Memory Fading

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Thanks LV, it took me a very long time to find my voice on magic in Shadowfell - as some people may remember (LC helped a lot with this, as well as the MIA Cymro) on the old WotC Shadowfell threads, it took a very long time and a lot of discussion to best figure out how to make elemental magic work in my particular setting.  As for the spell list, that will probably wait until 4E (as with a lot of other things) - right now, I'm getting all my fluff up to date, so when 4E comes out, I can get to work on the Krunch.  Of course, if I stick with 3.5, then I'll already have a lot of stuff ready, and will get that up as well.

For the Law of Magical Conservation, you hit the nail on the head.  If enough people got together with a ritualistic spell, there would probably be some lights dimming here and there.  Hell, I've even entertained the idea of a ritual spell so massive that it sucks all the warmth out of the sky and turns Ord into a snowball Ord for a time - something like a magical catastrophe-based global warming (or cooling?).

Tidus is a "he." :)  Current Daenism is a much looser version than hundreds of years ago.  The priesthood speaks in various churches about the fallacies of paganism (such as faith in the New Lords, or the Kowuya religion, and they also consider animism as a pseudo-religion.  Sorceries and other magics (other than the category of incarnates) are looked upon as either devil magic, or at least blasphemous to the natural will of God.  Practicing Daenites to go church one day a month and tithe a small percentage of their earnings for the betterment and spreading of the church and its cause.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

I have recently made two major updates to Memory Fading on the wiki.  The first is a complete overhaul of the Trakloks page, with a good bit of history, legend, and lore:

http://www.thecbg.org/wiki/index.php/Trakloks

The other is a large portion on traklok religion, called Gardul Han, here:

http://www.thecbg.org/wiki/index.php/Knowledge_%28Memory_Fading%29#Gardul_Han

Oh, and the first page on this thread has been COMPLETELY revamped with new information, and better flavor text.  Soothe my ego, read the darn page! ;)

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Added another section to religion, detailing (somewhat) the traditions of animism held by the sydhi:

http://www.thecbg.org/wiki/index.php/Knowledge_%28Memory_Fading%29#Marusai-Ir

[LordVreeg]

fENS
I like the feel of the fens.  They feel creepy, like the Black Marshes.   I can easily see a few good adventures here.  Are you creating your own Hags here?[note=nighthags]In Celtricia, I took the template of the old D&D nighthag, but these are bloodwitches who have made pacts with powerful Entropic Outsiders...so Nighthags in Celtricia used to be human...[/note]  And where do your dragons come from?

You mention Screaming Dead, Moaning Dead, and Creeping Dead in this page.  I am guessing they aer all the same thing, mirroring the place in the creative developmental cycle of the TurtleOverlord.  I like the take-off on the indian burial ground thing, twisted with fratricide.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Thanks Vreeg. I am actually creating my own hags, since though I'm currently playing 4E, I'm working on my own version of magic in regards to witchcraft and rituals.

As for the dragon, he's not really a dragon, that's just what the locals think he is since they don't know better.  He's a personal hybrid/mix of the feytouched crocodile from the new 4E Monster Manual, and an anklosaurus.

Your comments on my adjectives for the undead are ironically humorous, considering that I was just using those words interchangeably, but there actually are different types of undead below the surface (zombies, ghouls, ghasts, and revenants is what I have in mind).

And yes, indian burial grounds rock for creepy history.

Thanks for reading!!

[Nomadic]

No undead turtle abominations with the strength to level a town?

[LordVreeg]

SO what type of origin for the Hags?  I sort of like the idea of humanizing them a bit.  

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Vreeg, I haven't fully fleshed the hags out yet - as you may can tell, much of this new info on the Fens is very much... well... new.  However, my primary source of inspiration on my hags is Baba Yaga.

And Nomadic, there are turtlominations, i just haven't gotten around to them yet.

[LordVreeg]

More witchcraft, more rituals!!  
I will curse you with a Vreegish Ball-Gag if you do not tell us more about witchcraft!
here is the effect of my 'ritual or witchcraft' casting.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Actually, focusing currently on runic magic (when it comes to magic, that is), but mostly focusing on the Chulgeth and the Hiths - which, interestingly enough, have a heavy ritualistic-magic quality to them, so maybe I just lied and will be focusing on ritual magic soon? ;) :)

[LordVreeg]

That's the best lie!  

[Ishmayl-Retired]

I thought so. :)

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Along with the previous post, the sydhi and trakloks have been majorly updated.  All these updates have been posted for awhile now on their respective Memory Fading wiki pages, but I thought maybe a few more people would get some words in if I posted here.

[Llum]

Alright, so I started checking out Memory Fading, after a bit of confusion with all the Shadowfell being tossed around, it's clearer now. I get a strong Wheel of Time vibe from your setting, which is strange since there are few resemblances.

The resemblances I did see, where the Aedryn as the Forsaken, Trakloks remind me of the Ogryn, other then those I just a big vibe from it :p

Now I this seems pretty much a staple, and as far as I can see it may be due in part to low comparative numbers, but Humans have many different cultures, yet non-humans have quite a bit fewer. I know that the Sydhi, Urshaels and Lost Ones are basically a single race, drumen and trakloks come from a single race, myari seem to be a single race as well.

