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Author Topic: Brainstorming an Iron Heroes Campaign Setting...  (Read 2939 times)

Cyclotron

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Brainstorming an Iron Heroes Campaign Setting...
« on: April 20, 2006, 09:55:21 PM »
So, I'm starting to brainstrom some ideas for an Iron Heroes campaign setting that I will be running sometime in the indefinite future.  You guys are all welcome to toss any suggestions or ideas into the mix.

The basic idea stems from the very little bit of a suggested setting included inthe Iron Heroes rulebook...  The Swordlands.  For those who don't have the book, or are too lazy to look it up, here's a synopsis:

There was once a group of powerful beings who had control of untold magical power called the Masters.  They had floating cities and all that sort of super-magic jazz.  Humanity was essentially ensalved by the Masters.  A few humans, the First, were "enhanced" by the masters to be stronger, faster, smarter, better than ordinary humans, they too could wield magic to a lesser degree and acted as overseers for the Masters over their human brethren.

Eventually a magical war broke out amongst the Masters that devastated the world and killed all the Masters.  The world was thrust into a deep, dark age in which the remaining humans, sometimes led by one of the First, carved new kingdoms out of the resultant chaos.  Monstrous survivors, originally created by the Masters solely to wage war, still roam the vast wildernesses, still riddled with the ruins of the Master's glorious empire, between small pockets of returning civilation.

Got all that?

So what I'm going to do, is take that idea, and turn it into a mythical alternate Earth setting.  The setting is centered on Europe and the Mediterranean Sea during an analogue of the Dark Ages.  Atlantis will take the role of the Masters, with the sinking of Atlantis equating, historically, to the fall of the Roman Empire.  The Mythical Heroes of Antiquity (Jason, Beowulf, Arthur and such...) are substitutes for the First.

The world is just beginning to claw it's way out of the magical holocaust induced dark age it is currently suffereing from.  Many of the surviving civilizations are former provinces and colonies of the Atlantean Empire, and have managed to hang on to small bits and piences of Atlantean culture, knowledge, technology or magic, if even in a greatly reduced capacity.

So that's where I'm starting from...
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Cyclotron

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Brainstorming an Iron Heroes Campaign Setting...
« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2006, 10:18:01 PM »
First things first...

I'm going to define the general area of the setting with regional names.

I'm going to assume that the "known world", I think I'll call it Antediluvia, includes Europe, the Mediterreanean Sea, Northern Africa, and the easternmost parts of Asia.  Anything else (and even some of the regions within), at this point, is the subject of vague legends only.

I'd like to take a page from Robert E. Howard's style and his Hyborean Age kingdoms, and try to use geographical names that stem from mythical lands or from obscurely ancient names for lands...  I want it to have the feel of what the world might have been like, if the legends and myths had been true.

After a bit of poking about, here's what I've got so far for regional names...

Tyrrhenia - Italy/Rome
Iberia - Spain and Portugal (This one's a bit more common than I'd like, but I can't think of anything better.)
Hyperborea - Germany and maybe France (Unless I can find a better name for France.)
Thule - Scandinavia
Tashemau - Upper Egypt
Tamehu - Lower Egypt
Sopedu - Sinai
Albion (or perhaps Alouion, Prydain, or Prydein) - Britain
Fomoria (or perhaps Hibernia, Ivernia, or Iernia) - Ireland
Scythia (or perhaps Gerrhos, Ishkuzai, or Skolotoi) - Poland, the Ukraine and the rest of the eastern Russian steppes.
Hethite (or perhaps Hetti, or Nesili) - Turkey and parts of the mid-east.
Lemuria - All the unexplored jungles of southern Africa.
Mu - All the unexplored lands of the Far East.

I still need a good name for Greece and all its islands, and for the region that includes allt he East European Slavic countries, where all the undead will be hanging out.  A good name for France would be nice, but I can lump it into Hyperborea with Germany.
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Dacke

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Brainstorming an Iron Heroes Campaign Setting...
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2006, 12:33:17 AM »
Quote from: Cyclotron
I still need a good name for Greece and all its islands,
How about Hellas?
 

Cyclotron

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« Reply #3 on: April 21, 2006, 09:45:51 AM »
Quote from: Dacke
How about Hellas?

That could work...  like Iberia, it's an awfully recognizable name, though.  I may just have to suck that up for Greece.  It's just too popular as an ancient civilization, and all its old names are well known.

I was also considering using Achaea, ala the Iliad, as a counterpoint to using Ilium (or Ilion) as the "Trojan" city-state that will take the place of Constantinople.
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Name Lips

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« Reply #4 on: April 21, 2006, 11:45:17 AM »
I believe one of the old names for Ireland is "Eìre" or something...
Next phase, new wave, dance craze, anyways, it's still rock and roll to me.

You can talk all you want about theory, craft, or whatever. But in the end, it's still just new ways of looking at people playing make-believe and having a good time with their friends. Intellectualize or analyze all you want, but we've been playing the same game since we were 2 years old. We just have shinier books, spend more money, and use bigger words now.

Cyberzombie

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« Reply #5 on: April 21, 2006, 12:00:24 PM »
Quote from: Name Lips
I believe one of the old names for Ireland is "Eìre" or something...
No, that is the *current* Gaelic name for Ireland.  :p


Cyclotron: I do believe you are using the rules *exactly* the way they were intended.  Sounds like a cool idea.

I wouldn't be too wedded in getting names for the current European countries.  For instance, Charlemagne ruled over what is now Germany, France, and northern Italy.  If you're going for a dark ages feel, you could have an epic hero who has/is/will do the same.

So, which version of Atlantis are you planning on using?  One in the Mediterranean, or one in the Atlantic?
 

