Nordgārd Teaser

[Tangential]

[ooc]Due to complaining from several associates *coughtrollandveekiecough* and renewed work on the Nordgārd campaign I am posting up this teaser/ quick overview of the world itself. I am going to be out of town for the weekend, after which I will begin posting the campaign proper.

Critique, welcome (aka beat me, it feels so good).[/ooc]

Five Paragraphs. Five Continents. An Unnumbed World.[/b]

Nordgārd: Ancient men hold against the harsh wild recalling the Old Ways. Secretive elves live in primeval forests, keepers of the answers to questions unasked. Exiled refugees build fabulous contraptions, seeking to uncover new sciences and rites. Glorious bastions of unbridled righteousness clash with infinite varieties of ineffable evil. And the cold northern sun sets in the mighty realms of men.

Môrdrôm: Mayhap none may stand against the High King of the Duumêk, yet war between the dwarves and foul, twisted perversions of earth and stone has continued for millennial. The colossal Mornzak range splits the sky and beneath it mighty halls echo not just with hammers and bellows but with the conflicts of lords both minor and great that threaten to plunge an unshakable lineage into darkness

Orrukken: The savage hordes of the Chosen spread like wildfire, locked in eternal struggle for supremacy, playing out the endless cycle of nature itself. The incarnate blood of the once masters of the world vie with one another, blind to the rest of the world and unaware of the eldritch secrets beneath their very feet.

Greater Tlapquez: A pristine jungle, wild and thick with honey-sweet diseases and curses that rang out at the dawn of the world. None dare tread this and this brutal rain forest is without even the vestiges of any peoples that may once have so dared. Yet the rich loam and exotic goods are incredible lures to those who laugh in the face of death.

Lesser Tlapquez: A land of legacy, The Cradle, full of mystery and queer cultures lies of the verge of absolute conquest. Fabled lands band together against the relentless, inescapable, tyrants of Aestia, perhaps for naught. War-machines, trading empires, and hidden nations once in the threshold of ultimate power now struggle for survival. Every move is crucial in this dance of light and shadows.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Is it d20/D&D?

(Those are some nice ñ's ;))

[Hibou]

*pester... pester...

pesterpesterpesterpesterpester...

pester..*

[Tangential]

It uses D&D primarily, but there are enough additions and tweaks that one could safely call it d20.

Yeah I left the last line of them to show I wasn't crazy. And you know I find them...attractive...

*stab Troll*

[Hibou]

I don't really remember you speaking much of any of these elements other than Nordgard and the Orrukken. I'm intrigued.

[Tangential]

*nothing to see here, move along*

[Xathan]

This looks really interesting. The names sound Norse - is this going to be a Norse influenced world?

[Tangential]

Short answer: In so much as it is influenced by anything.

Long answer: Since I'm sort of a language geek I have the rough languages of what each culture speaks and the Alatari on Nordgard speak Norlisc, by which most of Nordgardian geography and culture was orignally named in... and Norlisc definitely does have Old Germanic language branches as it's inspiration.

For the record, the above was not a shameless bump, but instead an accidental post, which I edited.

[Xathan]

Ahh, ok.

When are we going to see more actual content? I'm really interested in this. Especially Môrdrôm. Môrdrôm looks bloody interesting. Maybe its just the "Twisted perversions of earth and stone" line, but I really want more on that place.

[Tangential]

The next week is rather busy for me, and my biggest challenge in showing off setting information is organized presentation, but I'll see what I can do in the next few days.

[Tangential]

I am bad at this sticking to my guns thing. But here's something a bit exciting...
http://dotradical.net/books/Ko7DS.pdf

[Tangential]

A quick vignette set in a distant corner of the world, squeezed it's way out of me over here.

http://www.plotstorming.com/forum/index.php?topic=159.msg1420#msg1420

[Tybalt]

What a strange and dark vignette--I quite enjoyed reading it. Is this a tale that would be well known?

[Tangential]

Thanks.

First note, that while this only happened 10 years ago or so it would actually be nigh impossible to know. Anjalio can't exactly tell anyone. And Ogambo (the unnamed man) probably wouldn't, besides possibly Hala herself, who certainly wouldn't be spreading the story around.

