Nightbreeze
First Post
Ok, let's get on with it.
I'll be updating this first post often, filling it with info on setting, local uses, and other fluff.
[sblock=The setting, shortly]
Anarenn is a huge, continental forest world. There are no oceans or seas, though: at the edges of the world there are mountains, growing bigger and bigger, and inhabited by all sort of savage populations: orcs, goblins. Some say that there are even stranger beasts, as you go farther and farther from the forests.
Anarenn has been inhabited by humans for at least 2500 years. Once it was a single, amazing forest, stretching for what it seemed to be an infinity (think the black forest that Europe was once). But as civilization started to spread, that of course changed. Forest are thicker in the newly inhabited lands and there are more fields in the older lands. However, the process has been really slowed because some forests are grim places, inhabited by savage and ancient spirits of the nature: you can't go chopping down tree wherever you want.
Humans are the dominant race of the world: there are other races too, like halflings, gnomes and dwarves, but only the former have some mighty kingdoms.[/sblock]
[sblock=The setting, many (unorganized topics)]
[sblock=The Empire]
Nothing that compares to the Empire, however: it is the main force on Anarenn, founded more than 2000 years ago, and it was led by the same dynasty since then. The Emperor rules (directly or by the will of the mighty Arch-dukes) on the south-eastern quarter of the world, the north-wester edge, and there's a duchy in the south-western quarter, too. Since it's creation, the empire has been always entwined with the Church of the High Father, the dominant religion on Anarenn. It worships three gods: The High Father, the Benevolent Mother, and the Son in Shadows. The church is exremely powerful, but it has no central leader. As there is not only one holy scripture, there can be great differences among two priests, as each of them can interpret the dogmas in a different ways. Because of that, the Church is divided in almost a dozen mighty orders (each of them LN, LG, or NG), each of them with different views, and each of them with a different hierarchy and organization. To add complexity to confusion, it is often true that the same man has two titles: one from the Empire and another from the Church. It is a common truth that trying to understand who is higher in the social ladder is a damn hard work.[/sblock]
[sblock=Other kindgoms]
- Akodal, the historical rival of the Empire, hidden behind an impressive chain of fortresses in the south-eastern edge. The Great Barbaric Kingdom of the north: it is not actually a nation, rather it's a collection of barbarians, monsters and humanoids that inhabit the frozen wastes out of the edges of Northern Anarenn.
- The kingdom of Ishiza: the only place in Anarenn where there are plains. Famous for horse breeding and other cattle. South - western quarter.
- The Virdee: a great number of small kingdoms (think austria and germany during the XVI). The worst of the war-mongering nobles clichè
-The kindgoms of Tiliira, Hargrass, the republic of Fielet: some other kingdoms.
-The free cities of Mirui, Ronol, Namwert, Bruth and Ingrest: commercial powers, most of them near the geographical center of Anarenn.
-a great number of smaller kingdoms, duchies, tribes and lawless lands.
All of the named countries pay respect and tributes to the empire, with the exception of Akodal and the Barbaric Kingdom (the first because it's still an enemy, and the other because no one would dare to go outside of the world in order to force them to pay tributes)[/sblock]
[sblock=Wizards]
Another thing worth of mention is the fact that ALL of the wizards belong to the Wizard's towers, and of users of magic have to be viewed by a wizard in order to live without any guard bothering them. This is strictly enforced in the empire, more or less enforced in all of the remaining lands. [/sblock]
[sblock=Dragons]
Intelligent dragons are stuff of legends, because the dragons nowdays are ravenous, hungry, angry and violent beats . Sure, they have some cunning that puts them beyond the simple predators, but they are not capable of speech, and surely not capable of magic.
Wild dragons are really rare in the lands of the Empire, to the point that there are many imperial citizens who don't even believe in their existence. Indeed, several orders of the church (based primarily around Sorenn, the imperial capitol city) insisti upon a rational view on the world: one that negates the existance of the most fantastical creatures (like dragons, unicorns and so on). They grudgingly admit that some fantastic creatures exist, but only because they are summoned, so they are not very real.
There are wild dragons scattered out of the borders of the empire, however. Dragons praying on cattle are reasonably common in semi-indipendant states, and along the contries in north-eastern Anarenn, there are even repots of overlappin dragon territories, which leads to a fight between these monsters of legend.
In the Virdees, wild dragons can be encountered, and often valiant knights try to imitate the legends by trying to fight them. Almost always this leads to the loss of some precious well-made armor, because of the useless idiot who was wearing it.
