Setting Idea: Wounded Gaia

GandalfMithrandir · Mar 13, 2009

Barins stand could provide an interesting dungeon, switching from a more or less urban setting to a gradually more of a classic dungeon crawl, leading up to a fight against a powerful monster or cleric of either the Mother God or the Clockwork God, depending on who your charachters choose to follow.

Shades of Green · Mar 14, 2009

So, if I understand correctly, you suggest that both major gods would have major factions in that dungeon... I like it!

The main conflict in this world is between Law (represented by the Clockwork God) and Chaos (represented by the wounded Mother Goddess); Good and Evil are much less important. So I'll probably take your suggestion and bring this conflict into Barin's Dungeon as well...

Shades of Green · Apr 14, 2009

Inspired by an oil painting done by my spouse, I'm thinking about making the elves in this setting somewhat feline in their characteristics: rather than being magical forest-dwellers related to fey, they might be forest-dwelling hunters (with less inclination to magic). The keen senses, graceful movement, darkvision and affinity with bows (an excellent hunting weapon) would go very well with this...

This is the painting that has inspired this:

By golan2072 at 2009-02-1

Shades of Green · Apr 17, 2009

I'm considering a change in the start location, inspired by my recent re-reading of the Isle of Dread (and, to a lesser degree, playing Morrowind a few months ago). Instead of starting on the shore, I'm thinking about creating a largish island to start on. The island will have a mountain in the middle (with a ruined mining/industrial town from the Age of Blossom on it), some plains and hills suited for agriculture and a good amount of swamps (expanded by the retracting sea). Climate should be temperate with a cold winter and a bit of snow in it. There should be one or two large towns on the coastlines (port/fishing towns), several fishing villages along the shorelines and several farming villages inland. The mountain will mostly be uninhabited save for a small Dwarven mine in its side, as there will be occasional raids by clockwork monsters from the ruined town.

An island will do well to confine the players until they get a good ship and/or Fly or Teleport, or, for the very least, until they book passage on a merchant ship going to New Kheraz on the mainland (merchantmen don't come to the island THAT frequently). It could also be a very good, self-confined sandbox for players who simply want to explore. That's it's main selling point in comparison to the mainland.

The mainland map, of course, will be saved for later use.

Shades of Green · Apr 26, 2009

One thing I have a writer's block about is the matter of religion (and cosmology). So far I've established two major gods (Mother Goddess and Clockwork God), but these two gods are somewhat inapproachable in their present form - the Clockwork God is inhumanly mechanical, and the Mother Goddess is (in the Frozen Age) very cold and feral. Mortals need closer gods they can follow and worship.

One option is adding shamanism - the worship of spirits (and maybe fey) and/or ancestors. This kind of religion involves invoking, appeasing and/or making business with supernatural beings which are typically less powerful individually than the major gods. This will work well for the less urbanized people of my world (such as Elves, Lizard Men, Lerini and the various humanoid monsters), but I'm not sure if it will fit the remnants of civilization. Of course, if the major religion in the Age of Blossom was worshiping the Mother Goddess (a goddess of agriculture back then) and then the Goddess has changed and turned ice-cold and feral, many people would revert to other beliefs, such as ancestor worship.

Another option is adding a few more gods - maybe a god or three of Civilization or something along these lines. The advantage of this will be having another major religion (this one more common in civilized/urban lands); the disadvantage will be making the divine conflict a bit less clear.

Any thoughts?

Gilladian · Apr 26, 2009

What if the "spirits" people worshipped were tied to one of the greater gods. In other words, worship the spirit of this well, spring, creek, river or whatever, but know that it is only a minor aspect of the great goddess?

Or the spirit of your dead ancestor is actually a fragment of the god or goddess? It can intercede directly with her because you are its decendant, but otherwise it is not going to help you.

This keeps the focus clearly on the greater gods, but gives a slight softening and makes them approachable. And anyone can worship their ancestors. Look at some of the current Japanese and Chinese belief systems. They're certainly not all followed only by rural peasants!

