Delvinia - My First Digital Map

While I'm trying to get caught up from my vacation, I'd like to show you a little something I did a few months ago in MS Paint.

Original scanned image, mountains still rough.

Delvinia has been my home-grown world since as long as I've been gaming.  It has gone through many incarnations and different shapes.  Mostly it's a standard D&D fantasy world with the standard D&D races, because that's what I was playing when I created it.  No matter what it looked like, there was always one city, Night's Eye, on the map.  There were always the Knights of Delvinia, a free order that belonged only to itself (basically they were unpaid mercenaries who tried to do good).  And there was always a chain of roadside tavern/inns called Crossroads where you could expect the same type of service no matter where you were.

At its inception, Delvinia was just one country of a handfull on the continent.  Eventually it also became the name of the continent and the world.  The newest Delvinia map is more sophisticated than its predecessors and curiously there is no actual country on the map called Delvinia.  And I haven't placed Night's Eye, either.

So I guess I should stop calling it Delvinia... but I like the name.

Major roads and waterways and large cities added.

Political boundaries.

This is another illustration of how just making a map can spark ideas.  As I added place names and rearranged them, a pattern developed.  In the west, Novalia, Estavalia, and Suvalia are all part of the Empire.  I don't have a name for the empire, because I didn't think that deeply on it.  Of course the names of these three countries reflect their locations - North, East, and South.  And they have pretty bland-sounding capitals in Summercrest, Lake Morwyn, and Northaven (one 'h').

Mazharr, with its capitol, Hanan-Er (which translates to "Gracious Guardian" but I forget which language I pulled it from) is your typical Arabian Nights type place.  Think Al-Qadim.  Mazharr is suffering some pressure to join the Empire, but perhaps are being supported in their independence by Arkos, the dwarven mountain kingdom.

The elves needed a homeland, so I gave them Daesha'Val.  Note there are no roads going into that country.  The Empire is at odds with the elves.  They want the fertile, unspoiled land, and of course the elves have other ideas.  Slavers kidnapping elves and selling them to the Empire doesn't help relations, either.

Vovaren, Kesch, and Deurkharen are based on Northern and Eastern European countries.  They will appear backward and quaint to the sophisticated Imperials, but they hold their own.  The slavers mainly come from Kesch and Hlothar.  Wortacha is pronounced "Vor-tock-ah", because it's a Germanic type place.

Hlothar is another dwarven kingdom.  They're somewhat more dour than the Arkosian dwarves.

Molovia is my version of Transylvania, or Ravenloft.  It's a scary place where the people hang garlic and  don't venture out after dark.  At least this is the perception from an Imperical point of view.

Rhokal is a deserted country, which is why it is in brackets.  Kesali, its capitol, is in ruins.  It was the homeland of my roamer-race, the Rhoke-shaone, before they became the wandering clans that they now are.  Not sure what happened there, but it was bad.  Very bad.

And finally, because I wanted some more variety, I threw in the underwater kingdoms of Lorelagua and Bahalagua.  This is where the mer-people, tritons, and sea-elves live.

Beyond these basic notes, I really haven't fleshed out this world.  But it's there if I ever want to revisit it and develop it further.

On Vacation

I am on vacation until July 9.  I will be working on some world developments in the meantime and hope to have a new post up that day.

The Gods, Part Two: Naming the Divine

Today I’m going to further define the Gods of Salorica.  I randomly generated a huge bunch of names and came up with nine that sound good to me.  The Volkoran Gods ended up with stern-sounding names of one and two syllables, while the Talisari Goddesses have more exotic names of three and four syllables, with the male having a two-syllable name.  These are all listed at the end of this post.

In Earth history, the gods of one people are absorbed and replaced by the gods of another people when that region is conquered.  The Greeks and the Romans essentially had the same gods with different names (Zeus = Jupiter, Athena = Minerva, Poseidon = Neptune, Hades = Pluto, etc.).  So it makes sense that the Volkoran and Talisari would be the same, at least for the gods whose aspects are similar.

