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Old 05-18-2020, 04:53 AM   #11
Anders
 
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Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Default Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Setting Conversion: The Epic of Aerth

"Erda" is the Earth Goddess in Wagner's Ring Cycle, the Mother of Wisdom. And it's a great name.The proto-Germanic stem is *erþō-, from proto-Indo-European *h₁er-.
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Old 05-18-2020, 09:34 AM   #12
LoneWolf23k
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Default Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Setting Conversion: The Epic of Aerth

Aerth's Mythic Nature.
To put it simple, and in terms from Infinite Worlds, Aerth is a Myth Parallel Earth, that's also something of a skerry, tied to another alternate world called Phaeree, as well as a pocket dimension called “Inner Aerth” by those scholars aware of it. (The original version just had Aerth be a hollow world, with Inner Aerth actually inside it, but I think this idea is cooler.)

Aerth is very similar to Earth at the time of the middle-ages, with some substantial differences; first off, there's magic and entites of myth and magic in the world, partly due to co-existing with the realm of Phaeree. Secondly, monotheism never happened on Aerth. No Islam, no Christianity, no Judaism, not even Zoroastrianism. Thirdly, A lot of civilizations that would otherwise have ended by the Middle-ages continue to exist on Aerth, such as Carthage and Babylon. The overall cultural and tech level is a weird mix of Medieval, Renaissance and 17th Century influences, with familiar sociology, politics and some technology, but with different natural laws, such as the existence of magic.

The book also doesn't include firearms or cannons, thus justifying the continued use of Medieval-style fortifications, but there's no outright conspiracy to suppress firearms that I know of, so if you want to use the Demolitionist or Musketeer professions from Pyramid 3/36, go ahead. Personally, I was thinking of going Clockpunk with the setting, with Fantastic Airships, clockwork automata and not-so-advanced firearms.

There are six great continents: Aeropa (Europe), Afrik (Africa), Amazonia (South America), Azir (Asia), Magmur (which is called Australia plus AND minus) and Vargaard (North America). There's some geographical differences, such as half of the north of Afrik being a massive bay with an island called Tripolis right in the middle of it. The geography of Magmur is radically different from Australia as well. And and the last major difference I want to bring up is that there's a number of colonies on Vargaard, founded by different old world nations.

In terms of timekeeping and history, Aerth is 1000 years behind Homeline, with recorded history starting at 6000 years before the fall of the Atlantl empire, with <6000 being used for pre-fall dates. So our current year of 2020 is the year 1020 on Aerth. The calender is divided into 10 months of 36 days each, with an extra five days taking place during a “Rebirth Festival” celebration that extends into 6 days on Leap Years.

If using Aerth with Infinite Worlds, use the following data [to be filled out some more at a later period, once I have more ideas]:

Aerth, 1020
Current Affairs: The Palu-Ea seeks to expand the influence of the Babylonian pantheon across the middle-east; a conspiracy in Byzantium seeks to turn the Panhellenic League States back into the East-Roman Empire;

Divergence Point: Unknown; original estimates were at -5000AD (-6000 Before the Fall of Atlantl), when the empire of Atlantl forms, but evidence has been found of far older civilizations, predating the first proto-humans.

Major Civilizations:
Western (Multipolar); Babylonian (Empire); Hellenic (multipolar); Atlantian (Empire with rivals), Chinese (Empire)

Great Powers:
Berber Union; Cardinalian League; Five Crowns Compact; Gallic Treaty; Panhellenic League States; Iberian-Atlantl Concord; Lantian Compact; Palu-Ea; Phoenician Coalition States; Western Sea Alliance States;
Albion (Feudal, CR 4) Atlantl; Babylonia (Mesopotamian Dictatorship, CR 5)

Worldline Data
TL 3-4 Mana Levels: Normal
Quantum: 3 Infinity Class: Z2
Centrum Zone: Inaccessible

This sums up my work so far, a brief overview of the world. Already I see some potential. Phaeree serves as a good place to put all the fantastic races when they're not interacting with humanity, and it's a good place to put your Elven High Kingdom or your Djinn City of Brass, if you don't want the hassle of removing a human kingdom. And heck, just use your handy copy of GURPS Faerie for reference if you've got it. I'll go more into detail on Phaeree later.

