.
I would start with the War of Souls trilogy. While it is nowhere nears as good as the Chronicles or Legends series, it is far more relevant to the current times, he he.
Checking in. I am looking forward to getting started.
Red Thirteen, checking in.
Ok, first of all, going to give some fluff on this board. Here is a brief Dragonlance history covering some major events throughout distant and current history.
It is said in the annuls of Astinus, that the balance of the world shifts throughout the ages. In ages of strife, evil would rule but in time, evil would be its own doing, for Evil turns on itself. Thus when evil falls, goodness is allowed to rise and peace and serenity could be achieved. But without evil, pride grew among the righteous and the Gods punished their arrogance through the great Cataclysm. When the Gods turned their back on their mortal charges, evil took root and the Dark Gods quickly took advantage creating a vast army with desires to conquer the world. The War of the Lance would be a war of the ages with no absolute victor. While the forces of Good survived the wake of the war, evil as well would endure. Then came the second charge, when the Dark Knights would seek to unite the world under their one world order. But their ambitions would come to naught, when the Father of All and Nothing, Chaos was freed from his long imprisonment.
Chaos, an evil beyond evils sought not conquest of the world of Krynn but its absolute destruction. To survive, all the beings of the world had to unite to fight for their very fate of existence. A second Cataclysm would occur, scarring the world by the dark power of Chaos. Victory was achieved at great cost. The Father of all and Nothing was imprisoned once again and the world would breathe a sigh of relief, for the briefest of times. For the Dark Queen, ever devious knew it was the perfect time to strike, when the Gods departed to send Chaos beyond the reach of the world. In one fell swoop the world would be shunted to another plane, separating the mortal world from the Gods. Mankind alone in the cosmos, divided from almost all of its Gods were left to fend for themselves. This would be a new age for the world, The 5th Age, The Age of Mortals.
The Age of Mortals would be the Darkest age of the world. With the Gods no longer answering prayers and the old arcane spells lacking the power of the Moons, the races of the world would have to fend for themselves only by their natural abilities. What was worse is that the forces of Evil would come out strong after the Cataclysm and be a force to be reckoned with in the new age. With the coming of the Dragon Overlords the very face of Krynn was reshaped to the wims of these powerful dragons, whose powers rivaled those of the old Gods. But hope would be found by those seeking it. Divine magic was rediscovered through the devotion to the divine domains of the world, through a practice called Mysticism. For Arcane Magic, it was discovered that the power of magic unregulated by the Moons could be harnessed, allowing the development of Sorcery. With this there was hope that Mortals could survive on their own in the darkest of ages.
In the most recent years of the Age of Mortals, great conflicts would arise across the world. Takhisis with the help of her hearld Mina, would seek to become the One God of Krynn. But to do so, she would have to regain her strength and destroy her rivals to power. With that Takhisis and her allies the Dark Knights lead a dragon purge on the Dragon Overlords, seeking not only to slay these powerful dragons but take their power to strengthen her Godhood. As her strength grew, she would weaken the flow of magic and mystisim and draw upon the souls of the dead to be her army of world conquest. Thus the War of Souls would begin as Takhisis would subjigate the world now and forever. On the very edge of ultimate victory, the improbable would happen. The Gods would find the world again and invoke their wrath upon the Dark Queen. The combined might of the Gods, combined with the sacrafice of Paladine's divinity allowed the Gods to strip Takhisis of her Godhood, making her mortal and allowing her to be slain by a heroic blow of a Dragonlance. With the death of the Dark Queen, there is hope the world can rebuild itself with the aid of the Gods. But even at this day of age, the suffering of the world endures.
The elves, the firstborn creations of the Gods of Light, are a scattered people without a homeland. The Dark Knights still hold vast tracks of territory and still thirst for more, holding onto the ideals of building the One World Order. The Solamanic Knights are recovering but took heavy losses during the War of Souls and have much to do in order to stem the tide of evil that still lingers in the wake of the War of Souls. The Minotaurs, with their dark god Sargas behind them have claimed a foothold on the contenent and in time have eyes to conquer other lands. The evil Ogre Titans have firmly gained control of the Ogre population and have ambitions of their own in the wide world. The newly restablished Orders of High Sorcerery are rebuilding and seek to bring Arcane magic under their domain again, but would face opposition from the sorcerers who refuse to give their loyality to Orders. In the end, Krynn is a world in need of heroes. Will you be among them?
Now here is some fluff on Khur and most of all Pashin, where the adventure will start.
Khur is a grand desert country that lies southeast of Taman Busuk, northeast of Blöde, west of the Ogrelands, north of Silvanesti, and east of the dwarf kindgom of Thoradin. Created during the Cataclysm, the land has long been the domain of the nomadic Khur tribes, who have called the land their home for centuries. It is a mountainous and desert region and often a place of scorching heat during the day and nights that are cold and unyielding. The land offers some respite in the form of fertile oasis that provide the valuable lifeblood of water to the people of the land.
In ages past, Khur has been invaded on several occasions, but have survived through strategic alliances and neutrality with bordering nations. For now most of Khur is free, but there is troubles upon the horizon for this nation. The conquest of the Minotaurs caused a large migration of Nerakan Dark Knights into the region, who now lacking the ability to face the Minotaurs in battle, turn their gaze towards Khur, seeing it as a weak country that could be Annexed into the Nerakan empire.
