Lorebane wrote:
I'm living in China teaching English right now, and I've got a tabletop group here that's been playing Shadowrun and Pathfinder. I have a couple of other people who are interesting in getting into tabletops, but have little or no experience, so I want to start up another game with them, and was looking towards doing an Arcanis home game using the new system (not D&D), which I love. Thing is, it looks like most people do living campaigns, and it sounds like most of the lore of this very lore-heavy settings. Even if I could afford to pick up all of the adventures, I like home games because I can tailor them to the PCs characters, and I was hoping I could pick the brains of this board on filling in some of the holes in my knowledge. I have a buddy who introduced me to this game, and it looks cool as hell, but I've only ever played in one 3rd ed battle interactive and one game with this new system at GenCon, so please consider me a neophyte. What I have to work with is the Core Rulebook, the 3rd edition setting book (the lore seemed to be layed out in a more approachable manner) the Bestiary, the Codex of Heroes, and the Blessed Lands Sourcebook (picked up yesterday, still piecing it together). I could MAYBE afford to pick up one more on Drive-Thru RPG if there is an important one I'm missing. I've done my best to piece the state of things together, but there like a 40 or 50 year time skip between the old 3rd ed sourcebook and the new one, and I do not have the benefit of having played in the last living campaign, so I was hoping you could help me fill in some of the holes? Here is what I THINK I have put together, and some questions I've got.
It looks like there was a Civil War in the Coryan Empire at some point (and I imagine this was the focal point of the last living campaign?), but I'm not sure what it was over, how it ended, or what the major consequences were. Was it a power struggle between Calsestus and Menisis? I remember reading something about Calsestus killed the Patriarch, and I'm guessing that that was what caused the collapse of the Wall of the Gods (how long ago was that, btw?). It seems like he was being led on by a rogue Valinor, who I think was Manetus, and then said Valinor ended up killing Menisis. Was this before or after the founding of Almeric? What happened to that Valinor? Looks like some dude named Scipio is emperor now, but I can't tell much beyond that. What's his agenda, and what kind of man is he?
First off, welcome to the forums. That's a lot of questions, so I don't know if you'll get all your answers, but I'm sure many will chime in to answer some. Some questions might still be unanswered. I know some of what you feel, because I came late to the campaign as well and had to learn a lot that seemed obvious to many playing now. I can't imagine dealing with that from China! For books, the absolute must to have is the Codex Arcanis (available for free at
http://www.serinus.us/cowbell/dnd/Codex.pdf or is that the 3rd edition setting book you mention?) That will give you a great feel for the world and different regions. But.... That was written back at the beginning of the large campaign, and thus before (in game) a major civil war and "the heroes of light," and the approximately 40 years between the end of that war (Campaign) and the start of the current "troubles." (new campaign). The Codex Arcanis section of the new ARG book covers most of what happened between the last campaign and now, but that leaves a lot of holes about what happened during the civil war, because that was the last campaign, and thus there are always spoiler concerns for anyone who might want to play/run that campaign.
So spoilers follow!...
Ok, so essentially the last campaign really picked up steam when the emperor killed the patriarch after accusing him of treason for trying to unite the churches of the time, and declared himself patriarch. Some people didn't like that, and Menisis, the baddest-ass general and honorable man eventually rebelled. Players could be on either side of the rebellion, because it wasn't clear which side was right. Over time, it was learned that the emperor was being led by a fallen valinor known as Manetas, "The Pride of Illiir," and that this would lead to very bad things. The war got very ugly. Early in the campaign characters found the eggs of a psionic hive-mind race long thought wiped out by the Elorii (one of the 13 races they wiped out, I think) and forgave them for using humans as hosts, and let them live. They escaped into the lavender way, and eventually somehow the emperor (Calcestus) struck up a deal with them and gave them an entire legion he thought was disloyal to host their eggs (as well as homeless children, etc) in return for them fighting on his behalf in a major battle. In the final fight Menisis (who had been assassinated and been brought back from the dead by the heroes) and the heroes went to fight Manetas, and were actually joined by Calcestus in the fight agaist Manetas, (as he had essentially been a prisoner in his own palace for an unknown amount of time. Manetas had a host of other evil Valinor working for him, and while the heroes went to the palace to fight him, Valinor waged a war in the heavens and armies on the ground. Eventually, a ritual went off that bound Manetas and all his fallen Valinor followers away somewhere probably not so nice. Both Calcestus and Menisis died in the fight against Manetas. Calcestus's brother (Scipio) was chosen as the new emperor, and is the one on the throne at the start of the new campaign (in the new book). Calcestus's bastard son Calmemnon was an heir to the throne, but only behind any children Scipio might have. What happened with him is covered in the new campaign book.
