Creative Excersize 2: It all starts with a map.

[Michael Morris]

Ok, I have an idea inspired by Mouseferatu in this thread. The twist - let's start with just the map.

Now, this map is part of Carthasana - but it's an area that I've not written about at all. Further, it's a couple thousand miles away from the nearest area I have written about at length. Consider for a moment how many different countries cultures there are on earth and you can see that sharing the globe still allows for things to be radically different.

Here are some physical constants of this planet as a whole:

• Carthasana has three moons.
• Carthasana has rings (like Saturn), and at this latitude they are very prominent from the ground, appearing as a gleaming white band at dusk or dawn.
• Carthasana has two suns.
• The southernmost tip of this area is just north of the North Tropic line. This means the islands should have weather consistent with the Carribean and Florida.
• Each black dot in the map is 20 miles from its neighbors (to give you a sense of scale).

Three world constants to keep in mind:

• Halfling females are winged.
• Magic is divided into five types, corresponding to five outer planes and five alignments (instead of the normal nine).
• The highest tech level is mid-bronze age (Minoan / Mycenean - Trojan War Period)

Other than this, it's an open field. The name the place has on maps elsewhere are what other cultures call this land - not what the natives might call it.

Now, This excersize will use the same rules set forth by Mouseferatu in the Eyros thread.

1. You contribute to the setting by posting a single fact. These should be no longer than a few sentences, and under most conditions should consist of a single sentence.
2. You may contribute more than once, but not in a row. You must allow no fewer than five contributions between your last contribution and your next. (Note that this is five contributions, not five posts. People asking for clarification or making other comments don't count.)
3. The facts presented should involve the setting, not the game mechanics. Don't say "Dwarves have a penalty to Dexterity instead of Charisma." That's not what I'm looking for. They can involve the setting's current status, its history, its politics, its geographical features, etc. They can even involve other nearby regions, though I'd like to focus primarily on Eyros to start with.
4. You may not present a fact that contradicts or "undoes" a previous contribution, though your contribution might (and should) tweak or expand on previous stuff.
5. This should be a usable, functional setting. Please don't post anything goofy or deliberately disruptive or hard to follow-up.
6. Try not to completely remove standard options (that is, options found in the core rulebooks). It's okay to present a fact that suggests a certain class or race is rare or persecuted, but don't come out and say "There are no wizards" or anything like that.
7. Along similar lines, all statements should be assumed to pertain to the core races/classes unless stated otherwise. For instance, in my contribution below, I say "one specific race." I'm referring to one of the standard player races from the PHB. If you're talking about monster races, please specify that you do, in fact, mean monsters.
8. Please quote the contribution prior to yours, so there's no confusion as to where things stood when you posted. (In case multiple people post at once, or that sort of thing.) In the case of confusion, simultaneous or contradictory posts, or contributions that appear disruptive, I--as the lovable instigator of this mess--reserve the right of final judgment.
9. Finally, this setting should, for the most part, be playable with D&D as written.

I hope this is entertaining, here's the map:

[limg]http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=19090[/limg]

And for those interested, here's writings about elsewhere on the globe
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=120848

 

[Berandor]

People live in floating cities built on giant rafts.

 

[Michael Morris]

Very cool idea... Just don't forget the hurricanes

(But Hong Kong and Taiwain have typhoons and boat cities so it's feasible despite the havoc)

 

[Rasyr]

On the eastern penninsula of the mainland, within a giant forest in a deep valley live a race of Gnomes who make thier homes high in the branches of the giant trees, away from the highly intelligent predators living upon the valley floor.

So, how was that?

 

[Michael Morris]

Well, uhm. Rats. Uhm... (I really didn't expect something so close to what is written to come up so quickly)

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=120689

Oyasini homes are usually built as high off the ground as the trees will allow, members of the species have a strong "nesting" instinct, such that they hate sleeping on the ground as much as halflings of other worlds hate sleeping outside of a burrow or a gnome without his flame. Part of this is to gain protection since the small size of oyasini leaves them vulnerable to orcs, goblins, kobolds and the like. They have no love lost for humankind either and tend not to allow them near their homes. The fact that some unscrupulous human mages believe that the females' wings can be used in various fly related spells and devices has not helped relations.

Given that tendancy of the halflings, it would seem odd for gnomes to do so as well.

I don't want to be an ogre though

Change "gnome" to "halfling" though and that works great

 

[Rasyr]

Sorry, had not read what was written hehe...

Did notice about the Female Halflings being winged though (so thought more cliff-side eyries for them). The Gnome in my little tidbit were meant to good at jumping, climbing, and swinging (I think there are a few Feats from Forgotten Realms that can handle this).

Guess I will go read that other thread now...

 

[Arkhandus]

A small society of gnome mages lives upon the mountaintops of the northern peninsula on the mainland, within grand cities of ice maintained only by the chill of the high peaks, and the gnomes wear amulets that stave off the cold, and only light fires in their great communal halls, where the walls and ceiling are far enough from the firepits not to melt.

 

[Michael Morris]

Sorry, had not read what was written hehe...

Did notice about the Female Halflings being winged though (so thought more cliff-side eyries for them). The Gnome in my little tidbit were meant to good at jumping, climbing, and swinging (I think there are a few Feats from Forgotten Realms that can handle this).

Guess I will go read that other thread now...

I'm trying to keep the outside material to a bare minimum. Y'know, you can play Al~Qadim without looking at the Forgotten Realms even though technically Al~Qadim is part of the Realms - that's what I'm looking at accomplishing here. But that particular post reminded me of that little detail, so I raised it. All of what's in that thread applies to halflings (oyasini) in the north. They might be very different here

 

[Michael Morris]

A small society of gnome mages lives upon the mountaintops of the northern peninsula on the mainland, within grand cities of ice maintained only by the chill of the high peaks, and the gnomes wear amulets that stave off the cold, and only light fires in their great communal halls, where the walls and ceiling are far enough from the firepits not to melt.

While cool, it defies climate outlined above. A 5000' - 6000' mountain isn't even above treeline for a subtropical clime.

However, a 38,000' mountain is, and there exists one of those some 700 miles northwest of this map.

For orientation purposes here's the whole map of Northwest Delcerni including the Estarian Empire (in a black box) and the Dusk campaign itself (in the blue box). Dusk is 3,300 miles away as the crow flies, and further than that by sea. Hence it has about as much relevance here as Han Dynasty China had on Rome. While the Estarian Empire is closer, it's still 1,250 miles off, still too far to be a factor in this. I want to emphasize this point.

 

[Arkhandus]

....it would be helpful to know such specifics beforehand. I wasn't aware the mountains weren't nearly tall enough to be icy at the top.