Designing an Arabian Nights-flavored area

I have an Arabian Nights-flavored section of my otherwise Western European campaign world, and my PC's could well be going to be going there soon. I could use some help fleshing things out, devising things like country and city names, and all the little cool bits of flavor that make such a place memorable to adventure in. Consider this a brainstorming thread; I don't want to get into big detail on anything, but I'd love lots of ideas, fast and furious.

The area is known collectively as Murkraal. Some background is in order...

Geography: The area is bordered on the north by the Middle Sea, an important trade route between Murkraal and the Empire of Crystalmarch. A ridge of mountains runs from the western to eastern edge like the bottom of a bowl holding the entirety of Murkraal, with south equalling the bottom of the bowl, and north being the top. Three large rivers - think Nile or Tigris/Euphrates - run from the mountains in the south to the Sea in the North. Land is fertile near the rivers, desert away from it.

Nations: There are probably around 7-9 kingdoms (emirates) in the area, one each per major river, a couple on largish islands off the northern coast. Add two or three further inland to the south and there you go. Lots of Shieks, Emirs, bedouins and all of that.

Special Notes: There is very little "magic" in Murkraal, unlike the lands to the far north. Instead, there is a strong tradition of Psionic training. Psions fill the role that Wizards fill in other places, and Psychic Warriors are often knights. Soul Blades make great assassins, as they can get a weapon in anywhere...

Beyond the mountains to the south and west are the "orcish kingdoms" - vast transitory fiefdoms run by orcish warlords using large lizards as mounts; to the east along the coast past the mountains are a vast jungle rumored to be ruled the yuan-ti. These two are Murkraals greatest enemies, sometimes working together.

Other than these things, I don't have too much detailed out. Any help the vast collective intellect of ENWorld would like to dole out would be of great assistance!

I'm not extremely knowledgeable about anything factual on the Arabian Kingdoms, but some of the flavor I expect includes:

exotic music, food, and costumes.
crowded markets, bartering, shouting, noise and confusion
dancing girls and beggar men
extremes of poverty and wealth
extremes of social class and power
extremes of climate and rapidity of change - from desert to oasis, from blasting heat of day to deep chilly night
great age and a sense of a far deeper past

That's the sorts of things I'd try to emphasise, especially with PCs who are coming into the region from more "staid and traditional" european-flavored lands.

For city names raid an atlas. Go for the less well known names like Isfahan. Samarkhand , although well known, is too evocative to be passed up.

Middle Eastern customs are big on hospitality. Anyone can expect hospitality for a limited time. The Ottomans (among others) maintained caravanserais where anyone could stay in reasonable comfort, for free, for up to 3 days. Rich people might offer nearly unlimited hospitality for famous visitors (basking in the glory of having such famous guests.) Fights between rivals both trying to impress the PC's with their sumptuous hospitality?

Speaking of customs come up with some areas where the Myrtaal customs differ markedly from those of the PC's. Gives some room for role-playing and chances for PC's to cause some unintentional offense.

At least one Lost City out in the Dune Sea. Populated by Janni, demons, ghouls (an Arabic word!!)

And of course not all deserts are equal. Sounds like Myrtaal is large enough for a variety of different desert types. These areas can be given names to reflect what they're like. My old Arabian Knights campaign had the Painted Desert, the White Desert, the Sea of Sand (note more borrowing from atlases.)

Don't forget that the original assassins, the Hashish-sheen were from the middle east. Lots of drugs + promises of paradise = fanatics loyal to the Old Man of the Mountain. This guy was the head of a secret order of assassins and the terror of Caliphs and Emirs.

Raid the old 1E modules: Pharoah(?), Oasis of the White Palm and Lost Tomb of Martek for ideas. (I1 to I3 IIRC). One good one was the Glass Desert: a huge area of sand that had been fused to glass in an ancient magical battle. Sailing ships on runners screeching across it.

Religion, a touchy subject admittedly, can provide options for role-playing as well.

Desert Raiders. Slavers who sell to the Yuan-ti perhaps.

Historically the cities of the middle east were much bigger and more cosmopolitan than the cities of Europe. The riches of the world passed back and forth through them. Thieves guilds could be truly powerful in such places.

