| Author |
 Topic  |
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
 Posted - 10 Mar 2020 : 18:25:13
|
Just for fun, I propose that we take some the realmspace planets as listed as canon, but we "delve" them more and discuss options for what may populate them based upon their nature. I say this because many planets may have only had a few pages of discussion devoted to them, but they're large and could have a lot of options. I've already discussed putting Ellefolk/Arak on the moon, so I won't go there in this . Just to give an idea of some options I was thinking about just randomly.
Glyth - a planet covered in gelatin instead of water. I'm reminded of a mini I saw someone paint that had a 4 eyed snail person whose eyes were on stalks. Is there some race that resembles this already? If not, I propose we create one that populates this world in addition to the mindflayers. Possibly the gelatin on the world is like Auramycos as well and is sentient (a chosen of Ghaunadar?).
Coliar - a collection of orbiting earth and water islands with lizard folk and aarakocra and some unusual dragons. In addition, the races are known to perform genetic modification via sending their eggs to orbit the sun more closely when they get a chance. I'd propose different types of aarakocra. I'd also propose sauroid races, but NOT Saurials and not Sarrukh. By that I mean what about a "raptor" type race. Maybe a herbivorous race with a long neck that acts somewhat like a giraffe eating from trees. Maybe some sauroids that function in water.
The giant plant/tree known as garden just screams having kercpa inhabiting it to me. Also having a family of amber dragons on it seems right (and something in me wants to put an ancient shadow dragon and a roc to kind of mirror Yggdrasil... just because).
Any other ideas pop in anyone's head. Not really sure why I wanted to pursue this other than to maybe just discuss ideas. .
|
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 10 Mar 2020 : 19:26:31
|
Yeah, I like the idea of coming up with a reason why the world is "gelatinous", and the idea that its some kind of now sentient ooze that slowly just absorbed "nutrients" that other living things needed to live comes to mind. Its basically inert if I recall correctly, so having it be physically offensive is something I'd stray from. Now, it could be psionic, and maybe it even spawns something akin to living spells.... living psionic powers....
Possibly this gelatin was brought to this world by the snail folk I was discussing, as a means of "terraforming" the world, but they lost control? Or maybe the GOO is made up of dead snail folk that WERE dissolved (picturing putting salt on a snail). Maybe the snail folk live in pocket communities separate from the mind flayers and the two groups don't like each other. Possibly, if we did do the good as sentient, even the sentience in the goo came from a mind flayer elder brain melding with it? Or maybe its the collective consciousness of thousands of dissolved snail folk?
By the way, here's the link to the snail folk mini that made me think of them
https://www.darkswordminiatures.com/shop/index.php/snail-cartographer.html
I also like the idea of having some kind of golem that's not affected that lives there. Not thinking metallic so much as maybe glass or crystalline. In fact, IF we went with psionics being big there... crystals and psionics are "familiar" with each other.... might be able to make something work.
Or maybe a Salt golem...
Hmmm, and since we were discussing a dead race.... their ghosts would no longer be affected by the goo. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
Edited by - sleyvas on 10 Mar 2020 19:33:40 |
 |
|
|
Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
Posted - 10 Mar 2020 : 19:39:53
|
Well my question would be why psionics.
Mindflayers might live there but they arent indiginous, while psionics among native populations (especially in FR) tends to be an inherited trait (psionics is strong in those with yuan-ti heritage and those with jhaamdathic descent).
I personally do not distinguish between psionics and magic, its just specialised magic to me.
So if you have snail creatures why would they have psionics. Are they native, if so how did they get psionics. If they arent native, why would they choose to settle on a planet with mindflayers (especially if they are enemies).
I do like the idea of crystalline creatures that survive. There are a number to choose from on FR, imagine them further evolved and without competition and you could have whole ecosystems of crystalline creatures.
For ghosts, why ghosts. My understanding is that ghosts are beings who died and their soul did not migrate to the outerplanes, it instead remained on the ethereal plane (the border between the material and outerplanes) and can manifest into it. Why would they congregate on that planet, especially if there was nothing living for them to feed on.
Whereas if you have a psionic sludge as you've suggested, would it not make more sense if the beings slain by it had their souls trapped in the sludge, becoming an astral projection of sorts, trapped in the gaps between the planes and occasionally manifesting in places where the planar borders are weak. |
Forgotten Realms Alternate Dimensions Candlekeep Archive
Forgotten Realms Alternate Dimensions: Issue 1
Forgotten Realms Alternate Dimensions: Issue 2
Forgotten Realms Alternate Dimensions: Issue 3
Forgotten Realms Alternate Dimensions: Issue 4
Forgotten Realms Alternate Dimensions: Issue 5
Forgotten Realms Alternate Dimensions: Issue 6
Forgotten Realms Alternate Dimensions: Issue 7
Forgotten Realms Alternate Dimensions: Issue 8
Forgotten Realms Alternate Dimensions: Issue 9
Alternate Realms Site |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 11 Mar 2020 : 00:03:50
|
The reason my mind went to psionics was just aboleths/mind flayers... snail folk.... they all seem similar. That being said, I wouldn't be adverse to them focusing on magic in general either. In fact, it might be interesting if these snail folk themselves have a lot of star pact warlocks or alienist wizards. In fact, it may have been them that brought illithids over from the far realm. For that matter, perhaps even these snail folk were once another race and were modified by contact with the far realm. If Ghaunadaur IS heavily worshipped there, many of them may be either priests of his or have established warlock pacts with him (or oddly divine souls of Ghaunadaur that are sorcerers capable of knowing clerical spells).
Alternatively, another reason for psionics is I see these snail folk in my head as possibly SIMILAR to the mystics from the Dark Crystal. By that I mean slow moving, introspective, meditative. That being said, there could be SOME that are this way, just like humans. There could also be some that are crazy insane. They might even war amongst themselves, with some serving Ghaunadaur and others possibly serving other entities. In fact, I could see these snail folk actually following the mind flayer pantheon, some serving Ilsensine, some Maanzecorian, and some Thoon.
On the ghosts thing... that would just be if lots of them died somewhere rapidly (picturing again the whole "lots of snail folk died and made the goo"). Perhaps many of the spirits were absorbed by the goo, making effectively something akin to an elder brain. However, perhaps some weren't, because they refused even in death to give in. Just something to use for an encounter. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
Seethyr
Master of Realmslore
USA
1151 Posts |
Posted - 11 Mar 2020 : 01:51:41
|
For years I’ve been wanting to fully flesh out Anadia. So much can be stolen from Dark Sun and added there in the equatorial regions. I’ve also rethought the Anadjin to be a very similar race to the Predators of the similarly named movies, only they are more militantly Druidic in nature.
