The Campaign Builder's Guild

 [note]I am not abandoning Shades and Dust. But working on one project at a time is something I seem to be completely incapable of, and Halloween's impending arrival has gotten me in a mood for creepy settings.[/note]Because I love the idea behind this setting but am having major problems putting it together in any kind of orderly fashion, I decided to start a brainstorming thread to get the initial concepts down and get some help from everyone in fleshing this out.

First of all, the basic Ideas I have loosely established (none are set in stone).

-The Great Old Ones/Elder Gods arrived in the 1300's, early enough where they were able to easily seize power and establish themselves as lords wherever they wished.

-For everyday life, much is as it was in the early 1700's, but instead of monarchs the Great Old Ones rule the world.

-Their motivations are, as is often the case of Lovecraftian entities, completely unknowable, but they seem content (for now) to have minimal influence in the realms they govern. They do make wars amongst themselves, and for some reason (perhaps sheer amusement at the concept, perhaps to allow their new toys their delusions after obliterating existing faiths, perhaps for some darker plan) allowed humanities national borders to remain intact. How long this state will remain is a cause for some concern, but since these are beings that waited literally millions of years to return to Earth, they're likely fairly patient while here.

-Their arrival did impact the natural world in many ways, in some places creating nightmare landscapes, in others causing new landmasses to form or others to be permanently offered. In addition, new, twisted versions of existing plants and animals arose, some of them extraordinarily dangerous.

-Their primary interest was on the main continent - which, for them, meant all of Asia, Europe, and Africa, since these regions are all a single connected landmass.

-Lesser Old Ones/The Younger Gods arrived with them, and while dangerous and powerful, lacked the power of the Great Old Ones, so were consigned to the less desireable pieces of land - locations where the natives were not particularly technologically advanced, the Americas and Australia and Antarctica, and certain insular areas. Lacking the raw power of the Great Old Ones, as well as their patience, the Lesser Old Ones take a more active hand in day-to-day rule of their lands.

-Servitors were created by old Old Ones through either inbreeding (a process that typically left the human parent a heap of insanity) or infesting existing humans with their larva. Such creatures are allowed free will, can take a form that looks almost human, but are still extremely dangerous, twisted abominations - especially when they drop their human skin.

-The Misbegotten are Servitors that did not fully succumb to their larval parasite.

-Most humans, after 500 years of rule, are content with the current state, but some still actively revolt.

-One area that emerged from the twisting was the continent of Atlantis, a continent with a landmass roughly equivalent to Austrialia but divided over multiple islands with landbridges connecting them, giving it a range that stretches from near the coast of South America to within 200 miles of Africa. They are the last bastions of humanity and a haven for pirates, rebels, and outlaws of all sorts, and the one place where democracy has taken root.

-Technology comes in two flavors - The Old Ones technology is largely biological in nature, strange, twisted, and horrific to see or touch, while the technology of humans is what I'm calling DaVince-Punk - techology based on the designs of Leonardo DaVince as opposed to the classic steam punk technology.

-New races emerged, many of them horrific in their own way, and only some form humanity - others are twisted forms of bats, lizards, sea-creatures, crows, and other "dark" creatures contorted into forms that are vaguely recognizable by humans as humanoid but still alien - and all of them posing both potential threats to humanity and The Old Ones, as well as potential allies for both sides.

-The tone of the setting is a combination of horror and swashbuckling, mystery and action, the incomprehensible and the rational.  

That's what I have right now. I've gotten as far as where I am, but need ideas, questions, comments, snide remarks and all of the above to get this setting further. Particularly useful - Old Ones that rule in various areas, designs for Servitors/Misbegotten, new races, technological ideas, and concepts for Atlantis.

I only want to make a few comments right now, I really need to hit wikipedia and do some more research on the mythos and those who dwell within it. Don't have a really good working knowledge of it.

I want to throw out some ideas about Atlantis:

The islands are the only places on earth were the Old Ones/Elder Gods/Lesser Old ones/Younger Gods have no dominion or influence. Not through lack of trying, but by the shear fact that they can not set foot upon them. I see the islands as being an extremely unique place, like a crack in the universe runs under them; something completely beyond mortal and god alike.

Maybe the islands give humans special abilities or in some way protects them from the old ones. Maybe on the islands, humans gain a form of telepathy or group mind.

Races:

Wouldn't mind seeing the Mi-Go show up.

