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| -rw-r--r-- | src/apocrypha/region_thecentersea.org | 8 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | src/apocrypha/region_theempire.org | 120 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | src/apocrypha/region_thenorth.org | 85 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | src/apocrypha/thegournalgeographicaffairs.org | 137 |
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diff --git a/src/apocrypha/anintroductiontoapocrypha.org b/src/apocrypha/anintroductiontoapocrypha.org new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d37a45a --- /dev/null +++ b/src/apocrypha/anintroductiontoapocrypha.org @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +An Introduction to Apocrypha + +--- + +title: "An Introduction to Apocrypha" + +updated: "2017-12-23 Sat 14:21" + +categories: AP + +--- + +Apocrypha is a world of mystery and forgotten history, built from +first principles and the realization that even simple truths have +consequences. + +My goal with building the world of Apocrypha is to create a generic +fantasy world which is both suitable for books and for use with TRPGs, +and is designed somewhere on the coherency spectrum between the +Forgotten Realms and Discworld. + +Though it is being designed to function with the 5th edition of <a +href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons">Dungeons & +Dragons</a> in mind, I am also haphazardly designing a TRPG of my own +which may be abandoned along the way, but draws inspiration from +Apocrypha as well as breathing life back into it. Over the last 2 +months, I've found that working on one usually generates ideas that +are applicable to the other, and overall energy for both projects +benefits from this dynamic. diff --git a/src/apocrypha/index.yaml b/src/apocrypha/index.yaml new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e54860e --- /dev/null +++ b/src/apocrypha/index.yaml @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +title: "Apocrypha"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/src/apocrypha/region_thecentersea.org b/src/apocrypha/region_thecentersea.org new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6db442d --- /dev/null +++ b/src/apocrypha/region_thecentersea.org @@ -0,0 +1,8 @@ +** Regions of the Center Sea + +The Center Sea is the beating heart of the civilized world. +Tributaries from all directions meet and mix here, bringing ships +together from all the nations of the world, laden with goods and with +ideas. + + diff --git a/src/apocrypha/region_theempire.org b/src/apocrypha/region_theempire.org new file mode 100644 index 0000000..41f8853 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/apocrypha/region_theempire.org @@ -0,0 +1,120 @@ +** Regions of the Empire + +Midlands (Etra, Vala, Isla), the Provinces (Midwood, ?), the Colonies +(Cover Islands, ?), and the Golden Road. + +The Empire + +How long has the Empire been around? 111 ages, but how many is that? +Current one is 62 years, but some have been less than a year. + +The best tax records in the oldest provinces say the empire is about +60 generations (or 3000 years) old. The average length of an 'age' is +therefore, about 27 years. The General Edict was given 62 years ago +and has done a better job of keeping the nation running than the +previous code did (the previous Emperor's reign was rife with civil +war). + +**** The Emperor +Emperor Josef IV is the official name for Lady Lizbeth Yates, the +eldest daughter and only remaining survivor of the Yates line. Though +technically, only a man may claim the title of Emperor, few complain +that the Lady Lizbeth legally declared herself a man (or rather, few +who complained about the matter remain among the living). + +*** The Continent +**** The Midlands +North of the Marble Isle +Like the Holy Roman Empire if it were actually in Rome. Very +melting-pot of cultures. High politics, medium magic. + +I need to figure out the bodies of water to get more details. + +Etra, Vala, Isla [transcribe from notebooks] + +Gleimendun is like Constantinople, a second capital of a broken piece +of the Empire. Because it has broken off, the Song of Conquest is +diminishing, allowing more old magics into the land. + +*** The Provinces +**** The North +There is a great difference between the area of the north claimed by +the Empire, and that controlled by the Empire. The only area of the +North (or Chill-Lands) from which the Empire has ever successfully +collected taxes is the southernmost border