Creative Exercise: The Sovereign Dominion of Eyros

Abisashi · Mar 1, 2005

Jakar said:
Taljik is staking a lot of their province’s finances on this venture in the hope it will build the image of the House in general and therefore give them a boost when the current King starts to look for the next Presumptive as he has been on the throne for 2 years now and has not named the next Presumptive yet.

Compilation said:
Felra Raj-Tinar (the dashed name indicates her connection to both her orc and human House lineages) is an intelligent and well-liked young half orc who is expected by many to take the throne when the aging ruler abdicates (half-orcs have such a low life-expectancy...) Little does anyone suspect that Felra is secretly involved in a forbidden love affair with the notorious pirate captain Darrenback!

These seem to contradict; to reconcile them, how about the arena won't be done until after Felra takes the throne - just in time for the second anniversary of her coronation? Felra loves gladiatorial games and racing. This probably also puts the current emperor at the end of his reign - the next coronation is already planned.

This also provides possible adventure hooks as the houses have a while to try to sabotage the arena.

Rystil Arden · Mar 1, 2005

This is a nice catch that I didn't notice. I had sort of implied that the current emperor was nearing his abdication with the Felra post, so pushing the arena's completion a bit into the future (so that Felra or whoever else gets the throne next is the empress mentioned in Jakar's post) as you suggested would certainly work to reconcile this.

Jakar · Mar 1, 2005

Yer, I did not notice that one myself. The fix is cool as well.

Information overload. Time to have a beer I think to unblock the overload. lol

Abisashi · Mar 1, 2005

Contribution

Phineas Crow said:
Unknown to the world, a sect of human sorcerers known as the Caretakers of Ur have, for ages untold, stood guard over the Vale of Ur. Within the vale, they believe, is the key to unbelievable power and it is their duty to make sure that power is never found. Caretaker legend tell that should the secret of Ur ever be unlocked a terrible age of darkness will fall upon the world.

If you don't mind, Phineas:

Agents of the Twelve often strike toward the Vale of Ur, though this was not realized until recently when a historian analyzed the data from all the incursions. Other historians dismissed his research because they said it was based too much on guess-work and fragmentary records, and because they consider the Caretakers of Ur to be harmless fools at best, dangerous lunatics at worst. The journal which had published his research, The Royal Historical Chronicle, published a retraction, and pointed out that it had only published the paper as a thought experiment to begin with.

The historian, Kalis Dal-Malarn, who had earlier been adopted into Dal-Malorn for his exceptionally thorough research, was disowned by Pillar Malorn. Although a human, he was born into the lower classes.

Abisashi · Mar 1, 2005

Mouseferatu said:
1) You contribute to the setting by posting a single fact. These should be no longer than a few sentences, and under most conditions should consist of a single sentence.

We are totally breaking rule 1, but a lot of this stuff wouldn't work as well without it, so oh well. As long as post size doesn't expand anymore, I think we're good.

Twiggly the Gnome · Mar 1, 2005

Abisashi said:
We are totally breaking rule 1, but a lot of this stuff wouldn't work as well without it, so oh well. As long as post size doesn't expand anymore, I think we're good.

I'll try to be as brief as I can.

House Kiron rules the southern province of Aenajadin, which borders the elven nation of Nistadeen, from their capital city of Kiron-ka. Once House Kiron had a reputation for excess and debauchery, but the blood war between orcs and humans and resultant fall of one of the Pillars caused the house elders to reexamine their priorities. Saint Lasair, prophet of the Dawn, delivered her message of universal enlightenment to the very receptive family elders, who declared the Dawnist Church the established faith of the province. In keeping with the Dawnist devotion to freewill, House Kiron abandoned the use of Masks and elves were recognized as freepersons within Aenajadin.

In addition to a Human and an Orc spouse, Kiron nobles often keep an elven consort. The human scions of House Kiron are the ruling class of Aenajadin, half-orc scions aspire to the throne of Eyros, and half-elf scions are the elite clergy of the Dawnist church. Having no elven Masks, the Children of the Dawn are House Kiron's greatest magical resource. Often seen as second class, half-elf scions are always striving to prove their loyalty to House Kiron. They were the first to join Lusarum in his denunciation of the Corythian "heresy" of the Nistadeen elves.

Sarellion · Mar 1, 2005

The gnomes learned the secrets of necromancy from the Valjin, the ancient elven necromancers, who experimented with the gnomes to create a perfect apprentice race for their experiments. These new gnomes rebelled and fled from the elven empire. In revenge the Valjin slaughtered their remaining families. The gnomes pledged fealty to the warlords of the invading army in exchange for vengeance at their former masters. The surviving Valjin had their souls imprisoned in magic crystals where they were subject to terrible torments as the gnomes probed their mind to find their last secrets.

Thanatos was delighted to put the elves wizards under eternal servitude and is upset that house Kiron released their masks.

Rystil Arden · Mar 1, 2005

Twiggly the Gnome said:
I'll try to be as brief as I can.

