Jæja í staðinn fyrir að senda restina inn sem aðrar greinar þá ætla ég bara að setja þær hér inn sem svör (minna álag á stjórnendum Spunaspila).
Well now, Last time I put down the general direction and selected the races. Now I have to dig a little deeper into this creation…
Let there be light…. creating Religion
Nothing shaped history as much as mans religions stumblings. Thus the following “chapter” will be exceedingly long.
Now, to go in hand with the religious fevor, I need a single god pantheon similar to christianity. This is wildly different from standard fantasy who (with the exception of LOtR) tend to have multigod religions. But I also mentioned demons, that grant power for souls, so its clear that I cant have just a single god. Also I need some sort of a pagan, druidic religion as well in order to have witches to burn (Yes that is the sole reason for a pagan religion).
Now its clear, I want 3 religions. Although two of them are infact the opposing sides of a single religious coin. So I have demons and christian style god, and the old gods. I decide that the christian god is the dominant and the demons are strugling while the old gods are disappearing from worship (Gives the possibility of missionary work, and goes hand in hand with the historic backdrop). Now I need to change a few things, just to keep it fresh. First off, I turn god into a woman. Also I like Angels, since you cant have demons without angels. Thus I turn her (god) into an angelic figure. She is the protector of “mankind” (need a new word here, since this is a multi-racial setting). attach her to a sun motife (probably golden hair) for the much needed bringer of life tag. Now since I mentioned demons granting spells, I clearly marked magic as an evil act. This I need to change (remember shades of gray), so I grant all the witches and druids spells from the old gods.
Now to keep to the ideals, the demons are trying to corrupt “mankind” so that their souls end up in “hell” (a renaming of hell is needed). Thus I assume that there must be more than one demon. But I need to give them some redeaming quality (gray shade again) so I make it so that it was the demons who gave “mankind” free will (but with it all the bad emotions aswell, greed, lust, hatred). Also I need a head demon to act as my “lucifer”.
This dilemma (how to structure the religions) is solved with the idea of the trinity, that is, I have three “religions”, thus each will have three aspects. Christianity will have the Godess and two camps of angels. Demons will be identical, while the old gods will have some sort of druidic/monster divide.
So to break it down lets look at the christian religion first.
At the head of the pantheon is the Godess, I decided earlier that she is a protector and a sun godess. Somehow I get the phrase “our martyred lady” into my head. Thus I decide to meld god and jesus into this one. So the Godess gave her life so we may live (I like it).
Now I need two camps to go with her. I mentioned witch burnings earlier, so I guess I need an inquisition, also crusades are a large part of medieval happenings. Thus I have two politically incorrect views to put within the religion. Now I need a counter balance. So I turn to mother theresa, thus the other camp is all about salvation and kindness. Also to go hand in hand with the demonic corruption the Christian Angles (decided to have all the “gods” angelic) trying to bring man salvation. Either through envoking compassion and goodness (theresa camp) or weeding out the evil and heathen (politically incorrect camp).
Now we need to flesh out the Demonic part.
First and foremost we have “lucifer” the head demon. We will make him the first, give him the title of demon prince. I'll get back to him later. The two camps needed to fill the demonic trinity are going to be tricky. I cant have a good demon camp, cause its just well plain silly. So I get the idea of external and internal, applying this to the demons results in two camps. First the external one, these buggers are stuck in “hell” and corrupt mortals with promises of power, love, wealth and happiness. Also I leave the option for them walking the earth (if I wish for that). The internal demons, I decide upon a phrase I got stuck in my head “It hides in the heart of men” (came to me while watching Excalibur, Merlin answears a question on where evil hides, although he says “where you least expect it” I found the other one too be much more…poetic). So we have a demon camp that hides in the heart of “men” what does this mean. Well since I decided that demons gave man free will, its safe to assume that these demons are the manifestation of mans own evil. The emotions we label bad, Lust, hate, greed etc. these are all the result of the fabled free will.
