i am performing an experiment with a new campaign i am running. i have taken the rather bold step into the unknown of setting my campaign in greyhawk's pre-history. borrowing from several different inspirations, the central point of this campaign will be an advanced city set upon the isles of woe in the nyr dyv, before they sank. the main thrust of the campaign is to seek to avert the disaster which sunk the isles of woe, a campaign goal on a par with averting the sinking of atlantis.
i have been kicking around various ideas and combonations, and thought i could use the advice of some fellow greyhawk inthusiasts. i am relying heavily upon the greychronodex, and am eager to find any other sources detailing or hinting at the prehistory of the campaign world. among my various thoughts:
this takes place before the twin cataclysms. so what was changed by this event, and what was it like before? was the great rift opened by the aftershocks? what other geographical features were altered?
vecna was rumored to rule the isles of woe. i would like to make this rumor false, but have him be an inhabitant of the city upon the isles of woe, and instrumental in bringing about their sinking. pit the pc's versus a young vecna!
the dwarven kings would very likely still be in power. where were the kingdom(s) ruled by them?
likewise the elven city of summer stars might not yet have been destroyed. where were the boundaries they enjoyed? were the forests more vast back then?
the ancient flan are known to have been about for a long long time, it is possible that they had not yet become the nomadic tribes more commonly known in the future. if they have a kingdom of some kind, what is its nature, and where is it?
there is the possibility of interacting with the suel and baklunesh empires, depending on how close to the TC-date that the campaign is set. i imagine that the creation of the orbs of dragonkind created quite the political stir back then. if the dragons hate anyone using them in the future, how they must have hated the creators... how did the suel empire survive the backlash? must have been pretty busy using the orbs to chase vengeful dragons off, at least at first, is my guess.
monstrous races likely had their own kingdoms and empires, or at least, it would make things more interesting! whom and where?
what else am i missing? what else can be added?
i would appreciate any input and suggestions, locations of sources, or feedback. levels are in the low end to start. for the most part, i am looking for likely filler for the various regions, initially within ~300 miles of nyr dyv. the possible time period could encompass -14,400CY - -422CY. as the campaign expands, i will then need material for further and further away.
as a side note, i am also very interested in exploring other locations in oerth. thus having active political connections and/or trade routes with some of the other lands is perfectly fine! feel free to ask me for questions and clarifications. i look forward to your input! =D _________________ Does the walker choose the path, or does the path choose the walker?
i am performing an experiment with a new campaign i am running. i have taken the rather bold step into the unknown of setting my campaign in greyhawk's pre-history. borrowing from several different inspirations, the central point of this campaign will be an advanced city set upon the isles of woe in the nyr dyv, before they sank. the main thrust of the campaign is to seek to avert the disaster which sunk the isles of woe, a campaign goal on a par with averting the sinking of atlantis.
I ran a campeign once which sidleined into a smaller campeign told as a flashback sequence of the Rain of colorless fire. The players found an ancient gold dragon that told them the story of what happened shortly after he hatched from his egg. His mother was killed and he was rescued by a small unit in the Suelious military.
Hey, I figure that just becuase their leaders were corrupt bastards didn't make them all that way.
nijineko wrote:
this takes place before the twin cataclysms. so what was changed by this event, and what was it like before? was the great rift opened by the aftershocks? what other geographical features were altered?
There weren't any to speak of. There was a lot of bloodshed as the surviving refugees atmepted to settle on the other side of the crystalmists and the Wizards seemed more concerned with taking out their aggressions on getting each other back then actually living to see tomorrow so there are a lot of bizzarre things that happened because of that. Like a forest of pillars that are actually people that were turned to stone but the wind has erroded them so much you can't really tell what they looked like anymore.
nijineko wrote:
vecna was rumored to rule the isles of woe. i would like to make this rumor false, but have him be an inhabitant of the city upon the isles of woe, and instrumental in bringing about their sinking. pit the pc's versus a young vecna!
thank you for the map link. i was taking my information from the GreyChronodex hosted here on the site. it lists vecna's ruling of a kingdom as an unknown time, prior to the TC, and mentions that it might have been the isles of woe. _________________ Does the walker choose the path, or does the path choose the walker?
Do a search on the canonfire site for articles on Venca. You'll find some good stuff. I got a lot of information on the stuff I am using for my current campaign which features Vecna heavily but also includes several of the other big names as well, Acereck, Baba Yaga, Iggwilv and Iuz.
Well, if you want to run a game set just prior to The Twin Cataclysms, might for thematic help doing a little research on the Late Roman/Early Migration Period. Both the Suel and Bakluni, having heavily recruited humanoid mercenaries, probably started to look like the Late Roman Empire of the West and Sassanid Empires (respectively) in that native troops simply no longer looked like they did during the height of their civilizations several centuries prior.
Armour would be limited to breastplate, splint (misnamed, since it should be metal lamellar), mail shirt and scale at the high end (ring-mail, leather and padded are low-end armours). Weapons would be Longsword, spear, longknife (use the stats of the Shortsword), hand axe, 2-handed axe (bearded axe), light crosswbow, short composite bow (mounted archers weapon), long and shortbows, Bill polearm, heavy lance (to represent the Contarius carried by units like the Kataphractoi) and so on and so forth.
Of course, players will probably be able to benefit from a greater exchange of magic and such since this represents the height of magical societies.
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