House Kiron rules the southern province of Aenajadin, which borders the elven nation of Nistadeen, from their capital city of Kiron-ka. Once House Kiron had a reputation for excess and debauchery, but the blood war between orcs and humans and resultant fall of one of the Pillars caused the house elders to reexamine their priorities. Saint Lasair, prophet of the Dawn, delivered her message of universal enlightenment to the very receptive family elders, who declared the Dawnist Church the established faith of the province. In keeping with the Dawnist devotion to freewill, House Kiron abandoned the use of Masks and elves were recognized as freepersons within Aenajadin.

In addition to a Human and an Orc spouse, Kiron nobles often keep an elven consort. The human scions of House Kiron are the ruling class of Aenajadin, half-orc scions aspire to the throne of Eyros, and half-elf scions are the elite clergy of the Dawnist church. Having no elven Masks, the Children of the Dawn are House Kiron's greatest magical resource. Often seen as second class, half-elf scions are always striving to prove their loyalty to House Kiron. They were the first to join Lusarum in his denunciation of the Corythian "heresy" of the Nistadeen elves.

You know, that's really funny because I was going to post something very similar to this next. Great minds think alike!

Now for my contribution:

Aeryl Dal-Kiron is a friendly, likable half-elf who has gone on a diplomatic mission of friendship to visit the high court of Nistadeen, bringing with him a beautiful necklace as a gift to Alyria, the King's Lae'Thyr (a term meaning true heart, the elven equivalent of wife). Secretly a bitter follower of the Purging Flame of Dawn, Lusarum's personal followers among the Children of Dawn, Aeryl has come to stir up problems for the elves of Nistadeen. In addition to more mundane means of sabotage Aeryl's main plot involves the necklace, which is a focus donated to Lusarum by Vildaxaranthus that will instigate the devolution into a Falgyr (elf-ogre), but it is missing the crucial component that allows the elf to retain their mind. On the night of the next full moon, Alyria will become a murderous, bestial creature. Can anyone find a way to save her before she is slain by one of her own people in self-defense? And perhaps more importantly among the everlasting political social scheming and loss of face and honour of life in Nistadeen, can they keep it a secret for the king? If so, they could earn the gratitude of King Laryst of Nistadeen, whose ever-expanding mercantile empire could soon become a majour force in the world.

Mouseferatu · Mar 1, 2005

Abisashi said:
We are totally breaking rule 1, but a lot of this stuff wouldn't work as well without it, so oh well. As long as post size doesn't expand anymore, I think we're good.

I'm not too worried about it. In the beginning, it was necessary, to make sure no one person had too mucn influence over the direction of the setting. As complex as things have gotten, however, it's getting harder to add to it without going into more detail.

As you say, as long as things don't get much larger, everything's groovy.

Mouseferatu · Mar 1, 2005

Rystil Arden said:
Taufenacht the Tempter and the Ancient Intelligence known as The Twelve are one and the same. This many-voiced psionic menace is connected to a terrible but beautiful jewel known as the Cerebrum Ruby, which was discovered by the dwarves of what is now Eyros 5000 years ago, during the reign of the elves on the surface, and the dwarves in the caverns. The following related secret is known only by the dwarf responsible for heading the effort to contain the illithids, and she will only pass this shameful fact onto one successor before passing to her grave: 4500 years ago, Taogrim, king of the dwarves, was engaged to the renowned psion Urtha, but then Taogrim met a beautiful elven princess named Aelyna and fell madly in love. The day before the wedding, jealous Urtha returned to her duty of guarding the Cerebrum Ruby, where she fell prey to its psionic suggestions, and, using its power, she consumed Aelyna's brain, relishing the exotic taste, and dumping the body into a monster den. Using fragments of Aelyna's personality, she was able to seduce the bereaved Taogrim, and the two dwarves were married the next year. But on her wedding night, as Urtha closed her eyes to kiss her new husband, she heard a strangled gurgling sound. She opened her eyes to see, to her horror, that her soft ruby lips had become a tentacled maw, involuntarily sucking the brain out of her beloved. Disgusted at what she had become, Urtha ran away with the Cerebrum Ruby to the deepest reaches of the caverns, and she and her unborn twins became the first illithids (note: all this replaces the crazy new 3.x idea that illithids are like aliens from the movie Aliens).

The Cerebrum Ruby is actually more appropriately named than anyone realizes. It is literally a portion of the brain of a great demon who has slumbered in the earth for eons, and into whose calcified body the ancient dwarves accidentally dug while mining. Taufenacht, lord of demons, uses this "demon brain" as a doorway for his power and his voice to enter Eyros and the material world. He has other such doorways, including the entity (as yet undefined) which the columns of the Twelve keep trapped beneath the frozen North. The ruby and the Twelve are not obviously the same creature, because Taufenacht's "voice" is altered by the persona of the entity/object through which he channels.

(Oh, and Rystil, I think the "mind flayers as aliens" idea predates 3E. I seem to recall it was the case through much of 2E as well. But you're absolutely right, your version is better for Eyros.

)

Creative Exercise: The Sovereign Dominion of Eyros

Abisashi

First Post

Rystil Arden

First Post

Jakar

First Post

Abisashi

First Post

Abisashi

First Post

Twiggly the Gnome

Legend

Sarellion

Explorer

Rystil Arden

First Post

Mouseferatu

Hero

Mouseferatu

Hero

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