Scipio appears in general to be a pretty good emperor without too much imperial ambition. the 40 years under him has generally as peaceful as he could make it, and there was a lot to heal from when he became emperor. Most of the stuff that happened during his reign happened "off screen" (i.e. as described in the books but not from activities in a campaign) The creation of Almeric is one such thing that occurred in the last 40 years.
Lorebane wrote:
Speaking of wars, what about the whole thing with Altheria, the Ellori, and Ssethregore? The main book is a little sparse with the details - it feels like a hell of a lot happened and was then compressed into a few pages. How long ago were each of those wars, and how big were they in the scheme of the last living campaign?
The Elorii of Fellglade (Malfeans) are in an unalterable state of war with pretty much everyone but the other Elorii (who they tolerate). The are constantly fighting with Ssethregore, and occasionally with Altheria (who has the misfortune to border them) and the Coryani empire. Ssethregore also borders Altheria, and thus invade them from time to time, because, why not? During the actual last campaign, there were only a few "probing" attacks on the Altherans by Ssethregore, most notable once or twice at Semar where many heroics were performed to prevent a Ssethregoran break-through. Since then, though apparenely things really heated up, and things got bad enough that Altheria made a deal with the Elorii of Seramas for help, but once the war with the Ssethregorans was over, they wanted out of the deal and thus fought a war with the Elorii who had been their allies just a few years earlier. That all comes out of the current book, and happened in the time between campaigns.
Lorebane wrote:
I've also noticed that some weird stuff is happening with the Val'Inares, but exactly what that is seems kind of vague. Are they turning into Ss'ressen? And why has this only been happening recently? I'm guessing something is up with Anshar. It seems like they're finding a home of some sort in the Abessian Dominion, and I noticed when reading through the Blessed Lands sourcebook that she seemed really smug, and that was not long after I noticed one of Yig's titles is "the Deceiver," so was Anshar Yig all along? And how many people know about this thing with the Val'Inares? What do they think about it?
During the last campaign it was indeed found that Yig=Anshar, and Fire Dragon = good aspect of Kassegore. Both of these are not widely known. New belief is that the Val'Inares were crafted by Yig herself, and when they get old enough they start to change. In the Codex of the last campaign, you will see reference to an illness they suffer, that is actually that change starting. After it goes on awhile, they instinctively enter an Ansharan gate and go...somewhere to complete their change. It turns out that they went to Abessios and that there were Yiggites there that essentially killed them when they came out of the gate, because the existing children of Yig feared what the val'Inares might become if allowed to mature. (something their goddess would love more then them?) Heroes put a stop to this, so the first val'Inares were allowed to actually start this... transformation. What happens now no one knows yet. So very select people in the val'Inares family and the church know things, but the common val'Inares or Ansharan does not know that they are worshipping a snake god or that they may change into a snake-man when they get older.
Lorebane wrote:
Is there anywhere I can get more information about the Khitani? All I know is that they are another distant human empire that view a Valinor as their emperor and they've been fighting against Coryan for a long freakin' time. Are the Khitani ever found in the Known Lands in a non-hostile capacity? Could there be a PC Khitani? What is their culture like?
The new blessed lands book has a bunch of new information about the Khitani, but not enough to really play there. They are largely still an oriental type "mysterious people" culture in the campaign. They are "ruled" by a valinor called the sleeping emperor because he is normally asleep. While he sleeps (sometimes for years) the bureaucracy rules. But he sometimes awakes, mutters a few commands and goes back to sleep, and his commands are obeyed, even if often misunderstood.
