The Plateau: Brainstorming

[Rhamnousia]

This idea actually kind of snuck up on me from out of nowhere. I was thinking about the topic of alternate alignment models and  incorporating the Paracelsian tria prima of Mercury-Sulfur-Salt into the classical Air-Earth-Fire-Water arrangement and it just sort of spun out from there. I hope you can forgive the disjointed, infodump style since I've never been particularly good at parsing my ideas and I'm still far from decided about a lot of the specific language.

When it comes to the sort of genre I'm trying to emulate, The Plateau is Clint Eastwood and Akira Kurosawa meets the Shaw Brothers and Guillermo del Toro. It's a mix of wuxia, chanbara, Hong Kong blood opera, dime novels and Spaghetti Westerns as written by HP Lovecraft, with a healthy dose of splatterpunk body horror thrown in for good measure. As you could probably guess, the bleakness of cosmic horror is an important theme, equally so are righteousness, duty, revenge, adventure, glory, morally-ambiguous codes of chivalry, and perhaps most of all, furious defiance of those very same unknowable horrors.

The titular Plateau is a brutal, mercilessly unforgiving land equally informed by the high deserts of Colorado and Tibet. The land is rocky and ungenerous, nourishing little. Towering mountain ranges, jagged like rows of broken teeth, scrape the face of cold, bright Heaven that seems to loom far too low. The light of day is searing to the skin and blinding to the eyes, while the gloam of night is illuminated by swirling nebula of red and black set with stars like so many unblinking eyes.

The Men of the Plateau, not quite human and plagued by all manner of strange afflictions and peculiarities of form, live in trembling fear of the Thirteenth Throat-Crowned King, whose divine mandate from Heaven is irreproachably evidenced by the webbing between his digits, the many layers of his eyelids, and the collar of garish gill filaments encircling his throat. His death-masked Pale Riders range without rhyme or reason on their ghastly steeds, dispensaries of cruel justice in all its many sadistic forms. Few and far between are those peasants who do not throw themselves prostrate when they hear the grim call to prayer of the King from the East echoing across the wastes.

When the locals say the Plateau is "the place where men are close to their gods", they mean that in an incredibly literal sense. Behind the blue-white fluorescence lurk the many terrible Elder Gods, so close in fact that they can reach their appendages down from Heaven to touch the face of the earth. Most often it is just a long, dark shape silhouetted far in the distance that makes the innards squirm reflexively, but for those unfortunate enough to be any closer than that, few things can compare in terms of sheer sanity-straining awfulness. Each Elder God possesses many lesser sub-souls and emanations as well; while they have only a fragment of their progenitors' power and wisdom, they are few enough in angles that they can walk upon the Plateau itself.  Though all live in mortal terror of the Elder Gods and their Emissaries, that does not mean they do not pay them homage. Mad-eyed fire-and-brimstone prophets wander from town to town, spreading the word of a particular otherworldly horror that they might be spared from casual obliteration. Many among them are mediums channeling strange energies that their bodies and minds can barely withstand, with often-spectacular results. Currently, I'm trying to come up with another name for the Elder Gods: something along the lines of "the Thirty-Seven Monstrous Ancients of Heaven," though probably not that in particular.

Martial arts are the core of the setting, being the what separates the deformed, cowering peasants from the deformed, more-infrequently-cowering heroes. Also called the Sublime Refinements of Violence, there are far too many schools to ever be counted, some only taught in the remotest of monasteries while others are known across the Plateau. Schools are divided into two distinct paths: the Way of the Body and the Way of the Gun. All of them, however, permit students to perform feats beyond anything an unenlightened man would be capable of.  The esoteric forms warp not only space and time, but the very flesh of their practitioners on often-gruesome or alien ways. Styles include Horse-Faced Bird-Ogre, Diplomat's Castrating Tongue, Whistling Insanity, Fingers of the Far-Sighted Torturer, Mind-Consuming Parasite, Bug-Eyed Juggernaut, and Bone-Crushing Demon-Servitor.