settlements (of which there +are 12) and Fort North. + +It is often said that a single southern town could more than match the +value of the entire Northern province of the Empire, and that may be +true in terms of wealth or resources, but in reality few forts +anywhere in the Empire can brag the same quality of recruits brought +into the Imperial Legion as from the tiny northern fort and outlying +regions. + +The occasional goliath barbarian or glacier dwarf fighter making their +way south and wanting to try their hands (and axes) at Legion life is +more than enough incentive to keep the fort fully staffed and +supplied. + +**** The Midwood +The Northwestern-most stretch of the Deepwood, this is the most +'civilized' area of that great forest, or at least that most citizens +of the Empire could ever hope to reach. + +Full of elves, gnomes, florans, faunus, halflings, and their kin, the +Midwood is one of the most ethically non-human locations in the Jar. +Regiments of the Empire's military raised from the Midwood are often +called 'menageries' and use strange, but undoubtedly effective, +tactics in combat. + +The ghostwise halflings come from an ancient ruin just outside the +midwood. + +*** The Colonies +**** Cover Islands +Oft beset by pirates and even more often by deadly storms, the Covers +are an expensive and dangerous colony to keep. That said, the islands +remain one of the few places for the empire to acquire rare volcanic +minerals and alchemical agents useful in the development of magical +weapons. + +After the Black Tongues were disbanded in the Empire, many fled to the +islands, where they find, fewer and more lax regulations on their +activities. + +*** The Golden Road + +Running from the Citadel of Ice in the North to the Feet of the Last +King in the South and twisting, diverging, merging, and turning around +all sorts of places in between, the Gold Road is revered as sacred, +and it's tireless, invisible creator worshiped by those who would +seek safety traveling along its many gleaming golden cobblestones. + +The Golden Road belongs to the Golden God, though it is claimed by the +Empire where it overlaps land claimed by the Empire. That said, the +Golden Guides maintain control of the road regardless of the claims. + +You need a Golden Guide for the golden road, or you'll travel 100 +miles and never lose sight of where you started, or worse, you'll go +90 miles to see your destination right ahead of you, then 90 more +without it seeming to get any closer. + +The Golden Guides are either Travel Domain Clerics or (Fiend or +Celestial) Warlocks. Despite the ambiguity, the Golden God himself is +actually an Icon and a Fiend, a powerful one at that, and was involved +in the discovery of the spell which created the tiefling pact. Once a +gnome, the Golden God can be built as a [Gnome (Fine) Wizard 15 +(Transmutation)/Patron 5/Icon 5]. + +The Golden God always needs more gold for the road, and the standing +orders of the Golden Guides are to find and aid parties that can +supply large quantities of gold. The Golden God builds the road +daily, moving it slowly towards an unknown end. + +**** Lair + +The whole of the Golden Road is the Golden God's Lair. The gnome +himself is cloaked in a Perpetual Greater Invisibility spell (via +level 5 Icon power) and can cast *fabricate* at will. + + diff --git a/src/apocrypha/region_thenorth.org b/src/apocrypha/region_thenorth.org new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15fb961 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/apocrypha/region_thenorth.org @@ -0,0 +1,85 @@ +** Regions of the North +The North is comprised of seven major areas, the White, the Wall, the +Wastes (or Spiritlands), the Chill-Lands, Fort North, the Vast, and +the Sunpeaks. + +*** The White +The White is a region of bitter cold at the northern edge of the +world. It is constantly snowing from an eternal blizzard that swirls +around the edge of the world. It's chilling winds and subzero +temperatures make the White one of the most inhospitable places in +existence. But it is not empty. + +Ice wights roam the icy plane, remnants of those who knew the land +before the coming of the storm. But even these are benign compared to +the greatest danger of the frozen north, The White Death. + +Her lair lies hidden in mountain crag, covered deep with snow. The +greatest of her kind, the White Death is an ice dragon of unspeakable +size and power. It is said that she has seen beyond the boundary of +the world and glimpsed the great beyond. She