Look upon my works, ye mighty... (my players stay out, please)

[Piratecat]

Well, don't despair just yet.

Let's say you're world-building and you have an emperor who runs a VAST empire. He's inbred, unqualified, selfish, dissolute, addicted, divinely mandated, possibly insane, definitely the richest man on three continents, and probably bored. He thinks big and has loyal (or terrified) spellcasters, slaves, architects and artists at his beck and call.

So what is he using them for?

I need help brainstorming completely audacious public work projects, stylish and memorable things that will squander great quantities of cash for dubious value and no monetary payback. Things of beauty, or power, or pleasure, or mystery. Two thousand years from now, these will be the tourist attractions if they're still standing.

Any ideas? And thanks!

 

[Chrono22]

A massive library- full of tomes of ancient lore and invaluable knowledge. Hundreds of scribes and acolytes comb the library, cataloging and adding to the giant collection. Only the emperor is allowed to read the books. He doesn't read; he thinks reading is boring.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Fun idea to use as a starting point. A trivial idea would be to implement whatever you want from Eberron (Lightning Rail, fleet of airships). Here are some other ideas.

Grand Colleseums: If I were said emperor, I would be inclined to build a mighty colleseum. Large enough to stage massive naval battles within. Or to have 3 on 3 tag team matches with Titans. Or have armies clash within. The colleseums would have an extradimensional link s that the field of battle / stage area would be some sort of splinter plane. This would mean that any battle would happen in every colleseum at the same time (as opposed to an illusionary link that just displays the primary colleseum amidst all other collesseums). Every seat would have a perfect view of the field.

The sorcerers would also be hard at work creating, summoning, and capturing monsters to compete in the colleseums. Mighty warriors looking to build celebrity for themselves would compete for fame.

Plenty of hooks in that idea. You can have the nature of these colleseums become a threat to the fabric of reality. You could have a monster escape and wreck stuff. You could force the players to fight for the entertainment of the mad emperor.

The Stairway to Heaven:
Perhaps the Emporer is getting on in years, and is pretty certain he wont be invited into paradise. That won't do at all. So rather then pray for forgiveness and enlightenment, why not just build a stairway that can take the emperor and anyone else who wants to go directly to paradise? The Stairway, aside from being insanely tall and expensive, should also have magical properties that allow it to act as a dimensional gate or bridge into paradise.

As for adventure hooks... Well, there are probably plenty of religions that consider the emperor a heretic and want the stairway to fail. Any gods who would prefer to have a paradize reserved for those who pass their moral tests would not be happy either. Elements from the lower planes might like the idea of having a direct link by which they can assault the gates of heaven. Maybe the Emperor uses non union labour and the Carpenter and Mason workers local 873 is taking issue with being cut out of the contract.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Tortoise]

Perhaps a great "indoor" arboritum and bath.

Waterfalls spilling down carved and terraced cliff faces into pools and cisterns surrounded by lush vegetation, each with a stream to a central heated bath.

Within each of the surrounding pools rise enourmous statues of some of the gods which hold out pitchers, goblets, and the like from which more water spills into the central bath.

Around the circumference of the dome are round openings or windows to allow more light in for the plants during daylight, and to allow a view of the night sky in the evenings.

Along the walls are more windows, vast works of stained glass detailing the glory of the empire.

Detailed, brightly colored mosaics cover the floors.

The grand pillars bear carvings of the likeness of the Emperor in various garb: military, etc, to celebrate the various duties of His Majesty.

In the very center of the bath is a semi-submerged throne, carved in the like-ness of a mermaid where the relaxing Emperor can rest his head betwixt her breasts. One of her hands is palm upward so that he may rest food and drink upon it. Warm water flows gently down from the crown on her brow.

 

[Rechan]

He's inbred, unqualified, selfish, dissolute, addicted, divinely mandated, possibly insane, definitely the richest man on three continents, and probably bored.

So, typical ruler?

The Typical is to say "I want something to show off how awesome I was". Statues. Places built in my honor (The Pyramids, The Taj Mahal was built for a ruler's wife).

Others are acts of whim and fancy, like Nero putting his horse in the Senate. I can't think of really EXPENSIVE acts of whim besides the typical decadence (gold toilets and the like). Which don't help.

From this I can think of a few ideas:

1) Talking copies of the Emperor in many places of importance. Either courthouses (to advise the legal scholars) or the Commons, where the peasantry can seek his great advice. The idea is that the statue or simulcrum is pretty much the Emperor, his personality and viewpoint. So he's not only immortalized, he's "influencing" people with his greatness.

2) Nature-defying amusements. In Dubai (which is in the DESERT), they have an in-door ski resort packed full of snow. That costs tons of cash to pull off, and is a bit ludicrous. So, think like that. Whatever he thinks is the Best Vacation Thing Ever, put that where it "doesn't belong", sustained magically, and equally ludicrous (like topless golem-girls serving drinks).