Exotic luxuries, like spices, perfumes, silks, are much more common and much cheaper than the PC's would be used to. Shopping expedition? Not for every gaming group.

Everyone they fight has weapon finesse and a masterwork scimitar. (not that unlikely, Dasascus steel was world famous in its day.)

anyway, just a few ideas. Hope they help, inspire.

Here's a list of names from Persian culture,

http://www.20000-names.com/male_persian_names.htm

And Arabic

http://www.20000-names.com/male_arabian_names.htm

Remember BIG architecture


All in all sounds like a place I'd love to adventure in. or make a character from.

Lighter armor. Historically, Arabian warriors donned light chainmail (chain-shirt?) at most, and for a good reason: daytime temperatures are way higher than in your typical European setting (reaching 40 degrees centigrade in some places in the summer, sometimes even more), and inside platemail you'd be baked alive. Many legendary Arabian adventurers, unlike their European counterparts, weren't depicted as wearing armor at all.

Ancient ruins and ancient secrets. The historical Middle East had civilization for millenia, each culture leaving behind ruins, relics and buried secrets, half-covered by the sands. This is also, of course, reflected in myth. Infesting them could be mummies, ghouls, djinni, giant scorpions, snakes, crocodiles, or even giant scarab beetles. Inside would be treasures of untold value and magic (or maybe psionic artifacts?) and secrets about the setting's past.

Remember, here the 'exotic' is commonplace. Mood and atmosphere is the difference between someplace truly 'other', and someplace color swapped but otherwise familiar. Check out the movie, "Lawrence of Arabia" too. Political to be sure, but it could give an insight into another style of society.
A few things come to my mind, too.
--Resources are sparse. Water, tea and the wood for the fire to make it are hard to come by, therefore precious. Hospitality follows as gravely serious.
--Travelling without a Ranger is difficult at best. Perhaps there is a tradition in the Nomad cultures. What about Barbarians and Druids. Not much of a 'real world' precedent but let's face it, Druids would be better then gold in a desert, eh?
--The Sun is brutal and without pity. So as not to waste energy, it seems to me that careful planning and forethought is even more necessary to any successful dungeon crawl. It's not a matter of fighting the elements (the Sun will kill them) as it is finding a way to work within the simple fact of the elements.
Murkrall sounds like an interesting place.

Hey Kid,

If the feel of the area is Arabian/Middle Eastern, you may to also consider folding in a similar sort of history for the players. Murkral may be inhabited by ethnic groups Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamme and Theta.

Depending on where the party happens to be, all of these groups are present in varying degrees just like the actual Middle East BUT, there can be the sort of history which cannot be avoided which says that while group Delta is currently in control, there local law which says that group Alpha is always supposed to rule or something similar.

In the actual Middle east, there are a lot of places where Ancient custom + colonialism + modernism + happy accidents have created a pretty diverse and interesting yet screwed up place. Syria and Lebanon are both a perfect example of this.

I'm sure you have players in your group who have many books on the region because that are somewhat obsessed with it. I'd be happy to loan you some of those books too!

Heh heh heh...

Great suggestions, guys! I see that Dread October has joined the conversation (one of my players) so I'll leave out discussion of the CENSORED who rule the REDACTED and want nothing more than to CENSORED the heck out of REDACTED's CENSORED.



Seriously, I intend this thread to be for stuff that would be widely known - history, culture, etc, so any of my players who pop in are more than welcome - in fact since they know the world background, they can probably contribute things that fit into the overall world even better.

In terms of cultures and ethnic groups, I plan on using a combination of African, Persian, Arabian and such as touchstones - everything from Babylon and Cairo to Timbuctoo and so on. Everything from Hanging Gardens of Bablylon to the mud-mosque of Djenné; from Petra to the sands of the Sahara.

There is no overlay of colonialization to mess things up further than they already are. I'm trying to think of cool ways to handle races, and how to add them into the mix. For example,

Slapzilla said:

--Travelling without a Ranger is difficult at best. Perhaps there is a tradition in the Nomad cultures. What about Barbarians and Druids. Not much of a 'real world' precedent but let's face it, Druids would be better then gold in a desert, eh?

Click to expand...