A lack of an official update to SJ is what has held me back. You can’t define those Halfling lands at the poles without describing their ports and the effects crispyleaf might have on a mercantile society.
The poles aren’t what interest me though. Imagine illithids from Glyth trying to capture the anadjin. That is as alien vs predator as you can get. |
Follow the Maztica (Aztec/Maya) and Anchorome (Indigenous North America) Campaigns on DMsGuild!
The Maztica Campaign
The Anchorome Campaign |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 11 Mar 2020 : 02:21:45
|
quote:
Originally posted by Seethyr
For years I’ve been wanting to fully flesh out Anadia. So much can be stolen from Dark Sun and added there in the equatorial regions. I’ve also rethought the Anadjin to be a very similar race to the Predators of the similarly named movies, only they are more militantly Druidic in nature.
A lack of an official update to SJ is what has held me back. You can’t define those Halfling lands at the poles without describing their ports and the effects crispyleaf might have on a mercantile society.
The poles aren’t what interest me though. Imagine illithids from Glyth trying to capture the anadjin. That is as alien vs predator as you can get.
Yeah, I liked what you did in Lopango with the Anadjin and the illithid ceremorphs (forget the name). It was very Alien vs predator looking. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
2067 Posts |
Posted - 11 Mar 2020 : 02:53:36
|
| If you are going to think about Realmspace, consider explaining what happened to cause the rain of meteors in 1374 DR. (Talked about in Grand History and Dragons of Faerun.) |
--
http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/ |
|
|
|
TBeholder
Great Reader
2428 Posts |
Posted - 17 Mar 2020 : 10:52:09
|
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
Glyth - a planet covered in gelatin instead of water.
[...] I propose we create one that populates this world in addition to the mindflayers. Possibly the gelatin on the world is like Auramycos as well and is sentient (a chosen of Ghaunadar?).
20% "covered".
Illithids aren't big on coexistence, so they will try to enslave any other critter if it's somewhat useful, or exterminate and give freed resources to something they can eat if not.
The slime is said to be harmless to big creatures like visitors, so not that interesting, except maybe attempts to use it.
quote:
In addition, the races are known to perform genetic modification
What "genetic modification"?
Lizardfolk from eggs that were warmed and hatched closer to the sun than planets where humanoids are comfortable wind up better developed (mostly, smarter), that's it. It's not inherited, which is why they build those hatchery ships.
quote:
I'd also propose sauroid races, but NOT Saurials and not Sarrukh. By that I mean what about a "raptor" type race. Maybe a herbivorous race with a long neck that acts somewhat like a giraffe eating from trees. Maybe some sauroids that function in water.
There are saurials. And a few critters from Mystara. Also, were more in "Dragon's Bestiary: The Lizard Folk" by Michael Kuciak in Dragon #268.
quote:
The giant plant/tree known as garden just screams having kercpa inhabiting it to me. Also having a family of amber dragons on it seems right (and something in me wants to put an ancient shadow dragon and a roc to kind of mirror Yggdrasil... just because).
Garden is inhabited, so again, the question of how they all get along without one party becoming designated "skeet for the giff" or something.
quote:
Originally posted by Seethyr
For years I’ve been wanting to fully flesh out Anadia. So much can be stolen from Dark Sun and added there in the equatorial regions. [...]
The poles aren’t what interest me though. Imagine illithids from Glyth trying to capture the anadjin. That is as alien vs predator as you can get.
Also, maybe from Al-Qadim?
Between poles and equator there are several levels of nastiness, however.
Some stray kreen could colonize either of "moderate" belts on Anadia if there's any good ground. As long as they can find meat and some water, it's not too bad. It's not like they are afraid of umber hulks, after all.
But why would illithids want an anadjin? The critter's adapted to environment which is extremely inhospitable to humanoids, and for illithids with their mucous coating it got to be even more of a hell.
It could be used to herd something else, but in a stony desert total biomass density is too small to bother.
If there was some very valuable resource (like a local plant to use in alchemy) so far in hot zone halflings won't gather and sell it, it would make sense to have a local critter go gather it. But how'd they even find out if no one else travels there either? |
People never wonder How the world goes round -Helloween
And even I make no pretense Of having more than common sense -R.W.Wood
It's not good, Eric. It's a gazebo. -Ed Whitchurch |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 17 Mar 2020 : 17:26:07
|
quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
If you are going to think about Realmspace, consider explaining what happened to cause the rain of meteors in 1374 DR. (Talked about in Grand History and Dragons of Faerun.)
Good question. The first idea that comes to mind is that something happened with the king killer star and its mythal, and that that comet had dragon eggs on it. I don't necessarily like that, but it would correspond most with the timeframe.
Possibly, IF the idea I proposed in some other thread that Abeir and Toril have crossed several times and that the sudden appearance of new "tears" of Selune like 4800 years ago by the elves and Shou was a transfer from Abeir to Toril of material... then perhaps this was a precursor of the spellplague (i.e. the worlds were moving closer). In this, I view the "clipping" of these two worlds as not an instantaneous thing. Mystra's "death" may have sped up portions somehow (maybe they dropped some safeguards?). I also view it as having some ties somehow to the "return" of Tiamat to Unther and the resurgence of Bahamut following the ToT. The two somehow have some ties to both worlds it seems to me as well as the Untheric pantheon.
BTW, I'm not totally convinced that Talos isn't some kind of primordial instead of god. His imagery as Bhaelros (in which he has a chained dragon, like a primordial with his mount in a chain) almost looks like some kind of "genie"/primordial. The fact that he disappeared after the spellplague, that this falling of meteors was linked to lightning strikes, etc... makes me think he had SOMETHING to do with the spellplague. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he had clandestinely thrown Shar under the bus simply because she was encroaching his territory way too much. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 10 Jul 2020 : 16:38:10
|
Its been almost 4 months since we were discussing this topic, and for some reason this morning I felt like going back to it and seeing if people might not have new ideas with the passing of time. Specifically, I'd like to return to the specific topic of Coliar and see where our dreaming might take us, and I'm actively going back to other older threads where things may have been discussed and reviewing them for mining ideas reasons. I'm thinking I'll throw out rough brainstorming concepts, and then you guys, if interested, take and shoot at the ideas, twist them, or otherwise improve them.
First, what races are there? Well, there's aarakocra, there's lizard men, and there's dragons. Basically, the creator races minus the batrachi and humans and fey. Also, the dragons are treated as "guiders" of their civilization (almost like worship), and eventually they age to a point and "ascend" to an immortal status that allows them to leave their bodies in a spirit like "air dragon" form.
