Antediluvian Settings - Technology and stuff

[Tonguez]

Okay I've got this idea posted at thePlots & Places board

Basically setting a campaign in the Pre-Flood 'Earth' as mentiuoned in the Bible and in the various 'Atlantis ' / 'the Sphinx was built in a Tropical country' / ancient peoples used Crystal powered Flying Chariots' theoriesetc, etc

Does anyone know of any websites or other material that covers the 'technology and culture' of a supposed Prehistoric Civilisation
and all those great 'Mysterious places/Prehistoric anomalies' that could be incorporated?

Of course any ideas for plothooks and adventure seeds from the Hivemind would be much appreciated too

 

[darkbard]

well, this is very tangential but you may want to check out graham hitchcock's "the fingerprints of the gods." it's an analysis of real-world myth, monuments, linguistic patterns and what-not that makes a convincing [in my opinion, anyway] argument for a trans-global society that predates our recorded history. it spends a great deal of time analyzing the egyptian pyramids, similar monuments in central and south america [machu pichu], cambodia, etc. and is a compelling read that might spark some further thoughts for your campaign.

 

[nakigara]

Apocryphal Old Testament revelations seem like they'd be useful. There's plenty of funky stuff about Nephilim, and how the Fallen Angels changed human culture and so on in there.

darkbard, thanks for reminding me. I like Graham quite a bit; he's one of the few "alternative historians" that I'd trust not to be a raving lunatic.

 

[s/LaSH]

'Antediluvian' and 'H. P. Lovecraft' are on the same page of the dictionary. Well, maybe not in Oxford, but if you don't know what I mean go here (H. P. Lovecraft Library) and read his works.

Lovecraft sometimes writes about 'conventional' horrors from beyond space and time, but the more interesting ones delve back into the mists of pre-human history and frighten you with the sense of your own insignificance. Dagon, for example, has one thing in it that is easily expanded into an antediluvian setting. And there are plenty of other things on that site that could easily fill a campaign if put together. The DOOM That Came To Sarnath?

(I happen to like Lovecraft.)

Anyway, that's all I've got about antediluvians. If you want to look at the source of it all, track down a copy of Plato's writings about Atlantis - I have no idea where you could find one, however. Apparently it goes into great depth.

 

[Snoweel]

There's plenty of funky stuff about Nephilim, and how the Fallen Angels changed human culture and so on in there.

Uncanny. The actions of a renegade group of Nephilim is the basis for the existence of my campaign world.

And here I was thinking I had finally found an original idea.

I guess it's like they say - there's no such thing as an 'original' idea.

 

[WayneLigon]

Does anyone know of any websites or other material that covers the 'technology and culture' of a supposed Prehistoric Civilisation
and all those great 'Mysterious places/Prehistoric anomalies' that could be incorporated?

Of course any ideas for plothooks and adventure seeds from the Hivemind would be much appreciated too

The Nephilim are mentioned, depending on the version of bible you look at (Bible Gateway has the NIV at least refering to 'giants' as 'Nephelim' - Genesis 6:3-5 - as well as the implication, since they are mentioned afterwards as well, that the Nephelim somehow survived the Flood apart from Noah.)

Numbers 13: 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."

Sceptic's Dictionary entry on Ancient Astronauts

Erich von Däniken's homepage

 

[mmadsen]

GURPS Atlantis

Basically setting a campaign in the Pre-Flood 'Earth' as mentiuoned in the Bible and in the various 'Atlantis ' / 'the Sphinx was built in a Tropical country' / ancient peoples used Crystal powered Flying Chariots' theoriesetc, etc

You may want to check out GURPS Atlantis.

 

[KingCroMag]

You might want to try David Childress books. He is an interesting read. He writes a series about ancient mysteries and lost cities.
-KCM

 

[shadow]

Genesis 6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

This is from the King James Version of the Bible. Other versions use the original Hebrew word Nephilim . There are various theological views on the subject ranging from the conservative to the downright wacky.

I think that the quoute "mighty men which were of old, men of renown" is interesting. Perhaps the mythological figures from ancient mythology, such as Gilgamesh, were actually Nephilim. (It makes an interesting plot hook at least.)

 

[s/LaSH]

Here's some less-informed suggestions.

Are you setting this on Earth? If so, are you telling your players? (It's always fun to let them chart the planet as you go along, and eventually say, 'Hey, that's Africa!... but what's this bit on the side?') Don't forget to throw in extra landmasses: Atlantis most people know about, but Lemuria and Mu are a couple of lesser-known ones. And if you had India as an island... heheh. I like that idea.

It's commonly accepted that Beings Greater Than Man roamed the earth more frequently in those days. As such, you'd want plenty of outsiders wandering around, perhaps as rulers and officers in nations. Divine intervention in the fate of nations would be far more frequent (especially if a world-destroying flood were coming up; this would set a precedent for such an occurance). Aasimar, genasi, tieflings et al would be far more prevalent in society.

On the other hand, some claim that aliens walked among us at that time. There should be a fair amount of stuff on the 'net dealing with aliens and where they come from and what they look like and how they're conspiring with the US government... search for Philadelphia Experiment or something fringe like that. Anyway, you don't have to make a distinction between aliens and outsiders - they're one and the same as far as Primitive Earthanoids are concerned.

It occurs to me that (allowing for continental drift some) both Middle Earth and R. E. Howard's lands of Conan both look like ancient Earth. Just a thought...