What Happened 500 Years Ago?

[Pbartender]

Something I just ran across that I'd almost forgotten...

Vampires were popularized by the Irish author Bram Stoker with his story of Count Dracula, a Transylvanian vampire, in 1897. The story was probably based on Vlad Tepes, a medieval character of exceptional bloodthirst. He supposedly impaled his enemies (hence his nickname Vlad The Impaler) and cut off their heads. He ruled Walachia as Vlad III in the 15th century, which is now part of Romania. He signed his letters with Vlad Dracula, which can be translated as Vlad, son of the dragon or son of the devil. His father was called "Dracul" because he had a dragon depicted on his coat of arms.

Hrm, yes... Vlad III's grave at Snagov has been exhumed and the corpse is missing... and now a new 'prince' is making a claim to the throne of Wallachia!

 

[mythusmage]

Didn't see this in the thread, so I thought I'd mention Copernicus and Galileo. Both helped to revolutionize intellectual inquiry at this time.

Perhaps in your campaign there's a nascent revolution in how magic is viewed. The Church's stand is that secular magic is a perversion of divine power. The new 'hermetic' school is working on the basis of magic as a natural manifestation, with no connection to the Divine. With some extremists in the movement holding forth on the proposition that even so called clerical magic follows the same rules as wizardry.

Hope this helps.

 

[Pbartender]

Didn't see this in the thread, so I thought I'd mention Copernicus and Galileo. Both helped to revolutionize intellectual inquiry at this time.

Perhaps in your campaign there's a nascent revolution in how magic is viewed. The Church's stand is that secular magic is a perversion of divine power. The new 'hermetic' school is working on the basis of magic as a natural manifestation, with no connection to the Divine. With some extremists in the movement holding forth on the proposition that even so called clerical magic follows the same rules as wizardry.

Hope this helps.

Very nice.

Copernicus doesn't start any of his really interesting work until 1514, and Galileo wasn't born until 1564.

However, that doesn't mean those poins of view can't exist. At this point, wizards would consider magic as a sort of science; obvious applications of certain laws of the universe. Wereas preists, especially Christian priests, would view such unnatural powers as only coming from either divine or demonic sources; mortal man cannot wield such powers alone... If you (or someone else) sufficiently explain your connection to God, then you've made a miracle and you are a saint. If not (or if someone suffieciently denounces you), then you're in collusion with demons, and your are persecuted as a wich and a heretic.

In the end, of course, they are both correct to a point. It explains the differences between divine and arcane magic. Historically, the alchemists and astrologers were always pursuing the Secret of Life in order to attain immortality. But in every legend, none of them ever found it... Only the miracles of the Holy Saints has the power to heal people.

In this world, the wizards would have come close to logevity and immortality with experiments into undeath, but undeath corrupts the soul irreparably. the ancient Atlanteans once had the secret to extreme longevity, but the secret has been lost and effects are slowly diluting with each successive generation that mixes with common humans. Wizards haven't found the true secret of life, though, so healing and renewed life is still the undisputed domain of the faithful.

 

[KissMyBooks]

Read a copy of "1421: the year China discovered the world"

Just a word of warning, I'd take this book with several shakersful of salt. The author has cherrypicked very heavily to argue for some highly questionable conclusions. Not necessarily a bad book, but you need to have a fair amount of background reading first to even notice a lot of the holes in his picture.

On a side note, I might recommend you check out the writings of Frances Yates. While some of her stuff is a bit dated, and she's sometimes dismissed for not being a "professional historian," she's a fairly readable introduction to aspects of the Renaissance not often well covered. You might specifically look to see if you can find a copy of The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age.

 

[Dogbrain]

Norton Anthology of Modern History. It begins with an extensive overview of Europe in the early 1500s and goes on from there.

(It uses "modern" in the sense of "modern era", roughly 1600-1914).

 

[Tonguez]

IMC I had familiars be manifest daemons (spirits not necessarily demons) and the source of the Wizard/Witches power. Alchemist/Natural Philosophers replaced the 'normal' Wizard and were those who tapped into the Mecurius of the universe and thus created amazing effects (all spells have a required material component - a purified alchemical substance). Druids, Bards and Rangers all got power fom Old gods (the Fae of Caledon and Eire ensured there survival) or the Fae.
The Clergy manifest divine power by invoking the Saints, and Paladins were the agents of the Archangels. The Church also allowed Natural philosophers within its institutions - as long as they didn't push the limits too far. Thus Corpernicus (and Tomas Aquinas and Roger Bacon) were all natural philosophers/Alchemist.

Of course with the Grand Inquisitor becoming Pope Wizards/Witches were living under persecution and Natural Philosphers were closely watched.

Also with your Elf-Atlanteans you have the scope tointroduce weird technology into the mix and who knows what else (Psionics perhaps)

Very nice.

Copernicus doesn't start any of his really interesting work until 1514, and Galileo wasn't born until 1564.

