As promised, my latest work is an attempt to make a fleshed out place for githyanki, githzerai, and mind flayers in L4W. Central themes for this island are war, racial history, psionics, and destiny.
Ea
A few decades ago, in the deepest reaches of illithid society an elder brain came to know a terrible prophecy that would spell doom of its kind: the Liberator of the gith would return.
In ancient times the illithids had a grand empire that spanned worlds, but the slaves that came to be known as gith rose against them under the guidance of a legendary figure and the empire was no more. She was the Liberator, the Deliverer.
The site of Her return is now believed to have been located on a grand island and an immense invading illithid force has arrived to conquer it. Kingdoms of mortals have been enthralled and the search begun, yet soon after they have been followed by their ancestral enemies – the githyanki and the githzerai. The sundered descendants intend to eradicate the illithids and find the Liberator, though neither side will allow the other to succeed.
Now war wages between gith and illithid and gith between, as it always have been. Yet the battleground is mortal land, far removed from their planar homes. No one knows for sure if the Liberator truly will or has returned, nor what she or the three parties will do if it happens. Some say she will cleanse the illithids from time itself, others that she will be broken and become their tool to bring the end of her divided people. Most githyanki would rally under her while many githzerai would seal her away forevermore. A few dare speculate that she will unite the giths and make them one people again.
Whatever the truth, this war between masters and slaves rages as it never has before and may never will again - a confrontation to decide their fate across worlds.
Regional Layout
The island battle field is Ea; a huge land mass bordering on continental size with more than a dozen small nations. Three dominant factions make war on each others, generally known as the githyanki armada of Neth Ar’Gith, the githzerai crusaders of Zeabutar, and the illithid Xelgonne Enclave; together they currently occupy more than half of all Ea’s lands. A few other factions also have significant influence on the war and geopolitical landscape, including the human Letheon Liberation Front, the controversial gith Reconciliation, and the mysterious aberrations of the Sign of Illiz, but these mostly operate beyond the public eye, rarely mustering more than strategic guerilla skirmishes on the larger parties.
Exact holdings vary frequently as territory is constantly conquered and lost by one side or the other, and though some kingdoms have been reduced to broken wastelands in the wake of war, a few isolated domains and city-states remain seemingly independent. A handful of major ports and cities are clinging to their sovereignty due to ever-increasing fortifications, particularly defensible locations, little tactical importance, or loose deals with one of the three greater factions.
The Imperial Armada of Neth Ar’Gith
So devoted to their cause that collective military operations have been named based on the return of the Liberator, the ruthless Neth Ar’Gith armada represents command of all expeditionary githyanki forces sent to the island on behalf of their Astral empire.
Though numerous fortresses and ground forces secure the regions they occupy, a pivotal share of githyanki military strength lies in the actual armada – a fleet of massive flying warships and a few wings of red dragons that have transported the expeditionary forces from their planar homes. Githyanki central command operates out of the Silverwind Citadel, a royal castle of the local occupied nation now rebuilt and reinforced to better serve expeditionary command. The bulk manpower consists of well-trained soldiers, but also features a great share of command over arcane magic and psionics. Non-githyankis are few and far between, though the stakes of this war have driven command of both gith races to enlist elite mercenaries – dragonborn are tolerated more than most in the armada, possibly as a special extension of the pact the githyankis have with red dragons.
The githyanki represents a merciless and xenophobic war-machine, though they remain honor-driven and dedicated. Few if any prisons are employed in their territory – they despise slavery and rarely take captives. Githyanki do not go out of their way to eliminate parties unrelated to illithids or githzerai, but those who get in their way are shown no mercy.
The Holy Crusade of Zeabutar
Though the githzerai are generally not a people of conquest and warfare, they prioritize racial history no less than their aggressive related enemies. Hailing from otherworldly homes of discipline amidst chaos, the decree of Zeabutar was made upon news of the Liberator’s coming return: To find Her and ensure She never become a weapon for neither githyanki nor illithid to wield. How exactly the council of grand masters operating out of the so-called Sanctity of Self-Realization seeks to accomplish this goal is anyone’s guess.
Some githzerai crusaders have taken to this cause as a holy meeting with destiny, the moment where the true identity of their kin will be resolved – the introspective nature of their people taken to the extreme. Not everyone holds to such devotion of the decree, but all gith have enough motivation in the fact that the hated mind flayers are nested here and need to be eradicated.
