The Campaign Builder's Guild

A question that occurred to me today: What has become of the Rods of Creation? They are all broken due to overexertion, right? Did they scatter fragments all over the place when they broke, like the Rod of Humanity did, and if so, are those fragments still floating around somewhere in the world?

The humans who had the shards of humanity's Rod took those shards with them when they ascended into godhood, right? If so, and if the shards of the other Rods are still around, couldn't anyone find a shard and become a god?

Just looked over setting. So far, just plain love it. Wild magic. No alignment. Usually things I wouldn't opt for myself, but handled very very well!

Hey all,

The start of the new academic year provoked my sudden disappearance for four days, but here I am. First off, thank you, beejazz, for your kind words. Second, thank you very very much Phoenix Knight and Luminous Crayon for reading, liking, and thoroughly reviewing my work. It is much appreciated. I'll tackle Phoenix Knight's comments first, and if it isn't bed-time when I finish, Luminous Crayon comes right after. While I love all the positive points you two have pointed out, in my replies I'll be focusing on the questions and criticisms. To keep post length somewhat reasonable, I'll only quote the parts that I actually reply to and snip around here and there.

Important note with many of your comments (both those of PK and of LC): Both of you have been digging to the depth of Orden's Mysteries. Despite it apparently appearing as large to most viewers, it is very much a work in progress (in the sense that it's unfinished and far from what I'd want it to be, not in the sense that I'm actually making much progress with it). Thus, to many of your comments I must simply admit: I haven't gotten around to it yet. While it may be true that a setting is never finished, I very much feel many areas have not gotten the amount of attention they deserve, and between the two of you you have pointed out (almost?) all of those areas.

Now, on to actual content. :yumm:

Quote from: Phoenix KnightMythology
The Armindorean creation myth is very interesting.  How does one say "Kaos's" name?  Is it basically the same as the word "chaos?"  It seems he represents the exact opposite of that concept, but the words are so similar, I am curious.

Do all the races agree that races are embodied by elemental concepts?  Do orcs believe themselves driven by negative energy?[/quote]Interesting that humans and dragons have the same core forces.[/quote]I wouldn't normally associated gnomes with Air, since gnome is in folklore an earth spirit, but maybe that's just the mythology of Amindor[/quote]Orcs are fierce and strong and like to destroy things.[/quote]Why strip [xeph] of psionics, though?[/quote]History
Something I can get into more than nations.  So the timeline is basically the Armindorean version of history, then?[/quote]A little more information on the Dark Three might be cool, even if it is just the speculation of those historians.  Do they believe these people were humans?  Dragons?  Vampires?  Demons?  Evil gods?[/quote]Were the Dragon Wars wars against dragons (it sounds that way)?  Did the dragons start the wars?[/quote]How did they end?  Did the dragons come to the peace table and surrender?  Did they just leave?[/quote]Calendar
Nice choice on the days of the week.  I would assume certain rituals would be performed on certain days when the appropriate energy was right?[/quote]Of course, [not using your own names for the months and the days is] only a mild suggestion, as it does add something, and looking it up is not that big a deal.[/quote]Good choice on making years 365 days long. (...) If I say Joey is 50 years old, it means something very different in a world where a year is 100 days.[/quote]Overall
Very nice work.  In many ways, it reminds me of mine own thoughts on how I want my campaign setting to look - mysterious, a little dark, and rife with intrigue.

I'll try to look at this in some more depth as I have time.  Once again, I've found a setting here that helps to inspire me to keep slaving away on my own.
[/quote]
Thanks very much. I'd love to hear from you again. Now it's off to bed though. LC's comments will be replied to later.

Cheers,
Túrin

Besides pointing out how very cool it is that you (Luminous Crayon) picked the setting apart so in-depth (especially given its size), I donâ,¬,,¢t have anything general to say, so Iâ,¬,,¢ll just get right to responding to your comments.

Quote from: theeastofordensmall5bn.png

[quoteMy thoughts upon the completion of Chapter 2: Religion.