As far as the pureblood Volkorans and Talisari are concerned, the differences in their gods are like night and day and never the two shall meet.  But the common Salorican will be able to recognize the Dark One within the Lady of Magic (Indaria), and the Silver Lady is merely another face of the Great Mother.

There are probably lesser gods on both sides, too.  Gods of fire, storms, animals, oceans… the list could go on forever.  Or perhaps the Talisari believe in nature spirits (not necessarily gods) like nymphs, sylphs, salamanders, and dryads.  Or both groups could have light and dark aspects in the same god (I actually like this, now that I think about it, and will incorporate it).  And the lesser races – the ones I haven’t even touched on yet – would have their own set of beliefs.

And that’s what they are: beliefs.  In the world you create, there is nothing keeping you from declaring that the gods are real and take a direct interest in mortal affairs (and even descend – or ascend -  from time to time to walk around in mortal form), just as there is nothing to keep you from declaring that the gods don’t actually exist and that everything can be explained in a non-theological way.  Take away the trappings of religion and Indaria’s Song just becomes a weird side-effect of magic energy.  Indaria’s Children are just Confused, and her Priests are just bat-shit crazy, murderous Reavers.

Even if there are no real gods in your world it doesn’t mean the people wouldn’t believe in them anyway.  And just because the gods are real doesn’t mean there won’t be those who claim their miracles can all be explained away.  Either way, you’re going to have to create some religions and name a god or two, especially in a fantasy campaign.

But I digress.  Here are the gods from the last post, with full aspects listed, and named, in order of importance, respectively:

Volkoran Gods
Name	"Great City" Name	Light Aspects	Dark Aspects	Talisari Version
Kael	Shiny Lord	sun, knowledge	elitism	Esten
Gwelen	Silver Lady	moon, fertility	loneliness, promiscuity	Rohanna
Morgal	Dark One	magic, knowledge	black arts, secrets, lies	Indaria
Orleth	Blinded Justice	law, truth, civilization	tyranny	n/a
Sarth	Lord of Swords	conquest, protection	warfare, strife	n/a
Talisari Gods
Rohanna	Great Mother	fertility, family, flora & fauna	domination, promiscuity	Gwelen
Esten	Lord of Morning	sun, hunting, cooperation	struggle for survival	Kael
Indaria	Lady of Magic	magic, knowledge	deception	Morgal
Elini	Lady Luck	chaos, chances, hope	desperation	n/a
Yorina	Lady of Night	moon, solitude, patience	loneliness	Gwelen

The Gods, Part One: Determining Aspects

Despite having some seeds for deeply detailed development, I'm still in the higher levels of world building.  I've got a map, briefly detailed human races, and some place-names, but there's still some pretty big stuff to work out.  It's time to get mythological.

I know I've got one dark goddess of magic, who is called Indaria, and that the native Talisari are immune to her Song of Insanity.  Beyond that, Salorican theology is a blank slate.  I'm going to take a cue from the Norse, Greek, and Roman mythologies of which I'm familiar ("write what you know") and say that the Gods are personifications of things like seasons, celestial bodies, states of mind, and elements.  Indaria is an elemental goddess (mana, or magic, being the element).  But what about the others?

I could start by writing out a list of things like: sun, moon, love, war, spring, earth, etc. and then just give them names and call it done.  It's perfectly serviceable to do your mythology this way, but not very interesting.  Luckily, there are some great products out there to not only get you started, but that could be imported whole into your world, saving you a lot of work.  Green Ronin's Book of the Righteous is probably the best example.  Here, a complete pantheon and mythology, with accompanying churches and paladins, are ready-made (for the d20 system).  Blue Rose also has a nice mythology with creation stories all developed for its setting.

I don't really want to pull something out of a book, though I do want to make it easy on myself to begin with.  Mythologies are not built overnight; they grow with the telling over hundreds and thousands of years.  The same is true for your world.  You can start with the basics and make up details later, as they come up in play.

