World Creation

All right gang, my brain has been doing some stuff...



So we have the Empire of Delos, at the center of the world. They sprawl east and west, and their capital city -- Babel -- is (like many seats of power throughout history) built into and onto the huge an unknowable edifice of one of the Pillars of Heaven. Babel, stretching as it does around the pillar and sitting astride two continents, is like Constantinople, and Delos has the sprawl and cultural clout (and probably history) of Rome. If it is Renaissance-related in our world, Delos has it and Babel has it in abundance. Sprawling "industries" of specialists in magic and archanics. I imagine they're on a lot of hilly grasslands and are bordered in the west by mountains, and maybe also in the south (or some other natural barrier). I wonder if Delos, in their incredible leaps and bounds to understand magic and the elements and the soul and such have hit a point where their primary religious faith revolves around -- for example -- the central Pillar "at the heart of the world" and the significance of the Pillars as a collective (that are literally holding up the sky and magically maintaining the equilibrium of the world around them) is maybe lost on them or waning.

We also have, in the east, The Kingdom of Endell. I think Endell might be kind of more a classical medieval vibe, but who knows. Rome once said "let them see to their own defense" in regards to ancient Britain, and so I think maybe Endell is our ancient Britain in some ways and not others. I think Endell is one of many territories that bends the knee as a tribune of Delos, and so still technically enjoys its own political borders, even if ultimately it has no authority of its own. As such, its own capital -- Endell (likewise built into and onto a Pillar of Heaven) -- has long since been stripped of its significance and is now a shadow of its former power and glory. I think there is a northern and southern territory of "true Endell" maybe? I wonder if the fair-featured Endellians once sprawled so far north and south that they have a religious beliefs incorporating the three eastern Pillars. I also think that the Endellians within the Empire, are incredibly loyal and mighty warriors, with some kind of ancient pacts or significant history that makes them feel tied closely to Babel and the Imperial line.

I named a few Pillars just for kicks, taking inspiration from the elements within the game and also the actual pillars guiding how to create a good setting.

Sam mentioned it in a semi-concrete way, so I'm throwing it in: In the far northwest, we have a shattered Pillars. I think it sits out on this inexplicable "island" of water or whatever, out in the void, separated from the rest of creation by this gulf of starlight or blackness or something that you can't sail across. In terms of history, this collapse happened recently enough that it is a big deal to the world and has sent flights of refugees south and east into other populated lands, lest the sky fall again and take them with it. In terms of mystery, our game will answer the question: Why did the Pillar collapse, and how can this event be stopped from happening again?

In the far north, the last extant city of the ancient Fomorian Civilization is a heap of shattered ruins at the literal edge of the world. I think there are a shit load of ruins that are clearly of the same build and style and history as this last city, and they're all over the world, you can barely walk in any direction without finding them. I bet some of them are of such an absurd scale that you can almost imagine how they once fit together and interconnected, even over truly obscene distances. I think the Fomorian Civilization absolutely collapsed and it plunged the world into kind of a dark ages that the Empire of Delos dragged everyone out of, through their scholarly pursuit of magic... I think everyone in-world understands that the Fomorian Civilization collapsed due to the overwhelming predation of monsters and demons. That's just how it is. They got wiped out. And of course everyone is thinking "luckily we are smarter than those silly ancients," which ultimately leads us to a Mystery: How, exactly, is Babel protecting itself from the overwhelming threat of demons and monsters that imperil everyone else who use archanic technology?

Finally, somewhere on this map -- I dunno where, this came up while I was writing all this -- there is one (or more?) dimensional portals that has opened up around one of these Pillars. This is itself a Mystery: What is this portal? Why is it here?

So, for anyone tracking, that's

Nations: 2 (Delos, Endell)
History: 2 (Fall of the Fomorians, Delosian Renaissance)
Mystery: 3 (Pillar collapse, Babel's secret, Dimensional portals)
Threat: 0

Most of these are mine, a couple of these are Sam's -- I'm trying to be careful about just diving in and saying too much about too many things, because we're in this together and I want folks to add in the things they're excited about without me putting words in their mouths!

◻ Pillar of Light... in the west. If we're gonna have elves, is this where they are from? (I don't need elves, btw, just making an observation.)

◻ Does the train go east-west in Delos? Or does it race on ancient elevated tracks from pillar to pillar? Does it connect this map with another?

◻ So I think we talked about old rivals, and maybe even the threat of war. South of Delos, near the Iron Pillar -- is there where some bad dudes hang out? Is that the Dregs, or the ruins of the prior civilization where priest-warriors are marshaling power? Or is it a cool desert or plains location where simple folk now lead simple lives?

