The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.
-Lucifer, Paradise Lost
You who are here, for the most part, will know precisely the premise. For those possible newcomers who do not, you can simply click the link and observe the previous OP. Or if your attention is glued here to finish reading on principle, a paraphrase; dark fantasy, with a high fantasy cosmological power ceiling and generally very much low fantasy foreground, set in a ruined land of black magic, schizoid technological level at 1600s average, and widespread failure of above-subsistence civilization, with what pockets remain generally being iron-fisted despotates, warlordist cliques, nomad bands and small strongholds & crossroads, placed such that they retain a petty independence. All built on the ruin of two empires, one utterly sundered, the other wounded, brooding, preying upon the carrion of the other, Nagath and the Justinian Imperium. If all that sounds pleasing, then by all means pore over the old OOC & interest check. A fuller paraphrase and elucidation of bits and bobs of the setting-framework as I see them, and those who might choose to actively collaborate with me in Flagg, The Nexerus and The Captain see them will be forthcoming with a new IC, as opposed to simply copy & pasting Flagg's old OP.
For those of you who might be returning, and have not been following after the old Discord since the game flickered out, you may be a bit confused that a redux is occurring so quickly. It is not really a redux at all, but a revival; planned as a mutiny if necessary, Flagg's support for the relaunch attempt gained quite immediately, and now we are here. I, for one, do not want to wait however many months and for however many people to have drifted entirely away for another attempt to be made at the Heirs concept. I did not want there to have to be another attempt in the first place. But it fizzled from life dragging people off and in the usual mess of miscommunication, cold feet and bet-hedging that Guild seems to have imposed upon much of its userbase, self-reinforced by failed efforts. I, for one, will not abide by this without a suitable amount of bluster and rally-calling, as we advance well beyond a slow spot into hiatus, then coma, and death.
The proposition is simple; as there is hardly a shortage in energy or attention in those who are capable of returning, or hardly will be for long, and as those who are indisposed by life will become not so in the future, there is no reason not to give a further go at the game, as it is rare for a game to end like this with any feeling other than disgruntlement. As Flagg has launched into another iteration of his prequel within the same setting, I am seizing the reins of executive main GMship to hopefully bring about the degree of coordination and inspire the level of vigor necessary to get things off the ground. This through full-steam posting by those able, sheet and setting work by those not, and the instilling of the simple notion that as a play-by-post game things can be drug out over the longest period and revive indefinitely, no matter the bumps in the road, without necessitating a reboot. It is, as Captain put it, a bulletin board. Things stuck on it stay, to be returned to at any time.
To this end, there's a new Discord which may be found here, with a few more channels over the original, for organizational purposes now or later as needed. May we not stall a second time, or ever; structure, mindset and motivation will keep things through any lull. Thank you for your attention.
I remember the one which came before that which died not for lack of interest but for the GM dropping off the face of the earth for many months and then making a new int check without ever attempting to resurrect the previous. I may be interested in returning seeing this apparent change of leadership. But I know not if my character will even work as she, and her lore, have evolved far beyond what the original scope of this was.
EDIT: also as a seeming trend I've encountered, the discord link is invalid.
Yes, I skimmed over that very old one, the first iteration. It was character rather than nation-based, so I'm not sure if you'd be keen on refurbishing for that format, but then again, Flagg had what appeared to be a more character-like metaplot running parallel to the nation framework, so maybe it wouldn't be necessary. Follow your own discretion and interest.
the discord link is invalid.
For pity's sake. Here, and updated elsewhere. I think it's because I slightly changed the channel name, I don't know how the code generation works.
so I'm not sure if you'd be keen on refurbishing for that format,
That is definitely the question to be decided isn't it ...
I don't know how the code generation works.
By default a generated invite link is good for 10 uses and 24 hours. You can configure it to be different, but that's extra steps. Its possible this wasn't set and it expired of its own accord.
I'm positive I ticked the 'never expire' box. Then again, there was a second click involved, but the box was visually still ticked and remained so after a few more. Discord's a user-friendly but hardly robust piece of software.
Just as a few spitballs; Adrianna might've succeeded in her ambition, and claimed lordship over her March by force. This allows you to neatly segue into nation format from the start, but per the latest map below, you'd be a bit wanting for neighbors. It'd be Naukada Kaumntok, by the presently indisposed Nexerus, and/or busy Flagg's Covenant of the Worm. Xenophobe orcs, or feudal vampires. The former wants to despoil you. The latter wants to despoil or realpolitikally utilize you. Troublesome company, interesting company, but indisposed for now anyways.
