Creative Exercise: The Sovereign Dominion of Eyros

[Tonguez]

Is Mhur going to be some House's home city? Also, should all the orc-blooded Houses control the same side of the Dominion's territory (i.e. the northern half or the western half or whatnot) while the human-blooded Hosues control the other side, or no?

No house holds authority in Mhur instead it is governed by the 'Iron League' a guild of miners, smiths, merchants and alchemist. Due to its control of Industry the Iron League has been able to hold its own against the political manouverings of the Six Pillars. The Iron League is starting to dominate the River Barge trade raising concerns amongst some of the houses who have merchantile interest of their own. The Iron League has also offered significant finance to House Taljik for their development project, leading to concerns that House Taljik may be significantly in debt.

(I'd also avoid splitting the Orc-Human houses so definatively. It seems to me that mixing them fits more with the logic of the setting - and the agenda of Eyros' founders)

 

[Mouseferatu]

(I'd also avoid splitting the Orc-Human houses so definatively. It seems to me that mixing them fits more with the logic of the setting - and the agenda of Eyros' founders)

I'd agree. Let's keep things organic, where we can.

Similarly, I don't think we have to have a single naming convention for the cities. Those Pillars who want the city named after them can do so, but I don't think it's essential they all do.

Of course, this isn't an "official" contribution, so someone else can come along and overrule me on this one.

 

[Abisashi]

(I'd also avoid splitting the Orc-Human houses so definatively. It seems to me that mixing them fits more with the logic of the setting - and the agenda of Eyros' founders)

Well, we already do this, I think. The highest ranking members of a house are purely of that race (they have to be, to produce suitable heirs), but the rest of the pillar is kind of mixed, due to the marriage system. Didn't we already say that half-orcs who didn't become emperor weren't considered very imporant?

What you end up with is a ranking system based on racial purity, though I think there's lots of room for people of merit to move around - though never to the top, going back to the issue of providing an heir.

Full Blood
.9 Blooded
...
.6 blooded
Half-Blood

edit: oops, see below. I'll leave this though, as it kind of restates what is going on in house hierarchies.

 

[Rystil Arden]

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. )

Oh, I see I didn't make myself clear. I read a bit about mindflayers in both 2E and 3E, and they have always been "alien" in official D&D in that they are invading planeswalking creatures from another dimension. What I actually meant is that my mind flayers don't reproduce through the process on page 90 of the 3rd-edition Fiend Folio, which *is* new to 3.x (the baby gets inserted into the brain case via the ear canal and eats its host alive to create a new illithid, thus explaining the half-illithid template as the result of this process on non-humans), a strange change that I never much cared for. Since this reminds me of the movie Aliens, that's why I said they aren't like them (although its true that according to my description, Eyrian illithids are also not extraplanar like in 2E).

 

[Rystil Arden]

Well, we already do this, I think. The highest ranking members of a house are purely of that race (they have to be, to produce suitable heirs), but the rest of the pillar is kind of mixed, due to the marriage system. Didn't we already say that half-orcs who didn't become emperor weren't considered very imporant?

What you end up with is a ranking system based on racial purity, though I think there's lots of room for people of merit to move around - though never to the top, going back to the issue of providing an heir.

Full Blood
.9 Blooded
...
.6 blooded
Half-Blood

They weren't talking about racial purity in the Pillars Abi, they were referring to a geographic question about whether the orc pillars would all hold domains near each other and vice versa for humans. This would make a civil war of separation easier to achieve, for instance.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Oh, I see I didn't make myself clear. I read a bit about mindflayers in both 2E and 3E, and they have always been "alien" in official D&D in that they are invading planeswalking creatures from another dimension. What I actually meant is that my mind flayers don't reproduce through the process on page 90 of the 3rd-edition Fiend Folio, which *is* new to 3.x (the baby gets inserted into the brain case via the ear canal and eats its host alive to create a new illithid, thus explaining the half-illithid template as the result of this process on non-humans), a strange change that I never much cared for. Since this reminds me of the movie Aliens, that's why I said they aren't like them (although its true that according to my description, Eyrian illithids are also not extraplanar like in 2E).

Hmm. I thought that was the case in 2E as well, as per the various mind-flayer adventures/supplements, but I Could be mistaken. In any case, we're getting a bit far afield, here. Suffice it to say, once again, your idea makes much more sense for this particular setting.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Hmm. I thought that was the case in 2E as well, as per the various mind-flayer adventures/supplements, but I Could be mistaken. In any case, we're getting a bit far afield, here. Suffice it to say, once again, your idea makes much more sense for this particular setting.

Heh, knowing the volume of material they churned out at once during 2E, I wouldn't be surprised if they contradicted themselves in something I didn't see. I like the way we are going here though, it really creates a haunted feeling for the as-yet-undetailed dwarf psion in charge of the secret, and the Taufenacht factor seems to be a powerful hidden threat to which PCs could progress after dealing with relatively local political matters at lower levels.

