Friday, December 28, 2012
Played a Garnia Game
Granted it was not in the Garnian heartlands, but it was Garnia. We set up to try out my draft Oriental Adventures rules in the empire of Tenchuko and, after guiding everyone through the still somewhat lengthy OA character generation rules, we actually got to play some.
The party are all retainers of lord Asano, and he needs to retrieve the lost battle standard of the Asano clan before the Shogun's visit. The characters all have complex relationships to lord Asano. One is a Samurai from the Niwa family that was really kind of screwed over by the Asano a few generations back, but they are hereditary retainers and still serve them. One is married to Lord Asano's older brother, and is a member of his counter-intelligence service. One is his first cousin. One is a Sohei from a monastery that is heavily funded by lord Asano.
Making matters more complex, and I love to do that, Lord Asano is not a great lord, he is young and not terribly fit for the job. He over compensates by being overly harsh a disciplinarian and lavishly supporting the Pure Land sect. He also gambles away his fortune and is a notorious womanizer. If the party fails in their mission though, the entire clan will suffer.
Complicating matters is the fact that the banner in question is being held by an enemy clan, the Takeda, and there is the matter of the salt trade, possibly the opium trade and an unrevealed rival family that wants to see the Asano fall.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Not Getting Ignored
Garnia seems like it's been getting ignored for a while now, but nothing could be further from the truth- I have just been doing my ruminating and design thing more or less in my head and back and forth with Darryl and Dalton, and too a lesser extent Mona, in person.
I do understand the need for some updates here, and the core areas of the world need some detailing, but the revamping is largely done.
I am starting a new campaign in Tenchuko- the Japanese area of Garnia soon. I have been running a Viking related Garnia/Dwarf campaign on and off for a while now. I am also considering a run through of the Roman area of Garnia. The less developed areas need love too, right?
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
What do you all want to see?
What part of the world do you want to see developed first? I am doing Mongol month on my other blog, so it would be easy for me to slip in a bit of detail about the Altan Ordu, but that's a really obscure area for play. I had been pretty hot to do the Nova Roman Empire with it's Ape citizens and it's Goblinoid Egyptian Satrapy but I am waiting on some art for that. I haven't really been working on Garnia World at all since my sister died last month, but I need to get busy doing stuff again, so if there is a part of the world that you all would like to know more about I can oblige. I'll start with a 20-questions and move on from there.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
This Blog
The intention of this blog was always
to invite other people into the design process with Darryl and I,
wherever in the world they were, as long as they could share the
vision of our Garnia with us. Darryl and I don't always agree on
everything, and I usually have final edit rights to most things about
the entire "World of Garnia" project, but for the most part
we're on the same page.
A lot of you have been following this
blog since I started it and watched the various phases of our
"reboot" design process, I'd like to formally open up the
world for everyone's input since I never explicitly stated it. We are
looking for people to help us with several different parts of the
project now that we are shifting into high gear, including, but not
limited to, helping with the development and playtesting of a Garnia
specific RPG system, setting art, writing short fiction set in Garnia
World, helping develop portions of the world via Gazetteers, and
converting adventures and campaign setting stuff into game systems
that we don't play, like D20/Pathfinder for instance.
If anyone is interested in really being
a part of the team, reply here or send me an email at williamjdowie
AT gmail DOT com.
Thanks,
Also, check out my Viking themed
One-Page Dungeon contest on my other blog, it is tangentially related
to Garnia and if you enter, you get a free magnet.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
New Garnia World large scale map
Ok so this is sans political borders. Nova Roma is around that large sea in the north-west. The big land mass along the western third of the map is a real melting pot. The Sidhe enclave is in the southern tip. The Altan Ordu is just north of there. There are Aztecs and African bushmen somewhere in the mix. About where that first little bay is going south from the "Med" about a fist sized chunk of land is the Jurassic relocation place with dinosaurs.
At the bottom is the island chain where the Vikings live. Somewhere not pictured yet are Byzantines. The peninsula in the east is Tirnakaur, the southern strip of which is the lands of the Necromancer. Above that are those pirate isles. The land mass to the north has coastal Iroquois then the Ming Liang dynasty. Towards that giant rift are the Mistlands. West of there will be the great steppes to the north and Garnia to the south covering all of the territory that forms the northern border of the great Al-Mah sea. That first big island in the middle of that sea is Balgof, a Sidhe outpost. At the western elbow of the Al-Mah is the east coast of Frodia and Wodanslund. NW of that (west of Garnia) are the mountains of Khazarak, and west of that is the Romans again.
I'm a little unsure of some of the political boundaries, so that's why they aren't there yet, but this way folks should be able to get more of a gist of where things are.
Labels:
Al-Mah Sea,
Altan Ordu,
Aztecs,
Balgof,
DAC,
dinosaurs,
Dwarves,
Frodia,
Garnia,
Iroquois,
Map,
Ming Liang,
Mistlands,
Necromancer Lands,
Pirate Islands,
Rome,
Sidhe,
Steppe,
Vikings,
Wodanslund
Friday, July 27, 2012
A bit of a "catch-all" post
I've been holding on to some pictures
and art for this blog that I wanted to show off here, so I thought I
should start with some standard B/X D&D stats for the Apes and
move on from there-
Apes (Gorilla Sapiens) [uses the Simian
Empire line of miniatures from Black Orc Games]
Apes are a variant species of Terran
Gorilla that developed a roughly human level of intelligence and
speech. The Sidhe brought them to Garnia World tens of thousands of
years ago when it was obvious they would be wiped out on Earth. Apes
are roughly human sized, but weigh about twice as much due to denser
bone and muscle structures, even their skin is tougher than that of
man. When the Romans came to Garnia World they ended up in the same
general area as the gentle and friendly Apes and, strangely, the two
species hit it off. The Romans introduced the Apes to higher culture
and sophistication, their own language was abandoned in favor of
Latin within a generation. Now there are Apes in the senate and in
the legions, they make up a significant minority within the empire,
the only thing they have retained of their own ways is their
vegetarianism.
Restrictions: Apes use eight sided dice
(d8) to determine their hit points. They may advance to a maximum of
10th level of experience. Apes may use any type of armor and may use
shields. They may use any weapon. They must have minimum Strength and
Dexterity scores of 9. They use twice as many rations. They never get
an XP bonus.
Special Abilities: Apes have tough
hides and receive a +1 AC bonus to whatever armor they are wearing.
Upper body strength is part of their genetic heritage too, they gain
+1 on all damage rolls. Outdoors Apes are difficult to spot, having
the ability to seemingly vanish into woods, jungle or thick brush.