They have fought two fairly brief wars with the Coryani, and could probably beat them, but have made peace both times. The two nations are currently at peace (and have been for I think at least 100 years) so trade and travel are allowed, but because of cultural and language difficulties, that means that generally there are only specialized traders and and the first city is used as a hub of trade between the two.
As a GM, you could of course have a Khitani PC, but there are no rules for anything special from their culture out yet.
Lorebane wrote:
Is there any connection between the Altherians and the Kio? They both have legends of flying cities in their past, which seems pretty conspicuous.
Much is secret about the history of both, but they generally appear to have different types of flying cities with the Altherians using "science" and the Kio using some unknown magic from their mysterious homeland. Since the ancient pure Kio weren't even human, we don't have any idea where they came from. Lots of unknowns still here.
Lorebane wrote:
Almeric seems interesting, but most of it's entry seems to be about the history of the Val'Tensin family and their plight, and I was wondering if there was anything out there that went into a little more detail on daily life there - how the cultures of Morotavia and Ulfia have been intermingling, person of note, major city-states, that sort of thing. I'm still pretty unclear on how large it is as a nation, or how much interaction the cities have with one another.
Almeric is the land of city States and civil war for a campaign to be set in now. If you want to start low level characters somewhere where they will face human threats and politics and a small skilled group can make a huge difference, Almeric is the place to do it. It is probably left intentionally vague in some of those aspects to allow a GM latitude to build the important people of their choice. As for the cultures/people, its a mix of the germanic teutonic former Milandesians and the Coryani.
Lorebane wrote:
Which begs another question - I'm a little unclear on the relative size and difference of, like, EVERYTHING. Is there a map of Onara anywhere out there?
There is no perfect map. There is an old map at
https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?76 ... is-lacking, but it doesn't reflect the changes since the last campaign, like the creation of Almeric. There is also a less informative, but bigger map at
http://coryanicenturion.blogspot.com/ to give some perspective.
Lorebane wrote:
Also, Ssethregore is one of my absolute favorite threats, but I was a little dissapointed in the lack of diversity in monsters for them. I'm guessing there will be more once Coils of the Serpent comes out, but are there any stats out there for typical Ss'ressen grunts, or should I just make Black Talon NPCs and reskin them?
Yes, you will have to make your own Ssethregoran threats until the new Ssethregoran book comes out.
Lorebane wrote:
Speaking of threats, I notice mention of orcs and goblins in the 3rd edition sourcebook, but none whatsoever in the newer book. Have they been retconned out of the game?
Yes, there is lots of confusion about monster still existing and not existing with the change away from the open gaming license. I am no one special, so I really can't speak to officially what is what, but it appears the orcs and goblins have generally been lumped into one primitive type humanoid known as a Gar. Obviously, as more is learned about Gar and if we ever explore Gar occupied territories, more differentiation may occur.
Lorebane wrote:
At what point in history did the Celestial Giants and their curse come onto the scene? Before the creation of the Val? Before the Time of Terror? They seem conspicuously absent from all of the histories that aren't dwarven. Was this intentional?
History is written by people with biases and incomplete understanding of events (especially in the shadowed age), so reported times etc can sometimes be inaccurate and vague, or even not mention things that were unimportant to the author. The celestial giants/dwarves rarely leave their homes, so they go relatively unmentioned by non-celestial giant/dwarves. It is believed that they came into the scene very early after the start of the shadowed age, long before the Time of Terror, but that could be wrong.
Lorebane wrote:
Finally, how does the Mother Church and the Orthodox Milandric Church feel about Sarish, Nier, and Neroth in the modern age (the gods themselves, not the Church of the Dark Triumvirate). Are they officially part of the pantheon, or still ostracized?
Officially both churches except them all. In reality, the Mother Church excepts certain aspects about them, but not all the dark stuff the dark triumvirate does. The Milandric Church also officially accepts them, but there is much more distrust of them, and they are officially "minor gods" in their teachings. Even to the point that while their symbols are still on the official church holy symbol, they are on the part covered by the hands when it is being held, which goes a long way to show how they feel about them...
Like I said, I'm no one special, so I may have some little points wrong, but this is my general understanding.