wants to forget. + +Her presence in the cavern inadvertently protects one of the eight +Shadefalls (the permanent anchor and gateway to one of the eight +shades, in this case, the Icebright), from which she also is able to +draw energy to heal herself and power her Icy Breath, which magnified +by the power of the Shadefall, has the ability to turn creatures fully +caught in it to ice. + +*** The Wall +TODO - Goblins, Giants, and the Throne on the Golden Road + +*** The Wastes (the Spiritlands) +Roving tribes of frost goliath and half-frost goliath barbarians roam +the area known as the Wastes. Drawn to the area by the presence of +the Giants to the north, the barbarians are always alert to the +dangers of the Frozen Throne and regularly form war parties to destroy +whatever designs or advances are made by the Frost Giant kingdom. + +They do not do so out of any loyalty to the empire, but out of a sense +of reverence to the land itself and for some, a sense of paternalist +duty towards the unknowing smallfolk to the south. + +The tribes come together for the biennial meeting at the ancient +circle of stone known as 'gianthome'. It is a sacred location and is +said to be the location of the ancient ritual which created the first +goliath. + +TODO - Gianthome Circle, non-goliath inhabitants, faunus, spirits + +*** The Chill-Lands +TODO - Twelve-Towns + +*** Fort North +The only part of the north which can accurately be described as being +controlled by the Empire. + +TODO - Fort North + +*** The Vast +The mountain plateau of swirling frozen wind and thousands of natural +shifting gateways into the Icebright. The entire area is suffused +with magic, which causes creatures that spend too long inside the area +to grow in size and risk becoming shaded. + +A creature shaded by the Icebright, cannot leave the Icebright or the +Vast without suffering penalties [???]. A creature born in the Vast +which has resistance to either Radiant or Cold damage may be able to +gain the benefits to size given by the Vast without becoming shaded. + +TODO - magic of the vast, geography, peoples + +**** Cities in the Vast: +***** Monastery of the North Wind +TODO +***** City of Glass +Home to a powerful sorcerer [Air Genasai Frozen Heart Sorcerer 18/Patron 5] who TODO + +*** The Sunpeaks +Huge mountains. Connected to the Upperlight. Sun-soul monks and +clerics of Tabor. Conflict with the Coastal Colonies (and Black +Tongues, who have tried to take it over) . Not officially part of the +empire, though not for lack of trying on the part of the Emperor and +the nearby barons. + +TODO - Description of warming due to gateway, sunlight, constant daytime diff --git a/src/apocrypha/thegournalgeographicaffairs.org b/src/apocrypha/thegournalgeographicaffairs.org new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d28b90 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/apocrypha/thegournalgeographicaffairs.org @@ -0,0 +1,137 @@ +The Gournal of Geographic Affairs: The Sun-Touched Mountain + +--- + +title: "The Gournal of Geographic Affairs: The Sun-Touched Mountain" + +updated: "2017-12-23 Sat 14:21" + +categories: AP, WP + +--- + +Welcome Readers, to the second Special Edition of our illustrious +catalog of facts and figures. + +Last year, after our exploration of the Lowerdark's Cragmag Caverns +proved such a fantastic success, we set our sights higher: to answer a +[nagging] reader's question. Lola, age 8, from the Valanacian city of +Florora, has been sending us letters. Over two hundred letters to be +precise. Each has asked the same question, + +"Deer GGE, what is the talest mowntun [sic] in the world?" + +And while we don't usually reward improper spelling, her insistence, +and the fact that no expert in the world seemed to know a precise +answer, convinced us to settle it once and for all. Who knew that +simple question one year ago would spark a fantastic journey of +discovery and collaboration that may have ramifications beyond what we +dreamed possible. Returning laden with treasures only one month ago, +the GEE (& co.) Expedition has brought us the greatest treasure of +all: an answer. + +Dear Lola, + +The greatest mountain in the world stands atop the far-northern range +of snowy mountains known as the Sunpeaks. + +Since the entire northern ridge is filled with enormous mountains +dwarfing (or maybe even gnoming) all other mountains found elsewhere, +it was rather difficult for our sages here at the Imperial Center for +Geographical Excellence to locate the general area of the range in +which the peak might exist, much less its correlative parallel, and +the sheer size of the range combined with its namesake ever-present +blinding sunlight made clairvoyance and scrying spells of little use +above 50,000 ft. + +Yes, you read that right. 