Mordos: ATSMM

[Shezza]

Greetings and salutations. I am Shezza, and I've got a confession to make: I've been working on a campaign setting called Mordos for years, and been utterly unable to set down anything resembling a coherent setting. I've wandered into here several times on my 'sojourns through the wild reaches of the interwebs,' and noticed that there were a lot of good ideas to imitate and derive inspiration from.

I'm hoping that by posting some stuff here and receiving some constructive criticism, I can finally put this thing into a clear shape.

Feel free to comment, to make notations, to take notice. It'll all help me out.

Stay tuned for more updates-this thread is under construction!

Teaser: Coming up next, underlying themes!

-Shezza

[Shezza]

Okay, back from dinner, time for basic concepts.

Let's start at the beginning. What makes Mordos different?

One: There is no "Points of Light." There are instead large empires, in a brooding, tense peace.

Two: Nodes of power. There are places in Mordos that have a special concentration of power; the foundations of major nations (and the most powerful individuals in the world) rest on the connections to these special places.

Three: Mordos is a flat world. Why? Because that's different from most, that's why.

Four: Some major influences: Discworld, Cthulhu Mythos by H.P. Lovecraft and others, numerous others I can't think of at the moment.

Next...RACES.

Shezza

[LordVreeg]

Umm...did we lose you?

[Shezza]

@LordVreeg: I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, sir. Please elaborate. I'm involved in several local theater companies, and those tend to be very time-consuming, especially around this time of year. Both of the organizations I volunteer for are gearing up for shows in the near future, and being told to write an 8-page paper on three days notice is always fun.

Here's some more stuff; the ATSMM in this thread stands for As the Spirit Moves Me-I'm notoriously bad at putting the elements of this setting on paper, electronic or otherwise.

Please, read, critique, analyze. Make suggestions, call me an idiot, I'm pretty amenable.

Perhaps I should start at the real beginning. Sorry for the false starts. College and thesis papers can be a real pain.

Mordos has two main continents, split down the middle by the Central Sea, also called the Great Divide. There are also North and South poles, that are largely unvisited because they are so difficult and costly to get to. Mostly, we concern ourselves with the Western landmass, collectively called Alsanon, but more directly broken down than that. It is in fact one continent, but divided by the Inner Sea and the Maw of Solom (the deadliest desert in the world, if not the largest) into two areas: The Old World of the Seven Kingdoms to the north (making up approximately 2/3 of the continental area, and almost all of the arable land) and to the South is Thūve, the Ancient Lands.
Culturally, these two areas are highly distinct, but I'll get back to that.

The primary theme of Mordos is tension-brooding, anxious, waiting-to-snap tension. It is also heavily based on our own World history; you may recognize some things.
The first part of the tension is that between races: There are three primary categories. First is the monsters-these are few and far between (the most monstrous of acts are carried out by the humanoids). The Mind Flayers have tiny communities scattered around the world; they live mostly aboveground in secret, hiding their identities and preying upon humans. More to follow here, when I think of more monsters with cultures of their own that fit in the setting.
The second group is the Old Races: The Dragonborn or Drakaari, the Golden Elves, and the Fiendborn (Tieflings). These groups were building cities and exploring the far reaches of the world while men were discovering fire. They are, however, on the decline. Few of them realize it, after 10,000 years of dominance, but their days are numbered. They are, in a word, stagnant.
On the other hand are the new races: humans, gnomes, hobgoblins, and to a lesser extent Halflings and orcs.
So yes, there's some tension between the older races who view the accomplishments of the younger as vulgar and uppity, and resentment on the part of those younger, who feel slighted in appreciation of their growing power.
The second part is taken more directly from our history, and that's political: Some 98 years ago in Mordos, there was the Peace of Ten Nations. This peace ended a brutal multi-sided war, established the Hobgoblin Dominions under one High King, defined the borders, and established the rules by which countries now deal with each other. It is also fraying; already shadow wars, puppet states, and adventurers quarrel and quibble. Nationalism is flaring again, and some people (still a minority for now) openly call for a pretext to armed conflict. And the arbiters of the peace seem more helpless than ever to reassert it.