Most Ea nations conquered by githzerais have over time been stripped down to only feature sparse pragmatic necessities befitting of their ascetic nature, and the commodities channeled to support the war. The occupied countryside now features tons of hidden warcamps and monasteries, where squads of warriors, monks, and assassins enact surgical strikes at their foes. Many refugees survive when they are driven from their home, though they feel no less animosity towards this strain of giths as their cultural history and art slowly fades out of existence.
The Xelgonne Enclave
Though the illithid invasion of central Ea sparked the war, it was not as such a military campaign to begin with and few actual battles were fought when the first kingdoms fell. Like most of their kin, the mind flayers of the powerful Xelgonne Enclave work best when operating from the shadows, enthralling high-ranking subjects and using the influence of their new puppets to reach higher, until finally the effective ruling class is under their firm control. By the time the gith races had arrived in force, the illithids had extended their will over the minor nations of central Ea, gathering their strength to invade the land where it was believed the Liberator would return – the mighty human kingdom of Letheon.
The kingdom was conquered only by overt force which the enclave paid for with knowledge of its existence to many of Ea’s courts. At present, the illithids maintain as much façade within their borders as can be mustered without compromising defenses and are believed to have agents throughout the grand island. Though those who now walk within the enclave’s territory may not always see illithids in the streets, the empty looks of city captains and the sightings of enthralled monsters that patrol the wilderness leave no doubt that much is amiss.
The Xelgonne Enclave currently focuses on repelling the endless assaults from all sides, experimental programs to create enhanced battle-thralls (“perfecting the mistake that was the giths”), and infiltrating and corrupting other nations, but most importantly they are searching for the site where the Liberator should return. Some say they are progressing through forgotten trapped tombs under the mountains, others that they are scavenging the endless wild plains. A few whisper that the Liberator has already been captured and is in the progress of being turned into a perfect weapon, while others say she is hidden within Letheon unknowing of her true identity.
The central hold of the enclave is believed to be underground somewhere near the ruined royal castle of Letheon, if only by the massive concentration of military strength there. The kingdom has been greatly corrupted over the years, featuring bountiful but poisonous fields fertilized by decerebrated corpses, failed illithid experiments that have escaped, and scorched sites where gith agents have penetrated in force.
The Reconciliation
Ever since they have been known as the githyanki and githzerai the two have been at war, and to treat the opposing side as less than an enemy is a crime both punish with death. There are giths who dare reject this fundament, however, even at the risk of their lives. Such exiles are usually hunted down and killed, and most survivors live a life on the run. Some work against the eternal war, however, envisioning a time where the two people will become as one again. The Reconciliation is such a manifestation, an organization that has come to believe the return of the Liberator may be the event that can realize unity.
The Reconciliation faces many challenges on Ea, both from the inside and beyond. They have not the strength to seriously challenge any of the three greater factions, they seek to convert rather than harm their conservative brethren, they constantly must resolve irreconcilable cultural differences, and they are widely split on how to accomplish these goals and to what extent. Those who still cling close to tradition have trouble congregating with their counterparts for more than strategic planning and missions in the field, while others have gone as far as develop intimate relations that would be considered blasphemous among the armada and crusaders.
Still, the Reconciliation is growing and has had significant success in recruitment on Ea, as many giths have been swayed by the perspective that a united front can prevent the Liberator falling into illithid hands. The group works in secret beyond both armada and crusader territory, but has spies in the camps of their brethren. They live and die by the mantra “Under One Sky”, used as a greeting, a battle cry, and a philosophical pillar of belief.
The Letheon Liberation Front
The ancient human kingdom of Letheon had long been the dominating force on Ea, but the Xelgonne Enclave changed that in less than a decade. The king had suspected the slow corruption of his neighboring nations but knew not how to counteract it, and with the arrival of the giths the illitihds changed their strategy for Letheon from subtle infiltration to open warfare.
Massive brainwashed armies marched on Letheon to consolidate control of the countryside before the giths could establish themselves on Ea, but the humans were strong of mind and spirit, and repelled onslaughts both through arms and mental assault. In the end, their king learned the truth behind his enemy and sent agents all over Ea to expose the illithid threat for what is was. When finally his mountain castle was penetrated, the king forced a hopeless battle to die in such a manner that he never himself become a tool to be used.
