Gods and Magic

“I think,” he ventured tentatively, “I have a handle on this magic thing.”

Today, I'm gonna discuss the magic system for my Norse setting, as it applies to the available classes. With the wise council of both my commenter, I've modified my previous views concerning the use of magic in the setting and will detail, in brief, what I'm currently thinking.

(A disclaimer: I'm not attempting to pass off this magic system as in any way 100% historically or culturally accurate. I'm merely inspired by the aesthetics and mythology I've researched – much more thoroughly, I might add – in the past few days.)

The world is infused with seidhr, the Norse conception of sorcery. Not native to Midgard, seidhr is the tool and function of the gods and the denizens of the other eight realms. Through the many portals that infuse Midgard, seidhr leaks forward, infusing the land with its raw power.

There are three ways a player character in this setting can wield seidhr:

• Godi (Cleric): As a direct worshipper of one god in the pantheon, a character can attain a small portion of that deity's seidhr. Working as their earthly vessel, the godi speaks on behalf of their heavenly patron and wields their seidhr at their suffrage.
• Druid: By tapping into the seidhr that's infused the land, a character can bring potent magical effects to bear. Rather than learning to wield the secrets themselves, a druid simply channels the seidhr of the land, typically staying near and protecting a particularly area.
• Völva (Wizard): To gain a measure of seidhr power for themselves, völva trap magical potency within runes. Serving only their own selfish desires, the völva can entrapped seidhr power for use later and in personal goals. Not bound to service of a god or a location, völva wander the countryside and have a particularly foul reputation among the common people.

(Note: I'm currently toying with the idea of imposing some manner of drawback on certain – possibly all – magical heroes, to display the dangerous aftereffects that come when mortals tamper with seidhr.)

What do you think? Does that magical breakdown make sense? Again, keeping in mind that I'm attempting to marry a role-playing system's flexibility with a need for both a cohesive narrative for the world. I'm aware seidhr was more concerned with prophecy and illusion but any scan across the 5^th edition spell list would see that, were I to limit the spells to simply those from the schools of “divination” and “illusion,” I'd be severely limiting the viability of my comparatively few casting classes remaining.

Plus, I like the idea of a fireball spell becoming more powerful or easier to cast the closer to a portal to Muspelheim the caster is. That's just cool to me.

Also, somewhat unrelatedly, I narrowed down the list of gods, from the laundry list of contradictory and relatively minor deities that fringe the Norse pantheon, into a core eight that I'll probably use for the setting. Whether I change names or shift their domains a little remains to be seen but, in essence, this is the pantheon I'm working from:

• Odin – god of knowledge and war
• Freya – goddess of fertility and love
• Thor – god of storms and thunder
• Rán – goddess of the ocean
• Tyr – god of battle
• Skadi – goddess of the hunt
• Loki – god of tricksters and fire
• Hel – goddess of death

As to which parts of the mythology (Loki being Hel's father, whether Loki is a jotunn or a god, the Freya/Frigga debate) I'm keeping, I'm not yet sure. I wanted to keep the genders pretty evenly distributed and had to mine a little deeper – specifically Skadi and Rán – to find evocative choices that could round out the number, rather than relying on Njord or Baldr or someone.

Baldr's one of those few I wouldn't mind including, but I feel like I'd want a decent counterpart. Maybe Sif or a giantess or something could do.

It does make me look at Banner Saga, who simply invented their own pantheon, and wonder, but I think the traditional Norse gods are integral to the setting that any poor imitation of mine would have to work twice as hard to feel even half as rich and textured.

That's all I've got for today. Next time, I'll maybe start looking at politics? Who knows.

Kogr

Last Week's Poll:
What should I name the fortress?

• Winner: Kogr

Without further ado, then, may I present...

KOGR

Orc Stronghold

Welcome to the shattered ruins of Kogr! Whatever this fortress's original name may have been, it has long been forgotten by its current inhabitants. Once a stout human fortress constructed atop a strategic hillock, now loose squads of orcs patrols its crumbling walls. Now rubble is all that remains of its former master's power and its once great strategic importance has no dwindled to an obligation, upheld by savages unfit for military discipline.

History

The history of the fortress called Kogr is an unsteady one. One of the dozens of human stronghold erected in this part of the world, the remnant of some petty war between neighboring fiefdoms, Kogr's modern history began when the Shepherd, his dark forces consolidated, marched on the keep. 

Despite Kogr's amble defenses, the Shepherd's quick and wicked cunning made the siege a short one. Before attacking, the Shepherd divided the majority of his forces – orcish infantry, plus several platoons of warg cavalry – into two even sections, one stationed to the east, one to the south, both well out of bowshot of the curtain wall. The first stage of the siege involved a team of giant artillery, hurling stones at a particular section of the southern wall (1). In addition to stones, however, the giants also threw the occasional "troll-bomb" – a round metal casing containing a furious live troll, designed to break upon impact – over the walls, instantly causing panic within.

With the defenders distracted by thrown stones and rampaging trolls, the second stage of the siege can progress. A team of goblin sappers burrows through the cliff face and beneath the western wall (2). Once they surface, a goblin strike team quickly dispatches the crew at gatehouse garrison (3) and open the gate. The gate open, the eastern section of orcs and wargs charge. As soon as the giants succeed in smashing the southern section of the wall, the second battalion of orcs and wargs charge. Within short order, the keep is taken.

Ever since the Shepherd took the fortress, it's never been repaired. The orcs were never designed for construction or masonry and so Kogr (its orcish name) has remained utterly ruined and dilapidated, only increasing that way over time. Even now, with the Shepherd long gone and an orc tribe squatting in the ruins, its less a defensible structure for its inhabitants and more an old habit.

Geography

The following legend corresponds to the above map.

