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Seethyr
Master of Realmslore
USA
1151 Posts |
 Posted - 09 Aug 2019 : 19:11:41
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Ideas for Anchorome
Since Sleyvas’ post about the Abeil of Abeir in Anchorome, I figured a more generic thread might be appropriate where ideas can stray beyond the bee folk. The Anchorome I have envisioned and homebrewed expands on City of Gold (FMQ1) and canonical information about Balduran and Fort Flame. These are all ideas I truly hope to write up at some point in the near future.
Like Sleyvas with the Abeil, I would love to see what additional ideas and alterations group think can do. Remember, this continent is virtually untouched.
1. Monsters of Anchorome. I’ve posted about this in a number of places so I won’t go into it, but essentially I’ve tried to bring 30+ new creatures from Native (north) American myth into Anchorome. I tried to hit upon creatures never brought up before.
2. The 1e adventure UK7 Dark Clouds gather introduced a creature called the ba’atun - creatures that essentially look like the flying baboons from the Wizard of Oz but come from an alternate world/plane. Their leader can possess others and in the adventure they give some cloud giants and aarakocra a really hard time. Almost whole cloth, this adventure could be adjusted to fit the setting.
3. Speaking of aarakocra, if I could ever get in touch with Gray Richardson I’d love to hear more of his thoughts on the aeree and I want to one day take on the undertaking of make a Serpent Kingdoms-esque book for the aeree (Avian Kingdoms?). Obviously their last eyries are located in NW Anchorome
4. If you’ve ever read The Mound by HP Lovecraft, there is an underground civilization that worships Cthulhu and the other Great Old Ones that can dematerialize and have other powers. Juergen Hurbert on the Piazza forums thought these might be easily represented with the “elan” race from one of the 3e era psionic books. Funny thing is even further below them, there are more ancient civilizations which if adapted to Anchorome, might be perfectly replaced with the batrachi.
5. Mysteries of Anchorome: I’ve been working on a hodgepodge of cool locations, mostly where I’ve gained inspiration from Dragon Magazines of long past. So far there is a huge waterfall with a natural portal to the Plane of Radiance (an alternate one called the Limitless Light from Dragon Magazine), and a huge herd of magical horses known as the nic’Epona from old Planescape material. I’m working with another author on a darfellan enclave in the nearby seas who are locked in a struggle for survival against sahuagin. There’s also some less developed ideas like a mechanical forest where rogue modrons are in hiding, and a “whispering pines” region of trees that have all been awakened. Finally, other Dragon magazine goodies have added to the brainstorm and I’m thinking of a swamp that reduces any who enter to cellular sizes where all the monsters are amoebas and euglena and such. There might also be a region that never evolved out of an age of mammals.
6. Esh Alakar. I have to find myself a truly excellent cartographer who can specialize in dungeon mapping because Esh Alakar, a canonical ruin in Anchorome has become a ruined spellweaver pyramid with an extensive underground region remaining. I’d like the dungeon to have a lot of mathematical puzzles to it at least in the way it’s organized (using the Fibonacci sequence, a hyper cube, etc).
Anyway, if this sounds like a brainstorm, that’s because that is exactly what it was. Hopefully some decent books come from some of them that are enjoyed by someone. I’d also like to apologize that I didn’t provide proper references or links, I’m doing this from my phone while away in the mountains!
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 12 Aug 2019 : 15:45:48
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Love brainstorming, so many good ideas come from it.
Some of the things I've been thinking about doing after seeing your product and rethinking my own ideas.
I know you're not big on the idea of red wizards in the area, but I do want to put red wizard in Esh Alakar. However, as discussed, I also want it to be that they've only say delved a portion of this "super dungeon" (like maybe 5%, but that 5% opened onto OTHER ideas). They have established themselves in this portion and made it safe to inhabit for themselves.
What else have these red wizards done? Well, this section of Esh Alakar had a portal. This portal opened onto an old spell weaver port up in the top of some mountains (these mountains being roughly to the east of the Pasocada Basin on the other side of a section of desert). So, what type of port would be up in the top of some mountains? Well, a sky port of course. Much like how the netherese sought to delve the stars, so did the spell weavers of Esh Alakar. However, they didn't have spelljamming helms. They had something of their own design, and which after a millenia or two.... quit working. But the SHIPS were made from glassteel, and the ships survived. What kind of ships then? Well, they don't necessarily resemble modern "naval vessels". They're more like flat topped submarines with "oars" attached on each side and the capability to raise up masts for sails. At the back is a large "tail fin" like a mix of fish and dolphin with a set of 4 flukes that can either go side to side or up and down. The top deck also has a glassteel "shields" that can be raised over it if the masts are down to make the ship more resemble a submarine (a clear see through submarine). Anyway, the red wizards find this place with ….. let's go with 20 ships.... still intact. However, NONE of the ships have any kind of motive power. The oars don't work anymore, neither does the tail fin, and they don't have any lift for transporting into wildspace or even the sky. But, the red wizards are nothing if not interested, and they adapt technologies of anchorome. They develop "plumafeather sails" that can be attached to the ships and allow them to ride the air after learning of this art from an enclave of theirs down in Lopango. The ships are slow and of little use for transport beyond Toril and its moons, but that's big enough for what I want to do. They also develop magics to work he oars and tail fins as if they are constructs, and they discover the ability to invade the nearby oceans to a degree. They also develop an extreme interest in glassteel, and they spend the next century trying to unravel the art of making this material while in Abeir using sand from the nearby desert. Which leads into the next piece.
In flying the skies, they discover something very interesting. You know how the moon has an illusion which hides its surface activities from the people on Toril? Well, it appears that there's an "earth mote" that resembles an "earth island" from the planet of Coliar that's very near to that spellweaver sky port (almost like it descended into said area due to conflict? Maybe so?). However, its hidden by illusion from the top and bottom and can only be seen from the sides (i.e. by someone flying in the area). This would seem to hint that the aearee either had spelljamming technology of their own and travelled TO Coliar or that the original Aearee actually came to Toril FROM COLIAR. So, my personal favorite at this moment is that they came FROM Coliar to Toril after Sarrukh started investigating Coliar with their lizard men. The red wizards discover this small "earth island" and also discover that the Aearee who were on it have been gone a long time. Also, several OTHER cultures have apparently also found it in the past. Here's what I've written up so far
Earth Island of Ko'el'ee'arr – This earthmote is riddled with internal tunnels whose magical lighting had failed millenia prior. Wall carvings in the stone seem to indicate that this plateau has been the home of more than one race, but it was originally inhabited by a bird like folk, more than likely the aearee. These wall carvings show these bird folk in conflict with a lizard folk like race, though the actual appearance of these lizard folk varies. Some appear to have odd frills upon their heads, and some carvings even appear to show the various lizard folk fighting one another. Other carvings show snakemen, naga, and winged snakes. Even more strangely, other carvings show both races revering strange dragons with what appear to be feathers. Gems within the city activate programmed illusory “instructors” which have helped detail the basic history of these bird folk, though their language does not convert easily with modern spellcasting. Other areas show signs of habitation by avariels, and similar gems seem to indicate the use of a portal by these avariels that exists on the earth island, but translation magic on languages from so long ago do not seem to work very well. Strangely enough, these translations seem to mention “Mystra”, but use the term not as a “being” but as a “location”. Its also clear that these recordings are from before the existence of the goddess Mystra, who has been around less than 2 millenia. The red wizards have so far been unable to make this portal work, but admittedly they have not seriously tried it since returning from Abeir. Several destroyed glassteel vessels seem to indicate that this city came into conflict with the ancient ones of Esh Alakar. Other structures built on the surface seem to indicate that a small group of arcane giants interested in runecraft once inhabited the floating earthmote, but what happened to them is unclear. The island is inhabited by a large number of dire boars, bison, and rams that have since gone wild and probably transported here to serve as a ready food source. Long empty cages seem to indicate that some kind of large birds were once kept and possibly bred here for food, ranging from the flightless axebeaks and emu to larger bird or birdlike creatures such as giant eagles, griffons, and hippogriffs. The red wizards of Luneira, having gathered much lore on realmspace, believe that this earth island was flown here millenia ago from Coliar and may be the source of the original aearee.
One important factor in keeping this city hidden has been the use of an elaborate illusion covering the bottom and top side of this city to appear covered in whisps of clouds and having a sky blue coloration.
Another thing that I'm wanting to do is BELOW that earth island (which will float above a section of desert inhabited by dog men and nahopaca, but also near the mountains), the red wizards start collecting the slag glass that they're creating from their experiments into trying to learn how to create glassteel. They essentially create a SMALL lake by moving sand, putting down glass chunks with clay, then pushing the sand back over it. They then build a town which is surrounded by concealing rocks and small stretches of illusions effectively working with the concept of mirages.... such that their town just appears to be more desert. This will be the "city on the great glass lake", and it will be inhabited by humans(of primarily mulan, metahel, and nahopaca descent), gnolls, and centaurs who are operating mining concerns in the nearby mountains using dog men as slaves (they may also have captured desert dwarves, short ones, other human ethnicities, etc..., but they try to stick to the dog men as they are little missed).
As another thing, I've got a lot of ideas for fort flame being extremely multi-cultural now (with refugees from transferred bits of Toril), and I plan to have a Thayan enclave there (note, just an enclave, not ruling... they're trading and working with the people there). This enclave was established PRIOR TO the spellplague, with many Mulan and Rashemi refugees from the Thayan civil war basically coming here on the promise of land for the taking. They were seeking a new home, because they'd given up on winning against Szass Tam (and this is where they pushed off FROM to move into other areas just prior to or after the spellplague when they found themselves in Abeir). Using their enclaves, the red wizards traded for raw construction material in Faerun (timber, bricks, nails, tools, weapons, slaves, junk metals, chemicals that would aid building a society, rope, clothing, etc...) and secretly transported it to Fort Flame via a portal. The area around fort flame will essentially become flooded with immigrants from transferred portions of the Chultan peninsula (Samarach, Thindol, and Tashluta so primarily Tashalans, Nimbrese, and Chultans) that were overrun by Abeirans, mulans, rashemi, metahel, etc... and many of those that make it there will die out... but a new society forms. Some of these immigrant peoples will also come to the great glass lake once they earn the trust of the red wizards (picturing the city on the great glass lake to have a population nearing say 30 thousand).
