Hello ladies and gentlemen, I come to you, humbly, expressing interest in a trial run of a campaign I plan to run with my tabletop group in the near future. The game world is that of the Second Edition of 7th Sea.
A quick primer on the world setting.
7th Sea is a Late-Renaissance universe, with many nations being carbon-copies of real world counterparts. Sails, black powder, cutlasses, sorcery, and rapiers. Essentially, every interesting thing that happened between 1500 and 1700 is happening at the exact same time.
The nations of Theah (not-Europe) are:
The Glamour Isles (not-United Kingdom) - A new nation, forged from three independent lands, when the newly crowned Queen Elaine emerged from the realm of the Sidhe bearing the mythical Graal not seen since ancient times. The nations and their leaders have grudgingly agreed that Elaine should rule them with this power, but each has its own reasons for being unhappy.
- Avalon (not-England) is currently dealing with the re-emergence of the Sidhe. Queen Elaine constantly defers to the Sidhe, giving them land from peasants and nobles alike. This land is being warped in strange and unsettling ways. Avalon's Lords and Knights are investing in ships to meet the demands of the Queen for a great fleet.
- Innismore (not-Ireland) has provided many sailors and soldiers to Queen Elaine's new fleet. The people have no love for Elaine, but they fear their own king, the Mad Jack o'Bannon. An immortal demigod, the O'Bannon has a habit of getting bored and wandering off to who-knows-where, then returning and murdering whoever took the throne from him in his absence- whether the throne taker was ambitious or simply wanted to make sure the government kept working. Mad Jack recently single-handedly defeated the Castillian Armada's invasion, but Elaine isn't sure how long it will be before Jack gets bored and wanders off, leaving her to negotiate with the Inish people...
- The Highland Marches (not-Scotland) has fared the worst of the three Kingdoms since the unification. The marches have always been poor, but at least the Inish are being paid for their services as Sailors. The High King of the Marches, Macduff, is fighting a losing battle to stop secession from coming about. Meanwhile, the wife of the Secessionist leader has become Queen Elaine's mistress, and their love could tear the nation apart... or heal it.
Castille (not-Spain) is a nation that went from the top of the pack to rock bottom in the space of 50 years. A Castillian owes his loyalty to Theus (God), Family, and King- in that order. As the seat of the Vaticine Church, the people of Castille were the greatest scholars the world had ever known. They took the words of the First Prophet Yesu to heart- "To know the Creator, you must study His Creation." Scholars from across the world flocked to the nation's universities- Yacchidi doctors, Crescent architects, and Vesten economists. Then came the War of the Cross. The nation of Eisen gave shelter to the Objectionist sects, and Cardinal Esteban Verdugo of the normally quiet Inquisition demanded that they be turned over by force. The King ordered his Tercios to invade and bring that nation to heel. What followed was a 30 year war that decimated both nations and bankrupted Castille, left the Church without a Hierophant (mysteriously, as Cardinal Verdugo's star continued to rise), and allowed the Inquisiton to rise to power in Castille. With the last of his power, the King sent the Castillian Armada to invade Avalon and take its riches to pay for one last attack in Eisen, but the fleet was destroyed and the king passed away soon after. The King's son, Sandoval, was crowned immediately and taken hostage by the Inquisition's agents. Now they run the nation, burning books of knowledge, torturing "heathen" scholars, and preparing to spread their vision of the Vaticine faith across Theah.
To speak of Eisen (not-Germany) is to speak of a tragedy that is now unending. Before the War of the Cross, there were close to 30,000,000 souls within the nation. Now, it would be generous to say there are half that many. The people of Eisen fought Castillians, Vestens, Avalonians, Montaigne, Ussurans, and Sarmatians in the War of the Cross. They did not win. Everyone else decided the ashes were not worth fighting over. And all that death has unleashed millions of Horrors upon those who remain. Werewolves, ghouls, revenants, wights, blood drinkers, mad alchemists- if you are not within the high walls of Wirsche, or protected by the great army of Posen, you will be undone by any one of these. Monster hunters roam the villages, doing what they can to destroy these creatures. Mercenaries have taken up root in the ruined castles of dead cities. But hope remains- the next generation of Eisen are coming of age, and they are preparing to take back their homeland from the monsters that destroyed it.
