Penda Lume setting brainstorm.

[O Senhor Leetz]

Here's a list of things that hopefully start shaping the Penda Lume in your mind's eye.

What there is...
-A Bronze Age level of technology (more or less). That means advanced navigation, seamanship, and ship building techniques (despite the rarity of timber in Penda Lume.) The systematic and widespread use of bronze for tools and stuff. Iron, and in rare cases, steel, do exist, but is special and not commonplace.
   
That also means that heavy plate armor is out, as are "big" weapons (greatswords, greataxes, all that big WoW stuff.) What there is are lots of daggers, knives, shortswords, falcatas, dirks, hand axes, shorter spears, javelins, clubs - basically anything you don't need lots of iron for and would work good on a boat. Armor in general is not the default - think "Greek Pirate" - maybe a light breastplate of boiled leather, some greaves, a nice shield - if any armor at all.
   
Now, there are explosive weapons. A oil/blackpowder material called pyronite has allowed for the development of massive bronze bombards, pottery grenades, and other explosives. However, because of the lack of iron and steel, personal firearms are rare on the verge of nonexistence.

Clockwork devices, both new and old are very very rare, but existent.

Low Magic - rituals, potions, alchemy - the good stuff.


What there isn't...
-Anything High Magic is right out. Orcs, elves, dwarves, unicorns - nada.

While there are strange and mysterious creatures, this will be a humanocentric setting, so other races are out. (This could change if I can think of some cool races)

As mentioned, lots of high-quality steel and iron stuff. A well-made sword is a rare thing. Full iron plate armor is unheard of - because 1.) the world is warm and maritime oriented, and 2.) there is not enough iron to go around for things like that.

Planes of Existence.

Lots of magic items.

And now, a quick description of Penda Lume
-A world of splintered shorelines, jagged mountains, verdant jungles, desolate wastes, swaying plains, stormy seas, and rugged isles, Penda Lume has been broken, remade, and broken again longer than any mortal knows. The ruins of ages past, both impressive and primitive dot the landscape and slumber beneath the seas. Crumbling statues peak from overgrown vegetation and the peaks of long-lost temples crest the seas. New cities rest on the bones of their older fore-bearers, beacons of civilization in a brutal and savage world. Knowledge is remembered, lost, found, and discovered. Brave explorers plunge the darkest depths, sailors traverse the deadly seas, and wanderers stumble upon unmapped lands. In world that has died before and is destined to die again, nothing is quite what it seems.

[Ghostman]

What there isn't...
-Anything High Magic is right out. Orcs, elves, dwarves, unicorns - nada.

Don't you mean High Fantasy? Orcs aren't usually very magical :)

[Superfluous Crow]

Interesting tone. Somewhat primitive, or classical perhaps, but with advanced elements that still seem to be in line with the rest of it.
And then there's the vibrant imagery of broken statues and lush/extreme nature.

[O Senhor Leetz]

Interesting tone. Somewhat primitive, or classical perhaps, but with advanced elements that still seem to be in line with the rest of it.
And then there's the vibrant imagery of broken statues and lush/extreme nature.

Think Greek-punk. While I was doodling the map, I was also watching Peter Jackson's King Kong, and thought that Skull Island looked really cool and that to have dozens if not hundreds of theses uncivilized (not unpopulated), overgrown, savage islands covered with vine-cloaked ruins would be awesome.

What are your thoughts on further tweaking (heavily) Greek myth for this setting? (nothing direct, but influential.)
 

[Steerpike]

Looks great so far.  So it`s a bit like an evolution of Arga, then?

[O Senhor Leetz]

A spiritual successor, some may say. I'm just trying to pull away from Arga's influences a bit and make this setting even more unique and focused.

[O Senhor Leetz]

race idea: automaton people whose creator-god died. now there are only x left.

[Steerpike]

Wow we think alike!

