In the Hills, In the Valleys
In the days of the Conquest, perhaps the most bitter war of all was fought for a land, ironically, that our Imperial forces now occupy only in name: the Wyrmteeth Mountains & their attendant wilds: the Wraithwood, Great Briar, the Cauldron, &c &c. The Seven Kings of the Valleys, though their armies were smaller by far than our Legions, fought fiercely for a land their ancestors had spent centuries trying- & failing- to tame. The Empire was to learn what an impossible task holding such land was only after Odrosyan Red Hand, last of the Seven Kings, threw down his axes at the feet of Legate Cadius & surrendered.
The Wyrmteeth are a harsh wilderness, filled not only with wyverns, troggs, orcs, goblins, & trolls, but with dangerous & cunning elf-tribes, the greatest of them ruled by the enigmatic King of Thorns, who is thought responsible for the near complete destruction of the XXII Legion at Great Briar. & this is to say nothing of the Pale Men, whom even the elves are said to fear. Civilized places there are few, beyond the fortified imperial towns of Pellos, Grimhold, & Pinewatch.
A few of the noble families of the Seven Kingdoms remain, now nominal tributaries of the Empire, ruling the hamlets of their little valley fiefdoms from crumbling castles. Many more ancient castles in those lands lie burned & empty. Many villages have been reclaimed by the woods.
A testimony to the might of the Legions and the terrible destruction of the Days of Conquest.
- from A Travelers Guide to the Provinces, by Marcus Marcellus, Cartographer to Empress Vipinia XII
The idea here is to have a world-building heavy RP focused on the hinterlands of a mighty empire. A place where human civilization ends. Each player would be invited to design a society that inhabited this wilderness, be it a kingdom of wood-elves, greenskin reavers, a vampire in a haunted castle, a human fiefdom plotting revenge against the empire... the sky is the limit. I wanted to set an RP in a land inspired by Roman Britain and the northern wastelands of Middle Earth: Mirkwood, the Misty Mountains, the lands that were once Arnor, etc. Other inspirations include (in differing ways) Sylvania & Athel Loren from Warhammer and Solstheim & some bits of Skyrim from TES.
Players could play as the leaders of the faction they designed, or as party members of a questing group heading deep into the wilds- I have an overall plot in mind for a small party of adventurers that will be adjusted to accommodate the world as it gets fleshed out.
Any takers?
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