Second, what is the world like physically? There are a collection of "earth islands" aka "earthmotes" in modern speak, plus "water islands" all rotating around an airy core. While one thought is that "this is how its always been", another thought can easily be, something happened and blew this world apart and now the remnants have managed to coalesce into a bunch of orbiting components.
Third, what is the world like from other standpoints? Well, a big change from Toril is that the races here are very aware of spelljamming. Its not some "hidden secret". The people here know about spelljammers, they trade with visitors, they seek to use spelljammers to "enhance" their eggs by bringing them closer to the sun in some kind of genetic/metaphysical means.
What are some ideas we can then do with this world?
multiple kinds of aarakocra/kenku/other birdfolk
multiple kinds of lizard folk/saurials
dinosaurs
nagpa
worship of the raven queen tied to destruction of the world?
earthmotes used as spelljamming enclaves
tears of Selune including coliar earthmotes
destruction of coliar blotting out the sun for some time
Feathered Dragons
Phoenix |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 10 Jul 2020 : 18:55:35
|
So, in the above... the dragons of Coliar. They're "different". They tend to be more neutrally oriented and introspective. Maybe we should focus on making them even more different, by making them "feathered dragons". It doesn't have to be all of them mind you, and perhaps its only say half. In doing so, perhaps it might also be interesting to introduce phoenix into their society (not as a single entity, but more as an odd breed of primordial type creatures, many of different types). So, perhaps the dragons of Coliar have feathered wings because they bred with phoenix from the sun long ago. The dragons of Coliar may have been the "mounts" of primordials, and primordials may have encouraged this breeding in order to create a new race of mounts. In fact, the dragons of Coliar may have been linnorms (wingless dragons) prior to this or even something like the equivalent of dinosaurs with elemental abilities.
So, in this idea, maybe Coliar was a world of bird folk, and it was a solid world. Maybe it was ruled over by "primordials"/"archfey"/"primal spirits". Maybe all of this was PRIOR to the days of thunder on Toril. There was the conflict between the dawn titans and the gods in some form. This world is literally destroyed, and the debris from its destruction blots out the sun from the perspective of Toril. This causes the Shadow Epoch that we hear of prior to the Days of Thunder. The world isn't absolutely disintegrated however, and many of the earthmotes and water islands slowly start orbiting one another.
The destruction of this world may have caused many comets and lots of other flying debris that can be found in realmspace. In addition, there maybe be things like "dragon eggs" in this debris, and much like the eggs on game of thrones, maybe they went "dormant" somehow with the destruction of the world. Some of these flying meteors containing pockets of dragon eggs may occasionally get close enough that they get caught up in and dragged into the orbit of the moon as new tears. In addition, whole planets (for instance Anadia) may have come about because they are a large portion of Coliar that possibly got "ejected" during this destruction and then took up orbit around the sun.
How was this world destroyed? We can come up with a lot of reasons, but if we're including numerous Phoenix in the world, perhaps something came in and killed them all at once. Maybe some great battle of old against a grave darkness or beings from the Far Realm invading from Glyth or somesuch. Maybe the Phoenix are entrapped in "phoenix stones" which are in fact eggs which have been stopped from rebirthing. These "phoenix stones" should have some other name by which they're known in world, but the idea would be a petrified phoenix egg. Perhaps periodically one of these ancient phoenix eggs is awakened, and when this occurs, numerous petrified dragon eggs are also brought to life. In doing this concept, we could put these "eggs" as artifact like things in Toril, Coliar, and Anadia.
Perhaps some of the tears of Selune are even earthmotes of Coliar which have been navigated towards Toril via some type of magic that's similar to spelljamming. In fact, my idea that the "Wakanari Highlands" of Katashaka consists of numerous earthmotes that have phoenix and feathered dragons on them.... I'm now seeing a good way of linking that to Coliar (especially since Coliar has aarakocra). Perhaps the Aearee were beings of Coliar who eventually came to Toril after the destruction of their homeworld. They settled in the western portion of the realms in areas that might eventually become Anchorome/Maztica/Lopango. In my homebrew, portions of this civilization would also be involved with travelling south into Katashaka.
Perhaps some large portions of mountains, continents, etc... of Toril are transferred portions of Coliar. For instance, Seethyr introduces a deity known as "Intiri" down in Lopango who is a sun god who is in the world in physical form and occupies his own mountain down in the Lopango area. Intiri is also seen as a feathered god. Perhaps his entire mountain is a portion of Coliar transported to Toril and Intiri is a primordial entity of ancient Coliar that still lives. Perhaps his "true" form is that of a phoenix-like primordial power and he presents himself to the humans in the area in human form in order to gain worship. In other areas, I know that some folks are interested in making the small continent directly north of Anchorome as a source of Viking like northmen to have come from and to also make it a land of dragons. Perhaps its also a portion of Coliar, transferred to Toril, complete with dragons, that was allowed to land in the water and stay.
Why worry about what sections of Coliar might be on Toril? Because maybe there are portal links between the two worlds at these areas. For instance, perhaps for myself, the Wakanari Highlands of Katashaka might have portals from its earthmotes that connect to Coliar. These might be misunderstood, but the rulers of Katashaka may understand what they are, and the people of Katashaka may believe that they're transferring between planes, etc... or they may even understand what's happening. If I did do this, the idea that the Wakanari Highlands also has phoenix on them starts to make more sense, and perhaps we might want to delve into a kind of study of "Primordial Phoenixes".... (sidenote: what is Lathander?).
Also, if there are portal connections between these lands and Coliar, maybe this is how the Aearee came here, but also perhaps its how the lizard folk WENT to Coliar. The Sarrukh and Aearee may have gotten into some kind of conflict, and the Sarrukh captured some Aearee civilization on Toril and used its portals to send lizard folk to Coliar. Another option might be that both such creator races existed on Coliar but the Sarrukh came to Toril prior to the shadow epoch (or went to Coliar prior to the shadow epoch).
The "aarakocra" of Coliar should in my view be multiple types of birdfolk. The eagle like aarakocra, the parrot like pa'ratxi, the toucan like Tucati, the cockatoo like Kocratuura, the stork-like Ibideans, the peacock like peakocra, owl like owlrakocras, and the raven like kenku should all have presences (Note, of all these, only aarakocra and kenku are official creatures). However, Seethyr introduced a spacefaring merchant race of penguinfolk (Dohwar) that ride flying pigs that he's landed in Maztica and enslaved to some batrachi artifacts, and I could see these penguinfolk living on the "water islands" that are in Coliar's orbit, as well as things like a duck or pelican version. The idea is to give Coliar similar variety as you might find on Toril so that if you did introduce this world people might be able to picture it better in their heads. These various cultures might have attitudes which mimic what we view as their base creature, or they might be totally different (for instance the penguinfolk have turned warlike). There might also be fighting between the different subraces, etc....
