Jack7
First Post
Some Basic Information on the Developmental Background of this Setting: This setting, Terra-Ghantik is several years old. (Parts of it decades old in development.) It began as an experiment in world design spurred on by some friends of mine.
In my early twenties I stopped playing games altogether and got on with many other things in my life. In my mid-thirties, after having gotten married and returning home some friends asked me if I would DM for them. (Most of my older friends had either gone into service and been stationed elsewhere, in other parts of the world than me, or had moved after attending college. But eventually I made new friends after returning home and some of them had interests in gaming. And my own children were getting older as well and had expressed interest in gaming.) So with these various requests I said I would try and develop a new playing world (my old ones had been burned in my twenties) but that I wanted some time to develop a world setting and milieu that we would all like. So I asked them what they wanted and they told me, and I likewise thought about what I wanted to do and experiment with, and taking all of that information into consideration I set about designing a stable, consistent world for them to play in.
The first thing I wanted to do was create an historically based milieu, because we all have large and long term interests in history, and because real cultures, societies, military matters, people, and events interest most of us far more than purely fictional things. The next thing I wanted to do was create a setting in which the players could explore real moral and religious themes. Some of my would be players had expressed major disappointment at D&D and most fantasy game approaches to religion, and how shallow most religious and spiritual affairs were in-game. I couldn’t have agreed more, especially regarding the Cleric.
So after some experimentation I decided to ditch the D&D approach to religion altogether and instead let people play their own religion. If they were Christian then their character could be that as well, or they could be Jewish, Buddhist, whatever they chose. (Indeed one of my original goals of the setting had been to develop a “Christian version of D&D,” but over time I came to realize that this would be counter-productive, for reasons that might not initially seem obvious. If everyone in a game is Christian then Christianity is never challenged because there is nothing really in the background of the setting to challenge Christianity. [Monsters and evil would be available to challenge the morality of character action, but that would be a reflexive challenge, not an interesting or demanding or evolutionary challenge.] It would be the same as if a Moral or Religious Monopoly existed in the game world. Or let me put it this way, just imagine if everyone in our world were Christian. It might seem a sort of ideal situation in some way, especially for Christians. But would it be? In actuality? Such a monopoly, as with any monopoly would likely lead to complete and total stagnation of the evolution of Christian ideals and behavior. Without allies Christianity would not grow wiser, without opposition Christianity would not evolve and improve; I am not talking so much about the ideals of Christianity, many of which I think should remain stable and unchanging, but about the expression and behavior of those ideals as evidenced by how Christians act. Therefore I strongly suspect and believe that competition from friendly or allied religions does Christianity good, as it causes and promotes self-reflection, as does outright opposition from hostile opponents, as this forces the religion to grow, develop, and adapt in this world. Every force or organization in existence needs a reactionary force to push against, as well as allied forces with which to operate in conjunction in order to reach cooperative objectives. When a thing remains unchanging and unchallenged it cannot grow and is not motivated to grow. In other words competition promotes a nature of both striving and thriving, whereas everyone inflexibly and uncritically accepting the same ideals and motivations for every action in the world can in time only likely lead to stagnation and quite possibly a state of slow corruption and decay. Therefore in the game world I wanted this setting to be Christian friendly, and I wanted the players to feel free to play their own religious beliefs, but I did not want to dictatorially limit the religious expression of this setting to Christianity, as I felt that would not bring out the best in any player or situation, Christian or otherwise. Furthermore I also didn’t think it likely to allow the setting to raise and wrestle with difficult and dangerous real world moral questions if the religious context were inflexibly set beforehand. An inflexible context leads to inflexible and non-innovative answers to difficult dilemmas. And one goal for this setting was definitely as a background in which to present difficult real world moral dilemmas in-game. So instead I opted for a Christian-influenced, but not necessarily Christian dominated setting that nevertheless allows as much religious choice for the player as does our own world.)
Therefore the players were free to play their own religious background, but they could also if they wished play a character from another religion. As far as religion goes I wanted the players to have as much freedom of religious exploration and expression as in the real world, but not be limited to artificial and unreal religious pantheons and organizations to which they would likely feel no real association, sympathy, or interest. But whatever the particular case of their choice they would be free to play a character with a real religion, given the time frame of the setting. It wouldn’t be an artificially created stick-man religion in which the player would have no real stake, or no real set of core beliefs at all, instead he could be playing something real which made real moral, ethical and spiritual demands of the player and his or her character, within the structure of the game setting.
