Spelljammer Banestorm: Loren'dil World-Building ideas?

[Delvidian]

I’m in the midst of building Loren’dil and casting for ideas. Here’s what I have so far. First, let’s review the important canonical bits:

- The Green World, home to halflings, giants, minotaurs, and centaurs.
- Forests of enormous trees.
- Low mana (the result of a magical war in the distant past).
- This magical war was a divine war against the gods in which the “children rose up and killed their monstrous parents.”

My Spelljammer Banestorm campaign is based on the idea that the banestorms on Yrth brought in peoples and creatures from other worlds in the Yrthian planetary system. I’m placing Loren’dil in the Mercury slot, and overlaying Banestorm canon onto the Mercury of Space 1889.

- The world is much denser than Yrth. Even though it only has a diameter of 3,000 miles, the gravity is 1g.
- Planet doesn’t rotate. This gives it a bright face (up to 900 degrees at its hottest) and a dark face (down to -300 degrees at its coldest).
- Between the bright and dark faces is a ribbon of lush land ~100 miles wide. At the brightward edge are mountains and desert, at the darkward edge snow and glaciers.
- In the middle of this ribbon is a slow-moving world-river that encircles the globe.

TERRAIN: Here are the distinctive terrain types.

- Mountains: The mountains at the brightward edge of the green band consist of jagged shards of crystalline corundum that glitter from a distance. Travel is difficult here because of the heat, the sheer rock faces and the glare (eye protection is needed against the reflected sunlight).
- Archwood Forests: The great archwood trees have all the features of Yrthian trees – roots, trunks, branches, and leaves – but the arrangement is unique to Loren’dil. The trunk of the archwood tree is elliptical in shape, with branches radiating from the sides. It spends part of its lifecycle growing straight up, but once it has reached a height of 100 yards, the top begins to tilt brightward toward the sun. Eventually, the drooping tip reaches the ground and takes root. In an archwood forest, the branches of the trees interweave, creating a near-solid canopy. The space beneath the arches is dark and cavernous, a biome in its own right (though not one the halflings speak of fondly. Many unpleasant things live in the darkness (the equivalent of an underdark).
- Loopgrass Plains: Like archwood, loopgrass grows in progressions of looping strands. This feature slows movement for non-hooved creatures.
- The World River: The world river that encircles Loren’dil is fed by darkward glaciers melting as they reach the warmer green zone. It is a wide, slow-moving river that incorporates the occasional lake or swamp on its flanks.

The swamps, lakes and glaciers are near enough to their Yrthian counterparts and don’t need special description.

PEOPLES & CREATURES: Loren’dil is the home of halflings, centaurs, minotaurs and giants. Other notes:

- The gods that the halflings and centaurs overthrew were giants, the most powerful being storm giants (now presumed extinct). The peoples of the Green World have a long history as pawns in the eternal conflicts between the fire giants of the bright face and the frost giants of the dark face. Today, hill giants are the most commonly encountered. While they are dangerous, they are also rather stupid, the mere shadows of what giantkind once was.
- Hybrids mysteriously dominate the biosphere. In addition to centaurs and minotaurs, manticores, hippogriffs, owlbears, perytons, jackelopes, sphinxes and less well known hybrids are native to Loren’dil. This even extends into the plant kingdom. Such oddities – to Yrthians and Earthmen -- as carrot bushes and apple vines are a normal part of the landscape. It makes one wonder: Is Loren’dil the work of a playful god?

HALFLINGS: The halflings of their native world are like halflings everywhere. They love their food, drink and comfort. On Loren’dil they congregate in villages. Halflings divide themselves into three groups depending on where they live, and each is convinced that their mode of life is the best:
- River Folk: The river folk favor areas near small lakes and rivers, building homes into natural or constructed hillsides or creating structures from clay blocks or sod. They farm and fish, and conduct trade in specialty items with other villages on the river. They consider themselves the most civilized of halflings because of their richer material culture.
- Tree Folk: These make their home in the heights of the archwood canopy, among the many plants and animals that live there. Hunting plays a much larger role for Tree Folk than River or Root Folk. Tree Folk consider themselves the bravest and most noble of halflings, and look down (literally) on the others. Tree Folk do not smelt metal. All their tools and weapons are carved from bone or archwood (which is very hard).
- Root Folk: These halflings live among the giant root systems of the brightward edge of archwood forests. They do some farming but subsist easily by gathering the ample bounty of the many plants that grow in the very fertile strip at the brightward edge of the forest. Root Folk consider themselves the happiest of the Halflings. The tree roots provide easy safe homes and the perpetually sunny plains offer their bounty with little effort.

Despite their different lifestyles, all halflings agree that magic is a tool of oppressive gods and is to be looked upon with great suspicion. Side Note: Low mana on Loren’dil is specific to the green zone. The bright and dark faces are normal mana with areas of high and very high mana.

CENTAURS: Centaurs on Loren’dil are per their Banestorm template: brave, impulsive and often overconfident. They hunt and forage on the great band of grassy plains that circle the world. Other notes:
- They congregate in large tribes. Each tribe has a large swath of tribal land that they control, though there is much overlap (and reason for conflict).
- The centaurs were hardest hit in the war against the gods, and lost many of their greatest wizards and sages. The feel is of a people who strive to regain a golden age.
- Legends abound of secret lore caches hidden by the ancient sages in remote and dangerous locations.

ADVENTURE IDEAS: Right now I’m leaning toward an adventure with the broad outline:

1. Suffer a very hard landing on the river (Low Mana = -5 on piloting). If the handling roll failed, the ship is damaged and needs extensive hull repairs.
2. Find a local centaur/halfling community and interact with them. I’m using Matt Rigsby’s Turning Points of History from Pyramid 3/41 to create flavor and backstory.
3. From here they either A) go seeking a precious resource unique to the world. Perhaps fire crystals from the bright side, during which they encounter fire giants or B) help community with their Big Problem, like the tribe of dumb hill giants that harass them or something similar.
4. Big friends-well-met party at the end. Avoid Ewok similarities.

Any world-building ideas or adventure seeds to share?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Delvidian

It makes one wonder: Is Loren’dil the work of a playful god?

It seems clear that the god of the river is still alive and well, since something other than gravity is needed to create the flow of a circular river, and there must be something replenishing those darkside glaciers that feed it.

As a bigger plot, maybe that god needs help of some kind to maintain this idylic world? Taking fire crystals to the heart of darkside, for example? Roger Zelazny's novel Jack of Shadows uses a somewhat similar world, and would be worth plundering.

[Delvidian]

Originally Posted by johndallman

It seems clear that the god of the river is still alive and well, since something other than gravity is needed to create the flow of a circular river...

In Space 1889, Coriolus forces move the world river, but yes, in arcane space, the river god is much more plausible explanation. Jack of Shadows. I read it so many years ago. Time to pick it up again. Thanks.