Which kind of leads into another thing. The metahel to the east of the Pasocada Basin. They arrived in Anchorome via a portal unexpectedly (maybe.... still considering), much like those Rus did in Rashemen and other "Illuskan" folk did in the Shaar.... maybe a century prior to 1357 (maybe even less... maybe just 2 generations or so). Is this portal also how the Azuposi suddenly found themselves underground in Anchorome years ago when Masauwu/Skeleton Man guided them to the surface near Michaca? Anyway, the metahel came from an environment with lots of forest and materials, to an environment lacking wood, surrounded by desert, but at least they were on the sea shore when they emerged. What few resources they have go into manufacturing whaling vessels, and they slowly build a society. They had a violent flare up with their neighbors before establishing peace with the Azuposi and learning from them how to survive. Then from those same tunnels (which do they connect all the way back to Esh Alakar via the underdark? Maybe so...) come some red wizards. The red wizards view these folk as similar to their old Rashemi slaves, and in exchange for raw materials they change the lives of these Metahel. Once again, they can build ships. They can expand. They learn of "Fort Flame", and some Metahel travel there for a better life, taking on the role of mercenaries and ship architects. Other Metahel travel south to the Lopango, where they establish the city of New Kensten on the southern shore of Lopango near a volcano with their red wizard allies. Some take up harems of captured slaves, and their population changes appearance somewhat, but they work to keep their core values. Eventually they also travel down to Katashaka as well, where they start to establish their OWN cities on the shoreline separate from the Mulan folk who saved them from a life of drudgery. These cities do allow small Thayan enclaves, for they recognize the value of having magical allies.
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Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 12 Aug 2019 : 16:53:26
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| Oh, and on that flying earth mote.... possibly within it is a sleeping "air dragon" of Coliar... and maybe there is more to those Coliar dragons that make them different. Maybe they have feathers. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 05 Sep 2019 : 20:51:42
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Seethyr,
So, I've been focused on playing with maps to get some ideas up. I've 90% cleaned up the anchorome map and the Maztica map. I'm going to do some more touches then head into Lopango and Katashaka. The advantage to this map is that if you have the original, its easy to delete some forest and put a city or somesuch. Its also very easy to look at a "city" and determine what kind of civilization it is (is it rough buildings? Log Cabins? Tents? Modern City Construction? Something entirely alien? etc...). Also, the use of color can help distinguish something unusual about an area (for instance, around the Abeil cities are a lot of colorful"trees" to represent the colors of flowers, etc...). Also, I can tell like what's a mountain, what's a hill, etc... pretty readily. Is it perfect? No, but I'm learning by doing. Take a look. If you want the original file, I'll send it your way, but its meant for use in campaign cartographer 3 plus, so you would have to have that. I've tried to kind of match up to what you did, but since its done from a different perspective, its obviously different.
Also, to note, the "bigger" the drawing, the less detail it has because the software wasn't really made to do a map the size of half of Toril. As a result, I've made a "big" drawing and a "little drawing". One would be what you'd provide to help layout the world. The other might be something like you might see in a campaign book which is focused on some area.
This is the link to the "Anchorome Overview" drawing exported
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dM1zdcij3QR00uIjGv1JjFHRhKshgUox
Note the disclaimer from the cartographer's guild of Luneira down to the bottom right.
This is the link to the "just fort flame and its nearby environs", which I know I have a lot more residents than you pictured (I'm picturing something like 50 thousand people spread across their countryside from a lot of different groups... flaming fist mercs, metahel, thayan civil war refugees, chultan peninsula refugees, and humanoid slaves). Main point with it, compare the picture of this to the picture of the same area in the other. I had to dink with some settings to make both versions even remotely palatable, and thankfully I have 24 gig of ram on the system, but I'm not sure if the memory issues I was seeing were due to the software or actually running out of memory (I'm thinking the former). Anyway, here's the link.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1go-4Y7JZv26LzLJg1hqHWXeHGvgt8B5p/view?usp=sharing
As discussed previously, my want would be to have this be for all the "undiscovered" realms, and so the main file has all the main continents outside of Faerun/Kara-Tur/Zakhara. Most are simply shapes waiting for additions, but they're all on there in a rough layout corresponding to the Scholar's view of toril picture. I also added Laerakond to it SW of Lopango/Maztica and West of Katashaka. BTW, I know one of the "debates" we candlekeepers have had is "which is Katashaka, the big one sw of Chult or the small one south of Chult. I'm thinking that it might be nice to name the big one "Katashaka" and the small on "East Katashaka" (hey, we have Virginia and West Virginia... north and south Carolina, etc... north and south America, etc....). |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
2067 Posts |
Posted - 05 Sep 2019 : 21:45:48
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Couple random comments.
1) Evermeet is relatively close to Anchorome, whereas it's far from Faerun. What's the implcation of that?
2) There's a reference to a large island in one of the Wyrms of the North articles "near" Evermeet. (Maybe Gaulantyr? Can't remember.) In general, I added a bunch of islands to the last patch of the FR Atlas. If you have that available, you could google the names, and track them down. Some of them might have an association over here.
3) I think Inferno "snacks" somewhere far off via a portal. Would there be the bison feeding grounds of Inferno somewhere?
4) Nimbral and Lantan are not that far off. Does one or the other have a settlement that preceded the Amnians? |
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http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/ |
Edited by - ericlboyd on 05 Sep 2019 21:46:58 |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2019 : 04:52:13
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I've been thinking a LOT about the Aearee, and what kind of story to tell with them. I know we know the aarakocra and the kenku and the owlkin that we created are all (and eventually the Parat'xi parrot folk and Tucati toucan folk and Ibidean stork folk that I want in Katashaka) outcomes from the Aearee. I'm also interested in a vulture folk. I'd also put some varieties of owlbears as their creation. However, we have it that the Aearee weren't necessarily just about feathers. They created wyverns. There's some indications that they may have had involvement with couatls.
But what were the Aearee themselves like? First, let's take a look at the entry in GHotR on creator races that Eric L Boyd wrote up, and see what we can spin from it.
The last entry in the journal records a remarkable find. Far to the north, hovering above an ice-filled bay, Eartharran discovered an apparently abandoned floating city. During a brief exploration of the place with his crew, the captain sketched several examples of the remarkable statuary
they found. From his drawings, it appears that the city must once have been inhabited by a humanoid race with both draconic and avian features—
that is, scales and feathers. The captain openly speculates as to whether the aearee, as he called these creatures, were the descendants of great wyrms who had evolved avian characteristics, or the forebears of both the draconic and the avian races. The captain’s entry ends with a brief note that he and his crew were forced to flee back to their ship to escape a wing of wyrms that had suddenly appeared on the horizon. I can only guess at the fate of Eartharran and his crew, but the discovery of a broken black dragon scale amid the wreckage of the ship suggests that their journey met a violent end.
So, a "floating city" above an ice filled bay in Anchorome. This would very much fit with the idea I was proposing that the Aearee came to Toril from Coliar by somehow piloting their earth islands kind of like a very slow moving spelljammer (it also fits with about a dozen other floating city tropes, but let's continue this idea). Just as a note, what I had been thinking was that the lizardmen of Coliar were from some Sarrukh that created living "islands for travelling through space" by using the bodies of giant Zaratan turtles as their transport medium and somehow making them slow moving through space (noting 5e turns zaratans into elementals, so that may need some work). The Sarrukh invaded Coliar, the Aearee got ahold of their technologies, adapted it to making their earth islands move, and they came to Toril.
So, what are the Aearee like? In the above, it seems to indicated they were humanoid, but with scales AND feathers. So, maybe on Coliar they had already created the aarakocra and those were their main servants (were talking millenia ago, so they could have also have created other races of bird folk that have since died off... or the spelljammer person that visited the world quite simply called all "bird folk" aarakocra. So, back to the Aearee… feathers and scales and "dragonish". We also know that Coliar is a world that has aarakocra and this strange culture of "neutral-leaning" dragons, and that these dragons eventually "fade away" to become "air dragons" or something akin to spirits.
So, what if the "Aearee" were kind of a "mix" unlike the Sarrukh which were all essentially snake men. By that I mean... what if their society was led by dragons and bird folk and half-dragon bird folk. Also, just to embrace 5e ideas, what if dragonborn were from this world (in particular the plumed dragonborn idea wherein they don't have "fins" or "horns" on their head, but rather feathery frills).
This brings me back to an idea I had mentioned a while back and that I'm reminded of again with the release of Netflix's new dark crystal prequel (which go watch it... it has a great vibe for a society that works for Anchorome's spiritual nature). The first thing that grabs me is the LOOK of the Skeksis. They some kind of mix of "dragon"/"dinosaur"/"bird" in their faces that I think works for this. They might even fit the "dark side" of the Aearee (and I see their society as possibly having some split). Hook Horrors kind of have this look, and they should be an Aearee creation maybe. There's also the "nagpa" which was originally from Mystara, but was adapted in 5e in MToF. Interestingly, 5e has the raven queen cursing the Nagpa, so let's look at this curse more closely and see how we can use it.
Looters of Civilization. The curse the Raven Queen placed on the nagpas restricts the ways in which they can acquire new lore and magical power, barring them from any source except for the ruins left behind from fallen civilizations and great calamities . For this reason, nagpas turn their efforts to bringing about such ends, so they can loot the libraries, plunder the vaults, and gather up secrets of arcane lore from the wreckage.[/i]
So, if we say that the Aearee came to Toril because some Sarrukh invaded Coliar, maybe that's because they were coming here to loot Sarrukh knowledge. Secondarily, they may have been interested in the ruins of Esh Alakar and the arcane knowledge of the spellweavers' ruins and that of the Ancients (or they may have been involved in the downfall of the ancients). Thus, maybe a portion of the leadership of the Aearee are wizards who are/were nagpa (or their descendants if they find some way to create children)… noting MToF doesn't state that the Nagpa were shadar-kai wizards... just wizards.... so they could be Aearee who attempted to steal magic from the raven queen.
from MTOF
As the numbers of shadar-kai grew, a consortium of evil wizards among her followers saw an opportunity to siphon off the energy of the shadar-kai for themselves by performing their own self-serving ritual, which would impart to them magical powers beyond those of the greatest elven wizards of legend.[/i]
Finally, since I mentioned the raven queen, and she's noted as having created the kenku in some lore... and since in another thread we were noting lammasu and other Akkadian/babylonian entities involvements possibly with the Aearee... the similarities between the Raven Queen and Ereshkigal are numerous (including their appearance, but also their both being death gods that deal with spirit energies).
