According to google translate, that's the french translation of 'Port of Black Sand'. Translating it back to english it comes out as 'Black Sand Harbor'.
I'm not fixed on it, though.
Cool, low magic and fairly low tech it is.
Port de Sablre Noir would translate to Harbour of Black Sand, which, yeah, is a name that I dig.
I'm going to try to get a fairly large writeup together before I leave on Sunday - ideally covering the different districts of the city, some noble houses and factions, key players, and basically a better put together summary of the other things we've talked about / decided on.
One other thing to touch on for world-building: You've both so far mentioned Elves and Half-Orcs. I'd like brief descriptions of what their cultures are like in this world. Ahreni also mentioned being into the idea of Halflings, but that she could do without gnomes or dwarves. So, include whatever here. Or, feel free to mention things and leave them for me to fill in.
And you can of course stick with the Tolkien / Pathfinder standard tropes of "Elves are stoic, long-lived, tall & thin, and into nature / learning, Dwarves are short and often stout, and tend to live in the mountains as miners / crafters". But you could also go with something more like sea elves being attuned to the ocean instead of forests and have them be pirates, the Dwarves could be more like traveling merchants akin to the Romani, Dwarves could be notorious thieves in the role that Kenku/Tengu are normally given, Halflings could be slaves, etc etc. The world is your oyster.
Also if there are other races that you're open to but don't necessarily have ideas for, let me know and I can figure out good places for them, too! I'm trying to build up a solid set of "resources" to use where I don't hit you with things that are out of left field / take you out of the narrative.
Personally I'm fine with the Humans/Elves/Orcs (and associated halves) trinity. I can do without all the other races - but maybe Dig wants some nice dwarves to buy all his guns?
Just trying to shake up species roles a bit: elves are highly emotional and therefore potentially extremely dangerous. Both sides of the balance like them because they kick out loads of emotion and feel things extremely strongly - so they're good power sources. This does mean that living with them can be tricky because they swing so wildly in emotion and will do crazy stuff for emotional highs/lows.
Very rarely manifest magic though - they're too emotional to be able to draw on the Power - they feed it, rather than the other way around.
Orcs, conversely, tend towards highly structured societies with lots of rules and hierarchies. They tend to be quite emotionless, and have developed set responses to things to deal with this. Oddly they make very good magic users - since they don't feel emotions naturally like the elves do they are better at using the emotional power provided by others.
Humans - of course, are in the middle! :D
What say you? Too whacky?
I'm all for shaking things up as far as the races go. There's not any particular race that I'd miss if it wasn't here. Other than humans, of course. :)
Heading back to Boston from Philadelphia tonight, so I'll be getting back to things tomorrow! I've also been reading the Night Watch book, which is giving me some neat ideas, as well as a better sense of how the idea of balance works.
(Also I like those race shake-up ideas.)
Cool :) Humans Elves and Orcs it is!
Having been reading more of the first Night Watch book, I now see that I accidentally created our magic as sort of being like the Twilight. Oops.
Typing everything up into a doc now, hoping to have things ready to start Monday! Do y'all have any questions or other things that you want to hash out ahead of starting?
Nothing that comes to mind now. I'm sure after we start I'll come up with something I should have asked about now. ;)
Yeah I was quite amused that I pitched the rough idea without mentioning the Twilight and you came up with it on your own! Can't say I mind though. :D
Let me know once you hit book 2 and the concept of 'Mirrors'. I think they're interesting but didn't necessarily want to offer them straight off. Ditto with the Inquisition. :)
No questions yet - although I reserve the right to ask them later!
I just realised, while formatting notes, that something we never covered was gods. So my question here is sort of far reaching...
Do the Outsiders on either side have some kind of hierarchy? (I assume yes) Assuming so, do the general populace of either side know who is at the top? Or do we only concern ourselves with this sort of "Precinct" and it doesn't matter and won't come up?
For the average divine caster, do they worship one monotheistic God like Christianity? Do they have a polytheistic pantheon where different gods have different focuses like the 12 Olympians in Greece? Do they worship something more abstract? Or is it a case where like, it doesn't actually matter what you believe, only what's in your heart / what you're trying to do?
Let me know once you hit book 2 and the concept of 'Mirrors'. I think they're interesting but didn't necessarily want to offer them straight off. Ditto with the Inquisition. :)
Totally will do! I'm not sure if I'm going to go onto it right away - I just have so many other things to read. Although I am curious to get the perspective of the Day Watch so I might well go right to it... There's a lot to this first book that I've really liked.
Since it's becoming a large source of inspiration, I picked up a copy of 'Night Watch' yesterday. I'm about 20% through it.
Sergei Lukyanenko needs to start giving me royalty payments!
I'd say there's an Outsider hierarchy, and probably some sort of 'Overspirit' on either side, but even the outsiders aren't sure said overspirit exists or is simply a creation of mortal worshippers. Only the very top tiers actually know for sure and they aren't saying...
I'd probably say that Divine casters can worship who/what-ever they like but its all intention. So a 'devil-worshipper' who uses their powers to 'exorcise demons' and so forth may well receive their power from the Light, and a 'faith healer' who runs his work as a huge scam for his own profit receives power from the Dark, regardless of what they think/say.
So you've got your 'normal' divine casters, who worship whatever they believe in without understanding the Balance. Then above that you have the people who actually understand the Balance and appreciate where their power comes from - although they may still anthropomorphise it as 'God' etc.
Apologies for the silence! It has been a wild week.
So, I just need to finish up the Districts before I add those, but otherwise, here's a complete breakdown of everything we've discussed and decided in a hopefully more legible format than a bunch of posts. I'll add a link from the Campaign Tab / Top of the Page to make this more accessible, since I'll be updating it as we go.
There are a couple of open questions on there, which are pretty minor things, and I've added a lot around Elves and Orcs that is worth reading as well, especially in case you disagree with any of it! This should be an evolving document, with nothing set in stone, so do feel free to point out / suggest / alter things.
Oh! And since I'm still making up the city Districts, if you have something you'd like to see, do let me know!
Answered some questions on the current document.
I'll be incommunicado Friday through Monday. :(
Hey gang, I've been in the hospital for a few days with Appendicitis. Good news is that I'm home now and not very mobile, and I can't go back to work until at least Monday, so I'll be putting in some serious hours on finishing stuff up for this so we can start proper. Huge apologies for the delay, I did not honestly think it would take this long to get us going.
That's ok. I'm never going to have played in a homebrew world this well fleshed out!
Hey Yorick,
Thanks for the work you've put in but Itzi and I are going to withdraw from this. Its a great idea but at this point its clear we aren't going to get anywhere with it. Thanks a lot for the chance, I've really enjoyed worldbuilding with you.
If you could close the thread down at some point that would be appreciated. Thanks again.
Oh. Alright. Sorry.