A vast migration of elves have moved into the region over the past few months. Driven from their homelands by circumstance or force, many have settled among the slums of Khur villages, cities and towns, much to the chagrin of the natives of Khur. The Khur in the past were not known to be friendly towards the Silvanesti, indeed in the War of the Lance they even aided the Dragon Armies to invade the land. Their coming may well bring strife in the years to come.
A center-point of the various migrations is the town of Pashin. The town began its existence as a Bandit town, but eventually became a central trading hub in the region. As the settlement grew, the Dwarves would have a hand in its further construction, allowing buildings of stone to be developed as well an effective sewer system. This would make Pashin a unique settlement in the nation of Khur. Well situatated near the borders of the Silvenesti Forest, the Ogre Kingdom of Blode and the Taman Busuk, the location is strategically valuable for many in the region. With the migrations, the population of the town has swelled. The number of Nekarians has increased to such a level that they are almost 50% of the population, giving them a strong presence and authority in the town. The Khur still oppose them however, leading to occasional violent confrontations. There is also a sizeable population of Elven refugees that have found their way to Pashin, hoping to scrape out a living as well as gain cover from the scorching desert. In this hub in the deserts of Khur our adventure begins.
Okay, so looking at a map of the region, where are the minotaurs invading from? And based on your legend above, it would seem like Silvanosti is home to a few Towers of Sorcery (and would as a result be more respected by its neighbors). Is there a particular reason why the Khur natives would not be interested in helping the elves? I know they were on separate sides of a conflict before, but is that animosity still fueling the disinterest?
Gareth and Ahelcot would have traveled from Ak-Khurman to Pashin incognito. We would probably be traveling as caravan guards for merchants?
Well you have to remember Anshim, that Wizard Magic stopped working when the Gods departed. While there was Wizard Schools and Towers in the Silvanesti forest, only elves were allowed to go to those schools and even then only those who were of specific mage bloodlines. Indeed Dalamar the Dark got branded as a Dark Elf because he did magic when he was not a member of one of the Mage houses. The Silvanesti are rather stuck up elves who rarely delt with the outside world. So while the Silvnesti had lots of arcane knowledge, they couldn't use a lot of it as Wizard magic ceased to function without "Spell Leaching" magical items.
Now with the Minotaur invasion to the south (They control the Silvanesti Forest), a HUGE number of elves have been driven north to escape the invasion. That's a MASSIVE amount of refugees you got there. While the Khur might have been accepting of the occasional elven trader, now they got a vast migration of elves crowding into the settlements. The Khur and Silvanesti have not been the best of friends in the past and the large influx of elves only aggravates tensions.
Another part of the discrimination is that the Nekharians particularly don't like the elves either. With a large Nekharian influx into Pashin, there is a lot of local prejudice toward the elven refugees. Hope that clarifies things.
Ah, okay. So it's the Silvanesti's own reclusive nature that is causing a lot of the conflict (and their vast numbers). And the way you said the Minotaurs are controlling the Silvanesti Forest, I'm guessing you mean that the minotaurs were always there and just became agressive lately? Still curious where the minotaurs came from originally. :P
No, the Minotaurs they weren't always there, in fact Minotaurs were almost unheard of in Silvanost until they invaded. They came at the tail end of the War of Souls, when the Silvanesti army was off fighting the Dark Knights in Sanction. Basically, with the majority of the Silvanesti army away from the city, the Minotaurs took advantage of the weakened defenses and invaded with a 10,000 strong army and quickly overwhelmed the defenses of Silvanost and conquered the city. They then quickly rushed through, pillaging and conquering other elven settlements in the forest.
The Minotaurs now are consolidating their conquest. They've taken a HUGE amount of Elven Slaves, forcing them to work menial jobs in the service of the conquerors. The minotaurs are cutting down vast tracks of forest and building outposts on the borders of Silvanost to keep out foreigners and to solidify their control over the region.
The minotaurs came from originally the islands Mithas and Kothas. They are renowned for their tactical brilliance, military strength and superb seamanship, but of course hated for their evil acts and brutality. The Minotaurs had ambitions for a land invasion for centuries, but were prevented due to the maelstrom, a massive worldpool that made the seas treacherous and thus not even the Minotaurs would risk sending a large fleet to the Mainland. However, the Malestrom vanished during the age of mortals thus the Minotaurs decided the time was right to invade, thus crossing the ocean and invading Silvanost from the sea.
Just so you know the Play By Post game is up and I've done introductions of how each of you ended up in Pashin. How do I add characters to the player listing?
Cool just saw the intros...very nicely done! When did you want us posting in Gamethread?
BTW...the characters will show up automatically once they post in the Gamethread.
Whenever you're ready, I've already maneuvered you all into the Market of Pashin. That's a suggested starting point to get the characters to meet.
Awesome introductions!
I agree about the introductions. I can feel the tension and the heat in the air in the crowded market. Thanks for setting it up so nicely.
Question: How do you type the /dice expression so that the type of roll you want (eg, Perception) shows up in the Green type?
[dice=Perception]1d20...
Gareth: Thanks. It's kinda a no-brainer now that i know. See you in the game
Sorry guys. I am working the combine this week in Indy and I was traveling all day. I will usually check every hour or two
Working at the combine sounds like a good gig :)
Anybody know what happened to the Kender magus? He is AWOL...
In Indy until tomorrow evening. I will usually post multiple times a day, but I am testing 12-14 hours a day this week.
This one has gone silent for some time. Is the game over?
Im here waiting for a response.
As am I. Cassim where are you?