Orea: a Redux. Comments/questions welcome.

[steeldragons]

I'm curious - couldn't you have warlocks who have made pacts with genies, elementals, dragons or angelic powers who are not evil?

I suppose, Stromonu, I could. I simply don't. If you'd like them in your Orea, have at it. But I do not have/use them in mine. The "warlock" as a PC never agreed with me even with the idea (albeit laughable) that one could make a "pact" with a beneficent being.

To my... "cosmology" I suppose you'd call it, the "good" extraplanar beings would not "make deals" (which is, essentially what "a pact" is) with mortals. They would not offer power in exchange for limiting their free will...i.e. do the being's will to maintain your power. "Good" beings, wouldn't do that.

Again, that's MY Orea. You are free to incorporate anything you like in yours.

The planes, as I understand them for, again, my Orea, are far off...rarely seen places. Fantastic to go to (if you ever get to that level)...but the idea of regular "interaction" with them is rare.

The concept of celestial, infernal and elemental forces running rampant through the world...making pacts, having offspring (the "genasi" or half-this/half-that) doesn't really play into my original concept of Orea.

And the idea of Dragons doing it...is just...ewwwwww. I should post about the "Creation of the World (of Orea)" in this thread.

No dragon, an immortal creature born of the primordial entities that formed the world, nearly omnipotent creatures...pre-dating the Elder gods...would ever, even if they fell in love with a mortal, deem to give them some of their power...gods forefend MATE with a mammal!?!? <shudder> Again, just "ewwww."

But, if you or your players want them in your Orea, have at it.

--SD

 

[steeldragons]

The Creation Myth

In the Beginning of Beginnings, before Anything was Anything...there was Ahl.

After uncountable eons of existence, Ahl drew forth, from Himself, He who was as Ahl...and He was called Zho.

Thus was the sky (Zho) separated from the earth (Ahl).

As a gift to His beloved, Ahl created creatures of beauty and power to capture all of the colors of the stars of Zho's sky and the light of Zho's stars. These creatures were the Children of Zho...which Men and Elves would come to call Dragons.

In gratitude for His gift, Zho created for Ahl creatures of beauty and power to capture all of the strength of Ahl's earth and all of the facets of Ahl's strength. These creatures were the Children of Ahl...which Men and Elves would come to call Titans.

In the fires of the Their passions and the fluids of Their love was born the primordial sea, which called Herself, Ossa.

Leaving Ossa to the care of the world, with their Children to aid in its oversight, Ahl and Zho retired behind The Veil to exist in Their Eternity of love and passion.

So it was, after untold eons, that Ossa created the Elder Gods to oversee the elements of the world and gave to Them, each, Their Spheres over which to hold sway.

And thus began the Divinity of the world of Orea.

After untold eons of warring and vice, the Elder gods fell to the "new/young" gods millenia ago and now it is the children of the Elder gods, with a few exceptions, that hold sway over the world of Orea.

---------------------
That's the mythology.

The actual cosmology of Orea is as follows:
The Higher Planes exist. Beings of divine Good inhabit them. Define as necessary.

The Lower Planes (The Abyss and the 9 Hells) exist. There are numerous devil lords and demon princes all vying for power in their own ways...ALL Abyssal creatures (and most Infernal) hold unquestioned fealty to the Elder god Karos, the Chaosbringer, god of demons.

EDIT: or "devil princes and demon lords" what you prefer. Bwahaha.

The Astral Plane exists as does the Ethereal. Their role is "normal" for whatever system of play you use. Linking the various planes together.

The Elemental Planes exist "next to" the Prime Material Plane of Orea. They exist as the "Inner Planes" as originally detailed in AD&D.

The Land of Faerie (a.k.a the Feywild for some players) exists as a demi-plane existing concurrent with the Prime Material. It is the offshoot/result of the demise of the Elder goddess Llyndra, the Green Lady of All that Grows, for Her "children"/creations, the creatures now called "fayekin".

