New Fantasy Setting Seeds.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Alternatively, the Wikipedia article notes that the predecessor of the misemono may have been performances used as a means to raise funds for shrines and the like - which I've seen show up from time to time in anime, and always assumed was a modern concept (akin to the benefit concert or similar), and thus an anachronism if it showed up in a markedly pre-modern setting... but it isn't, and that opens the possibility of having such things as a plot element in a lot of fantasy settings.

Just proof that cultural history is the gift that keeps on giving to gamers.

By the way, Google misemono and you can get large numbers of scholarly articles on the subject. A great way to get the little details that make a subject come alive.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

The Misemono were a combination of Freak show, side show, haunted house, vaudeville, and a Ripley's Believe it or not! Museum. These shows were fashionable from the early 1750s until the early 1770s.

In other words, a circus, the modern form of which developed about the same time, likewise has ancient religious roots, and has a history of being a fine adventure seed. Travelling performers is a great frame for adventurers in any setting, because they are people with weird skills with an excuse to be travelling about and to be temporarily tolerated even if they aren't very respectable people.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by malloyd

In other words, a circus, the modern form of which developed about the same time, likewise has ancient religious roots, and has a history of being a fine adventure seed. Travelling performers is a great frame for adventurers in any setting, because they are people with weird skills with an excuse to be travelling about and to be temporarily tolerated even if they aren't very respectable people.

Good observation. The difference between a circus and a Misemono is the Haunted House element, which is far more like the Phantasmagoria shows. In fact both Phantasmagorias and Misemonos claimed in their advertising to be actually supernatural.

I suppose that in both cases, if the authorities questioned the supernatural element, the show runners would simply say it was just an advertising gimmick. In your mind's eye you've already cast the horror actors playing the impresarios.

I'll need to post a link. The Phantasmagorias were mid18th century European special effects shows that claimed to summon ghosts and demons to perform for the audience.

[Astromancer]

Here is the promised link to the Phantasmagoria.

An important difference between the Phantasmagoria and the Misemono is the type of setting. Phantasmagorias were theatre performances or sometimes what Europeans call a Caberet. The Misemono was a less structurally unified type of show. A vampire theatre troops like the one in Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat would have to have the whole troop in one the plot. A real world successor to the Phantasmagoria like the Grand Guignol would be totally mundane. Meanwhile, in the Misemono, which would have been like a modern sideshow a collection of shows grouped together each with its own tent or booth. Thus you could have one or two actual Yōkai working hidden at a Misemono without even other Yōkai knowing about it.

[Astromancer]

The Star Guard!

This is a combination setting. It blends Sword and Planet with Sword and Sorcery and stirs in some Sword and Sandal tropes too. The PCs are working for the Warlocks of the Esoteric Dawn. They strive to prevent either the theocrats that rule the southern cities and the ancient canal systems or the strange merchant princes from beyond the sky from enslaving the people. In order to keep the peace the Warlocks need a credible force of warriors. That's where the PCs come in.

The Warlocks will hire anyone that takes the binding oaths into their legions. Then the flesh crafters among the warlocks will make them mighty beyond anything still human.

Basically, if you're into Warhammer 40,000 you are now a Space Marine. Although you're a more Sword and Sorcery variation on the trope.


This is a military fantasy setting. assume a roughly Roman form to the Warlock military units. The Warlocks pay well, plus they take good care of you and grand you the Unaging advantage, as long as you are loyal to them.

Are you ready to defend the people from both the theocrats and the merchant princes?

The planetary populace lives at roughly TL4. Isolated communities can be as low as TL2. In the Canal cities the elites live at roughly TL6+2. The Merchant Princes from beyond the sky live at TL12^ (strict galactic laws inhibit what technologies they can use on a primitive world).

The Southern cities, where the theocrats rule, are CR6 for those below Status 1. CR 4 for Status 1 or higher. More than 90% of the population are Status 0 or less. The Northern cities, where the Merchant Princes rule, are CR1, for those Status 3 or higher. For each status below 3 and two to the Control Rating. Six maximum.

The Equatorial cities vary widely. Although those under the strongest Warlocks of the Esoteric Dawn, tend to be aristocratic republics with strong democratic elements.

[Inky]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

aristocratic republics with strong democratic elements.

Did you mean anything particular by this? Seems like there might be several possible ways of interpreting this apparent contradiction and it's not clear which you had in mind if any.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Inky

Did you mean anything particular by this? Seems like there might be several possible ways of interpreting this apparent contradiction and it's not clear which you had in mind if any.

I was signaling the reader to think of the 17th century Netherlands or Medieval Venice or Renaissance Florence. All Aristocratic Republics with Democratic elements. Certain periods of Roman history could be described in the same way. It's not really odd.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

I was signaling the reader to think of the 17th century Netherlands or Medieval Venice or Renaissance Florence. All Aristocratic Republics with Democratic elements. Certain periods of Roman history could be described in the same way. It's not really odd.

It would certainly read as odd to anyone not familiar with that part of history, or who knows about it but doesn't use the term 'aristocratic republic' to refer to that sort of government.

[Astromancer]

The Long Road

Are we to go into the past of an alien world?

There is no other way. You must take the dream road into the dreaming of another world to save our people.

How did this come to pass.

A lonely bitter old man found an artifact. We don't understand what or how. Then when he understood what the artifact could do he unwound the pattern of his life. His will must have been enormous. Then he created a new life pattern for himself. Part of this new life path led to him mentoring several talented scientists and engineers. They saved the Earth folk civilization. Thus they became space colonizers not a colonized people.

How does this threaten our people.

Not truly. But the strong alliance the Earth folk formed has forced the Talnoclyn Imperium to realize they can't expand into that area of space. So they were left expanding into the poorer and far less profitable areas of space, including ours. No the Earth folk aren't our foes. But it is them or us.


Basically, the PCs are souls from a distant future world sent back in time to change Earth history for their own world's survival. But bad luck on the way, they've lost the memory of who it is they need to stop. So they decide that preventing space flight is the only thing they can do.

But you aren't alone, others who see different ways to attack, far less honorable ways, also came back. Just because you must stop these Earth folk from space travel doesn't mean you have the right to torture and enslave them. There is both unavoidable evil and evil that must always be avoided.

The PCs are spirits with Path Magic. They can pocess human and animals. They can time travel within a period of two hundred eighteen years between 1870 and 2088AD. The PCs are trying to keep humans out of space. Their rivals vary from those trying to exterminate humanity to those seeking to create a world dictatorship to control humanity. Further, the old man who found the artifact is still around. He has discovered the presence of the PCs and their rivals and wants them off the Earth. Between his willpower and the artifact and the allies he was able to get in his new life, he looks like he could win.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

I was signaling the reader to think of the 17th century Netherlands or Medieval Venice or Renaissance Florence. All Aristocratic Republics with Democratic elements.

Those sound more like Plutocratic Republics with Democratic Elements.