Now operating mostly as exiles in other nations, the Letheon Liberation Front seeks to do the impossible and regain their homeland. Though the heir to the throne was enthralled and poses as the current monarch, other princes escaped to lead the rebels and strike back when given the chance. Though they share a mutual enemy with the gith factions, relations remain mistrustful at best. What shaky alliances have been made are doomed to fail as the armada and crusaders war on each other and both desire the prize in Letheon as well.
Design Notes
I think Ea serves best as a Far Land since the intended scale of warfare is significant, so you want it distant enough that it doesn’t noticeably spill over to the proximate isles (the design principle of modularity). On the other hand, it is intended as a major source of origin for githyankis, githzerais, and other psionically flavored or gith-related creatures (incl many aberrants and red dragons), so you might want it close enough to reach by a long sea voyage and thus a Near Land.
I’ve tried to allow for the possibility of playing on a lot of githyanki, githzerai and mind flayer lore. For instance, the poisonous fields near the enclave’s seat of power is a reference to Torment’s Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon (2nd circle), while the phrase “Under One Sky” plays on the “Pronouncement of Two Skies”.
I originally envisioned the humans of Letheon as actually being the “unspoiled” descendants of the same humans who also became the gith, adding a sense of destiny that the giths are returning home in a way, and a sense of tragedy that these lands are being crushed by the war. I was planning to convey this idea through more than hints that the humans have strong willpower and resolve and are driven to overthrow their oppressors, but I didn’t want to be too overt so that DMs don’t have to use these elements if they don’t like it.
I tried to avoid IP worries by never directly naming the Liberator as Gith, never calling the ‘yanki-‘zerai feud the “War of Two Skies”, and so on, but do tell me if I’m overtly concerned.
Major credit for inspiration and the names of Ar'Gith and the Reconciliation goes to Azure of Planewalker.com.
Last edited by Dunamin; 10th September 2008 at 11:07 PM..
Looks interesting. I'd say Ea would have to be far, far from Daunton so as to keep the modularity. Gith can still leave Ea for Daunton (via ship, portal, whatever), to find the Liberator, escape the endless war, or whatever.
__________________ Gary Hoggatt - www.garyh.net "Such heroic nonsense..."
You just gave me my Gityanki girl's backround and origin. She is the daughter of A 'yanki mother and a 'zerai father who are part of the Reconciliation. They spirited her away as a baby to let her grow up in peace, but trained her hard for war. Gee, can her kicker be that she IS the Liberator?! Maybe her parents died when she was young and somebody else raised her for war when her parents only wanted to teach her about peace. So many fun possibilities. The wheels are turning now!
You just gave me my Gityanki girl's backround and origin. She is the daughter of A 'yanki mother and a 'zerai father who are part of the Reconciliation. They spirited her away as a baby to let her grow up in peace, but trained her hard for war. Gee, can her kicker be that she IS the Liberator?! Maybe her parents died when she was young and somebody else raised her for war when her parents only wanted to teach her about peace. So many fun possibilities. The wheels are turning now!
Thanks, glad you like it!
Actually, I think it’s very possible to play a character that believes she is the Liberator, though it would definitely be a very dangerous game if she poses with that to the wrong people.
Consider this: The Liberator is the central prize of the war, the reason most of them came – by now, seasoned soldiers who know nothing but warring on Ea probably believe the Liberator can snap her fingers and create miracles. It’s a very real possibility that if the Liberator returns she will not be recognized for what she is (if she is), because her legend has been elevated to such heights.
Design Notes
I think Ea serves best as a Far Land since the intended scale of warfare is significant, so you want it distant enough that it doesn’t noticeably spill over to the proximate isles (the design principle of modularity). On the other hand, it is intended as a major source of origin for githyankis, githzerais, and other psionically flavored or gith-related creatures (incl many aberrants and red dragons), so you might want it close enough to reach by a long sea voyage and thus a Near Land.
I appreciate you taking the read the modularity section (it's kinda hard to get through) and I agree with your analysis; it would function best as a far land.
That would also allow us to make gith quite rare and give us some flexibility dealing with psionics etc. should the books be adopted.
Also, while I love this sort of thing, the whole psionic transplanar invading psionic armies thing could put off some gamers who prefer a more "traditional" world.
