The Stolen World, Overview and Codex
Dedicated to Scras and his Star Whale sub that was my inspiration for setting
The Stolen world is totally wrapped around Scras' Star Whale sub. As I cast about for a direction to go after I ended my very long running Mysantia game. I took the basic concept of the Star Whale and am using as the basis of all the game logic of the setting. What would a world look like that was subjected to regular apocalypses every 1000 years and why is there no information available to the pc's on how to stop them.
A general overview of the Stolen World and a codex of the submissions so far
The Stolen World was a very typical place before the coming of the Star Whales. Civilizations rose and fell as is common for high fantasy setting. With magic being as powerful as an h-bomb, this leads to a rather predictable ebb and flow of societies.Then came the first of the Star Whales.
Migrating to the rich feeding grounds of the Stolen World, the whales come in three waves every thousand years. The First wave is the Star Spawn the whales feed upon, this causes a huge disruption of society(on the order of a very major war) The spawn are accompanied by the parasite they carry. Looking rather like a Face hugger(Alien), only about 3 inches long. These parasites cause a 'Barbarism disease', Leading to wide spread looting and rioting, as well as the destruction visited by the feeding spawn. About 5-10% destruction to the ecosystem.
The Second wave consists of the adult male Star Whales. They are the least effected by the parasite, So the destruction comes from the whales not the Barbarism Plague. The destruction rises to about 33-40 %
Exactly two years from the first wave, the ravenous, pregnant female whales make their grand entrance. Feeding both on magic and on the ecosystem only 3-5% will remain. They will eat 99.9 percent of the magic sources leaving the survivors with the Barbarism Plague, resulting in a complete barbaric society remaining.
THE FIRST STRUGGLE
When the Whales first struck the powerful Kuthrii Empire held sway over half the planet. With a very high level of magic they were able to keep the destruction to under 50%.During the 2nd the destruction was brought to under 25% During the third cycle a dynastic battle took place leaving the empire helpless. The 4th cycle resulted in the death of 99.9% of the gods and is responsible for the ongoing inability of humanity to cope with the whales. No records of this time exist.
THE ENDLESS CYCLES
Civilizations would rise and fall, how far along they got varied. There was a direct correlation between how much magic survived and how quickly the culture emerged from barbarism. Some cycles stayed in a barbaric state, others became aware of the Whales but failed to do anything about it.
THE 20th Cycle The Six Lands Culture (by Moonhunter)
The Six Lands rose very quickly in power. A small school of wizards developed in the country of Shal'Noval,the city of Shanala.
Progressing almost to the level of The Kuthrii, The College of Mages was able to keep the culture going by producing a toxin that had some effect on the invaders, repelling them. Once again infighting brought them down at the end of the 23rd cycle. This time there was one major difference. A part of the Collage managed to place a few 'lifeboats'(dungeons), giving future societies a chance.
THE PRESENT
It is the year 997 of the 25th cycle. A very few of the Six Lands 'lifeboats' have been discovered. Can the adventurers break the cycles once and for all? Technoligy typical of a very,very early renaissance.
A NOTE ON MAGIC
The Stolen World has a very high level of mana, coming from a variety of sources. The memorization necessary for a full understanding is relatively easy to re-discover The current cycle rediscovered magic fully in about the year 300, it is however flawed in that there are no standardized spells nor schools of magic. Also due to the suspicion the civilization has developed toward magic, only about a third of mages even take on apprentices.
A vague realization of the cycles has emerged, erroneously leading to the conclusion that magic is responsable. Fear hatred and mistrust of Mages is more the norm in cities and villages. Luckily for most mages, fear is the overwhelming emotion.
Despite all the challenges, the knowledge to recreate The Six Lands Toxin is present. But will the mistreated mages be up for the task ?
A NOTE ON THE ECOLOGY
Lions,elephants,rhinos cats, dogs and horses are just a few of the causalities of the war. Pigs and rats have become common household pets.Oxen are the primary work animal. Bats and rats flourish ,evolving into many ecological niches. The whales have taken their toll on the 'monsters of the land. Only 10 types still exist(each with plenty of regional and cultural diversity.)
THE BARBARISM PLAGUE
It's all a little too convenient isn't it? Is there an unseen hand at work, or is it like DNA, a perfect storm?
The 1000 yr cycle is a based on the fational that longer cycles would lead to high enough magic to at least be able to hide a great deal of the world
UPDATE
I've decided to take this in a radical direction. I was also working on a huge multi dimensional war and I decided to combine the two concepts. The restart of the game will be at the very end of the Cosmic War with the entire cosmos collapsing from the epic magic used in it. The remaining bits of the multiverse will have to place anchors for each plane on the Stolen World to keep them dimensionally stable. These anchors will all be destroyed if the Star Whales win. The Stolen World is in a pocket multi verse that is almost inaccessible from anywhere else. The game will start with the pc's reacting to the collapsing multiverse and trying to stop the cascade of breaking dimensions and planes, NPC's will send the anchors and realize something is drastically wrong, The PC's will be sent on a one way trip to the Stolen World
I've added a number of 'stubs' under Stolen World freetext as most of these will either have Crypts and Things stats in them or never be finished, they will only be accessible through clicking on Stolen World freetext
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? Responses (5)
This is an interesting start - it feels like a set of notes as opposed to a full submission.
Some neat ideas here.
I felt I needed to put the full description of the way I was using the whales to make my other subs a little more understandable at this time, totally agree that this is only 3.5 at this time, but this is going to be my primary codex page for the Stolen(Strolen) World.
I like how this is coming together. I would suggest looking into some of Captain Penguin's stuff for the wreckage of societies destroyed by the whales, such as the Mountain of Boats
A useful submission.
Update: For those interested the rules I am going to be using can be found here http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/190299/Crypts-and-Things-Remastered?term=Crypts+and+Things&test_epoch=0
