You Don’t Have To Leave Wolfy Behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' Your Companions Level Up With You!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8146344" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/mZLUF38.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><img src="https://i.imgur.com/XC1E1rP.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Chapter 3: Lands of ImariaOld vs New: This wasn’t even a chapter in the prior versions, and a much-needed one at that. Before Legacy of Mana only covered the setting in very broad details in the first chapter, focusing mostly on a continent-view of things with a few specific places here and there. In this version we get proper write-ups for various kingdoms, important cities, and more. For the sake of brevity I’m not going to cover every place, only the ones I believe are the most interesting and relevant to the setting as a whole. Continents are in bold, while all other places are in italics.The world of Imaria is home to four major continents along with smaller islands and subcontinents, although the map proper doesn’t show Lunalia. The Iltherian Empire originated on the continent of Krymaris but colonized parts of Tensire and Thalagrant. The book mentions they also got a foothold in Iounia, but later contradicts itself by saying how said continent remained untouched by them due to the Iltherians being repelled with overwhelming force. The Empire was unable to reach into Phaelan’s Republic as this historically low-mana place relied upon gunpowder and advanced technology to make up for the lack of magic, and the Empire’s forces proved ill-suited against gunpowder.Ansalebia is a cold northern country who only recently gained its freedom from Iltherian forces. Harsh winters, dense forests, and boggy marshes show that nature, not man, is the clear master, and most towns are self-sufficient. It used to have a Blooded house, but they too were scattered to the winds like so many others.Iounia is the only continent that remained virtually untouched by the Iltherians. It’s a veritable magical golden age not unlike the Age of Lynnvander; here the Blooded rule openly and unbroken, the ley lines flow richly, and all of the kingdoms are autonomous yet entered into a mutual defense pact due to Iltheria’s rise. Dragon worship is common here, and there’s an order of knights known as the Paragons of Iacocca who revere these creatures. The dwarven kingdoms here are very isolationist, consisting of wealthy kingdoms with advanced machinery and artifacts. Most Blooded families preside over feudal estates, and while peaceful the peasants are kept uneducated and overworked to prevent any rebellions.Barring the brief mention of agrarian oppression, Iouna is one of those places you see every now and then in settings that are meant to be defended, not have adventures in. Much like the Shire, it’s a utopia from where PCs come from as they adventure out into a dangerous world, or gives them something to fight for when the forces of evil inevitably threaten it. But as Iounia is militarily powerful, they aren’t in any real danger at the moment.Krymaris is a land of suffering. No other land has lost so much from Iltheria’s rise and the loss of mana. Villages, manors, and farms lost to war, plague, and magic blight stand as graveyards to lost civilizations within living memory. Iltheria still stands as a country, but their recent losses give a sense of hope to the oppressed. Sometimes dangerously so; now every youngster wants to be the next great hero or wizard, and the adventuring craze has gotten so out of control that peasants are leaving crops to rot on the vine and militias leave their homes unguarded all in hopes of hitting the next big quest to fame and glory. A former Lunalian airship base resides in the two largest mountains, Mt. Pareth & Mt Oredale, but is now a monster-ridden dungeon. A demon turned the inhabitants of the kingdom of Bactactia into undead horrors, the land becoming swamp. The lakeside city-state of Delaborun is a crime-ridden slum under Iltherian control, whose leader is hiring outside help to “get tough on crime.” A creepy village by the name of Deepwode did the unthinkable and made a pact with a forest elemental to protect their community...and in turn made said community murderously hostile (and possibly cannibalistic) to outsiders. The city of Ghoremare is trapped in a time-looping curse, forcing the citizens to relive the siege of Iltherian forces as ghoul scavengers pick the burning houses clean. And last but not least, the city of Tallinad, capital of Iltheria, is being rebuilt. Although much is done to make the city a thing of beauty, the power blocs are divided between those seeking to move on from the past and hardliners who want to return to the glory days of witch-burning and elf-hunting. It is a city where one can pass ruined walls and towers and head over to a fancy restaurant by a public park, presided over by grim-faced guards keeping out ‘undesirables.’Crystalfellen is the kingdom and homeland of the Surface Elves. It was a forested place of magic and harmony like in any D&D setting, but the Iltherians viewed them as a grave threat for their knack at manipulating mana. They were one of the Empire’s first victims. Most elves died, the survivors fleeing. It is a grim place full of choked, dead trees and desperate outposts of elves and Iltherian soldiers both unaware of the Empire’s fall. Wyrms are a constant plague, growing great in size in spite of the meager offerings, and dragon-slaying has become a much-desired occupation.Khenbia is the southernmost nation of Krymaris. A warm place full of sandy deserts and rocky badlands, the Iltherian Empire went after its Blooded all the same but were not keen on long-term occupation. Most Khenbians live in self-sufficient nomadic bands, famed for their music, poetry, and beautiful weapons forged in volcanic vents. They are split into three larger ethnic groups, the Ghusarn (exclusive nomads), Hanisarn (spend half the time on land, the other half at sea), and the Valisarn (live in sedentary towns but travel the desert during holy days). Roholinary, their only city of note, mounted an insurgency against the occupying Iltherians and ever since prized their freedom. There’s also Serpentika, a black tower presided over by a naga lich who is corrupting the local mana in the area.Blackrazor is the stereotypical rough and violent orcish society, although this is more due to being forced by humans into inhospitable lands after suffering from genocide, and the ‘orcish marauder’ stereotype comes from the practice of exiling criminals who end up becoming other peoples’ problems. The book makes a brief mention that orcs who live elsewhere in Krymaris have assimilated into other countries as laborers both free and enslaved (the latter in the case of Iltherians).<img src="https://i.imgur.com/uZoWtEO.