There are known dragons living in the Holy Mountains, but it seems that they don't provoke that much havok. Indeed, whenever dragons hunters dare to enter the mountains, searching for them, they are genty sent away by a party of monks and priests.[/sblock]
[sblock=The Holy mountains] Three of the commercial cities form a rough triangle near the geographical center of Anarenn. And in this triangle, there are the Holy Mountains. Funny enough, they hold no particular significance for the church: it is just that as long as the civilization of Anarenn has existed, there have been temples. Think about Tibet: all sort of of orders who don't necessary share the same credo, but they coexist in peace. Also, there is the Azur Temple there: it's a center of knowledge and peace, with few equals. It is famous for the fact that its inhabitants don't worship the High Father, but are exremely respected by all of the church orders.
Regarding the holy mountains, most of the monk orders in Anarenn come from there. There are rumors that some of the senseis are centuries old, but of course, no one can just go and ask them if that's true. It often happens that a monk is sent away from his monastery with a quest, or just to make him experience 10 years of life in the outside world.
The Azur Temple is an entirely different thing. It is somewhat lika a city built on a plateu, and a road connects it to the imperial way that connects the three commercial cities. Heavy (but unguarded) walls form several blocks on the road, until it gets to Azur. Then there's a little city built before the last wall (that one is guarder day and night), and behind that there are the gardens of Azur. You can see the top of the towers of Azur and nothing else. Common folk are not admitted behind the Blue Wall: they have no reason to go beyond it, as if they are sick, they will get cured outside of it. If they are hungry, they will be fed in the city. Usually, when a pilgrim arrives, the azurites help him and send him away after a month or so: they have a lot of friendly nobles, merchants or simply land-owners, and they always try to send a good word to one of them regarding the pilgrim.
[/sblock]
[sblock=Forests]
There's a difference between the Anarenn forests and the classic fantasy forest. There are exceptions, but generally the ancient forests of Anarenn are far darker, nastier and less merrier places. There are no beatiful elven cities with happy animals passing by: there are nasty, old, grim and ancients spirits of the land, who mercilessly squash any human who dares enter the sacred groves. There are ravenous beasts, who prey on the hunters. There are the so-called grey forests, where all of this is twice as bad.
Of course, not every forest is THAT bad. There are better forests, but even there the fey population is really small (and most of the times, not really those good fellas you use to know). Now, a druid who has travelled a little bit knows where are those places where he can find benevolent spirits, treants and gnomes, but he will likely has to travel a lot from one to the other.
[/sblock]
[sblock=Religions and Faiths]
There are no Draconic deities. There are greater spirits in this world that have connection to dragons, or were dragons themselves, but they are not object of worship, and they don't make their existence known. If you play a draconic or dragon-related PC, they will soon or later take part of the plot, and it is possible for you to have a connection for them since the very beginning.
As for other deities outside of the triad, generally humans don't need them. The Father covers the traditionals domains of a good - related human deity (and it's clerics can choose from a big list of domains - at least 8-9). The Mother covers the good - chaotic - nature related aspects, while the Son is a kind of strange: everyone who doesn't feel related to the other two gods can worship him. He is a kind of trickster, opportunist, generally good, but with a little bit of end-justifies-means philosophy.
In the borderlands of the Empire the Faith becomes less structured and adherent to the common principles, and it mixes it with some old pagan cults. A priest of an imperial city may not recognize a celebration of the mother held in a remote village on the outskirts of the forests surround the Ishiza plains.
Those of Ishiza generally worship a pantheon of tribal deities (hunters, warriors and mounted raiders, as well as their enemies). They grudgingly admit the worship of the Father in their lands. Some other kingdom have an organized churches (and some of them worship the Father but don't recognize the authority of the imperial church on matters of faith)
Dwarfs have their own deities, of course, as well as other races, of course.[/sblock]
[sblock=Demons]
There are "some" demons summoned by "some" wizards. Generally the Church regards arcane magic with a certain suspicioun, but they usually have to admit that wizards are extremely organized in certain aspects. Living for almost 2000 years in a world where the faith can gather 90% of the population against you is bound to make you realize that you have to control yourself and your buddies. If a lone wizard or a little tower of wizards somehow create havok, this may lead to wide revenge in the entire world, and the remaining wizards wouln't be overjoyed. Thus there are firm rules about what a wizard can do with demons, where, why and how. These are not common knowledge, of course.
Suffice to say that when there are signs of demonic activities, wizards are almost never to blame. Actually, they are among the first to mobilitate and give full support to the Church in finding the culprits.
On a side note, demonic activity is different from those common in the usual fantasy settings: there have never been demonic invasions, or even a single demon fooling around in the open. That is perhaps due to the powerful Church. Due to that, demonic activity is usually of the subtle, corrupting kind. That promts the church to warn and educate the population to recognize the signs of demonic corruption, and demon themselves. So, someone with red flaming eyes, thick scales and horns and razors coming out from his body would certainly be recognized on sight as someone uncommon and very probably dangerous.[/sblock]
[/sblock]
I'll be updating this first post often, filling it with info on setting, local uses, and other fluff.
