This is my proposed setting for an
integrated fantasy campaign that
combines multiple games to simulate a persistent world. The idea is that
various game outcomes will be written together into the fictional history to provide a narrative thread that connects them. Here's a look at the world I'm designing using
Hexographer's mapping functions. I think they do a good job of capturing the feel of the old
Gazetteer maps.
Background
In the forgotten antideleuvian
past of our own world, mighty empires fought endlessly in the pursuit of supreme power. With armies and mystic arts, they sought to conquer
and enslave the lesser tribes of men, to vie with one another for
dominion, and to challenge the Decrees of the High Heaven. By their arrogance, they earned the wrath of Heaven and a Word of Doom was pronounced against them.
Divining
that a time of calamity was near, the ruling city-states of the world
consulted their priests and oracles for guidance. Too proud to repent,
they instead sought to escape Heaven's fury by fleeing across time,
transporting their entire civilization from dawn of history into a
distant future age when they imagined Heaven's Throne itself might well
be overthrown and they could rule an unwatched cosmos as gods
themselves. Their cities faded away into arcane mists that carried them
between-times, even as the seas rose and the land was torn asunder to
sink beneath the waves.
But
even across the span of aeons, the Word of Doom resounded. Each of the
four great civilizations found itself beset by troubles in new age.
The Lost Continent of Mu found itself in a trackless all-sea, and sank to the same doom as the one it had fled.
Its halls and temples became the desmesne of fish and sea monsters,
choked with corals and weeds. Rumors still abound of great treasures
miles below the water that will never again been seen by human eyes, the
unclaimed hoard of the deep.
The Cities of Lemuria shifted into a sweltering jungle
of creeping vegetation and savage beasts. The battle to hold the forces
of nature at bay raged for a generation, then ended in defeat. The
survivors fled to establish an autocratic state on the great landlocked
Meridi Sea, ruling the southlands with a fist of hard obsidian.
The
seafaring Ports of Atlantis emerged perched precariously on a volcanic
archipelago. Over the years, fire from the skies rained down on them,
and ash buried them. The survivors sought refuge in the small island
continent of Beringia, seeking employment as court astrologers and
alchemists, each scheming to amass personal wealth and authority.
The
twin Cities of Hyperborea were cursed to arrive in a desert wasteland,
swallowed by shifting sands and besieged on all sides by hostile races of bestial men that
sought to plunder them. Even as the guardians of the cities seemed sure
to obtain the final victory by dint of magical arts, they were betrayed
from within by those who saw the chance to cast out the old rulers and
found a new dynasty. Those who allied with the beastmen were numbered as
13, and used their craft to obtain an immortality of sorts. They aged
but slowly, and drained the lifeblood and souls of their thralls and
prisoners to prolong life indefinitely. The Undying founded their own
realms around the rim of the great desert, and bent ever more powerful
servants to their whim: great wyrms, monstrous legions, and the fiends
of the underworld.
The
time-eddies left by their escape from antiquity would also ensnare other
victims even after the cataclysm of quakes and floods. Many
adventuresome sailors of the ancient world found themselves similarly
lost in time, trapped in the shattered world of Proxima far from their
homelands. Forced to endure in unfamiliar territories, they founded
kingdoms that were not under any Heaven-spoken doom, but free to seek
their own fates.
This is a map of the world of
Proxima, a supercontinent ringed by a vast ocean. You can see the
locations of the above rogue's-gallery of evil nations, as well as other
features. Mountain ranges partition the continent into three "basins"
(plus an inland sea) which are effectively isolated ecoregions. The
developed area is in the north-west, adjacent to Hyperborea.
Zooming in a bit, we can see the sinister Boreal Basin, home to the lands of the Undying. This whole area is rife with virtually every horrible fantasy species you've ever met, from goblins up to giants. These aren't the people you want as your new neighbors.
Durnovar and Chukchi are the two centers of non-horrible civilization
in the area. Think of Durnovar as the roughly "European" one, and
Chukchi as the roughly "Asian" one. (Well, North Pacific
one, at least.) Winlend is a prosperous sea-kingdom, and a reliable
sponsor of all the heroic activities that you would expect in a proper
fantasy world. Currently it's interested in expanding through both
colonization projects and military campaigns, and doesn't mind
subcontracting that work out to professional adventurers with delusions
of manifest destiny. That's you!
 |
| The west side of the northern hemisphere, because I'm Eurocentric like that. |
Let's look
even closer. Here's a run-down of local geopolitics. For sake of
reference, each of those hexes is pretty big, roughly 200-300 miles
across; France would take up one of them.
- Elysion is
Dunovar's fingerhold on the mainland that extends as far as the mountain
boundary; like Greenland, its name can be chalked up to a deceptive marketing campaign. It's located uncomfortable close to lots of geopolitical trouble in the Boreal Basin. The easiest way through the mountains is Green Pass, a
fortified mountain road under the control of Durnovaric forces for the
last 70 years. Periodically Durnovar tries to send an army through to
attempt an offensive campaign (Napoleon-in-Russia style), but it rarely goes well. And periodically the
Undying launch counterattacks over or under the mountains, using
flying, climbing, or tunneling monsters as transportation; if they every
got really organized, they'd be a serious threat to the inhabitants of
Elysion.
- Winlend is a sea-kingdom with the prosperous port
of Durnovar at its southern tip. It's the late Greco-Roman Empire of its era, with lots of great accomplishments but also at risk of overextension. This is a great place to conduct
mercantile activity of all types, either running short weekly supply
runs to Straddleport, monthly runs to Lockhaven, or even a lengthy trip to the distant western realms of Beringia for more exotic fare.
- Cascadia
is a vast wilderness packed with weird stuff to discover; it's a pocket-size
fantasy version of North-America. It's got valuable land ripe for the taking,
making it a prime colonization target. Of course, valuable lands aren't
necessarily empty or safe.
- The Niobraran Desert shoreline is home to lots of pirates. Because... pirates. They're raider types who send up galley ships to pillage coastal settlements. Durnovar
could probably crush them, if it weren't preoccupied with fending off
the Undying legions to the east. As it is, they're building a criminal
empire around trafficking with one another in slaves and stolen goods.
What can adventurers do in this world?
- Manage feudal domains and realms in Elysion, and protect them from invaders.
- Construct and deploy fleets of trade ships, to earn extra income. Arm them to fight pirates!
- Participate
in foolhardy military campaigns against the Undying, and hopefully
survive to report about the lands beyond Green Pass.
- Explore and
colonize Cascadia by sending out small expeditions to scout the region,
ally with friendly locals, eliminate threats (personally or with hired
armies), and build castles and towers to defend conquered lands.
- Do a little light recreational dungeon-delving on the side, if the opportunity presents itself.
Next up: An example of character and realm generation.
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