The Campaign Builder's Guild

There could be scattered treasure troves like that all across the world, yeah, then you'd get over that annoying "how do the monsters survive in the dungeon" issue :)
And have the dwarves be master "abjurers" could be pretty cool. They can isolate things and themselves from decay and other forces. Maybe they know the secrets of immortality.
I might be stealing that voodoo idea for myself then.

[ic=Voy Vasa, the City of Shadow and Gold]
Nicknames: The Shimmering City, the City of a Thousand Spires
Resources: Gold, salt, slaves.
Population:50,000
Leader: Tyrua, the Half-God King

Deep in the sweltering south, far beyond the young cities of Prothean Bay, past the jungle-covered Isles of Last and beyond ship-eating Shattered Coast sits the most ancient and mysterious cities of Arga - Voy Vasa, the City of Shadow and Gold. Perched upon a thin crescent of verdant land that sits between the Singing Sea and the dusty heat of the Vast, the city has existed longer than anyone could care to guess. Many sages say it was founded eons ago in the Second Age by Tyrua, one of the many half-god children begotten of the First Age, but those are merely suppositions.

Sailors claim the port-side approach to Voy Vasa is one of the most magnificent sights to behold. The shining, golden, conical peaks of a thousand spiraled minarets top the city like a crown of polished sun, visible from half a days sail away. The city palace, dwarfing even the tallest spire, is said to be visible from as far away as the city of Chatha, it's gilded form shining like a sun.

Supporting the gleaming spires and towers is a city, both crude and beautiful, that gives away its great age. Dusty stones and mud brick construction show the age of the city with lines that aren't quite straight, angles not quite exact, and stonework not quite even. The decorations of the city are primitive yet beautiful as well - walls adorned with sea shells, floral and geometric carvings, and rough, handwoven rugs and tapestries of white linen and gold thread. Aside from the spires, the city sits low and sprawls along the coast in a long, crescent shape. From atop a spire, the looks like a sea of rippling white awnings dotted by isles of gold, rising about the waves.  

One building, however, truly dominates the skyline of the ancient city. The palace of Tyrua, the Half-God King of Voy Vasa, rises from the heart of the city, an indisputable symbol of power and divinity. A great ascending spiral, it is complete sheathed in gold. From the Million Steps to the Hall of Infinite Pillars, ever inch of the palace is gilded and polished to a perfect sheen. An entire army of slave-priest is devoted solely to polishing and cleaning the palace, colloquially known as Malvasa.  
[/ic]

I like it. Very exotic. I especially enjoyed the way they decorated things both with primitive things like seashells and still modern things like gold. Seems like a very mysterious place.
You mention the palace twice, although the first time you don't go into much detail. Perhaps you should move those two references to the same paragraph?

Quote from: Cataclysmic CrowI like it. Very exotic. I especially enjoyed the way they decorated things both with primitive things like seashells and still modern things like gold. Seems like a very mysterious place.
You mention the palace twice, although the first time you don't go into much detail. Perhaps you should move those two references to the same paragraph?

haha, yeah, I had a window of about 20 minutes to write this that was shortened to 10 when my dog decided to run away and go on a little adventure in the swamp. wee. anyhoo, it still needs some work and stuff thrown in, but thank ya kindly.

 also, on a very random note, I think Facebook suggested you to be my friend: Facebook = Skynet.

hey hey all. Im going to be moving again soon and will have slightly better access to the World Wide Web, so hopefully Arga will be back in action. needless to say there has been some nice inspiration down in the tropics and once I have some free time ill start moving stuff from notebooks to the web. hopefully ill have more time to keep up with the rest of the posts as well.

We certainly look forward to having back around on a regular basis.

Sweet! Will be good to have Arga back on tracks.

Excellent, this is a great setting.  Will be following closely.

[ic=The Languages of Arga] Being a world of various peoples and innumerable climes, the tongues and languages of its people have developed, been lost, been recreated and invented anew throughout the ages. Even in the current Age, no scholar is sure just how many dialects and tongues exist across Arga. However, amongst the peoples of the land, several languages have arisen and are recognized across the mountains and seas.

