The Campaign Builder's Guild

I need something to do, and I figure a campaign setting is something fun to create.  But I'm not getting any new idea I want to use, so I thought I'd revive one of my old ones.  Like most of my recent creations this is going to be flavor-only, because I have no plans to create adventures.  You can read any of the old mechanics on the original thread here.

[ooc]Anything in an OOC box is from the original thread and may contain decriptions that sound half-done or D&D-focused.  This is because I am copying and pasting them before reworking them to have them fit.[/ooc]

Timeline
Time of Legends:

Artalian Empire:

The After:

Age of Exploration:
--Talamarrakan is reached by â,¬' explorers

Steamtime:
--The discovery of tal

Basic Concept of Ah'rem:
A sort of Victorian times thing, with people moving from the country into the cities to work at the new factories. Overcrowding, social strata, etc. The power for all the steam comes from a magical coal-like substance known as "tal" (burns with a magical flame that gives off no CO2, no soot, no impurities, none of that bad stuff), which is a hotly contested resource (doesn't mean it's expensive, just that everyone wants more). Modes of transportation include trains and steamships.

However no guns, no cannons. Nothing dealing with an explosive powder (fireworks will be accomplished another way). This means that things aren't so one-sided in the conflicts between peoples with different levels of technology. Add to that the fact that magic is generally useless in combat, means that most countries prefer to use diplomacy and covert operations to achieve their aims.

There will be things like colonialismâ,¬'not as extensive, due to the fact conflicts are a bit more levelâ,¬'and racism, but not as much as D&D typically gives you. Certain creatures that are considered "monsters" under the core rules are fully integrated members of society.

Secret temples hidden in high mountains or deep jungles. A desert area. Secret societies.  Victorian Pulp.

Geography and Nations:
Ahâ,¬,,¢rem (Ah-haâ,¬,,¢s Puzzle):
The world itself is nothing spectacular: standard Earth-like place, with the same locations of general climate bands and length of seasons.  The main continent is a tri-lobal affair located mostly in the southern hemisphere and shaped a bit like a mutant shamrock, with the south-west lobe in the temperate to tundra zones, the eastern going from large tracks of taiga/boreal to tropical swamps and breaking apart into tropical ocean islands, and the third extending from the desert connection point in the sub-tropical to nearly the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere.  Another continent exists at the northern pole and extends down into a mountainous lump of taiga to temperate forest 1/3rd the way around from the big continent.  Just south of the equator on that side of the world a great swarm of islands gives way to the northern face of a strung-out, lake-logged continent that curls at one end to resemble a snarling, leaping beast.  In addition there are several large islands scattered throughout the oceans.

Elvasin (The Elvesâ,¬,,¢ Footsteps): [Elvasin is the large continent with the three lobes.  The names of the three lobes are: Demesne (south-west), Lung-tao (east), and Kilimanjaro (north).  The central connecting land is most commonly referred to as Sorroco.]
[ic]In Time of Warriors the elves of Artal (Yellow(/Sun)cliffs), now known as Lung-tao, built a great civilization with their knowledge of the landâ,¬,,¢s nature, particularly their ability to tame the animals of the wild to their service.  Their skill at farming and their bond with animals brought them the food to feed many, and the many in turn allowed those with knowledge to seek answers to the mysteries of the universe.  Coded magic, science, grand art, philosophy, all came about because there were people who no longer had to devote their time to working in the dirt.  They built roads for fast travel, aquaducts to carry water to the cities and sewers to take the waste away, and observatories to study the stars.  They invented compasses to tell them which direction was south, sextants to tell them how far north they were, and clocks to tell them what time it was.  All of this also brought war, for land and resources, which the elves became masters at, forging the civilization slowly into an Empire.
In the time of the Empire the court sent out ships to explore the world.  Ships that went west reported other continents; those that went east reported that there were hundreds of islands.  And all brought back samples of the resources they found there.  There were even people in these new lands that were different from the elves, people that knew the land and how to obtain these great things.  Some elven sages proposed setting up relations with the new people to trade for the items.  But the elven merchants, their money buying the friendship of the Emperor, saw a more direct method of acquisition, one they had learned from the game of business: gain the source and your profit was unlimited.
Of all the animals the elves had tamed, their greatest relationship was with the horses.  Those who knew best the horses had won the land that made the Empire, and now that same bond would win them the new lands.  Few creatures on foot could match the speed of the horses, and with lightening strikes the elves could take any settlement.  Their conquest of the steppe plains of their own region and the desert of Sorroco was swift, and even the jungles and swamps of Kilimanjaro and the mountains and dense forests of Demesne did not deter them for long.  Everywhere the elves established their firmest hold upon the region, and exported their civilization and strong government.  Some of the peoples, such as the humans, resisted the elves and where either killed or taken as slaves.  (Some attribute the decline of humans to this influence, but it is clear that humans never had much of a hold upon the world.)  But some races adpated to the ways of the elves, taught the arts of civilization and granted all rights up to nobility.  Elves further mingled with the conquered races, producing the half-elves: kellen (half-human), endov (half-dwarf), and volte (half-gnoll).  So not only can elvish influence be seen upon the physical structure of society and culture but also upon some of the faces of the people.