There is only a 10% chance of detecting them under such
circumstances. Upon gaining the 4th level of experience (Ape Hero) an
Ape may, once per day, use an "Intimidating Show of Strength";
which works exactly like a Cleric's "Turn Undead" ability,
only on the living, and as if they were a Cleric of 3 experience
levels lower and the target had the same Hit Die type as the relevant
Undead target, ie. a 4th level Ape Intimidates as though he were a
1st level Cleric and a 1st level Fighter would be intimidated as a
Skeleton. The "Intimidating Show of Strength" takes one
round to complete and is the only action that can be performed, it
only works on creatures with animal intelligence or above and they
must be living, not Undead.
Ape
Level Title
XP Hit Dice
1 Ape Veteran
0 1d8
2 Ape Warrior
2,200 2d8
3 Ape Swordmaster
4,400 3d8
4 Ape Hero
8,800 4d8
5 Ape Swashbuckler
17,000 5d8
6 Ape Myrmidon
35,000 6d8
7 Ape Champion
70,000 7d8
8 Ape Superhero
140,000 8d8
9 Ape Lord (Lady)
280,000 9d8
10 10th Level
Ape Lord
400,000 9d8+3*
*Constitution adjustments no longer
apply.
Since these guys only ever show up in
the Roman empire I may change their level titles to represent that
fact. I left their stronghold off the list at 9th level for now,
because I am not quite sure how to handle that yet. I am thinking
either an appointment as a legion commander or to the senate, but I
am open to suggestions.
Now the AD&D 1st edition version-
Classes available:
Cleric 4, Druid 6, Fighter 9, Paladin
-, Ranger 6, Magic-User -, Illusionist -, Thief 6, Assassin 8, Monk
-.
My thinking on limiting their Thief
levels is that they are going to be stuck at a lower level because
they don't really blend into a crowd and they are not terribly
manually dexterous with their giant hands. Their Thief abilities are
going to amount largely to thuggery, which is why I made them better
at being Assassins. They are smart enough to plan assassinations and
when it comes to the thuggery bit, that can be helpful. Given their
connection to the natural world, which I assume isn't totally washed
away after a few centuries of Romanization, evolutionary biology and
all, it only made sense to me that they would be able to be Rangers
and Druids, and be better at that than they are at being Clerics.
Making them unable to do Arcane magic was a choice I made looking at
the PH, most Demi-Humans can't, so I decided to follow that trend.
Still, their best class is Fighter, as I always intended. For the
purposes of multiclassing they can be pretty much any core class plus
core class or subclass that is not a subclass of the core class they
already have variation or any subclass variation within alignment
restrictions, so C/F, C/R, C/T, C/A, C/F/T, C/F/A, C/R/T, D/F, D/T,
D/F/T, F/T, F/A, R/T. If you are using Unearthed Arcana rules, which
I don't recommend, D/R & D/R/T become available with an alignment
of NG.
Their ability modifiers are +1
Strength, +1 Dexterity -2 Charisma, they still get all the B/X
abilities I gave them, except the no XP bonus thing, that would be by
ability score and class in AD&D.
Now someone else can write them up for other game systems, using this as a base.
Anyway, you all have seen the pictures
of all the Gorilla Sapiens miniatures, so that was a pretty long, but
fruitful, digression from my original posting point. Now, here are
some other miniature pictures that I found on some blogs with Roman
Legions, think of them as a supplement to the Roman Apes-
Click to embiggen anything that seems small to you.
Now we move on to this drawing of a
poor Christian Cleric being tormented by a hot demoness, probably a
Succubus. I think this is a scene right out of the Mistlands-
Here are some miniatures from various
companies of Mongols and Mongol Dwarves! I still plan on getting a
"20 questions" article about the Altan Ordu out to you, but
you can think of these cool pictures as a preview. Trust me, I have
tons of Mongol oriented art on my hard drive.
Lastly, I found these Samurai Skeletons
that I wanted to use for a post on the Empire of Tenchuko, but I
haven't gotten around to that yet either, so here you go-
And that's all for today. I hope you
enjoyed it!
Labels:
Altan Ordu,
Apes,
Art,
Dwarves,
Roman,
Rules Systems
Monday, July 23, 2012
This was a fun exercise
Brought to us by Blue Boxer Rebellion, I present the Garnia Campaign mixing board -
I am almost ashamed of how difficult this was for me to make. GIMP is a harsh mistress. Comments? Agree, disagree?
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Humans - All in one post, in chronological order, with demographic information
First, I understand that this is
largely a copy/paste job, some sections have minor edits, some have
been completely rewritten, others have just had demographic data
added; but I did make the effort to put all of the Human ethnic
groups and their appearances on Garnia world into chronological order
and add that demographic data, plus the minor edits, so, here you go.
The Egyptians (now extinct) migrated
circa 2500 BC - Their culture would have been here for 1504 years,
more than enough time to build their entire civilization up around
their new Nile in Alt-Africa. Then the Goblins Zerg rushed them and
ate them over the course of a few generations, adopting their culture
and religion, but in an evil, Goblin kind of a way. Along with the
Goblins in Egypt, at campaign present a tributary kingdom subject to
Nova Roma, there are significant populations of Rakasta and Flind.
For what it's worth, they would have been here for 125 generations
and had a starting population of 5,000.
The Kushites migrated circa 1000 BC and
were presumably placed by the Sidhe, for whatever reason right next
to their real life Earth neighbors the Egyptians. I am going to make
a judgment call here and say that in the 1004 years (which is 50
generations) they've been here they started out as allies of the
Egyptians and when the Goblins killed off Egyptian culture they fled
away from that losing war, and have fought a long guerrilla war
against any Goblinoid incursions into their territory ever since.
Their starting population will be 5,000.
Vedic era Indians - I am bringing them
in circa 750 BC Earth time and they live at the southern end of the
Tirnakaur peninsula, I am thinking one small, forgotten city that was
destroyed by disaster, I think a great flood, 5,000 people. This
makes them Hindu with all of the Vedas and they speak Sanskrit and
work iron. Time compression means they've been here for 920 years or
46 generations at campaign present. That's longer than the Celts, but
they start in a crappier area, those mountains are infested with
Goblinoids and worse, then there's a vast expanse of forest to cross
to get to the really good lands.
Pagan Arabs - They could really be from
anytime before Muhammad, but I am going to try and keep a more
ancient focus here and say they are from the semi-Mythical kingdom of
Sheba; which is mentioned several times in the Bible and was probably
in modern Yemen. They were traders and controlled the Red Sea trade
route so coastal shipping is not beyond them, they were conquered by
their Arab neighbors to the north in the 2nd century BC and their
capital city was destroyed. They made a comeback eventually, but I am
grabbing them from their powerful classical period, when they
straddled the Red Sea as a kingdom. So, 300 BC, random natural
disaster, say sandstorm of enormous proportions destroys major Sheban
settlement of say 8,000 people. They end up on the same end of the
Tirnakaur peninsula as the Vedic Indians, who welcome them as they
are being hard pressed by an invasion of Goblins, Ogres, Giants and
Trolls when they arrive with their slightly superior technology.