The Spirit World (a.k.a. the Grey River, the Grey Lands, the Isle of Desri) where the souls of Orea's departed go, floating down the grey waters to the fork in the River of the Dead. On that island where the river forks, the Elder Goddess Desri sits in judgment of the souls of the dead. Depending on how Her scales tip, you flow down the left fork of the river (to the Higher Planes) or the right fork of the river (to the Lower planes).

EDIT: It is a fair assumption that along the banks of the Grey River, up to and including around the Isle of Desri, is what could be defined as the "Shadowfell." A Hades-esqie Purgatory for un-sorted, unwanted or otherwise "stuck" souls...Ghosts, spectres, shadows, and other incorporeal beings could be said to exist, when not in the Prime Orean plane, along the river's banks.

As far as "travel"...the easiest to get to from the Prime plane of Orea is the Land of Faerie...on par with the Astral plane.

The Ethereal plane is also easily, though much more rarely, accessible. It is generally used to access the Faerie Plane, the "spirit world" (of the dead) or shift among/along the Prime. Basically "phasing" out of Prime reality and re-entering elsewhere. It can sometimes be used to access an elemental plane. But this is speculation on the part of planar travel authorities/sages.

From there (astral or ethereal), tapping into one of the Elemental planes is nearest/easiest (i.e. "most documented").

Traveling through/along the Astral Plane to get from the Prime to the Higher or Lower Planes is a lengthy and dangerous prospect...and from Orea's Prime, requires entering the Spirit World, a ride down the Grey River and getting past the Isle of Desri in your desired direction.

Therein ends, for now, the Cosmology of Orea.

--SD

 

[steeldragons]

Classes encountered

Herein I will attempt to outline the "typical" classes of people* that might be encountered in the various realms of Orea. Keep in mind these are very general/societal breakdowns, obviously, are easily altered for individual encounters.

*Assuming per 100 "classed" individuals, from most to least, in a given region

**Psionicists, either innately gifted/unaffiliated or trained individuals who are members of the Order of the Emerald Tear can be assumed, across all of the realms, to be found 1 in 10,000 people.

Grinlia
Fighters 30%
Thieves 25%
Clerics 20%
Rangers/Paladins 10% (more rural/wilder areas sway more towards rangers - an 8/2 split for example, more developed areas swing towards paladins)
Mages 5%
Druids 2%
Barbarians 2%
Monks, Shamans, et. al. 1%

Gorunduu
Barbarians 60%
Fighters 15%
Rangers 10%
Shamans 5%
Druids 3%
Thieves 3%
all other classes 4%

Mostrial
Fighters 50%
Clerics 20%
Thieves 10%
Paladins 10%
Druids 5%
Rangers 3%
Mages 1%
all other classes 1%

The Freelands (varies per city-state but in general)
Fighters 40%
Thieves 35%
Clerics 10%
Mages 5%
Druids 5%
Rangers 2%
Paladins 2%
Shamans, Monks, Barbarians 1%

R'Hath
Mages 45%
Fighters 25%
Clerics 15%
Thieves 7%
Druids 3%
all other classes 5%

Tanku
Fighters 45%
Thieves 35%
Clerics 15%
all other classes 5% *note 0% Mages (legally

 

[steeldragons]

Orea was originally created as a world in which to house my oooold characters from original BECMI and 1e ADnD. As it grew and expanded and became more detailed, I decided to use it in actual play with other players/characters.

The first of these, back in college (2e days) included a nicely diverse group who I came to dub the "Claw Company". It started as a simple band of a Lion Clan Gorunduun (Barbarian), a streetsmart human (female) thief and a half-elvin cleric of Celradorn (god of battleskill and guardianship-kinda an Athena type deity or a "kinder/gentler" Ares).

The group grew to include an Enchanter specialist mage from the lands of R'Hath, a Shi'Cynallae ("Mist") elf who was a magic-user/thief who liked to make a living/pass himself off as a "bard" and, eventually, another half-elf (female) druid of the Ancient Order of Mistwood.

This group was great a)for good/interested players eager to explore and learn about the campaign setting and b)for offering a smattering of a couple of the classes and societal things "unique" to the Orea setting -the barbarian clans, the druidic order, the "superior" attitudes of the R'Hathi mages came as a result of this group's player, and got me to flesh out more of the Celradornan dogma and organization of the religious order -and by extension the religious orders and hierarchies of other deities.