Just throwing all that out to see what sticks. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2019 : 05:03:38
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quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
Couple random comments.
1) Evermeet is relatively close to Anchorome, whereas it's far from Faerun. What's the implcation of that?
2) There's a reference to a large island in one of the Wyrms of the North articles "near" Evermeet. (Maybe Gaulantyr? Can't remember.) In general, I added a bunch of islands to the last patch of the FR Atlas. If you have that available, you could google the names, and track them down. Some of them might have an association over here.
3) I think Inferno "snacks" somewhere far off via a portal. Would there be the bison feeding grounds of Inferno somewhere?
4) Nimbral and Lantan are not that far off. Does one or the other have a settlement that preceded the Amnians?
Yay... Eric posts, so hopefully some food for thought. Let me feed a little into some of these.
Evermeet being very close is something that I have noted, and also its interesting because I think its in gold and glory that it states that the elves of evermeet provide liasons to the Poscadari elves, but they can't seem to talk. I've taken this a step further, since translation magics are easy.... what if the Poscadari are outcasts from so long ago that the evermeet elves have forgotten a high magic curse. I took the idea further based on one of AJA's NPC entries that involved a human and an elven princess being exiled to Anchorome here
http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=22581&whichpage=5
If you have any kind of listing of actual canon islands off anchorome, I'd love it, because I'm literally just throwing up the base islands shown from the scholar's view, but I know Ed pictures a LOT if islands.
On Inferno... I'm assuming a dragon? It should be clicking, but its not. Seethyr setup an area in the middle of the continent that has essentially a lot of "giant"/"dire" versions of normal animals (a sabertooth cat or a giant beaver/raccoon/moose etc...). Its called the One of the things that I'm loving on this is that there are giant salmon, and I have a nearby community of bear folk... so that just kind of fell together that they'd love catching giant salmon. I picture sabertooth cats hunting giant rats here.
On Nimbral and Lantan, both disappeared during the spellplague and are now back. I don't think they've canonically had involvement with anchorome any more than say the northmen of the moonshaes. However, I would anticipate that while they were on Abeir that they DID, so any spins we can do there are appreciated.
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Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
Edited by - sleyvas on 06 Sep 2019 05:13:47 |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2019 : 05:30:36
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Oh, also in the above entry from Eric's GHotR entry, it mentions a black dragon scale. I'm intrigued with the idea of gem dragons and Sardior being involved possibly with the Aearee, and it might be that this "black dragon scale" is a scale from an obsidian dragon. There apparently was some falling out between Sardior and the obsidian dragons due to their Thane (Seradess) according to this article.
http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20030124a
Also, Sardior is noted as having a flying earth island in orbit... so you can see why I find him interesting. He's also got links to Jazirian and the djiin.
from the previous link.
Sardior's demesne was a huge floating castle named the Ruby Palace,[5][6][3] which orbited the world and always lay in the shadows from the sun. On the nights it was seen, viewers often mistook it for a small red moon.[1]
Periodically, Sardior moved his fortress through the planes, visiting the djinni Citadel of Ice and Steel,[4] and Uroboros, the realm of Jazirian |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Barastir
Master of Realmslore
Brazil
1600 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2019 : 13:56:01
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Eric means Inferno (Imvaernarhro) of the Star Mounts, the great red dragon detailed on "Power of Faerûn".  |
"Goodness is not a natural state, but must be
fought for to be attained and maintained.
Lead by example.
Let your deeds speak your intentions.
Goodness radiated from the heart."
The Paladin's Virtues, excerpt from the "Quentin's Monograph"
(by Ed Greenwood) |
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Storyteller Hero
Learned Scribe
USA
329 Posts |
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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
2067 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2019 : 18:34:08
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quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
2) There's a reference to a large island in one of the Wyrms of the North articles "near" Evermeet. (Maybe Gaulantyr? Can't remember.) In general, I added a bunch of islands to the last patch of the FR Atlas. If you have that available, you could google the names, and track them down. Some of them might have an association over here.
Found it in the write-up of Tostyn Alaerthmaugh.
http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/wn/20040128a
Tostyn is also detailed in Dragons of Faerun, page 40-42, but the reference to his mom's island is in the link above and the original Dragon article.
I think there are others in some obscure sources. Does anyone have FR Interactive Atlas available with Patch #3 applied? Could you look for named islands around Evermeet?
--Eric
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http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/ |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2019 : 20:12:04
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quote:
Originally posted by Storyteller Hero
On Evermeet, IIRC, there are animal deities worshipped by the green elves - Bear, Eagle, Raven, and Wolf - these were apparently based on the American Indian mythology section of the Legends & Lore sourcebook.
There might also be a lot of green elves on Anchorome, with varying levels of civilization.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Wild_elf
Racially they are different than green elves, in that they're known for being not shorter, but actually taller than humans. They're also noted as having come south from a place of ice and snow centuries before to a land of plenty. Basically, they sound like the snow elves from 2e (which the product is a 2e product), but that they've come south in Anchorome. The deity of those snow elves it outcast from the Seldarine. It may be that some of them began to follow Fenmarel Mestarine (who is also somewhat of an outcast god). Now, whether they actually came here from a portal to another world or plane, another continent on Toril, or simply the far north of anchorome is unknown.
Where I would take it to use the concept presented in AJA's entry would be that there's the snow elves and there's this Evermeet princess and her human lover who went into exile in Anchorome. They were cursed by the Evermeet high mages. Perhaps they met up with a tribe of snow elves and integrated with them. Their children intermarried with the snow elves. Maybe they bring with them knowledge of the "outcast" deity Fenmarel Mestarine. Maybe over time the blood of the Evermeet princess leads a portion of their people south into Pasocada basin of Anchorome. Meanwhile there are still snow elves in the north.
I would also recommend some Aearee involvement with elves (but not necessarily THOSE elves). I'd recommend they create the avariels. Also, given the changes to Shadar Kai in 5e and their intermixing of them with the Raven Queen, it could be interesting to have the Underdark of Anchorome having the equivalent of Mystaran "Shadow Elves".
If involving "fey" and "shadows", it COULD also be interesting to involve the "ellefolk" who were held in the plane of shadow (and some of whom went on to become the Arak of Ravenloft… "shadow elves" of Ravenloft). I'm personally making the "elves" on the moon be these beings, and they worship Leira because it was Leira who helped them escape from the plane of shadow (and they call themselves "elves" to anyone who will listen because that's a lie). So, perhaps in some of the woods, there might be small pockets of these. That being said,if might be better to put these "fey" (the ellefolk and/or the shadar-kai) on somewhere nearby, but not anchorome (for instance, that island/continent off to the west that we've tentatively named Myrmidune in some candlekeep compendium articles). If the "northmen"/metahel came from there as well, they could serve as the "elves of alfheim and svartalfheim" for their cultures instead of regular elves and drow, much as how I'd like for them to have beings kind of like fire and frost giants.... but visually different from standard fire and frost giants (i.e. fire giants looking like red skinned large Indians/native americans and called "Pyre Giants"... and use obsidian weapons, etc...... and who are possibly split into different groups because some are known to be cannibalistic or something..... and frost giants (aka Rime Giants) who are "horned and known to others in anchorome as "the Chenoo"... see Seethyr's bestiary.... and which may be spirits of those who died of starvation when "the sun disappeared millenia ago"). |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
Edited by - sleyvas on 06 Sep 2019 20:14:20 |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2019 : 20:15:34
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quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
2) There's a reference to a large island in one of the Wyrms of the North articles "near" Evermeet. (Maybe Gaulantyr? Can't remember.) In general, I added a bunch of islands to the last patch of the FR Atlas. If you have that available, you could google the names, and track them down. Some of them might have an association over here.
Found it in the write-up of Tostyn Alaerthmaugh.
http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/wn/20040128a
Tostyn is also detailed in Dragons of Faerun, page 40-42, but the reference to his mom's island is in the link above and the original Dragon article.
I think there are others in some obscure sources. Does anyone have FR Interactive Atlas available with Patch #3 applied? Could you look for named islands around Evermeet?
--Eric
Thanks, I still have the original cd somewhere, but where do you get the patches? |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Seethyr
Master of Realmslore
USA
1151 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2019 : 20:18:31
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Lol, there is so much I want to respond to here, I am going to have to break it up into manageable chunks. Hope that scrolling through 15 pages of response doesn't aggravate you all...
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
I know you're not big on the idea of red wizards in the area, but I do want to put red wizard in Esh Alakar. However, as discussed, I also want it to be that they've only say delved a portion of this "super dungeon" (like maybe 5%, but that 5% opened onto OTHER ideas). They have established themselves in this portion and made it safe to inhabit for themselves.
I think this is actually a great spot to get them involved. If it is a megadungeon with an Undermountain vibe, of course there is going to be all sorts of oddballs involved in it. I mean, Undermountain has a spelljamming ship in it!
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
What else have these red wizards done? Well, this section of Esh Alakar had a portal. This portal opened onto an old spell weaver port up in the top of some mountains (these mountains being roughly to the east of the Pasocada Basin on the other side of a section of desert). So, what type of port would be up in the top of some mountains? Well, a sky port of course. Much like how the netherese sought to delve the stars, so did the spell weavers of Esh Alakar. However, they didn't have spelljamming helms. They had something of their own design, and which after a millenia or two.... quit working.
This makes me want to really wait for something official concerning spelljamming to arrive before I really tackle Esh Alakar. Sure, I might have to become a lich to live long enough to see that happen, but I am hopeful. What would be worse is to write up something crucial to consistent lore and have it overwritten not long afterward. That is exactly what happened to me with the Maztica Campaign Guide and the race of tabaxi who were released only months afterward in one of the 5e products.
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
But the SHIPS were made from glassteel, and the ships survived. What kind of ships then? Well, they don't necessarily resemble modern "naval vessels". They're more like flat topped submarines with "oars" attached on each side and the capability to raise up masts for sails. At the back is a large "tail fin" like a mix of fish and dolphin with a set of 4 flukes that can either go side to side or up and down. The top deck also has a glassteel "shields" that can be raised over it if the masts are down to make the ship more resemble a submarine (a clear see through submarine). Anyway, the red wizards find this place with ….. let's go with 20 ships.... still intact. However, NONE of the ships have any kind of motive power. The oars don't work anymore, neither does the tail fin, and they don't have any lift for transporting into wildspace or even the sky. But, the red wizards are nothing if not interested, and they adapt technologies of anchorome. They develop "plumafeather sails" that can be attached to the ships and allow them to ride the air after learning of this art from an enclave of theirs down in Lopango. The ships are slow and of little use for transport beyond Toril and its moons, but that's big enough for what I want to do. They also develop magics to work he oars and tail fins as if they are constructs, and they discover the ability to invade the nearby oceans to a degree. They also develop an extreme interest in glassteel, and they spend the next century trying to unravel the art of making this material while in Abeir using sand from the nearby desert. Which leads into the next piece.
