Cabal, A Metropolis of Ruin and Factions--Discussion of Setting

[JackOfTales]

I had no idea what format to start presenting stuff so just started throwing it out. It'll find its way to being organized eventually and hopefully in a more pleasing format. Thoughts on it are helpful though, I hope you can point out what is difficult about it. One of the reasons its broken down into such small sections is because I hate reading through blocks of text to find my previous thoughts. They change far too frequently for me to even remember what I had already made up.

1) Thanks on the introduction, it was just what came to mind. I didn't to one bit of editing on it and just spun it out as it came.

2) What is up there is intended to be vague, more of an introduction than anything else. The Hedge Magic was intended to be a general term for a variety of 'styles' and I have two in mind that I'll be posting soon: Witches [still thinking of something to call they're magic casting type] and Danib Magic. I'd also like to specify that the vast majority of these are fluff only. This will become more apparent when I talk about specific examples.

2a) Most of what I wrote involves the various factions in the city, certain places and other miscellaneous bits. I feel I can't focus exclusively on one aspect of a campaign without growing tired of it so I jump around a bit. Currently magic is my flavor of choice.

3) I am already considering how to bring in Dark pacts effectively. I'm not big on making my own stuff, but if a player comes to me with something homebrewed that is well done and has a semblance of balance than I will try to work it into the game and allow it. This goes with pretty much everything.

4) Goblins! That's actually a great idea. I think I'll translate the Hand of Bone faction over now and then maybe open up a Races section to work on

EDIT: Also, one reason you may not like the formatting is right now it's designed partially like a law...with sections and subsections. Just be happy I didn't include Paragraph and Sub-subsections...I really need some help with format!

[Ninja D!]

That was another problem...I don't know what bothers me about the format.  As long as it works, though, go with it.

[JackOfTales]

Update: Copied over information on two new factions: "Hand of Bone" and "Children of the Storm"
        Added 'Witchcraft' paragraph
        Added example Wizard School
        Explained aspects of the setting
       

[Ninja D!]

You seem to have re-formatted some things.  Sizing in particular stands out.  I'm putting this in a new tab. That means I will be reading it sometime today and giving you my thoughts.

Here's to hoping you bring more over soon and continue to be an active community member, cheers.

[JackOfTales]

Right, I said 21000 per square mile, but really meant 21000 per 250 square miles, which is 84 per square mile. The entire USA is 80 per square mile.

As for fitting 4-5 million it could be done. It really depends on how tightly packed together the people are. Calgary has the lowest population density of all cities over 1 million in North America, at 1,360.2/km² (3,522.9/sq mi). Where as New York has a density of 27,147/sq mi (10,482/km²), 7.7 times as much. The greatest population density I could find is Mumbai in India with 21,880 /km² (56,669 /sq mi), which is over twice that of New York.

Uruk was a city back in Sumer and later Babylonia, around 3000 BC, with a population density of apx 11,000 /km² at its height, though of significantly smaller land area. That would give you a population of just over 7,000,000.
see also

I don't know how I didn't notice this post before but I really like what you bring up. I envisaged a densely packed city filled with people, at least that's how it used to be. And now there's just a bare few people packed into specific areas of the city. I boosted the square mileage up to 280 which is closer to NYC. while there are no skyscrapers now I can throw around a few immensely large towers that were essentially ancient condos.

[JackOfTales]

Update: Added one of my other favorite groups: The Nobleborn. I'd love to be a player in a game focused on this faction, even though it will likely never happen. Too bad both games I'm Dming in the city at the moment are far from ever nearing this faction.

Also, I should note that if anyone actually -likes- the setting enough to make use of it [unlikely since I know we all love to make and play in our own worlds] that I don't care at all if you use any or all of it in a game. I'd love to hear how it goes too. Many aspects from this setting are torn and modified from both published and unpublished settings anyway.

[Snargash Moonclaw]

Actually, where "overarching" cosmologies are acceptable, given some degree of interdimensional play and bleed-over along the lines of fae forest pockets, this city could easily manifest in a number of settings. Since it's only a very small area relative to any typical landmass (much less planet) it could readily go into any setting - whether it connected to others or not. If it did, minimization of "cross-contamination" could even be built in - one or more factions which make it a priority to return or eliminate those who frequently wander in from other places (or at least those they didn't bring in themselves. . .) Motives for doing so could vary widely. It could potentially be very like Sigil, but I think this could also be easily avoided. If you've read Zelazny, Merle's house near the Courts of Chaos has always presented an model of an interdimensional "architectural folly" that I've really liked - this might be possible here on a larger scale. Architectural (and similar) consistency could be maintained in any given manifestation yet vary (perhaps even radically) between the different ones - offering clues to those who do move between them of "which version" they're actually in.

[JackOfTales]

That's a really good concept. I'm not sure which I like better.

It helps out alot in some very good respects however. For example, I have one day every three years that's a giant fesitval/market day because this...odd...caravan comes down the road from the North. Thing is, there is no towns or cities up there. No one knows, no one asks questsions. No one stays behind from the caravan, no one leaves with it. I had planned for it to be a crazed place filled with all sorts of strange people that are absolutely not from this world.

On another note, all of the gods for this world have come from somewhere else. Two have come from past campaign settings of mine, one was there from long ago, and two twins come from another planet's pantheon. Essentially many aspects of this city and world do not even belong on the plane it is located on. I'm going with the idea that gods aren't truly immortal. yes they do not age or die easily, but they can be killed. They also walk the earth and are not omnicient. They are simply very, very powerful beings. I hope, and expect, that some players will become gods in their own rights. In this way, when they start anew they can even be clerics to their own former characters or some such.