They were a wonderful group and I do regret that, ya know, "life happens" and we graduated and went our separate ways and didn't get to play much past lower mid-levels. I think the next installment of my "Tales of Orea" story hour ( http://www.enworld.org/forum/story-hour/294419-steel-dragons-tales-orea.html ) very well may be about the Claw Company...someday.

Then Orea lay dormant for many many moons. The detailing and reworking has continued (on and off) for the years since until I had another group (much more limited in both number and gaming experience) who kindly agreed to delve into the world of Orea.

That group is the basis for the current roster of characters in the existing Story Hour. They are, in many ways, more akin to a Basic or 1e cast, but their adventures sparked much more exploration and detail being added, and I loved them for it.

SO, the point of this posting...my Story Hour is a narrative telling. I am not interested in the "crunch/rules/stats" side of things in the SH.

So I thought, for those interested, I might lift the character "basics" here. Orea was composed to be a "system neutral" world. Any fantasy system or edition you and your players like to use should be readily playable in Orea. To that end, I will supply you with, as I said, the character "basics" and anyone who seeks to play in/with the Orean campaign setting, might extrapolate to create (or "build" if that's your preference) characters to inhabit Orea.

I will be using terms that are as generic as possible, but as I said, the group seemed to be primarily used with 1e & 2e rules when we actually played.

A few "houseruled" notes for how I run an Orean game:

• Magic-users (for our purposes, the terms "MUs", "Mages" or "Wizards" refer to primary arcane spellcasters, of which Bards are not included) receive additional spells/day bonuses for high Intelligence, as clerics received high Wisdom, but to a lesser extent. Thus (INT/spell), 15/1 additional cantrip, 16/+1 first level spell, 17/+1 2nd lvl spell, 18/+1 1st and +1 2nd level spells, cumulatively. So, a mage with an INT of 18 would receive +1 0, +2 1st and +2 2nd lvl spells. The additional spells were not applicable until the mage could normally cast that level of spell. So a 2nd level MU with an INT of 17 - daily allotment of 3 cantrips/2 1st level spells, wouldn't receive her additional 2nd level spell until she reached 3rd level (by BECMI, 1 or 2e rules)
• MUs also receive the use of 0lvl/"cantrip" spells, as seen above. Clerics and Druids do NOT receive 0lvl spells. This was to offset their capacity for armor and weapons and the already added bonus to their spellcasting ability, as well as the "special powers" certain orders of certain deities receive as they progress.
• Mages need not "memorize" 0lvl spells at the start of day. They are the "tricks" that students of magic learn in their long apprenticeship/training, easily recalled and thoroughly practiced. Additionally, mages may "spontaneously" cast spells 2 spell levels lower than their highest spell. So when a mage is able to cast 3rd level spells, 1st level spells need not be "chosen" at the start of an adventure. When they can cast 4th level spells (i.e. @ 7th level for 1 or 2e AD&D), 1st AND 2nd level spells need not be memorized. The presumption being that their long time studying these spells, as with their cantrips, have become well ingrained/second nature.
• Clerics and Druids need not "memorize" spells at the start of day for 1st and 2nd level spells. 3rd or higher level spells require more of the deities "attention" and thus do require daily, set, choices. Time in meditation/prayer must still be spent for the "well" of energies to use, but they needn't pick specific spells/day until they can cast 3rd or higher level spells.
• Druids of the Ancient Order of Mistwood begin play with a sacred spear which accrues a magical charge-due to their increasing affinity for the Orean energies at a rate of +1 per 3 levels. +1 @ 3rd lvl, +2 @ 6th, +3 (the max) @ 9th.
• Druids of the Ancient Order begin play with a "druid's cloak". This acts as a "cloak of blending", effectively allowing the druid "invisibility" when used within/against a natural setting (natural stone, trees, underbrush, sandy/dusty ground if they lay down, etc...) The druid must remain stationary for this effect to take place, any move cancels the effect. So it is basically just used for hiding in their preferred natural surroundings.The cloak also affords a +1 protection from element-based attacks (air,earth,fire,water & wood).
• Paladins of Celradorn are members of an order called the Redstar Knights. This order is broken into 3 castes: the Goldshields (lvl's 1-4), the Lightlancers (lvl's 5-9) and Crimson Stars (lvl's 10 and higher). Each caste receives special powers 1 lvl from their highest (3rd and 8th, respectively, with Crimson Stars receiving their special power at 13th level.)
• ALL paladins of Celradorn receive the following abilities: Detect Evil at will, Protection from Evil 10' radius 1/day/level to a maximum of 3 (at which point, the Goldshield paladin receives their special power also). Laying on Hands becomes a 1/day ability at 3rd level.
• Mutli-classed characters receive XP proportional to the use of their different classes (yes, this is a total DM fiat/fairness sort of thing, but generally, I went with a 70/30 split as that seemed close to what most players would do, whether they were fighter/mage, thief/fighter (preferring thievery, for example), cleric/mage, whatever.
• In my games, races have class but not level restrictions. If a certain race could be a class, they could advance as far as they like within that class. This always made sense to me a)because certain cultures simply do not ascribe or endorse or utilize certain skills and b)it always seemed "racist" to me, to say you can be a mage, but you can only learn "so much"? Particularly since most races are significantly more long-lived than humans...Why couldn't/wouldn't they spend the additional decades (or centuries!) continuing to hone their craft? and c)It simply helped to facilitate the flavor of various races that/how I liked for Orea.
• All mages start play with the Read Magic and Detect Magic spells.
• Spell lists are drawn from the Hypertext d20 SRD The Hypertext d20 SRD (v3.5 d20 System Reference Document) :: d20srd.org
• I think that's all that applies to this particular group, so let's see...

