My Fantasy RPG World, Feedback and Ideas appreciated

Scalenex rambles informally about vampires

So I've been waffling on my vampires for a long time. I know I want vampires in my setting but I haven't committed to details.

Sometimes vampires cannot cross running water. Sometimes they are harmed severely by running water. Sometimes they are vulnerable to holy water. In Blood Rayne they are vulnerable to all water. I think the origin of these myths is several pagan religions viewing water and running water as holy and Christianity co-opting it. I could go into similar detail on stakes, silver, mirrors, OCD counting, requiring invitations, sunlight sensitivity.

Vampires across movies, books, and TV shows either have some enhanced strength, lots of enhanced strength or no enhanced strength. Same goes for speed, allure, powers of command, magic, intellect, lifespan, etc, etc.

I recently saw the mini-series of Adventure Time covering how Marceline wiped out all the vampires and then was turned by the last one. Naturally a different take on vampires than you often see, but valid.

I recently re-watched Blade. I might re-watch Underworld. There are a couple movies in the series I haven't seen. I watched most of the Blood Rayne series. I watched a lot of late night sci-fi movies that involve vampires.

I never saw more than a few minutes of Twilight. I can mock it till I'm blue in the face, but I cannot deny that vampires often have a sensual air about them. In fact in the Victorian Age, vampires biting women was used as a metaphor for sex when censorship standards banned outright depictions of the act.

I thought about the vampires of Shadowrun, the Vampires of the Old World of Darkness and the vampires of the New World of Darkness. I thought about the standard vampires of D&D. I sadly never read any Ravenloth books.


I have been pondering on why I keep second guessing every decision I make for Scarterran vampires. I thought it was because everything I came up with done before and I should do something unique. Unique isn't always best. A friend highly recommended Blindsight. The vampires in that novel are certainly unique, but I didn't really enjoy the novel.

I think I need a purpose to build my own vampire myth. A lot of memorable vampire stories are built around a purpose.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter uses vampirism as a metaphor for antebellum slavery.

Blood Rayne and Underworld is built around the purpose of justifying pulp action with attractive ass kicking anti-hero heroines.

Van Helsing, vampirism was built around justifying pulp action with hints of PG 13 and romance and light philosophy for Hugh Jackman.

Most modern vampire romance stories, vampires are a very literal manifestation of the classic Beauty and the Beast archetypal story of a heroine taming and civilizing a dangerous man.

Blindsense was not my cup of tea, but it was smartly constructed. Vampirism was one of many vehicles to explore the idea of transhumanism ina futuristic sci-fi setting.

Marceline from Adventure Time, I guess the purpose of vampirism is to add color, humor, and dare I say adventure to the Adventure's Time kitchen sink approach to myth.

Batman versus Dracula was all about the dramatic purpose of setting Batman and Dracula as dramatic foils for each other.

So what is my purpose and framework? I don't want vampires to be merely another monster to fight in RPGs or novels.

So far I have the idea that vampires were created by an insane plan to use the energies of the Void against the minions of the Void and it backfired.

The Void is sort of my attempt to co-opt Lovecraftian horrors with the Norse myth of a serpent gnawing at the world tree but I'm going more for a "Never ending battle to shore up the safeguards of the world" as opposed to "futile attempt to delay Armageddon as long as possible. Maybe a little vague. Right now the Void is a PG cosmic horror. I could make it a rated R cosmic horror, but as of yet I don't see a reason to. The main thing with Void vampires is I need to play up the alien horror as much as possible.

Sunlight: The Void is darkness incarnate, so I guess it makes sense that vampires powered by the Void would harmed by the sun, but Void Demons themselves are not harmed by sunlight, so sunlight should probably not be an instant death sentence for vampires. Painful and will kill them eventually, but hardly an insta-kill.

Garlic: Worthless against Scarterran vampires. In real world folklore garlic was viewed as a generic ward-all against evil because garlic is a disinfectant. I don't really have a mythos around garlic.

Running Water: Worthless against Scarterran vampires. The Void is pretty indifferent to water. Holy water could harm vampires I guess but holy anything could harm them so water is not special.

Silver: Void Demons are harmed by silver. It makes sense that Void vampires would too.

OCD counting and requiring an invitation: This doesn't strike me as "Void." Though I did establish with liches that beings who use the state of undeath to prolong their lifespans unnaturally all eventually become insane. It's possible an individual vampire might be OCD about counting, running water, requiring an invitation or even garlic, but that doesn't mean all vampires would have the same form of psychological issue.

Crosses: Nope. This is mostly a Christian mythos thing though Blindsight tried to come up with a scientific explanation that seeing four 90% angles caused primordial vampires have epileptic fits...because ummm science. Either way it doesn't fit in Scarterra very well.

Sexy Vampires?: The Void is not sexy. Ergo Scarterran vampires should not be sexy because it clashes with alien horror.

Vampire Powers: Void Demons are not weaklings. They are generally pretty strong, but strength is not their main strength. Their energy drain powers and alien magic is their main strength, so a vampire's boost in strength and speed is likely to modest.

Ditto with intellect. Void Demons are not morons but they are not geniuses either. Vampires are probably as smart as the creatures they used to be before being turned.

The creator of vampires deliberately wanted to make his vampires non-spell-casters, so vampires should not really have innate magic. At least not in the Scarterran dictionary sense of magic. Void Demons have psionic or psychic powers. So vampire extra-ordinary abilities should follow this mold.

I need to ponder this some more, but my general idea is to base vampire powers off of psionics somehow though their power is probably fueled by stolen blood rather than from their own strength of will like living psions use to fuel their powers.

More to come later while I figure out the specifics.

