The New Mountains of "The Truth"

[MoonHunter]

This initial posts has a rough idea for a game setting.  I will be putting together more polished listings of the world, as time goes by.

Key ideas:
* An elf/goblin alliance against a dwarven theocracy.

* Step Pyramids are the key to power

* Nasty Monsters roaming the wildlands, so people will congregate together in towns, rather than disperse to towns.  

*No Humans, or humans are insignificant to the other beings. (I can be flexible on this, but why have humans? Of if we do, they are like stats at -3 and no bonus abilities. The nonhumans should be powerful and important. Humans should quake in their presence.  They might be Slaves or even Pets.

Historical Ideas
*The Races are mostly their Tolkienesk, DnD stereotypes. This is the baseline. Variations will occur.

* The Voice of Truth brought the Word to the Earth People (Dwarves). From their mountains they spread out to the low lands bringing the Word of The Truth to all peoples and beasts.  

*They build ceremonial centers and step pyramids where ever they go. This is for several reasons.  Each ceremonial center dedicated to The Truth strengthens the Truth's Clerics and expands their abilities. It also gives the Dwarves there a "mountain" to focus their attention.

*Dwarves will live half above and half below, in partially excavated homes. (Two and a half story split level homes, with one level below ground level, one above and one between).  Given more food and less crowding of surface living, The Dwarven Populatation EXPLODES!  More Dwarves, more Step Temples, more expansion.

*The Green People (Elves) welcome the Earth People.  The Green People are forrest dwelling, tree shaping, magic users.  They allow them to pass through their forrests and a few small temples in their communities near the edges of the Forests.  

*The Earth People assist the Green People in their endless conflict against the Wild Ones (Goblin Races). Part of it is their happiness to help their new found "friends", part of it is to expand into Wild one's territories.  

The Wild Ones are semi-nomadic peoples, with various tribes (usually one subtype of goblin) roaming the country side. The smaller ones ride wargs, larger ones just lumber on.  Wild Ones want Forest resources, which of course our Green People deny them.

Time Goes on.  Stone people and their city temples expand.  The Green Folk manage to keep them mostly out of their greens.  The Wild Ones are pushed farther and farther away from "good lands" as the Stone People take over.  

Humans might appear at this point.  They would adopt the Stone People civilization and God.  They would become vassels to the Dwarves.  

As time goes on, the friendly relationship goes sour.  The Stone People demand more and more of their friends. The temples of the Truth probably drain away other energies, making other clerical and magical effects difficult. They demand temples in all Green Cities. They demand that Green People being protected from Wild Ones by Stone People worship The Truth.  

Then something sparks it off, probably an assault by a Stone Folk against an Elf, who gets away free because he is a cleric.

The Green People finally break and go against the Stone People. They will push them out of the Green.  They will begin to take on the Stone Temples outside the Green.  Having the Power of the Clerics of The Truth on their side, they manage to hold off the Green Folk.

The Green People and the Wild Ones realized they have a common need to defeat the Stone People.  

And this is where you would start the campaign.

[MoonHunter]

http://www.u.arizona.edu/~mrankin/aztectemples.html

http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~kuijt/dba105/PyramidPlan.html

http://www.mysterious-america.net/caral62.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/10098/aztec.htm

These are not perfect copies of course. However, seeing what the Stone People are making might create some focus in the minds of those who are reading this.

So Why Step Pyramids?
1) They are mountain substitutes
2) They are quick and easy to build.
3) They are impressive looking
4) The Clerics of The Truth (THeir Earth Diety) use them for mystical purposes.  

They focus the belief of the faithful.
They absorb magical energy for clerics to use
They also disrupt clerical/ magical energies from other dieties

Thought
If we adapt the MesoAmerican flavor, we move from Forest to Jungle, and from Grassy Plains to Arid Rocky GrassLands.

This is a perfectly acceptable Tangent I am willing to go down.

I am assuming that the Stone People had other dieties before The Truth was known.  This one diety basically has taken over StonePeople society.  Now we have new converts and zealots... a religious theocracy....

WE all know that Religious Theocracies always seem to go bad in the End.  That is what is happening here.  

If The Earth Diety (The Truth) clerics managed to find a way to increase Dwarven fertility?  In addition, Dwarven culture had built in checks on population growth because of lack of food, lack of space or only planned growth, and TRADITION.  The Truth freed them of that by moving them out into the world.

[Grendel]

I like the general idea, although not sure about keeping humans out of it, the idea of having them as a slave race is rather appealing though, (a the prospect of having a slave revolution thrown in for good measure just to keep things on the move)

Goblin races working alongside elven races could cause some truly wonderful moments of Pure Role Play opportunity

Goblin "roight, I want all you bumped up pixies to go and stick all them stunty guards full of arrers"

Elf "um, Actually I dont think I feel the inclination to comply with that request"

Goblin "Wot?"

Elf "*sigh* Look if I shoot the dwarf the other will know that we are here and probably attack us I propose that we use a more intelligent method of despatching our adversaries"

Goblin "Wot?"

Elf "Oh never mind, which stuntie...errr dwarf shall I shoot first?"

[MoonHunter]

I just changed the name of this thread. It will now give better as a world title. I have been thinking about the world and I have come to the following conclusions.

