[Dungeon Fantasy] Setting Conversion: The Epic of Aerth

[RyanW]

I don't know the setting, but the synopsis looks like normal geography written by someone with atrocious spelling.

[Rupert]

That series of books is one that I regret selling. Not because the system was great (it wasn't), but because the setting, both described and implied, was fun.

[Pragmatic]

Originally Posted by RyanW

I don't know the setting, but the synopsis looks like normal geography written by someone with atrocious spelling.

Note that Gygax had a thing with weird spellings of "Earth."

Oerth, Aerth, and so on.

[Evil Roy Slade]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Note that Gygax had a thing with weird spellings of "Earth."

Oerth, Aerth, and so on.

I think when the canonical GURPS Fantasy setting is Yrth, we're in no place here to decide the kettle is black.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Evil Roy Slade

I think when the canonical GURPS Fantasy setting is Yrth, we're in no place here to decide the kettle is black.

It's a common trope of SF of a certain age.

In the Witches of Karres which was written in the 60s all of the humans scattered across the galaxy had orignally come from a long lost world known as "Yarthe".

In Zelazny's Lord of Light (approx. the same time of writing) I believe the lost home world may have been "Erath".

Think I've seen "Urth" too though I don't know where.

My last big Fantasy game was set on a world known as "D'y'r't" but that's a more elaborate sort of linguistic mutation.

I could probably go on.

[namada]

As for the setting of Aerth, it's more of less nothing but a cobbling of fantasized pseudo-Greek-Nation, plus fantasized pseudo-Egyptian-nation, plus countless other fantasized pseudo-historical-nations.

I've done this with the historical GURPS supplements for 3E, which is why I love those books so much. They allow realistic/historical games (not really my thing), legendary games (fantasized pseudo-historical), and mythic games (high-powered, high-action, fantasy games) - all by adding one little book to the basic set.

These things desperately need a 4E update and rebranding to make that much clearer. They're so often called "historical" settings, but they're much, much more than that.

[tbone]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

. . . all of the humans scattered across the galaxy had orignally come from a long lost world known as "Yarthe".

I am so going to borrow that for a pirate world.

(But while we're swapping world names: For my first D&D campaign world way back when, I chose . . . Arda. Swiped 100% from Tolkien, with nary an apology. I could have at least had the decency to make it "Yrda" or "Oerda" or something. : )

[Anders]

"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-.

[LoneWolf23k]

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.