The Sarmatian Commonwealth (not-Poland-Lithuania) is a nation that is at the forefront and the rear of Thean politics. The nation's King lies on his deathbed while the Senat bickers, deadlocked over who will replace him on the throne. And while they bicker, Ussura and the Crescent Empire eye them hungrily. The King's power is limited. He may lead the army and make treaties with other nations. And he may also grant noble titles. And so, to break the deadlock and prevent one of the Senat from selling the nation to another power, the King has enacted Golden Liberty. With the stroke of a pen, every man, woman and child has been given the rank of Knight. All people within the Commonwealth may walk into the Senat and cast a vote on any matter. The people have taken this new power with much pride and aplomb, and the old ways of chivalry are resurgent now that they can claim these titles. The King only prays that they will have the wisdom to use this power to protect the nation when he is dead.
Ussura (not-Russia) is in the grips of a power struggle. The Czar has died on his wedding night, his heart pierced by an icicle. His bride, Kathyrina, an Eisen woman, claims the marriage was consummated before his tragic murder, and she is now Czarina- with the backing of the noble Boyars. The Czar's son, Ilya, has returned from exile in the east, where he fought Cathay raiders and become a hero of the peasants. They see him as the true inheritor of the Czar's throne. War has not broken out yet. Both sides wait to hear if Matyushka, the stern guardian spirit that protects them, will pronounce a ruler. But Matyushka has remained silent about who should be Czar or Czarina. And Matyushka is rarely a quiet guardian.
"L'Empereur is an angry drunk. And he is never sober." ~ A common Montaigne saying.
Montaigne (not-France) is currently ruled by its strongest monarch in history, l'Empereur Leon Alexandre (not-Louis XIV). His armies are vast and his authority is absolute. The judiciary levies fines against the peasantry to feed his lavish lifestyle. After a failed invasion of Castille and a rumored upcoming invasion of Ussura, the peasantry have begun to rumble about overturning their great king. Only the Mousquetaires hold any faith with the people- a thousand men and women struggle to serve the Emperor AND his Empire. If they fail this mission, the people will take to the streets, and the crown will roll into the gutter.
Vesten (not-Denmark/Norway) has fought a culture war between warriors and merchants. And the merchants won. Long a poor nation of raiders cutting across the waves to raid Avalon and Eisen, the craftsmen of Vesten (the city) created a trade league in the last 100 years that saw the longships hauling iron and fur across the waves guarded by the warrior class. And now the silver has flowed. The Vesten command all trade in Eisen, Ussura, Avalon, Montaigne, and most of Castille. Only the Vodacce and the Atabean Trading Company oppose them. The first will inevitably fall, its merchant princes too busy stabbing each other in the back. But the ATC is their own creation, their own folly. They taught its board of directors the ways of commerce, and that board has perverted their vision into something unholy. The ATC has engineered a civil war in Ifri, sells weapons to both sides, then buys the prisoners of war as slave labor for their plantations, all the while exterminating native Rahuri tribes to build an empire of gold from the bones. The Vesten view this monstrous thing as their greatest failure- and they will not rest until the heads of the ATC's Board members sit on spikes above their harbor. The Ifri slaves have already cast off their shackles on the island of Jaragua, and the Vesten prepare to send guns and swords to this new nation, in a first step to put this wrong right again.
"In Vodacce, we do not say a man suffers bad luck. We say that he was pushed." ~ Giovanni Villanova
Vodacce (not-Italy) is a land of tradition, and no tradition goes back farther than backstabbing. Seven merchant princes claim to be the true inheritors of the Numanari Empire. Their machinations see that no one prince has claimed the mantle of Numa since the collapse of the empire. But they continue to play the great game, all the same- in the hope that someone will win in the end. Their second tradition is misogyny. Vodacce women practice the oldest and strongest of magic in Theah- Fate Weaving. Since time immemorial, no woman has been allowed to read or learn numbers, all Fate Witches must go about their lives wearing a thick veil. Only the Courtesans of Vodacce may learn to read and write, all to entertain their male suitors. But this has sewn the seeds of the system's destruction. Courtesans in Vodacce have begun banding together, teaching Fate Witches to read in secret or smuggling them out of the country entirely. Once they have enough power, the Courtesans and Fate Witches may tear down all of Vodacce and pluck out the rotten fruits, as has happened in Eisen- or they may try to make a more seamless transition as in Sarmatia. But that day has not yet come...
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This campaign would begin with a group in Vodacce. They serve a merchant prince, and are present at a dinner party when things begin to go horribly wrong. They must make a journey through a city, board a ship, and set sail either for the Atabean (the not-Caribbean) where a war between the ATC and the now free people of Jaragua is imminent, or toward Castille to claim sanctuary in a nation where fanatics have seized power.