Similarly, the lizardfolk of Coliar might be different groups, and perhaps they have various types of dinosaurs that they use as guards, cattle, mounts, beasts of burden, etc... |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 10 Jul 2020 : 20:14:08
|
Another thing we need to keep in mind in regards the planets are their sizes. I know its something that often escapes our train of thought, but places like Anadia, Garden, and H'Catha are EXTREMELY small. Meanwhile, Coliar is somewhere between 15.625 (2.5^3)and 64,000 (40^3) times bigger than Toril (Toril would be 1000-4000 miles in diameter and Coliar is 10,000 to 40,000 miles in diameter). Granted, a lot of that may be empty space, but at the same time, Toril for the most part is only habitable mostly on its surface, whereas each Coliar Earth island is habitable on all sides of the earth islands. Therefore, if we were to compare the square footage of useful land, there just MIGHT be more to Coliar than anywhere else in realmspace. Some of these earth islands of Coliar just might be the equivalent in size to whole sections of Faerun. For instance, an earth island that's the equivalent of Cormyr and Sembia on one "side" and the other side is a huge untapped forest the size of the dalelands. There might be earth islands of Coliar which are bigger than the planet Anadia and much bigger than many of Selune's tears. Each of these might have their own flora and fauna that's vastly different than other earth islands simply because they've not come close in millenia.
Planet Anadia - moons - none
Planet Size B - 10-100 miles in diameter
NOTES: indigenous population of some kind of insect/reptile hybrid (anadjiin) that look like "alien" from the movie kinda and some kind of gremlin'ish thing (plainsjan).
Planet Coliar - moons - none
Planet Size G - 40,000-100,000 miles in diameter
NOTES: islands of land around an air core (earthmotes). Reptile and bird species, predominantly Lizardmen, dragons, and aarakocras
Planet Toril - moons 1 plus "Tears"
Planet Size E - 4,000-10,000 miles in diameter
NOTES: The Moon, Selune, is one of the only moons that gets its own denoted planet size.... Its planet size is D, which is 1,000 to 4,000 miles in diameter. So Selune is bigger than the planets Anadia and H'Catha and Garden and near equal to Karpri in realmspace.
Karpri - moons - none
Planet Size D - 1,000-4,000 miles in diameter
NOTES: water world, frozen poles, seaweed equator. Indigenous population appears to be giant insects, giant arachnids, arctic predators of various sorts, telepathic dolphins, huge whales. Possibly the Shalarin that migrate to Toril came from here. There's also some transplants (aquatic elves, eyes of the deep, some gnomes)
Chandos - moons - none
Planet Size F - 10,000-40,000 miles in diameter
Notes: water world with irregular shaped rock formations like marbles that constantly move and reshape the surfaceland. Most of the population is intelligent, magical fish
Glyth - moons 3 plus rings
Planet Size E - 4,000-10,000 miles in diameter
NOTES: warm planet, acidic rain and smoke atmosphere, surface covered in fires and a weird gelatin. Interior riddle with caves and illithids.
Garden - moons 12
Planet Size A - Less than 10 miles in diameter
NOTES: small earth nodes held together by a giant plant (Yggdrasil's Child).
H'Catha - moons 2
Planet Size C - 100-1,000 miles in diameter
NOTES: flat world, central mountain. Beholder transplants. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 10 Jul 2020 : 20:25:44
|
What are some ideas to use with Coliar?
They are familiar with and have access to spelljamming technology. Granted, they may not have a lot of it, but they may also have more than Toril. They may also use ships similar to Halruaa's skyships (which I like this idea) for transport between earth islands. While the various bird folk have wings, they likely couldn't physically fly between earth islands simply due to the distance. Therefore, there may be "ferry" systems setup for travel between earth islands. Travel to water islands might be considered something like a vacation, and there might be "cruise ships" which carry people from one earth island to a water island to vacation and they live on the boat for the time that they're on the earth island. There might also be fishing crews that do similar (including things like a whaling crew).
What exactly weather is like might be interesting to develop. Some clouds and rain may occur, but then again water might be a commodity that some earth islands have to go retrieve. If some of these bird folk worship the raven queen, as a goddess of winter, her priests might go along with "Ice Crews" to freeze water, harpoon the resulting smallish iceberg and "drag" the block of ice back to their home earth island. There might be "ice pirates" who attempt to steal this ice as well.
On some ideas for some other "bird folk races", a "wild" version of turkey aarakocra who hunt an earth island that resembles the American grasslands, populated with flying tapirs and flying bison, etc... There might be forests with flying predators, etc... Might need to figure some way to make this look less like native americans in turkey form, but you get the rough idea (please don't hate on me for this, I know it needs work). Other birdfolk might be ones that resemble song birds and possess extraordinary skill as bards. Also, some of these earth islands might have less in the way of mammal populations and more in the way of giant insects and lizards/dinosaurs to hunt.
|
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
Edited by - sleyvas on 10 Jul 2020 20:39:15 |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 10 Jul 2020 : 20:58:00
|
Hmmm, and doing some research on the "size" of Toril, somewhere in one of the campaign settings it must say that Toril and earth are roughly equivalent in size. Looking up earth's diameter its just under 8000 miles. If we use that as a basis, then the previous calculation would put the size difference between the two as somewhere between 125 to 1953.125 times bigger. Just spitballing and saying its "1000" times bigger might simply be the best way to go, and then assuming that say 0.1% of the "air space" of Coliar has land or water material in it, but assuming that you can use all sides of this space, might put the two planets as roughly similar for possible population (consider a lot of Toril is water), but with coliar possibly larger but less inhabited per square mile.
Some other ideas of what to do with roleplaying might be more to do with work crews travelling between earth islands to scavenge them. Since everything's moving, keeping track of what's where and when might be a full time job for some personnel. I can see crews that go out to harvest lumber, mine metals and gems, etc... from other earth islands. Meanwhile, some of these other earth islands might be filled with bestial creatures that are a danger to anyone who lands there. It might not be worthwhile to setup a full on plant to process these materials, so a ship that works as a portable saw mill might be sent to work with some lumber workers. Another ship with appropriate smelting gear to reduce the ore needing to be hauled, etc... might go with miners. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
Edited by - sleyvas on 10 Jul 2020 22:05:05 |
|
|
|
AuldDragon
Senior Scribe
USA
572 Posts |
Posted - 11 Jul 2020 : 06:18:48
|
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
Planet Anadia - moons - none
Planet Size B - 10-100 miles in diameter
NOTES: indigenous population of some kind of insect/reptile hybrid (anadjiin) that look like "alien" from the movie kinda and some kind of gremlin'ish thing (plainsjan).