A race of bat people would be interesting. I see them as being feral, cave dwelling creatures, which emerge at night to hunt anything in their path.


I'll have more after later on.

Great idea!

A HUGE deal will be how you handle wars.  You mention that the Great Old Ones war amongst themselves - over what?  Sheer malice?  Territory?  Resources?  Worshipers? Do their human armies fight for them or stay out of it?  If the latter, do human armies go to war for other reasons (usually this requires a monarch's consent...)?  If the Great Old Ones are minimally active in affairs of state, has this led to parliamentary/constitutional monarchies where a prime minister has most of the effective power?  Do human armies have Lovecraftian weapons of war?  Can occultists/battle-clerics cast spells?

The other big one will be religion.  Are there any vestiges of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism etc, and if so, are these legal to practice, or not?  It might be tricky to keep practicing some of these in the face of horrifying material gods - the common folk especially probably would rather worship Cthulhu than an abstract deity who doesn't appear to be actively interceding on their behalf.  Is worship of the Great Old Ones via state religion/"cult of personality" common?

Other big questions:

- Have any Great Old Ones been killed?  If so, by whom?  What happened to their kingdom?
- Have the Old Ones brought any major scientific/cosmological knowledge with them?
- Do any real-world individuals exist in this world?
- Is there a human nobility?  Are they all Servitors?  If so, are they psychically controlled by the Great Old Ones, or can they rebel?  How do they feel, in general, about their rulers?
- How has all this affected exploration?  Does Europe have colonies in the New World?
- Medical technology - has it improved or is it roughly 1700s era?
- Why the mass exodus to/invasion of earth in the first place?  Is there something significant here apart from humanity?  Were the G.O.O. forced here?
- Labour - is it mechanized, done by Lovecraftian beasties, or done much as it was in the 1700s?
- Airships: yes or no?

@ Steampunk Knight I really like the idea of Atlantis being a place the Elder Things cannot physically enter - something about the Islands make them untouchable by them and any of their creations. While they can still send their human armies against it, they cannot ever directly influence it - it's creation was almost the Earth rebelling against their existence. It's not a physical barrier per say, but the very seas, earth, and skies rally against them if they try to enter with enough force to drive even Them back. Attempts to summon Them there directly - or anything like Them - utterly fail due to the same influence. Perhaps there's actually a physical manifestation of the Earth, a genus loci type being, that's powerful enough to rival them that aids this influence. Ripe with story ideas and establishes a concrete reason why Atlantis is so well guarded.

I'm not so sure about humans there gaining any kind of mystical abilities. On the one hand, the concept is very interesting, but on the other, I'm trying to keep the mystical out of human hands - I like the idea of humans having to work within our limitations against such horrors as opposed to gaining powers that allow us to combat them. Still, renaissance-era powered humans battling Lovecraftian horrors is an interesting one...I'll have to ponder this.

As for the Mi-Go, that actually raises another question I've been pondering - namely, how much of the actual mythos of Lovecraft do I want to steal? On the one hand, my own creations would create a uniqueness to the setting if done right. On the other hand, directly using Lovecraft's creations (especially in a context that I've only briefly seen them in a short story by Neil Giaman) has the benefit of both familiarity and "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Plus, using Lovecraft's creations doesn't limit me to adding my own things to the mythos, so I can still have unique creatures, so maybe a blend of some sort would be best.

That's kind of what I was thinking for the bat people - almost making them vampire analogues with forms that fit Lovecraft's aesthetics as opposed to the traditional "sexy humans with fangs" and eliminating the reproduction through bites. I'm not going to make them completely feral - I want the other races to be viable options for players/characters as well as forces that can be bargained with - but since they've only had 500 years of sentience to back them, they're fairly close to fully feral, despite having near-human intellectual abilities. Plus, it's kind of hard to reason with anything that finds you rather tasty, which makes them seem even more feral.

Thanks for the feedback! Looking forward to what else you come up with.

