Esharra -- World for New Campaign -- Cosmology and Origins

[Max_Killjoy]

Well, I had the idea for a campaign hit me, and the cosmology of the world would play a major role.

While there's more to it than this, I wanted to start with the pantheon of this world, who are collectively referred to as The Kataru. My main concern at this point is figuring out if I'm just completely overlooking anything in the pantheon itself.

I'll get more into their detailed nature and the origin of the world in later posts. For now -- the religion teaches that the Kataru brought order to the world when they threw down and laid low the Anzulli, the Great Abominations of the time before there was time. More on that (and the Anzulli) later.

I'm also interested in what people think this pantheon says about the culture that venerates them and the world those people live in.


Ersetuki, the Good Earth
Ehr-seht-ookee

Ersetuki is the tireless patron of family, of motherhood and children. The Great Earth Mother, she encourages large families, tempered only by the need to care for every child, and considers it the duty of all women to bring new life into the world. She teaches that family means more than the individual, and that every being must have and know their place in the greater family of all living things. She loves those who nurture domestic animals, even in knowing that those animals will be sacrificed to the good of the family.


Belumeru, the Green God
Belum-ehru

The Great Green Father, Belumeru is the god of the living cycle and the seeds of life. He looks with great favor on all plants, both in the wild places and in the fields, and on those who tend to them. Ersetuki is his mother-wife – in the newness of the year he is the son, and in the fullness of the seasons he is the father, repeating the cycle eternally. He teaches that the cycle of life is greater than all things, greater than any individual, and that a father must sacrifice everything for his family if that is what’s needed. He views those who try to escape their greater fates with scorn.


Ebabarra, the Eternal Sun
Eh-ba-bahr-ah

Ebebarra is the goddess of the sun, of life-sustaining light and warmth. She is the eternal pure light of truth, and she hates even the kindest wavering from unrelenting honesty. She brings the soft touch of a warm day and the inferno of purgation, the spring thaw and the killing drought. She lovingly encourages perfection, and mercilessly demands it. She only relents from her burning stare because the other gods demand it.


Ninagal-ea, Lord of the Great Waters
Nihn-ah-gahl-eeah

The oceans, seas, and great rivers are the domain of Ninagal-ea, and he is the patron of those mortals who work that domain. His favor is the bounty of the waters, his wrath is the raging storm, the great wave, and the hungry deep. The waters are plentiful, but can be uncaring, and their vastness and power dwarf any man.


Kagal-eunir, the Lawbringer
Kah-gahl-eeoo-neer

Kagal-eunir is the patron of ordered life, of law and cities. He favors all things well planned, the life lived with calm foresight, and laws written wisely. He loves justice, and teaches that law and process followed rightly always reveals truth and always leads to justice. He teaches that there is a right order in all things, and that mortals fight it at their peril; a place for everyone and everyone in their place.


Tabannusi, the Maker
Tahb-ahn-noo-see

Tabannusi is the goddess of hearth and forge, of crafts and industry. She favors the making of things and the pureness of hard work done well. The making of things is her concern, less than the rewards that might come from it or the resources used; she teaches that work well done should be its own reward, and that no amount of effort is excessive in the making of things.


Wasu-harrani, the Wanderer
Wahsoo-hahrahni

Wasu-harrani is the god of travel, freedom, and revelry, who teaches that those who wander are not lost. The Wanderer demands a laissez-faire world with no restrictions, and no law beyond “do what thou wilt” and “don’t get caught.” He favors those who travel, explore, and never tie themselves down. He is the god of severed bonds, but also of severed ties – loathing slavery but also skeptical of family and government.


Hurasamaltu, Prince of Plenty
Hur-ah-sahm-altoo

The Price of Plenty is the god of ambition, opulence, wealth, and luxury. He teaches that deprivation and unfulfilled needs are unnecessary evils, to be avoided through the accumulation of wealth and power. The fullest coffers, the finest things, and the greatest indulgences please him, but never so much as those who always strive for more regardless of how much they have. His followers struggle between the wanton avarice and gluttony of endless accumulation and consumption, and the grand generosity that leaves no doubt as to their righteous wealth.