I've got nothing against Elves at all! You wanna give us some deets about the Elven lands / customs / beliefs?
I'm thinking east-to-west across Delos... but maybe somewhere there are controls for these huge elevated tracks and if someone could figure out the secrets of the mechanism, the tracks could be realigned to let the train travel from pillar to pillar?
Man, Harri, I think it could be multiples of those, right? Maybe it is the Dregs (and the rest of the area is the other big power the Dregs used to belong to), and maybe the simple folks who have remained behind in the cursed aftermath are just trying to lead simple lives, and maybe this is where we can put our first Threat, in the form of some priest-warriors marshaling power in the ancient Fomorian ruins. Oh gosh, what if in the wake of the soulforge (I dont know what to call our big ol' soul-conversion factories) disaster, these priest-warriors have gained some kind of insight into a new power that exists in the otherwise dead and dying lands of the Dregs?

Incredible stuff! This is really coming together, and I'm really digging the vibe.

I wanted to contribute to a nation, at least a former one, originally located near the pillar that fell and caused refugees to have to flee to other lands. I'm thinking this was a less developed place, but an environmentally rich one. The people had strong ties to nature and believed that the natural world had spirits that were not to be so much worshiped as respected, though they called on their ancestors for strength and guidance. This nation had a tradition of handcrafting exquisite goods, everything from dyeing and clothmaking to woodworking and pottery and leather working.

In spite of not being as technologically advanced as other nations, they were intellectuals who wrote great works of poetry and literature, and were keen observers of the natural world, understanding more about biology and medicine than some cultures.

With the people scattered, they struggle to keep their culture and traditions intact. Their children are being born in different nations, never learning their people's native language that their parents and grandparents speak. In some places, they experience racism and are trying to assimilate as much as they can, changing their names to sound more like the names of the people around them. Meals are necessarily prepared with different ingredients, and typically without the vibrant spices of the homeland. The idea of "nature spirits" is largely dismissed or mocked in the big cities, so they do not speak of such things to outsiders or observe those traditions.

People from this nation that took refuge in Delos have developed a diverging culture from the people who settled in Endell. The fracturing of the diaspora has made maintaining a cultural identity difficult, and elders fear that their ways and culture will disappear, while a vague and generalized prejudice will remain.

Extremely cool, Argo. I love it. There's some names in the core book if you'd like to use any of those.

There's about 70 names total, I believe, and we've used 3. Feel free to pick or roll for the former nation / these tribes of refugees.

I feel like the name should sound quite "foreign" and "different", but has been watered down and "anglicized", for lack of a better term. So there is the original name and the name that most use now.

Let's say the common name is the Koga - both for the nation and the people. But it used to be Kho'guh'ouah or something.

That's got me feeling kind of a Polynesian vibe. I think Disco Elysium had the idea of a sailor with a star map body tattoo? What do you think about like, wind chart or tide chart tattoos for travel, and so now this is at least one thing that ties the diaspora together: tattoos marking the length and breadth of this huge exodus.

Regardless, Koga it is!

Oh I love that! Amazing. Ties into the arts and natural world focus of the culture as well. They're intricate, beautiful tattoos - which were first considered barbaric by the people of Delos and Endell, but now are sought after by the avant-garde. Perhaps those designs have been appropriated by non-Koga artists and are used with no regard to the traditional meanings. Or maybe some Koga who still practice the art of tattooing are considered sellouts by their own people because they will tattoo anyone who can pay, but hey, you have to make a living.

Gosh, there is a Symbologist class in the High Fantasy supplement whose powers all revolve around drawing symbols and imbuing them with power, and damn would that be perfect for someone who wanted to play, like, a Koga Tattooist or whatever. I had originally said "core book only," but I guess if someone is willing to learn the class?

All right here's another one. Threw in a now-absent landmass for Koga, as well as some negative coloring for the big ol' void where our flat earth has now fallen away. Put a dimensional portal down by the Pillar of Light, but @Samaritan can correct me if he'd like. Also drew some train tracks across Delos, and marked out the south-eastern continent if Harri feels like telling us more about that place, and I scribbled in a little red note about Warrior-Priests pursuing the power of the Dregs.

EDIT:

Nations: 4 (Delos, Endell, Koga, ???) from me, Harri, Argo
History: 3 (Fall of the Fomorians, Delosian Renaissance, Koga Diaspora) from me and Argo
Mystery: 3 (Pillar collapse, Babel's secret, Dimensional portals) from me and Sam
Threat: 1 (Warrior-Priests) from Harri

Okay, I think I have a Threat. I'm thinking there's a hardcore cult/sect of the Koga. Their charismatic leader has conned others into believing that he knows why the pillars have begun to fall. He believes that the world is a body and that they must inscribe a tattoo across the face of the world in order to restore balance. And by tattoos, of course, he means salting and burning the land itself.

Incredible! Love it, Sam!

Fuckin fantastic

And my suggestion for the nation on the south-west of the map is that it's the Queendom of Eskara. I'm thinking it's a bit like Dorne from GoT, or the Australian outback - very sandy, lots of desert, lots of stretches of nothing, but also patches of incredible beauty in its mountains and rocks. Eskara has also built onto the Pillar (the Pillar of Sand? the Pillar of Dust?) in a very literal way. Their city consists of massive brass-like arms that rotate around the pillar like hands of a clock, and the city's buildings and farms are built upon the arms. There's a fairly strict hierarchy in place - the higher up you are, the more important you are, with the Queen's Palace on the highest arm. Airships conduct business ferrying people and produce too and fro. Generally speaking, they have a major interest in mechanics, and look with a bit of disdain upon magic.

