Into The Mystic (4E) -- Please Help Shine A (Point of) Light!

[DMMo]

It also sets gears into motion in my head about these ancient empires. The giants, the 'tieflings,' and now, perhaps, some kind of dragon-dominated empire that was mostly dragonborn and their full draconic masters. As they disintegrated, the empires dissolved into fractious client states, which shattered into a handful of city-states and an anarchic, unbordered landscape between them. Your points of light. Plenty of room there for old guard soldier units turning first into mercenaries as the governments they once fought for failed...then finally becoming bands of raiders when no one could or would hire them anymore.

Good stuff, Shayuri. I like the mercenaries ----> raiders bit, perfectly reasonable. Also, given that 200 years have passed since dragonborn raiders first settled Ildur, some of those raiders may have turned back into --------> mercenaries. It would make sense that a city-state struggling to maintain civilization in the face of darkness (or rulers fighting against threats from within) would hire the fiercest raiders out there. So in parts of the campaign world, you might find bands of dragonborn serving essentially the same role as the Varangian Guard in Constantinople.

 

[Ethalias]

Hi there. First of all I really like the flavour of your setting so far. I especially like the religious direction you're going in. I was thinking perhaps the reason that this new "one god" really works is that he/she/it has somehow suppressed/defeated the old gods and is perhaps less benevolent than it first seems. Could provide a nice epic-level twist, and lead to some adventures either setting free the old gods or finishing the job etc.. Maybe that throws a hefty spanner in the works, but that's what sprung to mind.

Keep up the good work

 

[DMMo]

Hi there. First of all I really like the flavour of your setting so far. I especially like the religious direction you're going in. I was thinking perhaps the reason that this new "one god" really works is that he/she/it has somehow suppressed/defeated the old gods and is perhaps less benevolent than it first seems. Could provide a nice epic-level twist, and lead to some adventures either setting free the old gods or finishing the job etc.. Maybe that throws a hefty spanner in the works, but that's what sprung to mind.

Thanks for the input and encouragement! I like your idea very much. It might be a tad bit more "big picture" than I want to go right now (Ray Winninger's First Rule of Dungeoncraft: "Never force yourself to create more than you must.").

However, while I'm going to force myself not to consider your tantalizing epic-level, campaign arching twist, it does inspire me to consider something a bit more immediate and on a smaller scale. So far, I've built up the idea of this monotheistic faith, and by extension its practitioners, as virtuous and altruistic. Now it occurs to me that I might want to build in some kind of secret that cuts against that grain. I'm not talking about a priest who turns out to be a diabolical devil-worshiper or anything quite that overdone. But perhaps there is some secret shame, some spiritual burden carried by the headmaster (or headmistress) of the monastery, that can lead to adventure? Something that doesn't make this priest (or his predecessors) a bad or evil person, but shows they are still flawed mortals? Perhaps something relating to why they chose these remote, and at the time all but forgotten, islands to base the monastery? Or what they found at the location when they first arrived? It's murky, I know, but I feel there are the seeds to *something* there. Thanks, Ethalias!