@Steerpike

The reasons the Great Old ones go to war against each other is not something they typically divulge - resources, territory, malice, a desire to dominate the entire world, an instinctive hatred of each other, more worshippers, or some motivation even more alien are all theories, but no human has ever been told their reasons, and if Servitors (which have a more human mindset) have been told, they're not telling. :P Human armies do fight for them (why will be answered in the religion section), but it also ties into the monarch questions - most of the Old Ones have the title "King" or "Queen" or "Emperor" or "Czar" or whatever the local equivalent is attached to them, and much of the nobility is composed of Servitors with the occasional true human among them. And they do go to war for very human reasons at time unless they are forbidden from doing so - humans are still humans, after all, and unless their Old One forbids an act of war, humans can and will go to one if they feel the need to (for typical human reasons, typically). However, unless the opposing nation throws the resources of their own Old One into the battle, humans going to war against humans is a strictly human affair. There aren't constitutional monarchies - Democracy is a joke outside of Atlantis. Instead, Servitors are the ones involved in day-to-day rulership at the behest of their patron Old One, with occasional trusted humans. Some countries have a body that is allowed to suggest things to the Servitors, but have no actual power other than "We believe this would be beneficial" - arguing if told no is a great way to end up dead or turned into a Servitor. Occult magic is typically in the form of long, complex rituals as it is in Lovecraft, and rarely suitable for the rapidly shifting tides of war - and is rarely done outside the works of Servitors and the Old Ones. Humans can wield the weapons of the Old Ones, but doing so is difficult and rare - typically, in wars where such weapons are fielded, they're used by Servitors or humans that have proven their Faith.

Religion is something that is almost exclusively based around the Old Ones - in the face of physical beings of deitific powers, humanity has mostly decided that the Gods of old are lies or uninterested in them. Practicing any other faith within territory ruled by the Old Gods is strictly forbidden, punishable by horrific death, and within Atlantis most people are either Atheists or Deists, since if there was a loving and caring God He surely would have intervened by now. That being said, crushing religion is something that's never been fully possible, and pockets of Christians, Muslims, and Jews still exist. Eastern religions are less common, partially because incorporating the Old Ones into their beliefs was easier, partially because it's harder for them to get to Atlantis, and partially because (historically speaking), followers of those faiths have been less fanatical in a military sense and more inclined to peaceful protest, which doesn't work so well against alien beings of hostile intent.

No Great Old one has been killed, ever. Some of the Lesser Old Ones have been killed, typically by another of their ilk who took over their territories. Humans have killed Servitors, and actually wounded the Lesser Old Ones, but never killed one.

Yes, they have, but they're keeping it to themselves, partially for their own preservation, partially because humans like the knowledge to understand the knowledge needed to understand the knowledge the Old Ones possess.

Yes, real world individuals exist, and I'm doing research to figure out which ones, and what roles they would fill. This is being kept fairly vague for now as I figure this out, but I plan on incorporating historical figures into this world.

Human nobles can rebel, though having sufficient power to do so openly is difficult - instead, if they are rebelling, it's done through layers of subterfuge. Servitors are not directly controlled by the Old Ones, but the process of turning one into a Servitor involves infecting one with a larval form of an Old One, so their views are radically altered - typically, they have no inclination to rebel. The Misbegotten, who were able to control their host, keep much more of their original personas intact, and are often rebels against the Old Ones.

Yes, there are colonies, partially form human wars that desire expansion (In the name of their Old One nominally, but also to have territories outside the Old One's direct physical presence), and partially by Old Ones wishing to dominate the Young Ones. It's sort of a mixed bag here.

Medical Technology is significantly improved, though not to modern day standards - rather, many of the new forms of life that emerged in the wake of the Old Ones's arrival proved to have properties beneficial to humans, and the Old Ones' and their Servitors see no reason to let their subjects suffer from illness, since that weakens their own subjects.

The invasion was for a very simple reason - they were once the masters of Earth, long before there were dinosaurs, and wished to be so again. In addition...they were dead. But, as Lovecraft said, with countless eons even death may die, so dead was only something that prolonged their return. How or what killed them is unknown, or if it was simply a torpor they entered to wait - the Faithful profess the latter, while the rebels hold on to hope of the former, since it means they can be killed.

Labor is a bit more mechanized, closer to industrial levels, but still very similar to the 1700's. Lovecraftian beasties rule, not work.

Airships? Hell yes, that's part of the reason for the DaVinci-Tech.

Glad you like it, and thanks for all the questions - that's the best thing to get me fixing (most of my answers were not things I had decided on, but rather thought of just because you asked the questions. :P)

Oh, and one final detail I feel that I've left out that's important. While in later works the Old Ones were malicious and evil, in Lovecraft's work they were simply alien and inscruitble. I'm going the latter route - they arent evil or good by our standards, just so incomprehensible to our minds that at times they seem one or the other.

Great answers!  Glad the questions are helpful.

