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[Let's Read] Brancalonia: Spaghetti Fantasy Setting
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8332334" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/cAuarhw.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>The Bounty Kingdom, Part 2</strong></p><p></p><p><em>Ausonia</em> is located by the Zigane Sea, named after the people of the same name who came to Brancalonia from western shores. The native Ausonians are believed to be descendants of the Esperians, who not much is known about but whose traditions survive into modern times such as summer-time dances honoring spider spirits. The region has a higher than normal proportion of reptiles and reptilian monsters, believed to have a common ancestor in Mamma Tarasca, a legendary monster said to still sleep in the deepest caves. Ausonia lacks a central government, and most of its villages are self-governing walled settlements and citadels who occasionally pool resources against foreign incursions. The region is also home to the Trollis, a race of hostile giants who live in ancient tombs in the mountains.</p><p></p><p>Jobs in Ausonia involve hunting monsters, searching for treasure in semi-abandoned castles and towers, and participating in jousts in the cities and safeguarding shipping lanes.</p><p></p><p>We have a one-page sidebar talking about nomadic occupations and ethnic groups of Brancalonia. Said lifestyle is rather common and doesn’t merit any automatic suspicion or distrust: approximately 10% of Brancalonia’s population falls under the semi-nomadic label. Ziganes are people who hail from a western land across the sea, and the ones who settle in the peninsula are known for magic, artwork, toy-making, swordsmanship, and seafaring. The latter group is believed to know the language of cormorants and pelicans, which they use to better traverse the major bodies of water. There are also the Lacklands, a mostly-impoverished people from Zagara who work in modest jobs of manual labor. The criminals among their people consider themselves a more honorable sort, and for centuries have been known to go after bandits and brigands. They mostly live around what was known as the Kingdom of the Two Scyllas, living mostly in Volturnia and Alazia. The Norcitans are a clan of sylvans who come from the Black Valley of Spoleteria and are famed for their cuisine and count skilled doctors among their ranks. Last are the Falcamonte Caravankers, a profession of mobile bankers who arose from a law that prevents the religiously devout from participating in financial occupations (bankers, loaners, etc). The Caravankers disproportionately come from a small group of families between Quinotaria and Falcamonte who started moving around in huge “caravanks.” They make regular stops around the Kingdom, lending money and providing letters of credit which are honored by all other Caravankers. There’s a rumor that they’re participating in a secret plot to steal everyone’s wealth after dismantling their banks, and the book notes that “there might be some truth to this.”</p><p></p><p><em>The Forgotten Counties</em> are a region located somewhere between Alazia and Torrigiana to the north and Ausonia and Volturnia to the south. Although Brancalonia is home to some absurd places such as Cuccaigne, there are plenty of people who have evidence of their existence. Precious few can say the same for the Forgotten Counties besides the ramblings of a few adventurers. From what little could be ascertained, this region is home to extinct creatures, whose inhabitants have no use for coinage, and where flying flocks of migratory ostriches can be seen crossing the sky. Said ostriches are believed to have magical powers which make onlookers forget everything they saw in the Forgotten Counties. The pages also have dark splotches of wine stains which cover large portions of text. Text which doesn’t exist if you try to highlight it with the Select Tool on a PDF.</p><p></p><p>Jobs in the Forgotten Counties are not taken lightly. Most Knaves aren’t eager to go on a wild goose chase in search of such a land, and those that do are often stranded and desperate to rob their peers of what little they have. We also have a sidebar of common races in the Counties. There’s a higher number of Gifted, as well as a group of people known as Nonexistents. Said race is detailed in the Macaronicon as animated cloaks, armor, and other apparel which present the facsimile of a person when “standing up.”</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/V2IfYFR.