Loretober: A Fantasy Worldbuilding Challenge for October!

[Edgar Ironpelt]

Loretober 6: Heroes
In appearance, Cyrano de Bugerorc might be mistaken for a villain, or at least for a charming rogue: He's an orc who wears the costume of a dandy and bears the nose of a roc. He commits poetry in public, with the saving grace of having the style, wit, and talent to pull off both his verse and his dress.

He is also a superior swordsman, but his real heroism lies in the quiet advice he gives to the various ladies and wenches he meets, rather than in the flamboyant assistance he offers.

 

[jaybirdthings]

# 6. Heroes
Subject: Event
Canvas: Regional

THE EIDOLON FESTIVAL
At the beginning of each year, a group of Admasian adventurers gathered in the town of Liopraso to celebrate each other, share their stories, and remember those they have lost. What started as a band of adventurers promising to keep in touch after going their separate ways has grown into the Eidolon Festival, a full fledged holiday in Admas where the people venerate the heroes who have saved them.

Though it is celebrated throughout the Empire and in neighboring city-states, the Festival proper has always been held in its birthplace, Liopraso. Now that the Pirate Barons of Portbail have reduced Liopraso to rubble in an act that will surely lead to war, there has been much discussion about where the Festival will be held now.

 

[Bohandas]

I looked and I have to say that I was inspired…but probably not as intended.

I saw “Old Gods”, and in the context of having dealt with my aging parents’ latest issues the past 2 days, I wondered, what if gods were just extremely long lived powerful mortals who aged just like we do? Without magical intervention, they eventually become old gods.

Imagine Loki becoming senile. Heimdal’s sight and hearing failing. Apollo replacing his chariot with a wheelchair. Kali becoming arthritic. Moradin getting cirrhosis. Ishtar putting on a few pounds.

There was an egyptian myth about Ra growing old. Basically the gist of it was that he used to rule the universe from the normal world, but in the normal world things grow old, so now he rules from the sky instead, because he was getting too old. There's more to it than that (I think?) but that's the gist of it

 

[Edgar Ironpelt]

Loretober 7: Villains
"Mooserider" is a favorite villain character in the Tanner cycle of stories and sagas told by elves in the north. He is also found as a villain in stories told by certain tribes of the Western Cap.

The name has been adopted by various real-world villains as well. Perhaps the most notorious of these was the wizard-druid Brown the Black. As "Mooserider," he terrorized the eastern slopes of the Redstone Mountains for years, and is said to have destroyed at least three villages in the Middle Forest before finally being slain by Dami the Mad Archer.

 

[jaybirdthings]

# 7. Villains
Subject: Item
Canvas: Local

VIAL OF THE BLOODGUARD

Locked within the Church of the Loving Haze is a small glass vial with dark red fluid trapped inside it. Priestess Shai claims that this vial of blood was wielded as an ever-changing weapon when the Church and Servota at large was attacked by the Broken Manacle, an order of atheistic mercenaries who sought to end the worship of saints. The Church, aided by a few of Servota’s local heroes, was able to defeat the Manacle, capturing those who couldn’t escape and confiscating their belongings.

The vial was taken from an acolyte named Elias, who the Church captured and managed to rehabilitate over the course of a decade. Elias worked with the Church for a few years after being released and is now said to be working for the Lord of Mugdock, a wealthy man named Silvano Vialli.

The only remaining member of the Broken Manacle is an individual named Ira, who remains in the Church’s hold to this day.

 

[Edgar Ironpelt]

Loretober 8: Myths & Legends
The Bear With Five Legs is an ancient Myth of Gold-Home, with different versions told from the Demontooth Mountains to the North Forest, and from the Northwest Isles to the Prodigious Plains.

The goblins of the Demontooth Mountains have a version where the Five-Legged Bear was captured either in one of the northern lands or in the Western Cap. It was put on a ship to the Old Empire, but a shipwreck released the Bear into the mountains, where it has lurked ever since.

The versions told by the elves of the Middle Forest also claim that the Bear with Five Legs originally came from a northern land. In the elven stories, the Five-legged Bear usually has additional abilities, from being able to change size and fur color, to an uncanny growl that freezes the blood, to hurling wasp nests at its enemies.

 

[jaybirdthings]

# 8. Myths & Legends
Subject: Event
Canvas: Regional

THE SUNKEN BASTILLE

Newcomers to the town of Vitsi always encounter a strange sight when passing by the docks: fisherman rowing out onto the water of the Lago di Rollo, their boats gliding mere feet over a massive stone structure. This is the Merisi Bastille, a massive fortress that sunk during the Final Hour. According to the locals, the Bastille contains vast riches belonging to a wealthy adventurer from the time before the apocalypse. Many adventuring groups have made their way underwater to seek out the Merisi Treasure, but few have returned and none have succeeded.

Elders in Vitsi claim that the owner of the Bastille, a Hollow Elf with an Admasian name, still lives. It is said that he came to town decades ago and discovered his sunken home, bursting into laughter at the sight of the structure. On the anniversary of his visit, a fringe group of townsfolk gather on the docks, sending floating lanterns out on the water over the Bastille. They sing, drink, and tell each other jokes long into the night, each tossing a coin into the lake before heading home for the night. Some say its a ritual of good luck, others say the offerings will bring about Merisi’s return, but a few townsfolk believe the elf to be a former acolyte of Tuathal the Bounty Bringer. They offer their coins to Saint Tuathal as thanks, for keeping whatever lurks in the Bastille down in its sunken prison.

 

[Bohandas]

Coukd we get a text copy of the list added to the original post?

 

[jaybirdthings]

Coukd we get a text copy of the list added to the original post?

Added!

 

[Edgar Ironpelt]

Loretober 9: Occultism
"Occultism" is the name given to false or imaginary forms of magic, or at least to magical forms deemed imaginary by respectable wizards, sorcerers, and other mages. Examples of occultism include kleptomancy, non-Paracelsian alchemy, and the curse- and blessing-rituals of the Cult of Gwayb. Gear magic was long derided as a form of occultism before the dwarven witch Alice von Zwilligeisen demonstrated it to be a legitimate branch of arcania.