The Kingdom of Arket
Arket's culture mashes up aspects of Norse, Germanic, Mongol and American culture. Imagine Norsemen who learned horsemanship from the Mongols, then moved to the fertile lands around the Rhine and balanced rigid structure and personal freedom in an explosion of innovation. So if you can picture hard-working, horse-riding (though this is more of a noble or military pursuit recently), hardy, efficient intellectuals and you have a picture of the general populace. Arket still reveres the Norse pantheon of gods, though Tyr has moved into the role of a monotheistic central god at the expense of the others. Set's influence has crept north out of the desert and subsumed Loki's role in godly matters, so the main divine conflict is between Tyr and Set.
There's trouble afoot. King Rinthus was assassinated a few months back. He's been resurrected, but ancient laws of succession give him a year to get his affairs in order before abdicating. Any king who lets himself die can't be trusted to maintain the kingdom. With all the hoopla around the young bachelor king choosing an heir and regent, the Duke of Barbary recently declared his independence, taking with him Arket's only direct ocean access.
Dvarfheim, The Dwarven Kingdom
Dwarven culture has been stable for centuries since they have several institutions to help keep order. Moradin holds sway over most dwarves, though some worship the Norse pantheon without animosity. Every dwarf has a family and a clan - you're born into your family, but you choose your clan. Dwarven society supports well over a dozen clans, each one loosely focused on a particular profession or group of professions. The kingdom contains several Wards, each with its own leadership structure, but everyone ultimately swears fealty to the Mountain King.
Ancient dwarves created artifacts known as Sage Thrones. These ornate chairs usually cause madness in non-dwarves, since they contain the collected memories of dwarven leaders and heroes. Anyone sitting in a Sage Throne gets this knowledge rammed into their brains, and if they're lucky they can ask a question and filter out a relevant answer. The first time Wulfgar used a Sage Throne, he got the first level basics of wizardry crammed into his head, but he forgot how to speak Common in the week that his brain needed to assimilate the new information.
Dwarves have unlocked the secret of weapon bonding, where the spirits of weapon and wielder feed off each other in a symbiotic relationship. Not everyone has the capacity to bond with a weapon, but nobody refuses if the opportunity comes up. In game terms, bonding with a weapon lets it level up with you. In Wulfgar's case, his axe went from +2 Ghost Touch to +3 Ghost Touch, plus any worn armor gains Ghost Touch, plus it vibrates in the presence of undead or incorporeal creatures. I think it's due for a new unlocked ability to boot.
The Emirate of Sindar
Most recently, Arket troops took back the city of Rivergate from the Sindari using some sort of magical killing wind. Reports from survivors detailed a swirling demonic fog that killed everything in its path, and since Arket occupied the city immediately afterward, everyone assumes that the Mage's College developed some sort of artifact. Everyone hopes that it never gets developed again given the devastation in Rivergate. This incident got the Emir to agree to a truce for now, though the party has discovered that someone wants Arket and Sindar at war and whoever that is can forge official documents from either land with ease.
The Elven Wood and The Citadel
The elves maintain a huge fortress on the westernmost point of the forest as it fades into plains and desert, near the city of Rivergate. Trees grow together to make the fortress out of living wood, and it has held off endless invaders over thousands of years. Everyone calls it The Citadel, and the elves use it as their military academy. All four pieces of art on the Elven Fortress card from Magic: the Gathering's Fallen Empires set
Lands Farther Afield
The Fisher Kingdoms contain small city-states of mostly humans tucked in a temperate seaside niche surrounded by the Dwarven Kingdom. They're loosely based on the early days of ancient Greece, but these city-states focused on laid-back debate rather than warfare. They worship the Greek pantheon with a particular emphasis on Poseidon. Most children in the Fisher Kingdoms can sail better than adult sailors from other cultures. They don't have a standing army, though every citizen must contribute to defense in some way, usually as a member of a militia.
I ripped off India and used Hindu culture to populate Mumbai Taru. The party hasn't visited, so it's the vaguest of sketches at the moment. Humanoid monsters inhabit the Empire of Skotos far to the south, currently under gnoll rule. The Union of Dwarves oppose these monsters, though their culture centers around communism instead of capitalism. The dwarves are allied with their neighbors the winged folk who call their home Havenaerie. The Shires contain the last bastion of halflings in the world they once dominated. The Magocracy of Timonius postulates a draconian Roman society where wizardry became all the rage, the sort of place where the Order of Hermes ran amok and took over everything
There are other lands with descriptions even sketchier than Mumbai Taru, but if the party ever visits I have enough hooks to give each region a unique flavor. If the party sticks around, they'll get into trouble and find adventure among those natives who want things to change. And isn't that the soul of roleplaying?
Thanks for reading!
". . you know . . back when Halflings ruled the world . ."
ReplyDelete"Wait, what ?!"
*smiles* "Drink your tea dear, it's getting cold."
Good times ;)
And the fact that nobody could find the secret entrance to the subterranean hidey hole just killed them. The party's all too tall for their own good. *grin*
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