Like I said, my idea here is to use the setting for a Clockpunk campaign with airships, and maybe stable Teleport circles, leading to more global traffic. And between portals to Phaeree and creatures and civilizations existing undr the surface of the Aerth, there's plenty of sources for Dungeoneering adventure.
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Old 05-24-2020, 03:50 PM   #13
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Default Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Setting Conversion: The Epic of Aerth

Okay, I know I've been neglecting this thread a bit, I've just been busy. And everytime I've tried starting work on my “History of Aerth” section, I get bogged down on far, far too many pointless details. And the last time I tried writing this I accidentally erased the text. So I'm just going to make a very abridged overview of Aerth History, from the Dawn of Time to the (current) present year of 1020, at least in the way I've reinterpreted it. Also, I will freely admit this History is primarily focused on the Western world, but I plan on making write-ups for other regions of the world.

Eras:
-Dawn of Time: The age of the Elder Gods and their servitors, before the continents were mostly shaped. Most of them have either left for other dimensions or outer space, their works have been lost to time, but a few remain in hidden corners of the world, either sleeping or preying on the unwary.

-Age of Dinosaurs: Age of the dinosaurs, but also the age of the first major prehumanoid civilizations, like the Dragons, the Serpent-Lords, the Reptilians, the Coleopterans, and the Fish-people. The Cretaceous extinction event dooms most of those civilizations, but many of those ancient powers pool their resources to create a massive pocket dimension to retreat to: Inner-Aerth, technically 'inside' Aerth (it's complicated). This, however, leaves the retreating people to collapse into savagery in their new shelter. Dissidents choosing to remain on Aerth manage to build shelters deep within the Underground or under the seas, but few of those survive to the present, and those that do are also greatly diminished.

-Humanoid Prehistory: Proto-humans arise, spread to nearly all corners of the world, and come into conflict with survivors of the primordial civilizations, or stumble onto their ruins and learn how to use the magical secrets they contain.

-The war of Gods and Titans: the first generation of divine beings to be worshipped by humans, the Titans, come into conflict with their children, the Gods. Their conflict shapes most of prehistory, portrayed in different ways by the various human cultures of Aerth. Thanks to the worship of humankind giving them an edge, the Gods win. The losing Titans are imprisoned in the dimension of Tartarus, while renegade giants survive across the world. The gods, seeking to avoid further damage to Aerth, withdraw to another dimension as well, Godhome.

-The Demonspawn: the Titans, though imprisoned, begin plotting their revenge on the Gods and Humans, begin creating the first demons out of their own flesh. The demons spread across Tartarus and even expand it, turning it into The Abyss. The mightiest demons declare themselves Demonlords and form empires across the Abyss, waging war amongst themselves as much as plotting to strike at Aerth.

-Rise of Atlantis: in <6000, the first major western civilization arises on the island of Atlantl, the first technologically and magically advanced society in a world that was still mostly in the stone age.

-The Oricalcum Age: the Atlantians spread their civilization across all regions bordering the Atlantic ocean, creating colonies and subjugating the native people. The Atlantians also begin using magical biotech to improve themselves as a species (becoming the first Elves), as well as create new servitor races (really, you can fit most other nonhuman species here, especially human-animal hybrid species).

-The discovery of Phaeree: Atlantl discovers the magical dimension of Phaeree, and begin to colonize it as well. The discovery of the plane's magically mutable nature spawns a cultural revolution, with Atlantl beginning to neglect it's Aerth colonies in favor of expanding into Phaeree. This allows former colony regions like the Hellenic peninsula, Aegypt and Babylon to break from Atlantl control and form their own civilizations.
-The Demon War: around <3000, the first wave of real demonic incursions begin, piggybacking off of the portals used for travel to and from Phaeree, and invasions begin all over Atlantian-held lands. These invasions are eventually stemmed through the creation of massive magical monoliths to stabilize dimensional barriers.

-The Fall of Atlantis: the hubris of the Atlantians soon begins to offend the Gods, and a mighty cataclysm is sent to tear down Atlantian civilization, though the continent is NOT sent under the waves. Still, the proto-elven people are scattered, forming into various tribes all over the world. The monoliths no longer being maintained, the Atlantians in Phaeree end up cut off from Aerth, and eventually evolve into the more magical Elf-Lords.

