03-14-2006, 03:40 AM | #21 | |||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
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Re: Homegrown fantasy setting in classical Greece
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For material creatures, I want them to be realistic species. I want them to resemble the legends, but not to be literally as described. For instance, I want to have Stymphalian birds, but they will not have wings of bronze; they will just be big, mean birds with razor-sharp claws and a *very* scary beak. Centaurs will exist, but their society will resemble that of a Stone Age mountain tribe and they will not be assaulting organized settlements as they mention in the Iliad, because the humans will massacre them (perhaps a cattle raid from time to time). Things like that. It follows that there *will* be female centaurs, and they will reproduce naturally as mammals.
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Behind the Aegis - My dark fantasy setting in Classical Greece (discuss it here!). Conversion of the supernatural skills in the Basic Set to Powers. |
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03-14-2006, 04:07 AM | #22 | |||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
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Re: Homegrown fantasy setting in classical Greece
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Perhaps each of the two sides has geographical spheres of influence; at the borders, where both powers collide, you could have the natural and magical laws twisted and full with even more bizarre phenomena, mutated mythological creatures even more bizarre and terrible than the magical ones, etc. (note: perhaps this is how the fearsome giant monsters like Scylla or the Hydra come into being, some kind of "magical mutants"). The Aegean is going to be a funny place indeed... Quote:
As an unrelated side note, the idea of starting this setting came from reading Dan Simmons' excellent books ILIUM and OLYMPOS. Great story and very inspired (and inspiring) descriptions of Greek heroes and gods.
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Behind the Aegis - My dark fantasy setting in Classical Greece (discuss it here!). Conversion of the supernatural skills in the Basic Set to Powers. Last edited by Mercator; 03-14-2006 at 04:12 AM. Reason: Added URLs to books ILIUM and OLYMPOS |
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03-14-2006, 10:47 AM | #23 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Homegrown fantasy setting in classical Greece
If you have gods come back in other realms, I would suggest keeping a Greek/Hellenic focus through the means the classical Greeks actually used to explain the gods of other peoples - syncretism. Whatever gods, say, the Egyptians or the Germans (when Rome encountered them) had were equated to the closest Greek gods. Thoth was Hermes, Amon-Ra was Zeus, Odin was also Hermes, Thor was Zeus, etc., etc. Any differences in character or in the relative ranking of members of the pantheon can be explained in terms Olympians shapeshifting, tailoring their personas to garner the greatest amount of worship from various barbarian peoples, and varying amounts of influence and presence in different countries. After all, the worship of the Greek gods and heroes varied greatly from city to city, with tales told of Theseus in Athens told of the local heroes in other cities for example.
Remember when doing equivalencies that you don't have to stick to the Big Twelve - that exact formulation of who the top 12 Olympians were was a rather late invention, anyway. As the Argosy shows, some countries might worship lesser gods such as Helios or Hecate almost exclusively. Egyptian religion could be regarded as more focused on the Cthonic deities, possibly including Osiris as an aspect of Dionysos or Adonis/Tammuz focused more on his dismemberment and resurrection than anything else. Given that you want this to be a horror background, you can play around with the idea that even for the current Olympians, none of the human-like faces they show are anything like their true selves - they're all shapeshifters, after all. Another issue to consider, since you're placing the campaign two generations after the return, is whether the gods have returned to their old habits of mortal laisons, producing demigod byblows scattered around the world... |
03-14-2006, 12:50 PM | #24 | |
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Overton, TX USA
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Re: Homegrown fantasy setting in classical Greece
Chello!