Guns on the Plateau are on a roughly late Victorian level of development: revolvers and pepperboxes, shotguns, rifles, carbines. The largest specimens are jezzails nearly as long as a man is tall that must be braced to fire, capable of knocking down a horse or severing limbs, but these are the weapons of hinterland snipers, not wandering martial artists. Almost without exceptions, guns are extremely well-made, as much works of art and instruments of violence, featuring engravings, inlays, grips wrapped in silk and eelskin, etc. Though every gun-focused style teaches how to use a firearm as a lethal bludgeon, many also incorporate some sort of blade for when things get up close and personal.

Players take on the role of wandering warriors (i.e. murderhobos) in the vein of youxia, ronin, and The Man With No Name, almost certainly finding themselves on the wrong side of the Throat-Crowned King and his Pale Riders and quite possibly being stalked by Emissaries of Heaven as well. At this early stage, I envision them hunting down bounties, getting into duels with rival martial artists, defending peasant villages from roving bandits and cruel officials, unlocking secrets of terrible enlightenment, and other staples of the genre(s).

I hope you all enjoy what I have so far. I've got plans on expanding the setting a little more: deciding on an actual system, fleshing out martial art styles, trying to incorporate some of the Lovecraftian staples (Deep Ones, mi-go, etc.), expanding magic and mediums, and generally giving a more complete sense of the aesthetics of the Plateau. As always, I would love to hear ya'll's thoughts on this.

[HippopotamusDundee]

Holy shit there is so much concentrated awesome in this post that I can barely process it.

Just about everything you're riffing on here is on my list of favorite things so I don't have anything more coherent to say than I would happily play and/or GM this proto-setting for days on end and love every single minute of it.

[Weave]

I'd first like to mention that I am extremely envious of your writing ability.

Secondly, this is really, really cool. Do you envision the entire setting primarily taking place on the plateau, or are there other places nearby worth mentioning? What sort of terrain exists along the plateau? You mentioned lots of strange deformities on people... would players be able to create characters with crazy powers resulting from their twisted bodies?

I really look forward to seeing more of this. Please do go on!

[Seraph]

Wow.  Interesting.  The "Seven Samurai" meets "The Magnificent Seven" (I know the latter was based on the former) meets Cthulu.  This could potentially be very awesome.  I need to see more.  What you have is brilliantly written, so I am looking forward to it.

I just am intrigued that all of this started with your comment about wanting to have Mercury-Sulfur-Salt alignments, and everything that followed seems to have nothing to do with that.  So I am very curious to see how that comes in.

[Rhamnousia]

I'd first like to mention that I am extremely envious of your writing ability.

Secondly, this is really, really cool. Do you envision the entire setting primarily taking place on the plateau, or are there other places nearby worth mentioning?

Thanks! I was worried this was going to turn out to be one of my half-baked submissions, so it's heartening to see people are excited by the premise.

So, to answer your question, it's implied that there are lands beyond the Plateau, but no local has ever seen them and returned able to recount their experiences, if they return at all. Despite how clear the air is, even from the highest elevations it is impossible to see past the edge of the Plateau and staring for too long will only result in the disquieting feeling that perhaps the rest of the world really is nothing but a terrible void. That said, the Plateau is enormous: vast enough that unless you travel along certain proscribed latitudes, you may very well never even reach the border no matter how long you walk. Generally, the Men of the Plateau hold foreign climes with a mixture of paranoia and disgust: after all, the noble traveler who would become the First Throat-Crowned King came from the East, as do the ersatz Deep One outlaws. I'm batting around the idea of having some equivalent to the 7th Cavalry, an elite regiment of conscripted soldiers sent to fight mysterious battles in the borderlands with every expectation that they will return mutilated and/or insane.

What sort of terrain exists along the plateau?