3) World's Greatest Nicknack. Pick something insignificant luxury the Emperor loves more than anything. Cream cakes, ponies, something like that. Build a monument/musem to them. The World's Largest Gold-Cast Twinkie.

4) Remember That Face. Part of this is the immortalization and "This is an important guy", but we put the faces of our most important rulers on stuff. Most notably, our money. So the Emperor could have a team of guys who go around magically imprinting his likeness on things. Every Book (or cart or something) has his face on it. To the point that walking down the street, you are constantly greeted with the face of the Emperor.

5) If the Emperor is God, then play God. Do something that only gods and some wizard did: create a race. These are the Emperor's "chosen people", or at least his pet project. He has mages and divine folk actually craft a living, breathing race for the Emperor's amusement. Or, it could be a specific type of monster. This has an impact on the game world well after the Emperor is gone. If that doesn't work for you, have him literally shape the landscape - moving mountains (stone by stone) somewhere else, the construction of a river from point A to B, etc.

6) The Best Defense. The Great Wall of China is a great tourist attraction with a cool story and history behind it. Now, since the Empire doesn't have all that many threats, there's little need for such an awesome display of might and defense. But the Emperor doesn't know that. Maybe he undergoes a great project to erect a mighty thing to ward away some threat that isn't there. Like bad dreams. Or the imps that giggle about his small penis. This must be a clear plague that all suffer, so he will create a great defense against it.

 

[lin_fusan]

If it were my game, I would decide that the Emperor would consider himself the divine conduit/avatar of a favorite god or goddess, and have him build great works based on that theme.

Deity of Knowledge: Libraries, laboratories, universities, and perhaps a wizard's tower to research forbidden knowledge.

Deity of War: Weapons, arenas, giant smithies, crazy siege engines of questionable worth.

Deity of Magic: Perhaps a grand museum of all kinds of arcana "discovered" in other conquered empires, weird laboratories or magical workshops.

Deity of the Sun (or Fire): Perhaps a giant magical orb that outshines the sun itself. Everburning fires throughout the city. Giant mirrors so that other cities will always know of their presence.

Deity of Music, Frivolity, Madness, etc: Vomitoriums for actual vomiting. Places that magically play all kinds of music. Giant auditoriums for the Emperor to play daily.

 

[Stoat]

1. Commission an epic, sweeping historical drama based on an idealized version of your own life history.

2. Render the drama with vivid, hyperrealisitc illusion magic. A permanent programmed illusion of your own greatness.

3. Project the illusion onto the surface of the moon.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Cool ideas so far. Honestly, Dubai is a good postmark. It's one of those places you know future generations are going to point to and say "This was the point where the decadence was truly pointless."

#1: Change the natural world. You know here in the US, we blew up a mountain just to slap four dude's faces in it? He does that. When he is cold in the winter, he forces the mages to invent a second sun. When his royal forests have been over-hunted of his favorite dire boars, he has the imperial biothaumaturges whilp up an even tastier breed. If it's dark, he makes buildings light up. Manufacture an island. Get a world record for "tallest" or "biggest" or "longest" or "largest" or "most waffles inside" or something.

#2: Start a war. Favorite occupation of the rich and bored for ages. It doesn't even need to make sense, or be against an actual enemy. The more ill-defined the better. Also helps direct patriotism out against foes rather than staying at home where it might find him lacking. Everyone has heard about "The War Against the Vadarik," and they know the Vadarik are evil puppy-kicking baby-eaters who want to feast on the blood of innocents. Posters proclaim it. Of course, there is no actual "Vadarik." The armies that are raised go out and fight generic foreigners for territory. A few people know about it, but the propaganda is so loud, it's hard to hear the truth.

#3: Vanity. Not just about himself, but about his entire family line, about the empire in general (so that the "common folk" can identify with it). Again, mountains in his image, or the image of the patron of his line. But also "I have just etched my name into the moon." And "All firstborn children shall be named after me."

#4: Death. Leaders in history are terrified of passing on. Their tombs are elaborate reincarnation machines. They research immortality rituals. They try to visit the afterlife themselves, and pick out a plot of land.

#5: Force the nation to conform to his petty preferences. Say, one day, he accidentally steps in a bull plop. The next day, the city is thrown into chaos as all the bulls in the capital are slain. He pays for them all, but the streets run red with the blood of all these cattle, and it puts a pretty big strain on the farmers for miles around.

#6: Patron of the arts. His legends, his family's legends, are told and re-told in elaborate, public art displays. A mandala of crushed diamond depicts the day he triumphed over Bull Plop. He commissions a 1,000-foot tall solid mithral statue of himself that shoots fire out of its mouth. He orders a painting of a scene from his ancestry made of actual slaves nailed onto a wooden canvas, and displayed in his throne room.

 

[korjik]

Have you tried the classics?

 

[Quantarum]

Aware of his own mortality and not too pleased with the idea of a mausoleum, he wants to build a society of clock work replicas to preserve his empire "at it's height", including a mechanical version of himself. -Q.