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><em>Volturnia</em> was one of the oldest provinces of the Draconian Empire, blessed for generations with wealth and high living standards. Such resources made them targets for the Plutonians in times past, and through careful diplomacy they managed to peacefully assimilate rather than be violently conquered. The fall of the Draconian Empire saw much of this prosperity gone, where the vaults and villas of the wealthy were robbed and fought over by all manner of greedy warlords. Still, the legacies of former eras persist, such as abandoned amphitheaters surrounded by slums and noble estates whose descendants have learned to farm themselves in the absence of hired servants. The people of Volturnia have learned to find the bright side in suffering and adversity, knowing that in times long past their people stunned the world with what they could create. In an ironic twist of fate, the region is also home to some of the best forgers in the Kingdom. Volturnia is also known to produce a higher than usual number of witches, fairies, and ghost-haunted abodes, particularly in the Duchy of Acquaiviva whose capital is cursed to be destroyed for whoever speaks its true name. It is now called the City of Names for this reason.</p><p></p><p>Jobs in Volturnia involve confrontation with echoes of the past: princes are so impoverished that even the greenest Knaves can get an audience with a local ruler, and people are so desperate in reclaiming treasures that there’s just as much profit to be had in finding clever forgeries as the real deal. Cities are in dire need of exorcists and benandante to drive out unwanted spirits, and wicked hags and heretical cults are the most common dangers in the wild reaches beyond the towns.</p><p></p><p><em>Piccadora</em> is a realm almost entirely given over to wilderness, the bulk of its population secured in the ports. Mountains, forests, hills, and valleys are home to animals, hermits, outlaws, and those seeking to escape wider society. The region is notably crawling with magic, often due to the touch of foreign visitors and secret wars between spellcasters, which have left their mark in the southern sections with small villages of mystics and miraculists. The nearby city of Sibaria is one to the Royal Mavaria College of Abracalabria, one of the Kingdom’s few magic academies. The courses here specialize in jinxes and other dangerous spells. Piccadora is also home to a religious tradition known as paradoxical monasticism, a religion descended from the New Doctrine but distinct from the Creed. The practitioners have a higher than usual number of Nonexistent members for unknown reasons.</p><p></p><p>Jobs in Piccadora usually begin in one of the realm’s strategic port hubs, although the mages of Sibaria are always willing to hire people to collect rare material components for their research. It’s also believed that the ruins of the kingdom of Morgantia (the last kingdom of said race) lay somewhere in the wilds.</p><p></p><p><em>Zagara</em> is one of the three major islands of the Kingdom, just barely touching the southernmost tip of the Brancalonian Peninsula but connected by a massive bridge that was the pride of the Draconian Empire. Its people are quite multicultural due to colonization and occupation by many different powers over the eras, with features and cultural influences of fantasy counterpart Arabs, Italians, and Western European cultures. Its many convents and monasteries have a diverse religious tradition, ranging from the Creed to the less-populous Paradoxical Faith. Its people are notoriously accepting and resolute in changing times, claiming that “everything must change for everything to remain the same” whenever some new force lays stake to Zagara. The island is also home to Typhon Mountain, the tallest volcano in the Kingdom and all of Occasia. The volcano is still active, and some monsters and people (mostly fearsome warriors) are crazy enough to live there.</p><p></p><p>Zagara’s current political structure is divided into four major factions. The first is a collection of cities in the north, with the metropolis of Elefanta the most powerful whose governors are controlled by the viceroys as the powers behind the throne. The middle valleys were once under the iron grip of the La Grua family, infamous for their use of vivisection and Black Alchemy, but upon being overthrown the region has been in a Balkanized state of warring factions of brigands. Finally, the southern reaches of Zagara are ruled over by Emirs hailing from southern Sidonia. The cities here are bastions of art and science, but whose warriors are also known as ferocious raiders that tax their subjects heavily. Many villages are caught between a rock and a hard place, viewing the Sidonians as conquerors but also not being fond of the older barons and feudal lords in the rest of the island. The fourth faction is not officially recognized; the Vicaria is an organized crime syndicate that squeezes the life and wealth from citizenry and who none of the local rulers have been able to drive off.