help me brainstorm a kingdom

[Gilladian]

In my campaign, one player has expressed a strong desire to travel "home" to her character's own land. This place is thousands of miles from the current campaign setting (imagine traveling from Ohio to Brazil)...

The travel I'm not worried about. But I know virtually nothing about Vanhark, the kingdom she's from. I need to come up with enough ideas, in the next two to four weeks, to run a couple of good adventures in the region.

Here's a link to what I've got so far: Vishteer Campaign / Vanhark

I imagine the ancestors of the people who live here as generally norse-like, but they've lived here long enough (a thousand years?) that that's relatively immaterial. The main things I know is that they're very gender-equal, they have great fear/distrust of the jungle that is their near neighbor, and that they rely a great deal on the sea; they're warriors, traders, fishermen, and seafolk before being farmers and landsmen.

Anyone willing to throw out ideas? resources? etc?

What I've written will be expanding by the hour, especially over the course of today, as I intend to spend the day working on it...

 

[Karak]

I know that for me, returning a PC home, for the first time is always a bit daunting.

You could break it down to Traits, Traditions, Towns. That is how I start every single time I create a people, or location. Traits of the local people feed into traditions, which are reflected in their lodgings.

For example if they have traits of being very large, superstitious, somewhat poor, and feel that meals are massive communal gatherings you have enough to outline what the buildings may look like(set up for big people, roughly constructed), how they were built(poor and from local big trees and rock and mud), and have their dinning areas massively decked out including their inns.

Of course thats just some simple explanations but I think you may get what I mean and those three things can also help identify if they trade with others, how they handle visitors, their customs around everything. It is funny but those 3 "T's" have never failed me.

Also after I am done with that I add the final "T" which is threat.

Threat is a big deal. Do they have any threats currently to their nation or local areas, do they know peace, did they have a massive battle recently or far in the past, or perhaps never? Threat is great because when a player returns home they may have helped you with some ideas but then you add in threat and they return home to find their villages prospering and the people somewhat changed, or the opposite.

In AfterEarth we created many of the locations that way and one of the reasons I like it so much is you can really get a realistic flow of different cultures as one may have 1-2 traditions of its neighbors but due to their traits their civilization looks totally different. That kind of thing. It allows for an organic flow from one kingdom to another even when you want to put two dramatically opposed kingdoms right next to one another.

For example you state that beauty(trait) is a big deal. What if someone ostracized for their not being appealing(traditions) left as a child and has now returned and wants to complete destroy the civilization(threat) that spurned them from the very beginning.

Lastly you can even throw some oddity into the mix where traits and traditions did NOT feed into how lodgings and creations were built. Many times these kinds of places are the most mysterious. Massive large Norsemen who have no superstitions who sit at a meal and engage in perfect customs and courting is slightly unique compared to the typical norse ideal.

 

[Derren]

That kingdom must be huge when it can support 32 million people in a tropical jungle environment.
For comparison, France only ever managed 20 million during the medieval period.

 

[Gilladian]

It IS quite large. But the population figures were generated by me YEARS ago. They could easily be off, but I think I used the old Medieval Demographics article/site to create them, so I think they are at least close to sensible.

Then again, I have no real bond with the numbers!

I use the "real world" for my world's geography. This particular kingdom is located in South America, and is about 1/2 the size of Brazil, located on the eastern seacoast. If you can present me with any argument about what you think a more accurate population should be, I'm open to being convinced!

 

[S'mon]

I think a thousand-year-old medieval Brazil could have 32 million people. The Aztec and Mayan empires had big populations, so did subtropical India. The main thing keeping the population of tropical Africa low was the disease load; much higher than in the Americas. The few areas that did not suffer from this, such as the Ethiopian highlands, had much denser populations. And southern Brazil is not really tropical.

 

[S'mon]

I
I imagine the ancestors of the people who live here as generally norse-like, but they've lived here long enough (a thousand years?) that that's relatively immaterial. The main things I know is that they're very gender-equal, they have great fear/distrust of the jungle that is their near neighbor, and that they rely a great deal on the sea; they're warriors, traders, fishermen, and seafolk before being farmers and landsmen.
Anyone willing to throw out ideas? resources? etc?

Is there a native population of humans or intelligent non-humans? If so, then relations with the indigenous population will have had a big effect on the development of this culture - genocide, peaceful co-existence, enslavement, interbreeding/blending, helotry/apartheid are some possibilities.

If there was no intelligent population that might oppose the settlers, then the experience of settling into a vast, resource-rich virgin wilderness with probably very low disease load (no diseases evolved to live on humans or human domestic animals) may have led to a very relaxed, easy-going 'paradisical' culture that feels very blessed by the gods. Although apparently the jungle is dangerous and feared - if the jungle constrains expansion then restricted coastal populations may begin to feud over coastal resources. Conversely if the jungle holds an aggressive threat such as intelligent hostile natives, the settlers may band together to survive, with a strong frontier ethos.

