Fantasy Arms Race, Round Two

[The Goblin King]

This scenario sounds okay. I had pondered a demon invasion but it seemed too cliche. The tower does not have to be a big cube. Any shape is possible as long as it is composed of repeating geometric shapes. So no curves but you could have a hexagonal shaped tower.

I was also thinking about a 'final solution' for the Auselen problem. The Earthquake spell was developed by the Stempa but items enchanted with it were purchased by the Cressians. The plan would be for aquatic druids to cast Earthquake at specific points on the ocean floor at the same time creating a tidal wave. So far it has not been considered because of the loss of innocent life. If the island is lost they could wipe the outsiders from the face of the earth.

 

[s/LaSH]

I know the scenario sounds far-fetched. The fortress doesn't have to be a cube, of course; I just loved that image. But I think it can be handled.

The point of this scenario is to address the existance of vast cosmic powers. The formians don't have to be the only ones involved; in fact, I can see some truly bizarre alliances formed out of this one by the various peoples of the world. Ideally, some treaty will be arranged at the end whereby the Prime is protected from awe-numbing incursions like this one, but it's not in place yet and we really need to figure out why this doesn't happen in other Prime Material worlds. If the outsiders are out there, there's a reason they don't use the 'center' of the multiverse as their battleground, and I want to know what that reason is - militarily speaking.

Skeletons from across the sea could be worked in, however... there are Auselen necromancers, and if they get enslaved by the formians we'll be seeing some truly nasty battles. Let alone the possibility of enslaved dragons, which is just going to be nasty.

Or are there other thoughts?

 

[The Goblin King]

From a mortal military point of view there is no way to win. Perhaps when the Wish spell is developed they could send them packing but that might only work once. The only way I could figure would be Divine interference. No material plane could stand up to a full scale extraplanar invasion. I imagine there is some guardian of the earth deity that could see these things coming due to portfolio sense and would just say 'No' when an army tried to land. There would still be loopholes that could be exploited of course but luckily a small band of heroes always manages to avert disaster.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Hhrrrmmm, while this is a very cool scenario I feel it's jumping the gun a little. Going to eighth level spells is a huge leap from where we were before. Not only does it imply a lot of research it forces us to create roles for high level characters in the societies in question. Decide how they get they created and used by the societies in question.

Also any massive invasion from the outer planes brings up a lot of questions about deities that we haven't answered.

I also question how much business Ta'jinn and Cressia would be willing to do with Ausel. The Auselens screwed them over in the last war and all of the factions knew about and it and none were happy about it. The current understandings between the Khanate and Cressian sort of hinge on their hatred of Ausel. And I don't see the Khanate and Greater Cressia engaging in much brinkmanship and arms racing as the Khante views Greater Cressia as securing their border and running their border so that it might turn its attention elsewhere.

I do think that additional powers need to be introduced into the scenario and I had hoped that the understanding that resulted in Greater Cressia would result in the Auselen expanding out in the direction of other lands and thus expanding the scope of the world and its conflicts.

Those are all questions of set up for the scenario, however, and I think that there are still a lot of kewl issues to be addressed and dealt with here. Just some adjustments to be made.

That being said, I would say that there while there are probably a fairly large number of high level of adventurers and characters scattered throughout Greater Cressia the highest concentrations are in the following centers, in no particular order:

-The Memorial City/the City of the Games: The high command of the Confederacy established an academy around a hundred years ago to create projects that would use the talents of the most experienced and learned individuals in Greater Cressia. This community is largely self-sustaining but a mysterious group alternately known as the Deans, Wardens, and Minders (depending on your cultural origins) possesses both the highest official authority in the community and a powerful template given to them by the combined powers of the Cressian Deities, Stempan Oracles, and Ta'jinn Blood Spirits.

-The Oracular Enclosures, Cressian Hierarchy, and Ta'jinn Councils

-The city states, guilds, Ta'jinn orders, and Tamarchs

-The Empty Quarter, including the Ta'jinn Foriegn Tamarch, Cressian Ceremonial cities, dark Stempa, and various other high conflict low order areas.

-Various small or fluid communities of adventurers, such as the Inn of the Coral Breaks in the Cressian port cluster of Rarshun in which a high powered market of unusual items, a community of sages of arcane lore, foriegn embassies, and some strong guild posts and temples are located. From this city many adventurers derive supplies and information for their risky undertakings and customers for their goods. Many adventurers come to settle or retire here and many institutions recruit heavily here as well as vie for the many innovations in techniques, technology, and learning that the unusual populace produces.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Also at this point in the scenario, since we are going to be keeping these culture for a while, I thought it might be useful to establish some outlines for the cosmology of the cultures we're and have dealt with.