-The Rise and Fall of Rome: centuries later, the city-state of Rome is founded, and begins it's own march of expansion and conquest upon the Western world. Much like the Atlantians thousands of years ago, they succeed through superior technology and magic, though never to the same extent as the Atlantians managed, even after they begin their own conquest of Atlantl, the end of that conquest marking year 0 of Aerth. Rome's dominance persists for centuries, before they begin to fall to decadence, and eventually collapse, leaving many scattered nations in their wake.

-The Dark Ages: the years immediately after the fall of Rome marks a loss of a lot of knowledge and culture. As some of the ancient monoliths begin to fall into disrepair, their control over dimensional barriers begins to fade, and soon both beings of Phaeree as well as Demons begin to manifest on Aerth again. Often in great numbers.

-The Age of Adventure: the current age. An age of magicians, natural philosophers, explorers, monster-slayers and other adventurers. Humanity now shares Aerth with multiple other races, some Aerth-born, others native to Phaeree.
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Old 05-31-2020, 03:08 PM   #14
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Default Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Setting Conversion: The Epic of Aerth

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been busy with different projects. Here's an examination of Dungeon Fantasy templates from "Adventurers" on Aerth.

-The Barbarian: This template represents “uncouth barbarian culture warrior” types, like Norse vikings, or Steppes nomadic riders, or even brave warriors from Vargaard. But with some finessing (and perhaps using some cross-training lenses) can also represent a knight with anger issues.

-The Bard: This template represents not only the Western tradition of the bards, derived from old Celtic and Germanic traditions, but can also represent wandering storytellers, such as the ones from the Middle and Far East. Cross-trained with the Barbarian, it can also represents a Northern Skald.

-The Cleric: The standard Cleric template can represent a “generic” magic-casting priest dedicated to the worship of a single pantheon, but with the variant Clerics of DF7: Clerics, they can also be customized into priests dedicated to a single patron god. Of course, in a world of various competing pantheons, but also of dominant gods and threatening demons, the purpose of the cleric is as much fighting against demons and their ilk as it is serving the will of the gods.

-The Druid: The classic dungeon fantasy “nature priest” Druid isn’t really historically accurate, but even here, there’s room to work with. I’ve already established that the gods were predated by the Titans, which I’ve interpreted as “primordial deities”, much the same way the Norse Jotun represented raw nature rather than civilisation. So in this interpretation, Druids represent those priests who deal with the wild spirits outside of tamed lands, warding them from farmlands and preventing them from striking back at humanity for perceived slights.

-The Holy Warrior: in a world without monotheism, the “Templar Knight” almost seems out of place, but just as wit the cleric, the Holy Warriors do have a place in hunting down demons and other monsters, serving as a living weapon of divine retribution against the divine order.

-The Knight: Possibly the most universal adventuring type on Aerth. Despite the name “knight”, this template represents all sorts of men-at-arms, not just the ones with official titles. This template can be customized in all sorts of ways, representing everything from an European Knight to a Middle-Eastern Janissary to a Nihon Samurai.

-The Martial Artist: Despite the stereotype of this Template representing Far-Eastern martial artists, it can also represent surviving traditions of Greco-Roman pugilism that have endured in Europe and the Middle-East.

-The Scout: Hunters, Rangers, Master Archers, the Scout template represents warriors specializing in outdoorsman skills, mixing the knight’s combat prowess with the stealth of the Thief. The Longbowmen of Albion are famous for their archery skills, for example.

-The Swashbuckler: In the Western lands, the art of swordsmanship has been greatly refining, and narrow blades like the rapier have seen recent development. Meanwhile, Far East in lands like Ch’in or Khitai, the various sword-saints have mastered the art of the blade.

-The Thief: Almost as universal as the knight, all cultures of Aerth have rogues, both cutpurses and cutthroats. Every city in every nation has something like the Mob, whether it’s the various Mafia families of the Italian peninsula, or the Yakuza of Nihon.

-The Wizard: Inheritors of the ancient arcane traditions born in Atlantis, Wizards are scholars that seek to master the secrets of magic. Aegypt is one of the centers of Arcane research in the world, as is the island of Atlantl. Other Colleges of Wizardry have been founded across the world, with one notable example being the Scholomance in Transylvania, rumored to be run by demons, although this might simply refer to cultists of Chernobog.
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