Questions

Some questions that have been kicking around my brain:

1. Thus far it seems like the [EMPIRE] is quite cohesive and unitary. Is there more than one major settlement?

2. What size an empire are we talking here? Just a few miles? Hundreds of leagues?

3. Do things/creatures/races from the Dark threaten the [EMPIRE]? Does it face invasions, incursions, skirmishes, raids? Or do most folk just ignore the Dark, like a scary wood off in the distance that doesn't really pose a threat unless you go wandering around at night?

4. What is the relative level of wealth and poverty? Is this a prosperous society? Is it struggling to scratch out a living in the wilderness?

5. How does the Church of Erathis feel about the Dark? Do they leave it alone and focus on running things? Do they send out missionary type folk, like conquistadors to tame the wilderness?

When reading these questions, I found myself summarizing them in my mind as, "So, where are the sources of trouble/conflict/adventure?" Obviously, as adventurers, we are going to need some trouble/conflict/adventure in order to have something to do, and so getting some sort of notion as to where we'll be finding it would be a nice glimpse into the future, and would also help us round out our views of the world, perhaps even our characters.

Baern wrote:

When reading these questions, I found myself summarizing them in my mind as, "So, where are the sources of trouble/conflict/adventure?"

That's pretty much my main question too, at this point.

Or, to put it a bit differently, "What's this campaign about?" As in, if this was a fantasy novel/movie, what would the blurb say to make you want to read/see it?

Quote :

1. Thus far it seems like the [EMPIRE] is quite cohesive and unitary. Is there more than one major settlement?

2. What size an empire are we talking here? Just a few miles? Hundreds of leagues?

3. Do things/creatures/races from the Dark threaten the [EMPIRE]? Does it face invasions, incursions, skirmishes, raids? Or do most folk just ignore the Dark, like a scary wood off in the distance that doesn't really pose a threat unless you go wandering around at night?

4. What is the relative level of wealth and poverty? Is this a prosperous society? Is it struggling to scratch out a living in the wilderness?

5. How does the Church of Erathis feel about the Dark? Do they leave it alone and focus on running things? Do they send out missionary type folk, like conquistadors to tame the wilderness?

1. The expanse controlled by the church is referred to as the Enlightened Lands of Erathian, Erathian for short. The Holy Chuch of Erathis is the official guardian and enforcer of her ways. There are two major cities (50K+ people); Anou and Ashq. See my descriptions in the world section

2. Relatively small compared to what we would think of. From Anou to Ashq is near 700 miles and is considered a standard of long length or a long period of time. ("You could travel to Ashq and back before that would happen!"). the journey can take near a month with a full caravan going 25 miles a day....for your people it is a fucking long way.

3. Not really the church has an established front or border and the lesser races pretty much know to stay out. The south of Anou is bordered by mountains and rarely something comes down...but it happens. Not enough to say its a "threat" the church only sends units out if there is a disturbance and doesn't maintain a hard border.

4. Society has done well guided by the law and light of Erathis. Anou is relatively well to do until you head toward Twilight Heights then things are considerably worse. At the base of the Spire in Anou the wealth level is very high. Ashq is ruled by the merchant baron houses and as such they control the money their workers and serfs are relatively poor in material but are well taken care of otherwise.

5. The Dark is always on the church's mind, a long term goal is pushing the light of Erathis as far as possible. Due to the limited population it is not feasible to just go do it, again more of a long term goal. To that end there are always jobs for adventuring types to explore the dark and find the next site for a city that can spread Erathis creation. Most people are content with life and don't take up these challenges, adventuring again is not highly thought of ("The church takes care of us here we are not in a rush to expand"). Some companies such as the Leauge of Asertin are long standing exploration companies that will take jobs but they are stretched thing as the Dark is a huge expanse and most who venture do not come back.

Keep in mind the area surrounding these towns is littered with small settlements and villages. Farm towns, lumber mills, and fishermans wharfs with only a few hundred to a couple thousand exist. The church does not maintain direct control as the force required would be to great, however they are often called to help settle larger disputes and troubles of said settlements.

More random questions. As in previous iterations, assume that I'm asking for the point of view of a typical Erathian and therefore interested as much in rumor, myth, and story as in objective fact.

1. Are there other planes of existence? I'm particularly interested in the feywild and shadowfell. Supposedly eladrin teleport (their racial ability) through the feywild, and I'm just wondering whether or not that figures into things in Erathian. Also, I'm just a little curious about what these religious folk believe happens to them when they die, but that's not as important.

2. As a general question, what is the pattern of settlement like within the map area? Originally I was picturing these kind of city-states surrounded by harsh wilderness, but now I'm thinking more that this place is a Shire-like haven of peace and tranquility, with farmers and crap spread all over the place until you get to the borders of the Dark. I don't know if either one is really very accurate to how you are picturing this.

3. This might seem silly, but does Erathian have books? I'm trying to get a handle on how restrictive the society is with learning. Is this kind of like medieval times, where learning is restricted to elites just because they're the only ones who can afford it? Does the church closely guard certain secrets but otherwise not worry about public knowledge? Or is this a more Orwellian sort of thing, where the church tightly controls all knowledge?

4. Can we make humans a despised minority? Wouldn't that be awesome? Kill all humans!

1. The church does not acknowledge or deny other planes, such as the shadows or fey. If pressed for an answer many clerics believe that Erathis closed off the connections to both. The Eladrin while able to teleport are no longer able to "feel" the feywild their connection all but severed. The church acknowledges that Erathis may not have had the ultimate power of all creation and was not able to break all laws that were set in place when the universe was created. The common thought is that while this is a new world it is still bound by certain laws and the other planes and worlds still exist. Currently no one is able to break these bonds and travel elsewhere, it would be strictly prohibited and the church would snuff out any such attempts as doing so might result in exposing their mostly perfect place to the wilder worlds and planes.

2. Generally they operate as we do in humanity, find a spot and expand taming the wilderness as it comes. This is fundamentally an expansionist state who's goals is to spread. With that in mind when a new city is founded they will clear the surrounding area and then spread back to the larger points. In this case not a lot of time has passed and so only 2 major cities have been established the smaller communities and whatnot that dot the map are extensions of the conquering of the wilds. Much like a standard map assume there are a lot of small villages and such that aren't on the map just because of the time constraints and whatnot.

3. There are books and education but the church has final say on if something can be published or taught. The majority of schooling is done by the church itself so consider that.

4. There are no robots in this campaign so, no.