Last but not least, the old gods.
All fantasy settings need a leaving factor, normally this is attached to elves. Also it goes hand in hand with a line from Excalibur (yes I watch alot of movies), “The gods of old are all but gone from this world”. So now I'm stuck. The idea of trinity lacks a vital part, I need to figure out a headfigure for the Old gods. The other camps are the wise and the wild. The wise camp consists of druids, witches and herbalists. These “headge mages” rely in equal part upon folk wisdom and nature magic. The Wild are the monsters and the animals, totem gods. Within this I can put all manners of shapeshifters and monstorous beings. So there I have it, the great figure head of the old gods is the dragon. (Excalibur connonation yet again). So the dragon is the manifestation of natures power and knowledge, the meld between the wise and the wild. (Hah, stream of conscious thought, love when those happen).
Thats it for the Religions, I'll give them more fleshed out background and names later on.
The lay of the land
Now, there is no part as vital for a fantasy setting as a good map. Well not a good map but a believeable map.
So I need to think now, on what I want. Well since I'm going with medieval europe as a base, I'll stick with that sort of terrain. So I need temperate grasslands, forrests (lots of forrests, since they were far larger in the early 900's) and towering mountain ranges. I also decided to put the Dwarfs as scandinavians so I need tundra, and desert for the moorish elves. Not to forget some swamp land to put in the eastern goblinlands (since the slavic states of lituania, poland and estonia were mostly forrests and swamps back in the ages).
But I want to have a sea and some sea travel. Plus I want to attach a crusade between the humans and the elves somewhere in there as well. So I come up with the idea of two “continents” divided by a small sea, more of a large bay really. Now I need some peninsulas, a few islands both large and small.
Now I know I promised a post per day, and this one is late (got far more dinner/tea parties to attend to than humanly possible).
Now last time I left off in the middle of the landscape artistry. I'll add a bit to that, but then I will then move on to the next item which is the historic skeleton of the setting (a very vital part).
Now last I talked about what sort of terrain types I needed. Now, I'll tell you what goes where. Right I decided to split the “world” into two seperate continents. But decided that the elves were going to be alone on one of them. Now, for simplicities sake lets call the continents westland and eastland. On Westland the elves live, so arbitrarily its a desert. Note that this does go in hand with the location of afrika, although the distance between the two continents is going to be a bit larger than in the real world.
So on the Eastland we have 3 races, scandinavic dwarfs, barbaric goblinoids and franko/german/breton humans. I want to keep the three races seperate to some extent (so that they dont get mixed, this will be no multicultural society). Since Humans are to be the central balance race I decide to shut the other two away from them. Now since the dwarfs are scandinavic sailor types I could put a sea between the two cultures. But since I'm an Icelander that would be a bit to much (I live on a scandinavian viking populated Island). So I go with the bay (just like in the real world), but as not to copy too much I'll shift its shape and general position a bit. Now the goblinoids are going to be seperated from the humans by a mountain range (my alps if you will) but since there has to be a possibility for some travel/missionary work/crusades I'll leave a few gaps in the range to keep things intresting.
So that leaves me with temperate grasslands and woods for the humans, along with rolling hillsides close to the mountains. To add a little flavor, I take Kaycies suggestion and include a city that is based on Santorini (that is built nearly into the side of a gigantic cliff face). Note, this city will pop up quite a few times in the historic timeline as it will serve as my Jerusalem. Now I'll try to post a map of some sort tomorrow, if I can figure out how to display it properly.
Timeline
History, is perhaps one of the most important things about a fantasy setting, because its the flesh that populates the bones of everything else. With out it, things just exist in limbo with no explanation of why. So I put my head into figuring out a general timeline for the world. This will then later function as a skeleton for the true deeply detailed history (if I ever get around to writing it).