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Tony
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Anthony N. Emmel Scholar & Catholic Gentleman Q: GM, are you using the d20 rules system? A: No. GURPS is fun. D20 games are not fun. The GM says so. Playing d20/3.5 makes Baby Jesus cry. |
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03-14-2006, 01:11 PM | #25 | |||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
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Re: Homegrown fantasy setting in classical Greece
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Behind the Aegis - My dark fantasy setting in Classical Greece (discuss it here!). Conversion of the supernatural skills in the Basic Set to Powers. |
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03-14-2006, 01:33 PM | #26 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Homegrown fantasy setting in classical Greece
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You could also take a page from Judeo-Christian 'mythology' and have it that some of the monsters popping up are the result of the less successful matings between gods and humans (or gods and other things - who's to say what they get up to when in animal shape?). Perhaps the nomads of Canaan, inland from Tyre, call these aberrations Nephilim... |
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03-14-2006, 02:30 PM | #27 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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Re: Homegrown fantasy setting in classical Greece
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This is that there really are distinct pantheons of gods, though possibly fewer than us mortals tend to think. So you use syncretism to merge the pantheons that are most similar to reduce your workload when dealing with inter-deity interactions, but still have a number of different groups of gods, aware of each others existence and maybe playing some extremely high-level version of political chess to expand their own pantheon's influence (as well as their own individual places within their respective pantheons). In my world, I'll be going with four pantheons: the Germanic/Norse pantheon for the viking Norse, Anglo-Saxons and Central Europe barbarians, the Celtic pantheon for West Britain and Frankia, the Hellenic pantheon for Greece and Rome, and the Egyptian pantheon for Egypt and Persia. Or maybe I'll leave the egyptian gods just in Egypt, and use a bi-deity chthonic pantheon of Light and Dark for Persia. I haven't really thought that far ahead in any detail, as the specifics of my campaign are still only in one small jarldom of the North Way. |
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03-14-2006, 02:53 PM | #28 | ||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
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Re: Homegrown fantasy setting in classical Greece
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Wait, it just occurred to me - what if the Titans can magically impregnate mortal women (or other beings)? What would a Titanic Hero be like? Not only he would have a 30-point Secret, he would need pretty powerful magics to keep his nature constantly hidden from the Olympians. If he is to have enough power to balance these disadvantages, he would be a truly formidable creature. I do not know of Titanic Heros in the Greek Mythos, but they would make a good addition. M.
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Behind the Aegis - My dark fantasy setting in Classical Greece (discuss it here!). Conversion of the supernatural skills in the Basic Set to Powers. |
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03-14-2006, 03:41 PM | #29 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Homegrown fantasy setting in classical Greece
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03-14-2006, 03:43 PM | #30 |
Join Date: Oct 2005
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Re: Homegrown fantasy setting in classical Greece
Herakles: I hadn't thought about him, but he'd be dreadfully important! If I were running the Pelopenesian War campaign, I'd hold him as part of the story-arc, leaving it up to the PC's to sway him into joining one side or the other. He'd make a heckuva Patron for a group of Heroic PC's. Or maybe he incarnates and roams Greece, trying to get the cities to pull together and face the threat of the Titans.
Poesidon: Making a deal with Thestis, and bravely sailing into the Aegean - despite the wrath of Poseidon - would be an incredibly Greek thing to do, wouldn't it? Especially if you've got Athena on your side... she's been known to help out in that sort of situation, ala Odysseus. Mercator: You probably shouldn't feel pressed to respond to us all individually. You might take it as a compliment that you've created a world background that we can all sink our teeth into and run with :-) I think your scaled-down Heros area perfect idea. Not every Greek Hero was Earth-shattering, many of them just fought monsters, founded cities, and generated conflict. A Hero is defined by what he does, not who he is, and all that... And there are a few non-combat heroic characters lurking in the periphery of the Greek myths: a philosopher who cannot die would be perfect - first he thinks of it as a boon, but soon realizes it's a punishment and a tragic flaw. First he revels in immortality, then collapses in despair, then finds acceptence - only to be smitten down for accidentally comparing himself to the 'deathless Gods'. IIRC, most of the Titan offspring in the original myths show up as monsters rather than Heros. But semi-human Titan offspring aren't contrary to the feel of those myths, and are going to complement your setting well. I see them as sort of corrupt and monsterous: the Deep Ones, Ogres, and Fomori of your setting. They ought to be full of strange powers and twisted destinies and flaws. Weren't the cyclopses originally Titan offspring? From what little I know of Spartan religious practices, Ares already had a fairly prominent place. So any sort of dark cult would work as a schism. One potential story idea: after the reforms of Lykergius <sp?> during the Dark Age of Greece, Sparta had two kings at any one time. Maybe one of them is the head of the mainstream Olympian cult, while the other wants to enshrine Ares as the only diety of Sparta? And maybe the Romans (who were always big on Mars anyway) are devoted practioners of this dark and twisted Ares worship, and get to be the invading Orcs of the setting. (Little do they know that Romulus being nursed by the she-wolf is a metaphor for his Titan heritage and gifts. He's still alive and secretly guiding the cult of Mars and the Roman expansion in Italy, and Greece). +++|<=== Lord Carnifex --- |
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