 

[Abisashi]

Contribution #2

No house holds authority in Mhur instead it is governed by the 'Iron League' a guild of miners, smiths, merchants and alchemist. Due to its control of Industry the Iron League has been able to hold its own against the political manouverings of the Six Pillars. The Iron League is starting to dominate the River Barge trade raising concerns amongst some of the houses who have merchantile interest of their own. The Iron League has also offered significant finance to House Taljik for their development project, leading to concerns that House Taljik may be significantly in debt.

Yay! Five people contributed after me, so now I can go to bed.


There are several mask oaths (see post #134.) The most common one is a House Oath, making the mask subservient to its house. This is the only one that is common knowledge.

A second mask oath is the Imperial Oath, which only three remaining masks have sworn - Alivia(posts #121), Jal-qwuin (though it is more-or-less unravelled in her case; see post #115), and Tellas (emphasis on the second syllable.) The only person who knows of the existance and actions of Tellas is the emperor. Kalis Dal-Malarn (see post #174), the historian, once suggested the existance of someone along the lines of Tellas in one of his footnotes, but it was just speculation. Kalis believed that Tellas impersonated or created people in order to act in the interest of the emperor. Given the technical nature of the paper in which this was proposed, very few have even seen the footnote, much less taken it seriously. As Kalis noted, this implied that there was a version of the oath that did not leave those compelled by it with the mind of a child. Kalis is not aware that Alivia was under this oath; he believes her to be a guardian mask.

A third mask oath, much more common than the imperial one, is the Guardian Oath. Guardian Masks are sworn to protect the empire; though stewarded by the various houses, their first alliegence is to the empire (they did not participate in the War of the Crumbled Pillar, but instead guarded the borders.) This oath, like the imperial one, has fallen out of use, but that occured later and thus there are around 40 Guardian masks around. Because they are not sworn to a house, Pillar Kiron was unable to free the guardian masks in their care, though they treat them very well.

Other oaths may exist as well.


As a side note, all of the masks at this point have a single name, which I think fits well with them being slaves. Opinions on all masks having a single name?


As an organizational side note, if you reference something, I'd appreciate it if you could point to an earler post about it, or add a reminder sentance about it - reading this thread was confusing at points because I didn't remember the names of everything.


*****Important Note: The Imperial Oath mentioned here has been changed to be called the Primal Oath. Check the latest summary for more information, under the section on elves.

 

[Abisashi]

Clarification

That was kind of long, and I edited it at least 10 times .

The guardian masks ignoring the civil war helps explain why the empire wasn't destroyed by external forces during its civil war, which by our account was absolutely devastating. There used to be a lot more guardian masks, but a lot of them died protecting the empire during the war. 40 seems a reasonable number (it was 100, but I lowered it; should I go back?)

I'm trying to tie things into each other as much as possible, thus the reference to three earlier named characters, and the post numbers where they can be found.

Oh, and the referenced paper by Kalis Dal-Moran was also published in The Royal Historical Chronicle.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Yay! Five people contributed after me, so now I can go to bed.


There are several mask oaths (see post 134.) The most common one is a House Oath, making the mask subservient to its house. This is the only one that is common knowledge.

A second mask oath is the Imperial Oath, which only three remaining masks have sworn - Alivia, Jal-qwuin (though it is more-or-less unravelled in her case), and Tellas (emphasis on the second syllable.) The only person who knows of the existance and actions of Tellas is the emperor. Kalis Dal-Malorn (see post #174), the historian, once suggested the existance of someone along the lines of Tellas in one of his footnotes, but it was just speculation. Kalis believed that Tellas impersonated or created people in order to act in the interest of the emperor. Given the technical nature of the paper in which this was proposed, very few have even seen the footnote, much less taken it seriously. As Kalis noted, this implied that there was a version of the oath that did not leave those compelled by it with the mind of a child. Kalis is not aware that Alivia was under this oath; he believes her to be a guardian mask.

A third mask oath, much more common than the imperial one, is the Guardian Oath. Guardian Masks are sworn to protect the empire; though stewarded by the various houses, their first alliegence is to the empire (they did not participate in the War of the Crumbled Pillar, but instead guarded the borders.) This oath, like the imperial one, has fallen out of use, but that occured later and thus there are around 40 Guardian masks around. Because they are not sworn to a house, Pillar Kiron was unable to free the guardian masks in their care, though they treat them very well.

Other oaths may exist as well.


As a side note, all of the masks at this point have a single name, which I think fits well with them being slaves. Opinions on all masks having a single name?


As an organizational side note, if you reference something, I'd appreciate it if you could point to an earler post about it, or add a reminder sentance about it - reading this thread was confusing at points because I didn't remember the names of everything.

Hmm...given the high turnover rate of emperors, does that mean that Tellas is known to all former and current emperors, or does she (oh, no gender pronouns, so she might be a he, I have no idea) magically contact current emperors and then later wipe their minds so that only the current emperor knows, or maybe we change it so nobody knows...or maybe this will be clarified later?