Now we have 4 races, but we need to keep this simple, I'd love to create a complex history (such as our own) but in a RPG setting it wont do, since no one will be able to familiarise with it. I mean our own history is a subject for an entire profession and a multitude of classes and seminars. Also to keep things simple I decide that the world of men will be split up into a trio of large kingdoms/empires and between half a dozen and a dozen smaller kingdoms. I use three main world powers to keep things intresting, no cold war here please. But I mentioned elf vs. human crusade. Now to spice things up I decide that it will be the Elves that do the crusading, so I leave the “holy land” in Eastland (remember the city i mentioned just above). This leaves me with a tiny problem, the Elves must have lost this holy land some time ago so they can “reclaim” it. So this is what I came up with.
-4500 Years: The races first manage some level of “culture” and technology (Emergance from caveman times)
-2200 years: Elves and Orc's (yes I know) war in Westland. Continued warfare forces elven tribes into alliances. Creating Elven kingdoms who soon found the first Elven Empire.
-2000 years: Elves systematically eradicate the Orc threat. The orc race becomes extinct (No orcs here thank you very nice).
-1900 years: The Elven Empire, collapses under peace time emnimity (warlike government with no one left to fight). Breaks into dozens of smaller states, elfs at civil war. Dwarfs found their first kingdom, and start their path of history.
-1600 years: The End of the Elven Civil war. The second Elven Empire is forged under the banner of the kingdom of Ramary. Fishermen bring back tales of a barbarian infested continent in the east.
-1590 years: Ramary send an expedicion force across the sea. They report back vast fertile lands inhabited by witless barbarians. The conquest begins.
-1480 Years: The Elven empire has subjugated the entire human race, who now serve them as slaves. The elves build a vast network of roads and impressive castles. First contact with the Goblinoid and dwarfen races.
-1450 Years: Elven empire staggers at the hands of the Goblinoids who employ magical powers, Elven schoolars attempt to research the matter.
-1445 Years: Goblinoids invade the Elven Empire as a result of the previous elven invasion. Massive earthquakes leave Westland in ruins. Life in the old Elven empire becomes harsh.
-1440 Years: 13 Elven schoolars make contact with a demon who teaches them arcane powers. Who they use in turn to halt the Goblinoid hordic invasion. The 13 schoolars declare themselves kings. No one is in a position to oppose them.
-1440 to - 800 Years: Uneasy peace between the elves and the barbaric tribes of the goblinoids and the kingdom of the dwarfs. Men florish under the rule of the elves. The 13 kings continue to live, long after their lifespans exspire. People live in fear of them and their demonic servants.
-790: The Godess steps down from heaven and sacrifices herself to defeat the 13 Mage kings before they can construct a gate to hell. The Elven Empire is left headless and quickly crumbles under the open revolt of humans, and the double invasion of both Dwarfs and Goblinoids.
Elves forced to retreat to the desolate Westlands, dreaming of former glory.
Now thats how far along I am, there is the possibility of zeroing the calander on the -790 events since it mirrors christs death. Now from this foundation I need to construct a setting that contains atleast a few powerbases. Since its often the trouble with fantasy settings that they have only one “bad guy” and once the players defeat that there is nothing left. (LOtR for example, how much entertainment value does the setting have after Sauron has been defeated?). But also note that I did infact leave it at that, but the setting takes place 790 years after the defeating of the evil necromantic wisard types.
Now things are starting to flesh out a bit, I need to write up the history of the elves since they are the spark of civilization (my rome so to speak). But also I need to figure out what the Dwarfs were doing, since I want them to be a bit more advanced than the humans (alhtough the humans are quickly catching up). The Goblinoids are supposed to be stagnant and living in the past.
Also I need to flesh out the religious histories a bit and explain them even further. But atleast now I got a semi solid skeleton to build the setting on. Now all that is left is hard work and lots of it.
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engir orkar en þeir eru svo skemmtilegir.Orkar eru ekki vondir bara hræðilega misskildir eins og kemur fram í TES RPG tölvuleikja seríuni.
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