The Campaign Builder's Guild

Do the Dolish trade horses to the Rex? Or do they trade them to other groups as something to be eaten?

Would it be more likely for a horse to be seen as food among most groups, rather than a beast of burden?

If they were a food item, would it not be a delicacy since horses are so rare?

Quote from: TheMeanestGuestWould it be more likely for a horse to be seen as food among most groups, rather than a beast of burden?

If they were a food item, would it not be a delicacy since horses are so rare?
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Hypothetically yes, but since horses pull chariots and are ridden by what are essentially the Rex nobles, they are rarely eaten. Only if one is hurt beyond hearling. They are infact, too useful and too expensive to be imported just for meat.

The odd exception to his are ships from the eastern side of the continent, they often land to refresh their supplies and hunt wild horses amongst other game. However since the distance is so far, only salted meat has returned to the east.

These easterners sound interesting (if this is a group you've already mentioned.. just not as easterners, forgive my ignorance).

You did say ships, so I'm assuming they're of decent size, and the fact that they're circling a continent regularly is an impressive feat. As well as having enough salt to supply these ships for meat packing.

I'm getting the impression that they are a fair bit more advanced than any of the other societies. Am I incorrect? It'd be cool if you could detail them further.

Edit: I'd also be interested in hearing a bit more about the civilized areas aside from the Rex in general. How are the hold cities governed, are they of significant size?

Quote from: TheMeanestGuestYou did say ships, so I'm assuming they're of decent size, and the fact that they're circling a continent regularly is an impressive feat. As well as having enough salt to supply these ships for meat packing.

Edit: I'd also be interested in hearing a bit more about the civilized areas aside from the Rex in general. How are the hold cities governed, are they of significant size?
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Yes, hopefully I can speed up the rate I post stuff. My next post will be about Gods, then after that I'll see if I can do a couple culture posts before I start on the bestiary.

Gods

Most gods have a great interest in mortals, they "collect" the souls of sentients in their afterlife heavens. Gods tend to appear to their chosen people, be it a tribe, single individual or small group and gift them with some things. While their chosen develop they continue to play a major influence in their culture, lives and decisions.

Arcturus is the self-proclaimed god of fury and fighting. When he appeared to his chosen people, the Bardish, he gave them the strength of the large bears that live near their camps. He taught them to fight, to live on the edge of madness and revel in the fury of combat. He sent them east to conquer and they did. Eventually they enslaved the Rex tribe, however due to the intervention of their god Suria and the escape of some slaves they eventually drove off the Bardish conquerers. This drove Arcturus to greater lengths, he started to modify the bodies of some of the Bardish, usually those who won his "tournies".

As Arcturus has done, gods can modify the bodies of their followers. The Dolish have something similar in the form of the bond ritual magic given to them by their god. Changing mortals is simple to a god, however it is not something that they often do. The more a persons body is changed, the more their soul is reinforced by magic. Eventually this makes the changed mortals into demi-gods. After the incident with the Demi-god of Black Flames and the Forge Demi-Gods most gods are loath to make more of them.

Other things that the gods rarely do is lie. Originally the concept was foreign to them, as they do no communicate to each other with words. It is not something they think about, making it possible for mortals to lie to gods. Now most gods tend to hedge their bets when dealing with mortals, too many examples of things not working out.

Some gods however have embraced the concept of deliberate untruths. Some gods make up elaborate creation myths to sway mortals. Swoil a god to several deep-sea tribes of aquatic humans says that he took normal humans after they hatched from the land and molded them to live in the ocean.

Bestiary

Forest's Edge

Kavi Lizard

The Kavi Lizard is one of the most feared predators that can be found in the western continent. They live in large familial packs composed of members from both stages of growth. Physically they are large theropod beasts with large skulls filled with long teeth. Their forlimbs are relatively small compared to the rest of their bodies, but they have powerful legs and a long tail to help with balance while sprinting. The largest Kavi ;izards, in the adult stage of life, can reach to twenty feet in height.

The first stage of life is spent comparatively small compared to the final height a Kavi lizard will reach in its adult form. At birth they are roughly two feet in height and three feet in length, they hatch from large loustrous eggs that resemble pearly leather.  In the juvenile stage they grow to six or seven feet withing two years and stay roughly the same height for a further twelve to fifteen. As juveniles they can jump nearly twice their own height, spring long distances and have highly developped eyesight. Juveniles have forearms the same size as the adult form, much more proportional to their body size.

Adult stage begins around fourteen to nineteen years of age. It starts rapidly where the Kavi lizard will grow to its adult size in six to eighteen months. Their forelimbs do not grown leaving them stunted for their new massive size. Their eyesight also detiriorates but their sense of smell is greatly enhanced.