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Lunalia is notable for being the sole skyborne civilization in Imaria. A chain of floating islands that never dip below cloud level, the place is home to magic and technology unseen anywhere else. Airships are the primary means of travel between Lunalian islands and maintaining contact with the surface world. As of the Age of Arcana, they have made cautious forays down to land, still suspicious of the Iltherian Empire and the legacy of war.Phaelan’s Republic is the easternmost realm of Imaria. Consisting of large islands north to south, the ley lines have been weak in this area since recorded history, and so the locals resorted to technological improvements to make up for the relative lack of magic. Most settlements are reliant on sea trade, even the ones inland, and have a more Age of Sail piratey flavor than the medieval fantasy elsewhere in the setting. The Republic is home to a city of sapient golems and living constructs, the sole known realm in the region that combines magic and advanced technology. The largest city in the Republic, Kaderia, is a dirty industrial place that employs druids to counter the worst effects of industrialization.* The city of Trifalcon is a steampunk realm with a closed network of Lunalian-designed airship cabs for public transportation, and is home to the world-spanning Merchant’s League.*this place is seeming kinda high-magic right now…Tensire is wedged between Krymaris to the west and Phaelan’s Republic to the east. It is most well-known for being the traditional home of the mutates, a diverse race of anthropomorphic animal-people. Mutates largely live subsistence farming or hunter-gatherer societies at the local level, with no notable cities or kingdoms. There are ruins of older civilizations here and there, although the mutates regard them as sacred territory of their ancestors and forbid foreign researchers from desecrating their grounds. The Tree of Elements is an ancient specimen at the center of a huge ley line that suffuses the surrounding plant life. A ssnse of magical calm prevents violence and predation in the area, but a gold dragon and a group of mantideans guard the place just in case. The Iltherian Empire tried to make a beachhead in the nearby forest of Tylondale, destroying its natural mana reserves in the process. But otherwise their attempts at colonizing Tensire have been a failure.Thalagrant is a wild, harsh land, although unlike Tensire it’s more wild in the “warring states'' way than “man vs nature” way. There are some kingdoms ruled by Blooded, although most are busy enough holding onto the territory they have to make any larger alliances. When word of the Emperor’s assassination got to the Iltherian outposts in Thalagrant, the rulers took this as a warning sign and viewed themselves as the last remaining bastion of their empire. The kingdom of New Iltheria has its own self-appointed Emperor and a brutal secret police force. They’re not as magic-hating as their predecessors (but not that much less), and are finding ways to use the ley lines beneath their capital for purposes of warfare. The Silver Swords, a martial society loyal to the Lynnvander Blooded house, maintain a secret base of operations in a cavern and made an alliance of sorts with resident dragons. The people of Khalingan are nomads who live within a ruined city whose civilization withered away from trade wars.Ummm...this could use an editing pass.The Khalingans hate Iltherians with a passion, and it’s not hard to hire them out for mercenary work if the renik-wielders are their intended victims.Thar-Nandria is not a continent per se, but rather an all-encompassing term for the subterranean realms crisscrossing Imaria. As the flow of mana is stronger underground due to the wells, magic is much more common among the civilizations down here. Although a relatively remote place in the past, the rise of Iltheria caused the underground kingdoms to cut off ties from the surface world. There’s a political movement known as the Shallows Lodge encouraging the reunification of ties with the surface world, although they’re widely disliked and thus tend to secrecy. Besides this, there’s not much else information-wise pertaining to Imaria’s Underdark in this chapter.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/3l60GQt.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Lands Beyond covers the smaller locations that don’t fit anywhere else. Fyrd and Tzyaen are icy northern islands whose locals are renowned for high-quality weapons, armor, and glasswork which is the backbone of their economy. Dravanyia is a strange place, for the island floats on top of the ocean rather than rising from the continental shelf, and half its surface is covered in crystal-like glass. The southern subcontinents of Palonia and Poromia are home to temples where people take pilgrimages for spiritual growth. The land is so named for the twin moons that float in the sky, for this is the only place one can view their annual dual eclipse. Fangart is a mountain-island notable for being home to warp crystal fragments...whose purpose is never elaborated on or mentioned again in the book! Perhaps it’s a reference to something from an official Wizards of the Coast book?Old vs New: A lot of material for the Lands Beyond was excised in the new version. Some entries remained, but were reduced to but a few sentences. The pseudo-religious pilgrimages to Palonia and Poromia have been changed to a monster-haunted icy wasteland, while the cultures and industry of Fyrd and Tzyaen go unmentioned. Trove was originally a cultural bridge between Thalagrant and Iounia, home to a unique all-female Blooded family known as Vathi who prefer isolation. In the current version the island is home only to gnomes and kobolds “who run in packs.”Thoughts So Far: This chapter does a good overview of the world at large without being too sparse or in-depth. Unfortunately many sections outside Krymaris suffer from a lack of gameable adventure-material. For example, there are descriptions of towns and local industries, but little in the way of odd events, dangers, and political tensions to make them pop out. Some entries you’d expect to be quite large, such as Tensire and Thar’Nandria, but suffer from a lack of content.Imaria’s major continents have readily-identifiable themes, which can help differentiate them. Krymaris by far is the strongest entry in both volume and workable material. It paints a great picture of a troubled dark fantasy land whose societies are struggling to rebuild in the wake of a fallen empire. Phaelan’s Republic is steampunk/Age of Sail/technomagic blend with a rich/poor divide. Beyond these two entries, Thalagrant feels passable yet brief, and Tensire has potential but is harmed by its brevity. Iounia is not a place you would run adventures in... unless the PCs have a bone to pick with the Blooded locals or dragon-warriors.Join us next time as we cover the major races, old and new, in Chapter 4: Peoples of Imaria!</blockquote>

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