• A. Camp: Here the majority of the inhabiting orc tribe has set up camp. Since the Shepherd's fall, the orcs have upheld a superstitious fear of the fortress. Rather than seek shelter within Kogr's walls, they erected their tents and a simple palisade here. The palisade's nothing impressive, little more than sharpened sticks at this stage – hardly enough to keep roving warg packs at bay.
• B. Chokepoint: Where once an iron portcullis spanned across the cliff walls, now only a pile of rubble and twisted iron stands. A small orcish garrison is still posted here and, in some ways, it still serves as a decent barricade, should the palisade be breached. The orcs have bolstered that barricade as best they can with more rubble and climbing over it can be treacherous.
• C. North Keep: The north keep, thanks to the persistent shelling of giant stones, has more or less completely collapsed. Some small shell of it remains upright, but many of its upper levels are utterly unsafe to traverse within. At present, the north keep is wholly abandoned.
• D. South Keep: The southern keep, on the other hand, managed to withstand the attack far better is largely standing. A smattering of orcs have taken up residence here, though there are plenty of chambers and wings they out-and-out avoid, considering how pervasive the Shepherd's influence still is. 

Tune in next Wednesday for more Worldblogger!

Ruin + Stronghold

Last Week's Poll:
What should I worldbuild next?

• Winner: Ruin or Stronghold

This week, I took the poll's advise and sketched out a ruin or a stronghold for today's Worldblogger. Because I'm an indecisive son of a bitch, I decided to actually combine them and build a ruined stronghold. There is, however, a little extra exposition that comes along with this one.

The map depicts a location (tentatively) set in a distantly future novel of mine, entitled The Hog King. On the surface, The Hog King's your typical fantasy fare; epic conquest, marching armies, political squabbles. The catch is that it's told from the perspective of orcs. The cheap elevator pitch is "What happened to all of Sauron's forces once he was destroyed?" 

In The Hog King, humanity has, in the distant past, thrown down a Sauron-esque necromantic evil, a great and terrible warlord with dark powers none can guess and armies of monsters marching at his command. To ensure these loosed horrors do not run rampant in the dark lord's absence, the various kingdoms of man take a sacred covenant and erect massive walls between the mountain ranges that encapsulate the Enemy's region. For hundreds of years, all the leaderless monsters – orcs, goblins, giants, trolls, wargs – have been fighting over territory and resources and, most of all, multiplying. 

Their homeland is now dotted with the ruined and ancient fortresses the dark lord once conquered. One of those fortresses was the subject of this week's map. Make sense? Then, behold!

The notion was, before the dark lord's rise, humans built many of the strongholds that could eventually come to dot his country. During the dark lord's rise, however, his armies laid siege and claimed each of the once-human fortresses within his realm. Once the humans were driven out, of course, they remained in terrible disrepair for as long as the orcish armies laired there. As orcs, I don't imagine they've any skill at masonry, stonework or architecture and, over the years and the various occupations, the building's state of repair has only gotten worse.

So, the fortress consists of a curtain wall, now shattered, resting atop a high cliff. It sported eight turrets along that wall, two of which have fallen or been utterly destroyed, three of which are in serious danger of collapsing and three of which are more or less intact. One section of the southern curtain wall was smashed by thrown stones from giants and never repaired, leaving a convenient slope of rubble and skeletons leading up to the gap in the wall. In many other locations along the wall have the thrown stones from the giants left vulnerabilities; most notably, at the gate.

The game is smashed, its portcullis gone and now only a pile of rubble and broken battering rams lay scattered across its choke-point. In order to access the fortress proper, its orcish garrison must clamber awkwardly through the rubble which, after a fashion, serves as an impromptu barricade in its own right.

All the fortress' outbuildings have been burnt or broken; none now remain except as smoldering beams or partial walls. Much of their original purpose has been utterly forgotten by the years. Some orcs continue to lair beneath them, most prefer the comfort of their own yurts.

A pair of stout keeps guard the choke-point but a heavy pelting of giant stones has all but collapsed the northern one. Orcs continue to lair in the halls and chambers of the more intact keep (I imagine their chief or leader holds power here) but the crumbling keep is often avoided or, better yet, used for some fouler purpose. Hmm. I'll need to think on that.

In the absence of the gates proper, the orcs have erected the best possible defense they know how – a palisade of sharpened sticks around the perimeter of their camp. Many of the orcs that currently lair here (around 300 in total number) find the place unnerving, with too much presence of their ancient master still lurking about, corrupting the place. These orcs dwell in animal-skin yurts outside the main fortress, while a decent number do erect their own tents within the fortress walls.

That seems a decent enough summary for the time being. Next week, I'll go into more specific details!

What should I name the fortress?

• Kogr
• Tvek
• Qagga
• Mzu

Next Week on Worldblogger: The Siege Begins!

Nahmer, City of the Panther

Last Week's Poll:
What's the predominant religion of the city?

• Monotheism: 1 vote
• Polytheism: 1 vote
• Philosophical: 1 vote
• Irreligious: 0 votes

A big tie this week. Hm. I think, for worldbuilding reasons, I'll choose "Philosophical." Thanks to everyone for voting this week and thanks to deadasdisco for casting the winning vote!

Without further ado...

Nahmer, City of the Panther! 

Welcome to scheming, furtive Nahmer, City of the Panther! To many of the merchants that visit her, Nahmer is no more than a bustling island trading hub, somewhere to trade in silks and spices and grain. To any who venture deeper than her outward market, down her twisting, unfriendly streets, they'll find a furtive and suspicious city, its inhabitants a worry-worn people prone to stalking and scheming like their namesake beast.

History

Nahmer is an ancient city, one of the oldest in this part of the world. Much of her history is tragic, a deep scar on the psyche of its citizens. Hundreds of years ago, Nahmer was ruled by an iron-fisted tyrant known only as the Autocrat. Very little practical knowledge of the Autocrat's reign remains today. Some say he was a sorcerer of great and wicked power, others claim a bloody-fisted barbarian conqueror. All that is agreed upon is the Autocrat's legendary cruelty. His military detained, beat and harassed the Nahmeri people. His taxes sapped the city's wealth. His greatest endeavor, to construct a massive wall, one hundred feet high, all around his city, spelled the deaths of thousands of laborers every year. From his unassailable island fortress, the Autocrat ruled Nahmer absolutely, without rival.