They've been here for 770 years or 38 generations, also longer than
the Celts. Their culture and language became slightly dominant over
the Vedic Indians, but they mostly are pretty cool with each other.
The Celts come in next, starting in 60
BC, at 687 years ago, or 34 generations, within 2 1/2 Garnian years
their population goes from the initial 120,000 religious pilgrims, to
280,000 people, the extra 160,000 Celts being refugees from Caesar's
conquest of Gaul. A further 100,000 refugees from the Roman conquest
of Britain arrive over the course of the next 30-50 Garnian years.
Circa 428 AD a mass migration of Irish pagan Celts arrives, St.
Patrick, on Earth declares victory for having "Driven the snakes
from Ireland"; 25,000 Irish Druids, Bards, Warriors and Farmers
arrive. That's about 10% of the total estimated Irish population at
the time of St. Patrick, but you know how stubborn the Irish can be
about religion. Next migration will be from Scotland as Picts resist
Christianization at the same rate, they are the last Druids on Earth.
Assume at about 600 AD 3,500 Picts arrive, as there just aren't that
many of them. Further Celtic migrations will continue to happen, but
they will continue to get smaller and smaller as the magical power of
Earth fades. The Celts will give birth to five major nations in this
world, and are the largest Human ethnic group.
Next we get a substantial population of
Romans from the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius, we may get a few more,
here and there, and there may have been a few before, but this is
like direct divine intervention by the Sidhe since they know the
Celts and Romans are traditional enemies by now and the Celts are
becoming a nuisance. They get the summer population of 1/2 of
Campania for their start 644 years ago the Romans estimated 16,000
citizen deaths, so take that for what it's worth. How many
non-citizens and slaves died there too? 2 for every Roman? Did they
only count men as citizens? Modern archaeologists have no way of
estimating the total death toll, it's certainly in the thousands, is
it more than 20,000? 30,000? 50,000? Pliny the Elder died there and
he was one of the greatest minds of his time. The Romans get to move
into an area that is pretty much exactly like the one they left
behind too, so they are going to get some serious advantages. Let's
call the total sarting group 35,000 and they've been here for 644
years, or 22 generations. They also have the Gorilla Sapiens living
in their empire, and they have readily chosen to adapt to Roman
culture, as have significant numbers of Dwarves.
Then the Chinese, who have only been
here for since 250 AD earth time or 587.3 years Garnia time,
equaling about 29 generations, building the Empire of Ming Liang. I
demonstrated with math before, at the early stages of the blog how I
made my assumptions of population growth for the Celts, the Ming
Liang are in an area that is actually pretty well suited to them, I
am willing to give them a greater rate of growth than the Celts
because their traditional way of life is in no way compromised, they
just moved, as though they were moving to new village lands- the
first generation might have a tough time building stuff from scratch,
but after they're cultivating rice and silk and all the other
traditional Chinese things they would have brought with them, it will
be easy to expand. Assume 50,000 original settlers, and an 80% growth
rate/generation until they fill all the good coastal and river lands,
then slow them down to about 65% until all of their country is at
peak capacity.
Additionally, this area also is the
homeland of the Halflings, should they continue to exist, and they
are a race that is by nature Good aligned, so they would probably
help the new settlers. Although that's going to work out kind of like
the Native American Indians helping the European settlers. Halflings
may live longer but they don't breed as fast, mature as fast, or have
the capacity to become as powerful as Humans, the Halflings are going
to become a subject people of the Ming Liang, but not really in a bad
way.
Next up are the Saxons. They showed up
in Wodanslund about 450 AD or 520.6 Garnian years ago, which is about
26 generations; and have divided their time between building
fortresses, sweeping Humanoids from the plains (and ultimately making
expeditions into the mountains surrounding their vast plain),
becoming horse riding cattle lords, and hiring themselves out as
mercenaries, primarily to their neighbors to the north- Frodia. Most
of Frodia's professional soldiers are Wodanslunder mercenaries,
leading many outlanders to believe that Wodanslund is a subject
kingdom to Frodia, but this is not the case. The Wodanslunder Saxons
will have a starting poulation of 1,500.
Next up are the Norsemen, who have been
here, off map, since 862 AD for about 383.3 years, or roughly 19
generations, since they live on an island chain that is unlikely to
affect the main campaign area and are too far off map to make the
voyage to the nearest part of the map, they are, in essence, a
separate campaign. They are also only starting with about 2000
people.
San - Apparently these guys, also
known as Bushmen, have been in South Africa for something like 15,000
years. I am going to grab some from about the time the Zulus start to
rise up and kick all of their asses into the Kalihari desert, these
guys are serious stone age hunter-gatherers. They store water in
Ostrich Egg shells and eat caterpillers and grasshoppers, along with
anything else they can forage up. I am doing them the "favor"
of moving them to the desert west of Wodanslund, otherwise they'd
easily end up as a slave caste to the Muslim Arabs too. Now the Zulus
really start to rise under Shaka, pre-Shaka they were just another
clan of Bantu speakers in southern Africa, they mostly got kicked
around by the other Bantu speakers and lived in crappy land that they
forced some of the San out of. Shaka comes to power in 1816, Zulu
ancestors had been in the neighborhood since about 1000 AD. So I am
bring my San over in 1000 AD, they don't live in villages, just
mobile bands, so this group of mobile bands, say 2000 people, just
walk directly to Garnia World, how? Who knows, ancient San magic?
Sidhe felt bad for them? Anyway, they have been here for 337.3 years,
or roughly 17 generations.
I guess the next people on the list are
the Chagatai/Golden Horde coming from circa 1300-03, when a severe
drought caused untold devastation and starvation to both hordes, they
were at peace with each other and everyone else for this brief
period, so we'll save some people and animals and move them over to
Garnia World then, it's the perfect time, neither horde is
religiously zealous yet. The Khan of the Golden Horde is a
theoretical Muslim, but he gets married to the daughter of the
Byzantine Emperor, an Orthodox Christian and Muslims of his court
referred to him as an Idol worshiper (either Buddhist or Tengerist),
despite his favoritism towards Islam. So, if they came in 1302 AD,
they've been here for about 236.6 Garnian years, or about 12
generations; I am going to start them off with a conservative 15,000
people roughly 1/2 Turkic and 1/2 Mongol, plus their yurts and herds;
but they're in an odd position of actually being near remnant cities
of the Sidhe Empire who have learned how to play the ancient game of
"let's keep the Humans divided", so they are really broken
down into many warring clans of either Turkic or Mongol speaking
peoples with shifting alliances and a fading memory of the golden
days of Genghis Khan.
