The World as We Know It

[drpete]

Thinking about Grimm's hometown, the Wizard's Tower.

I think, rather, it should be a Witches domain. Let's call her Evanora. She studies and works magic associated with enchanted creatures... fairies, centaurs, griffins... stuff like that. Grimm was one of the various "colorful" beings that lived there, under her protection.

Grimm would have done various types of "dwarfy" jobs there... trekking to find beasts, capturing beasts, etc. Along the way, he learned a good amount of lore, and a thing or two about the legends about these types of creatures.

[Marullus]

That's awesome. I was doing the same thing a few hours ago.

A question for you: is Evanora's Sanctum (cottage? Tower? Town?) still intact? Or has it already fallen to Farquad's forces?


I also was defining a Wizard's Tower hometown for my gnome, now named Rumple. His tower was home of the enigmatic Sorcerer - no more specific name given for names have power as he taught Rumplestiltskin. Given his skills as a gnome (Haggle, Persuader, Scholar, Arcanist, and Steward [for contract law]), he handled the bargaining and contracts for those who sought the Sorcerer's aid. An ignoble pursuit for which he had quite the knack. (He did make an enemy of Queen Vespa, however, who signed a secret contract promising her firstborn in exchange for enchanting the King.)

In my case, Rumple is adventuring because the Sorcerer's Tower was destroyed by Farquad and it's people left dispossessed. (His Friend, Belda, a Loremaster who was librarian at the Sorcerer's tower, and his Mentor Greymalkin a travelling bard who survived the wizard purge, are also dispossessed and plot fodder.) Rescuing friends, recovering stolen books and magic items that were spoils of the tower, following rumors that the powerful Sorcerer may yet live... All good adventure hooks.

[drpete]

Hrmmmmm....

Maybe Evanora's Dingle...?

Imagining it, I'm thinking of a small valley hideaway teeming with strange creatures. Perhaps it is somewhat shielded from unwelcome visitors, allowing it to continue to exist.

Grimm was, I think, forced to flee over his conflict with his enemy, "Blossom", a fairy who he kicked off a feud with when he offended her with a bawdy story.

[Enoch]

We can use this thread specifically for discussing the layout of the world, towns, etc. I've moved a couple of posts in here already. Please chime in with your thoughts about these towns, what their names and histories are, etc.

The following towns are assumed:

• Elfland
• Dwarven Halls
• Religious Bastion: Monastery of the Tree of Life
• Bustling Metropolis: Travon, the capital
• Wizard's Tower: Evanora's Dingle
• Remote Village
• Busy Crossroads: Skull Creek

It's my intent to have a map that provides a broad spectrum of terrain: a mountain chain (riddled with cave systems), one or more forests (possibly overlapping with the mountains or their foothills), plains, a river (possibly ending in a delta), coastline and islands. What do you all think about either a peninsula (such as the Iberian, though the climate would be different) or isthmus (like a lot of Central America)? Both give you more than one coastline.

[Marullus]

So we have two "Wizard's Tower" locations...

Evanora's Dingle

The Sorcerer's Tower (sacked... Repopulated or ruined?)

As GM, do you want to personalize what "town options" are available at each?

We then have:
A Thief from Farquad's capital
A Witch from a Busy Crossroads
A Ridder from a Remote Village

The wolf is from "the wilds" which isn't a settlement.

[Enoch]

If The Sorcerer's Tower has been sacked, it sounds more like an adventure location than a currently-existing Town. In that case, you can still take Wizard's Tower as your hometown, but Evanora's Dingle is the one you all can return to for the Town phase (with the Sorcerer's Tower being someplace you can explore in the Adventure phase).

Thoughts?

[Rex]

Works for me. Seems the busy crossroads should be sort of in the center of things, maybe on a busy trade route.

[Enoch]

Sure, that makes sense. Stirling, I believe you were thinking of making your Thief a smuggler and chose the capital as your hometown. Were you thinking the Metropolis, and possibly on the sea?
If so, it makes sense that this would be at the mouth of the river.

The Crossroads is likely to be upriver at the fall line, where the uplands meet the coastal plains (usually marked by waterfalls and rapids; it's generally as far as you can sail upriver, so most rivers will have a large town here. In Virginia, where I live, you can more-or-less chart the fall line by what towns I-95 connects--Alexandria on the Potomac, Fredericksburg on the Rappahannock, and Richmond on the James). Most town are going to be on some sort of travel route, whether that's a convenient spot on the shore, a river, or a natural road, and major cities and towns will lie at the intersections of them. The spot where ships have to unload and continue on land forms just such a crossing-point.

[drpete]

Just thinking about how religion must work in this setting...

Presumably, there is a "human" religion, that is aligned with our Lord Farquad. It's unlikely we'd be welcome in a religious bastion dedicated to that faith. Perhaps there is a second faith that is more accepting.