It would certainly be interesting to develop a non-cheese way that someone else discovered the tale. *cracks whip* :P

[Tangential]

Giles Folly

The Kingdom of the Seven Day Sun, the civilized home of the proud Alantari people, has had it's share of conflicts, even in recent years. The new outbreak of the Quarn Plague left four of the Seven Princes dead by 1264. By some coincidence of blood the tribes of the the Trackless Tundra were wholly unaffected by the Tlapquezian blight and a few of the more vengeful were eager to attack the Softmen when the opportunity arrived. Despite warnings from several of the triple-crones, when the disposed Giles Lord of Corwind came into the tundra looking for an army, he got it. Giles' wrath was great, for he had seen men he considered brother die to the plague and been blamed for it. Many say he went mad, for he constantly spoke of putting the princes spirits to rest.

Meanwhile, with Julian, Prince of the South's son Jacob too young to rule and Anna of Goodwill without an heir, this left two ruling regents that lacked political power beyond that of figureheads on council. The others sons, Richard and Garth were newly Princes of the North and of Eastmarch respectively and so lacked the strategic experience of their fathers and suffered from a lack of troops due once again to the plague. The remaining Princes were Peter of Southwatch, Mabe of the West, and Thomas of Gateward.

In the summer of 1266 Giles had easily taken the eastern half of the Kingdom of the Seven Day Sun. He slaughtered Garth in Eastmarch itself, found hilarity in burning Torch Keep and suppressed the rebellions of the lords and smallfolk of the area. Those households that did not flee or die were made to swear fealty to Corwind and his host swelled. This brought problems of itself for the men from the tundra had come to kill Alantari, not ally with them. But Corwinds mad charisma stilled most conflicts between his peoples. By winter they were poised to march on Rovegārd.

Even so, the prowess of the fighting men of the Kot7DS and the ancient loyalty their lords felt to even these fresh Princes, made for an enemy greater than Giles Lord of Corwind and his foolish barbarians could easily sweep away. While Giles made preparations for the coming spring of 1267, the Princes acted against all sanity, in the dead of winter. Their calls for aid, gone unheeded by a despondent Galerius, were at last answered, but not as they would have expected.

Galerius sent no army, did not call upon Taria to march. He did not implore Aramalos to aide the Kingdom of the Seven Day Sun, nor did he send more Bastion men than had come of their own accord. Instead he asked bid the religious refugees from Drune Hall, those who worshiped the Nine Summers who had come to Solartun for succor, to go north instead. If they could save the Princes then they could have the lands they desired.

And so the storm priests arrived and called warm breeze from the south into the Kingdom that rarely felt it. They coaxed the scent of lilacs from bushes not due to bloom, and they ushered patches of summer to surround the armies of the Princes. In a surprise attack a certain lord led the attack on Giles' man Lord Brunsay where his army sat in Blackwine. Simultaneously the valleys above Candlewood rang with the sounds of combat and more than half of the barbarous men were sent running back to the tundra or were killed where they stood.

True spring came and Giles forces lay decimated. He held only the Blackfangs, Eastmarch, Brun Keep, Pirn and Castamar. The Battle of Jon's Wake secured Pirn on New Years Day and Gallian's Purge took back the Blackfang Holds from within less than a fortnight later. A company of young men, whose fathers had been slain in the war, calling themselves the Blades of Redwinter after their home, fell upon the retreating men in the Gardens of Brun Keep. And, magically outpacing even the Peter of Southwatch (who they still call Old Terrible, today in his 119th year), they laid siege to Pirn for a week before Peter's troops came and shattered that citadel.

Castamar and Eastmarch were the last seats of power for Giles and rather than let himself be slowly killed by the advancing armies, and die holed up in an ancient castle, he ordered all to the field. And in a glorious and dooming charge his men came first upon Southwatch men and slew them. They fought their way back to the Blackfangs and under the guise of tabards stolen from Peter's troops they entered unmolested into those deep holds. And there it is said that Giles himself murdered Gallian and pronounced him without a shred of irony in his voice a craven traitor. Rather than secure the Blackfangs once more, having resigned himself to death and charmed his remaining men into fanatics, they left the undermountains to press west. Perhaps 200 men remained when they arrived, further west than the war had touched, upon the doorstep of Corwind. They fought through the meager men-at-arms there and slew the new Jackson, Lord of Corwind upon his wicker throne. And there Giles sat and bid his 80 soldiers bide, and await their deaths by whoever came first.

And so they died in the autumn of 1267 and Gile's Folly was ended.