While rereading Gray Richardson’s work on the aearee, I’ve tried to draw some conclusions that they are the ones responsible for the “invention” of glassteel, stemming from their time under batrachi rule. I’ll keep you updated on this, but it could connect here. The Ancient Ones are also involved, having allied with the aearee at some point.
I have placed the “empire” of the Ancient Ones in the Pasocada Basin circa -31,000 DR, right around the time of the aearee. I’m really excited to show you the lore from the new book.
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
In flying the skies, they discover something very interesting. You know how the moon has an illusion which hides its surface activities from the people on Toril? Well, it appears that there's an "earth mote" that resembles an "earth island" from the planet of Coliar that's very near to that spellweaver sky port (almost like it descended into said area due to conflict? Maybe so?). However, its hidden by illusion from the top and bottom and can only be seen from the sides (i.e. by someone flying in the area). This would seem to hint that the aearee either had spelljamming technology of their own and travelled TO Coliar or that the original Aearee actually came to Toril FROM COLIAR. So, my personal favorite at this moment is that they came FROM Coliar to Toril after Sarrukh started investigating Coliar with their lizard men. The red wizards discover this small "earth island" and also discover that the Aearee who were on it have been gone a long time. Also, several OTHER cultures have apparently also found it in the past. Here's what I've written up so far <snip>
I love all this and the lore that follows it. I am going to take it a tad easy on the SJ stuff for the reasons outlined earlier, but it might be a good time to start dropping some hints.
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
Another thing that I'm wanting to do is BELOW that earth island (which will float above a section of desert inhabited by dog men and nahopaca, but also near the mountains), the red wizards start collecting the slag glass that they're creating from their experiments into trying to learn how to create glassteel. They essentially create a SMALL lake by moving sand, putting down glass chunks with clay, then pushing the sand back over it. They then build a town which is surrounded by concealing rocks and small stretches of illusions effectively working with the concept of mirages.... such that their town just appears to be more desert. This will be the "city on the great glass lake", and it will be inhabited by humans(of primarily mulan, metahel, and nahopaca descent), gnolls, and centaurs who are operating mining concerns in the nearby mountains using dog men as slaves (they may also have captured desert dwarves, short ones, other human ethnicities, etc..., but they try to stick to the dog men as they are little missed).
I’m officially coming around to seeing the Red Wizards have a bit of a presence, even though I am doing my best to disconnect Anchorome from the greater realms. My reason behind that has always been so that I don’t step on “official” toes and lore again (like the tabaxi).
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
As another thing, I've got a lot of ideas for fort flame being extremely multi-cultural now (with refugees from transferred bits of Toril), and I plan to have a Thayan enclave there (note, just an enclave, not ruling... they're trading and working with the people there). This enclave was established PRIOR TO the spellplague, with many Mulan and Rashemi refugees from the Thayan civil war basically coming here on the promise of land for the taking. They were seeking a new home, because they'd given up on winning against Szass Tam (and this is where they pushed off FROM to move into other areas just prior to or after the spellplague when they found themselves in Abeir). Using their enclaves, the red wizards traded for raw construction material in Faerun (timber, bricks, nails, tools, weapons, slaves, junk metals, chemicals that would aid building a society, rope, clothing, etc...) and secretly transported it to Fort Flame via a portal. The area around fort flame will essentially become flooded with immigrants from transferred portions of the Chultan peninsula (Samarach, Thindol, and Tashluta so primarily Tashalans, Nimbrese, and Chultans) that were overrun by Abeirans, mulans, rashemi, metahel, etc... and many of those that make it there will die out... but a new society forms. Some of these immigrant peoples will also come to the great glass lake once they earn the trust of the red wizards (picturing the city on the great glass lake to have a population nearing say 30 thousand).
Future metropolis perhaps? The Waterdeep of the west? It might head there. I always thought the influx of bizarre dragonborn and the threat from the sahuagin nearby was enough story fodder for Fort Flame, but this certainly works.
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
Which kind of leads into another thing. The metahel to the east of the Pasocada Basin. They arrived in Anchorome via a portal unexpectedly (maybe.... still considering), much like those Rus did in Rashemen and other "Illuskan" folk did in the Shaar.... maybe a century prior to 1357 (maybe even less... maybe just 2 generations or so).
Do you mean the same Metahel that are found in the south or is this a “second wave?” Oh and related to this – I read, I believe in that original version of the GHotR, that the Illuskans were originally from Anchorome. If I can find the reference I’ll pass it on, but look how well that fits in.
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
Is this portal also how the Azuposi suddenly found themselves underground in Anchorome years ago when Masauwu/Skeleton Man guided them to the surface near Michaca?
The Azuposi (and this is personal lore expanded from City of Gold) existed belowground for generations. Perhaps they were avoiding the sarrukh or even early batrachi. I am not sure if they came through a portal or not, but I think it more likely they just traveled through the Underdark from as far as Wa.
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
Anyway, the metahel came from an environment with lots of forest and materials, to an environment lacking wood, surrounded by desert, but at least they were on the sea shore when they emerged. What few resources they have go into manufacturing whaling vessels, and they slowly build a society. They had a violent flare up with their neighbors before establishing peace with the Azuposi and learning from them how to survive. Then from those same tunnels (which do they connect all the way back to Esh Alakar via the underdark? Maybe so...) come some red wizards.
I have to check FMQ1, but I believe the Metahel came by sea.
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
The red wizards view these folk as similar to their old Rashemi slaves, and in exchange for raw materials they change the lives of these Metahel. Once again, they can build ships. They can expand. They learn of "Fort Flame", and some Metahel travel there for a better life, taking on the role of mercenaries and ship architects. Other Metahel travel south to the Lopango, where they establish the city of New Kensten on the southern shore of Lopango near a volcano with their red wizard allies. Some take up harems of captured slaves, and their population changes appearance somewhat, but they work to keep their core values. Eventually they also travel down to Katashaka as well, where they start to establish their OWN cities on the shoreline separate from the Mulan folk who saved them from a life of drudgery. These cities do allow small Thayan enclaves, for they recognize the value of having magical allies.
That’s a lot of Red Wizard involvement in this part of the world for me, but your logic is definitely sound as far as it looks.
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
Oh, and on that flying earth mote.... possibly within it is a sleeping "air dragon" of Coliar... and maybe there is more to those Coliar dragons that make them different. Maybe they have feathers.
That is really cool, I would love to have a good aearee/aarakocra connection to Coliar expanded upon.
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
Seethyr,
So, I've been focused on playing with maps to get some ideas up. I've 90% cleaned up the anchorome map and the Maztica map. I'm going to do some more touches then head into Lopango and Katashaka. The advantage to this map is that if you have the original, its easy to delete some forest and put a city or somesuch. Its also very easy to look at a "city" and determine what kind of civilization it is (is it rough buildings? Log Cabins? Tents? Modern City Construction? Something entirely alien? etc...). Also, the use of color can help distinguish something unusual about an area (for instance, around the Abeil cities are a lot of colorful"trees" to represent the colors of flowers, etc...). Also, I can tell like what's a mountain, what's a hill, etc... pretty readily. Is it perfect? No, but I'm learning by doing. Take a look. If you want the original file, I'll send it your way, but its meant for use in campaign cartographer 3 plus, so you would have to have that. I've tried to kind of match up to what you did, but since its done from a different perspective, its obviously different.
Also, to note, the "bigger" the drawing, the less detail it has because the software wasn't really made to do a map the size of half of Toril. As a result, I've made a "big" drawing and a "little drawing". One would be what you'd provide to help layout the world. The other might be something like you might see in a campaign book which is focused on some area.
This is the link to the "Anchorome Overview" drawing exported
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dM1zdcij3QR00uIjGv1JjFHRhKshgUox
Note the disclaimer from the cartographer's guild of Luneira down to the bottom right.
This is the link to the "just fort flame and its nearby environs", which I know I have a lot more residents than you pictured (I'm picturing something like 50 thousand people spread across their countryside from a lot of different groups... flaming fist mercs, metahel, thayan civil war refugees, chultan peninsula refugees, and humanoid slaves). Main point with it, compare the picture of this to the picture of the same area in the other. I had to dink with some settings to make both versions even remotely palatable, and thankfully I have 24 gig of ram on the system, but I'm not sure if the memory issues I was seeing were due to the software or actually running out of memory (I'm thinking the former). Anyway, here's the link.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1go-4Y7JZv26LzLJg1hqHWXeHGvgt8B5p/view?usp=sharing
As discussed previously, my want would be to have this be for all the "undiscovered" realms, and so the main file has all the main continents outside of Faerun/Kara-Tur/Zakhara. Most are simply shapes waiting for additions, but they're all on there in a rough layout corresponding to the Scholar's view of toril picture. I also added Laerakond to it SW of Lopango/Maztica and West of Katashaka. BTW, I know one of the "debates" we candlekeepers have had is "which is Katashaka, the big one sw of Chult or the small one south of Chult. I'm thinking that it might be nice to name the big one "Katashaka" and the small on "East Katashaka" (hey, we have Virginia and West Virginia... north and south Carolina, etc... north and south America, etc....).
OH MY, this map of Anchorome is gorgeous! Let’s talk about it more via email if you don’t mind. I’d like to coordinate a bit better.
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Seethyr
Master of Realmslore
USA
1151 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2019 : 20:28:27
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quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
1) Evermeet is relatively close to Anchorome, whereas it's far from Faerun. What's the implcation of that?
Hrmm, the obvious would be that they might have some connection to the Poscadari elves. However, I believe the Poscadari elves have come from the frozen north according to FMQ1. So perhaps interactions would not have to have occurred long after the Poscadari established themselves in Anchorome. And to what effect? Perhaps now is the time its happening?
quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
2) There's a reference to a large island in one of the Wyrms of the North articles "near" Evermeet. (Maybe Gaulantyr? Can't remember.) In general, I added a bunch of islands to the last patch of the FR Atlas. If you have that available, you could google the names, and track them down. Some of them might have an association over here.