But in an empire stretched so far the governors had little reason to be beholden to the emperor.  Local communities held little loyalty to a figure so far removed from them, but the elven nobles of their own lands were another matter.  Ambitious elv governors began requiring the local community leaders to swear loyalty to them instead of the the emperor, and the greedy even began withholding taxes.  A few, but increasingly more, even made war upon their neighbors to expand their own territory.  Even with spies in every far court, the state of communication in that age prevented timely response.  The empire began to whither.  Back in the Imperial court, the influence of the merchants wained as the lines of trade became disrupted, and a new faction emerged: the traditionalists, who vehmently called for a return the "Age of Jade", their mythic idea of the time before Artal expanded and began to acquire "taint" from the ideas of foreigners.  There was almost no resistance from the imperial court, as the majority of their territory had already broken away, leaving only the old land of the Artal intact.  The remaining imperial elves isolated themselves within these borders, and the legendary empire faded from existence.[/ic]


Demesne: The civilization of Demesne is a direct result of elvish influence:
Before the elves came the inhabitants of this land, mainly dwarves and humans, lived as tribes in settlements no larger than a villageâ,¬'though a tribe might be large enough to occupy multiple villages over an areaâ,¬'each tribe lead by a chieftain or a council of varying qualifications, and held none of the trappings of "civilization" such as writing or a codified understanding of magic.  Religion was an outgrowth of nature worship, in some areas being almost indistiguishable, but unique for its construction of large arrangements of roughly-worked stone.  War was a chaotic affair, mostly raids on neighboring tribes both for supplies and to exert a form of political pressure.
These screaming hordes were no match for disciplined elvish troops.  Some tribes were conquered in this way, but there were others who made the safe move of submitting to the rule of the elves.

Dvorak: A mountainous nation on the former dwarven homlands that was once the link between Demesne and the rest of the continent.  This is partially thanks to the structural engineering of the elves: to ensure their own ability to move supplies and soldiers through any terrain, elven army engineers designed a system of roads and facilitating structures (i.e. bridges).  This knowledge was passed down to eager dwarves, who maintained these teachings even after the fall of the elven empire.  These roads and bridges have stood the test of time, and because of them Dvorak was able to move trade goods quickly through its land.  When the increasing range of ships in the Age of Exploration rendered land lines less efficient the influence of Dvorak wained, also causing it to loose much of its engineering body.  However, with the discovery of vast seams of tal under the mountains, Dvorak has once more become an important player in the world scene.
Dvorak is imfamous as the place of origin for vodka, named after some ancient dwarven king.
â,¬':
â,¬':
â,¬':


Lung-tao:


Kilimanjaro:


Sorroco:
[Sorroco is Mexican flavored rather than Arabian.]


Talamarrakan:


â,¬':

Sentient Species
Elves (sing. elv)

Humans

Kellen [elf/human](sing. kellen)

Dwarves (ntive: Dvorvs)(sing. dwarv)

Endov [elf/dwarf](sing. endov)

â,¬' [human/dwarv]

â,¬'(gnolls)

Volte [â,¬'/elf](sing. volt)

Orr (wereanimals)

Domestic Felines

Domestic Canines

Dragons
--(fairy dragons)
--Fire (red)
--Sea (seaweed-covered green bronze)
--Storm (gold without wings, grey fur crackling with lightening, lighting breath weapon)
--Sun (brass with normal dragon wings and extendable frill on neck)
--Forest (cameoflaged)
--Earth (long oriental style)

Mythology, Gods, and Cosmology
Creation (according to the guys on top):
Ah-ha grew board with the worlds of others, worlds that were focused purely upon power.  Myths of heroes who travel to other worlds mention these domains of war and destruction, where mages scour the landscape with their useless battles and the people think nothing of it so long as magic can make anything they desire

Gods:
Ah-ha: creator. God (please note that I use the word "god" for male, female, dual-gendered, and genderless deities) of puzzles. Normally shown as a minotaur made out of words.

