OOC - World Building

[Q.Q Elf]

List of locations in the Grand Duchy

• Elfland - the Elven Haven in the game world, mostly like Lindon, the last port before sailing off into the West
• Angaz Karaz, the Dwarven Halls (UNALIGNED) - like Mithral Hall, but not exactly.
• Bederatzi, Religious Bastion (LAWFUL) - beyond the Saffron Sea, a desert. Like Mecca, prior to Mohammed. People of the Grand Duchy must make a Hajj to Bederatzi once in their lifetimes.
• Bustling Metropolis - like Minas Tirith, City of Greyhawk, or Sigil (Planescape)
• Wizard's Tower - an odd town dominated by the Wizard's college. Like the immediate area around a Tower of High Sorcery in the Dragonlance setting, minus the rest of the city around it.
• The Keep on the Borderlands (LAWFUL), Remote Village
• Dorfburg, the Busy Crossroads - a trade hub with a lot of traffic and travelers. Straddles many worlds - between Elfland and the Mannish world, and between the Saffron Sea (Bederatzi) and the rest of the Grand Duchy

EDITED POST. I will keep this updated with info as we round out the game world.

[Q.Q Elf]

The Keep on the Borderlands

Sometimes located in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos (Mystara), sometimes in the Yeomanry (Greyhawk). For our world (as yet unnamed), it's in the Eastern Marches of the Grand Duchy.

We've defined it as the Remote Village. As such, all young men of the village are required to learn weaponry (and serve in the conscripted defenses of the Keep, should the need arise). We'll also add the law: "Participation in Chaos Cults is forbidden, and punishable by DEATH."

Beyond that, we haven't defined the Keep.

Dorfburg

Busy Crossroads near Elfland.

Let's define Elfland as something like the Western Haven of Lindon in Middle Earth - the last point between the realm of the living, and the Elf's final voyage into the West.

So, therefore, Dorfburg is off to the West of Adventure World. Not as far West as the Elfland, but definitely not in the East like the Keep on the Borderlands.

Let's make Dorfburg also a port, where people may cross the Saffron Sea to get to...

Bederatzi

Simon calls this "beyond the Saffron Sea". How big is this sea? Why is it so important to Adventure World? Why is it named the Saffron Sea?

It's definitely away, but not so far as to be unreachable. I want it to be in the world, and not just a name. That way, it can matter. If it's just a point on the map where you come from, does it help us make our shared Adventure World better?

[Q.Q Elf]

Dwarven Halls now in play... Homeland for Horris IronBeard.

Tharos

The Dwarven Halls, to the northern part of the Grand Duchy.

(Got the name out of some Middle Earth something or other.)

[Simon]

So my idea for Bederatzi was to be a city on the far side of a desert. "The Saffron Sea" was the name of the desert. I was imagining something large but not impossibly so. Maybe the desert got its name because of the vibrant spice-trading route that runs through it. Maybe that's how Bederatzi keeps the coffers full? Just some suggestions.

[GreyWolfVT]

For some odd reason despite the prime examples of other dwarven keeps or homelands I picture something more along the lines of Mithral Hall. A great underground dwarf home/hold with a above ground settlement the very first Dwarf above ground settlement. Full details on that area http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Mithral_Hall but I don't want to completely copy them..... But you get the general idea of what I was thinking of.

[sulldawga]

Might make sense for Marodin's Religious Bastion to be different from Ahmad's, since it sounds like we worship different gods.

And given Marodin's penchant for Oration, it would be helpful if the Bastion was near a population center. Else, who can he convert with his honeyed words?

[Q.Q Elf]

Good details! I like that the Sea is a desert. Maybe I'm on a Dune kick right now.

My thing is that it needs to be crossed, and that Bederatzi isn't just way off somewhere that will never have any meaning in the world.

The big lure of Bederatzi is, of course, the Religious. Maybe the world has a mandatory Hajj for the Lords of Light, with Bederatzi like Mecca... but a blend of pre- and post-Mohammed Mecca since Torchbearer's world is not monotheistic, and I don't think the pre-Mohammed polytheist/animist Mecca had a Hajj.

The spice trade is also a good choice to give people a temporal reason to go to Bederatzi. Perhaps the style of cooking in the Grand Duchy is heavily spiced, making spices more like a need rather than a want. Maybe there's a physical need to the spice (THE SPICE MUST FLOW), perhaps some mind-altering & addictive properties.

So Dorfburg doesn't need to be a port any longer (especially since only the Bustling Metropolis includes Sailor as a starting skill). Dorfburg needs to be close to some barrier mountains, maybe at the foot of the pass through the mountains... so it's a common gateway to Elfland, the Saffron Sea, and the Bustling Metropolis. The mountains screen off the Saffron Sea from rainfall.

[Q.Q Elf]

Might make sense for Marodin's Religious Bastion to be different from Ahmad's, since it sounds like we worship different gods.

And given Marodin's penchant for Oration, it would be helpful if the Bastion was near a population center. Else, who can he convert with his honeyed words?

I don't like having more than one of a location type, but we can tuck in a Monastic Order within the Bustling Metropolis. Not THE Bastion (which will be Ahmad's), but a Bastion.

I think the religion is meant to be Polytheistic, though. Torchbearer definitely does not imply monotheism. So Ahmad's Bastion must be open to all the Lords of Light. It could be the closest place to the gods on this Earth... like the Ganges River (since we can't compare it strictly to the Catholic Vatican or the Muslim Mecca or even Jerusalem).

And I don't mean to imply that Polytheism means harmonious either. The gods took sides in the Trojan War. Heck, Monotheism isn't harmony either (Inquisition/Reformation, Sunni/Shia Islam, etc.). If it's Human, there are problems with it... so, anyway, that's my rambling.

[Q.Q Elf]

For some odd reason despite the prime examples of other dwarven keeps or homelands I picture something more along the lines of Mithral Hall. A great underground dwarf home/hold with a above ground settlement the very first Dwarf above ground settlement. Full details on that area http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Mithral_Hall but I don't want to completely copy them..... But you get the general idea of what I was thinking of.

Got it.

So what makes people go to this Mithral Hall, besides Dwarves? Or is it meant to be sealed away except for Dwarves?

[GreyWolfVT]

names like Elfland and Dwarven Halls are not set in stone I take it we can come up with a name for the location? If that is indeed the case I'd like to say the Dwarven Halls are called Angaz Karaz (Dwarf language for Ironwork Mountain)