Allaria

Lord Sessadore

Explorer
I was doing some reading on the Wiki on Allaria, and it got me thinking. Some of the stuff we have there looks like it wasn't invented for L4W, but rather that we borrowed it from somewhere else, possibly LEW. Is that the case?

Anyway, I was wondering if there might be somewhere I could look for some more info on Allaria, and/or how it's changed for L4W. And any other little tidbits people know and want to share ;)
 

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ukingsken

First Post
I know nothing of this Allaria, but I am intrigued! Its one of my fav things about the livingness, learning about new places!
 

Lord Sessadore

Explorer
Well, what I've gathered so far is that Allaria was a great kingdom/empire, but something happened (I'm still not sure what, to be honest) several hundred years ago that caused its fall. Our Daunton was once just a border outpost of theirs, but many of the refugees from the fall of Allaria fled to Daunton, making it the thriving city it is now. (This is why some people have Allarian on their sheets instead of Common, because Allarian is still the common language.) You can find all sorts of references to Allaria this and Allaria that, from the page on the Gods to details on historical Dauntonian buildings.

Anyhow, there's a link in the wiki to a set of maps which are rather detailed, which is what made me think Allaria was the setting for LEW. Plus, the maps seem to be "in Allaria's prime" sort of things, not ones that would be current for L4W, since much of the Allarian empire doesn't really exist anymore.

Hmm ... I suppose I should give some links for those who don't know much about Allaria, but want to learn more ;) Maybe some kind soul will find something and share it with me/the rest of us.

L4W's Allaria in brief

Dragonborn in Allaria
Map of Allaria (for LEW? Isn't Zheen the name of their setting?)



Also, while I was reading on Allaria, I followed the link to the Laughing Gallows page, which is a pretty awesome and surprisingly developed little island, considering how few characters have come from there (I can think of two - Les and one of the bugbears out there [can't remember which one, sorry]). Someone should totally do an adventure featuring the Gallows in some way, it's just begging for it!
 

covaithe

Explorer
Long, long ago, in what surely feels like another galaxy, there were a number of competing setting proposals for L4W. Exactly how many there were, or whether they were distinct or evolutions of each other, is... subject to interpretation, if not outright lost in the mists of time. (In other words, what follows is from my far-from-perfect memory; many grains of salt should be taken with it.)

I think the first proposal was the Imperium, from Graf. It was a many-world-spanning empire of eladrin, corrupt and full of intrigue and whatnot. Think of a combination of Sigil and ancient Rome. I think the idea was that most adventures would take place out in the hinterlands, kind of Farscape style. It was an absolutely wonderful setting, and I would have loved to play a campaign in it, but the consensus at the time was that it was a bit overdeveloped for a living world. We wanted something a bit less established, more points-of-light, more of a blank canvas for DMs to develop organically over time.

Graf went back to the drawing board and came up with the Transitive Isles, with the explicit goal of making something modular and blank-canvas-like. We all liked the Imperium too much to abandon it completely, so a minor outpost of it became one of the near islands. Everybody liked it, but we didn't want to close off discussion to new proposals, so we kept tweaking it and whatnot while waiting for other proposals.

Allaria was one of those other proposals. I can't remember who came up with it (Halford, maybe?), but the idea was to have a proposal that was mostly land-based, instead of the islands-in-a-big-sea of the Transitive Isles, since one of the few concerns about TI was that there might not be enough land mass and that things would get too scrunched together. Someone -- again, I've forgotten who -- put together some suggested maps for Allaria, which I think is what you linked to. They were never "official" in even the limited way that the Near Isles map is "official", but they're still out there.

Enthusiasm for Allaria was slight, but not nonexistant, and eventually someone suggested as a compromise that we merge the proposals by making Allaria one of the Far Lands; that if DMs found the Near Isles too cramped, they could pop through a portal and adventure there. Nobody had any serious objections to that, and it seemed to satisfy those who liked Allaria, so that happened.

The Wild Lands of Zheen was yet another separate proposal for L4W. It never really got off the ground, as you can see from its wiki entry.

None of these are related at all to the setting in LEW, which is entirely different. See here: LEW
 

Atanatotatos

First Post
Ah, yes, what a good time was that. So many creative proposals and interesting discussions. That thread would get like 100 new posts in no time.
And yeah, the Imperium was absolutely fantastic and really compelling. I still hope that someday when Graf is back he will DM a game in that setting...
 

Lord Sessadore

Explorer
Haha, somehow I didn't know that ENWorld was the Discworld! That is pretty awesome. (I love Pratchett, he makes me laugh. ;))

Alright, I knew I'd seen Zheen somewhere; I guess it was way back when when I was looking at the bit in the wiki about the other setting proposals for L4W.

So ... are those maps what our Allaria looks like, then? I like maps, they help me think and plan better ;)
 


Lord Sessadore

Explorer
Yes, I have an idea ruminating (which will likely become my first ever PBP adventure!) that may or may not involve Allaria, but it would probably work better with higher level PCs.

... Especially once I saw the bit about the Unending Mire in Allaria that seemed to allude to yuan-ti involvement, and I've always, always wanted to do an adventure that involved yuan-ti. I just never have PCs powerful enough to subject to them, and the current PCs in L4W are the same, haha.
 
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