Alternatively, you could run her precisely as she is after accounting for any discrepancies between Servants and Heirs if there are any, as I'm not particularly opposed to nation-character hybridism. I did say in the old OOC roll-call post that I 'advocate rather strongly the possibility of disconnected vignette and sideplot posting in any meantime lull.' Adrianna meandering her way to the East, wherever she happens to be going, in search of that thing she doesn't know, would fit this bill perfectly. Work on a pre or post-Adrianna takeover Northmarch sheet on the side as you write the bits before that.
I intend to keep that map as absolutely intact as I can, by the by. Even for the most indisposed, as they are unlikely to be going anywhere anytime soon. The in-game states, or the players themselves. All else fails, if interaction with the indisposed is absolutely necessary, I can gently utilize basic concepts, presumed servants and the like to stand in for vignettes regarding them, while avoiding puppeteering the core persons or instilling a major policy direction, and thus potentially sullying original visions. With a little consultance with the persons in question if possible, just to be sure.
Happy to have you back on. I was looking forward to having a couple old Daigonists as foils to Asurishvara, Arkhagon for their polarized courses at Daigons' fall, Count Vasha for taking a hands-off technocratic merchant despot outlook versus Asurishvara's militarized personality cult, though both are perhaps obsessive bureaucrat-organizers at heart. Bright_Ops isn't so likely to get his muse back immediately, but at least I've got one of you on hand.
Discord links edited a final time. Either this one sticks and I'm retarded, or it doesn't and Discord is retarded. I also reserve the possibility of both being retarded either way.
My intention remains to see this through, though I may expand and revise the scope of my nation to some degree depending on where we go in terms of carry-over players and new applicants. I still need to doll up the sheet and format it so it can actually be navigated, but the raw info is there in the old thread.
Just as a few spitballs; Adrianna might've succeeded in her ambition, and claimed lordship over her March by force. This allows you to neatly segue into nation format from the start, but per the latest map below, you'd be a bit wanting for neighbors. It'd be Naukada Kaumntok, by the presently indisposed Nexerus, and/or busy Flagg's Covenant of the Worm. Xenophobe orcs, or feudal vampires. The former wants to despoil you. The latter wants to despoil or realpolitikally utilize you. Troublesome company, interesting company, but indisposed for now anyways.
Alternatively, you could run her precisely as she is after accounting for any discrepancies between Servants and Heirs if there are any, as I'm not particularly opposed to nation-character hybridism. I did say in the old OOC roll-call post that I 'advocate rather strongly the possibility of disconnected vignette and sideplot posting in any meantime lull.' Adrianna meandering her way to the East, wherever she happens to be going, in search of that thing she doesn't know, would fit this bill perfectly. Work on a pre or post-Adrianna takeover Northmarch sheet on the side as you write the bits before that.
I give you points for doing your homework, that's for sure. That said, it doesn't show you the collection of private notes on the character. Her motivations are emotionally charged, bordering on obsession. Adi's end goal is far beyond achievable without an act of God ... or something less benevolent. Even if that comes, the taste of victory is intoxicating. Her default character arc is self-destructive by design. It remains to be seen whether or not that can be reconciled, as more than likely she would have self-destructed by this point in the timeline. It is definitely within possibility that Adi is not compatible at all and thus my involvement would then mandate the development of a wholly new approach. That would certainly take longer to work up though.
Act of god, huh? I smell megalomaniacal misandry, or somewhere thereabouts. The 'all men must die' line is a bit of a dead giveaway, when the rest of the block is on how Justinian is a big faker dickhead, what that means by extension, and vague implication of 'her own code.'
If you're sniffing around for divine intervention, in the far east, you'll find the Weeping Widows, a matriarchal farce-cult hanging on the coattails of Daigon's legacy, looking to secure temporal power as mean and end in itself through mundane but sacred-appearing tools and methods. They do quite well for themselves, and do so in what might be described as an open subtlety. They like to cozy up to the smallfolk and act as information brokers- which is to say, dirty self interested neutral spies- for and between factions. That might appeal to one aspect of her self-destructive pathology, and would be one route to gaining the necessary odds and ends for a coup.
