[Horror] The Holy Land, and not so holy...

[quarkstomper]

The Knights Templar were accused of all sorts of dark and evil practices. Granted, the charges were probably all false, trumped up so that the King of France could confiscate their wealth, but it's your campaign; you decide how much is true.

[quarkstomper]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

Some stuff about the Zealots and the Roman Jewish conflict (IIRC 60AD), might help as well.

That's right; Masada would make a possible site for a horror setting.

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by quarkstomper

That's right; Masada would make a possible site for a horror setting.

Yup, but I am tempted to make the Romans the bad guys. But having said that, I need to find out more of the politics and conflict that led to the seige. Might find me one of them there book thingies on the subject :)

[Luke Bunyip]

Generally, I think I have enough false leads now for my players. Jericho, Sodom & Gomorrah, Masada etc, massacres etc of the Crusades.

Ta muchly all.

[Frost]

Originally Posted by quarkstomper

The Knights Templar were accused of all sorts of dark and evil practices. Granted, the charges were probably all false, trumped up so that the King of France could confiscate their wealth, but it's your campaign; you decide how much is true.

There are however worryingly credible stories about certain other minor confraternities of crusading knights including suggestions of ritual canibalism and religiously sanctioned banditry (I can't remember many details unfortunately including the name).

These stories play off the same effects while being sufficently obscure that players probably won't be familiar with them.

[Max Schreck]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

Yep. Have sort set things up for the players to find a nest of Sumerian demons and assorted undead in a crypt in southern Syria, circa 1922.

But the Sumerian high culture was in southern Mesopotamia, not Syria.

[Philosopher Rogue]

Originally Posted by Max Schreck

But the Sumerian high culture was in southern Mesopotamia, not Syria.

They'll never see it coming! Muhahaha!!

I've currently got my players going up against a "proto-Aztec-Mayan" hybrid culture in the far Western edge of the Amazon. And I'm using the Ice Age Stalkers from the old Roleplayer article as a part of the climax fight. My point is it's all about flavor, if your players are going to get confused on why the remnants a Mesopotamian culture are found in Syria, let them worry. Their confusion can add to the horror. What if history is wrong?! If so how much don't we know about what else is out there?

And the ice age vampires are on one hand being used by a modern vampire that the party is chasing, but unknown to everyone they are servants of what the whole place is resting on - something Man Was Not Meant to Know from at least 65 Million years ago. Sort of looks like a feathered serpent..

[Max Schreck]

Oh, I would have no problem with a Sumerian demon turning up in present day New York or in a orbital settlement of the 22nd century or indeed in Syria, ca. 1922.

It was just that as I understood the OP, he seemed to want his campaign grounded in the "Holy Land," because he wanted to use Sumerian demons, and then I just had to chime in that Sumer belonged to the Mesopotamian cultural sphere (one could even argue that it was the progenitor of said cultural sphere), and not the Syro-Palestinian/Levantic.

Cheers,

Max

[Philosopher Rogue]

Ah, I completely agree with those facts.

Shalom.

[William]

Are you taking events from the Bible as historical? Both Pharoah and Herod ordered a generation of Jewish boy-children slaughtered, the first in an attempt to kill Moses and the second in an attempt to kill Jesus. (Most likely, of course, the author of Matthew simply lifted the concept whole from the preexisting myth, and neither story is supported by historical evidence outside the Bible.)