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Barsoom Tales II: Romance, Revolution and BLOODY REVENGE!!! -- COMPLETE
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<blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 4621170" data-attributes="member: 812"><p>Actually, no, not at all.</p><p></p><p>The prehistory of Barsoom goes like this: first there's chaos, opposed by nothingness. Out of the boundary there, consciousness forms. Multiple consciousnesses form. Consciousness desires to sustain itself rather than be consumed by either chaos or nothingness, and so creates a "place" -- the first place that ever existed.</p><p></p><p>(all this is largely lifted from Brust's <em>To Reign In Hell</em>, actually)</p><p></p><p>These consciousnesses were not human in any way shape or especially form. They don't even have "form" as we would think of it. They are what on Barsoom are known as spirits -- random spontaneous generations of consciousness within the chaos.</p><p></p><p>So "place" exists, and quite possibly numerous "places". It probably takes a number of tries to figure out how to make "place" exist for a period of "time" -- which is pretty much the beginning of the idea of "time".</p><p></p><p>In some of these places consciousnesses experienced the desire to get <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> done and created various forms of life. One form was a draconic humanoid known to humans as Keyadar -- very powerful in many ways (especially sorcery (also they're just really big bastards)) but limited. They can only draw on Shadow (nothingness), and have no way to connect to Dream (chaos). But they're useful, it appears.</p><p></p><p>Consciousness (whatever these things are) creates more life, and eventually comes up with the idea of humans -- creatures that can embody BOTH Shadow and Dream. Very exciting.</p><p></p><p>With these new toys, Barsoom becomes a feasible project, using human souls to keep the whole thing stable.</p><p></p><p>However, the Keyadar grow restive and with all the power they've been amassing, manage to drive most of the consciousnesses right out of Barsoom. Many are destroyed, and those that remained were forced to accept bizarre or limited forms. One such was the Tarn, which become a bound spirit that manifested as a whole host of individual creatures. Another (not seen in this telling) was Mullah, the spirit of the wind that served as the holy voice of the Naridic religion. Another was known as the Green Serpent, and sought sacrifices in dark jungles.</p><p></p><p>So then the Keyadar were in charge, and they liked that. But now it was the humans getting uppity. One great sorcerer-king named Kushan Kal Kabbar tried to fight them, and gathered together his best warriors, and made them in to undead monsters who could hunt and destroy Keyadar, and who would never truly die. But that was not enough to bring them down.</p><p></p><p>But in the end it was the sorceress Ky'in who overthrew the Keyadar regime, by suborning one of the key Keyadar generals, Essermane Varag, who she rewarded by trapping forever behind a faceless black slab. Much of the Keyadar population were tricked into an alternate dimension that they could not get out of, and then Ky'in was in charge. And she was, of course, completely insane. And things were bad.</p><p></p><p>So eventually folks got together to do something about her. About two thousand years before the campaign began, a Naridic king named Suelekar ben Azan and his Lohanese wife, Bai Xue (or something) cooked up a plan and trapped Ky'in in an alternate dimension (you're seeing the pattern now, aren't you?). At the same time, Bai Xue founded the Blood Council to A. make sure such powerful figures never arose again, and B. to create a human being who could truly stand against something like Ky'in without risking the destruction of the world.</p><p></p><p>Ky'in was still worshipped in Kish as a goddess, along with a few other legendary figures, but to no avail as she had no access to Barsoom.</p><p></p><p>Matai Shang comes much after that, although exactly when is unclear. But about two hundred years ago he sees the infamous beauty Yuek Man Chong and spirits her away to his little theme park of torture and terror, turns her into a vampire, then turns her into a goddess, and sets her on the Blood Council (after she's had a century of ruling Tianguo with real fun and games). To his surprise she breaks free of his control and runs away, tries a variety of means to put an end to first her condition and later her existence, and is really in a not very good place when our heroes come stumbling along into the mix.</p><p></p><p>Whew! Now most of this I didn't have in mind when I started. I knew there was a crazy goddess named Ky'in who had been kicked out and was trying to get back, I knew there was a bad sorcerer named Matai Shang, and I knew there were dragon-people called Keyadar that had been mostly wiped out long ago. None of the rest of this (including the ideas of "Shadow" and "Dream") existed when the campaign started. I just randomly gave Elena psionics in Season Two and had hinted at magic, especially of the necromantic variety, but it wasn't until Arrafin got that book that I even started to worry about metaphysics and magic and all that. And at first all I had was Shadow -- it wasn't until the first genie appeared that I started trying to fit psionics and spirits into the cosmology.