole year sooner, but various RL problems arose, we got way too ambitious, & we wanted to do this right. That work speaks for itself, I think.

Fantastic work, thank you all so much. This is exactly what I was hoping for these past two years.

I'm glad. I want this to be a place where people wanna play. I think that we all want that, really.

Imma say this: the spread of levels is a bit too even.

Wouldn't it make sense for there to be some unevenness in the curve?

What sense does an uneven or curved progression make? We're talking about the demographics of people by character level, which doesn't exist in real life. Therefore, there is nothing to base such an assertion on, other than aesthetics, which is subjective.

Ah, but there IS something to base it on! The rules themselves. In the DMG, on page 138, under Total Characters of Each Class, it says (quote):

"For PC classes, if the highest-level character indicated is 2nd level or higher, assume the community has twice that number of characters of half that level. If those characters are higher than 1st level, assume that for each such character, the community has two of half that level. Continue until the number of 1st-level characters is generated."

This goes for communities of all sizes in the world of D&D, which means that it can generally be applied to an entire world. Of course, were we to have done this, we would have ended up with something similar to a Forgotten Realms scenario, where every barmaid & ditch digger on the continent was 10th level or more. Also, by this logic, assuming our same population, there will be a character somewhere in the world that is level 67,108,864. When you actually look at the things that mid-/high-level characters are capable of, we realized that this was unrealistic.

Therefore, we toned down the progression. Instead of "twice as many at half the level", we made it "twice as many at level minus one", which is smooth, simple, elegant, & convenient. Now, low-level characters are very common, mid-level characters are rare, high-level characters are extremely rare, & epic-level characters are practically unique (we could have literally named them all if we had wanted to). Players have a real chance of impacting their world in a major way, without bumping into an Elminster or a Mordenkainen on every street corner, keeping them down when they should be rising above the common folk. An E6 game is perfectly viable here with this kind of population, unlike settings that use the RAW demographics, & every other person won't be an Olympic athlete.

so, as you can see, we've put some thought into our numbers over the last two years.

Yay! I am now in your debt.
...and I'm sure you'll find a way to use that against me.

That's the plan.

Also, the maps are indeed as awesome as the rest of the project. You could/should be a professional cartographer.

It's a tough industry to get into. You should see some of the guys at the Cartographer's Guild. I'm a small fry there, to be sure. Hopefully, with this project complete, my star shall rise. We'll see.

Also, for the record, I added a couple of new tables with info on the many settlements & locations on Siraaj. It should make it pretty easy to find any place that is mentioned in other articles. See if you can find them all; you'll likely learn a lot about the world, even before I post locale articles. Enjoy!

[Elfstone]

What sense does an uneven or curved progression make? We're talking about the demographics of people by character level, which doesn't exist in real life. Therefore, there is nothing to base such an assertion on, other than aesthetics, which is subjective.

Ah, but there IS something to base it on! The rules themselves. In the DMG, on page 138, under Total Characters of Each Class, it says (quote):

"For PC classes, if the highest-level character indicated is 2nd level or higher, assume the community has twice that number of characters of half that level. If those characters are higher than 1st level, assume that for each such character, the community has two of half that level. Continue until the number of 1st-level characters is generated."

This goes for communities of all sizes in the world of D&D, which means that it can generally be applied to an entire world. Of course, were we to have done this, we would have ended up with something similar to a Forgotten Realms scenario, where every barmaid & ditch digger on the continent was 10th level or more. When you actually look at the things that mid-/high-level characters are capable of, we realized that this was unrealistic.

Therefore, we toned down the progression. Instead of "twice as many at half the level", we made it "twice as many at level minus one", which is smooth, simple, elegant, & convenient. Now, low-level characters are very common, mid-level characters are rare, high-level characters are extremely rare, & epic-level characters are practically unique (we could have literally named them all if we had wanted to). Players have a real chance of impacting their world in a major way, without bumping into an Elminster or a Mordenkainen on every street corner, keeping them down when they should be rising above the common folk. An E6 game is perfectly viable here with this kind of population, unlike settings that use the RAW demographics, & every other person won't be an Olympic athlete.
so, as you can see, we've put some thought into our numbers over the last two years.

Yes I like how elegant it is. Very nice although I see you roughed it up so you didn't have all evens and its believable (WotC rules aren't quite for making your OWN world.)

[SlyGuyMcFly]

The maps are, as I expected, unbelieveably detailed. I don't think anyone will be lacking places to set their story. Ever.


I may have missed it, but I didn't see a scale on the map of the Naranj area. I could eyeball it comparing distances with the continental map I figure it'd be easier to just get Word of God Zeta.

[AlmostSkillfull]

I was just wondering how it is that Aazlai are not recognized as existing as per the sentient race population chart. The races listed there make up 100% of the sentient population. So how is it that Aizlai are not included. Are you guys not counting them as sentient, because if thats the case I feel somewhat offended.

[Shadow_Elf]

I was just wondering how it is that Aazlai are not recognized as existing as per the sentient race population chart. The races listed there make up 100% of the sentient population. So how is it that Aizlai are not included. Are you guys not counting them as sentient, because if thats the case I feel somewhat offended.

The "Sentient Race Population Chart" could be renamed the "Civilized Race Population Chart". In general, when talking about the "Player Races", Aazlai, Pahari, She-Da-Zhong, Dvernin and Shagals are excluded. I.e. the chart only references the break down of the voted in/main races.

[Zeta Kai]

I was just wondering how it is that Aazlai are not recognized as existing as per the sentient race population chart. The races listed there make up 100% of the sentient population. So how is it that Aizlai are not included. Are you guys not counting them as sentient, because if thats the case I feel somewhat offended.

As stated before, the total number of creatures with an Intelligence of more than 3 is 268,435,455. If you add up all of the player races' populations (which are likely rounded to the nearest thousand), you get a total of 268,360,000. The remainder of those two figures is 75,455, which is split up among the aazlai, the centaurs (desert & steppe), the dvernin, the pahari, shaghali, the she-da-zhong, & the vulture harpies.

That seems kinda low, but most of those races are fairly localized, fringe species, many of who have no civilization to speak of to pump their numbers up. I may tweak the numbers in the minor races' favor, but they were not forgotten. So don't get all offended about our discrimination against non-existent lion-men.

Forget everything that I said, Shadow_Elf has it right. It's the PC race chart, & those other guys don't count toward the total.

[Juhn]

There's a location named Abubu?

Am I detecting a subtle Aladdin reference?

[AlmostSkillfull]

Thank you for the clarification. The part I said I might take offense too is the notion that Aazlai aren't an intelligent race because ive been playing one for months. I understand why most of the player races would be considered more fringe. Although the numbers do seem a little low. Anyways I was just asking to make sure.

[Elfstone]

Skillful
I am curious as to where you got your banner <.<



I think the whole thing has a strong aladdin theme