[Proposal] The Transitive Isles

covaithe · Aug 14, 2008

garyh said:
As for taking on chargen as a whole, I think we have the general thrust of it: Use any PHB or MM race, any PHB class, 25 point buy, and a region. Outside of that (and potential use of OOC points), what else do we need to figure?

Just character sheet, I think.

garyh said:
I like the gods. My biggest concern is that the names are still too close to the original Greek.

I've never been entirely comfortable with the names. I like the system well enough, but reading "Hadeys" makes me roll my eyes a bit. I'd be happier with fresh names.

garyh · Aug 14, 2008

covaithe said:
Just character sheet, I think.

I've never been entirely comfortable with the names. I like the system well enough, but reading "Hadeys" makes me roll my eyes a bit. I'd be happier with fresh names.

Well, renau1g is on the character sheet, so we're good there.

I'll add the god names to my list of things to ponder.

Graf · Aug 14, 2008

Maybe I spoke too quickly and we -should- make the 4th island fey oriented. If it were dedicated to Proserphones then you could have fey (cause her portfolio includes fey) and the rift could be linked to the Shadowfell (her husband being Hadeys).

Maybe even a legend about how he took her there once to relax and they had a fight? He tore a big hole in the ground to go home and she wept and enchanted the isle to touch the faerie?

That leaves Daunton a bit more undefined, but...

Graf · Aug 14, 2008

If you dislike the names.... you could even go and write new names for them on the Old Gods of Alleria.

So the Imperium iteration of the gods can keep the names that Ata slaved over (and that I'm personally fond of even if I can't spell any of them) while you can take the same core of deities and go nuts making them over in a more traditionally DnDish style.

Everyone's happy I think.

Graf · Aug 14, 2008

Added a bit about Allaria (actually I'd written it yesterday but it got deleted, thank god the wiki saves everything) and the Far Lands.

garyh · Aug 14, 2008

Graf said:
If you dislike the names.... you could even go and write new names for them on the Old Gods of Alleria.

So the Imperium iteration of the gods can keep the names that Ata slaved over (and that I'm personally fond of even if I can't spell any of them) while you can take the same core of deities and go nuts making them over in a more traditionally DnDish style.

Everyone's happy I think.

That works, too. That's one of the great (and real-world reflecting) things about the "one pantheon, many names" ideas.

EDITed to add:

Graf said:
Added a bit about Allaria (actually I'd written it yesterday but it got deleted, thank god the wiki saves everything) and the Far Lands.

I really like the way you've got a hobgoblin empire AND humanoid pirates. It gives folks playing MM races more options - an honorable warrior from the Empire of Hzaka, a scurvy pirate from Bacarte, or a truly savage humanoid from elsewhere. Good idea, and keeps MM PC's from HAVING to be pirates.

The Empire of Jade looks to be the designated default for tiefling and dragonborn PC's. I like having a default place each PHB race fits in the world. If someone wants to do something different, there's always room for exceptions, but it otherwise it's nice to have some kind of vague baseline.

Graf · Aug 15, 2008

The empire is actually supposed to be really evil.

Halford seemed really really keen on having some sort of Evil empire dominated by hobgoblins. Personally I wouldn't have written it that way, but I figured that it doesn't kill anyone to have a boilerplate "evil empire of humanoids" lying around.

I was thinking about making them psuedo communists actually (with hints that it's really a front for something very very bad); pushing the idea that you need to give up your mind and soul to the empire.

I actually had the idea that the hobgoblin pirates are "renegades from the empire of Hzaka" a more moderate political group that seized control of the navy and ran away. They've been "blending in" on Bacarte and creating what they hope will be a new nation.

Of course, their old comerades haven't forgotten them...

That's why they're so keen to shore of resistance on the mainland....

garyh · Aug 15, 2008

Your Empire / Bacarte ideas work well for me. The "all for the Empire" idea makes sense for hierarchical hobgoblins, too.

garyh · Aug 17, 2008

I've posted my own take on a map of the Transitive Isles, using GIMP and Goblin King's hex map technique. The five main islands are labeled, and I tossed a few small ones in as well. The scale is 1 hex = 50 miles. One setting element I wasn't sure on was where the Empire of Hzaka fits. Maybe on Daunton's island, on the opposite side?

I was trying to attached the file to this post, but it keep uploading "fuzzy," so it's hosted on my personal site.

Graf · Aug 18, 2008

The Empire of Hzaka is on Allaria. Which is located roughly 2~3 weeks away by difficult sea journey.

Though I've deliberately not defined it; I saw it as a massive warmarchine. If it were near Daunton (i.e. not blocked by a significant expanse of the Transitive Seas) it would already have conquered the city.

The problem to my mind, for Hzaka, isn't that they don't have the resources to can't invade and control the whole world, it's just that the logistics of getting troops to the right places has so far not been solved.