Hi all, I'm designing a homebrew campaign and I'm looking for some ideas.
The geography is roughly shaped like north america with a mountain range crossing from east to west along the Canada/US border and an other mountain range from north to south along the borders of N. Dakota, S. Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and New Mexico.
The continent was inhabited mostly by humans which followed deities along the Old faith of Greyhawk or the Green faith of Golarion. At some point easterners conquered what would be the equivalent of new england and the part of the mid-west. The conquerors worshipped a pantheon like the one from Golarion with the exception of a LG god akin to Pholtus in Greyhawk.
To the west is now a large kingdom of the native which have tense relations with the new kingdom of the easterners. To the north (Quebec and Ontario) is a native nation who have allied themselves with the conquerors. To the south east is a baronny of easterners. and to south (texas) is a an other nation that pay respect to the easterners.
The twist is that all kingdoms are good or neutral but still have hard relation due to different political and religious view.
I'd like you to give me some ideas for each kingdoms.
Thanks
P.S. The states and provinces names are for geographical reference only, it's not exactly how the map is done.
Points of tension between nations can be from differences in values, religion and trade.
Eg an elven nation of natives who follow the aztec gods can value trees for being a sacred part of the universe, and stop human or dwarven loggers.
You can go outside the normal races and have wolfpeople natives and tengu/kenku oriental nation.
You will need a few trade towns located between nations where alot of trade, espionage and crime occurs.
One of the nations could use barter instead of coins, one of them could use slaves or atleast have a servent social class.
If you keep the geography very similiar you can use the features that are there, eg tornadoes in the mid west, snow storms in the north, hurricanes in the south east.
You could even have a Pathfinder version of Mt Rushmoor :P
Hi all, I'm designing a homebrew campaign and I'm looking for some ideas.
The geography is roughly shaped like north america with a mountain range crossing from east to west along the Canada/US border and an other mountain range from north to south along the borders of N. Dakota, S. Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and New Mexico.
The continent was inhabited mostly by humans which followed deities along the Old faith of Greyhawk or the Green faith of Golarion. At some point easterners conquered what would be the equivalent of new england and the part of the mid-west. The conquerors worshipped a pantheon like the one from Golarion with the exception of a LG god akin to Pholtus in Greyhawk.
To the west is now a large kingdom of the native which have tense relations with the new kingdom of the easterners. To the north (Quebec and Ontario) is a native nation who have allied themselves with the conquerors. To the south east is a baronny of easterners. and to south (texas) is a an other nation that pay respect to the easterners.
The twist is that all kingdoms are good or neutral but still have hard relation due to different political and religious view.
I'd like you to give me some ideas for each kingdoms.
Thanks
P.S. The states and provinces names are for geographical reference only, it's not exactly how the map is done.
I'd make each different kingdom a different race or group of races. it'll give a even nicer way to have divisions without alignment getting involved. elves for the new guys, humans for the middle, dwarves/gnomes and hobbits up north. and orcs down south. (or something like that.)
Interesting, I like it.
Assuming the Green Faith holds sway, that keeps the West firmly in the grip of a Druidic Faith that would encourage small but numerous population centers, villages and towns with a few great 'cities' built in regions where their existence does little harm to the natural world, or are grown/built out of natural landmarks.
Most of the villages, towns and cities would be self-sufficient and their economy would likely be barter, perhaps mixed in with some light-weight socialism, such as water sources belong to all, communal resource sheds where people store what they do not use for others to use in turn for what they take, so on and so forth.
I would, for a twist, make the nation of the Green Faithers a mixture of Human and another race or two, perhaps Goblins and maybe even a Fay race, such as Centaurs or possibly Lizard-Folk. Here's a quick link to a thread I made a looooong time ago. Lizard Folk as a 0 HD Race. Swap out the Swim Speed for something else off of Voodo Mike's Race Building Guide and go nuts.
I could fully see our 'Green Faith' Nation defending their borders with mounted patrols. Humans might use Horses, or for a twist with a Druidic Faith behind the nation, Stags, Dire Boars or even bigger megafauna. Nothing says "PISS OFF!" like an angry band of soldiers firing at you from the safety of a heavily armoured Mammoth's back.
Antagonism between the 'Natives', who once spread across their homeland in small numbers but are now forced into a single region, and the newcomers, who view the natives as 'flea-worshipping savages' can only end with border skirmishes, each side fully convinced of their moral high-ground, the natives to reclaim their lands and stop the rape of their lands by these arrogant bastards from across the Mountains, the newcomers to 'liberate' the natives from their heathen ways and guide them into civilisation.
If we turn to the Eastern Kingdoms of your Homebrew, a good choice would be to go back to the old Races of Faerun Handbook and make them Elves, and a very tradition-bound and Roman-esque feel, with Noble Houses constantly jockeying for position, alliances generations old falling in a heartbeat to an assassin's dagger, slaves of other races used for manual labour, protected by the law against maiming or being tortured to death, but still slaves, treated as Objects and not as People.
Sun Elves and Drow are the Noble Caste, Sun Elf Families hailing from a Mage-Led Society, Drow from a Priest-Led Society, and the constant bickering, infighting and general partisian attitudes the two sub-species hold towards each other is what is styming the Elven Nation from advancing further. Originally the two nations were at war until a third faction arose and began to push at the two, forcing an uneasy truce that ended in the Third Faction's destruction, but now the two nations are so heavily entangled through political and marriage ties they can't seem to get away from each other, much as they would dearly love to.