Cyclotron

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« Reply #6 on: April 21, 2006, 01:48:37 PM »
Quote from: Cyberzombie
I wouldn't be too wedded in getting names for the current European countries.

Oh, of course not...  I'm looking more at geographical regions than actual countries.  Modern country names just provide a convenient reference point on the map.

for my purposes, the difference between France and Germany would be the Rhine river...  Much like the division between the Gauls and the Germanic tribes during the Roman Empire.

Hyperborea would be the region east of the Rhine and north of the Danube, and eastward until the forest turns into steppes.

The "French" region would lie between the Rhine and the Pyrenees mountains.

Quote from: Cyberzombie
So, which version of Atlantis are you planning on using?  One in the Mediterranean, or one in the Atlantic?

I'm not certain yet...  the Atlantic version would be more mythically traditional, but the Mediterranean version would make a little more sense.

Honestly, I don't know if it makes a difference.  Either way, Atlantis is long gone, and the means and location of its destruction may very be lost with all the other knowledge that vanishes during a Dark Age.
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Cyclotron

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« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2006, 08:50:02 AM »
I found a few more names to fill in...

I'm going to name the region bounded by the Carpathian Mountains either Pannonia or Ercynia.  As stated above, this will the Ravenloft-ish region full of vampires, ghouls and other undead.

For the French region I'm going to either stretch fromthe Rhine to the Pyranees and call it Galatia, which is actually a Roman province in Turkey setteled by Gauls, but derived from the original Greel etymology for Gaul (gala: "milky"). Or I'm going to restrict the region to the area south of the Seine (or maybe south of the Loire) and call it Aquitania.

I'm still trying to decide between Hellas and Achaea for Greece...  I like them both, and it's a tough choice.
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el-remmen

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« Reply #8 on: April 27, 2006, 06:21:35 PM »
Quote from: Cyclotron

I'm still trying to decide between Hellas and Achaea for Greece...  I like them both, and it's a tough choice.


I prefer the latter, the former makes me think of an expression from northern californa.
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Cyclotron

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« Reply #9 on: April 28, 2006, 01:26:12 PM »
Quote from: el-remmen
I prefer the latter, the former makes me think of an expression from northern californa.

Good enough reason for me.

Damn it.  Now I'm going to have an image of Mr. T in a toga stuck in my head all weekend.

:mr-t:  < "Hella nice golden fleece!"
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Name Lips

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« Reply #10 on: April 28, 2006, 01:40:53 PM »
How mysterious is your world going to be? I know Iron Heroes is low-to-no magic, but you could make the journey to Atlantis something special - something more than just sailing there in a boat. Perhaps you have to sail into the center of a storm, and you can find Atlantis in the center, untouched by the bad weather. Perhaps the storm moves around, though the island seems stationary once you arrive.

Or you could go all-out weird and invoke the Hollow Earth theory, so you have to sail into a vortex and come out on the inside of the earth, and find Atlantis in the Inner Ocean.
Next phase, new wave, dance craze, anyways, it's still rock and roll to me.

You can talk all you want about theory, craft, or whatever. But in the end, it's still just new ways of looking at people playing make-believe and having a good time with their friends. Intellectualize or analyze all you want, but we've been playing the same game since we were 2 years old. We just have shinier books, spend more money, and use bigger words now.

Cyclotron

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Brainstorming an Iron Heroes Campaign Setting...
« Reply #11 on: April 28, 2006, 02:11:04 PM »
Quote from: Name Lips
How mysterious is your world going to be? I know Iron Heroes is low-to-no magic, but you could make the journey to Atlantis something special - something more than just sailing there in a boat. Perhaps you have to sail into the center of a storm, and you can find Atlantis in the center, untouched by the bad weather. Perhaps the storm moves around, though the island seems stationary once you arrive.

Or you could go all-out weird and invoke the Hollow Earth theory, so you have to sail into a vortex and come out on the inside of the earth, and find Atlantis in the Inner Ocean.


Atlantis is dead and gone, sunk beneath the ocean waves.  All that remains of her once glorious empire are the half-rotten scraps of an sumptuous feast that was never cleared away.

Quote from: Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
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Name Lips

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« Reply #12 on: April 28, 2006, 02:15:37 PM »
Quote from: Cyclotron
Atlantis is dead and gone, sunk beneath the ocean waves.  All that remains of her once glorious empire are the half-rotten scraps of an sumptuous feast that was never cleared away.

So you're shooting for a "Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of..." kind of game? "Let me tell you of the days of High Adventure!" :)
Next phase, new wave, dance craze, anyways, it's still rock and roll to me.

You can talk all you want about theory, craft, or whatever. But in the end, it's still just new ways of looking at people playing make-believe and having a good time with their friends. Intellectualize or analyze all you want, but we've been playing the same game since we were 2 years old. We just have shinier books, spend more money, and use bigger words now.

Cyclotron

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Brainstorming an Iron Heroes Campaign Setting...
« Reply #13 on: April 28, 2006, 02:22:08 PM »
Quote from: Name Lips
So you're shooting for a "Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of..." kind of game? "Let me tell you of the days of High Adventure!" :)

Exactly.

Or a sort of "What if we replace the Roman Empire with the Altantean Empire, and all the old legends were true."

Quote from: Horace Smith
In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desert knows: –
"I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,
"The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
"The wonders of my hand." – The City's gone, –
Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.

We wonder, – and some Hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
He meets some fragments huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place.
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obryn

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Brainstorming an Iron Heroes Campaign Setting...
« Reply #14 on: April 29, 2006, 12:04:47 PM »
For some reason, this reminds me of the old Dangerous Journeys setting, Aerth.  (Gygax, naturally.)

-O