Kahtar Discussion Thread

[Wensleydale]

My thoughts on the Empire:

Background needs a little more fleshing out.  More detail on the present political set-up.  Marcus must have rivals we need to know about.

What were the circumstances and consequences of the introduction of steel?  Since you mention it often, you should tell us why it is so important an event in the world.  Does the empire have a monopoly on steel production?
[/quote]

The circumstances and consequences:

Steel is highly offensive to nature and damages ties to the Amenta. It's been the production of steel (partially) that has resulted in the congealing of Amenta gateways. And yes, the empire has a monopoly - no other land knows how to make it, except the Mahi (craftsmen moving into the east to make more money!)

[CYMRO]

Coming!

Faster! *cracks whip*

Also you mention Scipius as the first dragonrider.  That sounds like a story that needs telling.

And Augustine. What is this revenge thing?

The Dato position is interesting.  Very good.

[Wensleydale]

Coming!

Also you mention Scipius as the first dragonrider.  That sounds like a story that needs telling.

And Augustine. What is this revenge thing?
[/quote]

Aha. Well, basically, he's been cut out of the deal for a long time. House Scipii are widely considered the weakest of the Houses - they're not part of the war for the throne, afterall - and Augustine hates his rivals for this and their public mockery of his House.

[CYMRO]

Well, basically, he's been cut out of the deal for a long time. House Scipii are widely considered the weakest of the Houses - they're not part of the war for the throne, afterall - and Augustine hates his rivals for this

A plague on both their Houses!

The Draconigena are an ancient race, but yet young - of human, but yet not. As the dragons are separated from their dual selves, the animalistic physical nature being disconnected from the spiritual and intelligent nature, the spirit-sides have resorted to a new technique. They now bond with human fetuses, becoming one with them before birth has begun and influencing their growth.

So, is this some sort of psychic after-birth race?
A dragon spawns some spirit leech at birth?

[Wensleydale]

So, is this some sort of psychic after-birth race?
A dragon spawns some spirit leech at birth?

The dragon's spirit manipulates a promising fetus from the Amenta - as they grow, the dragon-spirit manipulates and then partially merges with the creature. Of course, they'll only do this with Aequii.

[Seraph]

Dragonborn
ï'šÂ§   Breath Weapon: 20ft Line of fire, 1D8+ 1D8/4 HD.

Iâ,¬,,¢m not sure exactly what this means, how would you determine breath weapon strength?

Aequii Elfborn
ï'šÂ§   +2 Dex, -2 Cha.
ï'šÂ§   Base Land Speed 30ft.
ï'šÂ§   Medium Size.
ï'šÂ§   +3 bonus on spot and listen checks. Elfborn have sharp eyes and hearing.
ï'šÂ§   Low-Light Vision: An elfborn can see twice as far as a human in dim light conditions, such as torchlight, moonlight, candlelight etc.
ï'šÂ§   +3 bonus on move silently checks. Elfborn tread lightly.
ï'šÂ§   Fleet of Foot: An Elfborn gains the Run feat as a bonus feat.
ï'šÂ§   Automatic Languages: Aequii.
ï'šÂ§   Bonus Languages: Any non-secret.
ï'šÂ§   Favoured Class: Dervish.

I like the elfborn.  They almost seem more powerful now (stat-wise, definitely not politically) than elves did before.  They lose their weapon proficiencies, but gain Run, +3 to move silently, and an additional +1 on listen and spot.  No automatic search for secret doors, though.  -2 CHA instead of CON, nice for most core classes, but you arenâ,¬,,¢t using core classes, I donâ,¬,,¢t think.

Ihueli Elfborn

Long ago, the Elfborn were one united empire - the land of Ihuel. However, after the unknown disaster which created the Bleakness, they were scattered across the land, and degenerated. After around a hundred years, many were enslaved - only those on the continent of Numidi remain awake from the 'Sleep', the docile servilitude that the elfborn have fallen into... and only those in the Mahi remember the true name of the once-nation, Ihuel, and its language.

Settlements: Ihueli Elfborn have a few small settlements of their own, but no cities (except for the ruins of Mahiel, once a city of Ihuel). Most of them remain in old cities, or begin to live in new communities set up in the war-locked new world. The ones who took best to their new freedom, however, the most rebellious, formed a group named the Halehwen. The Halehwen have set up their own tiny nation, centred around Mahiel's ruins. They have their own laws, and skin intruders alive if they enter without permission. Elfborn, however, are welcome. They are currently rebuilding parts of the city, but their agenda seems to include retaking the Empire at some stage...

Psychology: Most Ihueli elfborn are servile, docile, innocent slaves who are only now coming to realise their new freedom. Their free will, once no more than required to keep them alive, is growing. Some Ihueli stay as slaves, but many are rebelling, awaking from 'the Sleep'. These elfborn are agressive and often hate humans. Their community is growing in Mahiel.