Muslim Arabs - These guys can come from
anytime after Muhammad, but I want them to be not right after his
revelation or lifetime. I want them to have Damascus steel and
Scimitars, so I have to wait until both of those are invented. I
looked it up and it's later than I thought when I talked to Darryl
about it earlier. Damascus Steel isn't a problem, it dates to the 3rd
century BC, but Arabs didn't START using Scimitars until after the
Mongol invasion and conquest of Baghdad. Call it a century or so
later for them to be in common usage and we're looking at the
mid-14th century. I am cool with that, we have some fairly late
arrivals yet to come, and it explains their superior sailing
technology. So in 1350 AD, a hardy group of Arabs end up over here,
that's 220 years, or 11 generations, since they arrived and formed
their "Maritime Emirates/Pirate Isles" and began wondering
which direction was Mecca I guess. Give them an initial population of
5000 people or so.
Then we get the Japanese from the end
of the Nanboku-Chō war 1399 AD earth time. That gives them 204.3
years here, or 10 generations, during which time they've colonized an
island chain, established a Shogunate and greatly improved their
seafaring skills, ironically based on Chinese designs. They have
recently established trade with the Ming Liang, but have a vast edge
in seafaring technology and many other skills that the Japanese
originally got from the Chinese. Assume a starting population of
15,000 retainers and loyal peasants.
Next are the Greeks from Trebizond, who
are beating feet to out run the Ottoman empire when they find
themselves on a weird foreign shore. They made their voyage in 1404
AD Earth time, so they've been here for 202.6 years, which is roughly
10 generations. They're a civilized and advanced medieval/renaissance
people so I think they'll do OK. The only people close to them are
the Norsemen, with whom they have made trading contact. The Greeks
got the better island, it's almost a mini-continent all off by
itself. They get a starting population of, say, 5,000.
The Aztecs - they entered the valley of
Mexico fairly late, they were relative newcomers when Cortez came and
kicked their asses. They showed up and started kicking ass around the
1300's AD, so we need to grab some before they all get infected with
various White Man diseases by the Spaniards, before 1519. Let's pick
a spot in the middle and say they were supposed to be wiped out by a
volcanic eruption, but the Unseelie Court really loved their
heart-ripping-out mass Human sacrificial style, a small Aztec city
of, say, 12,000 people are transported to their new home, buildings
and all, right near the coast so there's fishing too. They formed the
Empire of Xochitli (which means "Flowers" in Nahuatl, the
Aztec language). They've been here since 1425 AD, so that's 195
Garnian years, or about 10 generations.
The Roma - commonly known as Gypsies,
they don't even come into existence until the middle ages, so we have
to wait for that anyway. I am bring them in from 15th century France,
they've got all the traits associated with Gypsies at this point
(fortune telling, bright wagons & metal working) and they'll be
happy to get away from the increasing prejudice. So 1450 AD, meaning
they've been here for 187.3 years, or about 9 generations. We'll
bring 1500 or so of them.
Iroquois - Their confederacy wasn't
even formed until sometime after 1450 AD, possibly as late as 1600,
although the proto-Iroquois peoples were living in the Finger Lakes
region as early as 1000 AD. I am acting under the assumption that we
want real Iroquois and not their ancestral group, so I will pick a
spot in the mid-range 1525, meaning they've been here for 162 years,
or 8 generations. I will be nice though and move them into the
forests of Tirnakaur instead of the Swamp that the Muslim Arabs live
in; otherwise I think a stone age people are going to be slaves, even
as bad-ass a stone age people as the Iroquois. The Celts in Tirnakaur
have too much else to worry about to try too hard to make this new
band of Humans their property. Which tribe of Iroquois do we want to
bring? Should I just roll a D6? Or a D10 and divide by 2 because
technically the Tuscarora weren't part of the league until 1722. We
can't have them all. I rolled Mohawk, which is the result I think
most people would have wanted anyway. Their relative low population
density means I can't see them losing more than about a 1000 people
without it being really noteworthy, and that's pushing it.
Friday, July 13, 2012
The Humans I missed
Vedic era Indians - I am bringing them
in circa 750 BC Earth time and they live at the southern end of the
Tirnakaur peninsula, I am thinking one small, forgotten city that was
destroyed by disaster, I think a great flood, 5,000 people. This
makes them Hindu with all of the Vedas and they speak Sanskrit and
work iron. Time compression means they've been here for 920 years or
46 generations at campaign present. That's longer than the Celts, but
they start in a crappier area, those mountains are infested with
Goblinoids and worse, then there's a vast expanse of forest to cross
to get to the really good lands.
Pagan Arabs - They could really be from
anytime before Muhammad, but I am going to try and keep a more
ancient focus here and say they are from the semi-Mythical kingdom of
Sheba; which is mentioned several times in the Bible and was probably
in modern Yemen. They were traders and controlled the Red Sea trade
route so coastal shipping is not beyond them, they were conquered by
their Arab neighbors to the north in the 2nd century BC and their
capital city was destroyed. They made a comeback eventually, but I am
grabbing them from their powerful classical period, when they
straddled the Red Sea as a kingdom. So, 300 BC, random natural
disaster, say sandstorm of enormous proportions destroys major Sheban
settlement of say 8,000 people. They end up on the same end of the
Tirnakaur peninsula as the Vedic Indians, who welcome them as they
are being hard pressed by an invasion of Goblins, Ogres, Giants and
Trolls when they arrive with their slightly superior technology.
They've been here for 770 years or 38 generations, also longer than
the Celts. Their culture and language became slightly dominant over
the Vedic Indians, but they mostly are pretty cool with each other.
Muslim Arabs - These guys can come from
anytime after Muhammad, but I want them to be not right after his
revelation or lifetime. I want them to have Damascus steel and
Scimitars, so I have to wait until both of those are invented. I
looked it up and it's later than I thought when I talked to Darryl
about it earlier. Damascus Steel isn't a problem, it dates to the 3rd
century BC, but Arabs didn't START using Scimitars until after the
Mongol invasion and conquest of Baghdad. Call it a century or so
later for them to be in common usage and we're looking at the
mid-14th century. I am cool with that, we have some fairly late
arrivals yet to come, and it explains their superior sailing
technology. So 1350 a hardy group of Arabs end up over here, that's
220 years, or 11 generations, since they arrived and formed their
"Maritime Emirates/Pirate Isles" and began wondering which
direction was Mecca I guess. Give them an initial population of 5000
people or so.