When I said Parliament I didn't mean like an elected body but more something akin to the historical English parliament i.e. a unicameral House of Lords (consisting of Servitors/nobles).  This wouldn't be a check on the G.O.O.'s power but rather just a state apparatus for actually running the country - effectively a council of leaders with various duties (ministries or whatever).  Was wondering if that kind of thing was around or if rule was a lot less centralized.  Or maybe both depending on which country you're in.

Without the Protestant/Catholic religious conflicts the world will probably look very different.  A slew of important questions, geopolitical and otherwise, to consider:

- Does a single Great Old One rule the Holy Roman Empire, or do multiple Old Ones rules its constituent kingdoms i.e. Germany, Austria, Belgium etc?  In general, how has the HRE been affected?  Is it more unified (scary), or has it Balkanized/fragmented (following real-world history a bit more closely)?
-Are Castile and Aragon separate states as they were in 1300 or have they unified to form Spain?  If the latter, what precipitated the union (since in the real-world it was precipitated by a royal marriage - which wouldn't work well in this case).
- Are there institutionalized churches/religions, or is worship handled differently?  If the former, who runs the church?  Servitors?  Mortal priests/popes?  Are there pantheon religions or do people in each country only worship their own G.O.O.?  Are there inquisitions, witch-hunts, etc?  How much power does the priesthood have?  In general, how religious is everybody?  Do you pray nightly, or has the world become (ironically) more secular?
- How long do the Servitors live?  A human lifespan?  A couple centuries?  A millennium?  Forever (unless killed)?  Do they worry about establishing dynasties and thus with all the usual stuff European nobles traditionally worried about i.e. marriage, heirs, inheritance, children, succession, etc?  If they aren't interested in that stuff, the ENTIRE political system in Europe would look hugely different - which could be cool, but would also be challenging...
- The UK - fragmented or no?
- How about Russia/Muscovy?  Is the Mongol Empire around in any form?  What's up in Siberia?
- The Ottoman Empire couldn't exist since Islam isn't around.  What's in its place?  Historically it comes into being just around the time the Great Old Ones invade.  Is it just a bunch of emirates, each ruled by a G.O.O. or a Lesser Old One, or has this territory been unified?  Is the Byzantine Empire around in any form, given that its downfall was due to war with the Ottoman Empire?
- How fast was the original war of conquest?  Overnight?  Decades?
- CIVIL WAR.  Does it happen?  It can't happen over succession since that's fixed (one ruler, forever).  It might happen over religion, depending on how that's handled.  But would a Great Old One allow civil war to even occur?  Would it stop civil war from breaking out (given that thousands of its own subjects might be destroyed)?
- Samurai: are they all Servitors?  Cuz that would be awesome.
- This is historically the age of Enlightenment when people start rejecting traditional notions of morality, religious truth, etc and start turning to science and reason, to begin agitating for reform and constitutions.  A proto-middle-class was emergent with the rise of capitalism, and egalitarianism/liberalism were very much on the rise.  Given the autocratic rule of the Great Old Ones, how much of this is still going on?  Is Europe locked in stagnation or are philosophes assembling in salons (underground or no) to discuss the day's major issues?  Are intellectuals, looking to Atlantis for examples, beginning to question traditional values, or are we locked in a dark age of brutality and ignorance?  Is serfdom still prevalent or is it being recognized as a barbaric institution?
- The Sanity issue.  Do more people go insane due to the presence of so many sanity-corroding monstrosities?  Are there institutionalized asylums packed to the gills?

EDIT: btw some people call what you're terming DaVince-punk "Clockpunk."

Also, I'm very curious whether Shakespeare existed and what he wrote instead of the various Henry/Richard plays!

Apologies for my Euro-centric questions.  I'm just way more familiar with European history than everything else.

This makes me think alot about a setting I worked on with a few people back in the early 2000`s. Which we called Atlantis: The Shattered Souls and I renamed Atlantis: Rise of the Titans.

If you give me your e-mail address I might be able to send you a .rar file of what we've done, you can steal ideas and whatnot since we don't use it anymore.

Quote from: Xathan Of Many Worlds
I really like the idea of Atlantis being a place the Elder Things cannot physically enter - something about the Islands make them untouchable by them and any of their creations. While they can still send their human armies against it, they cannot ever directly influence it - it's creation was almost the Earth rebelling against their existence. It's not a physical barrier per say, but the very seas, earth, and skies rally against them if they try to enter with enough force to drive even Them back. Attempts to summon Them there directly - or anything like Them - utterly fail due to the same influence. Perhaps there's actually a physical manifestation of the Earth, a genus loci type being, that's powerful enough to rival them that aids this influence. Ripe with story ideas and establishes a concrete reason why Atlantis is so well guarded.