Basically my question is why do Humans have so many different cultures compared to non-human races? It seems its mostly because they hold a lot more land compared to the other races, except maybe the Urshael. If that's how it is, no problem makes sense since the non-humans don't have enough separation to become distinct cultures (ala Sydhi vs Urshael).

Trakloks seem to be fairly normal race, very clannish and such. However they all seem to be unnaturally unlucky, I mean attacked by a Wyrm then a meteor dropping on their capitol city >_< Almost seems like you hate the people :P

A second thing about the Trakloks is sense of honor, this seems to be a huge problem in battle, something other races could easily take advantage of.

For the cosmology, I liked the four separate moons made from a primal element.

Now I did have a question, is there any relation between the fallen Aedryn and the shadakin? It seems to me that they occupy a similar area, evil outsiders who are extremely powerful and want free reign in Alsa Eru. Maybe the Aedryn aren't as inherently evil, but I would imagine after millenia of being stuck in the palace they would grow bitter.

The Immortals (aside from the Sydhi and Ursahels) seem to play a very minor role in the world. With the Dragons and Vampires being very powerful and essentially loose amongst the mortal races, they have very little actual impact.

The layout on the wiki is very good, however some pages lack the main navigational hub, which is somewhat frustrating, mainly because its out of place. Other then that its probably the nicest wiki layout I've personally ever seen.

Overall I enjoyed the setting, seems very classical but well done. However the Historical Grudge of the Sydhi against the Humans seems somewhat ignored when the urshaels invaded. Now I can see how this makes sense since the Sydhi were in danger aswell, but still seems off how they basically came and helped them not get crushed, especially the Gaardans who chose to not help them in the War.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

An 'ancient Gaarden minstrel', eh?  So what part did music play in this society?  I look forward to the uploaded piece.  It has such a 'folky' (in a good way) feel, one could see it making the rounds of taverns, and the sitting rooms.

I'll see what I can do, but I'm pretty sure it won't be in any way historically authentic to Scandinavian/Moscovian music. Hope you and other music connoisseurs (LC, I'm looking at you) don't mind too terribly much.

Alright, so I started checking out Memory Fading, after a bit of confusion with all the Shadowfell being tossed around, it's clearer now. I get a strong Wheel of Time vibe from your setting, which is strange since there are few resemblances.

The resemblances I did see, where the Aedryn as the Forsaken, Trakloks remind me of the Ogryn, other then those I just a big vibe from it :p

Wow, thank you very much for your detailed response.  I'll try to answer your questions as best as I can.  Just to get the confusion out of the way, Shadowfell used to be the name of my campaign setting, and had been since 2003.  However, with the coming of D&D 4th Edition, and with Wizards bringing their own version of that word to the public eye, it became necessary (for more reasons than one) for me to come up with a new appellation for my setting.  I won't got into the details, but Shadowfell is no more, and if there are mentions anywhere throughout my write-ups, it is simply a slip of the mind in the last revision(s) I did.  

As for the similarities you noticed with the Wheel of Time, if I may hazard a guess, I believe large portion of that "vibe" probably comes from the fact that I (as you point out below) put a lot of work into diversifying the various human cultures.  WoT is known for being - with two notable exceptions of the Oghier and the various Shadowspawn - a human-centric world.  Jordan has many different cultural flavors, and I fully admit that at least some aspects of my human-centric-ness in Memory Fading does come from inspiration from Jordan, Williams, and even a bit of Eddings.

The Aedryn were actually inspired by (if anything) the Nephilim, though admittedly, I do not make that terribly apparent.  As for the Traklok/Oghier connection, well, if the Trakloks are modeled specifically after anyone, it would probably be Klingons, though I don't think that is even entirely accurate.  They are no naturalistic (ala Ents or Oghiers), they are not overly tall, and they do not have anything resembling Stedding, Waygates, or Stumps, so they are not (intentionally) based off of Oghiers. :)

Now I this seems pretty much a staple, and as far as I can see it may be due in part to low comparative numbers, but Humans have many different cultures, yet non-humans have quite a bit fewer. I know that the Sydhi, Urshaels and Lost Ones are basically a single race, drumen and trakloks come from a single race, myari seem to be a single race as well.

Basically my question is why do Humans have so many different cultures compared to non-human races? It seems its mostly because they hold a lot more land compared to the other races, except maybe the Urshael. If that's how it is, no problem makes sense since the non-humans don't have enough separation to become distinct cultures (ala Sydhi vs Urshael).

