Plots & PlacesPost your PCs and NPCs for others to reference and enjoy. This is also an alternate location for long-term campaign and plot development. These can be system neutral or relate to any game or system.
For Every Three that are Visible, there is a Fourth that is Hidden
In the world of Runa, the elves worship three goddesses: the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone. Each one represents a stage of life and a stage of the lunar cycle.
In the world of Runa, the dwarves worship three gods; Fire, Water, and Earth. Each god represents an element and a compass point in which a dwarven stronghold stands. The dwarves build their kingdoms in the north, south, and west. They do not journey to the east.
In the world of Runa, it is common knowledge amongst the mortals that there were three sides to the ancient war: the Gods, the Primordials, and the Mortals.
The truth is, that there is a fourth goddess named the Raven Queen, and her domain is death. There is a fourth god named Air, and his stronghold lies forgotten in the east.
The truth is, there was a fourth side to the ancient war...
The Cosmic Masters were mercenaries and arms dealers who made deals with both the Primordials and the Gods and profited from both sides.
.....
In Runa, there are great machines called Dungeons that were constructed by the mysterious ancients. These machines distill chaotic energy and make it coagulate to form creatures called Monsters. These Monsters take pieces of random dreams and thoughts and use them to give themselves form.
Brave warriors called Adventurers must journey into the Dungeons to kill the monsters. The remains of these beasts can be disenchanted to produce a valuable magical substance called Marrow.
Armies have fought and died for thousands of years to control the production of Marrow.
A new army rises from the east. They are a coalition of wild humans and orcs from Yarg lead by three mages:
Wu breeds dire animals and super soldiers for battle. Aare mass produces undead by the thousands. Raux creates machines of war and experiments in implanting weaponry into living and undead test subjects.
This army comes to invade the Dungeon of Saiko, already contested between Goblins and the kingdom of Otiiv.
Only a small group of Adventurers can save the day...
I love the sound of your setting, and the tagline idea of "for every three, a hidden fourth". (Which obviously applies to these wizards, too, eh? )
Actually I love it so much that I think I'll steal it.
But I think your presentation of Dungeons, Monsters and Adventurers is a bit coy, a bit... tongue-in-cheek and it jars with the gravity of the opening paragraph. It's a nice justification of the D&D modus operandi, but if you'll pardon me, if you don't add anything more to it, it's only a justification, and that shows. I suppose you have some hidden revelations for your players about this setup, (dare I guess that the Dungeons are relics of the Cosmic Masters?) but I don't know if they'll take this presentation seriously. On reflection you know your own players best, so I should say *I* probably wouldn't take it seriously. Maybe if you changed some terminology around? The term "Adventurers" is probably the core of the issue. It's just a notch too self-aware, so it becomes metahumor.
Unless, of course, I've missed the point completely and that is what you want. But from the sound of the tone of this world, I'd dare guess it's not.
In Runa, there are great machines called Dungeons that were constructed by the mysterious ancients. These machines distill chaotic energy and make it coagulate to form creatures called Monsters. These Monsters take pieces of random dreams and thoughts and use them to give themselves form.
Brave warriors called Adventurers must journey into the Dungeons to kill the monsters. The remains of these beasts can be disenchanted to produce a valuable magical substance called Marrow.
Armies have fought and died for thousands of years to control the production of Marrow.
So, what do you think?
I agree that this is the 'weakest' part of the storyline. It seems too artificial and tongue in cheek. Perhaps you could alter the this somewhat:
Ancient Engines of Creation distill and congeal the energies of the primordial world. Those engines have become corrupted and perverted over the years, resulting in the creation of monsters, beings composed from primordial energies, but bereft of the true spark of life. Among true mortals, some few can harness a tiny spark of primordial energy within themselves, rising above the masses, to become great heroes, or great villains. The primordial essence within both the Monsters of the Creation Engines, and the hearts of true heroes and villains, can be extracted to fuel new acts of creation, or destruction. Once removed, this primordial essence is known as Marrow.
Same basic idea (magical engines create monsters/heroes arise to fight monsters/monsters have magic goo inside) but the primordial energy ties all three things together (monsters/heroes/marrow). Keeping this up, there should, of course, be a fourth state of primordial energy, which is hidden...