Religion: The Ihueli once had their own religion, but most of it is now lost. Only a few retained it during The Sleep, and although some of the ceremonial tenets live on (including the use of eagle feathers, a replacement for phoenix feathers, in ceremonies) the overall religion is lost to all but a few. It is swiftly regrowing, though, as the Halehwen are encouraging Ihueli to take it up once more.

Appearance and Biology: Elfborn are, as a rule, short and willowy slim. Few of them are particularly strong or tough, although neither are they weak or soft. Most of them have above-average dexterity, but in turn almost all of them are shy of social interaction. Ihueli elfborn generally have attractive faces (who wants an ugly servant?), and all have pointed ears and cat-slitted eyes.

Other races: Ihueli elfborn that have broken free of 'The Sleep' have a general hostile demeanor towards other races which ranges from dislike to outright hatred.

Languages: Most (but not all) Ihueli speak the language of Ihuel (which goes by the same name.) All of the elder ones (who still remember the days of slavery) and those still in slavery speak Me'ama or I'hasa depending on where they were enslaved.

These I love!  Itâ,¬,,¢s like a The Matrix but in D&D and without computers or machines.  I can just picture the rebel Halehwen stealing an Aequiian speedship and conducting piracy against their former masters while trying to wake their Sleeping kinsmen.

The Güerin-Aelwyd

The tall, strong, dark-haired people of Aelwyd have always battled amongst themselves, but if any common enemy abounds, they will join together and battle any who threaten their homeland. Led by the druids, the Güerin are deeply religious, and in battle they will fight to the death. They are characterised by their longshields and iron armour (although those who have tasted of the Medd-gwylltineb often wear nothing at all). Their native language is the Old Tongue, of which there are several dialects, and they are known to have a deep alliance with the wood-folk. The most common dialect is Aelwyda, but there are four other dialects; Gaela, the northern tongue, Llafar-Aelwyda, the tongue of the western parts, Derwydd, tongue of the druids, and Llafar-Môr, tongue of the Western Seafolk. Only Derwydd is unknown to normal Güerin.

What is the Medd-gwylltineb?  Some source of magical power?  A divine spring?  Or do they merely taste in a metaphorical sense?


OK Iâ,¬,,¢ve given you my opinions on a few of the races and questions on a few others.  So far my comments have been pretty much â,¬Å"I like it,â,¬Â but I find that looking at all the races is quite tedious.  There are just so damn many of them.  I have not even looked at all the races and I have seen at least three different elfborn, three different dwarfborn, multiple sea races, and many, many races that, for as much as I can discern, are human sub-races.  Itâ,¬,,¢s just too much to handle.  If youâ,¬,,¢re going to keep all these races, you need to state your core human stats (I when I say your core I mean you base, not PHB), core elfborn, dwarfborn, etc.  And then for regional variations simply state statistical changes, donâ,¬,,¢t reprint a whole new statblock.  As it is, though I think the races need to be simplified.  If you want regional variety, use a regional feat system like in Forgotten Realms or something like that.  I understand wanting diversity, but right now itâ,¬,,¢s just overwhelming.

[Wensleydale]

Iâ,¬,,¢m not sure exactly what this means, how would you determine breath weapon strength?

I like the elfborn.  They almost seem more powerful now (stat-wise, definitely not politically) than elves did before.  They lose their weapon proficiencies, but gain Run, +3 to move silently, and an additional +1 on listen and spot.  No automatic search for secret doors, though.  -2 CHA instead of CON, nice for most core classes, but you arenâ,¬,,¢t using core classes, I donâ,¬,,¢t think. [/quote]
These I love!  Itâ,¬,,¢s like a The Matrix but in D&D and without computers or machines.  I can just picture the rebel Halehwen stealing an Aequiian speedship and conducting piracy against their former masters while trying to wake their Sleeping kinsmen.[/quote]What is the Medd-gwylltineb?  Some source of magical power?  A divine spring?  Or do they merely taste in a metaphorical sense?[/quote]
OK Iâ,¬,,¢ve given you my opinions on a few of the races and questions on a few others.  So far my comments have been pretty much â,¬Å"I like it,â,¬Â but I find that looking at all the races is quite tedious.  There are just so damn many of them.  I have not even looked at all the races and I have seen at least three different elfborn, three different dwarfborn, multiple sea races, and many, many races that, for as much as I can discern, are human sub-races.  Itâ,¬,,¢s just too much to handle.  If youâ,¬,,¢re going to keep all these races, you need to state your core human stats (I when I say your core I mean you base, not PHB), core elfborn, dwarfborn, etc.  And then for regional variations simply state statistical changes, donâ,¬,,¢t reprint a whole new statblock.  As it is, though I think the races need to be simplified.  If you want regional variety, use a regional feat system like in Forgotten Realms or something like that.  I understand wanting diversity, but right now itâ,¬,,¢s just overwhelming.[/quote]

I see what you mean. I've thought of doing that, and... well, I think it's a good idea. Basically, yes, there's a subrace for every part of the world... I think perhaps I should ditch the stat information and just make a single stat post (with each variation and what have you)?