Much as the Autocrat's rise to power is shrouded in mystery, so too is his fall. One day, the citizenry of Nahmer could no longer withstand the yoke of the Autocrat's tyranny. They arose, their hundreds of thousands, in righteous anger against their overlord and, miraculously, threw him down. His fortress was leveled, his power smashed, all traces of his name or deeds eradicated by a vengeful populace. Ever since, evoking the Autocrat is the foulest curse a Nahmeri can utter and, ever since, the people of the city have conducted their own affairs.

Politics

Since the Autocrat's fall, the Nahmeri people have strived to distance themselves as strenuously as they can from his policies. The people now cleave religiously, fanatically, to the truest expression of democracy. Every week, every Nahmeri citizen visit a poll and casts their vote on any number of issues – taxes, wars, municipal affairs – every conceivable legislative issue within the city. Nahmer elects no representatives, posts no individuals higher than any others; they're too distrustful of authority. Their courts, likewise, are extremely egalitarian and considered some of the greatest in the world in which to conduct one's affairs.

To enforce these policies and, even more vitally to the people of Nahmer, to enforce the voting laws, the city employs a faction of secret police called the Panthers. From the ages of 17-20, every Nahmeri citizen serves as a member of this masked police force. For the three years of their service, the Panther exchanges their whole identity for complete authority to enforce Nahmer's laws. Garbed entirely in black, save their ivory masks, the Panthers are anonymous, ruthless and incorruptible.

Economy

Nahmer is a trade state, making the majority of its income on taxes, docking fees and business licenses from the merchants who come to ply their trades within the city's diverse markets. It has few internal industries and relies heavily on trade for food and other raw materials. Economically, they're devout socialists, doling out food, medicine and services to their people with equal and religious fervor. Nahmer has few citizens either extremely wealthy or extremely impoverished, valuing the individual as they do, forcing their middle class to dominate the vast majority of the population.

Religion

The Nahmeri view gods as little more than dictators. To them, bending the kneel in reverence and obedience to any higher power smacks too much of their time serving the Autocrat. Rather than a traditional religion, however, the Nahmeri uphold The Obligation, the name they give the cultural importance placed upon voting. To the Nahmeri, voting is not a privilege nor a right; it is a responsibility. A Nahmeri that would squander that responsibility, from neglect or apathy, is tantamount to a blasphemer in a more religiously minded culture. Indeed, such a crime is punishable by jail time and, with enough offenses, death. The Nahmeri take their free will extremely seriously.

Culture

As a people, the Nahmeri are private and distrustful. Centuries of living beneath the Autocrat's heel have bred a profound and unquenchable sense of paranoia into them, causing them to mistrust the actions of others. There is no enforced curfew, but the streets of Nahmer are unusually, eerily quiet after dark. Doors are locked, windows are barred and conversations are few. A dislike of foreigners is common among the Nahmeri as well. In their eyes, the other kingdoms, cities and empires of the world have all been cowed by their rulers and are therefore untrustworthy. A visitor to Nahmer would find few friends, no matter their intentions.

Geography

The following legend corresponds to the above map:

• A. Freemarket: The island of Freemarket is an ocean of market stalls, vendors and merchants. Here, ships from all corners of the world congregate to trade their goods within sight of Nahmer's looming walls. Covered shore to shore in free enterprise, the markets are constructed on the uneven ruins of the Autocrat's compound, mostly unrecognizable now from the ravages of time and foot traffic.

• B. Freewall: During the Autocrat's reign, he sought to construct among the highest, most impregnable wall this corner of the world had ever seen. Its original name forgotten, the Freewall still stands, more or less unchanged – one hundred feet high and twenty-five feet thick, though it was never completed. It was once covered with one hundred thousand carvings of the Autocrat's face, now replaced with an ever-shifting representation of every single face in Nahmer's population.

• C. Seagate: The weakest point in all the Freewall, the Seagate is where ships sailing up and down the river, the Nahmoi, can exit onto the open sea.

• D. Bay of Screams: It's said that, when the Autocrat was finally seized, he was chained to a statue of himself and dropped into the center of the Bay of Screams. Known to be several hundred feet deep at its deepest point, people still say the bubbles that continue to rise to the bay's surface are the tyrant's endless screams of agony.

• E. The Vault of Grain: Here are all the city's food stores kept, to be distributed evenly amongst its citizens. The Vault is guarded greedily, with higher security than any bank, less someone attempt to redistribute the wealth themselves.

• F. Bridge of Common Sense: For some reason, this particular bridge that spans across the Nahmoi, has become a hotspot of political and philosophical discussion. Every afternoon, hundreds of people gather here to make arguments, advance theories and debate the mysteries of the universe, ranging in education from professors to paupers.

• G. Kahmud's Menagerie of Wonders: One of Nahmer's few true tourist attractions, the Menagerie of Wonders is a public park that houses many of the world's beasts – lions, elephants, peacocks, manticores, tigers, hippocampus. Kahmud's pride and joy are a mated pair of albino panthers, whom he believe brings the city good luck.

That's all for Nahmer, folks! Hope you enjoyed it!

Next Wednesday on Worldblogger:

What should I worldbuild next?

• City, Town or Community
• Major Geographical Feature
• Ruin or Stronghold

And Now For Something Completely Different

This Week on Worldblogger:

After my hiatus, I found myself unenergized by the world I'd previously been creating. On further reflection, I think I was approaching it from too cosmic a standpoint. What really interests me about worldbuilding are the details. I was so hopelessly far from details on my previous world that I had a difficult time dragging myself back to the keyboard each week.

This week, then, I've decided to do something drastically different. This week, I simply drew a map of a city and, based on that map, I'm going to brainstorm some ideas. Next Wednesday, I'll write a detailed description of the city – which you can insert, whole-cloth, into your novel, D&D setting, what have you. Let's see how this goes!

The Map:

Thoughts:
Obviously a populous city – I imagine all the interior brown boxes represent small neighborhoods, rather than actual buildings. Many criss-crossing streets, one major river that streams through the center of the city and empties into the ocean. Seven bridges cross the river and seemingly random intersections. Large walls with circular, turreted towers. It's interesting that the wall doesn't seem to encompass the entire city – does it serve some other purpose than defense? Was it never completed?