If we want to step up and bring Ea closer to Duanton for either a shorter period or a more extended period (maybe a mini-adventure path around paragon tier) the degree of sophistication they currently have works well. It's possible they could open portals or similar.
I also like the idea of having a powerful transplanar empire because it operates as a nice offset to the Imperium. Arcane/divine magic vs psionics; mind control vs persuasion/social controls; eladrin vs illithids works for me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dunamin
I’ve tried to allow for the possibility of playing on a lot of githyanki, githzerai and mind flayer lore. For instance, the poisonous fields near the enclave’s seat of power is a reference to Torment’s Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon (2nd circle), while the phrase “Under One Sky” plays on the “Pronouncement of Two Skies”.
I originally envisioned the humans of Letheon as actually being the “unspoiled” descendants of the same humans who also became the gith, adding a sense of destiny that the giths are returning home in a way, and a sense of tragedy that these lands are being crushed by the war. I was planning to convey this idea through more than hints that the humans have strong willpower and resolve and are driven to overthrow their oppressors, but I didn’t want to be too overt so that DMs don’t have to use these elements if they don’t like it.
I tried to avoid IP worries by never directly naming the Liberator as Gith, never calling the ‘yanki-‘zerai feud the “War of Two Skies”, and so on, but do tell me if I’m overtly concerned.
I love Torment. Torment is the best game ever. If you've played torment it's physically painful to look at any other bioware game. They are all pale shadows.
I force people I barely know to borrow Torment from me and play.
Appreciate you thinking about the IP issues. WotC has been so weird on IP stuff oaver the past few years. Hopefully it'll be better in 4th. They are supposed to produce some sort of "fan site rules" soon. I hope it's not draconian. That would be supremely annoying.
IP thoughts
I think, actually, that using stuff like "the war of two skies" and 'zeramon is probably "better" than using wizard's pure IP. Any way you cut Bioware should have some rights there (I think). A fan derivative of a computer game based on 2nd edition DnD and a discontinued setting in the roleplaying space is less likely to be seen as a direct challenge to ther IP.
Maybe?
I dunno. The whole thing gives me a headache.
One thing about Illithids
I kinda still think there ought to be some sort of "intermediary" between Illithids and their puppets. I feel like they should be "rare masterminds". I suppose it's a question of degree/perception.
It would be easy to explain by saying that "Part of the prophesy suggests that if Illithids were to return en mass the humans of Ea would all spontanously develop psionic powers, possibily forming a massive unimind whose might could threaten the illithid collective itself.
That would explain why Illithids took humans of Ea stock before, but didn't subjegate them en mass until they were forced to by events. Exposure to psionic energy triggers their latent power, often making them difficult to control (not a problem in small groups, but it's contageous.... so if a psionic human gets free, over time they could potentially "awaken" more and more Ea)
Likewise the Gith could be looking for some way to activate the unimind. The Githyanki could be planning on triggering some sort of apocalypse and having their queen absorb the death-tinged psionic energy to acheive true godhood.
The Githzerai could be hoping to elevate the Ea as a race, developing a powerful ally that accepts their philosophy and guidance and can put down the Illithids and the Githyanki once and for all.
Its really a minor point.
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I am in an interesting period of my life; I will post in games that I run three times a week (M,W,F); and try to maintain obligations in existing games.
...disquieting...
There was no end to his patience and endurance. He played day and night, his obsession was somewhat disquieting. It was less as if he were playing to dispel gloom or beguile tedium than as if he were giving himself up to the fangs of gaming devils."
Kawabata Yasunari - The Master of Go
I agree on pretty much everything you said, Graf (thanks for the compliments by the way).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Graf
I love Torment. Torment is the best game ever. If you've played torment it's physically painful to look at any other bioware game. They are all pale shadows.
I force people I barely know to borrow Torment from me and play.
You and I think alike on this. Torment is simply one of the best stories in a game, ever. The dialogue in it can be so deep and witty I want to hug it. I use music from Torment to the set mood at some of my D&D games, but I usually lose my focus because it makes me reminisce moments in the game.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Graf
I kinda still think there ought to be some sort of "intermediary" between Illithids and their puppets. I feel like they should be "rare masterminds". I suppose it's a question of degree/perception.
I had intended to use foulspawn primarily for the Sign of Illiz (the writeup seemed long enough as is so I cut out their notes for now), but perhaps some could also serve under the flayers. That would fill in a nice gap since foulspawns are levels 8-12 and illithids 14-19.