</p><p></p><p>Jobs in Zagara commonly involve contributing to the feuds between the island’s power players, and sometimes between the rich and poor.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/VePuV3O.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><em>Tasinnanta</em> is one of the two major islands east of the Brancalonian Peninsula. A rather poor and inhospitable climate, its people are proud of their generations-long independence from foreign powers. Remnants of lost cities from forgotten eras dot the landscape, providing passage to subterranean tunnels and lost treasures. It is filled with lagoons and dominated by a mountain inland, which the Draconians and other would-be invaders have learned the hard way will not be tamed. Pagans of various races are common here, particularly the Barbariccia clan of malebranche known for an inflexible moral code.</p><p></p><p>North of Tasinnanta is Callista, a mostly-forested region exploited by Vortigan’s lumber industry and naval garrisons. The furthest interior reaches of the forest haven’t been explored, and the Vortigans living on the island may know what lurks there but are tight-lipped about it. Reports from expeditions speak of monster-filled ruins.</p><p></p><p>Jobs in Tasinnanta aren’t for those seeking a good amount of money; the settlements are independent, self-sufficient, and prefer to keep it that way. All that said, there are some people in need of specialists, such as Lionadia who needs a protective escort into the forgotten cities to perform a “procession of the dead,” or Mariano di Torre who has been cursed to drink only spring water. He will pay handsomely for Knaves who bring him water from the most inaccessible and holy of springs.</p><p></p><p>Callista on the other hand, is in need of hired help to map the island’s interior, and some corsairs claim to have seen a colossal statue of precious metal in the heart of the forest.</p><p></p><p><em>The Seven and a Half Seas of the Kingdom</em> covers the major bodies of water in the setting. The northwest Sea of Towers is dark and dangerous, so-named for impossibly-long spires peeking up from beneath the waves. To the west is the Zigane Sea, its waters blood-red and the major trade route to Frange and distant Illusitania. Tristopher Colombrus was said to have discovered new lands by plying these waters far west enough. Directly west of the Peninsula is the Sea of the Shadows, whose storms are so dire that they seem to compete with each other in how many ships they can sink, and are home to innumerable shadows and ghosts of the drowned.</p><p></p><p>The Sapphire Sea which links the Peninsula with the major islands is incredibly well-traveled, home to all manner of sailors, smugglers, pirates, merchant fleets, and kingdoms’ worth of dumped contraband. The seas are also home to the tempestarii, spellcasters capable of controlling storms. East of Tasinnanta and Callista is the Murky Sea, home to the best navigators as well as the dangerous pirates of Istrania. These buccaneers are continually on the hunt for inexperienced crews to capture and sell to Vortiga as slaves. To the south of the Peninsula is the Sea of the Charybdis, well-patrolled by Sidonian warships.</p><p></p><p>The Monstrum Sea is the smallest of the seas, being located entirely in Penumbria’s Mistide. Crossing through by sea is even more deadly by land, as the lack of visibility has been the end of countless ships crashing into rocks, islands, and shoals. Not to mention the various nameless horrors that lurk beneath the surf. And not located on any credible map is the mythical Half Sea, whose island of Alcina is rumored to house a grand treasure...or nothing at all, causing disappointed explorers to never speak of it again, unable to face the shame of it.</p><p></p><p>Jobs at sea range from all kinds. There’s money to be made in the various maritime trades, and the strange monsters of the sea care little for whose flag flies on vessels bearing precious two-legged meat.