SOME SETTING NOTES
Obviously, this is not exactly a Medieval-era setting. Think post-Renaissance, to established nations. Think pre-Bonaparte, with more quibbling and less gunpowder. Magic is a rare and valued commodity; powerful magic items are all named, and all sought after, and require a permanent sacrifice on the part of the magician to make. Needless to say, they are extremely valuable. There is no gunpowder; there is, however, smokepowder, an alchemical concoction many times are costly as gunpowder was in our world. Personal firearms are rare and largely undeveloped. Why bother, when they were too expensive to fire. Cannon for ships are a different story, but again scorpions and catapults are regularly employed for their relative cheapness.

MAGIC in MORDOS

Magic is rare, and precious, and carefully guarded. I'm a little undecided on how it's going to work: For anyone who's read the Bartimaeus Trilogy, I want magic like that: Derived almost entirely from supernatural entities, achieved through binding them into service, into items, or into yourself. I also want to use Green Ronin's True Sorcery sourcebook, so this element might turn out to be flavor text, or I'll write new rules, or something. We'll see.

The Great Injunction
Magic is not used for political advancement. Full Stop. There are no battle mages or war wizards. This is for two reasons: First the Wizardwar, some 1,200 years ago, when entire cities were burned out of the world. That legacy is strong, and in large part the reason why mages of all stripes are feared as a general rule of thumb. The second reason, and the more pressing, is the Great Injunction, the one rule of all wizards. 'Magic shall not be used for political ends.' Powerful nobles and kings have magician advisors who divine or make suggestions, and the wealthiest might have magic bodyguards or assassins on retainer, but there is no outright magical combat on the battlefield. The reason the Injunction stands is that all mages swear to it, and that the Archmagi (rarely seen, rarely heard from, but potent indeed) are known to destroy those who violate it. Note that this applies only to the lands of the Seven Kingdoms; most certainly not Thūve or the Easterly Lands.

Scarcity and Rarity
When I said magic is rare, I meant it. Only 1 in 10,000 of the younger races has the Talent, and of those perhaps 1 in 1,000 pursue it.  More than that can dabble and work some small magics (many nobles and lords do, as a curiosity) but they never attain true power. In large part, practical magic is seen as a somewhat un-noble-like thing, something for the trained and tested. There are no magicians in the Seven Kingdoms that have a significant office; nobles with the Talent are removed from the succession.

Complications and Costs
Wielding magic is not without cost. For one thing, it takes lots of time and materials to train or operate as a magician/wizard. All wizards are taught via master/apprentice style relationships. An average length of apprenticeship might be 17 years, and rarely starts before early adulthood.
This is in large part because with a tiny number of exceptions (mostly involving powerful magic and demons) all magicians are infertile and sterile. There are no wizardly children. In return, however, they live extremely long lives, often stretching into centuries.
However, competition (occasionally descending into violence) is rife, and quite a few magicians are murdered or assassinated.
Finally rounding out the threats is that simply of the magic itself-wielding it is a dangerous business, and it quite frequently kills or maims those who use it. Overuse or abuse can actually change a person, especially regarding evil spells. Evil wizards are terrifying to look upon, with the damage they have wrought on their own bodies.

Hopefully in the next couple of days I can deliver some more info on the Land of the Seven Kingdoms, the Peace of the Ten Nations, and the Cosmology.

Ciao!

[Drizztrocks]

If you say so...your an idiot. Just kidding, of course.

    I like the Geography and how the world is flat. Especially your reason for why the world is flat: its different. You shouldn't even need that much, you could just say: cause its fantasy.

    But this does bring up other questions.

  How big across is Mordos?
  Is there an outer space in this setting?
  If there is an outer space, how does Mordos move in it?
  How deep down does the ground go?
  If you go or dig so deep you go right through the bottom, what happens?
  Does Mordos have a moon? Perhaps a flat one?
  Is there an apmostphere around the bottom of Mordos?


      AND, OF COURSE, MOST IMPORTANTLY IS THE GREATESTS QUESTION OF THEM ALL:

    Do the Dragonborn women have breasts?