50,000. That's almost three times the +height of Mount Pang and twice that of the Skyknife, but in the +Sunpeaks, that's barely passing for average. + +But fear not dear readers. The Geournal for Geographical Excellence +is here to quench your thirst for knowledge. For comparing the several +dozen peaks which form the Upper Cluster, we had to go to extreme +lengths (and heights). Simply put, we had to go there. + +With our collaborative sponsors, The Community Climber, Aerial +Affairs, Snowpeak Tea, and a grant from the Ministry of Maps, we +raised 1.3 million Imperial silver swans (a little more than the +monthly taxpayer cost to support an entire legion of cavalry), to +finance a voyage into the unknown, staking both our reserves and our +reputation on the Expedition. + +We spared no cost, hiring only the best of the best. Trackers, +weatherworkers, guards, and guides, we set out into the Plateau of the +Sun to find our answer. + +Six months we searched the pockets of mountains that exceeded our +50,000 mark, listening to local legends, sending up balloons, and +using a combination of our savvy and our ability to take small arcane +gateways to cross from peak to peak. And those were fruitful months, +even though we had yet to locate our quarry, days spent mapping and +drawing, nights spent gazing into the clearest sky anywhere in the +world (and then mapping and drawing it too)! + +We had found mountains. Tall ones. But had we found the tallest? + +We wouldn't know for almost three more months. The answer, it seemed, +was always no. We would crest a peak, only to find another rising +above us on the horizon. We had to to maintain a constant litany of +darksight spells to see (without going blind) and frost spells to +avoid melting (while in the sun) and fire spells to avoid freezing +(while in the shade). + +We had to conjure air to breathe. + +And it was in these inhospitable conditions that we found them. Not +mountains, those would come later, but our guides and our salvation. + +We were somewhere precisely north of the 47th parallel, when one of our +forward seers called for a halt. He had found a body. We assumed the +worst, and began to prepare a frost-bag for storing it to take back +with us when we came down the mountain (as we'd had to do with most of +our veritable zoo of animals by this point). + +Imagine our surprise when the body rose to greet us with a smile. + +He was a bald human man, and no more than a few years into his young +adulthood, and was absolutely blind, and fairly near naked. He led us +to his small mountain abode, filled with others like him. They called +themselves monks, but when I asked them about their order, they had +none! + +Though I would have offered the poor unregistered fellows use of my +official quill and Imperial ink (had it not been alternatively frozen +and then boiled) to register with an approved order, they assured me +that they had no interest in the ways of the 'folk from down +below'. Upon our request (and a few oddities accepted in exchange, +namely a small bowl made of True Timber and a pair of hollow diamonds) +the unregistered 'monks' agreed to aid us towards our goal (though I +gathered the distinct impression that they very much acquiesced +primarily in order to rid themselves of us). + +Two weeks after meeting with the 'monks' we had found it. + +The Sun-Touched Mountain. + +So, Lola, I'm sure you're lost interest by now, being the petulant and +insistent child that you are, but deep within the Sunpeaks, beyond the +ken of the civilized peoples, stands the tallest mountain in the +world. + +We didn't climb it; we didn't dare. And our humble guides requested +that we saved ourselves the trouble. For we had found it. High above +the world, on a ridge of mountains the locals call 'The Edge' stands +the impossibly massive peak. + +Shrouded from below by almost constant cloud-cover and the jutting +cliffs of that massive ridge, we only dared observe it from afar. The +expanse between the ridge and the cluster we found ourselves on was +measured in miles. + +Our best calculations put the height of the Sun-Touched Mountain at a +staggering 179,400 ft. And at it's peak, a brilliant day's Sun. + +I'll never forget the sight. + +Thank you Lola. Now please stop writing us. |