3) I think Inferno "snacks" somewhere far off via a portal. Would there be the bison feeding grounds of Inferno somewhere?
There is a ton to explore when thinking about Anchorome and dragons – I’m worried as much about the dragons of Abeir during the 100 year exile too. But yeah, tons of open space, uninhabited islands – its fertile dragon stomping grounds for certain.
quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
4) Nimbral and Lantan are not that far off. Does one or the other have a settlement that preceded the Amnians?
Sometimes I forget what has come from my own personal fanon versus canonica material, but weren’t the aearee or aarakocra big time users of glassteel? And doesn’t Nimbral have “glass armored” and flying knights? This would make perfect sense if so.
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Seethyr
Master of Realmslore
USA
1151 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2019 : 20:33:34
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quote:
Originally posted by Storyteller Hero
On Evermeet, IIRC, there are animal deities worshipped by the green elves - Bear, Eagle, Raven, and Wolf - these were apparently based on the American Indian mythology section of the Legends & Lore sourcebook.
There might also be a lot of green elves on Anchorome, with varying levels of civilization.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Wild_elf
I've always thought of these as Animal Lords who have gained some worshipers. Particularly in 5e, it seems as if almost any type of powerful patron can grant powers (such as to warlocks) so Animal Lords would likely garner a following in some locales. |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2019 : 20:54:59
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quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
2) There's a reference to a large island in one of the Wyrms of the North articles "near" Evermeet. (Maybe Gaulantyr? Can't remember.) In general, I added a bunch of islands to the last patch of the FR Atlas. If you have that available, you could google the names, and track them down. Some of them might have an association over here.
Found it in the write-up of Tostyn Alaerthmaugh.
http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/wn/20040128a
Tostyn is also detailed in Dragons of Faerun, page 40-42, but the reference to his mom's island is in the link above and the original Dragon article.
I think there are others in some obscure sources. Does anyone have FR Interactive Atlas available with Patch #3 applied? Could you look for named islands around Evermeet?
--Eric
Thanks Eric. So, no name to the island but that its "southwest" of Evermeet. This island should have a lot of "mercury dragons", which is his type (so, mirror like silver skin). Also, something in that article (a reference to him using the "glass armor like the Nimbraii people use") brings me back to something you mentioned with the idea of Anchorome and Nimbral possibly having involvement. While I don't see Nimbral having any canon travelling TO anchorome..... where did the "elves" who were already on Nimbral when the Halruaan exiles arrived come from?
To take that Nimbral idea further.... Nimbral's one of the few places noted to have glassteel. One of the big ideas we've been pursuing is the idea that glassteel is a lot less uncommon in Anchorome compared to Faerun. Perhaps these "elves" of Nimbral had this knowledge because they came from Anchorome? Perhaps the pegasi of Nimbral were bred/created with Aeree magic from horses?
from the article stating that the the mercury dragon came from some islands southwest of Evermeet.
He's the boldest of an overlarge brood of dragons birthed by the gigantic, venerable mercury dragon Thmaughra, on a huge island far to the southwest of Evermeet. Thmaughra's brood soon proved too large for the wild beasts of the isle to sustain. (The island has few metallic ores and has been grazed heavily by generations of dragons, until forage for only a half-dozen or so was left.) So Tostyn (his surname means "son of Thmaughra" or, literally, "Acknowledged hatchling of many in not the first brood of Thmaughra, male of her blood"), the most bored of the brood, took wing eastward in search of new lands to explore. The way was long, and he would probably have perished by drowning after becoming too weak to fly, but he caught a favorable storm wind and rode it for many, many leagues. He then chanced upon a large, abandoned ship drifting on the waves and rested atop it until he was ready to fly on. Chance brought him to Ruathym and then ashore south of Neverwinter, where he roamed the North until he stumbled upon possibly the best lair any wyrm of the North can boast.
from the History of Nimbral, part one by Ed Greenwood... we have that these elves are "moon elves".... but perhaps that's a phrasing thing... as in elves from the moon... and if those "elves" are ellefolk, then perhaps they are the "ellefolk" who are on the moon and worship Leira (since Nimbral is one of the few countries involved with spelljammers). The island may also be a mix of these, including standard moon elves as well.
The history of Nimbral remains sketchy at best, but moon elves colonized this forested island of wild beasts long ago, and they later welcomed humans from Halruaa who (unlike the majority of folk in that wizard-ruled realm) worshiped Leira, goddess of illusions. Intermarriages between the races became common. Those elves who had no wish to live so closely with humans gradually departed, until almost no pureblood elves remained. No record of strife exists between elf and human inhabitants of Nimbral, perhaps because neither racial group has ever been so sufficiently numerous as to overcrowd the island. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2019 : 21:25:04
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On the red wizards involvements in the areas, I'm toning it back a lot, but it will still be widespread. For instance, in Lopango I went overboard and had something like 12 cities (most would be small like 5-10k people). However, I'm drastically reducing these numbers so that Lopango might have 3 cities (New Kensten and 2 more that are smaller). The red wizards of Lopango will also be "going native", in that they're less worried about racial purity... which disgusted some red wizards who then moved down into Katashaka. Oh, and the ancestors of Halloran (the mercenary in the Maztica stories) know that he came from another land where he learned magic from.... the red wizards... and so these Mazticans of Tukan may willingly get involved with the red wizards (especially if they arrive after Halloran's death, but knowing who he had been, since he was an ex-red wizard's apprentice). Similarly, down in Katashaka, they'll have two cities in the "tharch of the Western Pridelands", but a bunch of SMALL enclaves in several METAHEL cities that the METAHEL establish. So, the red wizard INFLUENCE is seen, but its more the metahel expanding in those areas. The big growth will be the red wizards in the northeastern Katashaka in the "tharch of New Eltabbar", which will be in a plateau captured from some leonine humanoids.
The other "red wizard" areas that I want to pursue are the netherese enclave of "doubloon" that's had a weak spelljamming helm attached and is in orbit.… and is renamed the Tharch of Luneira. So, again basically a "city sized" tharch, but one that has flying ships, and pegasi with rainbow wings and unicorns with rainbow horns.... all with the Zulkir of Illusion, Mythrell'aa (who faked her death) ruling the tharch as tharchion and giving the place a "wholesome" look via illusion (the idea being that she believes the red wizards need to rule not by spreading fear, but rather making enemies let down their guard and "trust them"). Then there's the red wizards in the "tharch of Peleveran" which will basically encompass the city of Peleverai and some very near environs... and a city build on the edge of the land rise (the premise here being that the Shaar was "believed" to have collapsed but actually transferred to Abeir as well). They also have some involvement in the small islands off Osse, but that will be more as a "trade enclave" in which the red wizards of Luneira are trading with the natives for food in return for help protecting them from the dangers of Abeir and helping them improve their crop yields with weather magics, etc....
Oh, and I totally get your aversion to delving into spelljamming "rules". My intention with including this stuff is to basically do some of what they themselves have done and go "rules light"/"idea heavy". So, I can have the city of Luneira using "spelljammers" and/or "flying ships" … and we really don't HAVE to break out the rules. Just let it be known that they can use these devices to travel from the surface of Toril to the tharch of Luneira… or another tear of Selune, or the moon itself. I don't intend to have them having been traversing the crystal sphere, because for these last century, all of these things (Luneira, Katashaka, etc....) have been over in Abeir. They've only recently returned to Toril (and the "United Tharchs of Toril" were just a loose collection of Mulan refugees. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
2067 Posts |
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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
2067 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2019 : 22:10:49
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quote:
Originally posted by Seethyr
quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
1) Evermeet is relatively close to Anchorome, whereas it's far from Faerun. What's the implcation of that?
Hrmm, the obvious would be that they might have some connection to the Poscadari elves. However, I believe the Poscadari elves have come from the frozen north according to FMQ1. So perhaps interactions would not have to have occurred long after the Poscadari established themselves in Anchorome. And to what effect? Perhaps now is the time its happening?
I was thinking more directly, perhaps Evermeet's citizenry is regularly sailing or flying to Anchorome and influencing events. Unlike Faerun, where the wisest course of action is to "vanish into the mists", perhaps Anchorome is close enough that they feel the need to meddle on the eastern coast. Extensively. |
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http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/ |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 07 Sep 2019 : 00:05:40
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Oh, and regarding the map... I know you're only doing Anchorome/Maztica/Lopango, but for the Metahel I'm interested in looking at Myrmidune, Aurune, and that other place north of Anchorome. Not sure WHAT exactly to do, but I'm obviously interested in the Metahel/Northmen/Illuskans/Raumathar/Rus links (and the utter east which has similar influences). This map however has a huge space on it that I'm not actually looking to fill (Osse), but that I'm interested in just looking at it from the cursory edges. Below is just a basic view of what that looks like (oh, and the kind of kidney bean shaped island/continent midway between Osse and Kara-Tur is intentionally the size a shape of Jakandor… which is a 2e campaign setting that revolves around a somewhat northmen meets indian meets celtic group that is on their boats and then suddenly a storm hits and they find themselves..... somewhere else... and they land on this island and build a society where there's also a magical society that ends up being their enemies that are from the island. I'm literally not developing it.... I'm not putting the name to it... I'm leaving it out there. But for those wondering "what the hell is that".... well now you know.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A9shGHJzNCBviJXP6UENa3HAvt-hL1vI/view?usp=sharing |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 07 Sep 2019 : 05:44:23
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On the idea of the metahel arriving via portal or arriving via ship. My original thoughts had been similar to yours, that they arrived via ship. I literally this week came upon this idea that they might have arrived by accident (and as I stated above, I'm not sold upon it.... this is a sounding board attempt to see if maybe its worth a build). Its worth looking at what we know of the metahel officially, so I'm going to paste what we know with some emphasis.
Metahel - These tribes live along the lower reaches of the Pasocada River and the shores of the Western Ocean. They are extraordinary fishermen and, on the ocean coast, whalers.They emigrated to this region from the northwest several centuries ago. Their language is, quite different from the other local tribes'. When they first arrived, the Metahel fought with the Azuposi. Peaceful coexistence has since been established. The Azuposi remain above Raven Falls, the Metahel below.