The most salient detail of the map, perhaps, is the large island some distance off the shore. When I was drawing the map, I imagined it was something like neutral territory for the citizens, where they could trade and exchange goods without some negative influence – either government or societal – over their mercantile enterprises. Hence, I drew all the colored stall tops (again, meant to represent the idea symbolically, rather than literally). Lost of docks and jetties too, which probably means many people to trade with. Ostensibly, the city's not very isolated, but those high walls might disagree.

When I was drawing, I'd sorta imagined a rich, populous Middle Eastern/Mediterranean city, the kind of place Fafhrd, Conan and the Grey Mouser would frequent. I imagine the place a spiritual cousin to the Free Cities in Martin's Essos, with more than a little influence borrowed from Gentlemen of the Road too. Maybe the land to the south is wild, expansive steppe or desert, populated by raiding hordes of nomads, who bring the goods they pillage and conquest here for trade. Perhaps bearded, red-shirted savages come down from the north, to similarly trade raided goods.

As for the city itself, I imagine it teeming, crowded and full of strange and exotic goods. The smells of cinnamon, cardamon, fresh fish, stale piss, spilled wine – all mingling together. Bravos walk the streets, urchins ply the crowd's pockets, great and unusual beasts of burden trundle through the narrow alleyways.

I'm currently toying with an unusual or atypical system of government. All the time, places like these are depicted as brutal dictatorships, like the Overlord of Lankhmar, where the common people are worthless trash than the nobles grind into the dust. What if this city was a democracy? Not even a republic like we are, but an actual Athenian democracy. What if voting was a regular, even weekly part of life? Imagine the more interesting corruption and graft you could play with in a democracy like that.

A strictly democratic, richly mercantile desert port, where much of the city's wealth is traded outside and the citizens fiercely protect their voice in civic matters? Sounds like a good starting point!

Let's maybe try one more thing – what if every week, I conclude with some question, something you spambots can vote on or suggest ideas for, that would determine some important facet of the city?

What's the predominant religion of the city?

• Monotheism (devoted to one, all-powerful deity)
• Polytheism (devoted to many smaller, less powerful deities)
• Philosophical (devoted to an ideal, a concept, a way of life)
• Irreligious (devoid of higher beliefs, an atheistic or even blasphemous state)
• Other (leave your suggestions in comments)

Feel free to vote or suggest ideas in the comments!

Next Week on Worldblogger: The City Is Named!

Heavenly Bodies

The World So Far: The world is flat. On one side of disc is the exhaustively explored and urbanized home of humans, where cities, countries and nations vie for too little land to support their expanding populations. On the other side of the disc is an uncharted and largely oceanic world, dotted by islands and coastlines, full of strange wonder, abundant resources and tropical beauty.

An incoming force of humans, from a number of distinctly 15th century-feeling cultures, have sailed over the edge of their world and come to colonize the world below. Some have come to seek asylum, refuge or more converts to their maligned faith. Some have been exiled over, punished for crimes committed in the world above. Still, others come over to set down stakes in a new world, to exploit the natural resources and expand their conquest.

The new world's inhabitants, however, are four powerful undersea kingdoms, full of dynastic struggle, ancient tradition and military might. With cultures far older and far more intricate than those of the human colonists, the undersea kingdoms are as unprepared for this sudden clash of cultures as the unawares humans are.

This, sadly, is really becoming more of a biweekly thing. A shame, I suppose. I need more excuses to blog.

This week we're meant to talk about the Exodus, the possibly exiled, possibly self-exiled, possibly sinister group of religious extremists who came to the Underworld, looking for a new paradise where they could practice their religion uncontested. What, thus far, do we remember about the Exodus?

Primarily, they were the second group to arrive here and they have the closest relationship to the Brethren. Back on the Overworld, the Exodus were the blokes responsible for casting the criminals and heretics who would be the Brethren in barrels over the edge of the world. Probably isn't gonna go a long way towards endearing those two groups any.

Indeed, we even know that, prior to the Exodus' arrival in the Underworld, the castaways and refugees who would later adopt the Brethren mantle weren't even organized. It was the emergence of these, their hated enemies, that made the predatory instincts arise in these dissolute and isolated hermits.

What could be so terrible about the Exodus, besides revenge, that could inspire such vitriol?

I'm not sure if they're going to end up related, but I think I'm about to embark on an astronomy tangent. I've been reading the exceedingly relevant Quintessence by David Walton (overall, a meh book, but has some fascinating pseudo-science packed in there) and it also features, coincidentally, a flat world. The way he goes about handling this flat world is especially fascinating and led me to wonder whether or not the cosmology would work in a similar way.

In Walton's alternate history earth, the world is a flat disc and the sun continues to rotate, but in an ovular orbit. This means, when the sun rises, it's enormous to anyone on the eastern side of the disc and tiny to anyone on the western side. When the sun sets, it's enormous to anyone on the western side of the disc and tiny to anyone on the eastern side. This creates this exceedingly bizarre life cycle for creatures living on the either extreme.

In thinking about this model, I think I too would wanna majorly adapt the cosmology, but in a substantially different direction than Walton's. I think, as opposed to the sun orbiting the earth, I think the sun remains stationary, rotates and possesses a dark side. When the bright side of the sun shines down on the earth, it's daytime. When the sun is waxing, it's morning and when the sun is waning, it's evening. When the dark side faces the earth, it's nighttime.

I enjoy the effect this creates – sorta combining both heavenly bodies – moon and sun – into one celestial entity.

In a setting where the world's flat, however, a stationary sun would basically require a counterpart. I imagine the Underworld probably has it's own sun, following pretty much the same, if perhaps inverse rules. When it's daytime on the Overworld, it's nighttime on the Underworld. That seems to read.

Is there a way this could map to the Exodus faith? Historically speaking, the sun and moon are enormous figures in folklore and would probably factor prominently into whatever religion the Colonist cultures bring with them.

