Romans + Druids + Cthulhu

[ssampier]

Blogs

I added a few things to my EnWorld blog. The details are sketchy, but I will be filling them in here shortly.

I really like the idea of 10 things that makes your campaign world different. I stole the idea from the Eberron 3.5 campaign book.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

Okay, I read your blog, and it looks like you're beginning to get a foundation here. Some of your list of ""10 things that are different" about the setting left me with a few questions to ponder on. I'll just quote the specific parts I have questions about.

3. Adventurers are special

Adventurers are relatively unheard of outside of large cities like Toran, Tawlus, and Runa. There are only a handful of cities with more than twenty thousand permanent residents. More well-known NPCs are experts and are not powerful wizards or clerics. You can make your own mark on the world.

I'm interested to hear more about your Roman society will treat these rare few heroes. How do people generally respond to those who stand outside of the social order in your fantasy Roman Empire? What few social customs/traditions exist in dealing with adventurers?

5. There is one god, but also many

The Lothian Church is a powerful force in many people's lives. However, the church's iron grip on its people is slowly loosening. Many people have embraced new ideas and new churches like the Honored Seven. In Tawlus there are temples to hundreds of gods.

When you say there is one god, but also many, do you mean that many deities are aspects or faces of the same larger god, as in henotheism? Or did you mean one larger monotheistic religion/god conflicting with many smaller gods?

Also, the Lothian church, by how you describe it I take it it's been around for a while? And some of the polytheistic churches/cults like the Honored Seven and the one in Tawrus are somewhat newer? This seems to be a bit of a reversal of real world history. Are there polytheistic churches older than the Lothian church?

10. Look to the Cosmos

Astrologers have studied the skies and have determined the moon, the stars, and the planets do shape behavior on Rune. Even weirder still, half-crazied scholars speak of ancient and powerful entities that dwell in the cosmos. Some maniacal organizations and insane cultists worship these beings beyond the stars.

I'm also interested in hearing more about this. I know relatively little about how Romans viewed the stars and sky. However, IIRC, for modern man it wasn't until the last century or two that the scientific establishment believed in the regularity and power of thinks like comets and meteors falling from the sky. I'm guessing in your setting falling stars and the like will be important, correct? If so, I'm interested in hearing how your society views them.

 

[ssampier]

Psychotic Jim, excellent questions thank you.

I'll address them by each point.

I'm interested to hear more about your Roman society will treat these rare few heroes. How do people generally respond to those who stand outside of the social order in your fantasy Roman Empire? What few social customs/traditions exist in dealing with adventurers?

I think the fantasy Rome takes an ambivalent stance to adventurers. Sure adventurers cause trouble much of the time, but adventurers are helpful to unload some of the burden of administrating a large empire.

My fantasy Rome has a LN alignment, so lots of forms and red-tape for adventurers. Of course this depends on the current Hesar or emperor.

When you say there is one god, but also many, do you mean that many deities are aspects or faces of the same larger god, as in henotheism? Or did you mean one larger monotheistic religion/god conflicting with many smaller gods?

Also, the Lothian church, by how you describe it I take it it's been around for a while? And some of the polytheistic churches/cults like the Honored Seven and the one in Tawrus are somewhat newer? This seems to be a bit of a reversal of real world history. Are there polytheistic churches older than the Lothian church?

Excellent question. This is ripped straight out of Monte Cook's playbook. Ptolus has one church, the Lothian Church (gnostic Christianity) and many churches. I simplified and said most people belong to Church of Lothian or the Honored Seven.

In my timeline in my head, the Vikings raided in 800 CE/AD or thereabouts; long after the empire fell. My Vikings are Dwarves. Now dwarves always existed before, but never in these numbers. I just kept the Roman army alive and well for them to fight back the dwarven army. Eventually, they both grew tired of this and let the human Nordic (called Jords) settle in Northern England. The Jords simply have to pay a tax and swear fealty to the Emperor. Jords and dwarves are okay with this, as long as they can worship their own gods. Rome (Toran) doesn't care, as long as it gets it coin.

The justification for this is to establish a different pantheon to conflict with Lothian. The Honored Seven are really influential in the Empire; mostly because it's something new -- a Renaissance of religious ideas, if you will.

In Ptolus book, Lothianism has been around for a long time, longer than the current empire. Obviously there are faiths that have been around longer than the Empire, the most notable is the Elven belief in a dualism. The elves have two important gods: the Good God and the Evil God.

