Ideas for Yrth

[Astromancer]

This was posted on another thread by Alexander Howl. It has great merit even if it doesn't fit what I was doing.

Honestly, it is a bit of a stretch, especially considering that the area is already inhabited. I think that a better idea would be to have a microcontinent around the size of Madagascar that would appear around 250 miles off the eastern coast of Megalos after a massive Banestorm at the beginning of 2020. The microcontinent would cover 500,000 square miles, 250,000 square miles of land, and 250,000 square miles of water, making a rough diamond 500 miles north-to-south and 1,000 miles east-to-west.

The advantage of such a large location is that it would allow for a series of adventures, both on the surface and under the water. Imagine the conflicts that would occur between the native hawkmen (which would only be the westernmost species of beastfolk) and the younger sons of Megalos nobility who were trying to steal their land. You could have a wide diversity of confused beastfolk who would be horrified when they encountered humans, as humans would seem to be sort of abominations that had their animal half removed by magic.

Of course, the beastfolk would need to be magical, so it would make sense if the microcontinent was 90% high mana and 10% very high mana. The continental shelf and 80% of the land would be high mana while the central 20% of the land would be very high mana. The beastfolk that lived in the very high mana regions could be horrific amalgamations of multiple races of beastfolk, like bear-owl folk or tiger-carp folk.

Basically, he's adding a slice of the Planet Mongo is adding a new genre blend to Yrth. Megalos is basically Lankhmar, Yibyorak is basically Ankh-Morpork. Al-Wazif is The Arabian Nights Glamourous and Al-Haz is the Arabian Nights gritty. Bilit Island is a mixture of Swashbuckler and survival horror. Sahud is...interesting. Alexander Howl's suggestion would add a area of Sword and Sorcery blended with Planetary Romance.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

A couple of new wrinkles on the canal between the Conn and the Smoke.

1) If we allow a river that can be made navigatable by the addition of TL4 locks to within a few miles of the Church territory of Photus, to create a ecconomic boom in the Barony of Durham, and then give Robert Del a Pole the twin problems of digging a canal tunnel through a ridge and draining the swamp on the other side of the ridge, our Engineer/Mage is stuck in one place for a while.

The PCs have the problems that A) the dwellers in the swamp, choose some one that's a serious threat like an inhuman hag, or a demon cult leader, and B) a couple of minor lords in Durham want the canal rerouted either to their benefit or to prevent a neighbor from getting rich from the canal.

2) Another possibility would be set in Donlis which we are told is swampy. One Sir Henry of Mershall, a mage trained by Robert Del a Pole and weilding a magical device that reduces the cost of Earth College Spells by one fatigue has been building Polders. These polders are drained by pumps powered by windmills. These unassuming pumps and windmills are TL5. Sir Henry is also an Underground engineer from a world much like Tales of the Solar Patrol.

Sir Henry has gotten halflings from Oakwood to settle the polders (which are generally a few square miles). The halflings have planted breadoaks and fruit trees, dairying and beekeeping are major occupations. The halflings sell cheese, butter, Bread Acorns, honey, and wax. THe local swamp dwellers are divided between those afraid of losing their homes and those eager to have Sir Henry build polders for them. The swamps being shallow it's a tech level 3 job to build the polders.

Sir Henry is eliminating the feudal ecconomic order slowly but firmly in Donlis. This will lead to violence.

Actually canals and windpumps appeared much earlier then TL4's standard ~1450: "The first artificial canal in Western Europe was the Fossa Carolina built at the end of the 8th century under personal supervision of Charlemagne."

Similarly, "Windpumps were used to pump water since at least the 9th century in what is now Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan."

In Legacy of Time Journeyman Project 3 an Archimedes screw is connected to a windmill in "Atlantis" forming a TL1-2 windpump. While there is superscience in the game the windmill and its Archimedes screw are "normal" even though they are far ahead of when historical they appeared.

[AlexanderHowl]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

This was posted on another thread by Alexander Howl. It has great merit even if it doesn't fit what I was doing.



Basically, he's adding a slice of the Planet Mongo is adding a new genre blend to Yrth. Megalos is basically Lankhmar, Yibyorak is basically Ankh-Morpork. Al-Wazif is The Arabian Nights Glamourous and Al-Haz is the Arabian Nights gritty. Bilit Island is a mixture of Swashbuckler and survival horror. Sahud is...interesting. Alexander Howl's suggestion would add a area of Sword and Sorcery blended with Planetary Romance.

Thank you, that is an interesting take on what I was talking about.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Thank you, that is an interesting take on what I was talking about.

Thanks. I'll put some spin of my own on your idea soon. But for now I am changing Ming the Merciless to Rangvald the Cruel. Since we're stressing the animal folk aspect of Mongo he'll lead the Wolf folk having used vile sorceries to warp their pack instincts into mind control.

[AlexanderHowl]

I think one of the stories that could evolve from the microcontinent would be examining the prejudice of humans against nonhumans, especially if the nonhumans have land that the humans want and/or practice traditions that violate the tenats of the religions of humans. For example, the lemur folk are a matriarchal, matriafocal, and matrialineal race of beast folk that dominate the central forests whose forest agrarian society embraces polyandry, polygamy, and polysexuality.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Basically, he's adding a slice of the Planet Mongo is adding a new genre blend to Yrth. Megalos is basically Lankhmar, Yibyorak is basically Ankh-Morpork. Al-Wazif is The Arabian Nights Glamourous and Al-Haz is the Arabian Nights gritty. Bilit Island is a mixture of Swashbuckler and survival horror. Sahud is...interesting. Alexander Howl's suggestion would add a area of Sword and Sorcery blended with Planetary Romance.

Some thoughts on how to do this.

I'd place the new microcontinent, and some nice large islands to hide pirates and rebel kingdoms, due southeast of Bilit Island. This will make regular contact between Yttarria and the new lands fairly rare at first.

Picking a name for this land will help, I choose Enitharmon. She was dominated by others and her children brought violence, she's the right sort of figure to name lands ruled by a brutal dictator.

Planetary Romance involves a higher tech level than Yttarria, so we'll need a good set of reasons why the people of Enitharmon haven't conquered Yttarria.

First, although Enitharmon has a tech level of four plus two (TL4+2) based largely on their rich and sophisticated Alchemy, they are incompetent at Agriculture. There have been on our Earth, settled high-density societies with little or no agriculture. These societies are typically near amazingly rich sources of wild foods, almost always marine sources. Such societies can be quite aggressive among themselves and near neighbors but lack the logistics to conquer those at any significant distance from them. In the Movie serials set on Mongo, Flash Gordon travels through high-tech cities and wilderness but we never see farms or gardens.

Second, although some classical societies like Ancient Gaul had complex and sophisticated school systems (Druids had to complete an internationally recognized 21-year education program) neither Greece nor Rome had anything like secondary education, colleges, or universities. Their primary school was largely unorganized, started at age seven, and was over at age fourteen. Schools more advanced than that were either apprenticeship systems or seminars. Scribal schools were generally the former and the Greek philosophical schools the latter. Most engineers, physicians, etc. were mentored. Having Enitharmon have this sort of educational environment (you couldn't call it a system) would also severely limit them.