King Crow: God of death and decay. Viewed as an okay, if creepy, god.

â,¬': Female nature god usually portrayed as a mother bear.

Planes:
A plane of perpetual night (not a plane of shadow, which is different) where the chief pantheon is defined by the Eight Colors of black.

Magic
[ooc]
Original Material (heavily edited):
A quick overview on elements in this setting:
I decided to go more Chinese: earth, fire, water, wood, and metal. I don't know why, I guess I just think it would be fun and a nice change from the "classical" four boring. In addition I keep air (because I feel it allows me to include gasses n a semi-scientific way) and add shadow (because it needs some lovin).
Now according to Chinese tradition each element can beat another: metal beats wood beats earth beats water beats fire beats metal. Air and shadow both beat each other. If you go in reverse you have what each element is resistant to.

Damage: magically all elements deal damage, which is elemental/energy merged (basically consider it all elemental energy rather than energy being separate from element). Some elements just deal obvious damage: earth, fire, water, wood. However, metal deals electricity damage, air deals sonic damage, and shadow deals cold damage.

[Quoting Golem011]"â,¬Â¦you could even make mages vow not to kill others, only subdue and imprison them. This could be the rule of the Mage's Guild."[end quoting]
Some mages won't belong to guilds. But if you think about it your average population is not going to want to put up with mages that go around killing people. I'd rather go for a twofold approach: "the best kind of magic is the kind you don't use" meaning that you don't want to rely on magic because it might fail on you, and "if there are a whole bunch of them, you spells can't stop them all" where if a mob comes after you your best bet is to distract and run. But I suppose for legitimate mages that would work. Maybe wizards have to wear all those funny robes so that people can easily tell them apart and be wary, kind of like the funny hat Jews had to wear in old Europe.

In this setting many people would be able to do at least little bits of magic (kind of like the magewrights in Eberron). I was thinking that the mages who have the more useful spells would have to be identifiedâ,¬Â¦Body markings would only be required if the mage had spells that dealt damage.

Okay, let me run through the base idea again:
Magic is common enough in certain forms that people aren't afraid of it any more than you're afraid of someone with a laptop computer. Generally magic produces harmless effectsâ,¬Â¦. Anyone should be able to learn spells somehow.
â,¬Â¦Magic items should only exist if they improve upon a mundane function (and possibly make it obsolete, subject to how likely this is to affect a player).

â,¬Â¦overt identification (though you'd have to carry around papers or a seal to show you are legitimate)â,¬Â¦Spellcast[ers] would have to wear a badge of office or suffer fines and/or imprisonment, at least some of the time. I'm relegating damage spellsâ,¬Â¦, and the idea that they have to have very overt identification is a good one.

[Quoting Golem011]"How about this...

Damage Casters (or at least those with the sort of illusory damageâ,¬Â¦)

These would have shaved heads and tattoo marks, as well as licensed documents, signed by the ruler (after all, people with such spells would be sufficiently rare to merit attention from the monarchy...)."
I think that'll work for real damage casters.â,¬Â¦ so some sort of badge, probably made out of a solid material.

â,¬Â¦The thing is I'm going for a Victorian level of tech (you can say "steampunk" if you want, I just like trains and steamships), yet I don't want to have them burning coal. You'd think if they did that some nature spirits would get really annoyed with all the smoke belching into the ait. I either want them to use a smokeless substance (maybe their world has a magical "coal-like" subtance that produces heat but no smoke), or bound fire elementals.â,¬Â¦

Also, no alignment. You can have fiends and celestials, but they have the same chance of being good or evil as everyone else, and there isn't an "energy" that you can detect to tell.

Magic is magic. All creatures with hands need to move their appendages precisely to weave the lines of power flowing through the world, and anything that restricts your movements means you might fail. "What about non-humanoids?" you ask (though in the setting the world is elvi). I did include cats and dogs on the race list. No worries. If your body type is different you weave differently and so have different rules. If you don't have hands you wave something else, usually your tail.