Because of the religious background of the setting I also wanted analogous real historical cultural ties that the player could associate with his character. For instance if a player were going to have a character that had a real religion, it seemed to me that he should also have a real culture, and that this culture should both place demands upon the character and should give the player a feeling of real association and sympathy with the society, nation, and world that his character inhabits. For instance, imagine you are playing a character who is American, if you are American, or Japanese, if you are Japanese, or Irish if you are Irish, and how much more likely you are to instinctively and deeply associate with your own culture than that of let’s say, the entirely fictional Thorodium Excellency of High Somersault. Truth is the best the Thorodium Excellency of High Somersault can do is poorly and palely approximate some real culture, and the likelihood of that culture or government exciting any real loyalty or sense of association with a player within the setting is very remote indeed. So I expanded upon the idea of both the religious and cultural associations of the setting to give the players things they could instinctively and personally relate to within the setting almost as if they were real associations in our real world. (If the Thorodium Excellency of High Somersault is obviously based upon a real culture then it can very well evoke in the player feelings of natural association and sympathy, but probably not to the degree of the associations already evident in his mind and experience as invoked by his real culture, present or past.)
I call this type of resonant relationship between the player and the setting he explores “Sympathetic Association.” I think it is an important idea behind fictional world creation that transforms a setting from being a mere plastic stage backdrop into a milieu that the player can become excited about and can personally relate to. The setting becomes important when the background is something that the player can naturally understand and associate with, and his sympathies are stimulated when it is enough like his own real world culture, religion, background, and interests, to seem “more real, and more important” to him. He can recognize aspects of himself within the background world and he can sympathetically associate with those aspects in the setting. When his gaming country is attacked in war it is like he has a personal stake in the matter. When his hometown is attacked and burned, he associates with that in an almost personal rather than merely imaginative way. In other words places in a game setting do not remain mere geographical points of vague interest with funny names, or bases out of which the player disinterestedly operates, but rather the setting becomes a far more “real place” with real interests, concerns, and obvious risks
However I also didn’t want to create merely another version of the Western European Medieval Milieu. I wanted to create a setting that would evoke natural Sympathetic Association with the players, but a setting that was also new and unique and unknown in many ways compared to most settings. Something out of the ordinary and generally unexplored as both a game and fantasy setting. The reason is obvious. I wanted something new, creative, stimulating, and provocative.
I originally considered Eastern Europe, Russia, and Japan as possibilities, and a friend of mine also suggested Malta (which I seriously considered for a long time as the base of operations out of which the characters would adventure). But after about a year of historic research I finally settled upon the idea of the Byzantine Empire and Constantinople (a favorite historical place of personal interest for me) as the likely setting, and after discussing that idea with my potential players they all agreed that it sounded like a very good possibility. That only left the exact era to be decided and after a bit of more research I decided that the era of about 800 AD would offer a number of interesting historical, background, campaign, and adventure possibilities. It was close enough in time and nature to cultures most all of the players were familiar with to seem welcoming and to evoke sympathetic association (indeed much of Western Culture is derived from Greek, Latin, and Byzantine societies, not to mention the Judeo-Christian religious background of Byzantium), but alien and unexplored enough as a game setting to place along the “frontier of the world,” so that one could always find “new and unfamiliar things” to explore.
In designing any setting for any reason or purpose, mythological, gaming, literary, etc I always desire to create places that are both well-explored and civilized (and the Byzantine Empire was probably the most highly civilized culture in the world at that time) and areas that are “frontier,” wild, untamed, and unexplored. The Empire had various barbarian tribes to the East, West, and North (some of them very powerful), the Persians, Muslims, and Indians to the Farther East, and much of unexplored Africa to the deep South. They were surrounded by both highly evolved and ancient civilizations, and by cultures and societies that were barbaric and new and on the fringes of the known world. The potentials of the milieu seemed nearly inexhaustible to me. So I set about constructing the setting based upon my historical research (which I had been conducting for a long time, not just for gaming purposes), and by including augmented elements of my own design.