Perhaps this "earth spirit" is simply a cosmic power similar to the Great Old Ones, some kind of ancient cthonic being residing in the center of the planet that was awakened when all those outsiders arrived. A great twist would be that this one cares nothing for the all the alien politics and merely wants to go back to sleep - but can't because of all the noise the newcomers are making! So it decides to drive them away but, being too weak to attack them directly, instead uses it's powers to create the atlantis. It's hoping to foster the atlantean humans as it's unknowing pawns so that they may eventually be used to foil the G.O.O.s, and doesn't mind if that should require millennia of development.

Quote from: Steerpike
Great answers!  Glad the questions are helpful.

When I said Parliament I didn't mean like an elected body but more something akin to the historical English parliament i.e. a unicameral House of Lords (consisting of Servitors/nobles).  This wouldn't be a check on the G.O.O.'s power but rather just a state apparatus for actually running the country - effectively a council of leaders with various duties (ministries or whatever).  Was wondering if that kind of thing was around or if rule was a lot less centralized.  Or maybe both depending on which country you're in.

It is around, depending on country. I'm still working on which country has what type of governance, but tentatively thinking that England, France, Hungary, the Roman Empire (apparently it still existed in a reduced form at this time, according to a map I found - though I'll need more research) will have a parliament type structure, while the Holy Roman Empire (Renamed Germania), the Ottoman Empire, and large countries will have a more Governor-based system that's less centralized.

Quote- Does a single Great Old One rule the Holy Roman Empire, or do multiple Old Ones rules its constituent kingdoms i.e. Germany, Austria, Belgium etc?  In general, how has the HRE been affected?  Is it more unified (scary), or has it Balkanized/fragmented (following real-world history a bit more closely)?

From the research I've done, the HRE appears to have been a going concern during this time period, so it's now more unified under a single Old One as opposed to fragmented - the influence of the Old One prevented the Balkanization of it. Part of this decision is because a still present HRE (which I'm renaming Germania since the Holy in it was probably wiped away) is pretty scary, part of it is because, well, I'm a bit lazy and having a unified HRE means a ton less nations to work with. :P

Quote-Are Castile and Aragon separate states as they were in 1300 or have they unified to form Spain?  If the latter, what precipitated the union (since in the real-world it was precipitated by a royal marriage - which wouldn't work well in this case).

Given that it was a marriage that unified them, it seems most likely that the two are still separate nations - though I could say an Old One managed to unify them, that wasn't really their MO when they first arrived, instead choosing to take over individual nations.

Quote- Are there institutionalized churches/religions, or is worship handled differently?  If the former, who runs the church?  Servitors?  Mortal priests/popes?  Are there pantheon religions or do people in each country only worship their own G.O.O.?  Are there inquisitions, witch-hunts, etc?  How much power does the priesthood have?  In general, how religious is everybody?  Do you pray nightly, or has the world become (ironically) more secular?

This is one thing I'm going back and fourth on, but I do know the world has become more secular since, while faith is easier when your God is physically present, actual prayer seems silly when you can instead speak to a Servitor. Also, each nation only worships their Old One - all others are acknowledged as Gods, but not worthy of worship. However, cults dedicated to another Old One in a different nation do exist as a point of disunity that has nothing to do with human independence.

Quote- How long do the Servitors live?  A human lifespan?  A couple centuries?  A millennium?  Forever (unless killed)?  Do they worry about establishing dynasties and thus with all the usual stuff European nobles traditionally worried about i.e. marriage, heirs, inheritance, children, succession, etc?  If they aren't interested in that stuff, the ENTIRE political system in Europe would look hugely different - which could be cool, but would also be challenging...

Average Servitor lifespan is ~150 years, discounting murder/assassination. And yes, they do have all the concerns of the classic European nobility - while their viewpoint is altered, they still have very human motivations. Part of this is because again, I'm kind of lazy, but mostly this is to keep court intrigue alive and well as a possible plot source for games - it's more interesting and something the players are more familiar with, rather than trying to devise an entirely new political system and then expecting the players to learn it and work within it.