I was also thinking intellect devourers and neogi might be thematically appropriate as intermediaries between thrall and illithid, but they’re not in the first MM.
The unimind idea is very interesting and could serve as a nice basis for an Ea campaign. I have lots of ideas for plot concepts at the moment, so I’ll probably run a gith adventure or campaign for my first L4W game.
Last edited by Dunamin; 9th September 2008 at 08:38 AM..
I... agree with you about Neogi and Intellect Devourers. That's the sort of direction that I was headed. They both have a bit of baggage though and, of course, no rules, per se.
If I could put it in a sentence: Illithids are the "big evil" and are served by patsies; so lower level threats (thinking like levels 3-5) would involve, generally speaking, fighting "good people turned bad by mind control".
It's fantastic, from a tragic drama standpoint. But DnD players will, generally speaking, prefer to fight evil guys at least for "final fights". Obviously you can punt a bit, and have evil-mind-controlled-wizards-who-were-evil-before or corrupted-githyanki; or "astrally projecting illithids who are much weaker" or something like that.
Or we could work to create something like the blues, (the psionic goblins from 3.x). Improved version of an existing evil race (somewhat like ogre -> ogre magi).
There's a lot of goblinoid material but goblins are solidly "entry level".
They could be psionic enough to be powerful, but not so psionically gifted to be a threat.
You will probably see a lot of interest if you run a gith related game. Just a hunch.
__________________
Interested in playing 4th edition online? The Living 4th EnWorld Campaign is open! [character creationwikiforum]
I am in an interesting period of my life; I will post in games that I run three times a week (M,W,F); and try to maintain obligations in existing games.
...disquieting...
There was no end to his patience and endurance. He played day and night, his obsession was somewhat disquieting. It was less as if he were playing to dispel gloom or beguile tedium than as if he were giving himself up to the fangs of gaming devils."
Kawabata Yasunari - The Master of Go
If I could put it in a sentence: Illithids are the "big evil" and are served by patsies; so lower level threats (thinking like levels 3-5) would involve, generally speaking, fighting "good people turned bad by mind control".
It's fantastic, from a tragic drama standpoint. But DnD players will, generally speaking, prefer to fight evil guys at least for "final fights". Obviously you can punt a bit, and have evil-mind-controlled-wizards-who-were-evil-before or corrupted-githyanki; or "astrally projecting illithids who are much weaker" or something like that.
Agreed, though I think the DM is pretty free to use whatever opponents he likes, be they normally good or bad - illithids don't much care about their slaves' old role if they fit their new role.
You can even mix such groups without having to worry about whether it makes sense for them to work together. They're enslaved: they're usually there simply because the illithids thought it would make an effective defence.
Classicly evil critters may actually be more frequent at the borders, since efficiency takes particular precedence here (and a mentally coordinated squad of orcs would work wonders). War is very often about tragic drama, however, so I think there's ample room to have "old friends turned foes" moments.
"Astrally projecting illithids" sounds like a nice explanation for using a delevelled mind flayer.
I tried to restructure it so it reads like the view of someone from Daunton; probably with mixed results.
I haven't (I don't think) added anything outside of your initial post.
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Interested in playing 4th edition online? The Living 4th EnWorld Campaign is open! [character creationwikiforum]
I am in an interesting period of my life; I will post in games that I run three times a week (M,W,F); and try to maintain obligations in existing games.
...disquieting...
There was no end to his patience and endurance. He played day and night, his obsession was somewhat disquieting. It was less as if he were playing to dispel gloom or beguile tedium than as if he were giving himself up to the fangs of gaming devils."
Kawabata Yasunari - The Master of Go
Actually, I think it’s very possible to play a character that believes she is the Liberator, though it would definitely be a very dangerous game if she poses with that to the wrong people.
Consider this: The Liberator is the central prize of the war, the reason most of them came – by now, seasoned soldiers who know nothing but warring on Ea probably believe the Liberator can snap her fingers and create miracles. It’s a very real possibility that if the Liberator returns she will not be recognized for what she is (if she is), because her legend has been elevated to such heights.
