Posts
This is
going to be another blog about Dungeons and Dragons. That means it will simultaneously be impenetrable
to normal people and get more views than any content I put out that is aimed at
a general audience.
Months ago,
I did a micro series of blogs on world building, (part
1, part
2, part
3) but didn’t follow up with some of the most basic parts of world
building. I was taking a perspective a
lot of academics do and started out too high in the clouds, so high in the
clouds I was talking about concepts and inspirations rather than maps and
regions. That is not what people reading
about world building are looking for.
With all of
that in mind let’s take a different tactic and focus on a continent sized
perspective. And we will do that with
the help of this map:
This map
comes from Uncharted Territory's (Etsy Page) “Steal
this Map” (facebook page) an artist that creates
maps for fun, profit, and to build a portfolio (I am guessing) in much the way I write
this blog. The idea being that once the
lovely map is provided people can populate it how they like.
For this map,
I will take you thru my creative process, I will go in Clockwise order using
generalized placeholder names and trying to point to various eras in history
that inspired me. When you make up
countries or regions I always recommend taking from history and then adding the
magical element to them.
Whether
people admit it or not, even the stupidest events in history have some internal
logic and feel real and human to people, even as fanciful elements like dragons
and pixies are slip into them. That is
why King Arthur or Hercules continue to hang out on in the cultural consciousness,
they were reflections of their times and mixed in fanciful elements that spoke
to their culture, they feel realer (even when you look at all the really stupid
stuff that goes on in each).
The Continent as a Whole
Let us
start with the first big thing, you want something that ties the continent
together, and for that I would recommend pulling an "Eberron" and
have the regions defined by a recent war/calamity that they all participated in
and now defines their interactions.
Much like
the Napoleonic Wars defined interactions all over Europe until World War I completely
upended the status quo, only to have it up ended again by World War II before a
new status quo could even be established, having a big central event that
everyone knows about and defines their view of the world serves as a good base
to work from.
Think of
how many people in the 30-45 range have their entire worldview defined by 9/11
and the Great Recession. Think of how
many people’s view of politics is defined by Monica Lewinski being the height
of “immorality”, and how Watergate was to an older set, or Iran Contra, or
McCarthyism, or Teapot Dome. Think of
how any of these groups would react to politics now.
So, let’s
say that one of those five big blank banners went to war with another one, and
then each of the other banners started going to war until the whole continent’s
view of things was turned upside down.
The Five Blank Banners
Let’s just
take them one at a time in clockwise order.
Talking about their worldviews, and the real life historical
inspirations for them. We’ll want to
make them distinct, so that an adventure in any region would feel different
from the others, but not so distinct that they feel like they are from totally
different worlds. Good thing all of
these inspirations come from Earth and primarily Europe so that they will feel similar. What should be the name of the continent as a
whole? Let’s go with a placeholder,
this will be the “Continent of While”.
As in, “While, we’re here”. (It is a pun)
1 O'Clock- The Mau Empire
Defined by
nationalist sentiment but also assimilation, they push out their boarders via
conquest and being able to build really good roads, but when doing so they have
traditionally granted citizenship to the conquered.
At least
the Mau Empire used to grant citizenship to the conquered. The last war was about their efforts to expand
to the West side of the continent and make those conquered into second class
citizens under "client-kings" and extort material wealth from them
like colonies without extending them rights as citizens.
The Mau
Empire lost the war and now numerous proud and capable military leaders are all
vying to be the new Emperor while trying to keep the old Empire from breaking
up completely or falling to an invasion from the South.
Think Rome
after the sacking by the Goths. Rome
throughout its history expanded and attempted to integrate people all over
their Empire into their social order, but toward the end of the Western Roman
Empire they stopped doing that and started treating conquered peoples as second-class
citizens with little or no ties/loyalty to Rome and instead having loyalty only
to their commanders. This fragmentation
led to the Western Empire’s collapse.