How vampires make other vampires: A lot of vampire stories have new vampires be created quite easily. Anyone bitten by a vampire becomes a vampire. That's a little crazy in my opinion. The world would be overrun by vampires. Some vampire stories add a variant that most people bitten by vampires simply die, but some rise as vampires.

I'm likely to use what is used in the gameline Vampire: the Masquerade and the movie/novel Interview with a Vampire. A person killed by a vampire and then fed a bit of vampire blood is turned. Until and unless I come up with something better, but whatever I come up with creating a new vampire is going to be a deliberate and time consuming act. I don't want vampires to create new vampires by being clumsy or careless.

An interesting variant I read once is that if a victim is drained dry, they just die, if a person is fed from a little bit they just are anemic but if a person has about half their blood drank they die and become a vampire. Interesting thought but not for me.

Feeding: This is the hard part. I am certain I want vampires to be able to feed from someone without turning them into a vampire, but I'm not 100% sure whether or not a vampire can feed from a person without killing or maiming them. I'm not sure how well magical healing will work on vampire victims. In most versions of D&D, level drain or blood loss from vampires is extremely debilitating at low levels but mid level characters can use divine magic to recover pretty easily. If I allow that, it means a very patient ally of a vampire could let himself or herself be fed on repeatedly as long as they have access to a magical healer. The Order of the Stick webcomic did just that.

I plan to use Shadowrun's convention. A vampire that used to be a elf is going to prefer elf blood over all blood options but they are not going to starve to death in human or dwarf lands. I'm not sure whether I want vampires to be able to survive off of animal blood or not. It has major implications. If vampires can feed off animal blood long term that means my setting allows "vegetarian vampires." I'm not sure I want vegetarian vampires.

Then there is the question of how often do vampires have to feed. Vampires with prodigious appetites would have a harder time hiding and would by necessity have to live in populated areas. Vampires that don't have to feed as often could be recluses or hermits in the wilderness.

Vampires nearly always drink blood in their media depictions, but they don't have to. Void Demons generally drain a persons life force with their touch (in game terms this temporary reduces a character's physical attributes). It's very debilitating, but it's bloodless.

Faceless, the most common Void powered undead minion seen do something similar but they drain social attributes. Allips and maybe some ghosts can attack someone's mind draining mental attributes.

If vampires can drain life force in a spiritual or psychic manner it might highlight the alien nature of Scarterran vampires but they lose some of the horror element since there is something viscerally scary about a blood drinker.


Okay that's a lot of waffling. Do you guys have any thoughts?

 

Okay, so about this. Year 1 on my "standard" calendar is going to be the reputed death of Vladimir the Conquer. At least in West Colassia whereas of now my RPG game is set and so is my WIP novel. So it's been 1836 years since Vladimir was killed,

Vladimir and his vampire minions tried to take over the world and eventually all the human nations and tribes in West Colassia that were not in Vladimir's tribe had to unite against them. Swynfaredia and Kantoc both claim their nobility is descended from the heroes that defeated Vladimir. Uskala has a paper thin claim to this as well but no one believes it. Again, Uskala's ruler is a dragon pretending to be a vampire pretending to be a human.

But way before Vladimir's attempt at world domination, there was between 1000 and 4000 years where humans were mostly nomadic barbarians as the humans very slowly started developing the rudiments of civilization.

At some point I need to figure out some basics for the different tribes of humans that roamed the world. A few of them might even still have nomadic people in the present time like the Mereshnari of East Colassia.

The Second Unmaking was over, but there were lots of pockets of Void Demons and Void spawned monstrosities haunting the country side. Maybe throw in a few small plagues and the like. So the ancient humans had a lot of struggles. They also had to deal with the reemerging monsters like dragons.

Besides the gradual passing of time, two major events pushed civilization forward during this time. I'm not sure which one I want to happen first.

One event is Mordock the conquer conquering most of West Colassia in the style of Genghis Khan. Sure Mordock did a lot of looting and pillaging but in the aftermath of his conquest, this opened a lot of trade routes between distant lands helping the spread of culture, technology and magic.

The second event is that at roughly the same time, the Dark Elves and Grey Elves recovered their civilization faster than the humans and decided to conquer the primitive humans. The Dark Elves wanted expendable slaves though they said it was for the humans own good. The Grey Elves truly believed their rule was for the human's own good. Eventually the humans assimilated enough of the elves magic and technological that they were able to mostly throw off the shackles of their pointy eared overseers.

Also, both the Dark Elves and Grey Elves tried to invade the lands of the Wood Elves and the Wood Elves brutally defeated them. This not only depleted their armies but it showed the humans that elves are not invincible. Wood Elves have enjoyed the reputation being double winners of these wars so most humans are afraid to mess with them though it may be a matter of time before Uskala tries invading them.

Like the conquest of Mordock, this did open trade routes and expand technology and magic.

The period where the elves took over then declined, and Mordock took over then declined, is going to be roughly 800 years.

Recapping, it's been 1836 years since Vladimir was destroyed. Everyone agrees on this (though some conspiracy theorists say Vladimir faked his death 1836 years ago). Before that, it was either 1800 years or 4800 years since the start of the Third Age.

So the year would 3636 or or 5636 depending on whom you ask.

The grey elves, dwarves, gnomes, dark elves, and wood elves all say their answer is right. I haven't figure out where they fit.

I am likely to make the Wood Elves have the biggest year number, and the dark elves have the smallest year number. But all these groups claim they know the real start of the Third Age.

 

The players of my RPG told me they would prefer my world not have psionics in it, especially since me coming up with psionic powers would have delayed the start of my game. That's not uncommon. A lot of people argue D&D should not have included psionics and many DMs and players prefer to act without it.