Most elves today are somewhat stoic after surviving persecution and pay lip service to whatever god you want them to worship. They build fire temples mostly to provide a place for meditation and to meet other elves.

I'm also interested in hearing more about this. I know relatively little about how Romans viewed the stars and sky. However, IIRC, for modern man it wasn't until the last century or two that the scientific establishment believed in the regularity and power of thinks like comets and meteors falling from the sky. I'm guessing in your setting falling stars and the like will be important, correct? If so, I'm interested in hearing how your society views them.

Yes, absolutely. I have been re-reading the Eberron 3.5 book again. In Eberron they have planes that have orbits, wax and wane. What if I took that same concept and applied that to real planets?

Basically I could have 7 planets named after the Honored Seven. I could assign characteristics to each planet, such as appearance and general structure, such "green forest/fey planet", "dark dismal death planet". Then when the planet comes close in orbit to "Earth", there are certain effects; the Eberron 3.5 book mostly hand waves this to DM fiat.

To me the planetary system makes more sense than planes since in the Call of Cthulhu book monsters regularly jaunt to other planets. In Ptolus other planar travel is off limits as well. So the planetary cosmos sorta fits my theft of ideas inspiration.

Further, for extra kicks, I could add like the Sphere of Prime Mover as the outer ring of orbit where the gods' power reside. I prefer to keep this hidden; I am liking the non invasive god model.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Psychotic Jim, excellent questions thank you.

I'll address them by each point.

I think the fantasy Rome takes an ambivalent stance to adventurers. Sure adventurers cause trouble much of the time, but adventurers are helpful to unload some of the burden of administrating a large empire.

My fantasy Rome has a LN alignment, so lots of forms and red-tape for adventurers. Of course this depends on the current Hesar or emperor.

Excellent question. This is ripped straight out of Monte Cook's playbook. Ptolus has one church, the Lothian Church (gnostic Christianity) and many churches. I simplified and said most people belong to Church of Lothian or the Honored Seven.

In my timeline in my head, the Vikings raided in 800 CE/AD or thereabouts; long after the empire fell. My Vikings are Dwarves. Now dwarves always existed before, but never in these numbers. I just kept the Roman army alive and well for them to fight back the dwarven army. Eventually, they both grew tired of this and let the human Nordic (called Jords) settle in Northern England. The Jords simply have to pay a tax and swear fealty to the Emperor. Jords and dwarves are okay with this, as long as they can worship their own gods. Rome (Toran) doesn't care, as long as it gets it coin.

The justification for this is to establish a different pantheon to conflict with Lothian. The Honored Seven are really influential in the Empire; mostly because it's something new -- a Renaissance of religious ideas, if you will.

In Ptolus book, Lothianism has been around for a long time, longer than the current empire. Obviously there are faiths that have been around longer than the Empire, the most notable is the Elven belief in a dualism. The elves have two important gods: the Good God and the Evil God.

Most elves today are somewhat stoic after surviving persecution and pay lip service to whatever god you want them to worship. They build fire temples mostly to provide a place for meditation and to meet other elves.

Yes, absolutely. I have been re-reading the Eberron 3.5 book again. In Eberron they have planes that have orbits, wax and wane. What if I took that same concept and applied that to real planets?

Basically I could have 7 planets named after the Honored Seven. I could assign characteristics to each planet, such as appearance and general structure, such "green forest/fey planet", "dark dismal death planet". Then when the planet comes close in orbit to "Earth", there are certain effects; the Eberron 3.5 book mostly hand waves this to DM fiat.

To me the planetary system makes more sense than planes since in the Call of Cthulhu book monsters regularly jaunt to other planets. In Ptolus other planar travel is off limits as well. So the planetary cosmos sorta fits my theft of ideas inspiration.

Further, for extra kicks, I could add like the Sphere of Prime Mover as the outer ring of orbit where the gods' power reside. I prefer to keep this hidden; I am liking the non invasive god model.

I just put all the things in the 'Astral Plane' in 'space'. If you fly high enough you can reach astral space and travel to the various 'higher worlds', though its beyond the power of most ordinary methods of flying to get there. Kind of merges something of the concept that Eberron uses with a more traditional concept of the outer planes.

 

[ssampier]

Neat. So you have Superflying spells or something similar?

In a AD&D 1ed book (can't remember if PHB or DMG), it says "Your characters can go to the sun, the stars and beyond." That one phrase always inspired me for some reason.

It's not simple nostalgia; I wasn't alive when the 1ed book came out. I played AD&D 2ed for a few years before seeing 1ed.