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Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Dallman" data-source="post: 9793875" data-attributes="member: 6999616">The characters that the Monday night Avalon group have been playing since spring 2020 are now 15th-19th level, and the world just doesn't have sufficient challenges for them to be played all the time. So we have started playing a new set of low-level characters, in a different country.The previous characters were from, and based in, Landcentre, which is a pretty free country. Greensward, where the new characters are from, is very feudal, with authority very top-down. It consists of twelve petty kingdoms, and frequently has civil wars. It is divided into three rigid social classes: nobility, peasantry, and the "talented" who work for the nobility keeping the peasantry under control. The nobility and talented are trained as adventurers, although to highly variable standards.Religion is almost exclusively the Church of Mammon, whose doctrine in Greensward emphasises the importance of hierarchy and obedience to the nobility. At least some of the nobility worship Set, or the One Trewe Church of Evil, although they keep that secret.Magicians operate in a style that seems to be unique to Greensward, where they enchant equipment for the nobility, but rarely cast spells. An important part of this style is the enchantment of standards for armies. These negate arcane magic (including enchantments) that isn't attuned to the standard, in a radius dependent on the power of the standard. When standards are opposed, the more powerful one suppresses the weaker. You'll appreciate that having a powerful standard is very important in the civil wars of Greensward.Greensward is currently in a state of near-anarchy. It declared war on Landcentre, for reasons explained below, after which most of the senior nobility were killed by infiltrators from Landcentre's adventurer-based army elite. Many of the surviving nobility are now fighting for power. Landcentre was founded by people unwilling to live in Greensward any longer.There's some previous history that also matters before we get to what the characters are doing. About forty years ago, the capital of one of the petty kingdoms, Petersport, was abruptly transformed into a city of undead by something that looked like the Crimson Bat from Glorantha, but almost certainly wasn't. Since the type of undead the people became was strictly according to their levels/hit dice, the nobility found themselves abruptly less powerful than others and were killed off. Nobody went there for decades, until a way was found to turn the people back to their living selves. This city, Petersport, found itself much more aligned with Landcentre than the rest of Greensward (because they'd killed their nobility). During a Greensward civil war it started conquering adjacent parts of Greensward and now controls about 10% of the country. Greensward started a war with Landcentre because Landcentre had been supporting Petersport in its conquest of adjacent areas of Greensward.    The new PCs were born into the talented class, all in the same forest village in Greensward, and were sent for their adventurer training to an area near Petersport, before that place was was conquered by Petersport. They have all adopted the idea of freedom, rather than feudalism, in somewhat varied ways and styles, but they're worried about their families. They don't have much news from home, but they know:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The old lord of the village has died. He was pretty old, and a decent fellow by the standards of Greensward lords. He allowed his peasants some time to improve their standard of living.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">His eldest son is away on military service.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The village seems to be being run by the new husband of the eldest daughter. That chap has a very poor reputation.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Among our party is the youngest son, who is thoroughly unsuited for being a lord but may confuse the issue.   </li> </ul>So the PCs have decided to head home and see what's going on. This may well turn into a rebellion against Greensward. They sneaked across the border and have been travelling through woodlands, which create a roundabout route but one where it's much easier to stay hidden. We had to cross one area of fields, but since two villages were fighting each other at the time there, nobody took any notice of them.  The journey has taken five days so far, with 2-3 more to go.</blockquote>

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