Trade and cultural exchange between the nations is brisk. In their distant ancestral homeland, the Metahel built long lodges out of trees. Here mud and stone are more plentiful building materials. The Metahel have learned much about Azuposi architecture; in fact, the community of Lomaraj resembles an Azuposi pueblo. In exchange for Azuposi wisdom, turquoise, and grain, the Metabel provide the bounty of the sea, including shells, mussels, dried fish, and whale oil for lamps
So, the natural reading is that they migrated from the northwest, so they must have done so via ship. However, it doesn't explicitly state that. But there's also no discussion of them still working with their homeland, and if they HAD come here from there.... why aren't they still interacting with home. Now, there COULD be some really good explanations for that, but at the same time..... we already have this ready built thing in the realms where these northmen just seem to be popping in using some already build portal network. If they knew enough about navigation by star, and they arrived via some portal that's buried down IN the earth.... it could make sense that a large number of them arrived (because somewhere they're sending large numbers of people through at a time and only rarely does it malfunction and send them somewhere wrong). This is where I'm thinking we could establish that this is some world spanning portal network that's from back in the day of the elves or the great creator races or even the Imaskari (for all we know the Imaskari had communities around the globe).
So, it may be that these "northmen" had some kind of "constant on" pair of cities connected by gate (not unheard of, they had the same thing connecting the Shaar and Ashanath with the paired city of Shandaular), and for a day it "went on the fritz".... and started sending everyone out a portal that opend up within the underdark dungeon complex that connects back to Esh Alakar (maybe miles away, but still connecting). These people come out from the tunnels, find themselves somewhere new... barely know where they are... find some natives and assume "they did this" and attack, or simply attack because they are hungry and need shelter.... and essentially settle down to live once they realize that the Azuposi might be their only friends left in the world. They don't have a lot of wood with which to build ships, and transporting wood from the lands to the north becomes an issue. Oh, btw, in drawing out the map, it occurred to me that perhaps the metahel LIVE along the border of the ocean that they see on the map, but that perhaps they often traverse northward into those hills and mountains north/northwest of the Pasocada basin and directly south of the lands of the insect men. I'm picturing them going into this area to hunt deer, gather stone, and maybe even culturally the metahel have been saving Azuposi butt for a while because THEY have been venturing into the land of the insect men and killing the bloody bastards. Maybe the metahel have even been using thri-kreen carapaces to "make" things like weapons and armor since they don't have metal. Also, the metahel I want them to have some kind of spell that enhances "horn" like how druids had some spell that could temporarily make wood strong as steel. They might have something that turns horn sharper, etc... and it might be a bit of hishna craft even. I'm picturing them having a lot of weapons that are basically made from bits of antlers (at least the metahel that stay in Anchorome... not necessarily the ones that go south in Lopango and Katashaka… and some may go northwest to try and find their ancestral home as well).
In this concept of the metahel arriving via portal (which again, tell me if this sounds good.... I may be enamoured with my own thoughts), I think we have a kernel by which we can ALSO have the Azuposi arriving centuries before via some similar means... and possibly even the other cultures such as the Mazticans that go to the south... this world spanning portal network may have basically foot holds in Kara-Tur's northern wastes, in the islands where the "northmen" come from, in the Shaar, in Ashanath…. and maybe other areas like Raumathar, down in the utter east, in the moonshaes where the elves migrated from south of Waterdeep, etc... Who built this portal network? For what purpose? That's an idea worth exploring, but obviously someone did, and its been periodically "glitching" over at least the past 2 millenia. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
Edited by - sleyvas on 07 Sep 2019 06:16:04 |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 07 Sep 2019 : 06:04:35
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quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
quote:
Originally posted by Seethyr
quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
1) Evermeet is relatively close to Anchorome, whereas it's far from Faerun. What's the implcation of that?
Hrmm, the obvious would be that they might have some connection to the Poscadari elves. However, I believe the Poscadari elves have come from the frozen north according to FMQ1. So perhaps interactions would not have to have occurred long after the Poscadari established themselves in Anchorome. And to what effect? Perhaps now is the time its happening?
I was thinking more directly, perhaps Evermeet's citizenry is regularly sailing or flying to Anchorome and influencing events. Unlike Faerun, where the wisest course of action is to "vanish into the mists", perhaps Anchorome is close enough that they feel the need to meddle on the eastern coast. Extensively.
I definitely see them being interested in doing so NOW, and I can see your point to a degree... why weren't they doing so before. But then again, they came to Evermeet to retreat from the world at large. It might not behoove them to basically piss off a neighbor that's relatively close by. So, it may have been a case of simply... let me stick my head in the ground and hope they don't come in my direction????(that's actually me wondering if that sounds feasible).
Also, I want to throw out something ELSE before I forget this idea. We're positing that the avariel are an Aearee creation. We're also positing a link between the Aearee and the dragons. Later the dragons rule over the elves, but its the AVARIELS that are heavily involved with creating the high magic ritual that infects the "king killer star". I'm going to go out on a limb here and throw out there. What if the king killer star isn't just some random comet moving around? What if it TOO is some earth island from Coliar, and it was inhabited by avariel who overthrew their Aearee masters. What if the "mechanism" that was used to "fly" this earth island was jeopardized via this rebellion, and thus its been "stuck" in some cyclic pattern of movement in the heavens.
Oh, and Seethyr, going back to your worries about developing "rules" for a lot of this stuff along spelljamming lines.... if it makes you feel better, some of these things won't be using standard helms that even remotely are like arcane helms. For instance, the Thayans are CANONICALLY known for having developed their own helm type in a relatively short span of time (see the Quad of Thay, which uses a helm that works by linking with the ethereal... and doesn't work outside a crystal sphere). What the ancient Sarrukh, Aearee, Spellweavers, etc... may have developed may have entirely DIFFERENT rules for how they work... and changes in the universe may have also have made them quit working over time. They may have been extremely slow in comparison. They may have been able to move much larger tonnages however. They may have even have had some kind of built in life support, in that perhaps they produced air and possibly even other weather effects like rain. It might have taken a hundred years to travel from Toril to Coliar, but with whole generations growing crops and living on the transport medium they used. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 07 Sep 2019 : 10:55:20
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| oh, another thing. Your campaign guide proposed barbarians of the coyote totem, so swapped out that extra desert area just northeast of the Pasocada basin on that map and put a Minninewah tribal area of the coyote people (I also put a tribal area of the wolf people just outside the Pagunkee Wood). Anyway, I mention it because all throughout the city of gold original product, you can have random encounters with "coyotlwere" which it says are the same thing as jackalweres. I personally wonder if it would be better to have them be lyncanthropes, or better to have them gain the ability to wildshape into coyotes like hengeyokai (maybe amongst the minnenewah there are periodically born humans with the ability to change into their spirit beast.… kind of like a "psionic wild talent", but instead a "primal wild talent".... maybe this should be a thing amongst all the Minnenewah and its not necessarily always the most powerful person that gets it....) |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 07 Sep 2019 : 15:28:37
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Ok, so back to the drawing board of the map and where other things might be. Since we can now visualize the general layout of things, here's what I'm thinking. Let me know how you think it might be done. While I get that we may want to take some of this to private conversation, at the same time, I kind of think its a good idea to share these ideas with our fellow candlekeepers and see what they think of putting twists on things (btw, Eric... PLEASE keep talking... I really value yours and Krash's and other sages input on these types of things).
Top Northwestern Adusgi Forest - So, in that area where you just see a single mountain and a little river headed south, but going from there until you hit the top of the forest and the sides until it gets to the clearing on the west and the great timberspires to the east. civilization of tiny Kercpa, but HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of them (for readers shaking their head and going... Kercpa… tiny squirrel folk). They live in the tops of their trees. Also, these aren't the STANDARD kercpa. They were experimented on by the Aearee and made into flying squirrels (as in they can GLIDE with skin flaps between their fore and aft feet). So, picture a force of them riding in on dire hummingbirds and leaping off and gliding to attack their enemies (and possibly holding "bombs" of some sort in their feet that they drop). These Kercpa are highly defensive of their territory. They don't like the Alaghi. They don't like the lyncanthropes of the Adusgi Forest. They're okay with the bear folk that come to trade, but not if they come to hunt. They are tiny, so they can ride size small creatures (like dire hummingbirds, large jackrabbits, raccoons, badgers, foxes, regular eagles/hawks, etc...). In this same area of the forest are lot of traditional dryads and treants and PERHAPS some volodni as well (that like the volodni of Faerun are also transformed humans, these worshipping Relkath of the Many Branches). ALSO in this area are hybsil (tauric deer folk) and shatjan (stag headed humanoids from the hordelands boxed set).
The religion of these Kercpa worships the great spirit known as Relkath Maneeboughs (whom the Metahel SAY is a child of Eiggdra the worldwood and Kaelleara "the wild huntress"... sidenote: Relkath is supposed to be Relkath of the Many Branches of the Yuir Pantheon, and Kaelleara is Khelliara of the Rashemi pantheon who is a "primordial deer" that can shapechange.) They also worship a "trickster" god known as Ratoska (whom the Metahel refer to as ratatosk the squirrel that inhabits Eiggdra the worldwood and travels its trunk from top to bottom delivering rude messages between "the eagle at the top and the dragon at the bottom that gnaws its roots"). Ratatosk is from Norse myth, as is Eiggdra as "Yggdrasil", as is the eagle and the dragon (nidhogg, who is known as Dendar the Night Serpent in the realms). Worship of Kaelleara is with the hybsil and shatjan, and possibly some minnenewah "deer women" have been drawn to this section of the wood by the hybsil/shatjan to "heal"... and breeding between hybsil or shatjan with deer women produces a hybsil or shatjan as appropriate (but never a human again). In doing this accepting of deer women, they seek to "calm their angry spirits by giving them a good life".
The kercpa are a treetop society using dead wood and vines to build expansive "villages" way at the top of trees where noone even sees them from the ground. Thus, you kind of have this separation of the two cultures (the "deer folk" on the ground, the "squirrel folk" at the top).