I’ll continue this later…
In my early twenties I stopped playing games altogether and got on with many other things in my life. In my mid-thirties, after having gotten married and returning home some friends asked me if I would DM for them. (Most of my older friends had either gone into service and been stationed elsewhere, in other parts of the world than me, or had moved after attending college. But eventually I made new friends after returning home and some of them had interests in gaming. And my own children were getting older as well and had expressed interest in gaming.) So with these various requests I said I would try and develop a new playing world (my old ones had been burned in my twenties) but that I wanted some time to develop a world setting and milieu that we would all like. So I asked them what they wanted and they told me, and I likewise thought about what I wanted to do and experiment with, and taking all of that information into consideration I set about designing a stable, consistent world for them to play in.
The first thing I wanted to do was create an historically based milieu, because we all have large and long term interests in history, and because real cultures, societies, military matters, people, and events interest most of us far more than purely fictional things. The next thing I wanted to do was create a setting in which the players could explore real moral and religious themes. Some of my would be players had expressed major disappointment at D&D and most fantasy game approaches to religion, and how shallow most religious and spiritual affairs were in-game. I couldn’t have agreed more, especially regarding the Cleric.
So after some experimentation I decided to ditch the D&D approach to religion altogether and instead let people play their own religion. If they were Christian then their character could be that as well, or they could be Jewish, Buddhist, whatever they chose. (Indeed one of my original goals of the setting had been to develop a “Christian version of D&D,” but over time I came to realize that this would be counter-productive, for reasons that might not initially seem obvious. If everyone in a game is Christian then Christianity is never challenged because there is nothing really in the background of the setting to challenge Christianity. [Monsters and evil would be available to challenge the morality of character action, but that would be a reflexive challenge, not an interesting or demanding or evolutionary challenge.] It would be the same as if a Moral or Religious Monopoly existed in the game world. Or let me put it this way, just imagine if everyone in our world were Christian. It might seem a sort of ideal situation in some way, especially for Christians. But would it be? In actuality? Such a monopoly, as with any monopoly would likely lead to complete and total stagnation of the evolution of Christian ideals and behavior. Without allies Christianity would not grow wiser, without opposition Christianity would not evolve and improve; I am not talking so much about the ideals of Christianity, many of which I think should remain stable and unchanging, but about the expression and behavior of those ideals as evidenced by how Christians act. Therefore I strongly suspect and believe that competition from friendly or allied religions does Christianity good, as it causes and promotes self-reflection, as does outright opposition from hostile opponents, as this forces the religion to grow, develop, and adapt in this world. Every force or organization in existence needs a reactionary force to push against, as well as allied forces with which to operate in conjunction in order to reach cooperative objectives. When a thing remains unchanging and unchallenged it cannot grow and is not motivated to grow. In other words competition promotes a nature of both striving and thriving, whereas everyone inflexibly and uncritically accepting the same ideals and motivations for every action in the world can in time only likely lead to stagnation and quite possibly a state of slow corruption and decay. Therefore in the game world I wanted this setting to be Christian friendly, and I wanted the players to feel free to play their own religious beliefs, but I did not want to dictatorially limit the religious expression of this setting to Christianity, as I felt that would not bring out the best in any player or situation, Christian or otherwise. Furthermore I also didn’t think it likely to allow the setting to raise and wrestle with difficult and dangerous real world moral questions if the religious context were inflexibly set beforehand. An inflexible context leads to inflexible and non-innovative answers to difficult dilemmas. And one goal for this setting was definitely as a background in which to present difficult real world moral dilemmas in-game. So instead I opted for a Christian-influenced, but not necessarily Christian dominated setting that nevertheless allows as much religious choice for the player as does our own world.)
Therefore the players were free to play their own religious background, but they could also if they wished play a character from another religion. As far as religion goes I wanted the players to have as much freedom of religious exploration and expression as in the real world, but not be limited to artificial and unreal religious pantheons and organizations to which they would likely feel no real association, sympathy, or interest. But whatever the particular case of their choice they would be free to play a character with a real religion, given the time frame of the setting. It wouldn’t be an artificially created stick-man religion in which the player would have no real stake, or no real set of core beliefs at all, instead he could be playing something real which made real moral, ethical and spiritual demands of the player and his or her character, within the structure of the game setting.
