Locations Mentioned in Races & Classes

[DJCupboard]

Have they said anything about the nature of the pacts? I had assumed that a star pact was associated with the far realms, or the 4e equivalent thereof. You know, ancient things from beyond the stars...

That's the impression I get, too (and I hope its the right one, far realms and lovecraftian goodness are some of my favorite things to inject into an otherwise traditional fantasy setting), but locations that transcend boundaries (earth/space, etc.) make really good representational devotion to that which comes from beyond.

"Great Hortukund
Through his mouthpiece of the stars
Shouts down upon our blaspheme'd ears
His gibberish of command
And I his fleshly leutenant
Stand ready upon the precipice
To enact all that I comprehend
From Beyond he demands obedience
In a tongue lost long Before
The stars, our most far flung incursions
into his timeless realm, did conduit to me
A plan of re-beginnings
Of preparations to be made
Our realms are not yet ready
For Hurtukund and his Host
of timeless masters from Beyond
I stand here ready
I stand here ready
I stand here ready
I stand here ready..." and so the lone warlock's incation continued as he stood upon the precipice, his voice slowly losing its conviction as his chants deminished into gibberish and he was lost to madness. (sorry about that, I needed to get it out somewhere...)

 

[Leugren]

Some of the locations you mention (e.g. Spirodon, the Western Province) are from Andy Collins' 3.0 Bloodlines Campaign.

 

[Kaffis]

hmmm... didn't notice so much name dropping...

more to my theory that there WILL be a default setting after all...

Well, most of it is just throw-away examples for things like elf tribe names or a few examples of how eladrin cities shift in and out between the mortal and fey planes, as it were.

That's why you didn't notice it as name dropping (a good thing!), and makes it pretty inconsequential and vague to include them in homebrews without messing anything up or having them dominate or design portions of your world for you...

 

[Sonny]

Some of the locations you mention (e.g. Spirodon, the Western Province) are from Andy Collins' 3.0 Bloodlines Campaign.

Not surprising considering it wasn't presented as actual fluff. They were just examples for Paragon level play. Whereas Heroic level play used names and locations from classic First Edition modules.

 

[Intrope]

I have re-read the snippet about the mountain in R&C and I'm not sure that it really implies that the mountain is super tall. It could be just that the mountain is huge and the one could spend a year exploring every nook and cranny...

Then again, there's something to be said for a 52 miles mountain...

It could also be that the mountain is in the heart of a plateau of mountains (like the Himelayas)--from a nearby country, it would take a year to get to the plateau, navigate to the mountain, and scale the summit.

Or the mountain could be partly in the 'real' world, and partly somewhere else; it really is 52 miles tall, but the summit isn't in the prime, it's in the Feywild (or wherever).

 

[Wolfwood2]

My favorite Fafhrd and Grey Mouser story is "Stardock", where the two adventurers climb a massive mountain (so big that they have to climb a couple of lesser mountains just to get to the base). It has some fighting and adventures against human antagonists along the way, but the tensest moments of the story are their struggles against the mountain itself.

So yeah, I'm all in favor of the impossibly huge mountain. Hopefully with a lost ancient civilization along the way and a race against rivals to reach the star gems accessible from the peak.

 

[Asmor]

Of course, on the other hand, the legendary height of the mountain could be a slight exaggeration.

Yeah yeah, hyperbole has no place in fantasy stories. Everything has to be the literal truth.

 

[Tonguez]

Polynesian Cosmology mentions a mountain that transcends world via the stars (altair iirc) if you climb to the summit in the mortal world you can then climb down the its 'twin' in the spirit world.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Polynesian Cosmology mentions a mountain that transcends world via the stars (altair iirc) if you climb to the summit in the mortal world you can then climb down the its 'twin' in the spirit world.

Sounds a bit like the Great Wheel plane of Bytopia, doesn't it?

I'm comfortable with a mountain so tall it extends beyond the atmosphere. Although it's not true, it was once thought that the peak of Olympus Mons was beyond the atmosphere of Mars.

 

[Asmor]

Interesting. That may be part of the inspiration for the Twin Paradises of Bytopia. The Wikipedia article doesn't specifically mention it, but I'm pretty sure there's at least one hourglass-shaped mountain which connects the layers, meeting at a point in the center.

EDIT: D'oh! Beat to the punch!