I've got a place to start in 0one's Great City maps, which I am going to use as the basis for my biggest city.  There's a Temple district with god attributes already given.  Here they are with my initial (predictable) ideas:

Our Lady of Luck - sounds like a patron goddess of gamblers and thieves.
House of Swords - war god
The Silver Lady - moon goddess, perhaps another aspect of Lady Luck.
The Shiny Lord - sun god
The Great Mother - earth goddess
Lord of Magic - Indaria
Blinded Justice - god of law
Lady Night - could be a separate goddess or another aspect of the Silver Lady and Lady Luck
Lord Morning - another aspect of the Shiny Lord
Dark One - an evil god

I'm a highly organized person (it's disgusting, really.  You should see me pack a grocery bag.) and these 10 gods are too messy for me just thrown together like they are.  10 is a good number, for I crave balance, but  I also have to keep in mind that some of my gods will be Volkoran in origin, while others will be Talisari.  So I think I should break this list down a little more:

Volkoran Gods: Silver Lady (moon, magic, fertility), Shiny Lord (sun, knowledge), Blinded Justice (male, law, truth, civilization), Swords (male, warfare, conquest, protection), Dark One (female, the black arts, secrets, lies)

Talisari Gods: Lady Night (moon), Lord Morning (sun), Lady Luck (chaos, chances, hope), the Great Mother (fertility, family), Lady of Magic (Indaria, magic).

Now here's my thinking based on this breakdown: The Volkorans were an industrial, imperial-type male-dominated civilization.  Their gods are mostly male and represent illumination and expansion of civilization by law and might.  By contrast, the female gods represent mysterious powers and evil doings.

The Talisari gods are mostly female (a mother and her three daughters), with one male, denoting a respect and reverence for women.  They are (or were) a hunter-gatherer society of a rather low tech level.  That tells me they weren't much interested in military might, but more family and community-centered.  Because the Talisari are immune to the Song of Insanity (Indaria's Song), they don't see magic as anything threatening.  Also, they are less dependent on technology and law and more on the whims of the seasons and nature.  The Talisari go with the flow.  Hence, their reverence for Lady Luck, who smooths the way or trips you up, depending on her mood.  Perhaps instead of trials by court the Talisari tribes have competitions to determine who the judgment should favor.

A happy accident of this exercise is the fact that now I've got a little more insight into the Volkoran and Talisari societies and how someone of either blood might behave.  Before I started this, I knew the Volkorans were technical, but it didn't occur to me that they would be so imperialistic.  This makes sense now, when I put it with my previous determination that all Salorican nobility claim to be Pureblood Volkoran and look down on those of Talisari and mixed race.  I kind of had an idea in the back of my mind that the Talisari would determine bloodlines through the females (the only way to be sure) and the nature of their gods backs that up.  The Saloricans, those lucky products of cross-breeding, are caught in the middle, and the fact that there are both Volkoran and Talisari temples (something the Talisari themselves never build) in the Temple district confirms it.

Based on the above, a little bit of mythology popped into my mind for the Talisari, too, but I'll save that for another post.

Salorican Society

I have my three major races from which players can choose now, with a further choice of one tribe or the other if they choose a Talisari.  I've taken my ideas and turned them into Chimera stats:

Volkorans
The Volkorans originally came from another world (called Volkor) and crash-landed in magically-powered airships.  Those who claim to be pureblood Volkoran are stating that their ancestors have not bred with any non-Volkorans.  Most of the nobility of Salorica claim pure-blood status and view Saloricans as beneath them, and Talisari as barely human.  In Salorican society, Volkorans can be of Social Station from Middle-middle (moderately comfortable with stable work) to Upper-upper class.

Appearance: Tall and stout with fair skin, eyes ranging from blue to green with occasional browns, and light blond to bright red hair.

