Treskri - an underground world

[Glade Riven]

Reminds me of Bionicle - well, once the Big Revelation finally took place. Turned out the "Known Universe" for most of Bionicle was the interal body cavities of an absurdly huge robot, with islands, seas, and even a sunken continent that ended up no longer sunken (I think - the Bionicle story is kinda hard to follow). With the exception of one island (which was the top of the uber-robot's head), the whole story took place in an immense underground.

Practically, most of the setting was underground. Day/night cycles still existed, and stars/sun, but whereas bionicle could write it off as a simulation something similar could be done as powerful, natural illusion magic.

 

[Will Doyle]

Has anybody mentioned D&D's Hollow World? Mystara's poles are misty chasms leading into the hollow world within, whose continents cling to the inner walls of the planet. A tiny sun floats at the planet's core. It still has jungles, rivers, mountains - but no night, no stars: just perpetual day. The sky is simply the lands that are above you, on the other side of the world.

Your world sounds more "cavey", but it may be worth digging out some old Hollow World stuff for inspiration. I liked the fact that nobody in the Hollow World really knew about the world outside, for example. Seems kind of similar to your races not knowing about the surface.

On a separate note, I find the 4E Underdark book a tremendously good resource for underground campaigns, even if you're not playing 4E.

 

[Zireael]

@ up: I'll look Hollow World up. And I like Underdark 4e - even if I don't like 4e in general.

My friends want the deities to have Polish names (since the project is in Polish). I find it silly. For the same reason, I don't want the deities to have English names - not gonna name a female creator deity Mothera or sth.

I want the deities to have names that are significant. The use of FR drow language resulted in several names that had funny and/or dirty connotations in Polish, so I switched to Gaelic.

And still, they argue that since the players speak Polish, the deities don't need other names. Because no one speaks Drow or Elven or Gaelic in-session.

BTW, one of the comments was that the word I make is "for drow fans only".

What do you think about this debacle?

 

[Zireael]

Any input? I'd like to expand a bit & write a short story set in the world - all before New Year's Eve...

 

[Zireael]

Bump. Have the idea for the story, but haven't found time to write it yet.

 

[Zireael]

The thread here has somehow sunk under my radar. Thousand apologies for the fact!

A recap of everything that has been done since January is available on my page - however, it is only in Polish, I haven't had time to translate it - I'll have to rectify this error soon! (note, I started writing a story set in the world in August, so I haven't updated the list since then).

***

A short summary:

Treskri is heavily inspired by Greek, Roman and Celtic mythology.
Other inspirations include: Drowtales, Crusader Kings 1 & 2,

***


The world is a vast underground of a planet. There is no known way to reach the surface and the inhabitants aren't aware of the fact that it is underground. Therefore, they measure 'depth' as the distance from the planet's core - that is, the Lower World is the furthest from the core and the coldest, while the Higher World is the closest to the core and the hottest.

Because the planet's core fluctuates and flashes, they can measure time without using magic. Their year has 12 months and every month has 4 weeks 8 days each.

The world itself, beyond the cities inhabited by elves and other races (that is, dwarves and short folk), is very dangerous. Death is very common; however, the deities often grant resurrection or rather, reincarnation.

There are, so far, three known cities in the world.

Magic is pretty rare in the world, with clerical magic present a little more than arcane magic. Arcane magic uses crystals as foci, but both types of magic require that the caster be in the deity's favor.

The deities have much influence over the world - they have their servants and offspring and heroes. There is a creator deity, 8 greater deities - that is why 8 is the holy number - and some lesser deities. Heroes might also eventually become deities.

Most noble houses trace their descent from one of the deities, which is their patron, and they assume the deity's colors as their own. The colors and the coats of arms are some of the most important things in the world.

The First and the Second Era are purely legendary times; timekeeping starts in the Third Era, approximately 800 years ago.

***

The world runs on homebrewed mechanics, which started as an easier version of D&D. They feature stamina points and deity favor points and Action Points and point buy character creation (20 points at start) and Difficulty Checks and eight attributes - Strength, Stamina, Dexterity, Reflex, Intelligence, Willpower, Intuition and Perception.

There are seven base classes (three martial - rogue, ranger and fighter; four casters - bard, mage, druid and cleric) and everything else is rolled into advancement paths (roughly the equivalent of PrCs). Many PrCs don't exist, though, since there is no concept of caster level.
There are no monks and no paladins, since they don't fit the world concept.
I had an aristocrat class ready, but I can't find it right now in the notes.

Feats and special qualities and special attacks were first rolled into a single category called 'advantages' and then largely reworked.



***

I think this suffices for the most important information. I will, of course, write more here, should someone ask for it. However, I am now focused not only on developing the world (in Polish, since it's my mother tongue), but also on writing a story set in it (also in Polish).

That is why I am not willing to translate everything I have noted down over the course of the last year - the fact that I am starting another year at uni notwithstanding.

OOC: The reason the world is set underground is because I wanted 3-dimensional movement and changing gravity. Some of my friends made me drop the idea, saying it is unmanageable.

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More info :
A link to the wikidot (in Polish) detailing the world: here

A link to a Google-Translated version here

***
I need feedback of any sort, so, comment please!

 

[Zireael]

I started wondering about kitchen/cuisine, i.e. what do they eat. Any ideas?

 

[Zireael]

Finally got the development history down in English. Here it is.

 

[Zireael]

I just had an idea. What if there was a legend for every year and every year had a name?

I'm hesitating to do it since it might look like a ripoff of Forgotten Realms...

 

[Zireael]

I added some more things to my notes, but I don't know if you are interested in a description of a noble house.

I added a summary in English and the first few parts of the story set in the world, also in English, on my site.

Story

Summary