Flagg

The Empty Throne: War in the Broken Lands

I'm planning on a clan with a helping of foreign influence, not too dissimilar to @gorgenmast. Maybe that of a culture under Salished rule; who knows?

I guess we ought to decide, as a group, how homogeneous or diverse the culture of the Broken Isles is.

@Aristo

I think as people come up with their NSes, diversity is to be expected, but I would like people to then work together towards building a setting that meshes and makes sense in a shared world/confederation. Strategic retconning to that end is therefore encouraged. You having a clan with foreign influence is more than fine- put together an NS and then we'll work backwards to figure out how to smoosh everything together, make sense? But I'd like everyone to look for ways to integrate others' creations into their histories.

@Letter Bee accepted! with the caveat that I'm still thinking thru the map situation, but will let you know.

@gorgenmast accepted! Note that the High King's palace is no longer called the Fanghall, I'm stealing that for my faction. Feel free to come up with a new name for the High King's palace!

The Empty Throne: War in the Broken Lands

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Just out of curiosity, what sort of boons would he grant?

@Legion02

I mean, that's up to you to a certain extent. I set up bits of lore to basically see what other people do with it.

Delta Green: Whispers in the Darkness, Occult Action and Intrigue

Bump!

Don't let the lack of activity on the OOC fool you peeps, we are still very much alive on Discord and looking for two new players!

Please, step inside my office!

@Leidenschaft

You had me at Sicario and True Detective. How do I sign up?

The Empty Throne: War in the Broken Lands

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How would this complicate pre-dead High King period? As my guys will probably worship the Gore Lord long before his dead. But also part of his kingdom, meaning some status quo is to be expected, no?

@Legion02

Yes, though religious persecution/a holy war in the (recent?) Past against you by more pious clans or even by a previous high king might be cool. Your clan holding the high kings throne at some point in history might also be interesting. The Reign of Gore/the Heresy of Blood or whatever sounds like it might be a cool historical memory. Also of note, the Gore Lord, whatever it is, is like definitely real and interacts with the world, mostly through Oracle's at the Blood Spring.

The Empty Throne: War in the Broken Lands

@FlaggGotcha. Regarding the map, how big of an area does it represent? I don't know if there's a concrete pixels per mile ratio, but approximately how big are the Isles?

@Aristo

TBD. Short answer is big, majority wilderness.

There's three to start off with! If anyone wants to add more stuff to them like holy sights or rituals I haven't thought of much for that. Pondering the idea of giving Yorven an ice god sibling and making a forge god but this was all I have time for right now.

@Dogematix

Looks good. Will mention that the red gods would be outside the main pantheon as sort of their own thing, so we have plenty of room for dark or evil gods as well in the main broken lands pantheon. But it does make sense for these gods to be opposed to the demons of the red pantheon.

The Empty Throne: War in the Broken Lands

Question - How independent are the Great Clans under the rule of the High King?

@Aristo

Very, but a high king generally commands enough loyalty that open defiance on an important issue would be something even a powerful jarl would think twice about.

Hello folks. It's been a long time since I wrote anything and I want to get back into doing just that. If there aren't too many people already, and if you'll have me, I'd love to contribute; even though we never really got off the ground, Flagg, your RPs have always been fertile soil for my fantasy so that's good regardless. I had some preliminary thoughts, so if you'll indulge me I'll share them.

So, when about do we get some more info on the Pale-Men exactly? I was thinking about writing a people that's been raided by them so many times now that a significant portion of Pale-Man blood has mixed into their general gene pool. Every so often the gene is particularly prominent in a child and these pale born men and women are held in special regard. I imagined that pale-born would be sensitive to magical things and probably end up as occultists, witches, soothsayers and the like. In particular, I'd like to create a sort of shaman or witch cult around a strange artifact, probably Old One-related, that they both venerate and utilize as a tool for arcane rituals - sometimes successful, sometimes dubious, but always cruel.

What's more, I wanted to settle them in an area where a significant Old One city once stood, but which has since sunken beneath the earth of a soft-earthed bog so that only tall towers stick out of the stagnant waters now. Some of these structures can be entered from the top and explored towards the bottom, beneath the earth, but such expeditions rarely return, and if they do their faces speak volumes of terror - as they must, for their lips are forever sealed.

The artifact I mentioned - found atop the largest ruin by far, which by some estimates is argued to be either a great temple, a palace, or a tomb - is a large, iron tree. Its unearthly metal has the strange quality that it sucks up blood like a sponge, and indeed grows the tree further when watered with blood. Although it is difficult to remove pieces of the tree, its metal can be forged and wounds caused by this material allegedly never truly heal or stop bleeding. The idea is that the cult I talked about would make rich, bloody sacrifices of slaves and prisoners to the tree (or one of its saplings) in order to coax some of the magical power inside of it to the outside - hopefully with a desireable result.

Rough summary of my thoughts so far, figure it's gonna be helpful if there's still room for me and if we're supposed to develop the setting together.

@Ashgan

Sounds awesome! Good to have you on board!

The Empty Throne: War in the Broken Lands

@Flagg Are we using Gorgens map? Or are we writing in where w wasn’t to be and you’re placing us accordingly?

Also, fixed the things you suggested in my app if you don’t mind taking another look. I’ll work with Dogmatix on God’s and such

@The Wyrm

We will use @gorgenmast's map. I've not yet decided how placements will work, but if there's a place you'd like to be just stick that in the nation sheet. Just a disclaimer that I might change folks' positions around depending on how I decide to do this.

Im gonna review NSes all at once when a few more are submitted, then I'll be able to give better feedback.

The Empty Throne: War in the Broken Lands

Working on a bunch of raiders & slavers who love war and blood a lil too much to be sane. They worship the Gore Lord. If that's okay of course.

@Legion02

Yep!

The Empty Throne: War in the Broken Lands

Whatever religion we make, it should probably be the central belief system of the whole Broken Lands; shared culture and all that. Maybe different individual patrons for different kingdoms in the style of Greek city-states, but each part of the same pantheon.

@Aristo

Right. Not all Clans will need to worship all gods & there can be local variations, but basically the religion is something I'd like us to design together.

@dogematix coming up with a few gods should start us off, and we can make changes/add to his ideas as everyone designs their clans.

The Empty Throne: War in the Broken Lands

@Flagg I'm pondering my own ideas for a clan and some lore. Would it be alright of me to make a pantheon of "Bright Gods" representing noble and benevolent spirits? I've got a few names ones in mind already.

@Dogematix

Absolutely. and as I mentioned in the OP, definitely work with the other players to flesh them and the whole pantheon out.