The promised ones – 9. Origins: the mortal world that rejected them

Game Design Log #9

Today I wanted to share with you a glance at the world I have been creating for The Promised Ones.

In a previous post I told you a little about the different aspects of the world that can be seen through the elements of the character sheet. One of these elements is skills. These skills are initially defined in the character creation; some set by the great spirit to whom each character was promised to, others by the origin of the characters.

Simply put, origins are the places from where the players’ characters come.

Here I want to write a bit more about them, so you can have an idea of how they look, their culture, and some of the factions that inhabit these places. I hope this small description also helps you to have a feeling of the mindset of the characters you will embody in the game.

I will love to hear what all of you think of these origins; if they look interesting enough, or if they need more weirdness, consistency, or anything that would make them more exciting.

But first, a couple of pages from the draft I'm writing for TPO, to remind you of the basics of the setting:

Origins

The land you inhabit is at the west of where the spire once stood. Once a unified queendom, under the ruling of queen Maeve, after the war it has fragmented into different towns, city states, and small villages.

A first depiction of the west of the Corcon’s Gulf (west border of the frontier, between the clouds of peril and the great oval clear). The hills on the left are the Arabastos cordillera. At the north of the map is where the Kadull valley begins. At the east, in the great oval clear, is where most of the known great spirits have their dominions.

From these collections of places, the ones that have developed a stronger identity and differentiate the most from the rest are:

• MOUNTAIN HIGH: At the uplands of the Arabastos cordillera stands a magnificent palace from where the queen of all the Kadull valley and the west coast of the Corcon’s gulf once watched over her territories.

  After the spire war, where the mighty queen Maeve died with her army, the people took the palace for themselves. They founded a new independent town state, now under the ruling of the guilds of aircraft engineers, musicians, cooks, treasurers, and explorers that once served the queen.

  After the shattering of the spire, the guilds summoned all the queen’s vassals to the first “Fallen Crown Musical and Wit Festival”, where they proclaimed their renunciation to the domains formerly belonging to the crown and proclaimed themselves as an independent town state.

  Despite the relinquishment of the crown dominions, the Mountain High treasurers continued their tradition of being the ones under the control of the region’s economy, funding the Undertakers: an organization of brokers and harvesters of death pearls, which rapidly expanded throughout the west of the Corncon’s gulf, establishing branches in all of its major cities.

• CATACOMB TOWER: Catacomb Tower lures at the border of one of the largest forests on the frontier, the Murgog forest, enclosed by the Arabastos cordillera on the west and the gulf of Corcon on the east.

  Initially built as a cemetery for all nearby villages, it was constructed on solid rock to protect the deceased from the hungry animals of the forest.

  However, with the years it grew in size and height, becoming a towering titan of multiple levels and labyrinthine corridors.

  Due to its solid construction, it became a temporary city when people were pushed to find refuge on the catacomb’s top as they were escaping from a flood that took over the land.

  Although some people returned to the ground –to rebuild their homes where their villages had previously stood– many of those who had lost everything in the flood decided to stay at the safe heights of Catacomb Tower.

  Here they funded a society of hunters, clock-makers and engineers, who share everything through the many multi-functional libraries that were erected through the corridors and halls of Catacomb Tower.

  For the inhabitants of Catacomb Tower, working on their clockwork and steam inventions in the commons sheds, while sharing a locally brewed fungus tea, is one of the most enjoyable activities of the day.

• SLEEPER’S GRAVE: Sleeper’s grave was founded after the spire war.

  Its people come mostly from the valley of Tur-lupur, now a land scarred by the shattering of the spire.

  On the search for a similar landscape, the Tur-lupur people reached a valley at the skirts of the Arabastos cordillera, where they rebuilt their society of architectural, mining and crystalmancy tradition.

  While excavating the territory, the people of Tur-Lupur discovered the skeleton of a giant, an apparently ancestral creature that laid hidden beneath the mountain range. The castes’ leaders, rulers of the Tur-lupur people, decided to take the remains of this titan as the seed of their new settlement, baptizing the city as Sleeper’s Grave. They built a hauntingly beautiful dance hall inside the titan's skull, where all the many dances that adorn the calendar of the people of Sleeper’s Grave take place.

• VOID FORT AND OUTSKIRTS: Void Fort stands on the heart of the lush Corcon’s peninsula.

  This fertile land took its independence from queen Maeve’s ruling on the years of the spire war, refusing to participate in the conflict.

  Here, where once stood the capital of an alliance of rebellious farmers and fishermen, is today the centre of the Void church. A religious organization that rejects any relationship with the great spirits, by fear of the influence they may have on mortals.

  In an attempt to isolate themselves from the influence of the great spirits, they exported large quantities of void from the mines of Sleeper’s Grave, to build a ring of it, hidden inside the wall that protects the city.

  Outside these walls there are many small settlements. These are neutral regarding the great spirits, and have become the refuge of people expelled from Void Fort under the suspicion of being sympathizers of these strange entities. However, all the children of the outskirts are obliged by law to be educated in Void Fort until the age of ten.

  In one of the outskirts settlements, a man called Umadul Rin founded the Soultraders, commissioning the construction of the Soulbank to a group of foreigners from Catacomb Tower and Sleeper’s Grave. Here, soul fragments are stored or used to permanently enchant objects by the strange clockwork machinery constructed under Umadul Rin command, these enchanted objects are known as Souldbinds.

• THE ROAD: Wanderers, hunters, merchants, soothsayers, artistes, performers, and minstrels are the most common people that live on the road.

  The paths they commonly use were built by the queendom, but now, without a unified state, these roads have deteriorated over time.

  Only the roads with most traffic have been preserved in good shape by a common effort among the largest cities at the west of the Corcon’s gulf and the people who use them the most.

  The most transited road is called the fisher’s track. Previously used to transport the seafood from the Concorn’s peninsula to the palace of the queen, it starts at Void Fort in the south, and ends on Mountain High in the north.

  Most people that live on the road pass most of their time on the fisher’s track, which has resulted in the construction of communal lodges; small barn like constructions that can be used by anyone to protect themselves from the bad weather and to rest on the night. Beside these wooden and modest buildings is where people that die on the road are buried. It is a common custom, of people that use them to rest, to share a drink with the death, leaving full glasses of liquor, tea, or other beverages, on their tombstones.

Would you like to explore these places?, let me know in the comments.