</p><p></p><p><em>Beyond the Kingdom’s Borders</em> covers the rest of the known (and theorized) world. The mortal realm is known to be spherical and called the Orb, and the people of Brancalonia are aware of the existence of peoples and regions beyond their peninsula and surrounding waters. East of the Peninsula is the kingdom of Istrania, and east of that coastal land are hundreds of mysterious lands and caravan routes. To the south is Sidonia, located on the continent of Meridiana which is home to vast jungles and deserts. Vortigan outposts can be found here, as well as the Golden City of Constantinaples whose scenic atmosphere is the retirement home of many a Knave who made it big. To the west of the Sea of Shadows and the Zigane Sea and north of the Crown Mountains is the continent of Occasia, home to the kingdom of Frange notable for its various pirate cities. Further west of Frange is the kingdom of Illuistania, which is distant enough that many Brancalonians are unsure of its existence. To the north of the Brancalonian Peninsula is the Altomannic Empire,* and further north is Great Brigantain, the Boreal Kingdoms, and the Varag domains which all share and fight over the Hyperborean Sea.</p><p></p><p>*I don’t know if this is a variant spelling of the Empire of Altomagna or a separate land.</p><p></p><p>As for lands beyond the Orb, the Creed teaches of other planes of existence. The Seven Firmaments and Inferno are where the souls of departed mortals go off to, their respective physical portals located at the bottom of Plutonia and in the city of Urania on the other side of the world. Supernal Spheres float beyond the Orb, and the outermost one is where the Ternal Father resides.</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> I’m also fond of the later regions of the Bounty Kingdom, although some of them felt a bit shorter and more specialized than previous entries. I did like Volturnia’s emphasis on “those living among the ruins of a supposed Golden Age,” and Zagara is home to a large number of rival groups and factions to spur many opportunities for Knaves. Piccadora felt like a subtler Torrigiana. There was more emphasis on isolated reaches of wilderness and the dangers of magic rather than the fairy-tale-like whimsy. On the flip side of things, the Forgotten Counties felt like a lot of word space for “these lands are unknown and supposedly have weird stuff happening there,” and Ausonia was too brief for my liking in being a mere one page long.</p><p></p><p>While it doesn’t matter as much to the campaign at large, I was happy that there was some space given over to detailing the lands beyond Brancalonia, including some of which still touched the region through trade, conquest, foreign faiths, and settlers. This gives the setting a more lived-in feel as opposed to a land that is boxed off from the rest of reality. I also like how the planes of existence aren’t set in stone (Inferno a notable exception), with the realms espoused being that of the Creed’s teachings and thus taken on matters of faith.</p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we embark on a half-dozen prewritten adventures In Search of Quatrins!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 8332334, member: 6750502"] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/cAuarhw.png[/img] [b]The Bounty Kingdom, Part 2[/b][/center] [i]Ausonia[/i] is located by the Zigane Sea, named after the people of the same name who came to Brancalonia from western shores. The native Ausonians are believed to be descendants of the Esperians, who not much is known about but whose traditions survive into modern times such as summer-time dances honoring spider spirits. The region has a higher than normal proportion of reptiles and reptilian monsters, believed to have a common ancestor in Mamma Tarasca, a legendary monster said to still sleep in the deepest caves. Ausonia lacks a central government, and most of its villages are self-governing walled settlements and citadels who occasionally pool resources against foreign incursions. The region is also home to the Trollis, a race of hostile giants who live in ancient tombs in the mountains. Jobs in Ausonia involve hunting monsters, searching for treasure in semi-abandoned castles and towers, and participating in jousts in the cities and safeguarding shipping lanes. We have a one-page sidebar talking about nomadic occupations and ethnic groups of Brancalonia. Said lifestyle is rather common and doesn’t merit any automatic suspicion or distrust: approximately 10% of Brancalonia’s population falls under the semi-nomadic label. Ziganes are people who hail from a western land across the sea, and the ones who settle in the peninsula are known for magic, artwork, toy-making, swordsmanship, and seafaring. The latter group is believed to know the language of cormorants and pelicans, which they use to better traverse the major bodies of water. There are also the Lacklands, a mostly-impoverished people from Zagara who work in modest jobs of manual labor. The criminals among their people consider themselves a more honorable sort, and for centuries have been known to go after bandits and brigands. They mostly live around what was known as the Kingdom of the Two Scyllas, living mostly in Volturnia and Alazia. The Norcitans are a clan of