The Campaign Builder's Guild

Hectic life, not much time for creative writing/reviewing.

Doing a career change into web development. Enrolled in a school and starting in 20 days. Lots going on.

Sometimes I hop by, hoping Republic Reborn miraculously returned. Or somesuch.

Happy new year everyone!

I won't be able to make it today, after all. Grrrr.

Though I'll change my availability for tomorrow on the doodle.

Actually Oracle sounds cool!

I'm not sure if I can make it, but if I can I'd like to play.

I was thinking making a caster. If sparkletwist is going for a more offensive caster maybe I can be a support-healer type of caster. A cleric, perhaps.

This site looks dead, but if there's enough people willing to join I'd definitely want to play this.

Evidently, the theme is close to my heart. Bravo, I say, and good luck!

(Maybe we could merge Primeval with Arga and collaborate? Haha, just throwing the idea out there.)

EDIT: And, this post made me a Modron. Neat!

I'm bumping this for nostalgia's sake.

...

And of course with much hope. I mean, this looks dead to me, but a man can dream!

Very cool!

Did you create the art yourself? The pieces are looking great.

[ic=A Kingdom Of Sand, From Mountain To River]Centuries have left the grassy rolling plains of Ashka desolate; a scenery of sand dunes and rocky plateaus below an infinite blue sky. To be honest, green and soft was merely replaced with earthly and hard, while the seeming infinity of the whole place was maintained, but really sometimes it just seems like what was once alive is now dead. Pack of wild horses do not race ever forward, reaching the ends of what seems like a whole world; the wind doesn't make the grass dance anymore, softly caressing whoever happens to be there. Instead, the wind makes the sand rise like tidal waves and crash with crushing force, revealing nasty creatures that hide within its warm depths. The hospitality of the place, or lack thereof, doesn't make it an appealing location to settle down.
 
Men like to prove others wrong. Sometimes, they simply like to go on an adventure and explore. Other times they're forced to do things they'd rather not do. Whatever the reason was, the Madian heights were soon housing several tribes. They were remaining Ashkanians, either from the ancient grassy plains, the mountain-turned-maquis or the riverbanks, which, blessed as it is by whatever gods, has never run dry. Or they were Bagan peoples, parched and desperate after a long journey through the rocky flats. Initially, there was conflict, but over time these peoples mixed and gave rise to a new culture, the Madians.
 
The Ashkan influence was strong on the Madians. In fact, they had left a rich heritage in the form of shrines and temples. Notably, the Baspal, a ziggurat structure of considerable size just south of the Madian heights, was left there by the ancient Ashkan peoples. The fifteen-story building does not impress solely because of its size, but because of its mystery. Common knowledge has it that it was the ancient Ashkans who built it, but some people are doubtful that a nomadic people would have enough time and resources to spend on such a demanding project. The whole mystery surrounding the structure's origin helps to lend it an aura of divine grandeur, and those that have an interest in keeping the status-quo make sure those in doubt keep their thoughts to themselves.
 
Who, then, has an interest in making sure people think it was the ancient Ashkanians that built the Baspal? The answer is simple; the suteph. The suteph has monarchical powers, but draws his power from the divine in the sense that he is only suteph so long as his people believe him to be the Chosen One¹. Directly benefiting from the suteph are the magurs, the procors and the anugurs. In order, they're the lords of the Madian heights, the lords of the veldt and the lords of the Anu river. Their privileges are bestowed upon them by the suteph and can be taken away as quickly and easily as they were given. Because the suteph is extremely powerful in terms of the resources he commands, his lords are usually eager to advance his agenda in order to maintain their high status and benefits. Thus, religion is an integral part of society.

The lords occupy a bit of a novel position. Quasi-kings themselves, they have serious influence in their territory. They actually were kings in their own right, but after the Madian conquests they've become vassal of a supreme leader, Camobhal, the suteph in Madia. The Madian conquests underwent several phases, some less bloody than others, and from these events the different titles of lordships were created. The magurs are lords in the Madian heights. Some of them used to be sutephs, but as they joined Camobhal, voluntarily or otherwise, he was eventually left as the sole remaining suteph. It made sense, but he needed governors to help him administer his ever-growing territory, so, they were made magurs. The procors are few and curious in that they're of veldt stock; they're tribes of the savanna that aren't under Sadudu domination. Most of them happened to be members of tribes loyal to that in which Camobhal married¹, so they came into the Madian fold willingly, but a few others were eventually subjugated and brought under Madian control. The anugurs are the leaders along the river Anu. Originally of ancient Ashkan stock, most of them have succumbed to the sword during the conquest and have been replaced with individuals of Madian stock, though some pure breed Ashkanians remain.