From Xell:[ic=The Defunct]Then there are the Defunct: a machine people, manufactured many millennia ago, some say by the city's original architects.  Now, after the death or departure of that legendary sire-race, they are servants without masters.  Their wires fray; their minds erode; without a purpose they live a nihilistic, meandering existence.  Many have become disconnected with reality, wandering the streets like rusting vagabonds.  A few are violent; some of Xell's more gruesome murders have been the work of Defunct succumbed to the psychosis of the existential abyss.[/ic]

[O Senhor Leetz]

here's a terrain only map.

if anyone has suggestions on where cities could/should be located, terrain, geography, etc. let me know, as I have a problem deciding where cities and stuff should go.

[Superfluous Crow]

Nice. Much more Penda Lume-ish than the inverted Arga map.
It's late, so I'm not in the mood to paste labels onto your map so I'll try to describe city locations:
*The northern piece of land to the right of the northern mountain range. The city should probably either be located in the center or near the end southern end of the peninsula.
*The top-most left corner or there abouts. Rugged arctic city?
*One of the southern islands, or maybe the pointy southern peninsula.
*on the island to the right of the broken island chain.    
*The left-most bay/inlet. That is, the bay under the triangular lake. Perhaps just below the large mountain chain? There is a small hole there.

[O Senhor Leetz]

*The northern piece of land to the right of the northern mountain range. The city should probably either be located in the center or near the end southern end of the peninsula.

Yeah, I was thinking one (or maybe a small kingdom of free cities). I kinda planned on having that large area be a plain littered with ruins and dungeons from an old kingdom. The group of cities to the south could have part of their economy or purpose in being an access point to this "Dungeon Field." To further give purpose to these cities, the northern coast is plagued with harpies, and it's cliff-shores a nigh impossible to scale, let along dock a ship on.

*The left-most bay/inlet. That is, the bay under the triangular lake. Perhaps just below the large mountain chain? There is a small hole there.

That could work for sure,  now for a purpose for the city.

[Ghostman]

There's a very roughly circular gulf in the center of the map, connected to the sea via a narrow, island filled strait. The biggest one of these islands would make a wonderful site for a maritime port-city, able to control naval access through the straits (and hence, traffic between the gulf and the outer seas.)

[Superfluous Crow]

Hmm, yeah, I was considering that too, but the circular bay seems to be cut off on all sides by mountains so they can't possibly benefit from much sea traffic there. Unless of course one could imagine some sort of cliffside mining with rich copper veins or some such so that there'd be a reason to send ships into the isolated bay. Or perhaps it's just a good place to fish :P

[O Senhor Leetz]

Oooh oooh! I had an idea for that too. Where the land is narrowest between that inner sea and the gulf right to the south, I thought having an underground maze of water-filled tunnels that brave or desperate sailors could take. On one hand, it would take weeks/months of the east-west journey, but unless you have either an experienced captain or a good map, you would run the serious risk of being lost in the water-logged maze, if the creatures of the caverns didn't get you first.

[edit] Think like a giant, water-filled Moria w/ tunnels large enough to sail a ship through.

[O Senhor Leetz]

here's a preview of the some of locales of Penda Lume and there approx. locations.



2. The earlier mentioned "Dungeon Field." A vast expanse of ruined cities, temples, and citadels. Hemmed in my mountains to the west and harpy infested cliffs to the east.
3. The Vordek Wastes: a grey, dry, gloomy expanse that no one has the seen end of.
4-6. Kingdoms to by developed.
7. A mystic isle of something cool.
10. The ? Sea. the afore mentioned underground tunnel sea. A water-filled Moria large enough to sail ships through. Dramatically shortens trips, but is dangerous: easy to get lost, and almost as easy to get eaten by the grimgoyles, who fortunately hate the light more than they hate being hungry. Don't let those torches burn out!
11. grasslands of some sort.

ok that's all I have set (kinda) for now. If anyone is curious about a specific place/number, let me know, because that will give me something to focus on. ;)