[Matt Larkin (author)]

Well, I owe you a Kahtar review.  I truly meant to get to this while it was Setting of the Week, but it is so easy to fall behind.  I'll go through this and comment on each part as I read it, as that seems the easiest way to deal with a long setting (if not the best), so forgive me if something has been answered later.

Map
This looks very nice and the more readable fonts help.  The northwestern portion clearly looks like Europe, while the other areas only loosely resemble what you would except for Asia and Africa.
The colors of borders for the Aequii Empire and the Numidi Empire are too similar to tell apart, but since they are in different areas, it doesn't matter much.

Kahtar as a Setting
As I have found in my own work, there are advantages and disadvantages to having a world that is so open and encompasses so many cultures.  It has many possibilities, but it is a lot of work, too.  Also, the same diversity makes it hard to pin down a central theme when asked for one.

Aelwyd
I looked at this in some detail and commented on it when it was first posted.  It's one of my favored areas, though it seems you haven't copied all that much of it yet.

Numidi
Please clarify: So Numidi was conquered by the Aequii Empire?  And it is now independent?  Part of the text sounds like it is still ruled by the Aequii but on the verge of revolt, part sounds like its already cast out the conquerers.
The second spoiler clears it up a little but leaves me curious for more information.

Astalia
It sounds interesting enough to leave one wanting a little more.  I must say, however, the name Astalia sounds more European than eastern.  This claim has no factual basis (at least I have done no research in the particular name), I can only tell what it evokes.  It also sounds a lot like Warhammer's Estalia (Spain).

Amayata
Now this sounds like some dark fantasy I can really get in to.  But more details are needed.

Mhithad
The fact that they are led by the "Hag Empress" has my attention.  Is this based of Norse culture the way some of your other cultures seem based of historical ones?

Magic
The Spirit World motif is a good way to unify diverse myths from different cultures.  Interesting that you give it a new name.

Once, the Amenta Rifts covered the world. Common men could destroy with a word - or create. But they are sealing... and the power of the ancients is long gone. The Aequii seek the few truely open, undamaged ones left in the world - most of them are congealed, and allow little through.

This is why they seek to conquer Aelwyd and the East.

Binding, or coded magic, is different - it involves pulling some of the essence of an Amenta Rift into an object, allowing it to always pull on the Amenta in some way. Usually binding allows the wielder of an object to use a specific Talent, or augment their own weaves in some way... but almost anything is possible.

Languages[/b]
Yeah, I have to agree with that skill.  Decent feat though I don't see many people taking it.  Good solid list of languages.  Never been a fan of "common."

Races
Good detail on the Aequii, though I have mixed feelings about giving different humans different stats.  The racial skill bonus is very nice, though if it still means giving up the free human skill point each level and free feat like you mentioned in Aelwyd, I'd feel cheated.

Dragon-born have good flavor.  Stats may be overpowered unless there is a level adjustment.  I'd say the benefits exceed the price of having racial hit dice (and decent racial hit dice at that).

I love that you made changelings seafolk.  I have a sea-gypsy culture, but they are not changelings!  That's very awesome.

The Aequii Elfborn have nothing to do with normal elves?  Weren't there elves in Aelwyd?

The other races look nice, though I don't have time to go into detailed reading on them all.  I think I read some of these when the settings were seperate anyway.

Classes
To be honest, I don't like a class system in general.  However, this is for D&D (right?), so I'm sure you can find someone interested in crunch that will look those over in more detail.

Religion
You've put great effort into this, which I think is good because religion can influence a culture so much.  

Overall
It seems you detail the regions that needed more information later.  I hope to get back to this at a later time, but your work is very extensive.  I find a website helpful for sorting through this much information, though the board format does allow you to control the order of reading.

Good luck with your continued work.

[SDragon]

which region is the asian one? i want to be able to give that a look....

[Wensleydale]

:P That would be Adasya on the map, which includes Do-Bejh, the Mahi and Astalia.

[beejazz]

How did I miss this earlier? Oh... right... real life. But man, I love what you've done with the magic system. A flexible system is good to see... though I'm not a huge fan of point systems myself. Looking good, though.

As for the setting itself... I envy you the ability to come up with so much interesting world detail. Others have pointed out the only obvious flaws I saw (such as fishing the plains) and some I didn't notice.

I'll comment more when I've read more, but this looks good.