Actually, I was thinking more that she could be the Liberator, but not know it. My take is that very few people in stories realize as the story is happening that they will become legends. About the only one I can think of is Frodo and Sam in Lord of the Rings joking about how people will tell stories about them in the future and kinda realizing that what they were doing really WAS that important to history. I'm betting her parents wouldn't even know that she was the Liberator. Maybe she just has an obscure birthmark which the original Liberator also had. But how many would know that? Just about nobody.
Also, with Ea being here in the mortal realm, the Githyanki and Githzerai lose one of their biggest advantages- near immortality. In previous editions, they lived only in the Astral/Etheral (one of those) where time didn't pass. So they only aged when they went raiding in the Prime. Not sure if the current Astral Sea is timeless like that or not. Since they are kind of cut off from their main empires anyway it would change things socially some I would think. Maybe alot more focus on procreating to keep up the force of fighters needed for the war to continue?
Gotta get to work for now. I'll come back and post more later if I think of anything.
I don't think that we should designate someone as liberator at 1st level. Or at any level. If you're still playing her after 20 levels and we get to the point where the character and the world have developed to a degree that having a massively powerful PC uniting the gith against the illithids is where we want to take the campaign then Dunamin, or whoever's been overseeing everything, should get all the effected DMs and Players together and see what would be best for everyone in the setting.
I have seen literally dozens of "Joe Bob is the chosen one" games go up in smoke.
It's frustrating for the other players, it limits the DMs options, if the player drops out or gets bored of their character the whole campaign stops making sense.
I have heard stories about it working too, but those are usually very tight real world groups with one DM who runs the game for years. And even then the DM struggles a lot with the tension; very few people want to play the-guy-who-carries-king-arthur's-standard.
This is a living game. People may differentiate themselves in play in one way or another, but starting off someone as the equivalent of a gith messiah?
I just don't think that's the way that a living campaign should be structured.
I am fine, of course, with people playing around with the idea of you being the liberator in character. You could have a Githzerai monk who's convinced that you're the messiah, or weird prophesies related to you, etc.
But just saying OOC at the start of the campaign "I'm Jesus Christ to Gith" is a bit overboard; especially in a living setting where there will be other people playing Gith characters who may want elements of ambiguity or to focus on something besides your character.
Once someone is "the single perfect chosen one" it is very hard to get other players not to interpret it as "there is this one person, who is superbadassawesomedude, unlike your lame chumpy character. If you're lucky s/he will save you 'cause you can't do it yourself".
Torment used the whole Gith/liberator thing as a fulcrum to talk about the development of the self; that was what was compelling about it in story terms.
Spoiler - don't read if you haven't played torment, take a month off, play torment and come back
You could both gain enlightenment or at least travel toward it, and guide someone else along as well.
In the process undoing (or at least somewhat mitigating) a wrong you'd perpetrated ages ago.
Shifting the focus to some sort of external thing... ?
If I were the character judge and I got a submission along these grounds I might give the following suggestion(s)
Quote:
Personally I suggest making your kicker: Hunted by the Illithids (for reasons unknown).
You can play around with the idea you could be the Liberator, without really having the fact that you're Anakin Skywalker/Ran al'thor/Harry Potter be an immutable OOC statement.
__________________
Interested in playing 4th edition online? The Living 4th EnWorld Campaign is open! [character creationwikiforum]
I am in an interesting period of my life; I will post in games that I run three times a week (M,W,F); and try to maintain obligations in existing games.
...disquieting...
There was no end to his patience and endurance. He played day and night, his obsession was somewhat disquieting. It was less as if he were playing to dispel gloom or beguile tedium than as if he were giving himself up to the fangs of gaming devils."
Kawabata Yasunari - The Master of Go
Last edited by Graf; 10th September 2008 at 02:59 AM..
I was mostly joking about her ACTUALLY being THE Liberator. Just a fun idea, but as you've pointed out, no good way to make it be so starting from first level. All I can do currently is set her up to where she'd be a possible candidate for being the Liberator and go from there. But if I'm still playing her at level 20 then the levels better progress faster here than in LEW, because otherwise I'll be dying of old age!
I've always liked the idea of seeing the time of the Liberator come to pass though, and maybe in this world that can happen eventually. I don't think I'd even make her kicker "hunted by Illithids" because that implies a reason for them to be hunting her beyond the ordinary. Of course, we don't even know for sure yet if we are actually using 'kickers' (unless that was decided and I missed it). Although it would still be part of character backround/origin even if there isn't a 'kicker' mechanic.
