Questions about Ea / Letheon

[ryryguy]

The vikings was regarding the bladelings, and I think the Egyptian kingdom might have been for devas and goliaths, so they'd probably in the Manual of the Planes and the Pre-proposal for PHB2.

I've got a desert land coming as the homeland of my Psion, I just want to be the first character from there and after that it's open to anyone. Of course it'll be like October, so...

It's not Egyption though, it's decidedly persian in nature and so surely there is room for both.

Ok, cool... I think actually Viking/winter appeals most to me for the character I have in mind. Bladelings could certainly be included there.

As Ea is a continent, this could be a new region there or it could be applied to Letheon itself. It doesn't really matter to me which one - does anyone have any particular feelings either way?

FYI, the reason I want to set this in Ea is because my character's background is linked to fighting aberrations. The character is a druid, and I have in mind a secret, ancient order of druids that stands opposed to things coming in from the Far Realm - like the Gatekeepers from Eberron or the Circle of the True mentioned in PHB2. Ea's where the aberrant action is, so the druids are either from there or have gone there. A Viking culture would suit druids very well, I think.

Since this would be my second PC and Ingot is just starting out, she won't be appearing on the scene any time soon. I may write up a little bit about the setting bits though, just to get it out there.

 

[Dunamin]

Hey there, just noticed this thread.

Those are good questions all around and I do have a lot of additional material behind Ea when I wrote it up, though unfortunately I don't have access to it right now. Going from memory:

1. Is there a real-world cultural analogue to Ea/Letheon, a la Valley of Bone and Mayans?

No, not as such. However, a significant part of the cultures are inspired from the abundance of D&D lore behind giths, illithids, and other iconic practicioners of psionics, and that lore might in turn have had real-world analogues.

If you really want relation to real-world cultures, I would think you might draw a little inspiration from Spartans and samurai for githyanki and Shaolin monks for githzerai.

2. Is Allarian spoken in Letheon?

For ease of play (as is the norm in 4E), yes.
Technically they would speak their own language, but it would be close enough to Allarian to suffice as equivalent, just like Magari is considered equivalent to Dwarven.

3. Do they worship the standard pantheon? (Perhaps under different names?)

I had not really settled on this topic, since the role of gods in the L4W world was a hot topic at the time I was writing Ea (pre-launch of L4W).
Unless I'm mistaken, we ended up deciding that there would be no more than the 12 established gods. Considering that Ea is a Far Land, the citizens of Letheons might worship them under different names but they would technically be the same.

However, it should be noted that the gods play a relatively smaller part on Ea overall.

4. What's the climate and terrain like?

This was left intentionally open. Ea is continental in size, and as such the environment depends on where you are.

Most of the kingdom of Letheon is dominated by fields and plains, often with grass growing the height of common humanoids - though a great deal has become corrupted and poisonous following the Xelgonne Enclave occupation. Central Letheon rises into signicant mountainside, with very expansive underground tunnels and caverns.

Hope that helps

 

[ryryguy]

Thanks for the response!

In the meantime, I ended up setting a new land called Surtyr in the north of Ea. It's a viking inspired land and ties in with another new land called Valhyr. I noticed that Ea was a continent, as you mentioned, so it seemed easiest to just plop down a new area that wasn't part of Letheon proper.

As I wrote it up Surtyr is wintery and cold, but with lots of volcanic activity, so there's geothermal warmth in some areas - think Iceland. The war between the giths has spilled over into the borderlands, but the more remote reaches are still relatively untouched... for now.

 

[Dunamin]

Sounds very interesting!

I noticed mention of Surtyr and Valhyr around the forums after my return, but haven't yet digged into it. Growing up in Denmark I've learned quite a bit about Nordic mythology, and viking culture personally appeals to me quite a lot.

I'll go check out Surtyr in the wiki some time after work.