The current cast of the "Tales of Orea" SH (in order of appearance) are:
(Note: If anyone catches an inconsistency in my telling of the story, please feel free to point it out...I can't possibly keep track/remember everything! lol.)

Alaria Staver: Human (from R'Hath)/Female. Mage/1st level.
Armor: None. Wpn Prof.: staff, Wpn. carried: Staff. Spells: 5 0lvl, 2 1lvl.
Spellbook: 0lvl: Daze, Detect Magic, Flame, Light, Mage Hand, Mending, Open/Close, Read Magic. 1lvl: Burning Hands, Enlarge, Shield, Sleep, Ventriloquism

Braddok Kar Barforth: Human (from Duchy of Denil, Kingdom of Grinlia)/Male. Fighter/1st lvl. Armor: Chain and Shield. Wpn. Prof.: long sword, short bow, spear and morningstar. Wpn. carried: Longsword, Short bow.

Haelan Spurthistle: Halfling (from the Free Hollows)/Male. Cleric (of Faerantha)/1st lvl. Armor: Chain and Shield. Wpn Prof.: mace and sling. Wpn carried: mace. Spells: 3 1lvl. Typically used: Bless, Cure Light Wounds, Light, Sanctuary.

Erevan: Elf (Miralostae)/Male. Fighter-Mage/1-1. Armor: Leather. Wpn. Prof: Longbow, Longsword, Short bow, Dagger. Wpn carried: Longbow, Longsword, Dagger. Spells: 3 0lvl, 1 1lvl. Spellbook: 0lvl: Detect Magic, Ghost Sound, Read Magic, Resistance. 1lvl: Floating Disc, Magic Missile.

Duor Darksmythe: Dwarf/Male. Thief/1. Armor: Leather. Wpn prof.: short sword, dagger, hand crossbow. Wpn carried: dagger, hand crossbow.

"Goldshield" Coerraine: Human (from Wastrah, Kingdom of Mostrial)/Male. Paladin (of Celradorn)/1st lvl. Armor: Partial Plate & shield. Wpn Prof.: Spear, longsword, broad sword, dagger, lance. Wpn. carried: Spear, broad sword, dagger. Paladin abilities: Dt. Evil at will, Protection from Evil 10' radius 1/day.