I thought 20 was absurdly low level.
You want to become the Liberator, unite the githyanki and defeat the Illithids at heroic tier?
Frankly, I wouldn't really think much about becoming the liberator. It's not a viable goal for a perpetual setting.
There is a blog called Fragmented that tries to talk about story engines and status quos (he mostly does comic books but they share a serial nature with living DnD settings). You might want to look at his definition of false status quo
Quote:
Originally Posted by John Seavey
The rough idea of a false status quo is that it's a set-up for a series in which the central concept involves something that the protagonist is trying to resolve, something that would result in a dramatic change to the series' set-up if they ever did manage to fix whatever was wrong. (The classic example is 'The Fugitive', a series that revolved entirely around the hero's hunt for the one-armed man who killed his wife. Every week, he almost finds him, and every week, he fails, because the second he finds him, the series ends.)
In general, I've talked about false stati quo as something to avoid. This is simply because putting a false status quo into your story makes an implicit promise to your audience that it will be resolved, and that's not always something that you can follow through on. (All too many series have floundered after finally resolving their false status quo, and a few--'X-Files', I'm looking at you--faltered when the audience got sick of never getting their resolution.)
Once the messiah's done and brought peace to the world its a similar situation.
It's sorta cool for the player, but if a big chunk of the campaign's story engine has been removed and all the other players and DMs are supposed to stop running gith vs gith vs illithid stories?
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Interested in playing 4th edition online? The Living 4th EnWorld Campaign is open! [character creationwikiforum]
I am in an interesting period of my life; I will post in games that I run three times a week (M,W,F); and try to maintain obligations in existing games.
...disquieting...
There was no end to his patience and endurance. He played day and night, his obsession was somewhat disquieting. It was less as if he were playing to dispel gloom or beguile tedium than as if he were giving himself up to the fangs of gaming devils."
Kawabata Yasunari - The Master of Go
Like I said, don't worry about it. I'm not actually gonna touch the Liberator thing. I'll be happy enough to be part of the faction wanting peace between the two gith sides so they can focus on the tentacle faced enemies. That alone will give her plenty of enemies to keep her going for a long time without even thinking about other possible adventures and foes that could add to the mix.
Good thought on opening the wiki entry with a superficial overview from a Dauntonian perspective.
I understand the reason behind making a “secret history” separate from the main write-up but there’s one oddity: The rest of the entry was not written with that in mind. Though it may not be common in-game knowledge, reading the wiki will make it apparent (if not explicit) to players out-of-game that the enclave is an illithid organization and the war revolves around a messiah-like legendary figure.
The original opening chapter may be revealing about motivations of the powers that be, but it also provides a brief overview of what Ea is about. I’d recommend keeping it there so that players know what local adventures likely will be like, but add a few lines making it clear that this isn’t common knowledge. It’s probably a good idea to keep the enclave’s history in the secret department, however, since they are likely to be main antagonists in many games.
As to playing the Liberator, I think everything has been said here. It could be fantastic for a private solo game, but not a team game in a shared world. I wouldn’t discourage Phoenix from working with the idea, though; go ahead and make a gith to model Gith – why should it matter if she actually is recognized as such to the populace? If she reaches epic heights, has achieved greater unity among giths, and struck severe blows to illithids, she’s a legend in her own right – one that is real and tangible.
The rest of the entry was not written with that in mind.
Yeah. My time is finite.
I'd love to say I can perfect it, but honestly, there is so much of the wiki that needs to be re-written....
I agree with your suggestions but I still have to do the rest of Binder Fred's stuff, and there are whole other vectors of work that need to be done.
If you can make the time to brush it up that'll be fantastic, but for now my goal is to get down "something".
__________________
Interested in playing 4th edition online? The Living 4th EnWorld Campaign is open! [character creationwikiforum]
I am in an interesting period of my life; I will post in games that I run three times a week (M,W,F); and try to maintain obligations in existing games.
...disquieting...
There was no end to his patience and endurance. He played day and night, his obsession was somewhat disquieting. It was less as if he were playing to dispel gloom or beguile tedium than as if he were giving himself up to the fangs of gaming devils."
Kawabata Yasunari - The Master of Go
Maybe her parents died when she was young and somebody else raised her for war when her parents only wanted to teach her about peace. So many fun possibilities. The wheels are turning now! 
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