NOTES OF NEEDS: need NAME for this civilization and maybe some villages. We'd probably want to introduce rules for playing a hybsil or shatjan or possibly a kercpa, but mainly we'd need to create creature entries for them. Note, shatjan are strong/powerful (high CR), while hybsil aren't
On the nature of the Hybsil/Shatjan culture, they fulfill the role of nature protector that normally would evolve with the elves (but the elves of this land are hunters). Their society is entirely herbivorous. The hybsil are the smaller and more incline to stay home and produce crops or harvest from the woodlands, and they are also the ones more likely to be spellcasters (mainly druids, clerics, shamans, but also bards and sorcerers and runecasters). The Shatjan meanwhile travel the surrounding areas (sometimes with a hybsil companion or other Shatjans). The Shatjan are more inclined to be "warriors" than spellcasters, but they do have a history of druids and clerics as well. They seek to protect the wild herds of reindeer, elk, caribou, and moose, but also the smaller animals that they come across as well. They travel into the tundra lands of the elves to the north, the lands of the snow bears to the west, into the southern Adusgi where they cull the brutish Alaghi so they don't overwhelm the forest. They're on a cooly friendly nature with the bear folk to their south, so long as they don't overhunt (and are particularly happy that they like fish meat more than that of mammals... the Shatjan consider fish a lesser creature). They travel down into the Kaaya'yeeda to protect the giant wildlife there (and to domesticate dire stags and dire moose as mounts, since walking everywhere is a pain). They don't know what to think of the avian folk but they rightly know that they are a threat to be watched. Oh, also the Shatjan have two subraces… the stag headed and the moose headed. Stag is more charismatic and somewhat inclined to bardic pursuits, though more pursue paladinic virtues. Moose is stronger and more barbaric. Religion amongst the shatjan/hybsil is SPECIFICALLY following Metahel deities (specifically Sifya the war mother and her children and husband... so Sifya, Thoros the sky god, Yuellar the hunter, Thoordra Thorosdottir goddess of runecraft, and Moedae Sifyasun the god of bravery and mounted combat). Deities like Yuellar are not worshipped as in "I want to hunt deer", but more "I hunt those who overhunt the herd". They also acknowledge Thoros' other son Magnaear the god of strength, but they see him as a god of the bear folk not their own, and so his worship is limited amongst them. Worship of his wife though, Balanis "The Fair Bear Maiden", as a nature goddess, goddess of honey, and a goddess of fertility isn't unheard of.
Finally, I mentioned there being dryads amongst this area of the woods. Rules wise they should be standard dryads. Appearance wise though, they should appear as people's that are NOT human. They might appear as a bear folk, deer folk, squirrel folk, (or some other animal head, fox, raccoon, rabbit, skunk, etc...) who has flowers kind of replacing their fur or hair. They should be a rarity, but it should be apparent that somehow these are the spirits of those who have given themselves to the nature of the wood that they loved in life.
Mid-eastern Adusgi Forest, north of the Kaaya'yeeda, and noted already on the map - The "brown and black" bear folk (urskans) and the non evil werebears who have gone to live with them, and the minnenewah of the bear tribe. We talked about these guys in another thread. Some high points. They hunt the giant salmon proceeding north to spawn in the spawning pools. They hunt the Kaaya'yeeda for meat. They have allied with this new Abeil community in trade for honey. They don't like the Alaghi or other lycanthropes, finding them bestial. They are kind of cooly neutral with the kercpa/tree folk/deer folk to their north, but the fact that they hunt deer and aren't adverse to stewed squirrel is a sticking point. They help the abeil against the "Pyre giants" to their east who inhabit a section of the forest that is filled not with volcanos, but rather geysers and hot springs. They also consider this water from these hot springs as useful in some ritual meditations that they do in their homelands, so they like to travel here and gather it.
Their society is inclined to felling trees and building log cabins, but they also replant and try to tend the forest. They are meat eaters who do SOME agriculture, primarily the growing of blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. They also grow giant honeysuckle (picture a honeysuckle flower the size of your forearm in length, but only as wide as your finger), and this attracts dire hummingbirds (whom they consider nothing more than a pretty addition to their living space). These giant honeysuckle can be harvested, and the flowers themselves can be "leatherized" with alchemy (the flowers come in white, yellow, orange, red, and pink). Apple, cherry, and pear trees are common in their settlements. They also grow rhubarb (which personally, never had, so someone tell me about it) as a supplement for diets. They make mead and wines using all of these fruits, as well as pies and other sugary treats.
Religion of these bear folk is of Magnaer the Bear (a god amongst the Metahel as well, similar to Magni son of Thor) and his wife Balanis (daughter of Balador the wear bear god), who is portrayed as a fertility goddess, a goddess of nurturing nature, a goddess of honey. Balador the werebear god is also worshipped, but mainly in shrines at Balanis' temples, wherein he's portrayed as a wise god who provides guidance and justice. Magnaer is the chief deity, portrayed as a "defender of the bear folk".
The Great Timberspires and mountains which are to the northeast of the Adusgi and heading off to the northeast of Anchorome - This is the land of the snow bears.... a "polar bear" bear folk. They are MUCH more aggressive than their brethren to the west. They live in an area which is like the "redwoods" of north America. Huge damn trees. They hunt in this area. They are NOT numerous though, having several small settlements of say.... two maybe 3 thousand urskan bear folk in each. They also interacted with the werebears of the Adusgi. They considered them abominations and slaughtered them. They've also encountered elves of Evermeet. They found them tasty if a bit stringy. They hunt the hybsil and shatjan that live just to their east as well as the regular deer that these folk try to protect. They HATE the ****ing kercpa and consider them a flying nuisance, and its not uncommon to see a white furred urskan to be wearing a "kercpa-skin hat and coat". The "snow elves" (need a name that they call themselves) to their north are a deadly enemy who regularly invaded their territory (and they do the same in return). They find these "snow elves" a worthy adversary, and tasty as well (and they note that they are oddly taller than those which landed from Evermeet). The rare "winged elf" which they've seen in these lands are a confirmed threat, and whenever they spot one they ride their winged owlbears en masse to slaughter the damn things. Their weaponry consists of a lot of stone and woodwork, specifically things like flint axes, flint arrows, etc.... but they also know of smelting some basic tin and lead. Also, they have been known to delve the underdark beneath their territory, in which they've discovered hook horrors (and possibly other creatures with shell carapaces). They are known to use the chitinous carapaces to make armor, which they enhance with metal, leather, etc...
Religion of this culture also includes Magnaer and Balanis, but they tend to be portrayed more aggressively.
middle of the Adusgi… colorful flowers area - this is the Abeil of the Adusgi Forest I was discussing in the other thread. Leaderless now. Also, possibly it only grew to this size AFTER the arrival of this land during the time it was on Abeir. Maybe these were "rogue" Abeil who left their community and planted their strange plants in the Adusgi forest. The giant honeysuckle that that bear folk have came from these Abeil, and they gave it to the bear folk in hopes that those pesky dire hummingbirds would stay out of their own land. Dire hummingbirds are a damn nuisance, as are the "stupid kercpa" that ride them (though dead kercpa make "great fertilizer"). We can definitely do more with this, and ideas in the other thread incorporated.
Religion, they've adopted the worship of Balanis the "flower and honey goddess" of the bear folk, who has appeared to them in their dreams. Maybe Balanis sends them on some divine mission to find SOMETHING which will make the special royal honey that they need to make a new queen. I don't know why, but it should include Micha from down in Michaca being added.
Mideastern Adusgi forest, area with geysers and hot springs... and what looks like.... craters? - Yeah... something crashed into the Adusgi forest a LONG damn time ago. It left pockets of boiling water, hot springs, and geysers. Later on some "Pyre Giants" moved in (red-skinned, beardless, black haired giants that resemble native americans). They love stone tomahawks and spears as weapons (using whole tree trunks of smallish trees). They're big. They're mean. They aren't dumb, but they aren't especially brilliant either. They have an ability to withstand heat and HATE cold. They substitute for "fire giants" in Metahel mythology. NOTE, there will be two groups of Pyre giants... and the two are like different sections of the same family that don't get along unless they absolutely NEED to. This group of Pyre giants is relatively small (picturing like a few dozen small clans of 20 to 50 Pyre giants grouped together in an area, chopping down trees in the neighboring wood and generally not being "forest friendly"). Noone in the area likes these guys. They don't like anyone else. They particularly like the flavor of stewed Alaghi, and honey preserved alaghi meat is a treat (as is honey mead).
North Mountains and tundra/ice lands north of the "great timberspires" as well as the northwestern half of Anchorome This is the land of the "snow elves" of dragon #155 and the "flying elves". The flying elves are obviously avariels, and the snow elves are traditional snow elves as seen in traditional dragon magazine. Snow elven males are PROUD of their long flowing beards (unusual growth on an elf). Perhaps beneath the surface there are some shadar-kai as well. Not sure where these elves came from. The snow elves have mounts and pets that are hoar foxes, winter wolves, giant snow owls, and dire moose/caribou. They are NOT numerous, being outnumbered say 10 to 1 by their snow bear enemies to the south. The snow elves, avariel, and shadar-kai all worship the snow elven god Tarsellis Meunniduin, the lesser elven god of mountains and wilderness. This god is an outcast from the Seldarine. There is also worship of the "Raven Queen" but under the name Megwandir (see that dragon article). The metahel believe Tarsellis Meunniduin is a "Faerir hostage" known as Faersellis Meunnindun which is a deity with ties to "magpies"... the white-breasted crow. They believe Megwandir is "Heleshkiga", which is a combination of Hela and Ereshkigal and the raven queen and thus a goddess of death, winter, and ravens and that at some point she betrayed Tarsellis. Also, see the above thing which AJA had put forth as an idea of some Evermeet princess that gets exiled for falling in love with a human spellcaster who makes his way to Evermeet. This introduces Fenmarel Mestarine to these snow elves. They give up worship of Megwandir and Tarsellis and head south to become the Poscadari.
They hunt the "polar bear folk". They hunt the hybsil/shatjan/kercpa of the northwester Adusgi forest. If they catch one alone, they'll hunt a Pyre giant, but mostly they just try to defend against them. They will hunt the avian folk as well. They aren't the peace and love elves we're used to, but mainly they hunt these people because they need to fend for themselves. They are not adverse to eating these enemies.
Far northwestern peninsula of Anchorome filled with volcanos, geysers, and other seismic activity This is the traditional home of the Pyre giants. These Pyre giants are living in an area without access to a lot of wood, but there is heat from the volcanos. They make use of obsidian. They grow crops using lava ash to fertilize the land (and slaves tend these crops... particular urskan ones, but also elves and humans captured from nearby islands). They have firenewt slaves as well maybe. Not much is known of this area, because few who explore it return alive, and stories of it are whispered with dread.