AdCost: 3             MR: 12” +/- 1d6                WL: 2     IM: +0
Perks: Pureblood


Talisari
The Talisari are natives of Salorica (before it was called Salorica) and were the dominant race before the coming of the Volkorans.  Pureblood Talisari are immune to Indaria’s Song.  In Salorican society, Talisari can be of Social Station from Fringe to Lower-Middle.  Because of the social prejudices of the ruling class, only exceptional individuals can ever hope to rise above Lower-Middle class.

Talisari are split into two tribes: the Eshiae (“ESH-ee-ay”, lit. “people of the hills”) in the West, who have mostly adapted to the Volkoran/Salorican culture; and the Aenae (AY-en-ay”, lit. “people of the plains”) in the East, who remain suspicious and see the advancement of Salorican culture as an end to their way of life.

Appearance: Short and lightly built with light brown skin with a reddish hue, almond-shaped eyes ranging from pale silver to gold and dark amber, and dusky black to indigo-black hair.

AdCost: 5             MR: 12 +/- 1d6                  WL: 2     IM: +0
Perks: Pureblood; Imp. Tone Deaf
Flaws: Outsider (only when dealing with snobby Volkorans)


Saloricans
Saloricans are the descendants of (mostly commoner) Volkoran and Talisari matings and make up the largest percentage of Salorican society.  In Salorican society, Saloricans can be of Social Station from Fringe to Upper-Middle class.

Appearance: Taller and heavier than Talisari, shorter and thinner than Volkorans, with a medium-toned complexion between the two, and hair and eyes in any combination of the two.
AdCost: 2             MR: 12 +/- 1d6                  WL: 2     IM: +0
Perks: none


I also created two new racial Perks for the Talisari and Volkorans that will come into play should they be encountered:

Pureblood          Bonus of +1 to Diplomacy rolls with others of the same Pureblood race as you. [Improved: increase bonus to +2]
Tone Deaf         Resist Indaria's Song at ½ TN. [Improved: Complete immunity from Indaria's Song.]

Now that I've got my PC races, some place-name, and some basics of society and culture.  I can drill down and start developing Salorica in finer detail.  More later!

Birth of a Map, Part Five: It's a Map! And some bits about the People

My overland kingdom map is pretty much finished.  I've got the major towns and cities identified, and have put in roads connecting them.  There's some nice, thick forests and other remote areas where I can place my Cauldrons.  Mountains, foothills, farmland, prairie, veldt, desert - it's all here.  I suppose there's swamps in there, too, but they are too small to detail on a map of this size.

There's a lot of undeveloped area north of the cliff wall for future exploration and expansion.  Just about anything could be up there.  But there's also plenty of adventure possibilities in Salorica itself, especially in the east where the native people still dominate.

Speaking of people... We know that the Volkorans are the original settlers from another world who basically crash-landed around the area of New Volkor on the map.  The original culture was Tech Level 4, an age of Exploration equivalent to the late Renaissance period of Europe - think of Enlil Salor, the creator of the first airship, as like Leonardo DaVinci.  After crashing here and concentrating on surviving, their society dropped a level to TL 3, a Medieval equivalent.  The airship technology has been lost and largely forgotten but the Volkorans have still managed to dominate the natives.

The natives, the Talisari, were TL 2 when the Volkorans arrived; still civilized, but mostly hunter-gatherers with a smattering of agriculture and lacking in modern niceties.  Over the past 150 years, their culture - where they have interacted with the Volkorans - has advanced to TL 3 to match the settlers.  The arrival of the Volkorans caused a rift among the Talisari.  The western Talisari of the forests, the Eshiae ("ESH-ee-ay", lit. people of the hills), readily interacted (and interbred) with the Volkorans, creating the first Saloricans.  The Talisari of the eastern plains and desert, the Aenae ("AY-en-ay", lit. people of the plains), saw the arrival of the Volkorans as an end to their way of life, which was pretty much the case.  The Aenae retreated further eastward in an attempt to limit contact with the invading culture.  They are mostly still in TL 2, but even with the retreat, some cultural changes are crossing the line. While not necessarily violent toward the Volkorans and Saloricans, the Aenae are still rather hostile when the foreigners wander into their territory.