Fen a.k.a. Faeryl: Half-elf/Male. Druid/1st level. Armor: Leather (& Druid's Cloak as applicable). Wpn. Prof.: Druid's "Leaf-tip" Spear, sling, sickle. Wpn. carried: Druid's Spear, sling, sickle. Spells: 2 1lvl. Typically used: Animal Friendship, Entangle, Obscurement.

That a long enough post, for ya? It is for me! More on Orea, always, to come.

 

[Herobizkit]

Best idea: Incorporate all this mess into a linkable wiki, much like you'd see on The Hypertext d20 SRD (v3.5 d20 System Reference Document) :: d20srd.org, or countless others. This is too much text for me (and probably most of today's A.D.D generation).

Break up your main post into smaller, specific posts so that we can comment on each theme individually instead of one giant gob.

 

[steeldragons]

My thanks for the suggestion.

I have nooo clue how to do that. But will look into it.

Happy gaming.
--Steel Dragons

 

[Herobizkit]

Google sites is offering space that can be used as a wiki.

Learn more about Google Sites

 

[steeldragons]

The Dragonborn, the "Eladrin" (rolls eyes), Tieflings and Drow as a PC class DO NOT EXIST on Orea. If a player wishes to play one of these races, its up to the player and DM to work something out. Easy enough to have some "inter-planar mishap", a hidden village/culture (with a verrrry limited population), magical "curse" (or blessing?), etc...shouldn't be hard. But any of these races will attract a LOT of attention, and probably outright fear and/or violent responses.

IN thinking on this subject...and debating it with certain stalwart individuals...
here are a few "options" I could see being used in-play for characters in Orea.

The Dragonborn: 1) an individual "cursed" (or "blessed") by a powerful ancient dragon (in the case of "blessed", this dragon would be the characters patron, the PC bound to the dragon's will/service).
2) In keeping with (what I understand to be) their "traditional' (i.e. published) origins, an individual or small hidden community "created" by the elder dragons as a champion of draconic interests. The reasons for a Dragonborn to be out in the greater "realms of Men" would have to be rather serious/well established.

The Eladrin [gods I hate them]: an individual elf who was somehow "bound" or "cursed" by the Land of Faerie or, specifically, a king/queen of the Sidhe (faye demi-god type beings). Such a character would, naturally, be bound to the interests of their "benefactor"...who would obviously have their (the sidhe power) own agenda for allowing such a being. "Grey elves" are, more or less, the ShiStaliiri, their own elvin race which, though immortal, exist in the mortal realms. An "Eladrin" would be something completely different.

The Tieflings: I could see such a character being generated, again as an individual not a "race", by a coupling of a human and demon (succubus, incubus, shaped-chamged demon of some other kind, what have you). Their appearance would immediately send out a panic and call for any/all clerics to perform an exorcism!

The Drow: Orea is not Faerun. There is no "Drizzt" or army of "do-gooder" clones breaking free, escaping their families, wanting to explore the surface realms. The only thing Drow (ShiDaeiri, "Blood of Darkness") would be interested in doing to the surface realms would be subjugating/dominating. They are, as per their original creation, wholly corrupt and evil. Could they be capable of "good", ok yeah, sure. But they are spawned from the blood of the elder god of evil (at the same time the ShiStalliri were spawned from the blood of the elder god of good). The very concept to "doing good/helping other races" would require some extremely powerful force effecting them and would need (for a game of mine) a very substantial/compelling reason for being. "Cuz drow are cool/I wanna play a drow" is not such a reason to throw off the entire internal consistency of the setting.

As for the Wilden, Warforged, Goliaths, et al. Similar individual reasons for being are conceivable. A vegetative creature from an alternate plane/reality sucked into the Orean plane by mistake/accident...a single steel-crafted golem who, by extraordinary magical/divine means, achieved sentience...etc. it could, conceivably, be done...this is a game of imagination, after all.

As stated, however, the presence/appearance of any of the above would almost certainly be met with skepticism, fear, prejudice. An intriguing option/challenge of some role-playing, to be sure...but not one I would care to make "the norm" in an Orean set game I run.

--SD