And in the same easterly vicinity further north, in the hands of yours truly, there's a devil-king of hazy origin- possibly only a bit more legitimate than the Widows on some level or another- playing regent messiah since about the first week after Daigon went to sleep six feet underground (or over thousands of kilometers as ash depending on if you want to quibble ) ruling a court of once-men devils in the Circle of Kings; equal gender opportunity there for the truly exceptional person of a sufficiently youthful age to ascend in body and rank, even if for practical reasons the majority military-industrial apparatus and agriculture are largely as male-slanted as they would be historically and as is demographically necessary. Whether placing herself into the sphere or tutelage of a pragmatic supra-man sovereign, quite inclined to humor her ambition with some legitimate sympathy even if it is to his own ends, would defuse or strike off her self-destruction even more catastrophically remains to be said.
Going northerly by any means is probably going to be a bother since the Covenant of the Worm offer a hazardous mess of reavers and a wandering bestiary of vampire gribbles, but whatever you do, just route around the orcs of the Red Empire. They turn humans into meat-puppets on sight and on principle. And if you decide to route south & stop off with the bogslav druids and ghost-knights, don't eat, drink or lick anything the locals wouldn't, because it won't end well. And don't get eaten, drunk or licked by anything they wouldn't either (which is most probably everything with few exceptions) because that also won't end well. Considering the feudal vampires and semi-nomad centaurs (pardon the lack of sheet link, Willy wasn't/isn't quite done) you might just want to go by boat as long as you can pay off the right bands of corsairs, because overland travel in this era is slow even if you've got horse or camel to go by. Then again, that's a long time to develop an arc.
I say keep that self-destructive psychological timebomb in there, and work your way through the interesting and esoteric peoples doing something or other, after the flight from her house. Following the strange call of her steel, infused with that tiny bit of Daigon's pseudo-being and lingering will. There's no timeline discrepancy between Heirs and Servants that I know of, so unless you're referring to her post-takeover state, you shouldn't worry about her having already self destructed; Daigon is long stone cold dead in both, and she can be as far or as shortly along her path as you like. Determine along the way whether she should explode or not.
Ah, sorry, Willy. That wasn't meant as a dig at you, it was a literal statement of 'wasn't done at time of writing/isn't done at time of posting.' I wasn't really thinking about it at the time, but the terseness really made it impossible to come across as otherwise I now realize. Pardon the slight.
There's room on the map, so I'd say so. As long as you can juggle the games you're presently in to keep on here in some capacity, can rummage up a concept to fit one of those open spaces physically and conceptually, you're welcome here.
Is there more information about the Imperium, the wizards to the south, and Daigon himself available anywhere? I'm debating concepts. Also: what's on that small, exposed bit of landmass in the south-east corner of the map?
Beside the original OP description from the old thread, which is below, I have my own elucidations.
A feudal theocracy that lies to the west of Nagath, the Imperium is the single most powerful nation on Geryon. Its vast lands are administered by powerful noble houses who all swear allegiance to the god-emperor Justinian, who has ruled his people for at least four centuries from his temple-palace in his distant capital of Sacrosanctum. Justinian is a mysterious figure who is rarely seen and who leaves the day to day administration of his empire to the Clerisy, a clerical caste that oversees religious and legal matters in the Imperium, keeping the nobles in check and weeding out heretics and cultists from the ranks of imperial society. Justinianism is a warlike and political religion, with strict codes of honor, justice and duty to Humanity. Veneration of ancestors and of great figures from Humanity's past is commonplace and encouraged by the Clerisy. Magic is generally despised, as are orcs and other non-human races.
The Imperium, as I am presently envisioning it, is something along the lines of the Holy Roman Empire melded with the Islamic caliphates. Like the former, is is a messy patchwork of states and statelets and free cities and a theoretically strong but practically weak overarching central authority, with unilateral organizations operating with impunity within and without. One would be the Castigati, demon-hunters hellbent on erasing any remnant of Daigon's time and legacy, particularly the living parts; expansion into a general witch-hunting organization or further branches may be in order. But, regardless, lots of less than secret polices, gendarmes and free bands enforcing the regressive law of the land more or less independently.
Beside unilateral organizations, as mentioned, governance is decentralized to a confederation of vassal states, some substantial, some tiny and county-sized. These are in the hands of the hereditary aristocracy, in the usual European mold, save that by and large they are utter bastards; they take a card from the Earth Federation of Gundam if you're familiar, which is to say they are most often hilariously corrupt, self-interested to a fault, and actively strive to prevent anything even resembling positive reform, even those at no or minimal cost to them and their privileges, otherwise being buffoons, or doomed genuinely noble altruists caught up in the former morass.