The obvious choice, here, would be to describe a binary religion, similar to Christianity, where the sun's bright side represents good, virtue, honor, righteousness and the sun's dark side represents evil, vice, deceit, corruption. That's definitely too on the nose. One step further would be the sorta Griffindor/Slytherin angle – the bright side represents bravery, passion, anger while the dark side represents cunning, wisdom, wit. Again, maybe closer, but too surface level, not quite interesting enough.

The few choices about the Exodus that I do like are the notion of a self-exile. Similar to the Puritans, where they voluntarily fled the nation of their birth to seek religious freedom elsewhere. I also like the implication they're less than virtuous themselves. There's something about their faith that's even outwardly bizarre or outlandish, something the average Colonist may not accept. Something with maybe even a vaguely cultish vibe.

Hm. This is proving difficult to pin down. My other instincts all run towards the supernatural but, again, we're attempting to avoid magic in this setting. 

I may need to come back to the specifics of the actual religion later. Maybe attempt to paint a surface level on their culture, particularly how they interact with other powers and cultures.

The Brethren, as I said, I think despise them. The Nations, meanwhile, are probably more or less indifferent to them – I feel as though they've adopted a much more mainstream religious view than whatever the Exodus practice. For the most part, I imagine the Kingdoms ignore them too, possibly regarding their beliefs as an academic curiosity, largely depending on which Kingdom we're talking about.

Early on, I'd had the idea that the Exodus did manage to convert one group – one of the Kingdoms in particular – to their faith and, in some ways, made much more fervent converts from them than they necessarily expected. The idea of the raiding Kingdom D culture absorbing whatever religion the Exodus brings them intrigues me and seems to suggest a few things about the core tenets of that religion – something that could permit the wanton raiding and pillaging Kingdom D's culture revolves around.

Again, all these clues with very little practical solutions. I'll probably have to percolate more on the specifics of the Exodus' actual religion before I can make that many concrete decisions about culture. Damn.


Well, whatever the case may be, next installment (hopefully next Wednesday), I'll be talking about Kingdom B, the mercantile center of the undersea world.

Next Wednesday on Worldblogger: Mermerchants!

Worldblogger is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

The First Kingdom

The World So Far: The world is flat. On one side of disc is the exhaustively explored and urbanized home of humans, where cities, countries and nations vie for too little land to support their expanding populations. On the other side of the disc is an uncharted and largely oceanic world, dotted by islands and coastlines, full of strange wonder, abundant resources and tropical beauty.

An incoming force of humans, from a number of distinctly 15th century-feeling cultures, have sailed over the edge of their world and come to colonize the world below. Some have come to seek asylum, refuge or more converts to their maligned faith. Some have been exiled over, punished for crimes committed in the world above. Still, others come over to set down stakes in a new world, to exploit the natural resources and expand their conquest.

The new world's inhabitants, however, are four powerful undersea kingdoms, full of dynastic struggle, ancient tradition and military might. With cultures far older and far more intricate than those of the human colonists, the undersea kingdoms are as unprepared for this sudden clash of cultures as the unawares humans are.

(Housekeeping: I missed last week. This week, let's do a double, fully flesh out the First Kingdom, and that should keep us on track. Apologies, hypothetical readers.)

A little refresher course on our People, the inhabitants of the undersea kingdoms. They're ten feet tall, live on the bottom of the ocean, can spread bioluminescent bacteria with a mere touch and have a bizarre ecology, wherein instead of reproducing, they're simply reborn at the end of their life cycle with a new consciousness.

A little refresher course on the First Kingdom (or Kingdom A). Their rough analog of is the nation of Japan; isolated, self-sustaining, traditionalist, militarist and opposed to the influx of these Colonists. To the eyes of the First Kingdom, the Overworlders are invaders, trespassing on their sovereign territory.

In order to specify how and why the People would have fractured into these diverse ethnicities and political entities, we'll need to know a good deal more about their actual racial history. In keeping with their life cycle, let's assume, at some future point, there was some massive event that all the extant People originated from. Where they came from, I'm not sure, but I even like the idea that there's a nice round number of them. Wanna say a million? Let's say a million.

So, at the beginning of their recorded time, one million People are brought into existence. Well, let's say one million eggs that will eventually hatch into the first generation of People are brought into existence. Eggs are interesting, actually, because it precludes the idea that they're immigrants or something. If the People all began as eggs at the same moment, they couldn't have been responsible for their own creation.

Really actually reminds me of like, fish or sea turtles, that lay dozens or thousands of eggs at once.

Hmm.

What about like, a patron animal? What if the People were legitimately spawned from some manner of sea creature, one they now revere as effectively their god? Would answer some religion questions and creates an interesting bond. My brain is imagining some massive leviathan, whale-meets-world-serpent creature. I like this direction.

So, a massive sea creature spawns all the People X number of generations ago. Imagine they begin as one big happy family, all hatching at once, all exploring their environment at once, all children at once. Well, maybe some eggs didn't hatch right away. You wouldn't want everyone to be the same age. if they're all one cluster of eggs they all would have hatched at precisely the same time.

That's exactly it. They're different clusters of eggs.

The four kingdoms were hatched out by different massive sea creatures, different patrons to each nation. Each kingdom reveres a different member of the same god-like species, one that lays these strange eggs that hatch into People. They even potentially all hatched at different times and their corresponding life cycles would be somewhat off-set. Maybe while everyone in the First Kingdom is a teenager, everyone in the Second is a venerable elder. That's interesting to me.

Rolling a d4 (I use dice to randomize worldbuilding details all the goddamn time), I've determined that the First Kingdom were the most recent to hatch. It makes a certain degree of sense – so isolated, maybe their clutch of eggs was hidden or presumed nonexistent by the other Kingdoms. (Side note: The Fourth Kingdom is located deep, deep within a sinkhole, I've just decided.)

How would hatching last, when presumably these other societies have already arisen, have shaped the First Kingdom into the traditionalist, warlike people they would become?