Quick note: The Anadjiin is based on the Predator, not the Alien xenomorph (that made it into Spelljammer as the Yitsan). :)
Jeff |
My 2nd Edition blog: http://blog.aulddragon.com/
My streamed AD&D Spelljamer sessions: https://www.youtube.com/user/aulddragon/playlists?flow=grid&shelf_id=18&view=50
"That sums it up in a nutshell, AuldDragon. You make a more convincing argument. But he's right and you're not." |
|
|
|
BadCatMan
Senior Scribe
Australia
401 Posts |
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 12 Jul 2020 : 14:04:21
|
quote:
Originally posted by AuldDragon
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
Planet Anadia - moons - none
Planet Size B - 10-100 miles in diameter
NOTES: indigenous population of some kind of insect/reptile hybrid (anadjiin) that look like "alien" from the movie kinda and some kind of gremlin'ish thing (plainsjan).
Quick note: The Anadjiin is based on the Predator, not the Alien xenomorph (that made it into Spelljammer as the Yitsan). :)
Jeff
Hmmm, will have to look at the Yitsan. BTW, on this topic of turning them into alien v/s predator, Seethyr did something where he brought some Anadjiin to Lopango and has them fighting it out with some illithid/lizardman ceremorphs (think they're the Yangrel…. name may be wrong). Though I never used it, I appreciated the idea that there was this little jungle with this private war going on. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 12 Jul 2020 : 14:26:39
|
quote:
Originally posted by BadCatMan
Behind the scenes at the FRW, there have been some astonishing discussions on applying real-world physics to Realmspace to calculate the exact properties of planets like Coliar, while accounting for Spelljammer mechanics. This led to some interesting theories about what's keeping Coliar habitable, as otherwise it would become super-dense and super-heated toward the core. Sirwhiteout wrote up some blog posts for some of it:
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:Sirwhiteout/Realmspace_astronomy_-_Orbital_periods_and_distances
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:Sirwhiteout/Realmspace_Astronomy_-_Gravity_of_Planets_by_Composition
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:Sirwhiteout/Realmspace_Astronomy_-_The_Atmosphere_of_Coliar
On Katashaka, an interesting connection is the Ebony Queen, a ship that sails to the elemental planes. The amazon warriors on board seem to come from Katashaka, so it's likely the rest of the crew and the even the ship itself do too.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Katashaka
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ebony_Queen
BadCatMan,
Thank you. You always show me something new. So, while not explicitly stating Katashaka, it seems like a good way to mine for cultures and locations to add (maybe its not in my original vision, but that's part of the point... collaboration).
So, for those who aren't digging into this, but want to follow along, that entry on Katashaka is talking about the anaconda mercenary company from gold and glory. From that we get some names of people and this
"This company of black men and women is a brotherhood of warriors sworn to defend one another to the death. Membership is open only to fighting couples; man and wife join at the same time and fight in pairs. Two small rows of diamond-shaped ritual scars on the scalp signify initiation.
The current leaders are Nkonzi Maru, an 11th-level ranger specialized in the spear, and her husband Kwanza Maru, a 9th-level priest of the snake god that is the Anaconda's patron deity. The troops are mostly 3rd-level warriors with concealment and tracking skills.
The origins of the Anaconda warrior society are lost, even to Nkonzi. Their culture is sophisticated but insular, and their language and rituals are never shared with outsiders. Their homeland is an island far to the southwest. Persistent rumors of weretigers among the Anaconda ranks have never been confirmed or denied."
They use poison when outnumbered, but only under a strict code. Only missile weapons may be poisoned, and only one member of a pair may use them.
To note as well, they have hawks, elephants, and a white tiger, and they use blow guns, scimitars, spears, hand axes and javelins.
My first thoughts are that I wanted to have a cat city with non-good weretigers ruled over by some rakshasa on the eastern shores. This group could be from there.
Gotta go to the store, will look into the references for the ebony queen when I get back. Thanks again.
|
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36804 Posts |
Posted - 12 Jul 2020 : 16:28:01
|
| If you want to have a cat city, look at Per-Bastet. It's in the Southlands book from Kobold Press, and it has become one of my favorite fantasy cities. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen!  |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 12 Jul 2020 : 20:56:07
|
Back and was thinking on this and looking at the ebony queen reference as well. So, a planar travelling ship filled with "amazons" that are "related" to the people of the anaconda mercenary company. So, one group is definitely male/female in bonded pairs and the other is exclusively female. So, sounds like 2 different cultures both from roughly the same general area.
The fact that they say they're from "an island" makes me want to put them on the smaller of the two rather than Katashaka proper (to note, I've personally been calling that small continent large island east of Katashaka and south of Nimbral "Eastern Katashaka" though I've also seen maps that label it "tabaxiland"). I'm actually doing this because there's been some debate as to WHICH is actually "Katashaka".... and well, tabaxiland is a stupid name. I'd actually like to have the two land masses having been connected previously (along with Katashaka to Lopango), and something in the last few millenia happened that collapsed these connections. The one between "Katashaka" and "Eastern Katashaka", I'd like to be a large land mass that fell beneath the sea as a result, and its inhabitants get magically transformed into octopoid merfolk.
Oh, and on the weretiger reference, in looking at other materials, I think I'd rather go in another direction and tie Katashaka to another portion of the realms that has limited information, but a similar idea. They aren't infectious lyncanthropes. If we look at the living jungle Malatra there is a race of shapechangers called "Katanga", and they change shape into all kinds of creatures (basically another type of hengeyokai). Like lyncanthropes they have a human, hybrid, and animal form. There are specifically tiger Katanga and there are also specifically snake Katanga (that can take on the form of large snakes like anacondas/boa constrictors).