 

[Gilladian]

Thanks, S'mon - there are indigenous peoples, as you rightly suspected. Hobgoblins, orcs, even giants in the far southern extent of the continent. There are also Yuan-ti, though nobody is quite aware of them!

The Yuan-ti are probably why the jungle is so feared. Expeditions into the rainforest frequently simply vanish, and it is very dangerous to impinge upon the ruins of that ancient civilization (which vanished/fell more than 2,500 years ago). There could easily be other humanoid populations as well, though not vast ones.

Definitely they have a more defensive, unfriendly attitude to the jungle; no peaceful paradise here.

I'm finding now that I understand Vanhark, psychologically, fairly well. I need to start figuring out how to work my current campaign's activities and motivations in... more on that in another post.

 

[Gilladian]

Connecting my current campaign to Vanhark:

My PCs are traveling here because two of the PCs came from this kingdom. They traveled all the way to Brindenford, in Miraboria, thousands of miles from their homeland, tracing a man named Azaserah, known as the Red Saint. Azaserah was a cleric/wizard of great power; he had done great deeds in his homeland already when summoned to go north to assist the Emperor in putting down a rival. He did so, had adventures and left his mark there, but was then called back south because of a terrible danger in Vanhark.

He returned, and essentially vanished. He was given a large fleet of ships to command, to defeat a huge uprising of pirates that were terrorizing the seas off Vanhark and other nearby lands. The Saint's fleet sailed out of the harbor, there was a terrific battle at sea, most of the pirates were defeated, Azaserah's ship and several others sailed after the pirate leader's vessel, and they all vanished.

So now, when the pirates are becoming a serious problem again, the PCs (Valkrist and Gunter) were sent north as junior members of a group that was researching the history of the Saint. Legends had become so distorted that scholars sometimes doubted the Saint had ever come back from the North, or thought that perhaps after defeating the pirates he had returned North. Val and her companions have discovered clear evidence that the Saint did indeed return south to fight the pirates, six hundred years ago.

So, now I need to decide HOW the people (the royal family) who sent the expedition north will react to their news. And what the PCs will be given as a reception, and whether it will lead to further adventure. And of what sort...

 

[Karak]

So, now I need to decide HOW the people (the royal family) who sent the expedition north will react to their news. And what the PCs will be given as a reception, and whether it will lead to further adventure. And of what sort...

I am a fan, at times, of putting myself in the stressful spot of having things go the way I didn't expect. I like that feeling. Maybe you should write down the different ways they could react and roll on them. Then flesh out the story. Sometimes this randomness can get your brain burning with ideas you never thought possible.

Sometimes when you expect a particular reaction from an NPC and for whatever reason get a different one it can lead to wonderful new subplots.

For example I had a player group in AfterEarth completely decimate a nomadic Troll tribe, including killing their Revenger(massive mutated troll) that was that tribes pride and joy. Normally Trolls in my world are vengeful in their hereditary makeup and are known for tracking down people for thousands of miles to right a wrong.

However, when the players were faced with the Troll Phalanax entering their small border town on a sleeping Sunday morning, they were surprised to have the nomadic leader show up and thank them. Little did they know that the specific group they had killed had been making a power play for the leadership and had been causing havoc for months. I also DID NOT Know. I decided to roll it right then and there.

However the result of that simple roll changed the entire Troll nation, its ways, its diplomacy in the entire game. It added subplots, and mentalities to a race that had already felt fresh compared to other games but now was layered thick with different possibilities.
It was that one random roll that basically changed an entire race.
Sadly it probably made them even stronger as we had decimated the one splinter group and we never knew why they had splintered in the first place. Currently trade is choked off to the Bordertowns due to Troll banditry and somehow they have even awakened the local world dragon

But still amazing amazing time and would never had occurred if I hadn't just...jumped.

 

[Gilladian]

Okay. I can think of a couple of ways the King/Queen might respond to Val and Gunter's return, with Val's senior Knight and with the news that they have found no assistance in the north in fighting pirates or discovering the ultimate fate of the Red Saint....

1) they're given respect for their efforts but their overall failure means they're simply thanked and ignored.
2) they're told that their failure is a devastating one, that the kingdom is in serious danger, and they've helped not at all. They're told to leave because they've disgraced their families.
3) They're thanked profoundly and asked to help solve another riddle around the Red Saint's disappearance.
4) ??

And what would each of these reactions lead to? What options for the PCs? I guess I really do need to start with WHAT did happen to the Red Saint?