I mean, it still makes sense to me that they'd be extremely isolated anyway. If the three eastern Kingdoms more or less assumed that there was no civilization to the west, they wouldn't go exploring in that direction and both societies could more or less arise without knowledge of each other. (Natural barrier would help that – Mariana Trench, maybe? The same fucking trench the Fourth Kingdom lives at the bottom of? BOOM.)

So separated from the rest of the world, it only makes sense they'd blossom in a different direction. In this case, a more Japanese direction.

Japan classically adopted a feudal caste system and, on the surface, that seems to make sense. I want military authority to be supreme, which would seem to favor the dictatorial approach. The Japanese equivalent would a shogon, the Mongolian equivalent would be the khan.

They'd need a martial tradition, which would seem odd, unless there's an enemy for them to fight against. Isolated as they are, it would seem to suggest inner conflict more than external conflict. The classic example, the Temujin example, is that they were once fractious nobles, fighting against each other for territory, until a great and warlike leader united them. This could easily be repurposed and work for my First Kingdom. 

A powerful military, possibly the most powerful military in the Underworld, led by a strict, authoritarian shogunate who views all outside influences as corrupting and invasive. How come they haven't annihilated in the incoming Colonists by now?

The immediate suggestion seems to be that they lack the technology. Maybe they've enough technology to know of the existence of the Colonists, but actually lack any real means to engage in a "shallow war", where they'd fight a landlocked enemy? Hell, I imagine the other Kingdoms have that technology, but the strictly isolationist First Kingdom, much as they'd like to make war on the Colonists can't bring themselves to trade with the other Kingdoms to achieve that?

I actually like that. The feeling that, right below the Colonists, there's a massive military force, spying on them, unable to strike but swiftly innovating towards the right technology that could bring war upon them. Very ominous.

How's that for a catching up? There's obviously tons more to develop (like a name), but I think that's probably good for now!

Next Wednesday (I Promise) on Worldblogger: The Exodus!

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More Pirates! Avast!

The World So Far: The world is flat. On one side of disc is the exhaustively explored and urbanized home of humans, where cities, countries and nations vie for too little land to support their expanding populations. On the other side of the disc is an uncharted and largely oceanic world, dotted by islands and coastlines, full of strange wonder, abundant resources and tropical beauty.

An incoming force of humans, from a number of distinctly 15th century-feeling cultures, have sailed over the edge of their world and come to colonize the world below. Some have come to seek asylum, refuge or more converts to their maligned faith. Some have been exiled over, punished for crimes committed in the world above. Still, others come over to set down stakes in a new world, to exploit the natural resources and expand their conquest.

The new world's inhabitants, however, are four powerful undersea kingdoms, full of dynastic struggle, ancient tradition and military might. With cultures far older and far more intricate than those of the human colonists, the undersea kingdoms are as unprepared for this sudden clash of cultures as the unawares humans are.

First conclusion about the Brethren that seems foregone that didn't occur to me last week: it's specifically the religion of the Exodus that executes their criminals by sending them over the edge of the world. In my brain, initially, I'd imagined that it was simply the standardized execution method for the Overworld, right, possibly favored by one or both of the Nations? On further reflection, it's much more interesting to have been a means to execute, say, blasphemers, iconoclasts or, frankly, anyone who violated whatever the Exodus holds dear.

Especially when those same people who exiled them start coming over the edge of the world on their own.

(Note: This does raise some interesting theology about the Exodus, what they believe in, how their religion has changed over the years, etc., which will get into on their spotlight.)

That out of the way, today, we're talking about the Brethren's culture. We talked history last week, time to talk culture this week.

First things first, we can probably safely assume that, during the castaway period, there was little unified culture amongst the "Brethren", who certainly hadn't adopted that name until much later.  No, what we're talking about today is the Brethren proper – the culture that arose following the emergence of both Nations to the Underworld and how, precisely, a "pirateocracy" would take shape.

It's conceivable that they'd refuse any centralized leadership, particularly since they'd have the least established infrastructure on this side of the world. I don't imagine a Pirate King or anything like that. They seem scrappier, less likely to kowtow to authority or rules or any such.

With a name like the Brethren, it makes me think they value equality above anything else. In their eyes, any man cast over the side was their brother – any outlaw, any reject or criminal – could find fellowship among the Brethren. I like that – kinda a reverse Night's Watch. Rather than being sent off to take the black, people here could conceivably run away and join the Brethren, who would accept anyone, no matter what their crime, as long as they foreswore their previous life.

(Likely wouldn't take too long for the Nations to start hanging as opposed to exiling their criminals.)

The idea of forsaking their old lives, even their identity, is kinda interesting. Could be a handy way to achieve the classic criminal nickname I love so much – when you join the Brethren, you're rebranded, your old life is abandoned. Maybe even all your earthly attachments are severed – your marriage, your children, your parents – are all forsaken. Joining the Brethren is effectively a death sentence for the person you used to be. You'd be expected to take a Brethren spouse, raise Brethren children.

I mean, if you wanted. That seems key too – they're all about freedom. There's no faster way to inequality than rules, restrictions and who they apply to. GRRM's wildlings seem a good parallel – fiercely independent, almost impossible to control, with equality and chaos being their primary virtues. Unlike the wildlings, however, I imagine they're somewhat more idealistic, even for a robber culture – once you join the Brethren, you uphold the Brethren values, the Brethren way or life or you're dealt with. Whatever that might mean to them.

A democracy, possibly the only one on the Underworld, would make historical sense. A true democracy, however, with all its logistical nightmare, is kinda more interesting than the republic we have. I could see a massive Congress or something, right, where every single Brethren is granted a vote. It could takes weeks and be a huge hassle, involving all the Brethren ships who can be bothered to attend to attend, before they can agree on anything.

(Side Point: This is sorta beside the point, but I like the idea that assiduous records are kept as to who attended and who didn't. Anyone who didn't vote or wasn't present is considered, in the rare event of a legal matter, exempt. I love taking their fierce independence to absurd extremes.)