</p><p></p><p>So the whole thing emerged organically out of the actual playing of the game -- I had no idea the Tarn weren't just a bunch of fey when they first appeared. It was only later I realised that they were actually one of the Old Ones that had been kind of messed up. </p><p></p><p>And yet it always seemed like I knew what was happening, and looking back, it all fit together so very well that it's hard to believe I made it up as I went along. I really regret not doing a better job running Season Four, because the connections that pulled everything together were really blowing my mind, but it became hard to share them with the players via the game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="barsoomcore, post: 4621170, member: 812"] Actually, no, not at all. The prehistory of Barsoom goes like this: first there's chaos, opposed by nothingness. Out of the boundary there, consciousness forms. Multiple consciousnesses form. Consciousness desires to sustain itself rather than be consumed by either chaos or nothingness, and so creates a "place" -- the first place that ever existed. (all this is largely lifted from Brust's [i]To Reign In Hell[/i], actually) These consciousnesses were not human in any way shape or especially form. They don't even have "form" as we would think of it. They are what on Barsoom are known as spirits -- random spontaneous generations of consciousness within the chaos. So "place" exists, and quite possibly numerous "places". It probably takes a number of tries to figure out how to make "place" exist for a period of "time" -- which is pretty much the beginning of the idea of "time". In some of these places consciousnesses experienced the desire to get :):):):) done and created various forms of life. One form was a draconic humanoid known to humans as Keyadar -- very powerful in many ways (especially sorcery (also they're just really big bastards)) but limited. They can only draw on Shadow (nothingness), and have no way to connect to Dream (chaos). But they're useful, it appears. Consciousness (whatever these things are) creates more life, and eventually comes up with the idea of humans -- creatures that can embody BOTH Shadow and Dream. Very exciting. With these new toys, Barsoom becomes a feasible project, using human souls to keep the whole thing stable. However, the Keyadar grow restive and with all the power they've been amassing, manage to drive most of the consciousnesses right out of Barsoom. Many are destroyed, and those that remained were forced to accept bizarre or limited forms. One such was the Tarn, which become a bound spirit that manifested as a whole host of individual creatures. Another (not seen in this telling) was Mullah, the spirit of the wind that served as the holy voice of the Naridic religion. Another was known as the Green Serpent, and sought sacrifices in dark jungles. So then the Keyadar were in charge, and they liked that. But now it was the humans getting uppity. One great sorcerer-king named Kushan Kal Kabbar tried to fight them, and gathered together his best warriors, and made them in to undead monsters who could hunt and destroy Keyadar, and who would never truly die. But that was not enough to bring them down. But in the end it was the sorceress Ky'in who overthrew the Keyadar regime, by suborning one of the key Keyadar generals, Essermane Varag, who she rewarded by trapping forever behind a faceless black slab. Much of the Keyadar population were tricked into an alternate dimension that they could not get out of, and then Ky'in was in charge. And she was, of course, completely insane. And things were bad. So eventually folks got together to do something about her. About two thousand years before the campaign began, a Naridic king named Suelekar ben Azan and his Lohanese wife, Bai Xue (or something) cooked up a plan and trapped Ky'in in an alternate dimension (you're seeing the pattern now, aren't you?). At the same time, Bai Xue founded the Blood Council to A. make sure such powerful figures never arose again, and B. to create a human being who could truly stand against something like Ky'in without risking the destruction of the world. Ky'in was still worshipped in Kish as a goddess, along with a few other legendary figures, but to no avail as she had no access to Barsoom. Matai Shang comes much after that, although exactly when is unclear. But about two hundred years ago he sees the infamous beauty Yuek Man Chong and spirits her away to his little theme park of torture and terror, turns her into a vampire, then turns her into a goddess, and sets her on the Blood Council (after she's had a century of ruling Tianguo with real fun and games). To his surprise she breaks free of his control and runs away, tries a variety of means to put an end to first her condition and later her existence, and is really in a not very good place when our heroes come stumbling along into the mix. Whew! Now most of this I didn't have in mind when I started. I knew there was a crazy goddess named Ky'in who had been kicked out and was trying to get back, I knew there was a bad sorcerer named Matai Shang, and I knew there were dragon-people called Keyadar that had been mostly wiped out long ago. None of the rest of this (including the ideas of "Shadow" and "Dream") existed when the campaign started. I just randomly gave Elena psionics in Season Two and had hinted at magic, especially of the necromantic variety, but it wasn't until Arrafin got that book that I even started to worry about metaphysics and magic and all that. And at first all I had was Shadow -- it wasn't until the first genie appeared that I started trying to fit psionics and spirits into the cosmology. So the whole thing emerged organically out of the actual playing of the game -- I had no idea the Tarn weren't just a bunch of fey when they first appeared. It was only later I realised that they were actually one of the Old Ones that had been kind of messed up. And yet it always seemed like I knew what was happening, and looking back, it all fit together so very well that it's hard to believe I made it up as I went along. I really regret not doing a better job running Season Four, because the connections that pulled everything together were really blowing my mind, but it became hard to share them with the players via the game. [/QUOTE]
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