Quote- The UK - fragmented or no?

Unified. Queen Angelica (Called so because Her name is not made for human tongues, and it is said that any who see Her in Her true beauty are driven mad) did not have any Great Old Ones interested in the other nations of the British Isles, so she claimed them all - one of the few exceptions to the "Keep nations intact" policy the Old Ones seemed to enjoy upon arriving.

Quote- How about Russia/Muscovy?  Is the Mongol Empire around in any form?  What's up in Siberia?

For Russia, I'm uncertain - need to do more research as to what it was like prior to the Arrival before I can make a definitive statement here. The Mongol Empire at the time was divided into several Khanates, and all of them have their own Old One as the Khan of it.

Quote- The Ottoman Empire couldn't exist since Islam isn't around.  What's in its place?  Historically it comes into being just around the time the Great Old Ones invade.  Is it just a bunch of emirates, each ruled by a G.O.O. or a Lesser Old One, or has this territory been unified?  Is the Byzantine Empire around in any form, given that its downfall was due to war with the Ottoman Empire?

Again, gonna need to do some more research to figure this out, but it appears that it was fairly fragmented at this time, giving it a great place for Lesser Old Ones to take territories instead of unified - and since the Byzantine Empire didn't have a chance to fall through that war, it still stands thanks to it's Great Old One.

Quote- How fast was the original war of conquest?  Overnight?  Decades?

Fairly quick - a week at most. Humanity was too awestruck to try and stand against them, and didn't have the necessary tools to even attempt to repel them.

Quote- CIVIL WAR.  Does it happen?  It can't happen over succession since that's fixed (one ruler, forever).  It might happen over religion, depending on how that's handled.  But would a Great Old One allow civil war to even occur?  Would it stop civil war from breaking out (given that thousands of its own subjects might be destroyed)?

Civil Wars do happen - while the Great Old Ones like to preserve their subjects, the common belief is Civil Wars are allowed to weed out the weak. However, it typically happens as Servitors and human Nobels jockey for power - while the one ruler is fixed, how close various Nobel houses stand to the Ruler is determined by a number of factors, and ties of marriage, alliances, and domination through Civil War are some major ways to go about gaining proximity to the Ruler, which the Great Old One allows.

Quote- Samurai: are they all Servitors?  Cuz that would be awesome.

Almost all. Some are still humans, but the most powerful are Servitors - most human samurai serve a more powerful Servitor Samurai.

Quote- This is historically the age of Enlightenment when people start rejecting traditional notions of morality, religious truth, etc and start turning to science and reason, to begin agitating for reform and constitutions.  A proto-middle-class was emergent with the rise of capitalism, and egalitarianism/liberalism were very much on the rise.  Given the autocratic rule of the Great Old Ones, how much of this is still going on?  Is Europe locked in stagnation or are philosophes assembling in salons (underground or no) to discuss the day's major issues?  Are intellectuals, looking to Atlantis for examples, beginning to question traditional values, or are we locked in a dark age of brutality and ignorance?  Is serfdom still prevalent or is it being recognized as a barbaric institution?

An Enlightenment still occurred, and a middle class based on commerce was able to arise - the Great Old Ones saw no reason to stop this. Philosphical, Moral, and Scientific advancement are occurring openly...unless you are using Atlantis as a positive example. Doing so is viewed as seditious nonsense if you're lucky and outright treason if you're not. Due to that, it's not progressing as fast as it did in the real world, and questioning the rule of the Great Old Ones is seen as madness so there's none of the questions about the supremacy of monarchs, but the creation of a middle class has lead to some questioning the nobility, and the more powerful guilds/companies are beginning to attempt to take the place of Nobel houses.

Quote- The Sanity issue.  Do more people go insane due to the presence of so many sanity-corroding monstrosities?  Are there institutionalized asylums packed to the gills?

Asylums are very, very well stocked. :P However, a human can be in proximity to a Great Old One without having their sanity shatter - it's just some people, those more sensitive, are driven mad by their mere existence. However, many new forms of madness have arisen, and some of these are allowed to wander openly since their particular brand of madness (Obsession, Nigh-Precognition from near superhuman patter recognition, etc) are viewed as beneficial, not detrimental.

QuoteEDIT: btw some people call what you're terming DaVince-punk "Clockpunk."

Yeah, but I think Clockpunk sounds stupid. :P DaVinci-Punk, to me, has a nicer ring - and really, I probably won't use that term often when I'm actually outlaying the technology. Just used the term to give an overall aesthetic impression of what technology looks like.