There's also a rumor in the living jungle books that if ever a member of the Simbara tribe of Malatra ever meets a "tiger", then there will be catastrophe. I propose that perhaps there's a portal in the sunken section that went under the sea between Katashaka and Eastern Katashaka. Basically, there's an ancient culture of 3 fingered humans with larger skulls known as the "Ancient Nubari" who came here "across the stars" fleeing an ancient enemy. These ancient Nubari settled in Malatra in a plateau that they created. Later some unwritten catastrophe happens to their civilization. It starts to fall, and eventually they start mating with the humans of Malatra to form what becomes the "Nubari" race (a less alien human). So, perhaps these "ancient Nubari" did something practical when they settled on Toril. They didn't just settle in one remote spot, but rather in two or more. One of these places is that land that sank over in Katashaka. Perhaps as well there are Katanga that live on the border of this territory, perhaps lots of them, in the form of snake and tiger Katanga. Thus, the worship of a snake spirit for the anaconda mercenary company and the rumors of weretigers, because possibly half of the people are Katanga of various types (tiger, snake, etc...). Perhaps these Katanga attacked and destroyed the Ancient Nubari civilization in Katashaka a thousand years or more ago, perhaps out of fear of their advanced "technology". Perhaps something bad happened akin to a nuclear meltdown and it destroyed that civilization (I'd stray from it being directly nuclear though.... it could involve them studying some kind of star metal...). Hell, we might even be able to tie it to Karsus' Folly, as yet another part of the world where magic stopped for a bit with disastrous consequences.
This might also help me with that idea of the octopoid folk as well, as perhaps they were Katanga as well, but they are octopus Katanga. Thus, they could come on land and have regular feet.
Although this would in effect be duplicating a lot of Malatra lore into this other area of the realms, I think that's perhaps the best way to do it. I personally like the idea that perhaps the Imaskari diaspora also possibly came to the ocean and decided that they should set sail. Thus, we could have some "Mulan" gods in Eastern Katashaka that aren't the typical Egyptian deities (perhaps some didn't want to follow Ra). |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 12 Jul 2020 : 21:12:46
|
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
If you want to have a cat city, look at Per-Bastet. It's in the Southlands book from Kobold Press, and it has become one of my favorite fantasy cities.
Yep, I've looked at it. I'm actually inclined towards several different cat cities. Not so many human cities. One "cat city" would be a city of decadence ruled over by a variety of lamia that resembles the original (i.e. they have female tops, but their bottoms may be lion, deer, goat, cow, yak, etc...). Another would be a "cat city" ruled by Rakshasas who have lesser cat races under them, and the idea of this city is one of politics, scheming, etc.. A third "cat city" would be one of the "cowardly lenastans"... basically a Leonine cat folk that once held a position of prominence and have been forced from their homeland because they were overpowered. They aren't cowardly, but their enemies taunt them with that saying because they had to retreat from their homeland in disgrace because they had gotten lackadaisical in thinking they were secure.
Then there's the whole culture I've been thinking about with the Wakanari Highlands.... a place where cat's that fly (tressym, dragonne {aka Hakuna}, griffin, winged hunting cats, lammasu, etc...) isn't unusual, and catfolk and birdfolk actually get along. They're ruled over by numerous sphinx, who themselves are just the mouthpieces for the higher powers of "The Council of the Reborn Phoenix"... who are themselves unique individuals much like Primordials or godly incarnations/avatars. These councilors are different "varieties" of Phoenix, a great winged lion with a fiery mane named Nobannu, a great feathered dragon, etc...
|
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
The Masked Mage
Great Reader
USA
2420 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jul 2020 : 01:15:55
|
quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
If you are going to think about Realmspace, consider explaining what happened to cause the rain of meteors in 1374 DR. (Talked about in Grand History and Dragons of Faerun.)
Was this not the result of that first set of Erevis Cale novels? Where they chased the Slaad around and in the end all the bad guy wanted to do was make a tear of Selune block the sun for a while... Then it crashed to Toril and made meteors.
|
|
|
|
BadCatMan
Senior Scribe
Australia
401 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jul 2020 : 02:49:53
|
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
Thank you. You always show me something new. So, while not explicitly stating Katashaka, it seems like a good way to mine for cultures and locations to add (maybe its not in my original vision, but that's part of the point... collaboration).
Thank Look-a-troopa for connecting to the Ebony Queen at the wiki, it was quite an impressive leap. :)
And I should clarify that while Gold & Glory only refers to a distant, unnamed island, it's Dragon Annual #4's "Speaking in Tongues" that has the early Tabaxi and the Anaconda come from a "Dark Continent" (a hypothesised sub-Saharan-like island, and itself a generic Africa-style setting proposed in an earlier Dragon). Serpent Kingdoms expanded on the Tabaxi origins and The Grand History of the Realms went further and finally named Katashaka. So, linking the chain, I concluded the Dark Continent was Katashaka.
An alternative, though, is Akota, both a city in Zakhara (perhaps a colony or trade enclave) and a country somewhere well outside in Zakhara. I imagine one of the smaller continents/islands between Zakhara and Katashaka, if not on or part of Katashaka itself.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Akota
Looking further into the Ebony Queen, Captain Soot is an ajami mage, and an ajami is an outlander or foreigner to Zakhara. So, it's very likely he also comes from Katashaka. Soot is also lucky enough to be considered an honorary genie. There are also two gnome sea mages who could come from the same place.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Soot
With that, I picture modern Katashaka as being highly magically advanced, with ships that go to the elemental planes, though the Anaconda might hide their might from Faerun, hence their secrecy. A Torilian Wakanda, perhaps. |
BadCatMan, B.Sc. (Hons), M.Sc.
Scientific technical editor
Head DM of the Realms of Adventure play-by-post community
Administrator of the Forgotten Realms Wiki |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jul 2020 : 12:23:26
|
quote:
Originally posted by BadCatMan
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
Thank you. You always show me something new. So, while not explicitly stating Katashaka, it seems like a good way to mine for cultures and locations to add (maybe its not in my original vision, but that's part of the point... collaboration).
Thank Look-a-troopa for connecting to the Ebony Queen at the wiki, it was quite an impressive leap. :)
And I should clarify that while Gold & Glory only refers to a distant, unnamed island, it's Dragon Annual #4's "Speaking in Tongues" that has the early Tabaxi and the Anaconda come from a "Dark Continent" (a hypothesised sub-Saharan-like island, and itself a generic Africa-style setting proposed in an earlier Dragon). Serpent Kingdoms expanded on the Tabaxi origins and The Grand History of the Realms went further and finally named Katashaka. So, linking the chain, I concluded the Dark Continent was Katashaka.