Some of this has already been worked on, but I'd like to propose that at this point worship in the cultures has evolved as the cultures have adapted to each other and their history.

The Cressians still possess a religion that features many active deities. The Field Father and Dog Mother have gained particular significance as time has gone by. The Heirarchy is an extremely undogmatic religious institution, much less so than the populace. Where most of the laity and uninvestitured members of the populace belong to one or more specific cults, the Heirarchs view themselves as having been shown the way to greater closeness to the world of the gods and nature through the Field Father and Dog Mother's guidance. Each individual member of the hierarchy is considered more or less a member of every cult, but also as enjoying a specific path to enlightenment granted by their close proximity to the path of nature and the Father and Mother deities. They are thus prone to Theological discussion but have no sense of heresy or heterodoxy recognizing each members specific revelations as valuable and incorporatable into the greater understanding. They do posess a sense of great duty and even concepts such as good and evil are less important to them than the wisdom of one's actions with regard to one's role as a leader or pundit or example in Cressian society.

That's a pretty complicated treatment. Let's try this:

Cressia: two major dieties, one overall heirarcy, four major cults and a numerous minor ones from cults of smithing powers to the dieties of households and roads. The two major dieties prefer to advise rather than intervene, lesser dieties are more prone to intervention but also less active overall. All the dieties are fairly hostile to extra-planar creatures save for some elementals and creatures of the natural world that have been made holy, celestial dogs and what not.
Major intervention: Likely in the case of minor dieites, guidance, inspiration, and favor. Unlikely but possible in the event of a minor cross planar crisis likely as a last result.
Stance to Other Dieities: Fairly open. The Father and Mother are very protective of Cressia but have allowed other dieties to join their pantheon as the patrons of particular aspects of Cressia.

Ta'jinn: Ancestors intercede for the river people and Centaurs. Important groups in the communion of the ancestors are the blood spirits, the gate spirits, and the manifest or spirit of the great breath.
-Blood Spirits: Protector spirits who are currently very popular with the divine spell casters of the whole of the Khanate. The patrons of the god-blooded. Highly likely to inspire and command. Likely to intervene through coincedence only occasionally through manifestation. They were created with the Khanate as a result of the war against the demons.
-Gate Spirits: Psychopomps. The patrons of the clergy in charge of the elaborate funerary rites of the river people. They organize and guide the spirits of the dead into the Communion of Ancestors. They are highly likely to intervene and will manifest to protect tombs or places of worship from outsiders.
-Spirits of the Great Breath: Wind spirits. The original patrons of the Centaurs and the ancestors of the house of the Khanate. These spirits guided the Khanate against the demons and give the house of the Khanate the capabilities necessary to run their great empire. They are most likely to intervene with gifts and blessings. They or it never manifests though it has on occasion possessed a Centaur, member of the royal household, or member of the Khan's table. The Spirits of the Great Breath are capable of uniting into a single entity the equal of a greater deity, but rarely do so.

I'm not as good with Stempa or Ausel.

 

[The Goblin King]

The Stempa have a god for each city. http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=725124#post725124 Perhaps over time they have developed a Zeus figure to solidify thier pantheon. Each god is related by blood to this unifying figure.

For the Auselen I was thinking a state sanctioned mystery cult. Members of the half-dragon nobility would induct the common people in the ways worship.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

The Stempa have a god for each city. http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=725124#post725124 Perhaps over time they have developed a Zeus figure to solidify thier pantheon. Each god is related by blood to this unifying figure.

For the Auselen I was thinking a state sanctioned mystery cult. Members of the half-dragon nobility would induct the common people in the ways worship.

I like both of these ideas.

I was thinking that the Oracles could provide a unifying element between the dieties of the individual towns. Maybe their patron acts as a sort of judge or mediator between the people and the gods and the between the various gods themselves. Over time the Oracular deity arrives at a position of prominence that reflects the new position of the Oracles themselves with regard to the Stempan city states.

 

[Tonguez]

The Oracular Diety
- What about the Norns/Fates/ Three Sisters?

The Triumvate Sisterhood of the Fates is the patron diety of the Oracles. It is the Three Sisters that weave the fabric of reality and it is they who determine the fate of gods and mortals.