Moon Elves were native to both of the Elven Nations, and are the Artisan Caste, forming the bulk of their civilian populations. Anybody from a baker up to a politician could be one, but most of the political power is held by the feuding Sun and Drow families, meaning what few Moon Elf Nobility are around are at best second-stringer families. While some Moon Elves do join the military, most of the Militant Caste belongs to two other races.
The Wood and Wild Elves belong to the two Warrior Castes of the Elven Kingdoms. Wood Elves served the Sun Elves as loyal Legionnaires for hundreds of years, and the canny Wild Elves were the pride of the Drow's army, being as adept at ambushes and hit-and-run raids as they were at focus of the Dark Elves fascination with one-on-one combat. Both sub-races serve in the Warrior Caste to this day, but their master's feud is but a torch to the raging hatred both races feel towards each other, the Wood Elves solid training and focus on squad-tactics as infuriating to the Wild Elves as the hit-and-run tactics and 'dubious' use of traps, ambushes and other forms of battlefield 'treachery' is to the Wood Elves.
I would definitely say that the Easterner Economy is firmly in the Coin-end of the spectrum. Barter is for the savages, truely civilised beings use Silver, Gold/Obsidium and Platinum coins. (Sun Elves prefer to use the Gold Coins, Dark Elves prefer their Obsidium Chips, similar value, yet another way to play up the 'we really don't like each other' angle in which you can mortally offend a Sun Elf by paying him with Obsidium Chips rather than Gold.) Slaves are bought from 'reputable' merchants, who actually run raids into other nations for their 'stock', in addition to large 'farms' where slaves are bred, raised and selected for their inherent traits, such as strength, beauty, violence or otherwise.
On the other hand, the Easterners are some of the most philanthropic people you'll ever meet, so long as they have the upper hand in a deal. Orphanages everywhere and in any region they hold, the poor are fed, clothing and trained in gainful employ, the elderly are recruited to teach the younger generation the wonders of the civilisation the Easterners bring (of course, those who try to teach about the 'old days' get shuffled off somewhere before such dangerous nations can spread, naturally.) and to pass on what lore the Easterners believe harmless, they build roads for merchants to use to travel safely and rigorously patrol their domain to root out bandits, ne'er-do-wells and the like.
Of course, no Elf would ever demean themselves doing manual labour, but that's what Slaves are for, of course. With a variety of magical means available, let alone the good old fashioned branding, leg-chaining and the like for difficult slaves or ones belonging to ultra-orthodox Clans.
Definitely falling into the Lawful Neutral spectrum here.
Wow, these are great ideas :)
...
If we turn to the Eastern Kingdoms of your Homebrew, a good choice would be to go back to the old Races of Faerun Handbook and make them Elves, and a very tradition-bound and Roman-esque feel, with Noble Houses constantly jockeying for position, alliances generations old falling in a heartbeat to an assassin's dagger, slaves of other races used for manual labour, protected by the law against maiming or being tortured to death, but still slaves, treated as Objects and not as People.
...
I really like that idea.
Thanks
Small update: *** this is still a rough draft ***
Thousand years ago elves were the dominant species and were matched only by their enemies the true dragons.
Forseeing a cataclysm they departed for an other plane.
Cataclysm happens hundreds years later, sending the world in a dark ages. Dragons devolves to "feral" state. Remaining elves too.
Over millenia, the primitive races evolves to core races.
Few hundred years ago, descendent from the true elves came back and started conquering the world, only to be opposed by the core races.
I've pretty much settle on what the nation would be:
To the west a human nation worshiping deoties akin to the "green faith": they manage to fend off the invaders
To the east a "True elves" nation based on roman empire on its decline: conquered most of the east but starting to loose control on vassal kingdom.
I've done pretty much the pantheon for all races, but I'm trying to figure out the "true elves" and core elves deities.
What kind of deities should be similar, and what should be the major differences. (I take my insparation from Golarion and Greyhawk deities)
Thanks
I think the gnomes would be diplomats and bankers, possibly controlling some hills on a border. The Gnolls would be living on the equitorial islands as slaves. They are cannibilistic and into voodoo but they are good at working the sugar cane fields. The Drow and Orcs could fill the "Driven underground and plotting revenge" niche.
Having some Gnolls become freedom fighters would be a nice twist, making your game world more unique. :)
I think the gnomes would be diplomats and bankers, possibly controlling some hills on a border. The Gnolls would be living on the equitorial islands as slaves. They are cannibilistic and into voodoo but they are good at working the sugar cane fields. The Drow and Orcs could fill the "Driven underground and plotting revenge" niche.
Having some Gnolls become freedom fighters would be a nice twist, making your game world more unique. :)
Actually, Gnomes are even more fey like than in Pathfinder, and Dwarves will be the traders/bankers/engineer as their kingdom sit between the two major kingdoms. They built the wall closing the pass between the human and true elves kingdom, partly at the request of the humans, but mostly as a way to have both side paying them custom for good crossing the borders. Their stonecraft skills combined with their army enable them to keep their custom services up and running.