An alternative, though, is Akota, both a city in Zakhara (perhaps a colony or trade enclave) and a country somewhere well outside in Zakhara. I imagine one of the smaller continents/islands between Zakhara and Katashaka, if not on or part of Katashaka itself.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Akota
Looking further into the Ebony Queen, Captain Soot is an ajami mage, and an ajami is an outlander or foreigner to Zakhara. So, it's very likely he also comes from Katashaka. Soot is also lucky enough to be considered an honorary genie. There are also two gnome sea mages who could come from the same place.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Soot
With that, I picture modern Katashaka as being highly magically advanced, with ships that go to the elemental planes, though the Anaconda might hide their might from Faerun, hence their secrecy. A Torilian Wakanda, perhaps.
I will have to thank them then (so if you read this guys, thanks).
On the idea of Katashaka being highly magically advanced with lots of ships that travel to the elemental planes, I'm very hesitant to do that. I'd personally rather it be that Captain Soot captured someone else's ship that can travel between the inner planes and renamed it the Ebony Queen. He then put it to damn good use. I do like the idea though that he's from Katashaka (in particular, I'm picturing the humans of Katashaka being on the "Eastern" island of Katashaka and on the southern portion. The northern portion, I want to be mostly beastfolk (lion folk <Lenastans>, wemics, Tiger Folks <basically rakasta, but called Tigrans>, tabaxi (some black furred), Lamia, Rakshasa, yak men, minotaurs, goat folk (ibixians), zebrataurs, tauric antelopes with different looks, tauric warthogs, rhino men, rhinaurs, Loxo, lots of different bird folk, gnolls, mousefolk, rat folk, bat folk, etc...). I'd like for the middle 1/3 of the continent to be a dangerous land full of dinosaurs, jungle giants, crazed nuts worshipping giant kaiju-like nyama-nummo beasts.
I could see the southern portion of the continent having ties to a human race with some advanced magic. However, after yesterday, I'm kind of inclined to actually tie it to Malatra's race of "Ancient Nubari" who are three fingered, large skulled "humans" who came here fleeing their enemies in "star ships" of some sort. Having that "race" still surviving in some kind of remote area that's surrounded by the nyama-nummo with some kind of techno-magical barrier protecting it would fit the Wakanda mold. To note to self, the name would have to be pretty different, as I already unintentionally named the Wakanari Highlands and made it a somewhat advanced (more enlightened than advanced) culture of beast folk. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jul 2020 : 13:28:20
|
quote:
Originally posted by BadCatMan
Behind the scenes at the FRW, there have been some astonishing discussions on applying real-world physics to Realmspace to calculate the exact properties of planets like Coliar, while accounting for Spelljammer mechanics. This led to some interesting theories about what's keeping Coliar habitable, as otherwise it would become super-dense and super-heated toward the core. Sirwhiteout wrote up some blog posts for some of it:
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:Sirwhiteout/Realmspace_astronomy_-_Orbital_periods_and_distances
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:Sirwhiteout/Realmspace_Astronomy_-_Gravity_of_Planets_by_Composition
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:Sirwhiteout/Realmspace_Astronomy_-_The_Atmosphere_of_Coliar
Came back to read this (and sorry for the detour on Katashaka…. you know me and my interests well) so that I could get the topic back on thread. So, for the first two, I don't follow the orbital stuff much at all, but the gravity issue is something that makes me go... yep, if we apply real world physics, then all kinds of gravity issues creep in. In this case, I'd prefer to go with the hand glossing away of that issue, because we end up with all kinds of mess. In other words, if some small "earth island" exists it should have the same gravity as another "earth island" that's 50 times its size... and both should have the same gravity as a comet floating around in realmspace. Otherwise it just opens up a severe can of worms.
Then I get to the 3rd thing, and it interests me greatly, but before I read it heavily, I want to put down my thoughts before they're colored.
Specifically, one of the things I've been wondering is IF Coliar was the result of a planet being destroyed. I also put forth that something like Anadia could simply be an "earth island" of Coliar that got away. However, similarly, a planet like Karpri might which is almost entirely water and no real land mass (what "land" there is consists of giant vegetation, not "earth"), just might be a large portion of say an ocean of the former planet of "Coliar" before it exploded. Garden as well is simply like a dozen small "moons" which could be considered "earth islands" as well, connected by a giant plant. H'Catha as well might be a cast off of the earlier destruction as its really small as well.
It just might be that the only original planets were Chandos, Glyth, and Toril with Coliar as another but getting destroyed. But then I make myself take a step back again and go "well, who says that even Coliar was an existing planet?". I then start looking at the mythology of the crystal sphere and we're told that a celestial body was lit on fire in order to create "the sun". So, what if the lighting of the sun (literally the creation of thousands of portals to the plane of fire on that celestial object) caused a huge wave of destruction? Maybe a LOT of the planets were caused when the outer layers of said celestial object burst forth in flame and ejected materials from its surface (thus creating Anadia, Coliar, Karpri, Garden, and H'Catha, as well as numerous comets and possibly collections of asteroids, etc....). At the same time that "the sun was lit by numerous portals to the plane of fire opening" perhaps numerous portals to the plane of radiance as well opened on the inner shell of the crystal sphere, creating new "stars" to the beings living on Toril at the time.
Ok, that's what was going through my head before reading this. Let me see what comes to mind after being influenced. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jul 2020 : 14:22:36
|
Ok, after having read that, I came away with a few ideas. The main one... yeah, trying to apply real world physics to this place makes all the lore invalidated apparently and impossible.... thus... magic is the answer. However, he made some suppositions that might be worth looking at.
First, he's assuming that in physical land mass, Coliar would possibly outnumber Toril by several hundred times. I'm hesitant to say that, as I don't want this place hugely crowded with possibly earth islands colliding a lot. I'd prefer less land mass, but the place is safer. Why then do they maintain their orbit? Magic. I would also prefer that for every 1 earth island there's say 2 water islands, and that say half the earth islands already HAVE water as well. Thus, about half the earth islands are pretty much nothing but rock and no life on them, but they may occasionally "crash" into a water island, soak up a lot of water, and become habitable as a result. Thus, there might be migratory patterns from one earth island to another as they gain and lose water. There might also need to be temporary evacuations if one inhabited earth island is headed towards a water island OR the inhabitants may use some kind of magic to generate a short term "wall of force" or "airy water" type effect over their settlements so that they can survive an "impact" with a water island. Such things shouldn't be common, but maybe they're known to occur at least once a century.... and maybe ever five centuries or so, two earth islands might be destined to collide and possibly join or blow apart.