From their humble beginnings as small warring tribes beset on all sides by vast deserts to an infant kingdom with the potential for much more, the Madians are sure to leave their mark on history.


¹ The Chosen One is the individual that's chosen by Sani, the Sun God, or simply the Sun, to lead men to greater prosperity and enlightenment.
¹ Camobhal's father, Malmur, had his son marry into the Miusu family, which was a bold move considering they were considered savages by the Madians. The reason was to gain access to a steady supply of saurian beasts, so as to give him an advantage over his neighbours.

[/ic]

Quote from: Xeviat

Quote from: Ghostman
To what degree (if any) are gods creators though? That's another vital point to consider. A world that was entirely created by evil deities is likely to look very different from one where they merely make up it's divine residents.

This is a really good point. This question does change a lot. If the evil gods are the only gods left after some big divine war, things are going to be different than if evil gods actually created the world.

As for what I meant by evil, I was purposefully being vague to let people interpret it as they intend.

For me, the question inspires a setting where the forces of good were overwhelmed and defeated. The devils rose from hell and conquered the world. Heaven retreated. The people of the world worship the devils because they give power, because why worship the old gods who abandoned you? The devils don't tell you what not to do, they tell you what you can do. It is ultimate freedom. If you're lucky, they'll even treat you okay as long as you continue to follow them.

And how powerful are these devils to have been able to do away with the Old Gods? Because if they're like universe-reach-ultra-powerful creatures, I don't see why you should even bother, as the competition between themselves will become so ferocious as to break the universe and return it to a point of infinite nothingness?

This is interesting, if a bit intricate, but really I'm at a loss with actual rules. We have some rules guru here though so I've no doubt they'll chime in at some point. However, from my first full read I'll say I like it.

Do you have a list, or some table or image that describes the Paths and Paradigms?

Are you looking for the same genre you described?

And what do you mean by ''weird''? I mean, what's weird is subject to personal opinion.

I would have you try Weather Report. That's jazz-fusion. Especially the tunes Gibraltar, Black Market and Havona, but there are a lot of other good tunes from them.
In the same vein, but a little bit more modern and drum-oriented I'd go for Dave Weckl. There's the legendary Billy Cobham as well, but while his drumming is insane, I find only a few select tunes are really good, such as Stratus and Red Baron.

That's in the fusion vein. If you like more electro-chillout tunes, I have tons of that stuff. I would actually need some time to gather them up so maybe it's simply better if I include a link to a YouTube Playlist, which I can't do at the moment since I'm at work.

I've got lots of groovy tunes, too.

The Saurians that roam the veldt are usually the smaller ones of their kin. They generally venture out of their territory for want of food, and have increasingly done so throughout the last decade as they deplete the resources of their homeland. For that reason, large Saurians can also be found in the savannah.

The domestication of this beast is a novelty. The Sadudu were the first to achieve this feat, but the Diipatusu soon followed, no doubt after having stolen the secrets from the former. The creatures are mainly used as mounts, but are effective hunters as well. They're discreet, fast runners that can cover long distances before getting exhausted. Also, they can use their powerful claws and teeth to deadly effect. To give you an idea of their effectiveness; they're able to keep up with a horse (though they'd become exhausted before the horse), they'd win a fight against a lion (but against a squad it would lose) and can sneak up to a fox (given he can use cover).

The creatures usually lay their eggs deeper in the forest, so there aren't many to be found in the veldt, though that's not impossible. The reproduction of domesticated Saurian happens in captivity, then. Their masters build a large habitat, surround and cover it in foliage of all kinds and close it until the deed is done, which can be identified as such when the pair starts picking on each other after a long period of calm. During the exercise, the Saurians become hostile and will pick on anything that moves, so they're fed juicy and spiced up meat through a hole in the ceiling. The whole process up to that point is rather easy, but then there's a moment of danger when it's time to free them yet again (their masters will leave the female alone until she lays the eggs). The male will need to return to its handler for its usual purposes. The men will remove the foliage from the door, remove the heavy lock mechanism (often a simple bar like medieval castle gates) and tempt their fate recovering the male. The trick usually is to soothe it with even tastier meat and while it's busy eating simply to pat it and remind it of its bond with its master.

Speaking of bond with a master, the Saurians are surprisingly loyal creatures. They care deeply for their progeny (which they recognize) and for a master (be it human or a larger, more ferocious Saurian). Over time they can be trained to change masters, but that's a difficult process. They don't care much for their female counterparts, except when they wish for progeny.

That's so cool!

I have something like that in Primeval. A yet undisclosed detail that I did have on paper. The priest-king is a suteph.

But yeah, cool picture and cool info.