They would seem to be very autonomous, then, sailing around in their own ships and maybe small fleets, occasionally convening in trading towns where they could sell their pirated goods. There are probably Brethren friendly ports and hidden Brethren fortresses, but I don't imagine they elect leaders to those places – they're just occupied and ruled by whomever is currently present. Brethren goods being a taboo but essential part of the Underworld economy seems interesting to me – I could see the Nations putting a moratorium on any independent citizen caught with Brethren goods, but both accepting weapons and goods sold to them by Brethren who stole them from their enemy.

Every once in a great while, I could see the Brethen summoning a great moot, or thing, or whichever term you'd like to use, where every single Brethren ship is summoned to a certain port and a massive matter is voted on. I would also imagine that every decision on a Brethren ship would be carried out democratically as well. I suppose they'd need a captain. Hm.

The classic "mutiny is acceptable if the public will turns against the captain" is probably fine. I like the idea of mutiny taking the opposite position than it does in Bad Space – it's considered the sacred duty of the crew to throw overboard any captain who becomes too tyrannical. I imagine it's a pretty common occurrence. Serving as a Brethren captain would appear to be unhappy, short experience.

(It occurs to me, I may need a role in Brethren society for the tiebreaker. That seems like a position of incredible power.)

They need some physical traits, some identifying colors and sigils. Maybe let's stick with colors for now, since those are pretty simple? Though I reserve the right to reform the shit out of this, but I think I'm gonna go with the Dead Rabbits/Vox Populi revolutionary red for the Brethren. Which, you know, seems like a pretty good pitch to hit. (Imagine pirate sails painted that way.) Maybe red is a sacrilegious color to the Exodus? That I will ponder.

Next Wednesday on Worldblogger: Power to the People!

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Pirates! Yarr!

The World So Far: The world is flat. On one side of disc is the exhaustively explored and urbanized home of humans, where cities, countries and nations vie for too little land to support their expanding populations. On the other side of the disc is an uncharted and largely oceanic world, dotted by islands and coastlines, full of strange wonder, abundant resources and tropical beauty.

An incoming force of humans, from a number of distinctly 15th century-feeling cultures, have sailed over the edge of their world and come to colonize the world below. Some have come to seek asylum, refuge or more converts to their maligned faith. Some have been exiled over, punished for crimes committed in the world above. Still, others come over to set down stakes in a new world, to exploit the natural resources and expand their conquest.

The new world's inhabitants, however, are four powerful undersea kingdoms, full of dynastic struggle, ancient tradition and military might. With cultures far older and far more intricate than those of the human colonists, the undersea kingdoms are as unprepared for this sudden clash of cultures as the unawares humans are.

You know what's a cool, evocative name for a culture of pirates? The Brethren.

Obvious historical call back aside, what I like about the Brethren for Colonist Culture A (our exiled and presumed executed criminals) is that it suggests unity, unity so close it requires a familial term to properly define. Rather than these criminals being fractious and prone to in-fighting, I vastly prefer the idea that there's something about dropping off the edge of your world and onto the edge of another that would smelt rabble into a unified culture.

So, let's call them the Brethren.

Now, despite being criminals, I don't imagine the Brethren began initially as pirates. With no other ships to pirate and, in such small numbers originally, precious little contact with the People, I imagine they began merely as survivalists, attempting to eke out a meager existence in this harsh and inhospitable land they suddenly discovered themselves in, a land they likely assumed was the underworld for many, many years.

(Note: Underworld is a surprisingly fitting name. At least for the Colonists. It is, from their perspective, under their world.)

I suppose we should probably determine a few things about the manner of their "execution." While I think, after wars or other political turmoil that would generate high levels or prisoners, they were maybe pitched over in massive funeral barges, I think the majority of the prisoners that were sentenced to "dropping off" were sent over the edge in a barrel, Niagara Falls style. Sending entire ships to their destruction is expensive and more symbolic. Tossing a barrel and its intestine asshole over the edge wouldn't cost any more than a coffin would to us.

A little research into Niagara Falls suggests, of course, that most of the people sent over this way would die a horrible death. Well, on further research, more like half. Assuming the distance is much higher, let's say one third. Approximately one third of the people pitched off the edge of the world survived, most with injuries. Many of these individuals probably ended up marooned on islands, became madmen or, more likely, food for the local animal populace. Whenever a barge would go over, however, its conceivable that its surviving crew would band together, attempt to make a civilization.

This, I imagine, is how the Brethren were initially formed. An island civilization, possibly with limited ship travel capability. They most likely would have staked out territory on islands and continents in the First Sea exclusively, not daring to venture much further into this unknown hellscape. Maybe they, lacking the skills, equipment or wherewithal to obtain resources more entrenched than say, wood, hide and leather, would've constructed fortresses and strongholds from the wreckages of their ships? Whatever they could cobble together.

It's conceivable they might have encountered Kingdom A somewhat, but I imagine with all their august might, the miltaristic Kingdom A would never have considered these bizarre bipedal landwalkers as any true threat, anymore than we would if dolphins suddenly declared themselves a sovereign nation.

They existed this way, one assume, for some time – isolated, clinging to survival, barely enough food, weapons and supplies to stay afloat. A civilization of castaways.

When the other Colonists arrived, however, it became a substantially different story.

It seems to read to me that the pilgrim/zealot/missionaries (right, I called them the Exodus) would've been the next Colonist Culture over the edge, especially if they were fleeing religious persecution. I think, at the first sight of another ship on these strange seas, a ship flying a flag the Brethren would recognize, things would change substantially. As more and more people began coming over by choice, the Brethren, I imagine, react hungrily, eager for the supplies and goods these new Colonists bring with.

It doesn't take long, then, for them to make the transition to pirates; preying on the Exodus, stealing their goods, very much becoming the devils the Exodus might have expected in the underworld. For a while, I imagine they're living large on these spoils. (Note: The Exodus maybe make alliances with Kingdom D to protect themselves from the Brethren's predations.) It's not until the other two groups – Colonist Culture C and D arrive that the Brethren are faced with their true and hated enemy.