Despite this negative feedback, I still want Scarterra to have psionics in it.

I'm not likely to impose on my RPG game, but I would like my literary universe to have it. I just wasn't sure how.

Scarterra is not that different from most D&D worlds in how magic works.

In Scarterra, divine magic represents miracles that the Nine can accomplish very easily. They can pretty much will effects like this into existence, so it's pretty easy for them to bestow the power on mortals. Favored souls are mortals who the Nine dump their power into without asking. Theurgists are mortals who faith and piety essentially invites the Nine to bestow their power on them. The powers are tilted towards healing, summoning, manipulating the natural world, and knowledge.

In Scarterra, arcane magic involves the manipulation of rules to achieve effects. This rules are imprinted into the the universe as much as the laws of physics are built into our world. Sorcerers are born with a talent to direct it. Wizards study it. Bardic wizards indirectly study it by manipulating the universe with song because that's initially how Turoch created the world. The powers are tilted towards the eight schools of magic which are based on years of magic folklore.

In D&D, psionics is basically using the power in a person's soul/mind/chi to harness supernatural effects. The powers are mostly psychic in nature. Telepathy, telekinesis enhanced senses, astral projection plus D&D eventually added energy manipulation and shape changing to the mix. In Scarterra, psionics diverge a bit from most D&D settings. In most D&D, everyone with a mind has some potential for psionic ability. in Scarterra only creatures wholly of the Third Age, ie humans and orcs have psionic potential. Also Void Demons are psionic.

So I've been watching a lot of Halloween movies and listening to a lot of gothy Halloween music to get in the spirit (for the holiday that social distancing will eliminate the ability of kids or adults to celebrate...) Doctor Sleep (possibly the only good new release in the last twelve months), the brilliant sequel to the brilliant movie The Shining gave me the inspiration.

Without going too deep into spoilers for Doctor Sleep. Danny from the Shining is now an adult. He encounters a young girl that has the shining and also discovers that twisted monstrous people systematically murder and cannibalize kids with the shining.

Anyway, the cinematography for the evil people with the Shining in Doctor Sleep is pretty much exactly the thematic feel I want for Void Demons or infernalists using psionics.

All Void demons have psionic powers. There are two powers all Void Demons have. First, they can read the auras of living things and creatures with mortal souls glow like roman candles to them. These auras are so strong that their auras rub off on things letting a demon track mortals by the "scent" of their aura. Second, Void Demons can communicate with other Void Demons telepathically over at least a few miles.

More specialized demons have more specialized powers. Mortal psionics are going to have powers that demons don't commonly have, that said the fact that Void Demons and mortal psionics have the same basic type of power makes Scarterrans suspicious of psions.

Wizards and theurgists get their power from training. Favored souls and sorcerers get their power from divine intervention and/or genetic blood lines. As far as anyone in Scarterra knows, psionic talent is entirely random. The unpredictable nature of this makes Scarterrans distrust mortal psions even more.

Only Third Age mortals, namely humans and orcs ever manifest psionic talent. This means dwarves, elves, dragons on the like automatically distrust them if only out of envy and fear.

A lot of Scarterrans distrust all magic. When I was in grade school, I was the fattest kid in my class. Who made fun of me more than anyone else? The second fattest kid in class. Continuing this metaphor, this means that warlocks and Greymoria affiliated theurgists who are widely distrusted by most Scarterrans are among the people most enthusiastic about spreading tales about how corrupt and dark mortal psions are.

Divine magic usually involves loud prayers and brandishing a holy symbol. Arcane magic usually involves weird hand movements and odd chanting. A Scarterran peasant may not know what a theurgist or wizard is doing exactly but at least they have a moment's warning that something magic is afoot. Mortal psions don't have to do anything to use their "magic," they just think it into existence. This makes psions scarier than wizards and theurgists. Also, psionics affects the mind directly, something very invasive. It also opens the door to Salem like witch hunts where random happenstance is blamed on "well hidden psionics"

A lot of young psions either choose to hide their talents or they get they get so tired of the discrimination that they snap. "If everyone is going to treat me like a monster, I might as well act like a monster."

That's not to say everyone thinks mortal psions are monsters. Some people are excited by new things or at least pragmatic enough to want to utilize a new source of power. But there is enough distrust that organized groups to study psionics or provide mentors to young psions are pretty limited.

Another way I'm going to differentiate psionics from divine and arcane magic is I'm not going to give any power a dot rating. My game system is based on White Wolf which loves it's one to five dot ratings of things. You have to get the one dot power before you get the two dot power. Psionics isn't going to be so cut and dried. A psion might only have one power, but it could be a very formidable powers.

I haven't populated the power roster but the are going to look like.

Character can do X
Character can do Y

They wouldn't have to be connected though. I came up with six or seven aura based powers, but I don't see why I would require a character to specialize in aura reading. For instance power lets the psion tell truth from lies, another allows tracking like a Void Demon, another lets a psion size up how formidable someone is in combat, and another diagnoses health and condition.

I might give telekinesis a dot system though. It makes some intuitive sense that a a person would start with small objects and work their way up to big ones but maybe not. Perhaps a psion can use telekinesis to fly but cannot even life a small pebble.

 

Scarterran Holidays, Part One

A player in my group is a Zarthus worshiper. The player who is a Khemra priest asked how Zarthus and Khemra gets along, and the first player said it’s not that big of a deal, my elf is more of an Christmas and Easter Zarthus worshiper.


I should figure out what the equivalents of Christmas and Easter are for the Nine. At least for Scarterra. I’ll cover Scaraqua separately later.