Kashavti, the Dark and the Light
Kah-shav-tee

Kashavti is the goddess of the great cold -- the Grey Lady of winter’s grasp, the embrace of night, and the chill of death. The black night sky and the white snows are hers, as are the stars and the strange lights of the north. She brings killing freezes and winter storms, but also relief from the relentless heat of summer. Her embrace can kill and her wrath is the endless white death, but she is also the guide, protector, and judge of the dead, seeing them through her frozen realm to whatever next awaits them.


Sharur, the Wild Hunt
Shah-roor

Sharur is the patron of hunters, the protector of wild things, and the master of wild places. The untouched and the unspoiled are her domain. As the cities and farms grow, she is the ruthless force of nature that constantly presses back. As most of the other gods push mortals to take, and use, and expand, and control, she demands restraint, chiding mortals to only take as much as can regrow. And yet she is also the bloody-minded goddess of wild abandon and survival of the fittest, her only mercy a quick ending for the taken prey.



So, please let me know what you think.

[Max_Killjoy]

The Anzillu

Anzillu… the very word means “Abomination”. The devout followers of the Kataru offer a litany of euphemisms and epithets… “Sorrows of Esharra”, “The Vanquished”, “Most Unclean”. In the days of legend, these malevolent alien spirits were pretender gods, called upon in arcane bloody rites of worship by the wicked, the foolish, and the desperate.

To end the unholy chaos, and bring righteous order to the world, the true gods of the Kataru threw down the Anzillu long ago, in a struggle that shook the worlds, boiled seas, and split the land asunder. Those men and women who would not foreswear their worship of the Anzillu and make penance were put to death, to cleanse the world and serve as an example to others. To call them “gods” now is to blaspheme against the true gods, and to offer them worship would be a useless act punishable by death or worse, in this life and the beyond.

The names they are now known by may come from some dead language spoken by a people long since lost, or may be actual names from among the many they deigned to share with mortals. Their individual epithets date to that ancient time when they still moved in the world, and speak to the sense of disquiet they must have evoked… the sense of being followed in the dark, of something staring from the forest, of movement just outside one’s vision, of reaching into a dark space that might be full of… things.


Narzalak, Haunter of the Outer Depths

Nerzhalmanis, the Watcher in the Wilds

Evettazi, the Waking Dreamer

Ravishu, the Lurker in the Stars

Zarruzassa, the King in Scarlet

Nekel of the Countless Eyes

Kalesh Sarrat Irkalli, Leige of the Demon March

Avsu, the Creeping Doom

[AtlasSniperman]

Looks cool.
I look forward to seeing more.

Are you intending to build more of the campaign setting or is this as far as you think you'll go?

[Max_Killjoy]

Looks cool.
I look forward to seeing more.

Are you intending to build more of the campaign setting or is this as far as you think you'll go?

I intend to build quite a bit more -- there's quite a bit more in my head and in scratch notes as it is, I just need to get it written out in "good" long form like that first post.


Any thoughts on the pantheon as presented? Any major "areas of interest" missing between the various deities of the Kataru, that you noticed?

What do you think this pantheon says about the culture that venerates them and the world those people live in?

[Max_Killjoy]

Added detail on the Anzillu.


This isn't really final form -- I'm hoping for some feedback as I get more of the ideas posted, and then write the final versions. Any comment on things that might be missing from the pantheon of the Kataru, or thoughts on the Anzillu, or what sort of world and culture(s) the posted material might suggest, would be quite welcome.

[Max_Killjoy]

Once I have the actual pantheon set, I'm going to write out a longer version for each that's focused more on mortal beliefs -- sometimes conflicting -- than it is on the objective "behind the curtain" nature of each deity and their history.