3 O'Clock- The Divine Feudal Kingdoms of Horral
This is a kingdom
defined by "Divine Right". The
King is the direct descendant of a good aligned god, the entire aristocracy is
Aasimars and see themselves as naturally more just, giving, and by virtue of
their blood worthier of the status leader.
While the
Horral aristocracy do run things well and there is a logic to all their actions
that promotes the public good, they often use excessively brutal means and
justify those means by citing their own divine bloodline as justification. "We know what is right," is their
frequent refrain.
The aristocracy
were the primary opposition to the Mau Empire during the last war, but only won
because of the internal strife and confusion of the Mau Empire and the help of
the other powers on the continent. Their
military resources are nearly depleted but they are trying to keep up an appearance
of strength for fear that the Mau Empire might manage to pull together against
them before they have time to recover.
Think
Persia mixed with King Louie's France, which is an odd combination but I think
it makes some sense. Persia was the
primary rival to Rome in the Middle East and had a strong enough central
leadership pulled together during the fall of the Western Empire then the East
might not have held together either. The
Concept of Divine Right of the French Aristocracy couples together well with
this idea, the Persians would often characterize their leadership as divine or
semi-divine (not as much as an Egyptian Pharaoh, but some) and King Louie believed
he was king because God wanted him to be King and used that to justify his poor
leadership decisions. And King Louie was
deposed after a costly war with another Empire emptied the coffers domestically
and left the populace unhappy with the aristocracy.
5 O'Clock- The Southernmost Trade Kingdom of Kul
This peninsula
was defined by trade between the East and West sides of the continent. Prior to the war caused everyone to cut ties
with the Mau Empire shipping from one half of the continent to the other was to
pass around this bend and this area grew rich from it.
All ships
swinging around the bottom of the continent stopped in Kul and often just made
a quick trade and headed home rather than continue further along the trade
route in search of greater riches.
This
transient nature and midpoint status makes Kul the most polyglot of the 5
powers, and it arguably suffered the most from the war. Smugglers, pirates, and a small criminal
empire of deserting soldiers have come to dominate the area. The economy has collapsed and aside from
fishing their agriculture is not providing enough food to support the nation,
as they previously were cultivating luxury items like flowers for perfume,
silphium, and incense.
Kul should
be seen akin to Indonesia after China stopped trading with the Indian Ocean to
focus on its war with the Mongols. Here
is a video about that from Crash Course.
The
elements of Piracy and criminal activity should be seen akin to the piracy that
plagued China’s seas for centuries.
Adapting a character akin to Ching Shih as the de facto ruler of the
area and emphasizing the cutthroat and backstabbing between rival groups of
pirates that are preying on the numerous trade vessels trying to re-establish the
economy after the war and coming into conflict with navies “protecting” those
groups seems like a great hook. You
could also look to how the Portuguese tried to dominate Indian Ocean trade thru
piracy of a different kind, building forts and issuing trade licenses, and then
confiscating ships that didn’t have a license (ignoring the fact that they had
no authority to issue licenses and were acting like a mob boss, here is a video
on that too).
8 O'Clock- These are the Confederated City States of Lum
The
numerous rivers in Lum have cultivated dozens and dozens of city states tied
together by easy trade along the rivers, but kept from fully pulling together
by difficult overland travel. The lack
of bridges and ferries prohibiting such road based travel.
But separation
by rushing rivers is not the only barrier to full unification, the Counts and
Princes of Lum have banded together into a secret society called the
Luminous. This secret council wishes to
keep government small, religious influence weak, and keep control on the value
and power of hard currency. Why they
chose to do this derives from the perceived corruption in Horral and loss of
individuality in Mau. Not all of the
Counties and Principalities participated in the last war and as such certain
groups are seen as cowardly (but admittedly wealthy for having stayed out).
The military
is fractured into roving bands of mercenaries, errant knights, and merry men
who protect the populace while living lives untethered to any singular kingdom. Adding to the difficulty of each County
providing troops to the effort, it is hard to put together a unit large and cohesive
enough to then send hundreds of miles over pirate plagued sea to fight the most
powerful military on the continent.