I’ll cover the Nine in zodiac order. I am covering Maylar, Mera, and Korus. I’m open to feedback on all of them. I sort of hit a wall with Korus and this wall will be a recurring thing.


Maylar

The first Holiday I thought for Maylar is “Winter’s Eve.” Maylar is the patron of hunting and animal husbandry. Agricultural societies usually thin their livestock at the onset of winter. This is done to conserve stocks of animal food and to have something to eat during the winter. Until the Industrial Revolution, most of the West would kill a lot of pigs at the onset of winter and prepare them for the winter.

It’d be pretty simple to add a formal ceremony in Maylar’s honor to the killing of the first winter pig (or goat or whatever they have)

A nomadic society is going to have rely on hunting more as winter approaches. Winter’s Eve is a big deal for these groups. They probably add a meaningful sacrifice to their ritual. Orcs and other brutal society’s might sacrifice a captive or have two or more ceremonial combatants fight to the death to ensure prosperity to the tribe. Less murderous societies probably don’t kill people but they would need to do SOMETHING meaningful for Maylar’s favor. They might bleed themselves or give up cherished personal belongings. It’s possibly that a society cold ritually sacrifice the infirm members of their tribe at this time.


It makes sense to make Maylar’s other holiday be Summer’s Eve. On the Order of the Stick forums, brainstorming led me to the idea that mortals can win Maylar’s favor by demonstrating strength and toughness in adversity. Orcs and other pro-Maylar groups probably see this as an opportunity to gain Maylar’s blessings. Most Scarterrans view these tests as a means of avoiding Maylar’s wrath. Fasting, tests of endurance, brutal athletic contests, and the like would be the norm, varying widely from culture to culture.


The thing I like about Maylar’s holidays is they are almost the same whether a society respects and loves Maylar or a society hates and fears Maylar. This thread provided a lot of inspiration. It covers how polytheistic society’s developed their practices and rituals in the real world. The gist of it is, whether you have a benevolent king or a tyrant king, you want to be on the king’s good side either way. The same goes for appeasing the gods.

https://acoup.blog/2019/10/25/collections-practical-polytheism-part-i-knowledge/

Mera


I don’t think there would be many Mera holidays that are universally observed around Scarterra. I imagine societies that depend on fishing would have at least one annual holiday thanking Mera for her bounty.

Real world polytheistic societies had big gods where the kings and potentates oversaw sacrificing bulls and other things that commoners couldn’t afford to do. They also had little gods that peasants appeased with saucers of cream and whatnot. A lot more affordable than sacrificing a bull.

Mera is not a little goddess, but she would fill the same niche. A lot of people would have lots of minor Mera rituals worked into their daily lives. This article covers little gods in detail.

https://acoup.blog/2019/11/15/collections-practical-polytheism-part-iv-little-gods-and-big-people/

I think all of the Nine would have their own versions of weddings, funerals, and baptisms but devout Mera worshipers would really milk these events and turn them into community events, especially in rural areas where the entire population attends every community wedding and a lot of people give small gifts and well wishes every time a healthy baby is born.

As for bigger festivals and holidays, I’m not sure. Mera worshipers might celebrate the anniversary of major peace treaties being hammered out, but these would be local holidays based on local history. Mera is also the hearth goddess, so some places might have pro-fire festivals on winter time.

Mera could also have an annual holiday where the matchmakers go to work trying to pair single people off, but I don’t see why match makers would need to limit themselves to one day.



Korus

As mentioned before, Korus priesthood is split between the Stewards of the Gift who are farmer friendly clerics and the Stewards of the Dominion who are basically tree hugging druids. Civilized people want to be nice to the Stewards of the Gift to make sure their crops grow healthy. They want to placate the Stewards of the Dominion enough to avoid nature’s wrath.

Nomadic people depend on the Stewards of the Dominion to help them find sustenance and avoid natural hazards. They really aren’t worried about offending the Stewards of the Gift, but they don’t want the armies of civilization trying to smite them.

Like Mera, I imagine Korus has a bunch of little rituals as opposed to a few big rituals, but it seems pretty obvious that the Stewards of the Gift would oversee a major religious observance to Korus at planting and harvest time. The planting ritual is probably somber and formal and the harvest ritual is more light hearted and festive. Not every crop is planted or harvested at the same time so there are probably multiple observances but the main annual events would coincide with whatever a region staple crop is. Simple enough.


The ancient Celts celebrated the equinoxes and solstices. A lot of pre-industrial cultures made these days into full holidays. What I think may be unique to the Celts is they celebrated the “tweens.” Halloween, originally known as Samhain is the exact midpoint between and the Fall Solstice and Winter. Beltaine the midpoint between the Spring Equinox and Summer solstice got co-opted and domesticated into tame May Day celebrations. Imbolc and Mid Summer’s night have disappeared from modern Anglo and American culture.

The solstices and equinoxes and the “tweens” would make great days for the Stewards of Korus’ Dominion to celebrate. I haven’t covered Greymoria but I figured Greymoria’s holy days would likely fall on the “tween.” Greymoria is the dark magic goddess and “tweens” are often associated with magic. Korus is bridging good and evil, light and dark, civilization and nature, masculine and feminine so he’d probably like the tweens too. Other “tweens” not connected to the calendar are bridges, doorways, dusk, dawn, adolescence,


But there is a problem. Scarterra does not have an axial tilt. Variations on the Barrier against the Void creates seasonal variation, but Scarterra has no logical reason that 365 days a year they have 12 hour days and 12 hour night. Khemra controls the sun and she is a perfectionist control freak, so I don’t know why she would decide to vary the days. The split between day and night was part of the Compact and all. The problem is, I wrote myself into a corner. Should I learn to live with my corner or should I invent some reason to have variation in day and night?