For the sake of simplicity and logistics, let's assume that the exiles, criminals and prisoners who would've been sentenced to death over the edge came from either Colonist Culture C or Colonist Culture D originally – both civilizations commanding position near the Edge. This automatically ingrains a certain predisposed hatred towards the sudden and august arrival of either Culture into the Underworld, plus offers weapons, goods and materials of much, much higher quality than even the Exodus can give them.

Maybe this, actually, is where the Brethren takes shape. They need to ally in order to defeat these tougher opponents. They begin to unite their forces, they begin to fly flags, declare captains and kings and more or less organize themselves into a scattered and floating nation of marauders and raiders, commandeering ships, cannons and converting crews to their cause. 

Motivated by revenge and a need for survival, lacking any means to replenish these supplies save by pillage and now trapped in an endless war of resources with both Cultures, their existence is tenuous but insidious, always threatening to collapse utterly under their foes impressive military might, but proving damnably hard to extinguish completely.

This seems a solid springboard (or should I say, plank) from which to start with the Brethren. Next time, let's delve a little more into culture, social structure and the like.

Next Wednesday on Worldblogger: More Pirates! Avast!

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Undersea Races (Part Deux)

The World So Far: The world is flat. On one side of disc is the exhaustively explored and urbanized home of humans, where cities, countries and nations vie for too little land to support their expanding populations. On the other side of the disc is an uncharted and largely oceanic world, dotted by islands and coastlines, full of strange wonder, abundant resources and tropical beauty.

An incoming force of humans, from a number of distinctly 15th century-feeling cultures, have sailed over the edge of their world and come to colonize the world below. Some have come to seek asylum, refuge or more converts to their maligned faith. Some have been exiled over, punished for crimes committed in the world above. Still, others come over to set down stakes in a new world, to exploit the natural resources and expand their conquest.

The new world's inhabitants, however, are four powerful undersea kingdoms, full of dynastic struggle, ancient tradition and military might. With cultures far older and far more intricate than those of the human colonists, the undersea kingdoms are as unprepared for this sudden clash of cultures as the unawares humans are.

Super late blog post wheeeeeeee.

Last week, we discussed a few traits of the People, the dwellers of our New World's undersea kingdoms. We settled on them being disproportionate to humans (comparable to Barsoom's Tharks) and we settled on their having the fantastic biological ability to spread bioluminescent bacteria wherever they touch, allowing them to create handy illumination for their dark, undersea homes.

These week, we'll illuminate a few more bizarre and inhuman traits for these undersea dwellers.

[INSERT 80'S CARTOON-STYLE OPENING CREDITS HERE]

The first major hurdle I thought deserved attention was, of course, the matter of swimming. As an undersea race, our People will need some method of navigating their aquatic kingdoms. The traditional methods include mermaid tails, fins and flippers and these are all viable, if somewhat uninspired, options. Slightly less obvious options would be the octopus Ursula model or even Mieville's cray, both of which are interesting, but essentially just weirder deviations from the core model. Hm.

Since the ecosystem of my underside ocean is hopefully going to deviate as far as possible from the actual ecosystem of our actual oceans – with its own food chain, organisms and biodiversity – it strikes me that simply slapping the nethers of an established species of fish onto my undersea People would maybe be disingenuous? I mean, sure, I'd be hard pressed to create a believable marine ecosystems without drawing to the fin/flipper/tentacle well over and over again, but I think, with something as fundamental as the only sentient species below the waves, I'd wanna find a more creative solution.

In thinking about it, it honestly doesn't make sense to me that a People who dwell on the bottom of the ocean would actually be able to swim to its surface via their own anatomy and physiology. I mean, using life on land as an analog, that would effectively presume that humans, the baseline race of most settings, can fly into space. No, the more I think about this, the more I start to appreciate that maybe the People simply live their entire lives on the bottom of the ocean and don't have anything necessarily built into their bodies to allow swimming.

That said, I will need the Colonists and the Kingdoms to interact. Maybe that's one of the mysterious technologies of the People? Whether some manner of craft or personal transport, it's a technological development, rather than a biological one, that allows them to reach the surface.

I like that. That's in.

This leads me to think about what life must be like for a civilization at the bottom of the ocean, about how durable and practically fucking immortal they'd need to be to withstand the intense pressure. Immortal makes me think of life cycles, which makes me think of reproduction. Are they mammals? Fish? Birds?

My first instinct is none of the above; what if their life cycle is one of the most bizarre things about them? Imagine a technical immortality. Imagine if, rather than aging, becoming more decrepit and eventually dying, if they – phoenix-like – were simply born again? I like the idea of them repeating these cycle, ad infinitum, over and over again for millenia. Effectively re-incarnation, the successive newer versions could vary completely in physicality, gender, personality. they probably wouldn't even remember their previous lives.

I think they maybe hatch from eggs, right, some simply genetic base block. The People are born like normal fish, birds or reptiles – they hatch from eggs that're presumably cared for by their society. Over time, they grow, mature, learn and eventually reach full adulthood at some point in their life, standing nearly 10 feet tall and all that. Then, they enter the third and final stage of their lives, where they shrink and shrink – they don't wither or wrinkle like humans – but they become smaller, more compact, less physically able than they once were. I like the idea they keep their mental faculties, though, so they get wiser and more astute as they shrink. Eventually, at the end of their life, they, caterpillar-style, cast an new egg around themselves that serves as the old Person's coffin and the new Person's womb. In a certain amount of time, a new Person is born.

Maybe they have like, a tadpole-esque larval form? I think that might help separate out the three stages. 

What's interesting about this idea is that they theoretically don't need to reproduce. If none of them die of old age, there's no reason for mating. There was maybe some event in their history, with some grandiose name like The Spawning, in which all the tens of millions of eggs were laid and began to hatch. Since then, they've all been hatching a various times and, in theory, diminishing. I imagine they can still be killed, right, they aren't actually immortal – just functionally so.

I think that works. It's very weird, but I think it works. I'm curious to see what that kind of lifestyle might so, theoretically, to one's psychology and outlook.

Next week, a complete change of subject!

Next Wednesday on Worldblogger: Pirates! Yarr!

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