Vorrese - The tongue of the beastial Vorr. While true fluency is impossible for all the other races (the Vorr language utilizes roars, grunts, and howls that are impossible to make with non-Vorr vocal chords.) it is still a fairly well ranged languaged, ironically favored by poets and musicians for its flexible and descrpitive nature. The most peculiar aspect of Vorrese is the lack of almost all nouns, only the abstract ideas of person, place, and thing. So, instead of calling a mountain a mountain, it is called sharp-stoney-giant-thing. A moon is called something along the lines of pale-yellow-nightly-thing. So while there is no single word for anything, Vorrese is full of advectives and adverbs, allowing the full sweep of the imagination to run.  And while it is not the most pleasant language to hear (with its abundance of growls and howls), its script is beautiful and a favorite of wordsmiths Arga around. [/ic]

ok i know its not much, but there is a soccer game on, and I havent had a beer in like 2 weeks. also, sorry the grammar is prob terible ,no english spell check on panamanian computers.

Quote from: Leetz[ic=The Languages of Arga] Being a world of various peoples and innumerable climes, the tongues and languages of its people have developed, been lost, been recreated and invented anew throughout the ages. Even in the current Age, no scholar is sure just how many dialects and tongues exist across Arga. However, amongst the peoples of the land, several languages have arisen and are recognized across the mountains and seas.

Vorrese - The tongue of the beastial Vorr. While true fluency is impossible for all the other races (the Vorr language utilizes roars, grunts, and howls that are impossible to make with non-Vorr vocal chords.) it is still a fairly well ranged languaged, ironically favored by poets and musicians for its flexible and descrpitive nature. The most peculiar aspect of Vorrese is the lack of almost all nouns, only the abstract ideas of person, place, and thing. So, instead of calling a mountain a mountain, it is called sharp-stoney-giant-thing. A moon is called something along the lines of pale-yellow-nightly-thing. So while there is no single word for anything, Vorrese is full of advectives and adverbs, allowing the full sweep of the imagination to run.  And while it is not the most pleasant language to hear (with its abundance of growls and howls), its script is beautiful and a favorite of wordsmiths Arga around. [/ic]

ok i know its not much, but there is a soccer game on, and I havent had a beer in like 2 weeks. also, sorry the grammar is prob terible ,no english spell check on panamanian computers.

Happy to hear from you.  
I love the descrtiptions of the languages.

have an idea for the city of Otha (far east, a bit south.) admittedly inspired by a Jorge Luis Borges story.

the entire city would revolve around chance, luck, and randomness. Maybe there is a tangible god or goddess they worship, or perhaps they worship the idea of Chance itself. Every X days, there is a great Lottery, where everyone partakes by purchasing various tokens from vendors - tokens could be painted bone fragments, wooden idols, pieces of cloth: anything really. Then the temple/priests/head honchos draw some of these from a great bin (not all tokens are chosen in every lottery, as that's not very random) and each item is matched with a certain reversal of fate, good or bad. Big things can happen - the rich can be made poor, the living executed, etc. Or little things can happen, a free meal, a tattoo, etc.  

than I thought of having a counter-culture that believes all the chance and randomness of the world is in fact preordained and predictable if only the Great Formula can be found. thinking of calling this group the Dissident Root.

thoughts? questions? burritos?

I really like the possible consequences of this lottery; how major changes can suddenly take place. I'm guessing that the place will be a theocracy of sorts since the city seems to be centered around worship of chance; if positions of governmental power were in the lottery it would probably quickly destabilize the city.
Otherwise quite cool.
And yes, you can have a burrito.

Arga map MkII in the works...

Isn't that more like the 3rd? But mark II of this incarnation of the setting, I'll agree.
Anyway, looking forward to it as your maps are always insanely awesome-looking. Happy mapping.

ok it should be coming soon. I promise. maybe.