Some of the things I've been reading while working on this cosmology and pantheon. Variable quality.

http://www.5mwd.com/archives/485
https://chalybsanimus.wordpress.com/...ade-into-gods/
http://www.gamegrene.com/node/465
http://inkwellideas.com/worldbuildin...ligion-design/

Cosmology
Cosmogony


And of course, these great threads by LudicSavant:

Spoiler

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http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...the-First-Lich
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...ng-of-the-Gods
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...take-on-Nerull
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...thnul-the-Many
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...take-on-Hextor
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...olth-Lady-Luck
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...-on-Olidammara

[Max_Killjoy]

Still waiting to hear back from the potential players with their feedback, but roughly this is what I'm thinking for the region of Esharra that I'd set this in.


Politically, the region is comprised of city-states, each of which will control an area a few days travel around itself, with surrounding villages and watchposts. (I'm trying to find good info on the typical territorial area controlled or influenced by a Sumerian or Greek city-state historically).

Geographically, there will be a range from thick primeval forests, to marshlands, to broad lush plains, to an area where the only water comes from a turpan/karez system, to great chains of mountains with glaciers -- laid out with latitude, altitude and weather patterns that will allow all this to exist within a more condensed area than one might expect.

Technologically, I'm thinking early-ish iron-age, but with the use of low/practical magic allowing some otherwise anachronistic features, and playing up things like ancient mechanisms (Antikythera, et al). Medicine will be more advanced in some ways, with herbal and alchemical concoctions having stronger and more reliable effect due to the nature of the world, etc.

Culturally, there's going to be some diversity between the city-states and sub-regions, but I'm also going to mashup a wide range of iron-age cultures and give it my own twist to come up with the common elements first. (This is going to include some reasons that women aren't as universally regarded as second-class as in much of our real history -- religious reasons, see medicine above, etc.)

There will be other species/"races" besides humans, but they won't be at all common in the cities. Wilders (kinda sorta wild elves) in the deep forests, some sort of beast-men instead of generic orcs etc, and some more exotic things I'm considering ("plant people", etc).

Religion, I want to have a definite "dawn of civilization" feeling, as untouched as possible by monotheistic or dualistic concepts, Hellenistic philosophical examination, etc. Along with deity-worship there will be animism and ancestor veneration blended in.

[Cyclopean]

Reading over this again, I've noticed there's no sky deity. Ebabarra could perhaps fill that role, or you could just do without; there's no rule saying that for every Earth Mother, there must be a Sky Father. Leaving Ebabarra as the sole deity with a celestial domain would expand the association I'm noticing between the night sky and certain Anzillu. Maybe the sky is not revered because it is feared, but why would that be? Perhaps the people in this setting spent most of their evolutionary history in forests or some other environment with obscured heavens. An open sky would become associated with the unfamiliar--not to mention the risk of dragons attacks by aerial predators.

[Max_Killjoy]

Reading over this again, I've noticed there's no sky deity. Ebabarra could perhaps fill that role, or you could just do without; there's no rule saying that for every Earth Mother, there must be a Sky Father. Leaving Ebabarra as the sole deity with a celestial domain would expand the association I'm noticing between the night sky and certain Anzillu. Maybe the sky is not revered because it is feared, but why would that be? Perhaps the people in this setting spent most of their evolutionary history in forests or some other environment with obscured heavens. An open sky would become associated with the unfamiliar--not to mention the risk of dragons attacks by aerial predators.

I've been dithering over whether to add a "storm god". The "cosmological pairing" for the earth goddess in this pantheon is the green god, so that's taken care of. The daylight sky goes with the sun goddess, and the nighttime sky right now goes with the goddess of cold and darkness.

So it would specifically be a storm god, not a sky father.

Spoiler: Secret Origins spoiled below

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On the off chance that one of my potential players is on these forums... spoiler tagged.