sylvans who come from the Black Valley of Spoleteria and are famed for their cuisine and count skilled doctors among their ranks. Last are the Falcamonte Caravankers, a profession of mobile bankers who arose from a law that prevents the religiously devout from participating in financial occupations (bankers, loaners, etc). The Caravankers disproportionately come from a small group of families between Quinotaria and Falcamonte who started moving around in huge “caravanks.” They make regular stops around the Kingdom, lending money and providing letters of credit which are honored by all other Caravankers. There’s a rumor that they’re participating in a secret plot to steal everyone’s wealth after dismantling their banks, and the book notes that “there might be some truth to this.” [i]The Forgotten Counties[/i] are a region located somewhere between Alazia and Torrigiana to the north and Ausonia and Volturnia to the south. Although Brancalonia is home to some absurd places such as Cuccaigne, there are plenty of people who have evidence of their existence. Precious few can say the same for the Forgotten Counties besides the ramblings of a few adventurers. From what little could be ascertained, this region is home to extinct creatures, whose inhabitants have no use for coinage, and where flying flocks of migratory ostriches can be seen crossing the sky. Said ostriches are believed to have magical powers which make onlookers forget everything they saw in the Forgotten Counties. The pages also have dark splotches of wine stains which cover large portions of text. Text which doesn’t exist if you try to highlight it with the Select Tool on a PDF. Jobs in the Forgotten Counties are not taken lightly. Most Knaves aren’t eager to go on a wild goose chase in search of such a land, and those that do are often stranded and desperate to rob their peers of what little they have. We also have a sidebar of common races in the Counties. There’s a higher number of Gifted, as well as a group of people known as Nonexistents. Said race is detailed in the Macaronicon as animated cloaks, armor, and other apparel which present the facsimile of a person when “standing up.” [img]https://i.imgur.com/V2IfYFR.png[/img] [i]Volturnia[/i] was one of the oldest provinces of the Draconian Empire, blessed for generations with wealth and high living standards. Such resources made them targets for the Plutonians in times past, and through careful diplomacy they managed to peacefully assimilate rather than be violently conquered. The fall of the Draconian Empire saw much of this prosperity gone, where the vaults and villas of the wealthy were robbed and fought over by all manner of greedy warlords. Still, the legacies of former eras persist, such as abandoned amphitheaters surrounded by slums and noble estates whose descendants have learned to farm themselves in the absence of hired servants. The people of Volturnia have learned to find the bright side in suffering and adversity, knowing that in times long past their people stunned the world with what they could create. In an ironic twist of fate, the region is also home to some of the best forgers in the Kingdom. Volturnia is also known to produce a higher than usual number of witches, fairies, and ghost-haunted abodes, particularly in the Duchy of Acquaiviva whose capital is cursed to be destroyed for whoever speaks its true name. It is now called the City of Names for this reason. Jobs in Volturnia involve confrontation with echoes of the past: princes are so impoverished that even the greenest Knaves can get an audience with a local ruler, and people are so desperate in reclaiming treasures that there’s just as much profit to be had in finding clever forgeries as the real deal. Cities are in dire need of exorcists and benandante to drive out unwanted spirits, and wicked hags and heretical cults are the most common dangers in the wild reaches beyond the towns. [i]Piccadora[/i] is a realm almost entirely given over to wilderness, the bulk of its population secured in the ports. Mountains, forests, hills, and valleys are home to animals, hermits, outlaws, and those seeking to escape wider society. The region is notably crawling with magic, often due to the touch of foreign visitors and secret wars between spellcasters, which have left their mark in the southern sections with small villages of mystics and miraculists. The nearby city of Sibaria is one to the Royal Mavaria College of Abracalabria, one of the Kingdom’s few magic academies. The courses here specialize in jinxes and other dangerous spells. Piccadora is also home to a religious tradition known as paradoxical monasticism, a religion descended from the New Doctrine but distinct from the Creed. The practitioners have a