(I link a
few videos in here.)
For Lum think
a cross between the very loose alliance of German city states that would one
day become Germany, the numerous small states of pre-Italy, and the mythical
England of Robin Hood. All three of
these areas were defined by decentralized government, militaries that were more
mercenary in function, and a sense of freewheeling “freedom”. The secret society, the Luminous, is almost a
direct take on the Bavarian Illuminati, even the name being a pun.
10 O'Clock- The Tribe Lands of Nor
These were
the “nations” that Mau was trying to invade that started the last war. Dozens of tribes and petty kingdoms spread
across a hilly landscape they are defined by a combination of warrior ethic and
shrewd tradesman sensibilities. They
like fights they can win and are quick to avoid those that they can't. They are not stupid and will take to raiding,
ambushing, or retreating to keep an advantage and not take a loss devastating enough
to wipe them out.
The Tibes
of Nor almost certainly would have lost to the Mau Empire eventually. The Mau had built roads right up to the
border and were already promising wealth and prestige to those kings and chiefs
of Nor who would join the Mau Empire without a fight. But the Mau Empire kept getting duped by the Nor,
who were happy to just keep pumping them for money, and then leading the Mau troops
into ambushes. The Nor’s entire countryside
is now a burning wreck, hiding hidden wealth conned out of the Mau Empire and
stored in secret vaults and remote holds.
The few
roads laid down by the Mau to facilitate their imperial ambitions have allowed
the Nor to rebuild somewhat, but they know that the Mau might be back and much
like the Horral posturing, the Nor are making their first great attempt to
fully unite into a single nation so as to dissuade any future attempt by the
Mau Empire to ever invade again.
I was
inspired to create the Nor by picturing a cross between Scotland after the
Romans were repelled and Russia after they beat King Charles XII in the Great Northern War. A country that was not
previously a united country, coming together after realizing how much stronger
they were together.
Themes
In history,
you can often see the formation of new grander alliances via war. Where once there were nations there is a
nation, where once there were lands there is a single land. The idea that a massive conflict by the most
united nation led to other countries drawing closer together and the aggressor
ending on the verge of disintegrating is interesting. The idea that the country defined by trade is
falling into piracy because of the war pulling the silk rug out from under them
is interesting.
So, a
campaign here should be about the characters coming together after the war to
deal with the unrest in each of the areas.
Recover treasure in Nor to help them rebuild and become a new nation or take
what can be taken before they can get themselves together? Working against the Luminous to unite Lum, or
to work with them to keep the lands diffuse and “free”? Destroy the pirates, or become a pirate? Break the Divine Right of Kings, or protect
the aristocracy so that a new generation can learn from the war and become new
leaders? Help a new military leader to
take the reins of Mau, or encourage the infighting to keep their military
dominance from ever threatening the continent again?
Player Input
Pick one
for the area of interest, but have it that characters come from any of the
other areas, and have them explain why they are there. If the game is in Nor than the idea that a
Pirate from Kul is there to steal something, that one is not hard to figure
out. But if the game is in Lum, why
would someone from Mau be there? If
gives the players enough structure to focus, but also enough freedom to be
creative. That balance between Freedom
and Structure is also a theme of the setting, CRAZY.
Some Missing Things
I did not bother to talk about the presence of Elves, Gnomes, and what not in this
setting because this is already over 2,000 words long and my hands are getting
tired from typing. Try to think how
those groups would fit into each of these instances. Where are orcs, where are gnolls, where are
Kuo Toa? Populating the continent with
things other than humans, even sliding in other whole countries can do a lot to
make these ideas digress in wildly different ways. Maybe the Mau use Giants, maybe the Horral
have dragons, and maybe Vampires are controlling the Luminous.
This is
bare bones and it is still pretty detailed for an outline. Try doing this sort of exercise with the blank
map provided. Take it in as different a
direction as possible, and then post it somewhere and put a link to it in my
comments. See how different the same map
can become.
Have Fun.
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