While these deities claim to be the always-were gods of the setting, in truth, they aren't. While I haven't decided if there were actual creator gods in the distant past, but they're certainly long gone now. These gods are basically ancestor spirits cranked up to 11 by being the ultra-renowned heroes of the ancient past, revered by entire "nations" instead of just their families; their legends grew until they became gods in the minds of the people, so they became actual gods.

They did in fact defeat the Anzillu and imprison them in the lost places of the world, but that had a lot to do with the Anzillu being rival "gods". The Anzillu were the primordial entities that were once "infinite formlessness, infinitely subdivided and infinitely whole", who were diminished into finite entities by the rise of "the living universe", because "life is order, life demands order", and then sort of "played along" out of boredom, malice, curiosity, and other alien motivations when mortals (like human beings) started giving them these long-winded titles and supposed attributes.

[Max_Killjoy]

OK -- specific sorts feedback that I'm looking for:

What do people think of "iron-age" cultures and time period as the basis for a game setting, as a change from the bog-standard faux-Medieval setting or pan-Asian-mashup setting? It changes the sorts of weapon and armor that are available, appropriate styles of magic, characters' social norms, etc.

Does using city-states, spread out, with much of the world still untamed by mortal hands, make for a good game setting?

Any huge objections to not including the "standard" demi-human races? Any races/species that make a lot of sense for a setting like this?

Is there anything blatantly missing from the pantheon of the Kataru? It's not designed to be a "follow this god is you're an X" or "revere this god if you're alignment F" pantheon, but rather a holistic group of deities with a common origin, covering areas of human concern, and not fixated on good-vs-evil the way some fantasy RPG pantheons are.

[Max_Killjoy]

Does anyone have any good "starting points" to recommend for a species/race of "plant people"?

[Cyclopean]

Other than what I already mentioned I don't see anything "missing" from the Kataru. Of course, ancient polytheistic pantheons had countless small gods, but you seem set as far as major figures go.

I can attest that widely dispersed city-states work well--my favorite GM's setting uses them, although the level of tech and abundance of magic are both considerably higher than what you appear to be going for here. I've never played in a setting going for more of an iron-age feel, so I can't speak with as much authority there, but I will always approve attempts to make something other than a Generic Middle-Ages European Fantasy Setting. I'm curious what you mean by "different styles of magic." Do you mean you think you'd have to refluff spellbooks?

As far as races go, you can do pretty much whatever you want. The only reason I can think of to take pains to include a certain race would be if you know one or more of your players will want to play one. As far as plant-based races go, Pathfinder has the Ghoran and I'm sure D&D has like six that I'm too lazy to dig up. Personally, I'm fond of the Sylvari from Guild Wars 2.

[Max_Killjoy]

Other than what I already mentioned I don't see anything "missing" from the Kataru. Of course, ancient polytheistic pantheons had countless small gods, but you seem set as far as major figures go.

I can attest that widely dispersed city-states work well--my favorite GM's setting uses them, although the level of tech and abundance of magic are both considerably higher than what you appear to be going for here. I've never played in a setting going for more of an iron-age feel, so I can't speak with as much authority there, but I will always approve attempts to make something other than a Generic Middle-Ages European Fantasy Setting. I'm curious what you mean by "different styles of magic." Do you mean you think you'd have to refluff spellbooks?

As far as races go, you can do pretty much whatever you want. The only reason I can think of to take pains to include a certain race would be if you know one or more of your players will want to play one. As far as plant-based races go, Pathfinder has the Ghoran and I'm sure D&D has like six that I'm too lazy to dig up. Personally, I'm fond of the Sylvari from Guild Wars 2.

I was thinking about having a local minor "patron god" for each of the city-states as well, to add some more color.


Regarding magic -- first, what sources we have for ancient Near Eastern and general Iron-age "magical practices" have a different flavor from the Hermetic/Fantasy magic of D&D, and second, I want to curtail the prevalence and access to big flashy magic so that it doesn't become the "spellcasters and then other people" show.