I think I certainly need to change the terminology around. Marrow was originally residuum by the way.
The Dungeons are there as MacGuffins pretty much. The point here is that I need something for everybody to want to wage war over and something that the Cosmic Masters can use as currency for dealing with the gods. They also serve to guide players to the subterranean and hint at something that neither gods nor primordials have any part of.
I think I certainly need to change the terminology around. Marrow was originally residuum by the way.
The Dungeons are there as MacGuffins pretty much. The point here is that I need something for everybody to want to wage war over and something that the Cosmic Masters can use as currency for dealing with the gods. They also serve to guide players to the subterranean and hint at something that neither gods nor primordials have any part of.
I enjoy some of the materials, but overall a lot of this setup is jarring. There is no reason for the Raven Queen to be the fourth deity as, really, the Trivia is formed well as it is. I would probably suggest a male or androgynous force in this place (perhaps the Unwelcome Guest who somehow taints the Trivia) over using a new core deity in the place. . . lots of baggage with that.
Also; wind is observable, it's there, how do people not know that it is an element? If dwarves were masters of the elements (a great twist) who had somehow been affected and no one knew of a kingdom of wind dwarves in a hidden Eastern kingdom it may make more sense.
Cosmic Masters also sounds a bit... ehh. It gets a little too sci-fi sounding, and you could probably find a better term for it.
For primordial energy producing heroes: Maybe you could use the idea presented by Farmer in the Wold Newton Hypothesis? In this way you could have an awesome reasoning behind monsters and heroes while keeping with the theme.
Perhaps heroes are the 'fourth' of each creation, with three monsters being produced for every hero to rise . . . or that there heroes are born for three generations and then there is always a generation of fallow where the monsters of the world retake their kingdoms? A group born after the last great harrowing, where they have to claw back from the brink... could be interesting.
Slainte,
-Loonook.
__________________ This Post and all others (c) Loonook, 2001-2009.
The dwarves used to worship a god of air a long time ago, until that god turned his back on them and became an aspect of death, Miasma. Since then, the dwarves no longer regard air as an element but as a combination of the the three other elements.
The fourth goddess may not be the Raven Queen exactly, but I'd still like to reference the Raven Queen in some way. Perhaps she could be an avatar or daughter of the Raven Queen?
The dwarves used to worship a god of air a long time ago, until that god turned his back on them and became an aspect of death, Miasma. Since then, the dwarves no longer regard air as an element but as a combination of the the three other elements.
The fourth goddess may not be the Raven Queen exactly, but I'd still like to reference the Raven Queen in some way. Perhaps she could be an avatar or daughter of the Raven Queen?
Why not make the Raven Queen a known psychopomp, this world's version of the Grim Reaper? Death is one of the few deities or forces which should be unique to a setting. Perhaps the Raven Queen is an actual individual, the original embodiment of the archetype which would later be worshipped around the multiverse. I hate the concept in roleplaying games that there is literally a shining exemplar of Elvenkind who looks like an elf, or some wizard walking around eyeless and handless who is the keeper of secrets. Perhaps you can branch away from this and make yourself happy . . . perhaps not.
The dwarves fear the Fogs, a heavy, peasoup sort of phenomenon which is said to freeze and burn the flesh, and the creatures which lurk within . . . some claim they were dwarves of a forgotten empire who corrupted themselves through attempting to bind the powers of the Three Great Keeps into their own sinister realm deep in the Eastern Mountains. Dwarves fear swamps, valleys, and places hidden from the firelight of Sun and separated from the hard stone of the earth; these places where water befouls and stagnates, and the Fog wanders.
That's about what I can do for you . . . if you like it check out my articles and blog .
Slainte,
-Loonook.
__________________ This Post and all others (c) Loonook, 2001-2009.
Yeah, I think I'll keep the elven and dwarven gods kinda vague.
I do have some ideas for some new gods to be worshipped in the city of Kire.
The Queen of Clocks
The Queen of Clocks has four arms. Usually, she holds a sword, a wand, a cup, and a bag of coins in each hand. The props may be changed or switched around between hands depending on context. The first arm points upward to represent height. The second arm points out to the side to represent width. The third arm points out to the worshipper to represent depth. The fourth arm is behind the queen's back, concealing the item it holds, to represent time.