Each city and each Diety of Stempa recognizes that it is a strand being woven in by the Three Sisters.

Auselen

The Auselen have Monks and Scrocerers-Kings on they way to becoming gods. What if the Auselen have a philosophical religion without 'gods'. Instead the Auselen beleive that they are all divine beings trapped within weak fleshy body's- this also explains the Biomancy introduced inorder to overcome their weak bodies.

The pursuit of the Scorcerer Kings then is to transform their weak humanoid forms into the glorious form of the Dragon and thus become flesh-made-god (Dragon-gods)

Monks fit well into this too as they will eventually become Outsiders - divine servants of the Dragon-gods!

So what would a Dragon Monk 20 be?


another thought on the conflict
the Sisters could be the ones who ultimately intervene and ban all extrplanar incursions as the weave of reality starts to unravel
But maybe we should get to that first...

 

[The Goblin King]

Odd. Earlier today I was trying to imagine an Auselen temple and saw a huge ornate building guilded with gold and gems. Worshipers formed a line to get in. Along the steps up the hill were rows of prayer wheels. The people turned them as they walked along. However, I couldn't figure out why they would want to do so. Now I know. The Auselen believe that reading a prayer or spining a wheel with the prayer on it is the same as saying the prayer out loud. Praying to the Five Elemental Dragons makes brings you closer to perfection.

The outer circle to which most Auselen people belong are instructed that the five elemental dragons are symbolic of the forces of the universe. The story of how the dragons came down from Heaven to reside on Auselen as the true kings of the earth is taught as a metaphor for journey of life. The common people learn the history of the five founders of the great houses.

The middle circle of priests do the actual work of running the church. These are people who have proven themselves devoted to the faith. They go on pilgramages and try to reenact the lives of the house founders. By pefecting themselves they strive to trancend flesh. Almost all monks belong to this circle.

The inner circle is composed only of the half-dragon sorcerer nobility. Those people who can trace their blood back to one of the five elemental dragons. They are the land owners of the island. At this level they learn that the five dragons are not metaphors but real creatures. The dragons did decend from Someplace Else and took human mates. The five dragons reside in the dungeons below their temples. They sleep, for now, on the mass of treasure contributed by their worshipers. But they dream restless dreams and it is said that the dragons are aware of the world around them and have the ability to speak to their decendants in visions.

 

[s/LaSH]

Auselen

The Auselen have Monks and Scrocerers-Kings on they way to becoming gods. What if the Auselen have a philosophical religion without 'gods'. Instead the Auselen beleive that they are all divine beings trapped within weak fleshy body's- this also explains the Biomancy introduced inorder to overcome their weak bodies.

The pursuit of the Scorcerer Kings then is to transform their weak humanoid forms into the glorious form of the Dragon and thus become flesh-made-god (Dragon-gods)

Monks fit well into this too as they will eventually become Outsiders - divine servants of the Dragon-gods!

So what would a Dragon Monk 20 be?


another thought on the conflict
the Sisters could be the ones who ultimately intervene and ban all extrplanar incursions as the weave of reality starts to unravel
But maybe we should get to that first...

That's what I always thought of the Auselen. "We're better than you, we don't need your gods to rule us." It's a very philisophical religion, yet one in which the strong rule. I also like the idea of dragons from another world... they probably share that philosophy, after all, and a really big dragon is probably a match for a formian army (if we go with that)... and what's to say they don't have cousins sleeping somewhere else?

Either way, this is an age when restraint is unknown. The humans have never wondered what would happen were they to have a serious mage throw-down, and cosmic forces like formians or slaadi couldn't care less about one little continent. I can seriously see 8th level spell casters being hunted down after they screw up the world, thus accounting for a 'magical dark age' when technology advances to compensate for the lost magic... (Also consider that 15th-level characters are capable of taking on formians quite effectively, especially in a 'dungeon' environment. Increased magic means increased elitist units in the form of adventurers, which in turn means a greater emphasis on surgical strikes against powerful personages.)

And yes, having a 'bail-out switch' in the form of the Sisters is a good plan. If we carry on with my suggestion, we'll probably need one. Remember: Arms races sometimes come up with things that nobody wants to use. Agreeing not to use something is as much a valid tactic as actually using it. Look at nuclear weapons, or high-grade chemical weaponry like they didn't use in WWII. That stuff is terrifying (more so than you realise, probably, say my military consultants). Similarly, if certain high-level powers start getting hurled around, people are going to put together some banning treaties pretty fast.