Iroquois - Their confederacy wasn't
even formed until sometime after 1450 AD, possibly as late as 1600,
although the proto-Iroquois peoples were living in the Finger Lakes
region as early as 1000 AD. I am acting under the assumption that we
want real Iroquois and not their ancestral group, so I will pick a
spot in the mid-range 1525, meaning they've been here for 162 years,
or 8 generations. I will be nice though and move them into the
forests of Tirnakaur instead of the Swamp that the Muslim Arabs live
in; otherwise I think a stone age people are going to be slaves, even
as bad-ass a stone age people as the Iroquois. The Celts in Tirnakaur
have too much else to worry about to try too hard to make this new
band of Humans their property. Which tribe of Iroquois do we want to
bring? Should I just roll a D6? Or a D10 and divide by 2 because
technically the Tuscarora weren't part of the league until 1722. We
can't have them all. I rolled Mohawk, which is the result I think
most people would have wanted anyway. Their relative low population
density means I can't see them losing more than about a 1000 people
without it being really noteworthy, and that's pushing it.
San - Apparently these guys, also
known as Bushmen, have been in South Africa for something like 15,000
years. I am going to grab some from about the time the Zulus start to
rise up and kick all of their asses into the Kalihari desert, these
guys are serious stone age hunter-gatherers. They store water in
Ostrich Egg shells and eat caterpillers and grasshoppers, along with
anything else they can forage up. I am doing them the "favor"
of moving them to the desert west of Wodanslund, otherwise they'd
easily end up as a slave caste to the Muslim Arabs too. Now the Zulus
really start to rise under Shaka, pre-Shaka they were just another
clan of Bantu speakers in southern Africa, they mostly got kicked
around by the other Bantu speakers and lived in crappy land that they
forced some of the San out of. Shaka comes to power in 1816, Zulu
ancestors had been in the neighborhood since about 1000 AD. So I am
bring my San over in 1000 AD, they don't live in villages, just
mobile bands, so this group of mobile bands, say 2000 people, just
walk directly to Garnia World, how? Who knows, ancient San magic?
Sidhe felt bad for them? Anyway, they have been here for 337.3 years,
or roughly 17 generations.
The Roma - commonly known as Gypsies,
they don't even come into existence until the middle ages, so we have
to wait for that anyway. I am bring them in from 15th century France,
they've got all the traits associated with Gypsies at this point
(fortune telling, bright wagons & metal working) and they'll be
happy to get away from the increasing prejudice. So 1450 AD, meaning
they've been here for 187.3 years, or about 9 generations. We'll
bring 1500 or so of them.
Lastly, the Aztecs - the entered the
valley of Mexico fairly late, they were relative newcomers when
Cortez came and kicked their asses. They showed up and started
kicking ass around the 1300's AD, so we need to grab some before they
all get infected with various White Man diseases by the Spaniards,
before 1519. Let's pick a spot in the middle and say they were
supposed to be wiped out by a volcanic eruption, but the Unseelie
Court really loved their heart-ripping-out mass Human sacrificial
style, a small Aztec city of, say, 12,000 people are transported to
their new home, buildings and all, right near the coast so there's
fishing too. They formed the Empire of Xochitli (which means
"Flowers" in Nahuatl, the Aztec language). They've been
here since 1425 AD, so that's 195 Garnian years, or about 10
generations.
Are we good now? Or do I have to add an
addenda for initial populations for all of the ethnic groups I did
yesterday too?
The Steppes don't need to be full.
Darryl rightly pointed out that the 65
year filling up the steppe period was way too short and we either
needed to adjust the numbers of Celts upwards or take a longer time
to fill the area of the steppes. With the time compression between
Garnia World and Earth, we can get a lot more settlers a lot earlier,
Darryl had very early on suggested that the Helvetii get brought over
after Caesar defeats them and forces them to leave Gaul for their
homelands. I was initially kind of against that idea, but I have
changed my mind; if even 1/2 of the surviving Helvetii make it to
Garnia World that means 60,000 more settlers on top of my
conservative 120,000 that had been collected from all Celtic nations,
and these Helvetii are supplied with wagons and grain; and these
Helvetii are showing up within a year of elapsed Garnia time of the
original settlers.
On top of that, Caesar's naked
imperialist aggression in Gaul ultimately is estimated to have
dropped the population by 40% from 5 million to 3 million, with
roughly 1 million of those being taken as slaves to Roman markets and
the other 1 million killed. These are not Caesar's numbers, these are
the numbers of modern historians and archaeologists. Not all of those
dead would have been battle casualties, some would have just been the
victims of the devastation of war; if we migrate a conservative 10%
of those dead to Garnia, that's another 100,000 people coming in
during that 7 year period on Earth which is a little over 2 years on
Garnia. Presumably they aren't all coming at once, so it should not
be too hard to assimilate a few hundred refugees with their goods
they could carry into the well planned community of the original
settlers at each small migration. This brings our total up to, during
the initial migratory period, about 280,000 people, mainly Gauls at
this point.
Now, I was thinking that the steppes
would have to be full before the Celts would run into the Sidhe
empire and decide to conquer them, but Darryl pointed out something
important that I missed. Dun Math, the holy city of the Druids and
near the site of migrations, is on the southern steppes, closer to
the eastern end than the middle or the west, and people are going to
spread out probably concentrically from Dun Math, along the paths of
least resistance. That means they are going to discover the
heartlands of the Sidhe Empire, AKA modern Garnia and it's rich green
lands and want it soon, probably their explorer types will have found
it within the first generation of getting there, but with the steppe
so much easier to conquer and so full of game, and the Sidhe having
their powerful Illusions and Charms, the first few generations
probably don't stand much of a chance against the Sidhe.
But, there will be a great influx of
refugees again during the Roman invasion of Britain, in 3 main waves
starting in 43 AD. I can't seem to find any good source of pre-Roman
population figures for Britain with a quick Google search, but it
does say that 70,000 Britons died during Boudicca's revolt some 30
years later. I think that between 43 and 96 AD Earth time we should
be able to pull out an additional 100,000 People; that's 34.3 to 52
years in Garnia after the initial migrations to make room for another
3 major migrations, of about 33,000 people each, assuming they're all
roughly equal in size. The British language is pretty much the same
as Gaulish, so there is no real linguistic barrier, I am thinking the
original Celt-Iberians, Picts and Gaels and our possible Ligurians
are starting to feel a little pressured.
But we still have a common cause,
religion, culture and similar languages. 34 years in would mean that
a second generation had already been born here and a lot of the
original settlers, the adults anyway, were dying off; at 52 years in
we'll be lucky to have any original settlers left and a third
generation is starting to be born here. The Sidhe are also starting
to lose their advantage in magic, Human magic may be raw and brutal,
a little wild and prone to mistakes, but we don't live long enough to
test it like they do. We've figured out how to counter their spells
and whipped up some mighty offensive stuff of our own while we were
hunting the disorganized Humanoids and other Monsters that live on
the steppe.