Kavi lizards hunt in packs, the juveniles of the band will drive prey, usually large game such as plains mammoths, gammoths or giant sloths towards the treeline of Forests Edge. When the prey get close to the tree line the adults will storm them in a rush of sudden coordinated attack, and very few things can survive the attack of an adult Kavi lizard. It is unknown if Kavi lizards dwell deep in the Forest or how they hunt their.

A furred species of Kavi lizard, known as the Wooly Kavi inhabit the pine forests of the continental divinding mountain range.

The West Plains

Jaeger Eels

Jaeger Eels are a plague on the Plainswalker coparl. Growing only to one to two feet in length these small, slipper land-based eels are highly venomous. The life cycle of the Jaeger is only mildly understood. Eggs hatch in late winter and the larval stage is spent deep in the grasses hunting insects and small mammals while avoiding larger prey. At the beginning of spring the larva molt into the adult form, long pale blue and somewhat translucent.

The adult Jaeger Eels swarm in massive groups near waterholes and wet patches of grass. They attack prey en masse and strip the poisoned beast to the bone while it spasms from the toxin in their bites.

Wolf Snakes

Wolf Snakes are the largest species of hairy snake, they live in a symbiotic relationship with Woolies, a type of beast raised by Plainswalker Coparl. They are immune to Jaeger Eel venom are are the main predator of Jaeger Eels in both larval and adult forms.

[ooc]The first post in this thread now has the lovely title made by Phoenix.[/ooc]

Salt Tain Clans

The Salt Tain Clans are the nothern neanderthal clans that live in the northern strech of mountains that divide the continent east to west. While there are several different clans they all have a broadly similar lifestyle. Due to the high caloric needs of a neanderthal diet, and their mainly carniverous appetite the clans are small in population.

Neanderthals have tamed and domesticated large flightless birds called Mauks, called so for their distinctive cry. Mauk eggs are a staple in neanderthal diet, being as large around as a big melon. Other diet staples include the semi-nomadic herds of Tainish Elk, massive beasts twelve feet high.

Salt is a major export of the Salt Tain Clans. A large salt flat can be found in the northern mountains, and this flat supplies three quarters of the eastern continents salt. About one quarter of the western continents salt comes from this salt flat.

QuoteA furred species of Kavi lizard, known as the Wooly Kavi inhabit the pine forests of the continental divinding mountain range.

This was a nice touch- especially given the ancient-theme of the world.

Bestiary II

Terratons

Terratons are the heaviest known land animal and one of the largest as well. Gargantuan shelled reptiles, Terratons have an armored shell, tail and hind legs. Their front legs are more thickly muscled but less well protected with smaller scales the size of a small human child. They have incredibly long necks and massive beaked mouths.

Terratons are omnivorous, they live in continental dividing mountains and are regularly seen by the Salt Tain clan neanderthals. Their diet consists of entire trees, the large mountain fauna and occasionally sentients unfortunate to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Terraton is nearly invulnerable from behind, and can weakly defend itself with its armored tail. The real danger is when a creature gets to close to its head. Their necks are incredibly flexible and quite long giving them a reach of nearly twenty feet and are capable of reaching three quarters the length of its body directly behind it.

A larger oceanic Terraton can be found off the northern and north-west coast. They prey on the deadly celaphopods that inhabit Wreckers Bay.

On Making Deals with Deities...

Dominii

The story of Dominii is a warning to all the gods to be careful in their dealings with mortals. Dominii is a vain god, he takes the form of the sun and craves earthly worship more then any other god. Originally he chose a small community in the south of the continent to be his favored mortals. They quickly expanded west into the plains, gathering coparl worshippers and east into the mountains gaining neanderthal worshippers.

The kingdom took its name from its deity and is known as Dominii. Relations were quite good with the Souther Tain Clans and coparl for a century. Soon after Dominii the god demanded grander tribute from his mortal followers, and they complied. They began enslaving those who would not convert to their worship, and using this slave labor force created massive red sandstone ziggurates. Mortal sacrifices were a common event on these ziggurates, from captured slaves by the dozens to willing worshippers.

This wanton excess and slavery could not last long, soon a coalition of the Salt Tain clans, various smaller groups of mortals and the main Plainslander and Hillfolk coparl stopped the militarily weak Dominii kingdom in its tracks. Seeing his mortal kingdom fall Dominii took one last desparate action.

Roland Asphilt was a pirate warlord of some reknown and it was to him that Dominii made his offer. If Roland could save the kingdom of Dominii, he could have anything that Dominii the god could give him. He terms were this, he only wished that the love of his life, recently slain to be resurrected before he began his conquest. Dominii consentent and infused the corpse with massive amounts of magical energy, in essence the energy of life.

