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WotC - world map
- Thread starter doghead
- Start date
doghead
thotd
a note to my players
The following posts contain some setting notes for my PbP game here at Enworld - the nameless. It includes information not available to the players/charcters. So if you are one (you know who you are), I'd rather you didn't read any further.
Thanks.
the head of the dog.
The following posts contain some setting notes for my PbP game here at Enworld - the nameless. It includes information not available to the players/charcters. So if you are one (you know who you are), I'd rather you didn't read any further.
Thanks.
the head of the dog.
doghead
thotd
setting for the the nameless.
some initial ideas
:: what went before ::
The elves and dwarves are much older races than the race of man is. Before men built their first cities, the dwarves and elves had built many. But the race of man was energetic and ambitious. They learnt technology from the dwarves and arcane magic from the elves. They grew and spread across the continents. Mostly, relations between the peoples were good.
The race of man was energetic and ambitious. They prospered, building great cities and developing great power. Great civilisations were born and grew, fractured or conquered or withered and died. The race of man spread further across the continents. Together with the dwarves and elves they pushed the savage races back into the deepest mountains and furthest planes. But the race of man is a factious aggressive and quarrelsome one. They fought as much amoung themselves as they did with the savage races. Conflicts flaired between man and elf and dwarf. Relations between the races soured. Disconcerted by it all, the elves gradually withdrew from the plains to their forest fasts.
But the race of man was also a jealous one. The great kings coverted the longevity of the older races and began investigating the dark magics to find ways to live longer. So were born the Lich Kings. At their height, there were 12 of them of various degrees of power. For centuries they ruled the eastern plains. There were a couple in the western plains as well, but the western plains were a less civilised place and the Kings there had enough on their plates keeping the northern raiders and savage races at bay.
Eventually open war broke out between man and the older races. The last of the dwarves withdrew to their mountain fortesses and the elves to their forest. Frustrated by their inability to unseat the elves from their forest homes, the Lich Kings sought to use magic to rip those very forests from the ground. The counter magic of the elves set off a reaction that ripped and buckled the very lands upon which the humans stood. Nothing was left standing. Not a building, plant or single animal for hundreds of miles around epicentre of the calamity.
Shocked, stunned and enraged, the elves poured out of the forest and hunted down any arcane spellcaster that they could find, and slaughtered them. The remaining scattered cities of man could do little but beg for mercy if the rampaging elves paused long enough to listen. Often they didn't bother. The elves drove the race of man out of the west, pushing them back till only a handfull of human cities remained. Far to the east, across the Bight, some small kingdoms survived. As in the west, the elves hunted down any arcane spell casters, sacked the cities and destroyed anything resembling a library. But unlike there, they were content to do just that, and didn't have the heart drive the people into the seas. For two hundered years they hunted and burned, til exausted and disgusted by the carnage, the elves finally withdraw to back to their forests for the last time.
Leaving the race of man easy pickings for the savage races that saw an opportunity.
The mortallity of man is not a completely bad thing though. In stunned disbelief, the elves watched as the shattered remnants picked themselves up and begin rebuilding. Within a couple of centuries, they were once again pulling up their longboats on the sands of the western coasts, completely unaware of why they had been driven away in the first case.
:: today ::
Even today, centuries later, it is considered bad luck to meddle with the arcane. The reasons given are many. No one really remembers why. Most casters are divine, or druidic or bardic.
The land around the cataclysm remains a wasteland. Notably, arcane magic is almost completely ineffective there. Except on occasions, very very rare occasions, when its effects are empowered to degrees of three or four.
The elves, having a long memory, have remained reluctant to have anything to do with humans. They largely leave the savage races to their own devices. As far as the elves, and to some degree the dwarves are concerned, the savages races are an effective way of ensuring that the race of man does't re-establish the power it once had. The elves have subtle and sophisticated wards that turn the casual traveller from their lands, and fierce troops and powerful wardings that keep them safe from more aggressive visitors.
So things stand today.
some initial ideas
:: what went before ::
The elves and dwarves are much older races than the race of man is. Before men built their first cities, the dwarves and elves had built many. But the race of man was energetic and ambitious. They learnt technology from the dwarves and arcane magic from the elves. They grew and spread across the continents. Mostly, relations between the peoples were good.
The race of man was energetic and ambitious. They prospered, building great cities and developing great power. Great civilisations were born and grew, fractured or conquered or withered and died. The race of man spread further across the continents. Together with the dwarves and elves they pushed the savage races back into the deepest mountains and furthest planes. But the race of man is a factious aggressive and quarrelsome one. They fought as much amoung themselves as they did with the savage races. Conflicts flaired between man and elf and dwarf. Relations between the races soured. Disconcerted by it all, the elves gradually withdrew from the plains to their forest fasts.