The Plateau is a high desert along the lines of Colorado or Tibet. You have flat stretches of rocky, mostly-barren plains, parched riverbeds, and arid salt flats punctuated abruptly by towering, glacier-tipped mountains and mesas. Claustrophobic canyons and karst formations are some of the few places where more than a trickling stream can be found, but their high, narrow walls are no more comforting than the agoraphobic emptiness of the wastes. To sum up the Plateau in a nutshell: the sun is hot, the wind is cold, the earth is hard, and the grass is bitter.

You mentioned lots of strange deformities on people... would players be able to create characters with crazy powers resulting from their twisted bodies?

No. The strange deformities are just that: deformities. Strange growths and protuberances, lesions, tumors, cracked or peeling skin, patches of fungous or squamous flesh, too many or too few digits, faintly-misshaped limbs, joints that bend at unnatural angles, extremes of emaciation or obesity, sinister birthmarks, and stunted tails or horns are all accepted products of the sour light of the stars, but any mutations more severe than that and the parents take their children up to one of the high places, cast them towards Heaven, and do not look back. While it's not something I'd probably ever inflict on player characters, elders of the Plateau (who have already been baked by the merciless sun to the point that they appear leathery and almost mummified anyways) are sometimes afflicted by a star-borne disease: think cancer, only the tumors become increasingly intelligent as they grow more malignant.

[Rhamnousia]

I just am intrigued that all of this started with your comment about wanting to have Mercury-Sulfur-Salt alignments, and everything that followed seems to have nothing to do with that.  So I am very curious to see how that comes in.

Oh, yes, that. Tibetan cosmology and metaphysics recognize the four elements of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water as the basis of all phenomena in much the same way that Western alchemy did. I thought it would be interesting to add to that Paracelsus' three "philosophical" elements of Sulfur (the binding agent, representing emotion), Salt (substantiating agent, representing the body), and Mercury (the transformative agent, representing the spirit): there are hints of the Freudian Trio in there, which is what first piqued my interest. Tibet also had the fifth elements of Void, which I tweaked into the element of Nothingness, Which is at the Center. That will definitely need further mulling-over before I'm satisfied with it, so I'm curious to know what you think.

[Xathan]

This is awesome. Every question I had beyond that on first read through has already been asked, so I'm gonna leave it at that for now; also, this is vaguely similar to an old project of mine (both are Lovecraftian Western Martial Arts), only so much better,, so I figured I'd offer over the old settings for inspiration. Hope they help!


Reboot

Original

[Steerpike]

Damn you Superbright.  This is such a perfect fusion... I really wish I'd thought of it.  I may have to borrow elements of this for a Sixguns & Cyclopean Horrors episode...

[Humabout]

SB, this is just too freakin' awesome.  I really can't wait to see how this develops.  Keep it up!

[Seraph]

While it's not something I'd probably ever inflict on player characters, elders of the Plateau (who have already been baked by the merciless sun to the point that they appear leathery and almost mummified anyways) are sometimes afflicted by a star-borne disease: think cancer, only the tumors become increasingly intelligent as they grow more malignant.

OH MY GODS THE HORROR

[Rhamnousia]

OH MY GODS THE HORROR

I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not.

[Seraph]

OH MY GODS THE HORROR

I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not.

No, I was being serious; sentient cancer sounds utterly terrifying.

[Steerpike]

How Mythos-specific are you thinking of this?  As in, do the entities and creatures just feel Lovecraftian, with tenebrous elder gods and satyr-people and abominable monsters etc, or do the Great Old Ones actually exist with all of their servitor races and the Plateau is actually Leng itself...?

[Rhamnousia]

How Mythos-specific are you thinking of this?  As in, do the entities and creatures just feel Lovecraftian, with tenebrous elder gods and satyr-people and abominable monsters etc, or do the Great Old Ones actually exist with all of their servitor races and the Plateau is actually Leng itself...?