These inescapable tendencies, occasional infighting and schizophrenic clerical base help keep them caught up in themselves rather than nurturing ideas of world dominion, which is not so practical as before, as did their suffering severe knockbacks sometime in perhaps the last two centuries or so when a team-up between Vritraprthvirajya and the Red Empire burnt the March of the Vigil Tower, now called Votartok and part of the latter; original name pending. This mess of a government all technically centers back on Justinian and his Clerisy; but Justinian, for whatever reason, is not so inclined to run the empire he'd forged in uprising against Daigon. One might be inclined to believe that one who founded all his efforts upon Justice and named himself by it would be a little depressed at how awry things have gone in 400 years, and even how awry they got in the original wartime.
The wizards to the south are a cheeky reference to Flagg's other longtime holdover project, the Drathan Union. They're dickhead desert magocrats, significantly far off the map boundaries, in a land where the earth is called 'Azoth,' and not Geryon. You'll note the name Azoth flatly naming the highest mountain in the world in this game; I'm of the opinion that they are very clearly one worldscape. Anyways, the Drathan and Salished- minor edit to clarify since this segue wasn't very neat, the two are eternal regional rivals- are component to the game he ran off to run as opposed to this one. The former belongs to Flagg and dates back to Sacrilege Wars; the latter to Gorgenmast, and was created for Azoth.
The latter nation, I'd note, has more than a little similarity or two to Vritraprthvirajya; out of universe this was coincidental, convergent evolution, and there are key differences, but I imagine it was anything but an accident in-universe. Daigon, one should imagine, was possessed of a certain Orientalism, and no doubt this might've rubbed off on Asurishvara, who in retreating to the exclaves in the East, those of the Ind and Ỵāṇ invited from far off lands, embraced and invoked a great deal of their esoterics, aesthetics and philosophies of rulership in hybridization with his Daigons' and own.
A collection of city states and several lesser towns located throughout the Ashlands and Red Desert, the Union is governed by the (often fractious) Congress of Masters, a coalition of extremely powerful mages hailing from the Great Clans of the Dratha. Magical inquiry thrives among the elite denizens of the Union, which is home to many of the most celebrated libraries and arcanums in known world. All forms of magic, including necromancy, blood magic, and the other branches of dark arts are permitted and indeed actively studied in the Union.
Except for the relatively small members of the exclusively Drathan ruling caste, the denizens of the Union are deprived any of political participation, though the Masters are generally laissez-faire rulers, interested more in their arcane pursuits and internecine feuds than actually governing and disinterested in the religion, mores or associations of their subjects. Most subjects of the Union are slaves, fishermen and grub-farmers toiling in the ashen mudflats along the Bay of Teeth, though there is a strong middle and upper middle class of artisans and merchants who appreciate the protection and low taxes afforded by the Masters.
Militarily, the Union relies on mercenaries and on hordes of slave-soldiers, mostly beastkin and mutants purchased by the Masters from the slaver-tribes wandering the Ashlands. The nominal capital of the Union is the ancient city of Zar Dratha, though other cities contest its preeminence.
In spite of the fertility and wealth of its lands, the vast majority of the Rainland's inhabitants live squalid, depauperate lives as serfs and servants. In exchange for the protection of the land from the savage hordes from the unsettled world, these serfs toil all their lives to enrich the masters responsible for their safety.
The Salished Dynasty came about in the Year of the Setting Sun 7,200, when a tribe of mountain folk known to history as the Saliszi descended from the Godsfang Mountains to invade the verdant Rainlands below. The Saliszi warriors fought with weapons forged from Soulsteel, a magic-resistant, hypersharp metal that the petty Rainlander kingdoms had never encountered before. Saliszi swords were immeasurably superior against Rainlanders armed with iron and even Drathan-enchanted weapons. By 7,380, the Saliszi had established dominance over the eastern Rainlands. There, the Saliszi king Mardok established the city of Nyssos at the confluence of the Nabal and Tashgad rivers - and remains the seat of power of the modern Salished Empire to this day. A mixture of cultures transpired in the new Salished kingdom, Salished warriors adopted the lamellar armor, archery tradiation, and chariots of the Rainlands, while the inhabitants absorbed the language, architectural motifs, and religious concepts of their occupiers.