Okay, I've been thinking about somatic and verbal components, and I think I'm going to rule that they are absolutely not required for a spell. The reason for this idea is that gestures and words don't make sense from a non-human point-of-view unless they have a scientific function (I would like to note for all those of you about to post something about how D&D and fantasy or whatnot is intended for human sensibilities or anything like that: I know, and I do not care).  Instead only a general movement and sonic component are needed.

Moving of a body or object influences the flow of the world's magical power (think of something like feng shui, adapted from something Epic Meepo said). Everything does this any time it moves or changes. Mages just know how to tangle the flows into a temporary knot. Then the sonic component it all about releasing the knot so that the power flows outwards. This bring up an interesting option that one does not have to actually speak words: the release could be a battle yell, a clap, or snapping the fingers, any "strong and clear" sound.

This mechanic actually grew out of trying to figure out why somatic and verbal components might need to exist. It's a combination of ley-lines and just the idea that everything you do, no matter how small, has an effect on the world.

Wild magic applies to any class that has more of a natural world connection and/or that isn't actually taught so much as figures out magic on their own. This does not mean that one cannot learn how to be a Professional Mage on their own (I think the confusion comes from using the words taught and self-taught), but what they learn and how the use it are at the basic level the same as other Profesional Mages (so Spellcraft uses Int because you can remember or deduce the formula for the spell). Wild magic means that the basics are your own design, that you arrived at the conclusion through your own thinking. Thus the use of Sense for wild magic Spellcraft, because you have to actually feel the magic. I like this approach because it sets up some concepts of Ah'rem: there is more than one way to do things, and different ways offer different results each of which may be equally good. Also I like the dicotomy between an acamdemia-bound wizard and a world-wise witch.[/ooc]

Types of Coded Magic Mages and Their Identifications:
Healers:

Battle Masters:
--Maulers:
--Weapon Masters:
--Blasters:

Crafters:

Sensors:

Practitioners of Wild Magic
Witch:

Tricksters:



Technology
[ooc]On the whole sootless coal thing:
I added the sootless quality because the image of a grimy atmosphere just does not appeal to me, even if it is part of the original image. I also can't figure out how to include nature spirits and whatnot in a world slowly becomming polluted without turning it into a clichéd "technology vs. nature" thing. I was going to have it be bound elementals (ala Eberron), but since I don't have magic that high it just didn't make sense. Also if I can have something be a physical resource it can be fought over, which is always good for creating tension.

And this is magic we're talking about. Sootless coal makes more sense than the spell mage hand.

I don't really consider it "steampunk", because what most steampunk settings do is jump right into robotics and stuff, while I really just wanted good transportation and manufacturing.

One of the things I realize when thinking about a setting is that you can't see everything. Smokestacks might be important for a graphic novel or movie, but when I'm just describing things from a street-level perspective it's not going to matter. I'm still not sure whether the magical coal burns oxygen and gives off CO2 (you can see why I like to forget these issues), probably its magical nature means it only gives off pure fire/heat energy. It might be a little weird that the trains and ships don't have smokestacks, but as I said before that's probably not too important at the personal level.

Technology combined with magic is easy enough for me to understand because the flavor always (except for Eberron) suggests that most people don't have access to magic and so I'll bet that they try to invent a way to do something without magic. In Ah'rem, where the magic doesn't provide the kind of power of other settings, people have had to invent to get anywhere. Yet at the same time the lack of raw magical power means that people are quite willing to work with magic, they even learn it themselves. This is another facet (and there are many of these, sometimes contradictory) of my concept of Ah'rem: "use all the parts of the buffalo". Basically "don't waste an option". People who outright fear/avoid/decry magic or technology are seen as ignorant by the educated, who know that both are just tools and like all tools everything depends on the skill and intelligence of the weilder.[/ooc]

:) yay!

Okay, that's everything I need from the old thread.  I'll start reworking stuff as soon as I get myself up to it.

And if anyone is wondering why I'm restarting this now after all this time, I just took a second look at both DragonMech and Iron Kingdoms, and decided I really like this setting too much to abandon it.

Added to the Geography and Nations section, and have begun to classify mages.  Would appreciate any comments, criticism, and/or suggestions.