 

Scarterran seasons don't come from axial tilt. The Barrier to the Void waxes and wanes on a predictable cycle creating alternate cycles of summer and winter.

But yes, I'm sure there is something besides seasons that the lack of an axial tilt implies that I'm not seeing because my knowledge of physics is far from absolute.

My plan was/is to have nine, maybe ten zodiac houses that roughly correspond with my months. Though I was and am contemplating rogue houses that interject temporarily.

My calendar plan is not set in stone yet, but my current favorite idea is that Scarterra has nine months that are each 40 days long and the "month" of Turoch lasts only five days.

 

Thank you for your reply. Until someone persuades me of the benefits of a rotating cylinder, I figure Scarterra is a geocentric universe where the sun and the moon and the stars revolve around it.

I still haven't figured out how the tides work. My short answer is "A god did it!" (which is my default answer for most things in this world ).

My first idea was that tides are like a historical reenactment of water and earth elementals fighting but I'm thinking of making them more meaningful, especially as I develop Scaraqua further.

I figure since tides are sort of an interaction between land and sea, Scarterrans credit Mera Enosha with controlling them, even if she doesn't. Scaraquans probably don't credit Enosha Mera with the tides, they probably either give the credit to the Seeyirah in tandem or maybe Dalgari Zarthus.

Right now, Dalgari has almost zero role in the religious life of Scaraquans so I'm thinking of making him the god of tides and not just "the god of the moon who long ago helped created life as we know it but hasn't done anything else of note since then).

I need to do some research to figure out how the tides impact sea creatures that never go on land.

The first issue is that if you knock a chunk of rock off it might float away. I do not believe that should be an issue, otherwise regular erosion would fairly quickly turn my flying islands into eternally flying clouds of dust which are more realistic but aren't very exciting.

I'm still working on the metaphysics, but it's not the rocks that are magical, it's the site. Major events tie up supernatural energies in places more than things. If you chip a small rock off a flying island, it's not going to float away. It's going to be quasi-magnetically/gravitationally attracted to the island it came from but it's not going to be a flying rock.

MAYBE such a rock would be a basis for magical regents for permanent magical items related to flying or elemental but if that's the case, I bet a lot of flying islands would have been stripped mined by wizard owned mining companies.

If you broke a flying island into ten thousand boulders, the magic would probably be broken and nothing would fly. If you broke a flying island into two or three massive pieces the smaller islands might still fly. If you broke a flying island into a hundred very large pieces the magic would probably be diluted so you don't have flying rocks, but you have very light rocks that float on water.

At least they would float on water for a few decades or centuries before they gradually pick up water elemental energy which dilutes the air elemental energy until the rocks sink and they become more or less ordinary rocks.

 

I guess it's an inside term my friend Eron12 and I used a lot. I went through a phase where I wanted to play weird characters just to be unique. Exaggeration but here is the concept.

Dungeon Master: Okay this game is going to be pretty standard low level D&D, defend some villages from goblins and other Monsters of the Week, throw in a few dungeons, etc.

Mister Tada: I want to play a half-human half-dragon who is also a dhamphyr...and she has purple hair...because.


When a game master has a tada moment he is including something weird in the setting just to have something weird. The Chessman are certainly high fantasy but it doesn't create a puzzle to be solved, a monster to fight, or a political intrigue to unravel. In other words, no story purpose, no narrative stakes.

Weird ass setting elements that have no narrative purpose can still set stone. Statues that weep tears of blood might not create a physical or political obstacle for the PCs or novel protagonists but at least it foreshadows horror and supernatural dangers.

 

Yes, that's why I liked his post and thanked him for his effort.

That can work I guess.

There are different styles of writing. I will not say that one style is better than another, but I can say that certain writing styles are better for me.

George R. Martin did not create much of a plan for his Song of Ice and Fire series. He sets up the characters and events and lets the characters play things out logically and it usually turns out well (until he got bored with Westeros but that's another story). Rian Johnson used this method too with less success.

Some writers can set up plot elements A, B, and C without a plan and craft something amazing with them. I cannot.

Until I have at least a vague plan, ideas like this go into my Maybe Pile (which is very big). My Probably Not is fairly small and my Definitely Not piles is very small.

 

Scarterran Holidays, Part Two

This post is for all the ladies...goddesses anyway. The next three deities in the zodiac are Nami, Greymoria, and Khemra.

But first, let us revisit the seasons....

I already established that Scarterra has seasons but every day is 12 hours. A Scarterran counting the days will notice that it's gets colder and then warmer, the leaves change color, fall off and grow back, etc but with 12 hour days and nights every single day it's hard to figure out a exact point at which Summer ends and Autumn begins.

It might be fun to have different nations bicker and argue about the seasons but the level of complexity may annoy readers or players. So I thought since the stars were put in place by the Nine, the stars can mark the seasons. There could be a small constellation for each of the four seasons or there could be very bright unusually colored stars that represent the season, blue for winter, green for spring, red for summer, and purple for autumn for instance and the stars slowly revolve around each other. Which every star is the highest in the night sky is the "Lord of the season."

Real world earth has solstices and equinoxes. On Scarterra every day is an equinox so the seasons are marked by Stellar Days. Until or unless someone comes up with something better the official start of the seasons is going to be marked by Stellar Days. This also lets me have tween days that mark the exact half-way points between the seasons, they could have their own noticeable star formations (the secondary stars are all in a perfect line below the primary star for instance or people could just figure out the tweens by counting like the ancient Celts did.