Outside of the earth islands and water islands, I picture Coliar to be FILLED with clouds. Visibility of the entirety of the planets orbiting earth and water islands should be next to impossible from either within the orbit or outside of it because of these clouds. In addition, these clouds should generate weather just like we see in our own world. Thus, rain, lightning, flooding, etc.... should all be possibilities. In fact, sudden "lightning storms" might be an interesting natural phenomenon, and perhaps some have developed means to seek such out to try and harness them somehow. An idea of having "lightning chaser" ships that have some kind of lightning rods attached to some crystal or metal object which can somehow gather the lightning and convert it to magical energy could prove fun for a campaign, especially if their ships are more like Halruaan skyships and less like perfectly maneuverable and fast spelljammers.
Ohhhhh, speaking of Halruaan Skyships…. water islands.... there should be giant tortoises AND dragon turtles. They should be dangerous and nasty creatures. EVERYONE tries to harvest them, because they're necessary for the creation of ships (just like the Halruaans, their shells are used on the hulls of sky ships).
Finally, in the earlier discussion BadCatMan pointed out on the FR Wiki, there was some discussion about making assumptions as to the size of most earth islands. The idea was that they would be 16 km in diameter on average (or 10 miles in diameter for those Americans like me who have to think in those terms). I propose that that's the SMALLEST earth island worth noting, and that while that's the most numerous (say 50%), they are also the least likely to have water or inhabitants. I propose that another 30% of them are 3 to 6 times bigger than this (so 30 to 60 miles in diameter), and that the next 15% of them are between 7 and 30 times bigger (so 70 to 300 miles in diameter), and that the remaining 5% are just humongous (300+ miles in diameter to say 2000 miles in diameter). For those (like myself) who need a reference in their heads, the rough diameter of Texas is about 800 miles, so the largest of these that we're talking about might be a little over 6 times the size of Texas in area ON ONE SIDE (so, maybe double that because I see no reason that the other side couldn't be habitable with clouds reflecting sunlight, etc...). The smallest of these might be the size of a several states of the USA (i.e. Arkansas, Mississippi & Louisiana together for instance would be around say 400 miles or so). This gives the ability to have complex societies on a handful of earth islands (perhaps ones in which both lizard folk and bird folk are even sharing said earth island and competing for resources with a dragon and its brood). In total, maybe there's 30 of these really large earth islands (i.e. the 5%), which would mean that if we keep the same rough percentages I threw out.... there's say 90 of the "slightly smaller" earth islands between 70 and 300 miles in diameter (or the size of a medium US state down to a smaller US state). Keeping the same idea going, that means roughly 180 of the "even smaller" earth islands that are 30 to 60 miles in diameter... which would be big enough for a major city or a moderate city with lots of farming/herding. Dropping down even further, that puts there being roughly 300 of the "uninhabited" earth islands that are from 10 to 30 miles in diameter, which might just have wild animals, a smallish tribe, a single dragon, or no other life at all. That would make about 300 earth islands in total, which in my viewpoint is just enough to "use" for development. There might even be another say 1000 to 3000 that are even smaller (i.e. from say a half mile to 10 miles in diameter, and basically nothing more than a place to land and gather resources or stretch ones legs) that are little more than footnotes on some scholar's skymap or somesuch. This number might be constantly changing as they collide with one another, etc.... and the larger earth islands may have some kind of magical defenses in play to "swat" these smaller earth islands aside gently rather than have them crash into their homes, or perhaps "tractor beam" them down to the surface where they can be mined, etc....
This gives us the ability to have more than a hundred complex societies which could roughly equate to "areas" of Faerun (an area similar to unapproachable east, the north, the heartlands, etc...), so the societies of this world might be as complex or moreso than Toril itself. I don't even remotely deign to suggest we detail them all, but it could be fun to detail a few dozen of them to get a rough ecosystem. Maybe one group is technologically advanced and in comparison another earth island is pretty much spiritualists and shamans. One group may be focused on necromancy, and they may harvest "resources" from other earth islands to create a society of slave skeletons. One group might be racists to the extreme, while others embrace their fellow races. One group might have lots of "offworlders" integrated into their society and trading with spelljammers and known as a great place to conduct trade. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
Edited by - sleyvas on 13 Jul 2020 14:43:03 |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jul 2020 : 14:29:58
|
| Another thought just hit me after I hit send, Coliar civilizations and trash. While I don't want to even remotely consider them to be like our own society with their trash issues, it might be worthwhile to consider that they have SOME kind of trash issues to a degree. Perhaps rather than let their sewerage float into their fresh water resources, they export it into "containers" that are then floated onto smaller earthmotes. These "compost bins" may sit on another earthmote for a few decades, and perhaps its a job for people to both haul them there, but also to know where old ones are and to realize that they've "ripened" and are probably "viable for use as fertilizer. This may be a dumb idea, and maybe I don't understand enough on waste products, but the general idea is to create an industry that consists of people going out to haul this stuff away and that there may be competition to find and recover "the good stuff" after its been away for some time. Any thoughts or improvements to this? Should we throw in some things like otyughs on remote earth islands, etc...? |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
Seethyr
Master of Realmslore
USA
1151 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jul 2020 : 15:57:12
|
| Just a quick side note. It would be utterly bizarre if H’Calos - the massive worm destroyer of Maztica who fell from the skies was not from H’Catha. Personally, I reskinned some purple worms (adding claw attacks and such) to make the “H’Calans” which are the Star Worm’s offspring. Perhaps H’Catha is crawling with such creatures? |
Follow the Maztica (Aztec/Maya) and Anchorome (Indigenous North America) Campaigns on DMsGuild!
The Maztica Campaign
The Anchorome Campaign |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jul 2020 : 18:16:46
|
quote:
Originally posted by Seethyr
Just a quick side note. It would be utterly bizarre if H’Calos - the massive worm destroyer of Maztica who fell from the skies was not from H’Catha. Personally, I reskinned some purple worms (adding claw attacks and such) to make the “H’Calans” which are the Star Worm’s offspring. Perhaps H’Catha is crawling with such creatures?
Makes sense. I wouldn't be surprised if both Glyth and H'Catha don't have some kind of links to the Far Realm as well, and possibly this has something to do with this. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36804 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jul 2020 : 18:48:00
|
quote:
Originally posted by Seethyr
Just a quick side note. It would be utterly bizarre if H’Calos - the massive worm destroyer of Maztica who fell from the skies was not from H’Catha. Personally, I reskinned some purple worms (adding claw attacks and such) to make the “H’Calans” which are the Star Worm’s offspring. Perhaps H’Catha is crawling with such creatures?
Why? Aside from the H'Ca part, what suggests any connection between the two?
I get that the names are similar, but I've long been loathe to assume a connection just because of similar words. Cart and care are just one letter apart, but there is nothing at all that connects them. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen! |
|
|
|
Topic |
|
|
|
Realmspace Reimagining - Populating other worlds