[sblock=The setting, shortly]
Anarenn is a huge, continental forest world. There are no oceans or seas, though: at the edges of the world there are mountains, growing bigger and bigger, and inhabited by all sort of savage populations: orcs, goblins. Some say that there are even stranger beasts, as you go farther and farther from the forests.
Anarenn has been inhabited by humans for at least 2500 years. Once it was a single, amazing forest, stretching for what it seemed to be an infinity (think the black forest that Europe was once). But as civilization started to spread, that of course changed. Forest are thicker in the newly inhabited lands and there are more fields in the older lands. However, the process has been really slowed because some forests are grim places, inhabited by savage and ancient spirits of the nature: you can't go chopping down tree wherever you want.
Humans are the dominant race of the world: there are other races too, like halflings, gnomes and dwarves, but only the former have some mighty kingdoms.[/sblock]
[sblock=The setting, many (unorganized topics)]
[sblock=The Empire]
Nothing that compares to the Empire, however: it is the main force on Anarenn, founded more than 2000 years ago, and it was led by the same dynasty since then. The Emperor rules (directly or by the will of the mighty Arch-dukes) on the south-eastern quarter of the world, the north-wester edge, and there's a duchy in the south-western quarter, too. Since it's creation, the empire has been always entwined with the Church of the High Father, the dominant religion on Anarenn. It worships three gods: The High Father, the Benevolent Mother, and the Son in Shadows. The church is exremely powerful, but it has no central leader. As there is not only one holy scripture, there can be great differences among two priests, as each of them can interpret the dogmas in a different ways. Because of that, the Church is divided in almost a dozen mighty orders (each of them LN, LG, or NG), each of them with different views, and each of them with a different hierarchy and organization. To add complexity to confusion, it is often true that the same man has two titles: one from the Empire and another from the Church. It is a common truth that trying to understand who is higher in the social ladder is a damn hard work.[/sblock]
[sblock=Other kindgoms]
- Akodal, the historical rival of the Empire, hidden behind an impressive chain of fortresses in the south-eastern edge. The Great Barbaric Kingdom of the north: it is not actually a nation, rather it's a collection of barbarians, monsters and humanoids that inhabit the frozen wastes out of the edges of Northern Anarenn.
- The kingdom of Ishiza: the only place in Anarenn where there are plains. Famous for horse breeding and other cattle. South - western quarter.
- The Virdee: a great number of small kingdoms (think austria and germany during the XVI). The worst of the war-mongering nobles clichè
-The kindgoms of Tiliira, Hargrass, the republic of Fielet: some other kingdoms.
-The free cities of Mirui, Ronol, Namwert, Bruth and Ingrest: commercial powers, most of them near the geographical center of Anarenn.
-a great number of smaller kingdoms, duchies, tribes and lawless lands.
All of the named countries pay respect and tributes to the empire, with the exception of Akodal and the Barbaric Kingdom (the first because it's still an enemy, and the other because no one would dare to go outside of the world in order to force them to pay tributes)[/sblock]
[sblock=Wizards]
Another thing worth of mention is the fact that ALL of the wizards belong to the Wizard's towers, and of users of magic have to be viewed by a wizard in order to live without any guard bothering them. This is strictly enforced in the empire, more or less enforced in all of the remaining lands. [/sblock]
[sblock=Dragons]
Intelligent dragons are stuff of legends, because the dragons nowdays are ravenous, hungry, angry and violent beats . Sure, they have some cunning that puts them beyond the simple predators, but they are not capable of speech, and surely not capable of magic.
Wild dragons are really rare in the lands of the Empire, to the point that there are many imperial citizens who don't even believe in their existence. Indeed, several orders of the church (based primarily around Sorenn, the imperial capitol city) insisti upon a rational view on the world: one that negates the existance of the most fantastical creatures (like dragons, unicorns and so on). They grudgingly admit that some fantastic creatures exist, but only because they are summoned, so they are not very real.
There are wild dragons scattered out of the borders of the empire, however. Dragons praying on cattle are reasonably common in semi-indipendant states, and along the contries in north-eastern Anarenn, there are even repots of overlappin dragon territories, which leads to a fight between these monsters of legend.
In the Virdees, wild dragons can be encountered, and often valiant knights try to imitate the legends by trying to fight them. Almost always this leads to the loss of some precious well-made armor, because of the useless idiot who was wearing it.