I'm going to try to hit all the main points of the Mythos without actually naming any names. Besides my stylistic decision to render everything in overly-long, obtuse-sounding English instead of using foreign words (the better to obscure who I'm ripping-off), I feel like the Great Old Ones have been done to death recently and it's robbed them of some of their power: the slumbering half-dead alien war-god broadcasting sanity-shredding nightmares is scary, but the moment you say "Cthulhu", I immediately associate it with so much inane pop culture baggage that it sort of falls flat. While that works for some settings, I'm trying to avoid most overt references; that said, there will be a school of martial arts called the Lord High Executioner Style. So, no, the Plateau isn't actually Leng, just broadly informed by it. While they won't have the same names, the Elder Gods of the Plateau and their many Emissaries will hit all of the classic Lovecraftian archetypes: the Destroyer, the Creeping Chaos, the Gate and the Key, the King in Yellow, the Wendigo, the Mother of 1000 Young, etc. The one exception is Azazoth, who is the element of Space. A major change, however, is that while the Elder Gods are alien and unknowable, that does not make them entirely hostile to the Men of the Plateau, inhumanly legalistic and unsympathetic. This is both to help them fit a little more neatly into tales of badass kung-fu gunslinging and adventure, but also because I feel like the "All Superintelligent Aliens Hate Us" has been done to death. I mean, if there are humans who find it morally unconscionable to inhale insects in their sleep, there's got to be at least one cosmic entity who doesn't want to annihilate us.

Tangent aside, in addition to the Elder Gods, there are the Outlanders: the Deep Ones, the Mi-Go, the Elder Things, etc, who are viewed by the Men of the Plateau with pretty much universally-xenophobic loathing. Part of what's giving me trouble here is trying to work them into the Western-style setting, a mold for which some fit better than others. The Deep Ones are imperious, jewelry laden dudes from the East who are seen as wanting to corrupt or undermine the simple folk of the Plateau with their strange foreign ways, either alone or working alongside the Pale Riders of the Throat-Crowned King. The Mi-Go are a natural fit as well, as fungous industrialists press-ganging locals to work to death in their labyrinthine mines and ripping apart mountains with their alien machinery. The cannibalistic Maggot-Men, the ghouls, dwell in deep caverns and tunnels beneath the surface of the Plateau and are incredibly wary of trespassers, sometimes raiding and butchering entire towns, though they also adopt foundlings and can be persuaded into cooperation. Any thoughts on what else you think I should try to incorporate?

[Steerpike]

I think that's a really wise way to go.  Using the actual Lovecraftian entities can be pulled off, but I agree that at times they've become almost kitsch, which is sort of the antithesis of what they should be (in my own Lovecraftian game I've used the slightly more peripheral Great Old Ones over Cthulhu or Yog-Sothoth: Shub-Niggurath, Nyarlathotep, Yidhra).

It's actually debatable whether the Great Old One really hate humanity.  Derleth would say so, but Derleth was wrong about most things.  Lovecraft was about cosmic indifferentism, not cosmic malignancy, after all.  But I do like the idea of Elder Gods who can sometimes be beneficent in a twisted way.

It sounds like you're hitting the main archetypes pretty well so far.  A couple things that come to mind with Leng and Lovecraft's Asia: Tcho-Tcho and Miri Nigri are always being connected with Asia, and there are also several allusions to the "Spiders of Leng" (I think in Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, incidentally the first Lovecraft story I ever read) a version of which might work well in the setting, maybe as creatures to ride around the Plateau.

It'd probably be best to rename all of these things, of course.  Then again I have something of an obsession with renaming.  When I am drawing closely from a source I either want to use all of the names very precisely (as I do in say Sixguns & Cyclopean Horrors, which is careful to reflect the Mythos with a degree of slightly lunatic precision) or I want to use none of the specific names (as in Underdeep, where I assiduously avoid calling Mind Flayers Mind Flayers or Aboleths Aboleths).

...

Looked up the reference:

Through those archaic frescoes Leng's annals stalked; and the horned, hooved, and wide-mouthed almost-humans danced evilly amidst forgotten cities. There were scenes of old wars, wherein Leng's almost-humans fought with the bloated purple spiders of the neighbouring vales...