greetings again... Take 2!
bwgwl, that sounds outstanding! Are there any Beholders left in your campaign? More specifically, are there any Beholders that are decendants of the conquering Beholders alive? If so, do they remember their ancient days of glory? Have they worked on any plots to return to greatness?
there are definitely still some beholders floating around somewhere. whether they are direct descendents of the Empire of Berilish, i'm not sure. their city was destroyed, torn apart until "no stone stood upon another stone." but there may still be some living in other parts of the world. the Empire of Berilish lies in the historical past, so they would definitely be aware of it. however, the beholders of today seem to lack the organization to reach such heights of power. there may be a beholder here or there involved with some evil conspiracy or other, but they don't work together like they did back in the good ol' days...
A corellary question would be have any of your players discovered this ancient information, and have they made use of such information? Has this knowledge affected any current areas or cities that the player characters live in?
actually, this world is still a work in progress and i haven't actually run any campaigns in it yet.
but stuff like this would most definitely play a part in a campaign. one of the reasons why i made sure i had a bunch of powerful, weird ancient empires was to give me lots of ruins and stuff for the PCs to explore! the area where i would most likely set a campaign has literally layers and layers of successive civilizations, all of which have left ruins: the djinni empire of Shuwwar, the minotaur horde of the Yazinak Khaganate, the first human city-states of Annishipusan, Tashallar, and Hiratta, the beholder Empire of Berilish, the Empire of Parnath (formed from the alliance that defeated Berilish), Parnath's successor states after it's fall, the horse nomad's empire the Tekkeza Khanate that overran the Parnath's successors, Tekkeza's successor the Scarlet Khanate, the original kingdoms of the desert nomads that defeated the Scarlet Khan, the Caliphate of Azayl (a Lawful Neutral god who has an Islam-inspired religion), and finally the modern kingdom of Owalan. whew! lots of history, and lots of ruins to explore there!
in fact, after the beholder's city of Berilish was torn down, a group of former nomads settled on the site and built the new city of Zinartu. over time, the city has passed through several other cultures, and is the modern city of Yeren in Owalan. underneath Yeren still lie the ruins of Berilish, which might hold untold treasure and danger...
How large is the floating city? Has the fact that it is a *flying city* influenced the culture of that city, and the priviledged people who get to live in such a fantastic location? Has such a fantastic city effected any of the local politics to any serious degree? What do non-member wizards who don't have access to such a spledid place feel?
the island itself is about 10 square miles; approximately 3 miles in diameter (about 1/4 the area of San Francisco, if you're familiar with that). yes, that's a big floating island! it houses maybe 35,000 people, making it a fairly large metropolis, but nowhere near the largest city in the world (several of the largest are over 200,000).
most of the population of Ishihr consists of the wizard's consortium who runs the place, merchants who can afford to live there, and various service and infrastructure personnel. it also has a large slave labor population, like most of the world.
even though it can be very expensive to live on Ishihr, many merchants find the cost justified. for those that need to ship large amounts of goods across the ocean, Ishihr can be an attractive option. instead of having to charter (or buy) an entire fleet of ships, crew them with sailors and marines, and possibly lose some of those ships to storms or pirates -- they can instead just put their goods in some warehouses on Ishihr and hire a few guards to watch the warehouses. between the wizards who run the island and the sheer impracticality of attacking an island floating almost half a mile above the surface of the ocean, pirates tend to stay away from it. so guards aren't needed in the same quantity compared to if one was using ships. also, the merchant gets to enjoy all the amenities of city life and stay in a palatial hotel for the voyage, instead of being cramped into a small cabin on a ship!
Ishihr has definitely had an impact on the Golden Sea region. the places where it makes stops have seen a marked increase in trade volume, and are loathe to interfere with it in order to protect this trade. the wizards of Ishihr are mainly interested in making money, so they don't like interfering with local politics either. some other nations in the region that aren't on Ishihr's trade route may have spies or whatnot on the island attempting to subvert it, while others are openly lobbying the wizards to add them to Ishihr's trade route!
What has happened to the victorious Minotaurs? have they advanced and settled a kingdom of their own? If so, how have the players reacted to a kingdom of intelligent, powerful Minotaurs?
unfortunately, after their victory over the djinni empires, the minotaur hordes of the Yazinak Khaganate fell to squabbling amongst themselves and soon devolved back to a state of savage nomadism. there is no modern kingdom of minotaurs.
one of the themes of this world is the division between the "civilized" races and the "monstrous" races. only the civilized races (humans, dwarves, and goblinoids) ever manage to build lasting nations. this isn't just some quirk -- the gods created the civilized races differently than the monstrous races, allowing them to organize to a higher degree and be civilized.
so no kingdom of monsters, such as the Yazinak Khaganate or the Empire of Berilish, has ever survived long-term. it's just not in their nature, as decreed by the gods.
Great stuff sir! Great stuff indeed! I'm wondering--have any of your experiments--magically, technologically, racially, or politically--worked out especially well, or has there been any frustrations or disappointments, as far as how you originally envisioned such working, and its practical application?
as far as racial demographics are concerned, this world is a bit of a departure from standard D&D. there are no elves, gnomes, halflings, orcs, gnolls, or other such common races.
the civilized races are the humans, dwarves, and goblinoids. goblinoids are no more likely to be "evil" than humans are. in most parts of the world, they live side-by-side with their human neighbors. the two types of "true" goblinoids are goblins and trolls. goblins look much like they do in the MM, but stat-wise and in personality they are very close to the PHB halfling. trolls are just Large-size goblins and totally unlike the MM troll. both goblins and trolls are capable of interbreeding with humans -- the result is someone with the features of a goblinoid but who is human-sized; these people are called hobgoblins. hobgoblins inherit that dynamic spark from their human ancestry that makes them extremely adaptable and capable individuals (they have that extra skill point thing that humans get as one of their racial traits).
in some parts of the world, humans and goblinoids have been living together for so long, and get along so well together, that a plurality of the population is actually hobgoblin. similarly, there are places where in the past the human nobility intermarried extensively with the neighboring goblinoid nobility, resulting in a noble caste today that is mostly hobgoblin, ruling a nation of humans!
)
)