There are known dragons living in the Holy Mountains, but it seems that they don't provoke that much havok. Indeed, whenever dragons hunters dare to enter the mountains, searching for them, they are genty sent away by a party of monks and priests.[/sblock]
[sblock=The Holy mountains] Three of the commercial cities form a rough triangle near the geographical center of Anarenn. And in this triangle, there are the Holy Mountains. Funny enough, they hold no particular significance for the church: it is just that as long as the civilization of Anarenn has existed, there have been temples. Think about Tibet: all sort of of orders who don't necessary share the same credo, but they coexist in peace. Also, there is the Azur Temple there: it's a center of knowledge and peace, with few equals. It is famous for the fact that its inhabitants don't worship the High Father, but are exremely respected by all of the church orders.
Regarding the holy mountains, most of the monk orders in Anarenn come from there. There are rumors that some of the senseis are centuries old, but of course, no one can just go and ask them if that's true. It often happens that a monk is sent away from his monastery with a quest, or just to make him experience 10 years of life in the outside world.
The Azur Temple is an entirely different thing. It is somewhat lika a city built on a plateu, and a road connects it to the imperial way that connects the three commercial cities. Heavy (but unguarded) walls form several blocks on the road, until it gets to Azur. Then there's a little city built before the last wall (that one is guarder day and night), and behind that there are the gardens of Azur. You can see the top of the towers of Azur and nothing else. Common folk are not admitted behind the Blue Wall: they have no reason to go beyond it, as if they are sick, they will get cured outside of it. If they are hungry, they will be fed in the city. Usually, when a pilgrim arrives, the azurites help him and send him away after a month or so: they have a lot of friendly nobles, merchants or simply land-owners, and they always try to send a good word to one of them regarding the pilgrim.
[/sblock]
[sblock=Forests]
There's a difference between the Anarenn forests and the classic fantasy forest. There are exceptions, but generally the ancient forests of Anarenn are far darker, nastier and less merrier places. There are no beatiful elven cities with happy animals passing by: there are nasty, old, grim and ancients spirits of the land, who mercilessly squash any human who dares enter the sacred groves. There are ravenous beasts, who prey on the hunters. There are the so-called grey forests, where all of this is twice as bad.
Of course, not every forest is THAT bad. There are better forests, but even there the fey population is really small (and most of the times, not really those good fellas you use to know). Now, a druid who has travelled a little bit knows where are those places where he can find benevolent spirits, treants and gnomes, but he will likely has to travel a lot from one to the other.
[/sblock]
[sblock=Religions and Faiths]
There are no Draconic deities. There are greater spirits in this world that have connection to dragons, or were dragons themselves, but they are not object of worship, and they don't make their existence known. If you play a draconic or dragon-related PC, they will soon or later take part of the plot, and it is possible for you to have a connection for them since the very beginning.
As for other deities outside of the triad, generally humans don't need them. The Father covers the traditionals domains of a good - related human deity (and it's clerics can choose from a big list of domains - at least 8-9). The Mother covers the good - chaotic - nature related aspects, while the Son is a kind of strange: everyone who doesn't feel related to the other two gods can worship him. He is a kind of trickster, opportunist, generally good, but with a little bit of end-justifies-means philosophy.
In the borderlands of the Empire the Faith becomes less structured and adherent to the common principles, and it mixes it with some old pagan cults. A priest of an imperial city may not recognize a celebration of the mother held in a remote village on the outskirts of the forests surround the Ishiza plains.
Those of Ishiza generally worship a pantheon of tribal deities (hunters, warriors and mounted raiders, as well as their enemies). They grudgingly admit the worship of the Father in their lands. Some other kingdom have an organized churches (and some of them worship the Father but don't recognize the authority of the imperial church on matters of faith)
Dwarfs have their own deities, of course, as well as other races, of course.[/sblock]
[sblock=Demons]
There are "some" demons summoned by "some" wizards. Generally the Church regards arcane magic with a certain suspicioun, but they usually have to admit that wizards are extremely organized in certain aspects. Living for almost 2000 years in a world where the faith can gather 90% of the population against you is bound to make you realize that you have to control yourself and your buddies. If a lone wizard or a little tower of wizards somehow create havok, this may lead to wide revenge in the entire world, and the remaining wizards wouln't be overjoyed. Thus there are firm rules about what a wizard can do with demons, where, why and how. These are not common knowledge, of course.
Suffice to say that when there are signs of demonic activities, wizards are almost never to blame. Actually, they are among the first to mobilitate and give full support to the Church in finding the culprits.
On a side note, demonic activity is different from those common in the usual fantasy settings: there have never been demonic invasions, or even a single demon fooling around in the open. That is perhaps due to the powerful Church. Due to that, demonic activity is usually of the subtle, corrupting kind. That promts the church to warn and educate the population to recognize the signs of demonic corruption, and demon themselves. So, someone with red flaming eyes, thick scales and horns and razors coming out from his body would certainly be recognized on sight as someone uncommon and very probably dangerous.[/sblock]
[/sblock]
Last edited:
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
You will still be able to move and do almost anything, but you'll grumble, mumble and complain a lot.