Nami Festivals

I think I mentioned more than once that most nations and cultures in Scarterra have an annual Nami festival that takes the form of a wild party where inhibitions are thrown to the wind. Each people has their own take on it. I probably need some kind of name for this like the Celebration of Nami (but less on the nose).

Gnomes probably stuff their faces with giant feasts while orcs probably engage in sex and violence. Dwarfs almost certainly drink themselves into a stupor. Given that grey elves are so repressed normally (and they only celebrate Nami's holiday once every nine years) the aftermath of Nami's festivals could resemble the Purge and end with lots of things set on fire.

Ironically, less stody societies probably have tamer Nami festivals. I imagine Apseldia has art exhibitions and public plays and whatnot.

These festivals are all unique but there are some commonalities.

-First off, I like the real world Saturnalia tradition where people go around to the houses of rich people and demand snacks and booze or they will set the house on fire. That fits Nami pretty well.

-Given that Nami is the wind goddess, I like the idea of literally throwing one's inhibitions to the winds. I can imagine a lot of festivals involve people writing their problems down (or having a literate friend write down their problems they make their problems into paper airplanes and throw them off a cliff or set them on fire.

-Nami is the goddess of beer, wine and spirits. Most Nami festivals would involve the consumption of alcohol.

-A majority of Nami festivals would include reduced inhibition for random sexual encounters or in more monogamous societies maybe random kissing. Some people might aim to have marriages on Nami's holy day.

-Zarthus maybe the main deity of the arts, but it's something Nami appreciates too. I imagine dwarves would showcase their greatest crafts, elves would show off their poetry, and orcs would sing bawdy songs.

-In a lot of cases, the local Prince will symbolically humiliate himself or lower himself in some fashion such as making the court jester king for a day. The local Prince is probably going to pay bill for whatever the main entertainment is.


Nami's celebration festivals are observed by nearly every culture on Scarterra in some fashion but Nami has a second somber festival that is pretty much followed by Nami's core followers and largely ignored by the general populace.

It might even be the same day/week every year. I am near certain that I want a 365 day year but I am less certain whether I want nine 40-day months (plus a 5-day mini-month) or twelve 30-day months (plus a 5-day mini-month). If I do have nine months, Nami's somber holiday is going to occur in the middle of Nami's month.

In most cases this is observed with fasting. Sometimes worshipers will carry heavy chains or suffer ordeals of pain. Practices vary, but the main idea is to endure temporary hardship so they can properly appreciate their joys and benefits.

Rover recruitment and training practices vary widely but it's probably especially common for new members to be sworn into the priesthood on Nami's somber holiday.


Greymoria Festivals

Most Scarterrans do not hold Greymoria in high regard. For 90% of Scarterrans, a Greymoria festival is more about staying her wrath than gaining her favor.

I think Greymoria would be associated with tweens in general and coldness in general, so I think she would have her big festival on Samhain, aka Halloween, the Tween Holiday between Autumn and Winter.

I figure on the Samhain equivalent the norm would be ritual praises of Greymoria's wisdom and generosity followed by sacrificed. Primarily livestock but treasure can be sacrificed. Some cultures might have human or humanoid sacrifice. Maylar worshipers may be fond of sacrificing captured prisoners of war but Greymoria would not be very impressed by this (unless they were Mera worshipers). Greymoria would rather see people sacrifice their own people.

I'm not sure I want to include human or humanoid sacrifice in Scarterra or not, but I do like the idea of honored sacrifices. If hypothetically a Scarterran group did this, the would-be sacrifice would probably be treated like a king or queen for the year prior to being sacrificed, maybe longer.

I'm not 100% sure what a second Greymoria holiday would look like. If I had it on a tween it would probably be on Beltaine which is the opposite of Halloween (May Day). This probably be more positive and uplifting and mostly observed by the few Scarterrans who actually like Greymoria.

If a nation or culture has a large minority population of sorcerers or wizards, they probably celebrate magic on Beltaine. This would be time wizards would have (usually bloodless) magical competitions. This might be the one day the isolationist wizard in the lonely tower comes down from his tower to make a magical firework show to delight the peasants.

For the sorcerer nobility of Swynfaredia, they probably like to celebrate rites of passage for their sorcerer children, coming out parties, announcing betrothals, etc.

Some wizards may choose Beltaine to say "I am taking one and only apprentice this year, who among you believes you are worthy."

Greymoria does not normally induct new members publicly but they are probably more likely than not to induct or promote their members on Beltaine.

Beltain is the midway point between Spring and Summer. Given this holiday's focus on newness and optimism it might be better to make this holiday on Ibolc, the midway point between Winter and Spring (Groundhog Day). There may or may not be something involving Groundhogs but probably not though Groundhog Day is one of my all time favorite movies.

Khemra holidays

Khemra is the goddess of the sun and a stickler for tradition. She is most likely to have her main holidays on Midsummer, the Summer Stellar Day, or the midpoint of Khemra's month. It just so happens that these three dates are relatively close together. I might want to put a Khemra holiday in winter for variety. If anything, you appreciate the sun more when it's cold out.

Maybe I'll ask Neshik's player for ideas given that he's helped me flesh out Khemra's priesthood a bit before. I'm not sure what a Lawful Neutral stickler would have for holidays.

There would probably be at least one festival thanking Khemra for providing sunlight. It would probably have feasting and celebration that Nami's follower mock for being tame and boring. This would probably either be on the Winter Stellar Day, the Summer Stellar Day or Imbolc.

The most likely non-sun based holiday probably glorifies princes or scholarship or both. Maybe a major holiday for princes and a minor holiday for scholars and historians though they can be lumped together if historians honor the local king and queen by reciting the history of their glorious ancestors.

