[b]Welcome to Azoth.[/b]

Welcome to a world scarred by history, to a world broken by ancients known now only as the [b]Old Ones[/b]. 

Who or what they were is mysterious even to the most learned, for they were destroyed- perhaps destroyed themselves- in ages so distant only confused myths and legends remain. Some tell of a race of gods descended from the stars, others of kingdoms of devils that dwell still in the many hells below the earth. Azoth is strewn with the ruins of these advanced and strange peoples, haunted by ghosts and demons, warped and mutated by untamed magic. Millenia have passed since the fall of the Old Ones, and societies have risen and fallen in their wake.

[b]The Red Desert[/b]

It is now the Year of the Setting Sun 7,790, as reckoned by the astrologers of the Dratha.

The [b]Salished Empire[/b], a sprawling hybrid theocracy and feudal warrior-society, is gearing up for war with its ancient enemies, the loosely confederated city-states of the [b]Drathan Union[/b], merchant and slaver cities ruled by capricious and arrogant wizard-lords known as the [b]Dratha[/b]. Between the [b]Rainlands[/b]- homeland of the Salished Empire- and the [b]Ashlands[/b]- the volcanic shoreline on which most of the Drathan city states lie- is the Avanagashan Waste, known to most as the [b]Red Desert[/b]. 

[Center][img]http://www.discovermoab.com/images/canyonlands/c02.jpg[/img][/Center]

A harsh wilderness, filled with endless canyons, hostile beasts, and violent natives, the Avanagashan is bisected by only a few paths a major military force could use: the [b]Long Road[/b], a narrow canyon road which hugs the endlessly winding river known as the Green Water, the [b]Dust Way[/b], a fairly waterless merchant's road cutting through badlands, and the and seasonal [b]Sandshore[/b], a road along the edge of the Red Desert, where it bleeds into the [b]Great White Erg[/b], an endless, untraversable sea of white sand. The Sandshore blooms in the brief rainy season, when it is pocked with several oases and becomes a viable path with enough water to sustain major force.

Obviously control of the desert is of crucial importance to the two great powers, and the Avanagashan is pockmarked with Drathan outposts, independent merchant towns and Salished frontier forts. Native tribes are hired by both sides to serve as proxies and auxiliaries, and recently several Drathan-employed mercenary companies, most notably the infamous company of northern reavers known as the [b]Coward's Men[/b], have begun large scale operations in the wastes, preparing to receive the Salished invasion.

[b]Welcome![/b]

Everyone will RP as a character or faction in the Avanagashan- mercenaries, tribesmen or others in the service of one of the great powers as they gear up for the looming war. The story will be built around the Coward's Men, a group of exiled reavers from the northern, norse-inspired [b]Broken Lands[/b] who have long been hirelings of the Drathan Union. You are welcome to play as one of the company, or as the leader (or member) of your own mercenary force or desert tribe, or as independent characters.

The culture, religion, history, geography, etc of the world- will be fleshed out by players, building on the foundations I've laid out above and will add a bit more (but not too much morE) detail to in the OOC. As always, I'm big on the collaborative world building and telling cool stories as a group of writers. If you're here to play Risk: the Text Edition, maybe this ain't the place to be.

[b]About This RP[/b]

-It is dark fantasy nation RP set in a harsh and unforgiving fantasy world living among the ruins of ancient, hyper advanced civilizations. Azoth is crawling with mutants and monsters. Resources are scarce. This is Lovecraft meets Tolkien meets Skyrim.
-I'd like this to be an exercise in collaborative world building. That means that we want factions and characters that feel like they inhabit a shared world. Players will collaborate heavily in designing their factions.
-It is low-medium fantasy: magic exists. It is powerful and dangerous. 
[hider=More on Magic, Races and Cosmology]

A note on Magic: 

I like the Tolkien/GRR Martin approach to magic and religion. Magic is real, mysterious, and powerful, but for the most part takes place 'off-screen', and is for aesthetic purposes somewhat subdued or indirect. I am not a big fan on fixed magic rules or magic systems. I do want to stress that this is low(ish) fantasy. That means no armies of reanimated dead or golems, no legions of fireball casters, balrogs, etc. We're going to err on the side of how the LotR handled magic rather than say, D&D.

Likewise, the RP will take the GRR Martin approach to religion: there are as many religions as we can come up with here, but we will leave it an open question as to whether any of them are true. Conflicting mythos and cosmologies and visions of god(s) are encouraged.[/hider]
-It is vaguely Renaissance tech. Cannons and arquebus are new military technology, only really likely to be wielded by elite Salished troops.
-It has archeo-tech from a lost, highly advanced civilization. Salvaged/repurposed Old One tech is common in many places across Azoth, though the Broken Lands are backwards in this respect as well. Old One ruins are very common all over the world.
-It has original fantasy races. More detail to come in the OOC. [b]GM approval needed for non-human races.[/b]
-Inspired by Roman and Persian proxy wars in Arabia until the rise of Islam, Tolkien, TES: Morrowind, Warhammer fantasy and 40K, Lovecraft, China Mieville, Song of Ice and Fire...looking forward to seeing what others bring to the table.
- [b]Advanced writing standards.[/b]
- Setting details have been developed (mostly) by [@gorgenmast] and me