However, that doesn't mean those poins of view can't exist. At this point, wizards would consider magic as a sort of science; obvious applications of certain laws of the universe. Wereas preists, especially Christian priests, would view such unnatural powers as only coming from either divine or demonic sources; mortal man cannot wield such powers alone... If you (or someone else) sufficiently explain your connection to God, then you've made a miracle and you are a saint. If not (or if someone suffieciently denounces you), then you're in collusion with demons, and your are persecuted as a wich and a heretic.

In the end, of course, they are both correct to a point. It explains the differences between divine and arcane magic. Historically, the alchemists and astrologers were always pursuing the Secret of Life in order to attain immortality. But in every legend, none of them ever found it... Only the miracles of the Holy Saints has the power to heal people.

In this world, the wizards would have come close to logevity and immortality with experiments into undeath, but undeath corrupts the soul irreparably. the ancient Atlanteans once had the secret to extreme longevity, but the secret has been lost and effects are slowly diluting with each successive generation that mixes with common humans. Wizards haven't found the true secret of life, though, so healing and renewed life is still the undisputed domain of the faithful.

 

[Pbartender]

IMC I had familiars be manifest daemons (spirits not necessarily demons) and the source of the Wizard/Witches power. Alchemist/Natural Philosophers replaced the 'normal' Wizard and were those who tapped into the Mecurius of the universe and thus created amazing effects (all spells have a required material component - a purified alchemical substance). Druids, Bards and Rangers all got power fom Old gods (the Fae of Caledon and Eire ensured there survival) or the Fae.
The Clergy manifest divine power by invoking the Saints, and Paladins were the agents of the Archangels. The Church also allowed Natural philosophers within its institutions - as long as they didn't push the limits too far. Thus Corpernicus (and Tomas Aquinas and Roger Bacon) were all natural philosophers/Alchemist.

Of course with the Grand Inquisitor becoming Pope Wizards/Witches were living under persecution and Natural Philosphers were closely watched.

This is pretty darn close, with small variations, to how I was going to treat it.

Also with your Elf-Atlanteans you have the scope tointroduce weird technology into the mix and who knows what else (Psionics perhaps)

Hrm... To quote Aaron Williams' web-comic, "You got your crappy sci-fi all over my fantasy RPG."

I don't think I'm going to use the Atlanteans to introduce any advanced technologies. They will have been, however, the originators of High Magic. Most spells were originally researched by them, secrets that were lost during the destruction of Atlantis and are only now being rediscovered. All magical artifacts, and most of the 'interesting' magic items will be left overs from Lost Atlantis.

While I don't mind using pseudo-scientific explanations for magical effects, I detest super-scientific explanations.

 

[tarchon]

Half-orcs - Hrm... Not certain what to do with these guys yet. I don't want to use them as Moors. Maybe the nomadic Golden Hordes that threaten the steppes of Russia are the various Goblinoids and the half-orcs are the result of those incursions. Or maybe turning them into a 'half-troll' or 'half-giant' sort of race, like Elizabethulhu does, might work... Hmmm... I kind of like the idea of half-giants. Or give them fast healing as half-trolls.

Maybe they're from the Orkneys.

 

[Pbartender]

Maybe they're from the Orkneys.

Hurr-hurr...

 

[Arduin Angcam]

Classes

Bards are the survivors of the bardic tradition and the epitome of the classic courtier and 'Renaissance Man'... Only with the usual D&D twist. Being at least proficient in combat, diplomacy, literature, history, languages, the arts, and even a small amount of magic, almost every courtier and noble would have a level or two of Bard.

Hi Pbartender,

I've just finished a book called "Chronique des derniers païens" by Pierre Chuvin. This book has been translated in English by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, in 1990. under the title " A Chronicle of the last Pagans ". Chuvin stresses the fact that the last way for pagans to publically celebrate their faith after the prohibition of their cults was to disguise them into theater, comedy, fortune-telling and so on. In fact, a celebration like carnival and the different masquerades that still occurs nowadays are remembrances of the celebrations unseparable from greek-roman divine service. The emperors did not dare suppress those celebrations because of social pressure and the tradition went on. It also made street artists and comedians considered as bad christians or even full pagans until a very late period. For instance, Molière, the great French comedy author and an actor himself was denied a christian burial in the late 17th century, like all his fellow-actors of the time.

Hence a possible explanation for bardic powers. They may come from Celtic or Greek-Roman gods (cure spells) that are still worshipped through dance, theater, fortune-telling, and the like. Bards may adress their prayers to long-forgotten divinities like Asclepios when they cure people. But they disguise it via an artistic skill in order to confuse the inquisitors and even the good people who never miss an occasion to cry wolf when they see unexplained powers. The NPC class of Aristocrat should suffice to make a courtier or a Renaissance noble. The bard is a much more powerful character with an ability to survive the real mean streets of European 16th century helped by powers of another age.

Hope this helps.

Arduin.