1) This setting has less of a European feel and more of a Meso-America mets Mesopotamian/ Bablonian feel. However, it is not Meso-America, nor Mesopotamian.  Like Tékumel, it is a unique world. It is not Medieval Europe with Magic or somesuch.  (You don't know Tekumel?  Goto www.Tekumel.com and discover true gaming history.)

2) This world needs a  mythic approach.  This campaign is set in another world's pre history. The world is simplier and more magical.  The resolution of this campaign will break their world, creating the world where Humans will rise up in.

3) Related to above, There is only ONE LANGUAGE, simply called Spoken Word. No Tower of Babel has occured. There will eventually be a lexicon of Spoken Word literal translations and turns of phrases. It has an orrientation towards compound words and basic descriptive phrases. That is why we don't use Dwarf, Elf, and Goblin, we use Stone People, Green People and Wild Ones.

4) We really do not need Humans. Nope. Fantasy worlds do not require Humans.  This one does not have them.  The Humans will come to the world later.

Okay, If you have to have the Simple People, you can, but they should have serious stat minuses (or the other races should have major bonuses) and they will be a servitor race of the Stone People. They are a underclass who believe in The Voice's Religion and therefore accept their less than Stone People status.  They are not slaves, if they are true to their faith and follow the "Right way" they will be re-incarnated as a StonePerson.

***

[MoonHunter]

The Stone People are a short and sturdy folk.  They are four to five feet tall with 150 to 200 lbs, in a stocky build.

*The men are traditionally bearded, with a braid originally expressed a clan affiliation, but now which temple they are associated with.
*The females are out numbered by males nearly two to one.  That has shifted from a nearly five to one ratio from before.

They were born of the stones of the mountains, and are children of the World. They gain their strength from the stones of the World. Before The Truth, they worshiped the spirits of Stone, Soil, and Mountains.  They lived in lodges dug into the Earth, where clans (groups of related families) lived together. The Lodge is much like the Norse GreatHouse, one large place where everyone gathered and lived. The few cities were merely several clan lodges linked together by tunnels.  The worship of spirits was a haphazard affair where the clan eldest officiated.

Because they bound themselves to the rocks and soil in addition to the world, the Stone People were poor in spirit, fertility, and life.  They were bound by traditions that kept them bound to the rocks and soil, instead of the Truth.  

The Voice was born into this world. He heard the will of The Truth.  The Truth is the Spirit of the World, manifest as the physical planet, one of the great spirits worshiped nominally by Stone People before the revelation.  The Truth whispered the truth of how people should live to The Voice. The Voice brought the Truth to the StonePeople. Though made stubborn and misled by the spirits of stones and metals, eventually The StonePeople found The Truth.  

They are now a living part of the world, not trying to be one with the Stone, Metals, and Mountains.  While the StonePeople draw their strength from the touchable world (Stone, Soil, Metal), they are much more.  The StonePeople changed their geologic lodges and traditional ways.  They became part of the circle, spent more time above ground... in the light... gathering food. Their homes were in the ground (two level homes, one  subterranian level and one surface level).

Eventually they crowded the Mountains and moved to the Hills.  Eventually The Truth set them free enough, they they had the strength to leave the Hills and spread into the flat lands.  To keep their mountainous strength, they built large stone temples to The Truth. As they were filled with The Truth and prospered, they would explore the lands... looking for a new holy site (site of power or tactical importance).. and build a new central temple and a town grew up around it.

This process continued. The Stone People expanded in number. They expanded their territory, building new temples (and related towns).

As they expanded, they encountered a few sporatic Wild Ones. While looking for Wild Ones, They encountered The Green people. The Green People were at war with the Wild Ones. The Stone People were overjoyed to find a new peoples. And they worshiped an Earth Spirit, akin to The Truth.

The Stone People were better warriors than the Wild Ones. They had been fighting off animals (and those who did not believe in The Truth) while the Green People had only co-existed with animals and had just learned to fight against the Wild Ones. They helped drive the Wild Ones off.

In gratitude, the Green People gave the Stone People the flat grassy spaces between their large forests. They would serve as a buffer between the Green People and the Wild Ones, though they did not tell the Stone People that.

But the Stone People knew. They eventually wanted to have temples in "gatherings" (Green People Cities) near the edges of the Forests. It was, to make the Stone People comfortable when they visited their Green Friends. It was also their payment for stopping Wild One "invasions".

The Green People's magic began to weaken. Eventually they realized the cause: The Temples of The Truth.  The Stone People began to force their "friends" in those edge "gatherings" to follow The Truth. It was a matter of time before they would simply invade.

The time came. Forests burned. The Green People retreated to other forests a ways away from their homes and the Stone People. The Stone Folk followed slowly. The Green and Wild People began an alliance. Together they might stop the avalanche of Stone People.

[MoonHunter]

So here is a setting I think I like.

It has "cooled" some. I am no longer rabidly thinking about stone age/ first city period gaming. However, this is an interesting setting (and makes for an interesting ancient history). I need to work on the "future history" of this great war of Green People and WildOnes vs the Stone folks.

What do you think?

[MoonHunter]

To make this one work....

The Voice of The Truth - the religion post
Location- an example mountain
StonePeople - lifeform
GreenPeople - lifeform
WildOnes. - lifeform
Simple People - lifeform
World of   Meta-Plot