QuoteAlso, I'm very curious whether Shakespeare existed and what he wrote instead of the various Henry/Richard plays!

Yes he did, and I'm going to be working on that, because I'm an English major and just cannot have a non-Shakespeare world. :P

Quote
Apologies for my Euro-centric questions.  I'm just way more familiar with European history than everything else.

No problem - so am I. I'm probably going to initially focus on Western Europe and Atlantis anyway, partially due to familiarity and partially to keep it more contained - though I'll be spending some time on the Arabian peninsula to discuss the kingdoms of the Lesser Old Ones

Quote from: Magnus PymThis makes me think alot about a setting I worked on with a few people back in the early 2000`s. Which we called Atlantis: The Shattered Souls and I renamed Atlantis: Rise of the Titans.

If you give me your e-mail address I might be able to send you a .rar file of what we've done, you can steal ideas and whatnot since we don't use it anymore.

klinkallyinsane(at)gmail(dot)com - I'm very interested in seeing how someone else did a similar thing, and I can always use more inspiration. :)

Quote from: GhostmanPerhaps this "earth spirit" is simply a cosmic power similar to the Great Old Ones, some kind of ancient cthonic being residing in the center of the planet that was awakened when all those outsiders arrived. A great twist would be that this one cares nothing for the all the alien politics and merely wants to go back to sleep - but can't because of all the noise the newcomers are making! So it decides to drive them away but, being too weak to attack them directly, instead uses it's powers to create the atlantis. It's hoping to foster the atlantean humans as it's unknowing pawns so that they may eventually be used to foil the G.O.O.s, and doesn't mind if that should require millennia of development.

I love it. It's seeking to return to it's slumber, and is fostering humanity as it's children to drive away the Old Ones so it can once again rest. In the meantime, it uses it's powers to defend Atlantis...and give birth to new creatures the humans of Atlantis can use to fight the Great Old Ones, as well as sending inspirational Dreams to humans to further their technological prowess. Sort of a Cthonic Gaia, and one that really wants the return of the status quo.

Also, random question that'd be insanely helpful - does anyone know where I can find maps of areas other than Europe that show the nations of the 1300's? Because I've been having a hell of a time finding any good ones.

Got one for the eastern hemisphere here. Mind you that applying the word "nation" to political spheres of the 1300's doesn't really make much sense.

Yeah, nation is a loose term...but right now, you're my hero. Unfortunately that site doesn't have one for the western hemisphere - can your google-fu find that as well, since my google-fu is weaker?

Quote from: Xatahn...the Roman Empire (apparently it still existed in a reduced form at this time, according to a map I found - though I'll need more research)

The Roman Empire became the Byzantine Empire/Eastern Roman Empire.  It was generally called Romania (confusing I know).  The Empire we call Roman became what we call Byzantine after Emperor Constantine moved the capitol from Rome to Constantinople ("New Rome").  Constantine was also a big deal as he was the first Roman Emperor to become a Christian convert.  This map shows the Empire's territory in 1263.  It used to be a LOT bigger, but it got partitioned and splintered into successor states following some of the Crusades. 

People forget about this because of the misleading phrase "the fall of the Roman Empire," when really what they mean is "the fall of the Western Roman Empire - the Empire was divided in two around 300 CE.

In regards to the western hemisphere, you're really not missing much by having no map. By 1300 the empires of Tula and Teotihuacan are both gone and there really isn't a dominate power as far as Mesoamerica is concerned, as this is before the rise of the Aztec Empire, and even before the Triple Alliance. So, what you're looking at is a spread of Nahua, Maya, Zapotec, Totonac and Mixtec city states (there's a few other cultures, but those are the main groups)  

The only other centre of any kind of recognizably organized civilization is in the Andean highlands, and that's something I really don't know much about. But this is also before the rise of the Inca, so again, you're dealing with some city-states and small kingdoms.

In a lot of instances it would seem to me to make more sense for the Great Old Ones to devise new territories instead of trying to preserve existing ones.  And surely in the various wars fought over the last few centuries after the G.O.O.s showed up borders will have changed a lot.  Basically it would make sense to invent new countries/territories as needed instead of trying to track down every possible country that was around in 1300.  If the HRE and the UK got unified it makes sense for a lot of other disparate places to get unified too, when it's worth the effort to do so.  Just random thoughts.