Now I am going to do some math. The
first 2 1/2 years bring in 280,000 people, they have a conservative
population growth of 75%/20 year period. Some have asked if that was
too high, I counter with the argument that the Celts have both a
technological edge, with horses, the wheel, and iron weapons, not to
mention agriculture, fishing and a host of other skills (including at
least one form of literacy); but on top of that, most all of the
Celts magic on Earth was dedicated to one of three things- either
making them victorious in battle; or making them more fertile, their
women, their land, their flocks and herds, abundance was the order of
the day; or healing, which is going to keep more women from dying in
child birth and more men and women from dying in battle, it will
probably lower infant mortality too. So, 75%/20 year generation
population growth it is.
490,000 after 20 years in Garnia World,
857,500 would be their natural population growth, but they are going
to get an influx of 66,666 Britons in this time frame too, half of
which will have the time to breed here too, bringing our total to
949166 at 40 years in Garnia. The next generation, 60 years in will
see the last wave of Britons, but they'll be early enough to count
for breeding, so our 60 year population will be 1,719,375. The Celts
are one of the few societies in the world that were "top-heavy"
on the warrior caste, and the steppe life is only going to make this
worse, like the Huns or Mongols or Bulgars, pretty much every able
bodied person CAN be mobilized for war, and they can easily do 10%; 171,937 would represent the nobles and their warbands alone, the
rough steppe life means I think they could easily count on pulling in
some pretty tough non-professional warriors too, say another 10% of
the total population, mostly male in both cases, but not exclusively.
60 years in can be the time of Gwaryn
the High King and the Sidhe War. I don't see the Sidhe going down
that easy, and I don't see Gwaryn living to see their ultimate
defeat, much like Genghis Khan didn't live to see the defeat of the
Sung. But he will live long enough to lead his people off the
steppes, and into the most fertile farmlands in the world, he will be
remembered as a great warrior King, and I think that, in the end,
elective Kingship will lose out to the line of Gwaryn; but not until
after the Sidhe are defeated and the fallen Elves enslaved.
I also find it interesting, in a good
way, that the time compression keeps us closer to the ancient world.
Now we don't have to find excuses to make Ancient Romans a credible
threat, everyone else is, more or less, on the same page technology
wise, or far away and without the technology to come over and
interact.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Time & the Compression Ratio Between Earth and Garnia World
I am just putting this out there,
because Darryl and I spoke about the fact that it doesn't necessarily
need to be held at a constant ratio, I'd rather it did though. So I
started doing some calculations, and I came up with some interesting
ideas. A 10:1 ratio of time passage rates Earth to Garnia (or the
Realm of the Sidhe, Fairy Land, The Otherlands, Alfheim, or whatever
you want to call it), gives us a campaign present that takes place
roughly 207 years after the initial Celtic peoples arrival on the
northern steppe.
Given that my initial Timeline had the
Celts coming over initially in 60 BC, then filling the steppes in
roughly 130 years, which would have been circa 70 AD and starting to
fragment and feud after that until the Sidhe sparked an incident (as
yet undefined) that united them in what would have been 150 AD and
they unite under their first High King Gwaryn in 175 AD. He provides,
in a mutated form, the name for the campaign world. The problem is,
that at a 10:1 ratio we need 235 years just to get to the first High
King for whom the setting is named, or we have to bring more Celts;
which I find unrealistic, or we have to speed up events in unlikely
ways otherwise. Additionally, our "multiple migrations"
become kind of a serious pain in the ass if everyone is migrating to
the steppes pretty much on top of each other. So while 10:1, or even
faster, works better for fairy tales, I am going to have to slow
things down quite a bit.
I thought about 5:1 and that doesn't
solve a lot of our problems either. Sure, it gives us twice the time
and history on Garnia World as 10:1 does, but it still has the
disadvantage of running things too fast paced to allow for any real
human history or societal divergence to take place. We only end up
with about 415 years to work with, which gives us the completed
overthrow of the Sidhe Empire in it's heartlands and Frodia's
separation from Garnia, but it doesn't give a lot of time for late
comers to develop their civilizations at all (Japanese I'm thinking
of you), or for major events like the Necromancer War or the multiple
envisioned overthrows of Garnia by Celtic invaders from the steppes,
or the Orcish kingdom coming into existence on Garnian soil.
So I settled on a 3:1 ratio, for ever 3
years that pass on Earth only 1 year passes on Garnia World. That
gives us 687.3 years since the initial Celtic Migration to Garnia
World. They would have first become aware of the time compression
ratio when the next migration of Celts arrived during the Roman
invasion of Britain in 43 AD, because 103 years would have passed on
Earth but only 34 on Garnia World. Over the next 35 Earth years more
refugees arrive but only 11-12 years pass for the Garnians. Now, the
original Pan-Celtic settlers spoke a wide variety of Celtic
languages, these new imports are skewing the linguistic base pretty
heavily towards Brythonic, assuming that they are coming in large
enough numbers, which I am. This also is going to affect how quickly
the steppes fill up, and consequently, how rapidly the Humans come
into conflict with first each other (old feuds die hard, and the new
people aren't all religious fanatics like the original settlers) and
then the Sidhe. I am going to assume that the people are going to
form new tribes/clans along linguistic lines, but I also think that
the refugees in particular are going to stick with their old tribal
connections.
Now I haven't figured out the numbers
of British refugees that should be coming over in each wave, but
there should be three major waves coinciding with the three major
waves of Roman conquest in Britain. Actually, now that I think about
it, and I don't want to rewrite this, maybe they should become aware
even sooner, surely there would be refugees from Caesar's conquest of
Gaul, right? Of course that was from 58-51 BC, so maybe no one
noticed the effect yet. Gaul is any easy place to get people out of
fast the Gallic campaign only lasted 7 years but it killed 20% of the
population (and enslaved a further 20%), 1 million dead, we could
sneak quite a few out I think. Although that further speeds up the
filling up of the steppes and skews the linguistics towards
Brythonic, they wee already going that way anyway though. Or do we
assume that the "missing" Gauls are just Gauls that left in
the 60 BC migration and to hell with anyone that stuck around for
Caesar? They were warned after all.
Of course the 60 BC migration also
included Gauls from Roman Gallia Cisalpina and Galatia in modern day
Turkey, plus Britons, Picts, Celt-Iberians and Gaels from Ireland. I
am undecided on Ligurians. Of those groups, the Gauls in Gallia
Cisalpina were conquered by the Romans following the 2nd Punic war.
The Galatians were conquered for being allied to the Seleucids, then
freed and allied to the Romans since the Mithridatic war, they would
eventually become a province rather than a client kingdom. the
Celt-Iberians technically lived in the Roman provinces of Hispania,
but the Romans kept a pretty light hand on them. I guess initially
conquering them was hard enough and Spain was rich enough that riling
up the primitive natives was just a stupid idea when you could leave
them to their business. The Celt-Iberians probably spoke a Goidelic
language, like the Irish.