Very good questions, and it comes more from my (very minimal!) studies in anthropology than anything else.  The simple fact of the matter is that the humans have a much larger dispersement than any of the other races, at least on Alsa Eru.  The Trakloks have holed up pretty much in Duarmenstor, the Sydhi are essentially just one cultural aspect of the immortal fey, and they too have been holed up in just one (or a few) places for a long time, the Sul are a very new race and have not had much chance to spread out, the sirish do have two distinct cultures (which I haven't detailed greatly yet), but other than that, they also haven't spread out much.  The Myari are probably the closest race to being similar to humans in their diversity, and I suppose I could probably actually differentiate different myari clans a bit, and it would make perfect sense.  However, back to the question at hand, it comes down to the fact that per area, the non-human races are far fewer, and have not spread out their DNA/gene pools that much.  I don't know if that's a satisfactory answer - if not, I'll try again! :)

Trakloks seem to be fairly normal race, very clannish and such. However they all seem to be unnaturally unlucky, I mean attacked by a Wyrm then a meteor dropping on their capitol city >_< Almost seems like you hate the people :P

Ah, my beloved Trakloks.  It is said that God will often put the harshest of trials and tribulations upon those He loves most (think Job, for you Hebrew-myth scholars out there), and what is a Campaign Builder other than the ultimate God of his or her world?  I love the Trakloks, and thus, if nothing else, I enjoy giving them the most drama!

A second thing about the Trakloks is sense of honor, this seems to be a huge problem in battle, something other races could easily take advantage of.

It's possibly other races could, but then again, other races could take advantage of the Myari's small height ("Look, let's just roll some logs down the hill on them and be done with it!"), the sirish's cold blood ("Make 'em fight us in the Frozen Wastes, they won't stand a chance!"), or the various humans' oh-so-human-like mortality ("All we have to do is starve them for a few decades and they'll forget what they're fighting about!").  I don't think the trakloks' code of honor would make them weaker in battle than any other race - I don't think it weakened the various Knights and Samurai of our real-world history, did it?  If I'm wrong, please let me know. :)

For the cosmology, I liked the four separate moons made from a primal element.

Yeah, actually all the planets are my representation of the different "planes of existence" in standard D&D cosmology.  The four moons are the four elemental planes, and the other planets represent certain planes of existence as well.  Unfortunately, as LC pointed out a little while back, that was all written in the vein of 3-5 years ago, and runs a bit too close for comfort to being parallel with WotC's cosmological system, so I don't really know how that will affect things as I continue writing.

Now I did have a question, is there any relation between the fallen Aedryn and the shadakin? It seems to me that they occupy a similar area, evil outsiders who are extremely powerful and want free reign in Alsa Eru. Maybe the Aedryn aren't as inherently evil, but I would imagine after millenia of being stuck in the palace they would grow bitter.

They actually have never had any sort of intentional relationship, but I can see what you're saying there.  The Aedryn are my version of the "Old Ones" or "Otherworlders" or "Primordials," etc, a race of beings who were extremely powerful who ran out their clock on the planet.  It should also be worth mentioning that I originally wrote the story of their fall more as a mythological entity than a true historical accuracy, so some of those things could probably use some tidying up.

On the other hand, the shadakin are basically devils/demons in Memory Fading.  There is no Hell or the Elemental Chaos in Memory Fading - there is simply the Shadow Realm, or the Shavaar.  Thus, the rulers of the unnatural do not take on either the appearance of chaotic/elemental beings, or fallen angels - they take on the persona of moving, thinking, malicious shadows.

The Immortals (aside from the Sydhi and Ursahels) seem to play a very minor role in the world. With the Dragons and Vampires being very powerful and essentially loose amongst the mortal races, they have very little actual impact.

That's partially true.  The Dragons don't have a huge role, and that is intentional.  I don't want PCs or characters to be chasing down the biggest, baddest stash of treasure by swiping at giant, fire-breathing lizards.  The Vampires, on the other hand, have a pretty important role of subterfuge and manipulation, but because of that very specific role, I haven't put a lot of effort into the detailing, since my players read my wiki! :)

The layout on the wiki is very good, however some pages lack the main navigational hub, which is somewhat frustrating, mainly because its out of place. Other then that its probably the nicest wiki layout I've personally ever seen.

Thanks, I put a lot of work into the wiki layout, plus I'm working on getting things looking and feeling a bit more consistent, so it should look nice everywhere soon.

Overall I enjoyed the setting, seems very classical but well done. However the Historical Grudge of the Sydhi against the Humans seems somewhat ignored when the urshaels invaded. Now I can see how this makes sense since the Sydhi were in danger aswell, but still seems off how they basically came and helped them not get crushed, especially the Gaardans who chose to not help them in the War.

The sydhi themselves said it best, when they met King Durnharl in Illysigrimm, who asked them a similar question.  Aliki the Birdfather, wisest of the sydhi, said, "You humans have very short lives.  Those of you who wronged us so greatly are so far in the past that they now exist to you only in stories and legends.  You, King Durnharl, are not your ancestor Fenwar, and your people are not those who wronged us.  Perhaps with each others' aid, we can begin to begin anew relationships from millenia ago."

Of course, the sydhi had their reasons.  They needed to push the urshael as far back north as possible, so that the urshael would not have too many footholds in the territory which sydhi have claimed as their own for several thousand years (yes, even after their exile several centuries ago).

Thanks so much for reading and responding, please ask if you have more questions.