Thoughts?
A quick primer on the world setting.
7th Sea is a Late-Renaissance universe, with many nations being carbon-copies of real world counterparts. Sails, black powder, cutlasses, sorcery, and rapiers. Essentially, every interesting thing that happened between 1500 and 1700 is happening at the exact same time.
The nations of Theah (not-Europe) are:
The Glamour Isles (not-United Kingdom) - A new nation, forged from three independent lands, when the newly crowned Queen Elaine emerged from the realm of the Sidhe bearing the mythical Graal not seen since ancient times. The nations and their leaders have grudgingly agreed that Elaine should rule them with this power, but each has its own reasons for being unhappy.
- Avalon (not-England) is currently dealing with the re-emergence of the Sidhe. Queen Elaine constantly defers to the Sidhe, giving them land from peasants and nobles alike. This land is being warped in strange and unsettling ways. Avalon's Lords and Knights are investing in ships to meet the demands of the Queen for a great fleet.
- Innismore (not-Ireland) has provided many sailors and soldiers to Queen Elaine's new fleet. The people have no love for Elaine, but they fear their own king, the Mad Jack o'Bannon. An immortal demigod, the O'Bannon has a habit of getting bored and wandering off to who-knows-where, then returning and murdering whoever took the throne from him in his absence- whether the throne taker was ambitious or simply wanted to make sure the government kept working. Mad Jack recently single-handedly defeated the Castillian Armada's invasion, but Elaine isn't sure how long it will be before Jack gets bored and wanders off, leaving her to negotiate with the Inish people...
- The Highland Marches (not-Scotland) has fared the worst of the three Kingdoms since the unification. The marches have always been poor, but at least the Inish are being paid for their services as Sailors. The High King of the Marches, Macduff, is fighting a losing battle to stop secession from coming about. Meanwhile, the wife of the Secessionist leader has become Queen Elaine's mistress, and their love could tear the nation apart... or heal it.
Castille (not-Spain) is a nation that went from the top of the pack to rock bottom in the space of 50 years. A Castillian owes his loyalty to Theus (God), Family, and King- in that order. As the seat of the Vaticine Church, the people of Castille were the greatest scholars the world had ever known. They took the words of the First Prophet Yesu to heart- "To know the Creator, you must study His Creation." Scholars from across the world flocked to the nation's universities- Yacchidi doctors, Crescent architects, and Vesten economists. Then came the War of the Cross. The nation of Eisen gave shelter to the Objectionist sects, and Cardinal Esteban Verdugo of the normally quiet Inquisition demanded that they be turned over by force. The King ordered his Tercios to invade and bring that nation to heel. What followed was a 30 year war that decimated both nations and bankrupted Castille, left the Church without a Hierophant (mysteriously, as Cardinal Verdugo's star continued to rise), and allowed the Inquisiton to rise to power in Castille. With the last of his power, the King sent the Castillian Armada to invade Avalon and take its riches to pay for one last attack in Eisen, but the fleet was destroyed and the king passed away soon after. The King's son, Sandoval, was crowned immediately and taken hostage by the Inquisition's agents. Now they run the nation, burning books of knowledge, torturing "heathen" scholars, and preparing to spread their vision of the Vaticine faith across Theah.
To speak of Eisen (not-Germany) is to speak of a tragedy that is now unending. Before the War of the Cross, there were close to 30,000,000 souls within the nation. Now, it would be generous to say there are half that many. The people of Eisen fought Castillians, Vestens, Avalonians, Montaigne, Ussurans, and Sarmatians in the War of the Cross. They did not win. Everyone else decided the ashes were not worth fighting over. And all that death has unleashed millions of Horrors upon those who remain. Werewolves, ghouls, revenants, wights, blood drinkers, mad alchemists- if you are not within the high walls of Wirsche, or protected by the great army of Posen, you will be undone by any one of these. Monster hunters roam the villages, doing what they can to destroy these creatures. Mercenaries have taken up root in the ruined castles of dead cities. But hope remains- the next generation of Eisen are coming of age, and they are preparing to take back their homeland from the monsters that destroyed it.
