Creative Exercise: The Sovereign Dominion of Eyros

[Jakar]

Not that much of a biggie really. Just have to think of something new now.

 

[Breakstone]

Not that much of a biggie really. Just have to think of something new now.

Sorry 'bout that! I just love having moons... my last campaign had three of them!

 

[Jakar]

The moon over Eyros is marked with what looks like vast, green forests. Observation of the moon has shown that the forests migrate across the surface at a startling rate- often moving miles in only a month's time! Who knows what strange magics could possess this lunar vegetation?

The largest ocean port of Eryos is Malarn-ka, situated on the Bay of Deception, 100kms west of the delta of the Kohoal River. The Bay of Deception is so named for the difficulty in navigating the reefs at the entrance of the bay. The water is very silty and cloudy, so finding the reefs is very difficult. They have never been marked or plotted on a map in the name of the defense of the city from water borne attacks. Every ship that wants to enter the bay first picks up a pilot from a small man-made island near the entrance to the bay, who has memorized the method for finding the reefs.

The House of Malarn controls the city and the trade it brings, lining their own coffers with various taxes levied on all goods brought through the city and the fees for the pilot service used in entering the bay.

The fleet of Eryos is not based here, but has a number of ships based at the man-made island.

(Look if anyone has a better name for the bay, please feel free to suggest it. LoL)

 

[Andor]

Oh, and I assume that the assassination you mention is in addition to the 350-year old dwarf-executed assassination from the War of the Crumbled Pillar, since we already established the secret cause for that one. Just making sure this is meant to be a new assassination.

I hadn't spotted the date change for the War of the Crumbled Pillar, I did mean that one. Where was a cause for that assasination posited? I can't find one.

Sure: Kidnapping and thievery, but more importantly, self-will. If she takes the blame for the incidents, this creates a dangerous precedent of self-willed Masks (she doesn't really have self-will to commit these transgressions since she was ordered to do so). Alivia is a powerful wizard, and if she is able to create mischief in this relatively benign form, then she could also steal Eyrian secrets and treasures, kidnap children, and then run away forever.

Ermm.. But unless she really IS self-willed she will have to honestly answer the question of "Was this her idea or yours?" Also, while she may have the mentality of a 6 year old IE Cheerfull and eager to please, she still has the mind of a 3000 year old wizard with an INT probably in the low 20s. She can certainly reason out consequences.

Possible ways around this. When Elves become masks they swear a set of oaths upon the Crown that forever more bind them as immutable law. The problem is that Alivia swore a different set of oaths 3000 years ago then are currently used in Eryos and none but she know this. As a result she is bound to obey and protect members of the royal familly even to the point of disobediance to other nobles. Thus she will protect, even at the risk of her own life, Belira even though Belira would probably recieve little more than a stern lecture.

This allows for the possiblity that there are more elves out there with varient oaths sworn, possibly crown agents like Lord Seiger from the Lord Darcy series.

 

[Rystil Arden]

The largest ocean port of Eryos is Malarn-ka, situated on the Bay of Deception, 100kms west of the delta of the Kohoal River. The Bay of Deception is so named for the difficulty in navigating the reefs at the entrance of the bay. The water is very silty and cloudy, so finding the reefs is very difficult. They have never been marked or plotted on a map in the name of the defense of the city from water borne attacks. Every ship that wants to enter the bay first picks up a pilot from a small man-made island near the entrance to the bay, who has memorized the method for finding the reefs.

The House of Malarn controls the city and the trade it brings, lining their own coffers with various taxes levied on all goods brought through the city and the fees for the pilot service used in entering the bay.

The fleet of Eryos is not based here, but has a number of ships based at the man-made island.

(Look if anyone has a better name for the bay, please feel free to suggest it. LoL)

Even the Patriae Sicarii must answer to the Cucullus Umbra, the shadowy leader of the Praes Thanatos. The position is inherited in a remarkably strange way: Every generation in which the old Cucullus Umbra has grown old, a physically perfect (or as close as possible) male gnome child is chosen as the next Cucullus Umbra, regardless of talent or interest in necromancy. In a shadowy ritual that involves the death of the old Cucullus Umbra, the child rises to the position, and he seems to inherit at least some shared memories from the previous Cucullus. In reality, the shadowy cowl of the Cucullus Umbra holds a dark secret: these children are no more than sacrifices to allow the milennia-old lich Thanatos, original founder of the Praes Thanatos, to escape the inconveniences of an undead body as he continues his research into the dark magics of the ancient elves.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Not an official post, just my conversation with Andor:

I posted the cause for the older assassination in my longish post about the Masks. That said, I *really* like your idea that different Masks swore different sets of oaths, and I do imagine Alivia as a resource belonging to the current royal family, whoever they may be, rather than one set of nobles, regardless of whether there are multiple sets of oaths out there (I had imagined the scenario you presented where she protects Belira with her life to be standard fare, but that obviously reflects my unstated whimsy on the matter, rather than anything officially written here). Too bad we can't post those as official yet, eh? Finally, Alivia would certainly take actions that resulted in dire consequences for her, even if she understood those consequences due to Int, as she is unfailingly loyal.