I'm reminded of the Barrowmaze setting, where there are newer, human faiths, but then there's the old way, which is very Celtic/druidy. I'm not sure that sacred groves and stonehenge-y locations exactly fit with the Religious Bastion town for this setting, though.

Just spitballing here, but how about something like a mountaintop temple?

[Stirling]

Just thought small sailing boat smuggler might fit more for a wilderness settings if there is less opportunity to be an urban burglar.

As far as 'released from prison' goes I am happy to keep it simple as sentenced for avoiding tax on goods, breaking a siege or helping wanted people escape the city militia.

I edit my sheet as we go. I kept my instincts and beliefs simple too.

[Marullus]

Religious Bastion
I was contemplating this today as well! After all, the Religious Bastion has the market cornered on Cartographers.

Enoch suggests that a human religion which believes in the worthiness of all sentient beings before the Lords of Light and Darkness could be a bastion where we'd be potentially welcomed (and could find interaction with Farquadians). I think that there should certainly be a Human Religious Bastion, that it ties easily with the standard Lords of Light and Darkness, and that they would have a keen Farquadian interest in Cartography, as subduing the wild nature of this land and reducing it to static and comfortable maps is a keen interest.

Personally, I like the idea of a Mountaintop Temple. I like the Druids from the WOE suppliment, and I like having "woodland shrines" throughout the forests per that book/class's implication. I would be interested in establishing this as a clear locale and even customizing its Traits and Skills to fit a "Monastery of the World Tree" kind of feel. (I like Honorable and Defender. Loremaster instead of Theologian, per Druid class.)

If someone wants to play a Human Cleric friendly to non-human lives and rights, then I'm all for them mapping out the Bastion and beliefs of a second human faith. I think I prefer having the main human faith, however, being supportive of Farquad's ambitions. Having a stock Bastion that deliberately flouts Farquad's intent is a risky fracture he's allowing to exist.

Structure of the World
The coastal plains up to the fall line is a great model! So, that implies that Farquad arrived by sea and is advancing outward/inland. If the main city/metropolis is at the river delta and their reach extends to the Busy Crossroads at the fall line, that's a good demarcator of the "firm human control" across the coastal plains.

Beyond the Busy Crossroads is the currently contested area, where Farquad has recently tipped the scales. The Sorcerer's tower fallen, the Remote Village swearing fealty (and outcasting the Forsaken Ridder), etc.

Then, if we're going Grimm-influenced, there's primordial forest leading up to the foothills and mountains - "The Black Forest" - where the besieged-feeling reminants are: Evanora's Dingle, Monastery of the World Tree, Elflands, etc.

Thoughts?

[Rex]

That sounds good to me. What does WOE stand for? Curious about there take on Druids.

[BillTheGalacticHero]

Wanderer, Outcasts, and Exiles - the first expansion

[Marullus]

Here is the Druid. Totally different spell structure. I like institutionalizing them.

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[Rex]

Interesting.

[Marullus]

I created a map of the relationships from the currently posted sheets. It may inspire more development/changes. Does anyone imagine other/more crosslinks?

(I don't really like the free tool I chose... if this is useful, might create it in another format.)

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[shroomofinsanity]

How long ago do we think the Tower fell? I am trying to get a timeline together on how long Haar was out in the woods living off the land before setting off to find new ingredients. The idea behind Gord the Ram, is that he is a knight, and known Food Snob, that switched sides to the invaders, perhaps he was an essential piece of tipping the tower. (all this on top of him being a Gordon Ramsey reference to call all my monster food disgusting.) Maybe he hated there being an intelligent bear as the cook.

I also like the idea of 2 religious bastions, and can we assume that Elfland can stand in for the last untouched place by man? As in that is the goal of the Farquad expedition, along with subjugating the mythical creatures, to find and remove our Elfland from some political equation?

And what if the Dwarven Halls do the (obviously lifted from dragon age) thing of being the hub of the deep road network, so if Farquad takes it, then the tunnels under the surface are even more dangerous than they already were?

I am trying to put together a kind of backpedal road map to show how bad things are for the fairytale creatures, and sort of show how the humans bring the exact ruin they claim to be saving the "uncultured" folk from. What does everyone think?

[BillTheGalacticHero]

Eeeeeeeee - spiderweb diagram, too much like work.... roflmao

I created a map of the relationships from the currently posted sheets. It may inspire more development/changes. Does anyone imagine other/more crosslinks?

(I don't really like the free tool I chose... if this is useful, might create it in another format.)

[drpete]

I like the ideas for Elfland as the last untouched area.

For the dwarven halls, how about... they are squeezed between men and... something below... dark elves, balrogs, or something else. Knocking them out will unleash something worse than men.

[Enoch]

Ooh, I like the idea of the dwarves being the last bastion against some doom. Question: do the dwarves know it? Presumably Men either don't know it or don't believe it, or in their arrogance think the "doom" is not that big a deal.