The queen of clocks is named so as she is often depicted on clock faces with the first and second arms used as the hands of the clock.
The roundness of the clock symbolizes female curves and the menstrual cycle.
The King of Pillars
The King of Pillars has four eyes, each on a different side of his head. In paintings, only three of the four eyes are shown. The eye on the left side sees the past. The eye in the middle sees the present, and the eye on the right side sees the future. Whatever the fourth eye sees is a secret unknown by mortals.
The king of pillars is named as such as the four eyes are used as a decorative feature on the caps of pillars, with an eye on each side pointing to a different compass point. One eye of the four is always closed.
The erectness of pillars symbolizes the phallus.
So now I need two more gods in this pantheon, but one of them needs to be a mystery god, the hidden fourth to the visible three. Any suggestions?
It seems like you've got a masculine god of perception...seeing the four-dimensional universe and a feminine god of manipulating the four-dimensional universe...she reaches out with hands to change, gather, or place.
The third god is the Sammpo: the mystic mill neither male nor female that creates time, space, and the matter and energy that inhabits it.
The hidden god is Terminus, the devouring void, the final point of entropy. Terminus marks the end of time, the dissipation of energy, the collapse of space into a black hole, and the dissoulution of all matter.
No thought or sensation escapes from Terminus, so it remains essentially unknown and undknowable.
Terminus is more commonly known amongst mortals as The Fool of Pits. It is a blind idiot god who wears four faces:
The Mask of Harlequin
The Mask of Pierrot
The Mask of Death
The fourth face of Terminus, the true face hidden behind its masks, is unknown.
Goblins in Runa will sometimes paint or carve a clown face at the bottom of their pit traps to invoke the power of Terminus.
Terminus is also associated with the circus pits where musicians, dancers, and gladiators entertain full stadiums of people. The clowns are usually goblins dressed in outlandish costumes and thrown into gladiatorial battles without weapons. These goblin clowns symbolize Terminus and other evil gods while the other gladiators symbolize the good gods.
I like the Sampo idea. I was thinking it would make sense to make one of the gods a genderless machine god of some sort.
Okay, so right now I have...
The Dwarven Pantheon (water, fire, earth, air)
The Elven Patheon (maiden, mother, crone, death)
The Kire (Human/Halfling) Pantheon (king, queen, sampo, fool)
So now I need a fourth, hidden pantheon. This will be an inversion of the previous three; whereas the other pantheons have three visible and one hidden, the hidden pantheon will have three hidden and one visible.
Welll, any race with three hidden gods should be tricksy and good at hiding things.
Sounds like gnomes to me! Or changelings, if you don't mind plundering Eberron...
At one point somebody tried casting gnomes as a hidden race: they lived underground in well concealed cities, only venturing out disguised as members of other races or invisibly.
Maybe the whole existence of the fourth race is a secret...which fits your theme very nicely, yes?
The other option is to have the fourth race be very intuitive and mystical, often acting at the prodding of the three hidden gods even they don't know exist.
This race has a strong predilection for warlocks/sorcerors/favored souls, as members of the race get granted powers by gods they don't know exist for reasons they never guess at.
Got no idea what that race should be though.
An interesting mechanic (though likely frustrating) would be to pick some of the spells for casters of those races as they gain levels.
One of the character's major goals might be to explain why the universe granted him arcane lock instead of flaming sphere....it's also a good way to foreshadow future events.
It might be helpful to look at various groups of three and four and see what I haven't used yet. Four:
Temperaments (sanguine, choleric, melancholic, phlegmetic)
Humors (blood, yellow bile, black bile, phlegm)
Rules (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division)
Horsemen of the apocolypse
Parts of a day (night, morning, afternoon, evening)
Aristotle's Four Causes (efficient cause, matter, end, and form)
Kant's Table of Judgements (quantity, quality, relation, modality)
Theres too many things with three for me to list here at the moment.
Another idea I've just been pondering is the idea of a destructive fifth that causes chaos and must be destroyed.
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