I've decided that halflings are a common bedouin people, with exceptional rangers amongst them. If you need a guide, you hire one of them - don't be disturbed by the way that they file their teeth down to points, and I've been assured by my best sources that the rumors of cannibalism are just that - rumors.

Shadesof Green said:

Ancient ruins and ancient secrets. The historical Middle East had civilization for millenia, each culture leaving behind ruins, relics and buried secrets, half-covered by the sands.

Click to expand...

Very good point. In various times in the past the Yuan Ti have had subject Kingdoms in Murkraal, though the yoke has been thrown off at this point (so far as anyone knows!). At their greatest point of influence, the Yuan Ti also controlled the Orcs, creating a very powerful master-servant relationship. The Orcs rather took the brunt of things when that went south, and now the Orcs are just as suspicious of the Yuan Ti as the Kingdoms of Murkraal are...

Drunkonduty said:

Don't forget that the original assassins, the Hashish-sheen were from the middle east. Lots of drugs + promises of paradise = fanatics loyal to the Old Man of the Mountain. This guy was the head of a secret order of assassins and the terror of Caliphs and Emirs.

Click to expand...

In this area, House Sorgindhu is a "noble" house of assassins - all (or at least the elite) are trained in psionics. The PC's have run afoul of them several - mostly when the Murkraal-born psion PC had a contract taken out on her, leading to multiple attempts on her life (which have been stopped); secondly when the PC's took out a House Sorgindhu assassin who was doing side-work as part of an evil cult (and consorting with Yuan ti... hmmmm).

Drunkonduty said:

Religion, a touchy subject admittedly, can provide options for role-playing as well.

Click to expand...

There is a pantheon of gods called The Twelve who are revered throughout the campaign world (with regional variations), and the most popular of these in Murkraal is Athyra, goddess of dreams - Dream replaces the astral plane in my world, and Dream is the source of psionic power (kinda like in Eberron - though I had the idea first, dammit!).

OK how about this. Currently the PC's in your game are in a half sunken city that as near as I can tell, used to be great but is now a city with several sections claimed and walled off by various warlords and a few nobles.

All that isn't currently claimed is pretty much a lawless no man's land?

Is that about right) (Yes, I am one of those players but I drink and probably have ADD so I fade out a lot )

If this is the case, then you can treat it like modern day Palestine/Lebanon.

You have folks who have been in a place for X years laying a claim to part of it (Like Lebanon). Then you can have a slightly different mix of folk laying claim to a piece of it based on some war that was fought or a treaty signed that they never agreed to anyway (As in the relation ship between Syria and Lebanon).

Then there can be another part with a different racial mix who just want to claim part of the region due to some resource closer to it's borders (Like Jordan and the Sea of Galilee)

As we move through the area, we can not the greater number of head scarf wearing folks with rifles or the number of nonchalant humans who appear to be unaware that they live in a war zone and are clearly over confident, etc.

Dread October said:

OK how about this. Currently the PC's in your game are in a half sunken city that as near as I can tell, used to be great but is now a city with several sections claimed and walled off by various warlords and a few nobles.

All that isn't currently claimed is pretty much a lawless no man's land?

Is that about right) (Yes, I am one of those players but I drink and probably have ADD so I fade out a lot )

Click to expand...

Yes - but I'll note that Kestrah (the above mentioned city) is not in Murkraal - I just wanted to make that clear. And in Kestrah its not an issue of the area not being claimed, its more that the claim is disputed on 5 sides, rendering it pretty much a lawless no-mans land...

Dread October said:

If this is the case, then you can treat it like modern day Palestine/Lebanon.

You have folks who have been in a place for X years laying a claim to part of it (Like Lebanon). Then you can have a slightly different mix of folk laying claim to a piece of it based on some war that was fought or a treaty signed that they never agreed to anyway (As in the relation ship between Syria and Lebanon).

Then there can be another part with a different racial mix who just want to claim part of the region due to some resource closer to it's borders (Like Jordan and the Sea of Galilee)

Click to expand...

Certain areas of Murkraal will work well with this - disputed areas between large, powerful Emirates. Thanks for bringing up resource conflicts - that is something that I hadn't really considered.