 

[Andor]

Not an official post, just my conversation with Andor:

Ahh.. Okay I had missed that. Consider my bit about the reason for the assasination retracted. That's kind of cooler actually since it makes the mindflayers a completly unrelated and tragic consequence of the War.

 

[Arkhandus]

Even the Patriae Sicarii must answer to the Cucullus Umbra, the shadowy leader of the Praes Thanatos. The position is inherited in a remarkably strange way: Every generation in which the old Cucullus Umbra has grown old, a physically perfect (or as close as possible) male gnome child is chosen as the next Cucullus Umbra, regardless of talent or interest in necromancy. In a shadowy ritual that involves the death of the old Cucullus Umbra, the child rises to the position, and he seems to inherit at least some shared memories from the previous Cucullus. In reality, the shadowy cowl of the Cucullus Umbra holds a dark secret: these children are no more than sacrifices to allow the milennia-old lich Thanatos, original founder of the Praes Thanatos, to escape the inconveniences of an undead body as he continues his research into the dark magics of the ancient elves.

Passed down from ancient orcish traditions, adapted through cooperation with the humans for so long, Eyrian nobility tend to be somewhat hedonistic and boisterous, particularly relishing debate, oratory, dueling, and watching gladiatorial matches. As the orcs of old solved their problems and debates largely through shouting, threats, and outright violence, so too do the Eyrians engage in similar though more refined methods of venting frustration, solving disputes, and expressing themselves. Public debate and oratory are common pasttimes of the nobility, which can sometimes become very heated especially amongst the orcish and half-orcish amongst the Pillars.

Senators and their ilk tend to earn reputations through a sharp wit or combat prowess, as most disputes and matters of honor amongst the nobility are solved through a formalized duel, usually right on the spot, but those who are keen of wit can back out of a duel by dismissing the accuser's case with a sharp rebuttal or a scathing rebuke that puts the accuser to shame, forcing him to back down.

When the challenge of a duel is accepted, the fight is brutal and fast, neither party allowed to use magic except for the most simple of magic arms and armor they may have with them, and then only if they own it personally. There must be witnesses, and at least one noble witness of neither contender's family to serve as official observer of the victory. Duels are never to the death, but a warrior cannot yield unless they are unable to effectively fight on. Severed limbs or the like must be replaced shortly afterward by the severer, by paying a priest to Regenerate the severee. In the event of accidental death, the slayer or his/her family must pay for the slain to be True Ressurected, or as near as they can afford.

The duels help the orc-blooded to maintain their civility by taking out their inherant aggression non-lethally on those who transgress upon them, while the humans less frequently instigate duels.

(this helps better explain away the orcish traits of the Player's Handbook at any rate)

 

[domino]

Passed down from ancient orcish traditions, adapted through cooperation with the humans for so long, Eyrian nobility tend to be somewhat hedonistic and boisterous, particularly relishing debate, oratory, dueling, and watching gladiatorial matches. As the orcs of old solved their problems and debates largely through shouting, threats, and outright violence, so too do the Eyrians engage in similar though more refined methods of venting frustration, solving disputes, and expressing themselves. Public debate and oratory are common pasttimes of the nobility, which can sometimes become very heated especially amongst the orcish and half-orcish amongst the Pillars.

Messages are sent by a network of couriers and courier posts. A rider is sent from one of the posts, down the roads with the messages to be delivered. He travels light, with special mounts trained to run for long distances. When he reaches the next post, he delivers any messages that are destined for that post, or other posts further down that branch, and picks up new messages destined for locations down his route. He then switches his mount out for a fresh one, and moves on. The messages he delivered are then held until another rider arrives heading in an appropriate direction, when the process is repeated. Each post also has one or occasionally two riders, who make a circuit around the nearby villages once every two or three days, to deliver the messages to the villages when they arrive.

With the right timing, a message can be sent across the country in about 4 days. With a lot of stops, it can also take up to two weeks. The wealthy and powerful may have other methods of sending messages, but those are rare, and almost all commoners use the post.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I just realised that we probably need to make a slight adjustment to Mouse's post #97, wherein Mouse fixes the naming problem with the prefix Dal followed by the Pillar name. Since half-orcs by necessity (and description in previous posts) belong to two Pillars, one for each race, we either need to add in the second pillar (more likely, since half-orcs would wish to flaunt their membership in both Pillars through nomenclature) or make a rule about which House follows the Dal (perhaps the mother's house only). If we add the second pillar, Felra could become something like Felra Raj-Tinar Dal'Vajar Ty'Malarn (I really see her as belonging to Malarn on the human side now thanks to some excellent descriptions of the quirks of that particular Pillar). Proposed fix: Following the Dal' comes the Pillar to which your same-sex parent belonged, and following the Ty' comes the Pillar to which your opposite-sex parent belonged (so Felra would have an orcish mother from House Vajar and a human father from House Malarn). This creates an evocative naming system for the nobles that allows someone who has enough ranks in Knowledge [Nobility] to know this fact to quickly determine quite a few facts about a noble they just met very quickly