This brought back Rolands love, Kataria the Flame, to life, but it did not work as it was supposed to. Kataria was a powerful sorceress in life and infused with magic beyond mortal comprehension she reached out to the source of the power, and took it for herself. This source was the god Dominii, now reduced to near impotence and Kataria returned to life in a blaze of magical fire, earning her the new moniker of Kataria the Phoenix. Kataria is a new kind of being, a proto-goddess whos powers surpase those of regular Demi-Gods but are not equal to those of a  fullfledged god.

God of Shadows

Before the eastern half of the continent became a wet quagmire of marshes, jungle and rivers there were two kingdoms that warred with each other. One of these kingdoms worshipped the God of Shadows, the other refused to worship any god. The God of Shadows coveted the kingdom of unbelievers, and offered to make their king a Demi-god in exchange for their worship, the King refused.

The resulting war destroyed both kingdoms. In the final battle the general of the Unbeliever Kings armies, and his lover about to be killed by the opposing kingdoms forces. The King seeing this reached for the God of Shadows and accepted his bargain, and the Demi-god of Black Flames was born. The newly minted Demi-god was too late to save his love and the resulting obsidian colored firestorm wiped out all the survivers, on both sides of the war.

Brooding and misanthropic, the Demi-god of Black Flames returned to his kingdoms capital, the ziggurate now known as Sunken Shade to brood in solitude while the land around him slowly devours his home.

Races: How related are the races? On Earth, humans and neanderthals are very closely related, and your coparl seems apelike enough. Are humans and neanderthals close enough to interbreed (as far as I recall, scientists are still uncertain whether humans bred neanderthals out; I saw one program that said we didn't and one that said we did)? What about coparl? I would say yes on neanderthals, but no on coparl. I do also like the dietary splits, making it so neanderthals and coparls would be less than likely to compete too strongly.

How are you coming up with names? They have a nice organic feel to them.

I like the story of Kedge and the Forge Gods. Did the Forge Demigods leave behind any teachings or artifacts, or were they all destroyed? Are the gods imprisoned on the continent as well, or could they conceivably leave and take humanoids with them?

The Dolish are very interesting. What are some of the other god-bonds that they do? About the parasite: how long does it take to kill? How smart are they once they infect a host? I'm imagining illithid or goauld type stuff here.

Magic: Why is it that magic, which is made of soul energy, cannot affect souls? A pick is made of earth material and it can hack at stone just fine. Just something I'd like elaborated on.

Is a gods power related to their followers, or are their followers simply for their godly competitions?

Bestiary: I'm going to want your help coming up with animals for my setting; you've got some interesting thing. Are the wolf-snakes reptiles or mammals? I love the mixture of prehistoric-like animals (mammoths, kavi lizards) and future evolution type animals (wolf snakes, jaeger eels, terratons). Definitely makes for a unique feel.

Dominii's story is very interesting. I love how gods can be tricked, how they are not omnipresent. It is definitely very classically mythological, and opens you up to many good story elements.

Quote from: Kapn XeviatHow are you coming up with names? They have a nice organic feel to them.

The Dolish are very interesting. What are some of the other god-bonds that they do? About the parasite: how long does it take to kill? How smart are they once they infect a host? I'm imagining illithid or goauld type stuff here.[/quote]Ork'acle[/i] bond. A kind of sailor bond is up in the air as well, maybe a small group of aquatic dolish have their own bonds.

Quote from: Kapn XeviatIs a gods power related to their followers, or are their followers simply for their godly competitions?

Dominii's story is very interesting. I love how gods can be tricked, how they are not omnipresent. It is definitely very classically mythological, and opens you up to many good story elements.[/quote]

Thank you, glad it interests people other then myself.

On magic and souls

Magic is something that can be found everywhere, it permeates everything in the physical world. It gathers around life to form souls, raw magical force that inhabit living creatures. This raw magic is separate from the normal background magic that permeates the world.

Sentience is something drastic, just as how it changes life to a great degree it changes souls to a great degree as well. Magic mated with sentience, in the form of gods and sentient mortal souls, is like oil to normal magics water. While both mediums can be thrown together, they will never mix.

Wreckers Bay

Situated in the north-west, near where Forest's Edge merges into the coast, Wreckers Bay is considered by some to be the most dangerous place anywhere near the continent. Inhabited by massive, dangerous cephalopods who attack anything that enters the bay, no ship has ever succesfully sailed the bays waters.

The Rex often send out prisoners found guilty of the most heinous crimes (treason, heresy and desertion) on small rafts to be devoured by the cephalopod menace.

Oceanic Terratons are the only known creature to feed on the cephalopods, or to even survive entering the bay.

Proto goddess sounds very, very interesting.  very mighty, but without the experience or vision.  

That story started like a myth, then trasnformed to a story, and at the end felt like it happenned prettt recently.  CAn you help me with the actual timeline?