That huge section of forest and mountains on the northwestern section of Anchorome I know you're interested in developed a work on the Aearee, and I'm damn interested in helping flesh out ideas, even if I throw out some stuff that's stupid. I'm picturing this whole area as being available for "Aearee lands". This should include "crow" kenku, "eagle" aarakocra, "owl" owlkin, and possibly others as well (duck folk that live on a lake? Songbird folk that look like cardinals/bluejays or other beautiful colored birds? Perhaps a turkey/peacock folk who worship a phoenix entity?). But what do the ancient rulers of the Aearee look like? I propose that some of them look in the face like Skeksis from crystal shard... long dinosaur snouts, with a bird beak on the tip and teeth in the mouth.… reptilian skin.... They should have wings though, and they should work.
https://www.kropserkel.com/skeksis.htm
I picture that these beings might be offspring of the OTHER rulers of the Aearee which are the dragons of Coliar... so these things are half-dragons or somesuch.
Also, those plumed dragonborn... maybe there's similar things amongst the Aearee. Maybe lankier. Pictures help to differentiate these concepts, but I'm a horrible artist. Other things being from the area might be more reptilian but include of course a group of couatl. Also, the winged, savage dragonkin that are stouter of 3rd edition Monster Compendium, Monsters of Faerun. Wyverns should be rampant. Also, the idea of the dragonne (which has another name in Maztica... the Hakuna) is probably an Aearee experiment. Perhaps a variation of dragonne of different types might work (small ones, medium ones, etc... and based on different cats than lions... panthers, snow lynx, and even house cats). Hmmmm, it occurs to me... could the lammasu attack have been repercussions to them developing the dragonne… which possibly came about as a perversion of Lammasu?
Also, perhaps the Aearee took some insect man and developed a flying enemy to actually turn against them (picturing wasps, which I know you did some things with).
Okay, going to take a bit to ponder on all this stuff I just threw out. The point of this thread was literally to brainstorm. Not sure what will stick, but hopefully some of this can gel into some good ideas. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
Edited by - sleyvas on 07 Sep 2019 16:55:58 |
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shades of eternity
Learned Scribe
288 Posts |
Posted - 08 Sep 2019 : 19:38:27
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Do you want any strange and bizarre locations in north america that you can put through the forgotten realms filter?
also going to recommend a public domain book for prose.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/782/782-h/782-h.htm
This is The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, by John
Mandeville
It is a 14th century tourbook that Marco Polo used to get to China.
It is fantastical as hell, but it really a fascinating read for fleshing out an area.
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check out my post-post apocalyptic world at www.drevrpg.com |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 08 Sep 2019 : 21:39:08
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To add some visuality to some of these creatures...
Kercpa… they've learned of run magic from their god, Ratoska, who learned some of it by listening to the semi-conscious ramblings of Asagrimmr as he hung from the worldwood for nine days. Many of them burn runes into their fur and blacken their flesh to enhance their speed, give them limited true flight, enhances their ability to hide and hide in plain sight, etc.... Female Kercpa often braid their tail fur or tie colorful ribbons in them when they are in safe home environment. Fur colorations should run the gamut from the traditional red of the race to paletan/blonde, brown, black, grey, and even white. Dying fur is not unheard of, sometimes in sections to aid camouflage, varying with the colors of the leaves as the seasons change.
Snow bears - they tend to decorate with pale white bones which blend with their already pale fur. It is not unusual to find one wearing a helmet made from the skull of a deer, complete with antlers. Bone scrimshaw horns for goblets, spear heads, belt buckles, necklaces, etc... is fairly common.
Other bears - wood carved jewelry is common, often supplemented with colorful stone. Antlers are commonly used to make handles on many things.
Shatjan - Especially those with moose antlers, carving runes or images into their antlers is not uncommon. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
Edited by - sleyvas on 09 Sep 2019 12:16:24 |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2019 : 12:38:03
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Ok, one last add on. Eric's comments about an island southwest of Evermeet in which many mercury dragons grew up made me look for an island there on the scholar's view of Abeir-Toril map. There were no such islands seen, but then again it doesn't show many of the small islands of Maztica either (the green sisters are shown as one dot, Zilhatec island is unseen, so is Maztapan island, coxamult island, the brown sisters, etc...), and the original stories of Anchorome were of a collection of small islands. I don't want to get too near to Evermeet with them though. So, I figured I'd add about 12 new islands that are "known" ranging from Mideast anchorome to southeast anchorome. I figured that also one of the things I'd been proposing was having Fort Flame housing a bunch of refugees from the Chultan Peninsula who evacuated their home via portals located in the Thayan enclaves that still functioned after those lands transferred to Abeir (i.e. they didn't all "sink" as has been supposed, but while in Abeir they were overrun and their citizen's had to flee). So, it strikes me that if the Poscadari elves were so entrenched, it might be that while I can show some of the population in Fort Flame, it might also help to have smallish settlements on these islands and trade going on between them with boats. They may have even settled according to population (i.e. the people of Samarach may have had a large portion of them on one island, the people of Lundeth in Thindol with their gondsmen somewhere else, the people of Tashluta somewhere else). Maybe they each have "embassy" type lands similar to the Thayan enclave around Fort Flame, such that Fort Flame is its own governance, and they maybe have a council of these different groups that meets to discuss needs, etc...
I'm also asking does anyone else know of any other references to random islands that are west of Evermeet in any form? I'll name one of these "Quicksilver island" to be the one that's where the mercury dragons are. It would be good to know anything official if something pops into someone's memory. I'll also be sticking about 20 islands off the southwest/west/northwestern shore of anchorome. Some of these will be "northmen" islands.
I really doubt it, but does anyone know of a rough physical placement and/or name of the island where all the wolfweres and werewolves that involved Balduran's crew were? |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
Edited by - sleyvas on 09 Sep 2019 12:41:57 |
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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
2067 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2019 : 14:32:50
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quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
Ok, one last add on. Eric's comments about an island southwest of Evermeet in which many mercury dragons grew up made me look for an island there on the scholar's view of Abeir-Toril map. There were no such islands seen, but then again it doesn't show many of the small islands of Maztica either (the green sisters are shown as one dot, Zilhatec island is unseen, so is Maztapan island, coxamult island, the brown sisters, etc...), and the original stories of Anchorome were of a collection of small islands. I don't want to get too near to Evermeet with them though. So, I figured I'd add about 12 new islands that are "known" ranging from Mideast anchorome to southeast anchorome. I figured that also one of the things I'd been proposing was having Fort Flame housing a bunch of refugees from the Chultan Peninsula who evacuated their home via portals located in the Thayan enclaves that still functioned after those lands transferred to Abeir (i.e. they didn't all "sink" as has been supposed, but while in Abeir they were overrun and their citizen's had to flee). So, it strikes me that if the Poscadari elves were so entrenched, it might be that while I can show some of the population in Fort Flame, it might also help to have smallish settlements on these islands and trade going on between them with boats. They may have even settled according to population (i.e. the people of Samarach may have had a large portion of them on one island, the people of Lundeth in Thindol with their gondsmen somewhere else, the people of Tashluta somewhere else). Maybe they each have "embassy" type lands similar to the Thayan enclave around Fort Flame, such that Fort Flame is its own governance, and they maybe have a council of these different groups that meets to discuss needs, etc...
I'm also asking does anyone else know of any other references to random islands that are west of Evermeet in any form? I'll name one of these "Quicksilver island" to be the one that's where the mercury dragons are. It would be good to know anything official if something pops into someone's memory. I'll also be sticking about 20 islands off the southwest/west/northwestern shore of anchorome. Some of these will be "northmen" islands.
I really doubt it, but does anyone know of a rough physical placement and/or name of the island where all the wolfweres and werewolves that involved Balduran's crew were?
I'm sure there are a few more named islands. Still trying to get the FR Atlast installed. Anyone else have any luck? |
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http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/ |
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shades of eternity
Learned Scribe
288 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2019 : 16:29:05
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Looking at the map
The series of lakes in the north west corner would be pitch perfect for a cahokia mound type settlement.
https://cahokiamounds.org/explore/
Not sure if we're allowed to add/remove land mass, but I'd love some islands on the west coast somewhere called the Blackfish islands, that are Darfellan territory (because I'm a sucker for orca folk).
There should be trading routes, not unlike the 3e forgotten realms trade maps. From my own training, you'd be surprised how certain materials travel.
I'd love to do something like white buffalo (aka a herd animal with innate magical abilities that basically acts as a gatekeeper and are essentially tempermental. Even elves have to watch their step around these grumps).
What is the overall tech levels? |
check out my post-post apocalyptic world at www.drevrpg.com |
Edited by - shades of eternity on 09 Sep 2019 16:43:51 |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36804 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2019 : 18:57:32
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quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
Ok, one last add on. Eric's comments about an island southwest of Evermeet in which many mercury dragons grew up made me look for an island there on the scholar's view of Abeir-Toril map. There were no such islands seen, but then again it doesn't show many of the small islands of Maztica either (the green sisters are shown as one dot, Zilhatec island is unseen, so is Maztapan island, coxamult island, the brown sisters, etc...), and the original stories of Anchorome were of a collection of small islands. I don't want to get too near to Evermeet with them though. So, I figured I'd add about 12 new islands that are "known" ranging from Mideast anchorome to southeast anchorome. I figured that also one of the things I'd been proposing was having Fort Flame housing a bunch of refugees from the Chultan Peninsula who evacuated their home via portals located in the Thayan enclaves that still functioned after those lands transferred to Abeir (i.e. they didn't all "sink" as has been supposed, but while in Abeir they were overrun and their citizen's had to flee). So, it strikes me that if the Poscadari elves were so entrenched, it might be that while I can show some of the population in Fort Flame, it might also help to have smallish settlements on these islands and trade going on between them with boats. They may have even settled according to population (i.e. the people of Samarach may have had a large portion of them on one island, the people of Lundeth in Thindol with their gondsmen somewhere else, the people of Tashluta somewhere else). Maybe they each have "embassy" type lands similar to the Thayan enclave around Fort Flame, such that Fort Flame is its own governance, and they maybe have a council of these different groups that meets to discuss needs, etc...
I'm also asking does anyone else know of any other references to random islands that are west of Evermeet in any form? I'll name one of these "Quicksilver island" to be the one that's where the mercury dragons are. It would be good to know anything official if something pops into someone's memory. I'll also be sticking about 20 islands off the southwest/west/northwestern shore of anchorome. Some of these will be "northmen" islands.
I really doubt it, but does anyone know of a rough physical placement and/or name of the island where all the wolfweres and werewolves that involved Balduran's crew were?
I'm sure there are a few more named islands. Still trying to get the FR Atlast installed. Anyone else have any luck?
Pretty sure I have it on my home machine. I'll check, this eve, unless someone else weighs in. |
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Brainstorming Anchorome