higher than usual number of Nonexistent members for unknown reasons. Jobs in Piccadora usually begin in one of the realm’s strategic port hubs, although the mages of Sibaria are always willing to hire people to collect rare material components for their research. It’s also believed that the ruins of the kingdom of Morgantia (the last kingdom of said race) lay somewhere in the wilds. [i]Zagara[/i] is one of the three major islands of the Kingdom, just barely touching the southernmost tip of the Brancalonian Peninsula but connected by a massive bridge that was the pride of the Draconian Empire. Its people are quite multicultural due to colonization and occupation by many different powers over the eras, with features and cultural influences of fantasy counterpart Arabs, Italians, and Western European cultures. Its many convents and monasteries have a diverse religious tradition, ranging from the Creed to the less-populous Paradoxical Faith. Its people are notoriously accepting and resolute in changing times, claiming that “everything must change for everything to remain the same” whenever some new force lays stake to Zagara. The island is also home to Typhon Mountain, the tallest volcano in the Kingdom and all of Occasia. The volcano is still active, and some monsters and people (mostly fearsome warriors) are crazy enough to live there. Zagara’s current political structure is divided into four major factions. The first is a collection of cities in the north, with the metropolis of Elefanta the most powerful whose governors are controlled by the viceroys as the powers behind the throne. The middle valleys were once under the iron grip of the La Grua family, infamous for their use of vivisection and Black Alchemy, but upon being overthrown the region has been in a Balkanized state of warring factions of brigands. Finally, the southern reaches of Zagara are ruled over by Emirs hailing from southern Sidonia. The cities here are bastions of art and science, but whose warriors are also known as ferocious raiders that tax their subjects heavily. Many villages are caught between a rock and a hard place, viewing the Sidonians as conquerors but also not being fond of the older barons and feudal lords in the rest of the island. The fourth faction is not officially recognized; the Vicaria is an organized crime syndicate that squeezes the life and wealth from citizenry and who none of the local rulers have been able to drive off. Jobs in Zagara commonly involve contributing to the feuds between the island’s power players, and sometimes between the rich and poor. [img]https://i.imgur.com/VePuV3O.png[/img] [i]Tasinnanta[/i] is one of the two major islands east of the Brancalonian Peninsula. A rather poor and inhospitable climate, its people are proud of their generations-long independence from foreign powers. Remnants of lost cities from forgotten eras dot the landscape, providing passage to subterranean tunnels and lost treasures. It is filled with lagoons and dominated by a mountain inland, which the Draconians and other would-be invaders have learned the hard way will not be tamed. Pagans of various races are common here, particularly the Barbariccia clan of malebranche known for an inflexible moral code. North of Tasinnanta is Callista, a mostly-forested region exploited by Vortigan’s lumber industry and naval garrisons. The furthest interior reaches of the forest haven’t been explored, and the Vortigans living on the island may know what lurks there but are tight-lipped about it. Reports from expeditions speak of monster-filled ruins. Jobs in Tasinnanta aren’t for those seeking a good amount of money; the settlements are independent, self-sufficient, and prefer to keep it that way. All that said, there are some people in need of specialists, such as Lionadia who needs a protective escort into the forgotten cities to perform a “procession of the dead,” or Mariano di Torre who has been cursed to drink only spring water. He will pay handsomely for Knaves who bring him water from the most inaccessible and holy of springs. Callista on the other hand, is in need of hired help to map the island’s interior, and some corsairs claim to have seen a colossal statue of precious metal in the heart of the forest. [i]The Seven and a Half Seas of the Kingdom[/i] covers the major bodies of water in the setting. The northwest Sea of Towers is dark and dangerous, so-named for impossibly-long spires peeking up from beneath the waves. To the west is the Zigane Sea, its waters blood-red and the major trade route to Frange and distant Illusitania. Tristopher Colombrus was said to have discovered new lands by plying these waters far west enough. Directly west of the Peninsula is the Sea of the Shadows, whose storms are so