Shades of Green · Apr 27, 2009

Gilladian said:
What if the "spirits" people worshipped were tied to one of the greater gods. In other words, worship the spirit of this well, spring, creek, river or whatever, but know that it is only a minor aspect of the great goddess?

Or the spirit of your dead ancestor is actually a fragment of the god or goddess? It can intercede directly with her because you are its decendant, but otherwise it is not going to help you.

This keeps the focus clearly on the greater gods, but gives a slight softening and makes them approachable. And anyone can worship their ancestors. Look at some of the current Japanese and Chinese belief systems. They're certainly not all followed only by rural peasants!

I like this idea; yes, a Shinto-like formal shamanism will probably work, and so would something along the lines Haitian voodoo. Both are more organized religions evolving from shamanism, and both yield temples. Shinto has once been a state religion, and Voodoo has a main god and a larger number of lesser spirits.

So in my game I'll probably go with a mixture of animism and ancestor worship, not always connected with the cold, harsh Mother Goddess but more with ancestors and local spirits (maybe even powerful fey?) with a relatively loose priestly hierarchy and shrines rather than churches/temples. Tribal populations will have shamans (closer to Druids in game terms); villages will either have witches/wise women (same or at least similar to shamans in game terms) or shrines of the main religion; town and cities will have shrines.

Shades of Green · May 3, 2009

My thoughts about cosmology:

I'll probably keep the Elemental Planes. Bound elementals played a crucial rule in Age of Blossom technology, as did portals to the elemental planes; the most important were fire elementals (bound to produce heat) and combinations of fire and water elementals (forces to co-exist at the same point in space to produce a constant flow of steam, while causing endless agony for the elementals). Large industrial sites had an Elemental Crucible - a magical chamber where permanent portals were opened to both the Fire and Water planes, producing massive amounts of steam. Each Elemenal Plane is more or less an endless chaotic mass of its element, a truly alien place which is difficult to visit.

Other than them, there would be a Spirit Realm (or Spirit World; similar to D&D's Ethereal or Plane of Shadows?), intersecting with the mortal world. This is where spirits, fey and their ilk roam: close-by, ever-present, but not exactly in the same place as mortals. Fey, dryads, daemons, incorporeal undead and so on are Spirits and roam the Spirit Realm.

There would also be a Realm of the Dead, not a place of punishment or reward but rather an underworld of sorts where the spirits of the dead rest for eternity. Most of the dead go there directly when they die provided they go through proper burial; those with very tragic or traumatic circumstances of death (such as murder) and those not properly put to rest might sometimes linger behind in the Spirit Realm as Ghosts and other incorporeal undead.

Shades of Green · Jun 13, 2009

As a starting adventure, I'm thinking about revising the Olafsville idea I've posted above. The plot would involve a descendant of the Orc King (defeated by Baron Olaf the First who set up the town) plotting to regain his clan's lost honor by avenging on Olaf's family. Thus, a war-band of young Orc warriors will sneak into the Orc King's ruined fortress* and set up shop, robbing passer-bys to gather money to hire enough goblinoid mercenaries to mount a devastating attack on Olafsville and its keep.

Baron Olaf the Third is old and his men-at-arms are few; they are incapable of sending a large enough party to clear out the old fortress and the 'bandits' rumored to reside there. Hence the Baron has no option but to hire a group of mercenaries (or local upstart adventurers) to scout that location, and, eventually, drive off the Orcs and their henchmen.

* The old fortress was regarded as a symbol of evil and oppression, so when Olaf the First slew the Orc King, he built a new keep (and a new village) on the other side of the hill, and let the Orc King's freed slaves settle around that new location. The old fortress stood abandoned - except for a few vermin and wild beasts - for three generations until the Orcish warband came.

GandalfMithrandir · Jun 23, 2009

You could start the adventure, and the campaign by having the PCs gain a reputation to gain a reason for Olaf the Third to choose the party. He could potentially give the PCs a seemingly useless Magic Item that could at the end of the adventure become extremely useful in defetaing the Orcs, ex. trade for powerful magic item, etc.