Threat: Heavenfall. Since the collapse of the Pillar in the lands of Koga, lights have streaked across the night sky -- and where those lights have fallen, only devastation has followed. Scholars call these lights "meteor showers," and the heavenly objects that lay waste to countryside and village "meteors." Meanwhile, artisans who have seen fit to cut and shape the cursed rock call them "luxstone." Regardless, there is no predicting the fall of luxstone, its timing or its devastation. Luxstones carry within them a well-spring of magical energy, and even fragments can be used to create and augment incredible works. This leads the foolhardy and power-hungry alike to seek them out, facing down lux-twisted monstrosities in the process.

also

Very busy yesterday, just want to keep the brilliant momentum up by updating our little world-building tally so far...

We have Five Nations, the Empire of Delos, the Kingdom of Endell, the Queendom of Eskara, and -- unless I'm mistaken -- the south-eastern region where Harri had mentioned some warrior-priests as a threat. Did you feel like detailing this region, @Harrigan, or am I off-base? Otherwise, Argo, Sam, and I have all contributed Nations.

We have Three Historical Events, from myself and Argo, as far as I can tell. We have...

> the Fall of the Fomorians, which left shattered ruins and ancient magitech stuff behind and cast the world into the dark ages for probably centuries. The world is full of ruins and lost knowledge and no doubt lots of history and myth are about the Fomorians, seen through a clouded glass.

> We also have the Delosian Renaissance wherein the Delos Empire rediscovered magictech, the study of souls, and the scholarship of magic that all now kind of culturally dominate; during this time they expanded and got some tribune states. Somewhere along the line the Kingdom of Endell fractured between those pledging loyalty to the Empire, and factions that did not. This is vague, someone feel free to do more with this if they want.

> Next we have the Koga Diaspora which followed on from the destruction of the Pillar in the northwest, just two or three generations ago from the sounds of things (their children have grown up without their homeland, and their children's children have grown up with their culture watered-down). Their spiritual views, while not necessarily at odds with the rest of the world, differ foundationally (real, live, thinking, powerful nature spirits exist and are owed respect) and are looked down on.

Then we have Three Mysteries so far, from myself and Sam.

> What was the cause of the collapse of the Pillar in the northwest, and how can it be stopped from happening again?

> How has Babel protected itself from the monsters and demons that hunger for the soul fuel used in the archanic engineering that fills every inch of the capital?

> What is the portal that has opened near the Pillar of Light, and why is it here?

Finally, we have Three Threats from myself, Harri, and Sam...

> Warrior-Priests in the southeast and it sounds like they have designs on mastering some new power that the Dregs represent.

> An extremist Koga Cult out to scar the world in a bid to heal it.

> Heavensfall: devastating meteor storms that leave behind luxstone, an alluring new material with dangerous side-effects.

Here is a mystery that has the potential to become a threat: Strange figures in featureless black masks have been spotted in remote locations, typically around pillars. They carry portable equipment in packs on their backs and seem to be doing something to the ground/water/plant life. On the occasions when they have been approached, they quite literally disappear. Upon inspection, there is a red-grey residue left behind from whatever their experiments are. It took a while for these incursions to be noticed and for the pattern to be surmised.

Of course, accounts vary - some say these figures are abnormally tall and thin, but some don’t remark on any physical abnormalities at all. The featureless masks are commented on in almost every account, though some say the figures are wearing robes and others say they are wearing some kind of uniform. Some report smelling something very sweet in the air. Others have stated they saw strange flashes of light.

That's creepy as hell, Argo. Love it!

Fantastic work all round on this, guys -- very cool stuff! What can I add?

The Warrior-Priests, the Yade Doma, are doing two things: carving iron from the pillar in the south east, mining it, weakening it, fashioning powerful weapons from it. In the wastes to their north, the Dregs, they have discovered a ruined underground city filled with soul-forges. These, when hapless fools are cast into them, will render the souls in such a way that they can be forged into the black iron weapons. Spears, swords, daggers, glaives -- known to cut through all other metal, no armor can withstand them.

In the west, surrounding the Pillar of Light, are the Samitra. Known by many other names, these are star-elf samurai who guard their pillar against the forces of shadow and darkness that long to consume it. Great leviathan beasts lurk beneath the waves, just as vicious flying lizards take to the skies at night, their eyes and spines glowing orange as they are drawn to the Pillar, and the eight temple-forts that protect it. By land, the assaults come from the shadazi, terrible wolf-spiders of shadow and smoke that dissipate when they are slain, and that reform if they are not killed by soul-forged / powered weapons. The Samitra are a dwindling people, and their centuries-long seige may soon be coming to an end.

Also, in the north? Where the Luxstones rain and the monsters Al referenced roam... that shit is spreading. And the luxstones have some unusual properties... how are they different from the soul-magic?