So now I've got four major groups of people for the start of my campaign:

1. The Volkorans - pureblood descendants of the original settlers that have not interbred with the native Talisari.  Most of the nobility of Salorica claim pure-blood status (whether that's true or not is another matter).  I'm going to base their looks on the romantic image of Vikings: taller and thicker-boned than the natives, with lighter skin, eyes in the blues and greens ranges with occasional browns, and light blond to bright red hair.
2. The Saloricans - the descendants of Volkoran and Talisarian parentage.  The majority of commoners in the western settlements are Saloricans.  Saloricans are shorter and lighter than pureblood Volkorans, with a nice medium-skinned tone like that of southern Italians, Greeks, or lighter-skinned Indians (the country).  Hair and eyes can be any combination from Volkoran and Talisari.
3. The Talisari, Eshiae and Aenae - the dominant native race of Salorica before the coming of the Volkorans.  Pureblood Talisari have the Tone Deaf Perk that grants a level of immunity to Indaria's Song.  Talisari are short and lightly built, with skin of light brown with a reddish tint, larger almond-shaped eyes ranging from pale silver to gold and dark amber, and dusky black to blue-black hair.

My next step, then, should be making up the racial stats for these four groups and giving them a little more cultural detail.  As far as it matters, they're all considered "human".

Magic in Salorica, Revisited

I've revisited magic in Salorica with respect to the Powers system of Chimera and come up with some significant changes to implement in my world.  First off, I've decided not to have running water affect the flow of mana.  Instead, I have mananil, a brittle red metal that blocks mana.  Now on to the changes.

I'm a fan of player freedom within the confines of the mechanics and the benevolent dictatorship of the GM, which is why I created a way to create characters without having to adhere to a classes (you can find it on my Chimera RPG Conversions, listed on the sidebar).

Although I love making up new spells (Powers in Chimera), sometimes they overlap with others, creating redundancy, or putting them into game mechanics becomes a chore.  And then there's the problem of having so many spells to choose from that you don't know where to begin.  So, I've taken my ideal of player freedom and extended it to Powers.  Instead of having half a dozen or a dozen or more Powers to choose from under each School, why not have one versatile Power for each School that will allow you to do anything you can think up (within the confines of the School, GM's blessing, and Target Numbers)?

Although Chimera rules about Power are awesome in their own right, they're not quite what I have in mind for my world.  Thankfully, Erin has written such a simple and versatile system with Chimera, it wasn't hard to adapt the Power mechanics into my personal vision of magic in Salorica.

Now, I have to say that my 10 Schools (as opposed to Chimera's 8) are not original.  I got them from somewhere online and I have tried to find them again, to no avail.  Nor is my idea of thinking up what you want to do and then rolling to see if you do it original.  I think Mage: The Ascension did that (if I remember; it's been decades) and probably some other RPGs, too.  But this is what works for me, and what works for Salorica when I apply it to my Cauldrons, Nodes, and Ley Lines.

For the entire write-up of Magic in Salorica, which is too long to post here, visit the Salorica website listed on the sidebar.  Bear with me, though, because the site is a work in progress and still in its infancy.

I've also created a world-specific Sperk that will give Power Wielders an edge -  Tone Deaf: Immunity to Indaria's Song.  This would allow Wielders to gain the +4 bonus to Wield use without risking their sanity and self-control (too much) in the presence of a Cauldron.

There are sorcerers in my world, too; Sorcerers may access any School's mana and take it within themselves to change its nature to another School's type.  I'm still working on the details of how to fit a Sorcerer in without unbalancing the game, though.  Sorcery is linked to Indaria's Song and the repercussions of Wielding failures are pretty darned horrific.  Torches and Pitchforks horrific.  You do NOT want to be a Sorcerer who messes up their Wield roll.

So, this is where I am right now.  More later.