So in the 60 BC migration 3 of the
groups already lived under Roman rule or as their allies, as did some
tribes in southern Gaul. In southern Gaul and Galatia they had
contact with the Greeks. Celts had served as mercenaries for several
truly ancient civilizations, the Persians, Carthaginians, Egyptians
and the Greeks to name a few of the bigger, better known ones.
Literacy, while not valued among certain castes of Celtic society, is
not unknown, and since, by the time of the migrations, the
Mediterranean is a Roman lake, they're largely preferring to be
literate in Latin. We'll discuss Ogham at some other time.
Anyway, back to the Timeline-
The Egyptians (now extinct) migrated
circa 2500 BC - Their culture would have been here for 1504 years,
more than enough time to build their entire civilization up around
their new Nile in Alt-Africa. Then the Goblins Zerg rushed them and
ate them over the course of a few generations, adopting their culture
and religion, but in an evil, Goblin kind of a way.
The Kushites migrated circa 1000 BC and
were presumably placed by the Sidhe, for whatever reason right next
to their real life Earth neighbors the Egyptians. I am going to make
a judgment call here and say that in the 1004 years they've been here
they started out as allies of the Egyptians and when the Goblins
killed off Egyptian culture they fled away from that losing war, and
have fought a long guerrilla war against any Goblinoid incursions
into their territory ever since.
The Celts come in next at 687 years
ago, they conquered the heart of the Sidhe Empire using their Iron
Weapons and powerful offensive magic, given that the bulk of Celtic
migrations arrive really close to the initial one, I am going to say
that the time table for them expanding across the steppe and filling
it to capacity is shorter, 1/2 the time 65 years, the war with the
Sidhe starting maybe 50 years after that, and ending 20 years after
that; all the territory that comprises Garnia, Frodia and the Steppes
are briefly united under the rule of one High King; it's probably not
Gwaryn, since that would be an exceptionally long lifespan for a
warrior King. With Celtic elective Kingship it really could go to
anyone, I vote for Erc Mac Cai, unless I already used that name
somewhere else. I just really like the name.
Next we get a substantial population of
Romans from the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius, we may get a few more,
here and there, and there may have been a few before, but this is
like direct divine intervention by the Sidhe since they know the
Celts and Romans are traditional enemies by now and the Celts are
becoming a nuisance. They get the summer population of 1/2 of
Campania for their start 644 years ago the Romans estimated 16,000
citizen deaths, so take that for what it's worth. How many
non-citizens and slaves died there too? 2 for every Roman? Did they
only count men as citizens? Modern archaeologists have no way of
estimating the total death toll, it's certainly in the thousands, is
it more than 20,000? 30,000? 50,000? Pliny the Elder died there and
he was one of the greatest minds of his time. The Romans get to mve
into an area that is pretty much exactly like the one they left
behind too, so they are going to get some serious advantages.
Then the Chinese, who have only been
here for about 587.3 years building the Empire of Ming Liang. I
demonstrated with math before, at the early stages of the blog how I
made my assumptions of population growth for Humans, the Ming Liang
are in an area that is actually pretty well suited to them, I am
willing to give them a greater rate of growth than the Celts because
their traditional way of life is in no way compromised, they just
moved, as though they were moving to new village lands- the first
generation might have a tough time building stuff from scratch, but
after they're cultivating rice and silk and all the other traditional
Chinese things they would have brought with them, it will be easy to
expand. Additionally, this area also is the homeland of the
Halflings, should they continue to exist, and they are a race that is
by nature Good aligned, so they would probably help the new settlers.
Although that's going to work out kind of like the Native American
Indians helping the European settlers. Halflings may live longer but
they don't breed as fast, mature as fast, or have the capacity to
become as powerful as Humans; yes I believe in Human superiority over
Demi-Humans. I am a supporter of level limits in D&D, because
that's how I grew up playing and that's how this world was initially
designed, so some of AD&D and B/X D&D are going to leak
through as assumptions even when I try to design as system neutral as
possible.
Next up are everyone's favorite almost
Rohirrim, the Saxons. They showed up in Wodanslund about 520.6 years
ago and have divided their time between building fortresses, sweeping
Humanoids from the plains (and ultimately making expeditions into the
mountains surrounding their vast plain), becoming horse riding cattle
lords, and hiring themselves out as mercenaries, primarily to their
neighbors to the north- Frodia. Most of Frodia's professional
soldiers are Wodanslunder mercenaries, leading many outlanders to
believe that Wodanslund is a subject kingdom to Frodia, but this is
not the case.
Next up are the Norsemen, who have been
here, off map, for about 387.3 years, since they live on an island
chain that is unlikely to affect the main campaign area and are too
far off map to make the voyage to the nearest part of the map, they
are, in essence, a separate campaign.
I guess the next people on the list are
the Chagatai/Golden Horde coming from circa 1300-03, when a severe
drought caused untold devastation and starvation to both hordes, they
were at peace with each other and everyone else for this brief
period, so we'll save some people and animals and move them over to
Garnia World then, it's the perfect time, neither horde is
religiously zealous yet. The Khan of the Golden Horde is a
theoretical Muslim, but he gets married to the daughter of the
Byzantine Emperor, an Orthodox Christian and Muslims of his court
referred to him as an Idol worshiper (either Buddhist or Tengerist),
despite his favoritism towards Islam. So they've been here for about
236.6 years, but they're in an odd position of actually being near
remnant cities of the Sidhe Empire who have learned how to play the
ancient game of "let's keep the Humans divided", so they
are really broken down into many warring clans of either Turkic or
Mongol speaking peoples with shifting alliances and a fading memory
of the golden days of Genghis Khan.
Then we get the Japanese from the end
of the Nanboku-Chō war 1399 AD earth time. That gives them 204.3
years here, during which time they've colonized an island chain,
established a Shogunate and greatly improved their seafaring skills,
ironically based on Chinese designs. They have recently established
trade with the Ming Liang, but have a vast edge in seafaring
technology and many other skills that the Japanese originally got
from the Chinese.
Next up to bat would be the Greeks from
Trebizond, who are beating feet to out run the Ottoman empire when
they find themselves on a weird foreign shore. They made their voyage
in 1404 AD Earth time, so they've been here for 202.6 years. They're
a civilized and advanced medieval/renaissance people so I think
they'll do OK. The only people close to them are the Norsemen, with
whom they have made trading contact. The Greeks got the better
island, it's almost a mini-continent all off by itself.
Damn this is a long post already and I
know I am leaving people out. I need a break though, so I'll do a
part two. I need to establish things for non-Humans too. Orcs are the
newest arrivals, Elves have always lived here. Their civilization is
not necessarily as old as I originally thought though due to the time
compression ratio.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Finished reading 43 AD and Warband
I finished Warband just this morning
and I have to say that the rules are great, they cover pretty much
every aspect of what we want in the Garnia World campaign with one
glaring exception- there are no rules for non-human characters. This
makes sense because it was written as a historical RPG with
fantasy/horror elements, but Garnia World is chock full of other
races that HAVE traditionally been PC races; ie. Dwarves, Elves,
Half-Orcs, etc.