I am also interested to note that the creation myth associates each race with an element, but that association is entirely absent from the actual chapter on races. Do you mean to imply that the elemental associations are a thing of the past, and are unknown or disbelieved by most modern, forward-thinking folk?[/quote]However, their name keeps making me think "feline", and in my head, I can't seem to stop ascribing catlike qualities to them.[/quote]As for gnomes, their trickster status still rankles my personal sensibilities. But you play it off well by spinning it into the larger tapestry. The humans blame the god of gnomes for the same sorts of things for which you or I might blame Murphy's Law. In a weird way, it works.[/quote]It's especially interesting that the knowledge to facilitate cross-species breeding is now lost[/quote]House Siarlen is clearly a force to watch out for, though that section is full of assumptions made by just about everyone that elven blood is valuable, and human blood weakens it. In light of humans' previous status as a clearly dominant race in the East, why is that such a natural assumption to make?[/quote]Didn't some nobles, faced with the concept of losing power, resort to extreme measures to resist democracy and maintain a favorable status quo?[/quote]If I were Légard, I'd be constantly worried about assassination.[/quote]Again, if we're working on the assumption that elven blood is widely regarded as superior to human blood,[/quote]particularly by the elves themselves,[/quote]why would the Elven Queendom subordinate itself to the Imperial Throne? Would that not be a move beneath the dignity of the average elf?[/quote]Why is the technological advancement of Loophar cause for its neighbors to consider the country a nuisance? Technological advancement strikes me as a thing to be envied and perhaps even feared,[/quote]In general, it seems like playing a non-human in Orden should be very difficult, because most of the detailed parts of society are humanocentric. Playing a gnome sounds like it would be damn near impossible, in part due to heavy bias against them, and in part because the reader of the setting is only given the information about the gnomes that the gnomes have allowed humans to learn. I can't imagine how, faced with that handicap, a player would be able to portray a gnome accurately and faithfully. To varying extents, the same may also be true of your other non-human races.[/quote]I am really impressed by the natural-seeming way you handle relations between nations. Small wars and big ones, alliances and invasions, seem to proceed in a natural way, consistent with the way real-world treaties and conflicts unfold and progress. I wish I could handle foreign relations with such facility in my own work.[/quote]So, are/were the dragons and orcs allied? That strikes me as strange on principle, and stranger in light of the dragons' association by Kaos with the positive/time elements, and orcs with the presumably opposed negative. How did that alliance happen?[/quote]Again, here's the conflict between East and West, and I'm still completely in the dark about the West, what it is, and how it came to be. Did I miss something obvious here, or is the West currently being portrayed as little more than a faceless villain? Not that it's necessarily a problem if it is, but I want to make sure my understanding of the situation is adequate, and the lack of detail in the west seems inconsistent with the huge amount of detail everywhere else.[/quote]I love the numerology in the calendar, and its associations drawn between weeks and forces, and between months and gods. This is clearly going to result in days where the day of the week matches elements with the element associated with the god of the current month. Do these overlaps have any sort of effect on timekeeping, superstition, religion, or prophecy?[/quote]Also, this is partly from last chapter as well, but it seems to me you're trying awfully hard to squeeze in more elven subraces than you really know what to do with. I can see that based on what you wrote about elven religions, Choices, and feuds, all of these subraces have to go somewhere... but it may be creating more problems than it solves; many of the elven subraces' lands are completely un-detailed, and even unnamed. Are they all truly necessary?[/quote]Again, I'd like to see more on the various schools of thought practiced by wizards in order to safeguard and control their magic. We get to see all about the various clerics' taboos in a previous chapter, but we see almost nothing of the wizards' philosophies (which I consider odd, since arguments over philosophies form the quotes you chose at the beginning of the introduction.)[/quote]For clerics, I really like the system of taboos, but really. A single infraction strips a cleric of all powers? That seems a little harsh, especially considering the nature of some of the taboos, and how hard it would be to avoid doing some of those things. I guess that's part of the point; making it tricky.[/quote]Does a ranger who fails to attack and kill his oath-specified enemy lose all his powers? Doesn't this compel rangers to get in over their heads in combat, practically all the time?[/quote]I should note that the average save DC for errators' higher-level spells is much lower than any other spellcasters': Int Mod + 1d20 makes spell save DCs average about equal for 0-level and 1st-level spells, but without adding the spell level, Errators have to roll a 19 or better to match the standard, constant save DC for a wizard's 9th level magic. Is that intentional?[/quote]the level of the spell[/i] and his Intelligence modifier to the result to determine the DC of the saving throw for that spell.â,¬Â The only changes to the normal save DCs are the extra randomness and the fact that the average base number is 10.5 rather than 10.

QuoteA question that occurred to me today: What has become of the Rods of Creation? They are all broken due to overexertion, right? Did they scatter fragments all over the place when they broke, like the Rod of Humanity did, and if so, are those fragments still floating around somewhere in the world?

The humans who had the shards of humanity's Rod took those shards with them when they ascended into godhood, right? If so, and if the shards of the other Rods are still around, couldn't anyone find a shard and become a god?

So, I just read and reviewed the entirety of Orden's Mysteries, all in one sitting.

Totally worth it.[/quote]I had to put up this quote here before it forever faded into obscurity in the 200 pages of text that is our websiteâ,¬,,¢s Tavern. Thanks!

Túrin