Because of the religious background of the setting I also wanted analogous real historical cultural ties that the player could associate with his character. For instance if a player were going to have a character that had a real religion, it seemed to me that he should also have a real culture, and that this culture should both place demands upon the character and should give the player a feeling of real association and sympathy with the society, nation, and world that his character inhabits. For instance, imagine you are playing a character who is American, if you are American, or Japanese, if you are Japanese, or Irish if you are Irish, and how much more likely you are to instinctively and deeply associate with your own culture than that of let’s say, the entirely fictional Thorodium Excellency of High Somersault. Truth is the best the Thorodium Excellency of High Somersault can do is poorly and palely approximate some real culture, and the likelihood of that culture or government exciting any real loyalty or sense of association with a player within the setting is very remote indeed. So I expanded upon the idea of both the religious and cultural associations of the setting to give the players things they could instinctively and personally relate to within the setting almost as if they were real associations in our real world. (If the Thorodium Excellency of High Somersault is obviously based upon a real culture then it can very well evoke in the player feelings of natural association and sympathy, but probably not to the degree of the associations already evident in his mind and experience as invoked by his real culture, present or past.)
I call this type of resonant relationship between the player and the setting he explores “Sympathetic Association.” I think it is an important idea behind fictional world creation that transforms a setting from being a mere plastic stage backdrop into a milieu that the player can become excited about and can personally relate to. The setting becomes important when the background is something that the player can naturally understand and associate with, and his sympathies are stimulated when it is enough like his own real world culture, religion, background, and interests, to seem “more real, and more important” to him. He can recognize aspects of himself within the background world and he can sympathetically associate with those aspects in the setting. When his gaming country is attacked in war it is like he has a personal stake in the matter. When his hometown is attacked and burned, he associates with that in an almost personal rather than merely imaginative way. In other words places in a game setting do not remain mere geographical points of vague interest with funny names, or bases out of which the player disinterestedly operates, but rather the setting becomes a far more “real place” with real interests, concerns, and obvious risks
However I also didn’t want to create merely another version of the Western European Medieval Milieu. I wanted to create a setting that would evoke natural Sympathetic Association with the players, but a setting that was also new and unique and unknown in many ways compared to most settings. Something out of the ordinary and generally unexplored as both a game and fantasy setting. The reason is obvious. I wanted something new, creative, stimulating, and provocative.
I originally considered Eastern Europe, Russia, and Japan as possibilities, and a friend of mine also suggested Malta (which I seriously considered for a long time as the base of operations out of which the characters would adventure). But after about a year of historic research I finally settled upon the idea of the Byzantine Empire and Constantinople (a favorite historical place of personal interest for me) as the likely setting, and after discussing that idea with my potential players they all agreed that it sounded like a very good possibility. That only left the exact era to be decided and after a bit of more research I decided that the era of about 800 AD would offer a number of interesting historical, background, campaign, and adventure possibilities. It was close enough in time and nature to cultures most all of the players were familiar with to seem welcoming and to evoke sympathetic association (indeed much of Western Culture is derived from Greek, Latin, and Byzantine societies, not to mention the Judeo-Christian religious background of Byzantium), but alien and unexplored enough as a game setting to place along the “frontier of the world,” so that one could always find “new and unfamiliar things” to explore.
In designing any setting for any reason or purpose, mythological, gaming, literary, etc I always desire to create places that are both well-explored and civilized (and the Byzantine Empire was probably the most highly civilized culture in the world at that time) and areas that are “frontier,” wild, untamed, and unexplored. The Empire had various barbarian tribes to the East, West, and North (some of them very powerful), the Persians, Muslims, and Indians to the Farther East, and much of unexplored Africa to the deep South. They were surrounded by both highly evolved and ancient civilizations, and by cultures and societies that were barbaric and new and on the fringes of the known world. The potentials of the milieu seemed nearly inexhaustible to me. So I set about constructing the setting based upon my historical research (which I had been conducting for a long time, not just for gaming purposes), and by including augmented elements of my own design.
I’ll continue this later…
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A great read!