Now, I know we're planning on starting
the 43 AD/Warband dual campaign soon, and having it ultimately lead
as a gateway to Garnia World; just as my Norse B/X campaign will
ultimately do if it ever comes back online. I suspect I'll have to
wait for September or October for that, after Lance's work schedule
pretty much grinds to a halt at the State Fairgrounds. Lee Ann is
already antsy for some RPG action, but her 12 hour shifts and near
constant "on call" status as the new RN at the ER have kept
her from making games for like two months now. Besides, I think it's
probably better that her husband and her daughters get to see her,
despite the fact that it's kind of killed my home game.
Anyway, I wandered pretty far off point
with that tangent. 43 AD and it's Warband supplement give us, when
combined, the ability to make both Roman and Celtic characters; a way
for GMs to design entire campaign areas in either the Roman or Celtic
style, fairly quickly and easily; a magic system that is pretty easy
to use and rather open ended; a bunch of Celtic monsters, because the
game takes place in Britain, although seeing the design style I think
it would be pretty easy to import D&D monsters over or create
anything. Warband also gives us mass combat rules for both huge
combats with 10,000+ combatants and smaller scale skirmishes.
The real pro of the system is that it's
pretty rules-lite, the con of the system is that it's less "heroic"
than D&D, more realistic in a lot of ways. Character advancement
is, essentially, religion based, and the points you receive are, more
or less, based on the monetary worth of the sacrifice that you make
at the Temple or Altar of the God you are sacrificing to, if your
character is a Roman. Celts can make either sacrifices of items of
worth or enemies of honor. You may only try and improve one ability
per game session, and it doesn't always work. So, in play, I fear
character advancement may be damnably slow, the character you start
with, you had best get used to, because he's going to be roughly the
same for a long while. On the other hand, improving stats and skills
isn't everything, Roman Legionaries can get promoted to various
higher ranks or than can be decorated for valor. Celtic characters
can achieve higher status through gaining honor in various ways.
The only real complaint I have is the
disparity in possible social classes between the Roman characters and
the Celtic ones. All of the Roman characters start out as simple
Legionaries, there is no chance of being an officer or from an
important family in Rome, or even an important provincial family. You
are almost to a man poor, sometimes freedmen, occasionally vicious
criminals that were just never caught. The Celts on the other hand,
are all Heroes of Honor level 3, but at the GM's discretion can be
brought up to as high as Honor 7 Warchief. I guess that would settle
the question of who is going to be party leader though.
I am also making the assumption here
that when I run into any difficulties with this system in trying to
convert to the eventual Garnia World setting, that I'll be able to
fall back on the older, free version of the rules, that were much
more fantasy, although still somewhat based in a Romanesque campaign
world; that actually might be helpful for filling out the Roman space
in Garnia World. Now I fear I'll have to read those rules too.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
On Timelines and Gunpowder
I talked to Darryl today for like an
hour and a half or more and we worked out my key issues with the
Timeline for Human migrations and with whether or not gunpowder works
on Garnia World.
First, the issues with the Timeline and
the advancement of technology- This is the Fairy Realm, the realm of
the Sidhe, time moves slower here than it does on Earth. I haven't
figured out an exact ratio yet, but this is going to cause me to
rewrite some of the stuff I wrote earlier on this blog, like my last
post about Al-Khalid's war being 600 years ago in Garnian terms. I am
thinking now that it is going to have to have been much more recent.
This does solve a number of problems
for me though in terms of technological advancement; even if magic
retarded technological advancement, the excuse usually given in
fantasy worlds, at the 1:1 time ratio we had going before the
Garnians were still lagging behind Earth by a minimum of seven
centuries, more in many areas. Darryl made a compelling argument that
Wizards, like Scientists, would always be seeking to advance the
state of the art and expand their knowledge, and so would metal
workers, stone masons, and every other professional; so technology
should have kept pace somewhat with Earth.
Fairy stories though are rife with
accounts of people who enter the Fairy Realm for one night of
partying and return home years later, having not aged. If we work it
something like this and time runs much slower in Garnia World than on
Earth, the lack of technological advancement makes sense. We can have
an Iron Age Roman Empire in a world with a vast group of Celtic Iron
Age Kingdoms, with some Dark Ages peoples lurking on the fringes and
some even later Medieval people even more fringe. We have 13th
century Mongols and 15th century Aztecs and 16th century Iroquois.
Curious note, I always intended that
the Celt would be the first Humans in Garnia World, that is, in fact,
not the case, the Egyptians were there first (circa 2500BC), then the
Kushites (circa 1000BC), then the Celts (starting circa 100BC), then
the Romans (hard dated to 79AD, with maybe a few others brought in
earlier by the Sidhe as allies against the Celts), then the Chinese
(circa 250AD).
Later Garnia campaigns might feature
Scots, Bretons, Welsh or Irish from as late as the present, since the
Celts are the only ones that figured out how to work the portals on
their own, and the only still working portals are mostly in Britain,
Ireland and Brittany in France, although Darryl and I talked about
how the ritual is probably harder and harder to complete because the
magic of Earth is so nearly completely gone. This means you might be
able to get one or two people through, not a tank or a helicopter,
the portal will only stay open for a couple of seconds at most and
will be small, man sized.
On to gunpowder in Garnia World- It
works like a charm until you run out. Garnia world has very little
elemental Sulfur, and thus, gunpowder is rare and expensive. Sulfur
is also an important spell component, so you are competing with
Wizards for it's use. There are probably other industrial
applications I haven't considered yet, but limiting the amount of
elemental Sulfur was the easiest way to make the physics stay real
and limit the use of gunpowder from any culture or people that come
to the world with gunpowder. Escaping Clansmen in the aftermath of
the '45 are going to have the playing field leveled for them because
they have muskets and pistols and good steel swords and lochaber
axes. Their priests will figure out in a hurry that their prayers
(Cleric Spells) work here, and the hedge witches too; but their magic
will be infantile compared to the Garnians and even the Steppe Clans,
much less the Frodians; their firearms are their salvation until they
can find a niche and fit in.
Presumably, they would feel most
comfortable with their Gaelic speaking brothers in the Mistlands, but
there are still Gaelic speaking parts of Garnia too. Maybe they go
all "This is my boom stick" on the locals and raise a horde
to conquer Garnia and set themselves up as a new dynasty, the
recurring theme of Garnian history, but this time with guns too.
Anyway, that settles most of my
problems with the Human migration Timeline, and the gunpowder issue.
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