Whatever this holiday is called, it's probably a popular time to accept new oaths, swearing in new vassals, recruiting squires, etc. Some more hidebound societies may try to seal marriages and bethrothals on this day too.

While the local lords are celebrating their noble heritage, peasants might celebrate their heritage and history though not every nation and culture would do this, this holiday would be a good day for general ancestor worship and filial piety for those cultures that practice filial piety.

 

I wonder who Pendrakkar is?

Well if he or she has any suggestions improve aesthetics, I hope Pendrakkar will let me know. I should probably add some more articles. I haven't done an update besides minor edits in a over a month.

 

So I've been pondering how to implement vampires and werewolves into Scarterra for some time and I saw this recent video from Mythology and Fiction explained. A great folklore resource but they don't make videos as fast as I'd like.

While only Western culture has handsome suave Bram Stoker vampire types every culture that has every existed has had some kind of legend about scary monsters that feed on the blood of the living. The Yara-mah-yha-who start at 7:09 on this video. They are an aboriginal Australian legend and they maybe the scariest and weirdest vampire-like monster on the list.



Someone in the comment section of the videos pointed out that Australia's REAL animals are weird and terrifying, so how weird and terrifying would their fictional monsters be.

The thought occurred to me that I really need to do some research on aboriginal monster legends. It would be a fantasy gold mine.

Lets assume for a moment that I can find a dozen or so monsters roughly as scary and weird as the Yara-mah-yha-who.

I got two options.

Option One: I can scatter these freaks throughout Scarterra as rare lone monsters or terrifying spirits that the more violent among the Nine keep in their back pocket as a nuclear option.

Option Two: I can make one of Scarterrans landmasses into faux Australia. Maybe throw in some kangaroos, platypi and kualas while putting all my most otherworldly terrifying monsters in one place.

I'm leaning towards option two. Khemarok is positioned to have an Australia like climate. As of yet, I have not come up with many details of Khemarok beyond it's run by a pro-Khemra theocracy. I could make Khemarok not a theocracy and (change the name) or I can keep it as is.

Whatever government faux-Australia has in Scarterran would probably be harsh and militaristic. Life is rough on Scarterra in general. Faux-Australia has to deal with less arable land and more monsters. That could be a gold mine of interesting stories. Or it could limit storytelling because no one is rebelling in this society and outside forces are probably not going to try to conquer Faux-Australia (anyone who conquers them inherits their problems).


One of my many self-inflicted obstacles to developing Scarterra is that I like spinning plates.

Right now I'm pondering Scarterran vampires, Scarterran lycanthropes, Scarterran Australia, my hypothetical novel, establishing a set calendar and time line and many many aspects of Scaraqua.

Scaraqua really seems to dominate my thoughts. My plan remains to base Scaraqua loosely on the Roman Empire though I'm not sure what stage of Roman history to emulate. Rome's rise, Rome's pax period, Rome's fall or the Byzantine era, but after watching this video and this video it is clear that my ability to make a coherent setting is going to be hard without a map. Whether the Oshamni Empire (aka Water Rome) is expanding or declining I need to set up some borders and realms.

I like the top map more slightly more than the middle one but I probably want to redraw it again. I want more penisulas, islands, and fjiords. Not only will this make Scarterra's landmasses more interesting (and possibly more realistic) but they will form natural borders for Scaraqua. In Scaraqua a Fjiord could allow a small force to hold a larger one at bay (pun!) utilizing the choke point but Scaraquans that live in a Fjiord probably are forced to deal with Scarterrans more often.

Besides the landmasses creating natural limits for Scaraqua, Scaraqua will need to have mountains and trenches underwater providing natural barriers. And maybe extensive reefs and kelp forests and the like. As mentioned before, sea currents can fill the same transportation niche in Scaraqua that roads and rivers forms in Scarterra.

Logically, Scaraquans probably thrive best in areas that are relatively shallow and relatively warm. The warmer waters are near the equator and the shallower waters are (usually) near the land masses.

I'm not sure what Mera's Lake would like below the surface. Scarterrans value Mera's Lake because it's a near limitless source of fresh water. I don't know if sea creatures would find the fresh water harmful or not (I can always handwave away science here because it is literally a magic lake). Also, the magical effect of Mera's Lake does not have to extend all the way to sea floor, but maybe it does in some other way. Perhaps Scaraquans don't see it as Mera's Lake but it maybe it marks something else. It could either represent some valuable resource or represent holy ground or house some natural hazard or some combination of all three.

 

Feel free to chime in as you see fit, I don't mind thread necromancy. Anyway Fair Folk is a very big important topic for me, at least in my heart.

It took me months after writing my first post about Fair Folk here to come to an epiphany (around page 35). Fair Folk and Fairy Tales involve a soft magic system and Scarterra is very much a hard magic system.

This seems obvious in hindsight, but Years ago, my first exposure to non-sanitized Fairy Tales was through White Wolf publishing Changeling: the Dreaming. CtD is as close to a hard magic system as I have seen without breaking the core sense of wonder that Fairy Tales embody. Though they did this by rooting the setting deeply in the modern world of the 1990s and early 2000s when the game was set. The essentially idea is that the magic of the Fae is theoretically infinite but it's limited by the Banality of ordinary humans. That motiff doesn't exactly work in a setting that already has magic and dragons.

Fantasy settings whether they are modern fantasy, classic fantasy or epic fantasy tend to either have hard magic or soft magic systems. Or you could argue that an entire setting is hard or soft.

It could have been another show, but I think it was Babylon 5 where at a convention one of the show creators was asked how fast the ships can go and he said "they move at the speed of plot." In other words, they either arrive just in time or a moment too late depending on the needs of the story. Star Trek with different warp factors, that's more of a hard system.