But the race of man was also a jealous one. The great kings coverted the longevity of the older races and began investigating the dark magics to find ways to live longer. So were born the Lich Kings. At their height, there were 12 of them of various degrees of power. For centuries they ruled the eastern plains. There were a couple in the western plains as well, but the western plains were a less civilised place and the Kings there had enough on their plates keeping the northern raiders and savage races at bay.
Eventually open war broke out between man and the older races. The last of the dwarves withdrew to their mountain fortesses and the elves to their forest. Frustrated by their inability to unseat the elves from their forest homes, the Lich Kings sought to use magic to rip those very forests from the ground. The counter magic of the elves set off a reaction that ripped and buckled the very lands upon which the humans stood. Nothing was left standing. Not a building, plant or single animal for hundreds of miles around epicentre of the calamity.
Shocked, stunned and enraged, the elves poured out of the forest and hunted down any arcane spellcaster that they could find, and slaughtered them. The remaining scattered cities of man could do little but beg for mercy if the rampaging elves paused long enough to listen. Often they didn't bother. The elves drove the race of man out of the west, pushing them back till only a handfull of human cities remained. Far to the east, across the Bight, some small kingdoms survived. As in the west, the elves hunted down any arcane spell casters, sacked the cities and destroyed anything resembling a library. But unlike there, they were content to do just that, and didn't have the heart drive the people into the seas. For two hundered years they hunted and burned, til exausted and disgusted by the carnage, the elves finally withdraw to back to their forests for the last time.
Leaving the race of man easy pickings for the savage races that saw an opportunity.
The mortallity of man is not a completely bad thing though. In stunned disbelief, the elves watched as the shattered remnants picked themselves up and begin rebuilding. Within a couple of centuries, they were once again pulling up their longboats on the sands of the western coasts, completely unaware of why they had been driven away in the first case.
:: today ::
Even today, centuries later, it is considered bad luck to meddle with the arcane. The reasons given are many. No one really remembers why. Most casters are divine, or druidic or bardic.
The land around the cataclysm remains a wasteland. Notably, arcane magic is almost completely ineffective there. Except on occasions, very very rare occasions, when its effects are empowered to degrees of three or four.
The elves, having a long memory, have remained reluctant to have anything to do with humans. They largely leave the savage races to their own devices. As far as the elves, and to some degree the dwarves are concerned, the savages races are an effective way of ensuring that the race of man does't re-establish the power it once had. The elves have subtle and sophisticated wards that turn the casual traveller from their lands, and fierce troops and powerful wardings that keep them safe from more aggressive visitors.
So things stand today.
doghead
thotd
rough and ready gif and notes
This is a quick cut and past to give some idea of the locations of things. Its not the actual map I am using - that one is a tracing of the coastline of the WotC map, with a similar internal geography. I've tried to avoid making changes, but ended up carving a sea passage through the western arm of the continent in an attempt to create greater scope for seafaring and seafaring nations/powers.
Some notes:
:: the such :: wealthly prosperous nation of seafarers (human)
:: sea elves :: like their forest brethern, they have little wish to engage with humans. unlike their forest brethern, they fled to the islands as hostilities between humans and the older races grew, so the relationship between them and the see forest elves is not good. Possible they engage extensively in raiding, and have a reputation for being without compassion.
:: forests elves :: they live in huge "city nations" called "fasts". The fasts are all connected by teleport rings, so they have little need to step outside them.
:: the broken lands :: populated orc tribes (barbarians) and hobgoblin spiritual warriors (monks - wierd but kinda cool. their +2 dex/wis really kicks in here. nasty.) they are almost constantly fighting. Possibly need a mountain range to the east to account for the dryness, and to keep them contained.
:: sea giants :: huge sailing ships!
This is all rather rough at the moment. Hoping for some thoughts or suggestions.
This is a quick cut and past to give some idea of the locations of things. Its not the actual map I am using - that one is a tracing of the coastline of the WotC map, with a similar internal geography. I've tried to avoid making changes, but ended up carving a sea passage through the western arm of the continent in an attempt to create greater scope for seafaring and seafaring nations/powers.
Some notes:
:: the such :: wealthly prosperous nation of seafarers (human)
:: sea elves :: like their forest brethern, they have little wish to engage with humans. unlike their forest brethern, they fled to the islands as hostilities between humans and the older races grew, so the relationship between them and the see forest elves is not good. Possible they engage extensively in raiding, and have a reputation for being without compassion.
:: forests elves :: they live in huge "city nations" called "fasts". The fasts are all connected by teleport rings, so they have little need to step outside them.
:: the broken lands :: populated orc tribes (barbarians) and hobgoblin spiritual warriors (monks - wierd but kinda cool. their +2 dex/wis really kicks in here. nasty.) they are almost constantly fighting. Possibly need a mountain range to the east to account for the dryness, and to keep them contained.
:: sea giants :: huge sailing ships!
This is all rather rough at the moment. Hoping for some thoughts or suggestions.
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Eosin the Red
First Post
That is an early map of the birthright setting. If you google - Birthright + maps you should come up with tons of good matching maps.
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