| Some Notes on Our World |
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| Written by The Wizard | ||||||
| Monday, 01 January 2007 | ||||||
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Kender and I have talked at length on a few occasions about the core aspects of the world we are designing. Some of the more prominent features are detailed here. 1) Multiple primary worlds - Many game worlds feature one or more landmasses on a single material plane which are, effectively, simple Earth-like planets in Sol-like systems... at least, from a realistic perspective. Most campaign settings' cosmologies don't really address such astronomical concerns. KenderVille, instead, features about half a dozen moons orbiting a large gas giant planet, much like Jupiter. Those half-dozen moons are all inhabited, featuring different environments and resources; some movement between them is possible (more in a moment). Complex cultures have developed on each and intermingled over their thousands of years of history. 2) Transport between worlds - Each moon has one or more locations which permit transport between any two given moons when they are aligned with each other relative to the gas giant. These locations are ancient stone ruins embedded with a special mineral with magic-like properties. Since the inhabitants of KenderVille have used this system for thousands of years, the timing of alignments are studied closely and posted publicly. Transport sites are large enough to support significant trade among moons, which is vital as each moon's unique resources and products help to support each other. For example, one moon may be far more arable than some others and have a net grain export, but it may lack iron and its civilized population would thus be unable to produce enough weapons to defend itself from monsters and the more savage humanoids. Another wrench in the works lies in the Hoppers, which will probably form a prestige class. The core ability of Hoppers is a mastery of the transport between worlds. Through experimentation, they have unlocked means of transporting outside of the normal time windows and even at some distance from the standard transport sites. Knowledge of Hoppers is not widespread; since most Hoppers are in it for the thrill of bending the normal boundaries of the mysterious ruins, rather than profit, they are not keen on their presence becoming commonly known. If it was, they would suddenly find themselves in high demand, some even threatened for their services. The exact natures of both Hoppers and the transport sites are still in development. 3) Low-magic world - For the most part, the moons of KenderVille have very low magic availability. This ties heavily into the history of the worlds. Basically, several thousand years before the primary campaign setting, an alignment of all the moons caused a catastrophe, probably linked to the near-magic mineral the gate stones are made of. One of the moons was thrown into a different orbit, circling over the poles of the gas giant in a north-south fashion rather than more or less along its equator. By means and for reasons discussed below, the inhabitants of this special moon restrain the use of magic on the other moons by ritual means. Only over the last two hundred years has magic begun to return to the primary worlds, though in a limited fashion. Low-level magic-users are uncommon to rare, but the very few who possess the secrets of higher-level magic are unlikely to share or sell their power except in extreme circumstances. 4) The rogue moon - We have not yet decided the exact motive causing the rogue moon's inhabitants to restrict magic on the primary moons. In any case, a cult of powerful magic-users based on the rogue moon has maintained an anti-magic effect across the other moons until about two hundred years before the primary setting. 5) The great adventurers - A group of high-level adventurers, at least one of whom was a Hopper, from a primary moon re-discovered the rogue moon and set about to investigate it. During their time there, they disrupt the cult's long-maintained antimagic ritual and abscond with various spellbooks and magical artifacts. These few items helped relight the spark of magic in the primary worlds, where it had long been forgotten since the practice of magic was simply impossible. Subsequent adventures both by them and others sought to recover more items, though excursions by others from the rogue moon do well in covering up the existence of their homeworld and in recollecting items of magic. * * * * * That's everything that comes to mind right now. I've undoubtedly missed dozens of minor points and a few major concepts, but those can wait for another day. Wizard out. -The Wizard
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