Over the next two centuries, the Salished Kingdom expanded across the rainlands. The conquest of the southern kingdom of Moribon gave the Salisheds the exceptionally fertile Nabal Delta and unhindered access to the sea.
Today, the Salished Empire is a sprawling bureaucratic state and is by far the most powerful nation on Azoth. United under the iron first of the Shashul, a warlord-emperor who commands the loyalty of a fearsome military machine, the true key to Salished strength is the Cult of the Forge: a monastic religious order devoted to cruel and hungry deities they believe reside in their Sacred Forges, where the Soulsteel is created. The gods, however, are ever-hungry, and require a constant stream of sacrifices in exchange for their boons. Virgins will do, but great mages and warriors are above all prized.
Daigon himself is a character that was wreathed in mystery. This is because Flagg unannouncedly wanted people to construct him as a group, being fine to abide by conflicting memories of questionable accuracy and widely differing accounts. As no one else contributed at all to the brainstorm regarding him, I've taken primacy on the matter by default. In the West, he's regarded as a devil, a monster, a would-be conqueror and despoiler turned back ages ago. In the East, both the Widows and Asuranists regard him as a great king, of great works, founder of a land now lost, though there are some incongruencies between the two, particularly on whether he is semi-deified in an abstract entitized fashion of his surviving metaphysical 'will,' or deified in Roman posthumous and abstract concept-fashion as an example now followed, his torch passed on. The commonfolk are inclined to believe what they will believe at either pole or anywhere inbetween.
Who Daigon actually was, at risk of spoiling mystery to avoid quibbling and divergence from folks not knowing the deal? Somewhat more of the Eastern-thought persuasion than Western, but not by much. He built great works and established himself in autocratic rule over a great number of peoples on the subcontinent, allied himself with others, and consumed himself in every bit of statecraft and esoterica he could, referred to in some of my work as 'the kingly arts.' He was Gilgamesh, and he was Solomon, and Nebuchadnezzar II, and fancied himself as a character alike to Lucifer of Paradise Lost perhaps. Law-giver, Babel-builder, scorner of God, who acted in his primacy and for his primacy. He worked miracles, broke sorcery to his will, unraveled the lost engineering of archeo-tech (think more Laputa, not mundane anachronism, in aesthetic if not effect) and more. He ruled evenly, and without great prejudice, accepting those peoples apart from Man into the fold.
And yet he ruled in Machiavellian fashion, or some approximation of it, cynically, and let no border, no boundary stop him. Nature was to be bent and broken, not just the green wood and field, but the underlying physic and metaphysic. He wrought homonculi and chimaeras, consorted with demons of every brand and breed and contrived his own, marched 'cross the coals of Hell and touched the gates of Heaven, and found it all wanting. He trampled nations, ravaged and ravished faraway lands to sustain his efforts, killed countless many, all in the pursuit of his ambition, the earthbound utopia of his vanity and whim. Worst of all, he was just pridefully overconfident enough to come a mite short of what was necessary to accomplish his goal against all odds. And for all that, he died.
Daigon is, if nothing else, stone-cold dead. Justinian, after what must have been years of hard campaigning, slew him personally in a final confrontation at Azoth Zul, put him into the figurative dirt and literal air, his corpse burned down to ashes on the pyre and scattered to the farthest winds, coming to rest at what is now Ukha Gujatkar. The first Red Orcs- the culmination of all his preceding war homonculi, and last personal proceed of his research into artificial beings in general- rose from those ashes, encoded into his flesh, his basemost matter, as a final deadmans' switch full of his malice and spite, to put to an end those who opposed him. So, in short, nice guy if he likes you or at least the idea of you. But he'll kick Atlas in the shins and tear the temple roof down on the whole world if you fuck with him. Or fucked with him. Past tense. Ded.
The Bay of Teeth? Beside being named as the Drathan Unions' hometown, if we're assuming they are indeed one worldscape? As Genni noted in the Discord, 'The Bay of Teeth was specifically off limits for players under the previous DM, since there was a narrative reason for its isolation which we never got around to exploring. This led to the Isle of Shipwrecks having to be moved from just north of the bay to its current location.' It is an as yet irrelevant mystery as to whether they really are the same place. If Flagg had a concrete plan for it, and I honestly wonder if he did at all, I'll have it on hand soon enough as long as he doesn't decide to rescind his pledge of total cooperation.