I really like Alice and Wonderland (pretty much any version of it), Spirited Away, the Artemis Fowl series (though I admit a gradual decline in quality over eight books), The Spiderwick Chronicles and almost everything with Fae or Fae-like creatures in it.

Hard fantasy is not objectively better or worse than soft fantasy but I am better at writing hard fantasy than soft fantasy.

I created fairly solid limits on what magic can or cannot do, but I didn't stop there. I mused extensively on how the presence of magic will affect governmental systems, international relations, infant mortality, general lifespans, weapons control policies, military strategy, and economic systems among other things.

I by my nature, like to put things in categories, hence my obsession with indexes and the lists.

The Fair Folk defy categorization though I enjoy reading stories about the Fair Folk I'm not sure I can write them. In RPG terms, my players are not half as interested in stories of the Fair Folk as I am. Well I have one friend who likes them, but due to real life issues it's not feasible for me to RP with him because I only see him once or twice a year.

In terms of fiction I could have a hard system where everything makes sense that occasionally has Fair Folk ride in, destabilize things and then leave. Or I could just leave this element out. I have yet to decide. But in RPG terms, if I'm lukewarm on it, and my players are uninterested in, I'm not going to include it.

 

Scarterran Holidays, Part Two

We round off the Scarterran Zodiac with Zarthus, Hallisan and Phidas. I didn't mean to group them together in terms for thematic reasons but I always thought of these three deities each represented a different aspect of ambition.

I'm not sure what these deities holidays would look like. One issue is that after doing six of these, the holidays are starting to resemble each other with each of the Nine having a somber and serious holiday and a celebratory one. That's makes things a little dull.

Zarthus Holidays

Zarthus is the god of the moon and his followers are nicknamed Lanterns. It's probably a good bet that a lot of his worship services are at night involving lots of literal lanterns.

But Scarterra does not have it's own version of Thomas Edison so pragmatism means Zarthus worshipers do not need to be nocturnal all the time.

Though I haven't put competition officially under Zarthus divine portfolio I like the idea of Zarthus having a celebratory holiday with feasting and partying and music but also lots of (supposedly) good natured competition.

Archery contesting, singing contests, craftsmanship contests, chili-cook offs. I imagine the exact nature of the contests depends on what the local culture values.

This celebratory holiday should either be associated with warmth and light either on the Spring Stellar Day, Imbolc (Ground Hog Day), Beltaine (Mayday) or Midsummer.

I usually give each deity a relatively fun holiday and a relatively somber day. Zarthus would probably have his more somber holiday on a day associated with cold or darkness like Samhain (Halloween) or the Autumn or Winter Stellar day. Imbolc could actually be associated with warmth or cold being as it marks the midway point between Spring and Winter.

The holiday is probably marked with fasting and sacrifice and maybe some kind of symbolic hunt for darkness though very hardcore Lanterns might take their vigil against the forces of evil literally and actually execute captured foes on this day or view this as an auspicious day to launch attacks against their perceived oppressors.

Hallisan Holidays

Hallisan and his Guardians don't strike me as the type to care about the Stellar Day or Tweens. I think they would pragmatically pick holidays. A celebrations would probably be around harvest time or whenever food is relatively plentiful. Fasts and sacrifice days would occur on days of relative scarcity.

Hallisan's two biggest things are just warfare/chivalry and hard work/craftsmanship. So probably there would be a holiday celebrating martial pursuits and one celebrating peaceful pursuits.

In a very knightly realm, such as Kantoc, the martial holiday could involve extensive jousting tournaments, archery contests, or even pit fights (which is less barbaric than it sounds when you remember that magical healing is relatively easy to come by). If the local Prince is very tight with the Guardians, this holiday would be an auspicious day to promote vassals and accept new knights and whatnot. There is probably an air of celebration and lots of drinking and partying involved too. This would probably holiday would probably fall in the Summer months.

In a more peaceful realm (but still concerned with defense), Hallisan's martial holiday would be more somber involving fasts, vigils, and honoring the dead. For such societies, they would celebrate this holiday in the winter or autumn.

Hallisan's craftsmanship holiday would probably be the inverse of the martial society. If a society or culture celebrates martial pursuits their peaceful holiday is probably more somber. If a culture treats their martial holiday as a somber event, the holiday celebrating their peaceful crafts has a celebratory air. There could be society's that treat both holidays with a somber air or both holidays with a celebratory air.

Either way craftsmen try to showcase their best work. This would of course apply to blacksmith and metalworkers the most but would have gradually expanded so that almost everyone be they cobblers, brewmasters, glass blowers, herbalists, whatever would show off their best work. This holiday would probably work best around harvest time so farmers could show off their best produce and livestock.

Phidas Holidays

This is the one I was dreading. Phidas is complicated. He is a greedy covetous misery but Phidas very much does not want to look like a covetous greedy miser.

There could easily be harsh sacrifices and the like expected but at the same time Phidas and Phidas' Masks would like to appear generous and kind. So they would probably have a somber holiday were sacrifices and serious oaths are made and a relatively celebratory holiday where Phidas-friendly Princes throw the common people a few crumbs.

Being vain, Phidas probably does not worry too much about the passing of the seasons. His main holidays are probably in his zodiac month.


Well I said I'd cover holidays and I did. I'd be open to further ideas on holidays but that didn't seem to resonate with many people on L-O.

At this point I'm not sure what I should develop next for Scarterra/Scaraqua. I will poll my subscribers what they would like to see next.

@pendrake , what is my Scarterran wiki desperately missing?