dire that they seem to compete with each other in how many ships they can sink, and are home to innumerable shadows and ghosts of the drowned. The Sapphire Sea which links the Peninsula with the major islands is incredibly well-traveled, home to all manner of sailors, smugglers, pirates, merchant fleets, and kingdoms’ worth of dumped contraband. The seas are also home to the tempestarii, spellcasters capable of controlling storms. East of Tasinnanta and Callista is the Murky Sea, home to the best navigators as well as the dangerous pirates of Istrania. These buccaneers are continually on the hunt for inexperienced crews to capture and sell to Vortiga as slaves. To the south of the Peninsula is the Sea of the Charybdis, well-patrolled by Sidonian warships. The Monstrum Sea is the smallest of the seas, being located entirely in Penumbria’s Mistide. Crossing through by sea is even more deadly by land, as the lack of visibility has been the end of countless ships crashing into rocks, islands, and shoals. Not to mention the various nameless horrors that lurk beneath the surf. And not located on any credible map is the mythical Half Sea, whose island of Alcina is rumored to house a grand treasure...or nothing at all, causing disappointed explorers to never speak of it again, unable to face the shame of it. Jobs at sea range from all kinds. There’s money to be made in the various maritime trades, and the strange monsters of the sea care little for whose flag flies on vessels bearing precious two-legged meat. [i]Beyond the Kingdom’s Borders[/i] covers the rest of the known (and theorized) world. The mortal realm is known to be spherical and called the Orb, and the people of Brancalonia are aware of the existence of peoples and regions beyond their peninsula and surrounding waters. East of the Peninsula is the kingdom of Istrania, and east of that coastal land are hundreds of mysterious lands and caravan routes. To the south is Sidonia, located on the continent of Meridiana which is home to vast jungles and deserts. Vortigan outposts can be found here, as well as the Golden City of Constantinaples whose scenic atmosphere is the retirement home of many a Knave who made it big. To the west of the Sea of Shadows and the Zigane Sea and north of the Crown Mountains is the continent of Occasia, home to the kingdom of Frange notable for its various pirate cities. Further west of Frange is the kingdom of Illuistania, which is distant enough that many Brancalonians are unsure of its existence. To the north of the Brancalonian Peninsula is the Altomannic Empire,* and further north is Great Brigantain, the Boreal Kingdoms, and the Varag domains which all share and fight over the Hyperborean Sea. *I don’t know if this is a variant spelling of the Empire of Altomagna or a separate land. As for lands beyond the Orb, the Creed teaches of other planes of existence. The Seven Firmaments and Inferno are where the souls of departed mortals go off to, their respective physical portals located at the bottom of Plutonia and in the city of Urania on the other side of the world. Supernal Spheres float beyond the Orb, and the outermost one is where the Ternal Father resides. [b]Thoughts So Far:[/b] I’m also fond of the later regions of the Bounty Kingdom, although some of them felt a bit shorter and more specialized than previous entries. I did like Volturnia’s emphasis on “those living among the ruins of a supposed Golden Age,” and Zagara is home to a large number of rival groups and factions to spur many opportunities for Knaves. Piccadora felt like a subtler Torrigiana. There was more emphasis on isolated reaches of wilderness and the dangers of magic rather than the fairy-tale-like whimsy. On the flip side of things, the Forgotten Counties felt like a lot of word space for “these lands are unknown and supposedly have weird stuff happening there,” and Ausonia was too brief for my liking in being a mere one page long. While it doesn’t matter as much to the campaign at large, I was happy that there was some space given over to detailing the lands beyond Brancalonia, including some of which still touched the region through trade, conquest, foreign faiths, and settlers. This gives the setting a more lived-in feel as opposed to a land that is boxed off from the rest of reality. I also like how the planes of existence aren’t set in stone (Inferno a notable exception), with the realms espoused being that of the Creed’s teachings and thus taken on matters of faith. [b]Join us next time as we embark on a half-dozen prewritten adventures In Search of Quatrins![/b] [/QUOTE]
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[Let's Read] Brancalonia: Spaghetti Fantasy Setting
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