The Sarmatian Commonwealth (not-Poland-Lithuania) is a nation that is at the forefront and the rear of Thean politics. The nation's King lies on his deathbed while the Senat bickers, deadlocked over who will replace him on the throne. And while they bicker, Ussura and the Crescent Empire eye them hungrily. The King's power is limited. He may lead the army and make treaties with other nations. And he may also grant noble titles. And so, to break the deadlock and prevent one of the Senat from selling the nation to another power, the King has enacted Golden Liberty. With the stroke of a pen, every man, woman and child has been given the rank of Knight. All people within the Commonwealth may walk into the Senat and cast a vote on any matter. The people have taken this new power with much pride and aplomb, and the old ways of chivalry are resurgent now that they can claim these titles. The King only prays that they will have the wisdom to use this power to protect the nation when he is dead.
Ussura (not-Russia) is in the grips of a power struggle. The Czar has died on his wedding night, his heart pierced by an icicle. His bride, Kathyrina, an Eisen woman, claims the marriage was consummated before his tragic murder, and she is now Czarina- with the backing of the noble Boyars. The Czar's son, Ilya, has returned from exile in the east, where he fought Cathay raiders and become a hero of the peasants. They see him as the true inheritor of the Czar's throne. War has not broken out yet. Both sides wait to hear if Matyushka, the stern guardian spirit that protects them, will pronounce a ruler. But Matyushka has remained silent about who should be Czar or Czarina. And Matyushka is rarely a quiet guardian.
"L'Empereur is an angry drunk. And he is never sober." ~ A common Montaigne saying.
Montaigne (not-France) is currently ruled by its strongest monarch in history, l'Empereur Leon Alexandre (not-Louis XIV). His armies are vast and his authority is absolute. The judiciary levies fines against the peasantry to feed his lavish lifestyle. After a failed invasion of Castille and a rumored upcoming invasion of Ussura, the peasantry have begun to rumble about overturning their great king. Only the Mousquetaires hold any faith with the people- a thousand men and women struggle to serve the Emperor AND his Empire. If they fail this mission, the people will take to the streets, and the crown will roll into the gutter.
Vesten (not-Denmark/Norway) has fought a culture war between warriors and merchants. And the merchants won. Long a poor nation of raiders cutting across the waves to raid Avalon and Eisen, the craftsmen of Vesten (the city) created a trade league in the last 100 years that saw the longships hauling iron and fur across the waves guarded by the warrior class. And now the silver has flowed. The Vesten command all trade in Eisen, Ussura, Avalon, Montaigne, and most of Castille. Only the Vodacce and the Atabean Trading Company oppose them. The first will inevitably fall, its merchant princes too busy stabbing each other in the back. But the ATC is their own creation, their own folly. They taught its board of directors the ways of commerce, and that board has perverted their vision into something unholy. The ATC has engineered a civil war in Ifri, sells weapons to both sides, then buys the prisoners of war as slave labor for their plantations, all the while exterminating native Rahuri tribes to build an empire of gold from the bones. The Vesten view this monstrous thing as their greatest failure- and they will not rest until the heads of the ATC's Board members sit on spikes above their harbor. The Ifri slaves have already cast off their shackles on the island of Jaragua, and the Vesten prepare to send guns and swords to this new nation, in a first step to put this wrong right again.
"In Vodacce, we do not say a man suffers bad luck. We say that he was pushed." ~ Giovanni Villanova
Vodacce (not-Italy) is a land of tradition, and no tradition goes back farther than backstabbing. Seven merchant princes claim to be the true inheritors of the Numanari Empire. Their machinations see that no one prince has claimed the mantle of Numa since the collapse of the empire. But they continue to play the great game, all the same- in the hope that someone will win in the end. Their second tradition is misogyny. Vodacce women practice the oldest and strongest of magic in Theah- Fate Weaving. Since time immemorial, no woman has been allowed to read or learn numbers, all Fate Witches must go about their lives wearing a thick veil. Only the Courtesans of Vodacce may learn to read and write, all to entertain their male suitors. But this has sewn the seeds of the system's destruction. Courtesans in Vodacce have begun banding together, teaching Fate Witches to read in secret or smuggling them out of the country entirely. Once they have enough power, the Courtesans and Fate Witches may tear down all of Vodacce and pluck out the rotten fruits, as has happened in Eisen- or they may try to make a more seamless transition as in Sarmatia. But that day has not yet come...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This campaign would begin with a group in Vodacce. They serve a merchant prince, and are present at a dinner party when things begin to go horribly wrong. They must make a journey through a city, board a ship, and set sail either for the Atabean (the not-Caribbean) where a war between the ATC and the now free people of Jaragua is imminent, or toward Castille to claim sanctuary in a nation where fanatics have seized power.
Thoughts?
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