A World Without a Name

Like I said in my previous post, I restrained myself from writing any sort of mecanics for my new campaign. This was in part to allow me the opportunity to just create a world without being bogged down by system limitations, but also because, if I was to design a new system that could fit this campaign world, I wanted to see the full scope of what this world was before I did create mechanics for it.

"Why don't you put the whole world in a bottle?"

An exercise I like to do every once in a while is trying to sum up whole works of fiction in a single sentence; the simpler the sentence, the better. This has led to numerous attempts at summing up movies with: "The guy dies at the end" (see almost every movie Liam Neeson/Sean Bean is in. On a side note, I was quite surprised when Neeson DIDN'T die at the end of Taken... spoilers I guess). I made a similar attempt with what, at the time, had no name: A dark fantasy world sitting beneath empty, silent skies where heroes from broken lands and fractured nations fight to reclaim the destiny of the free peoples and where the forces of progress and civilization clash with ancient entities bent on obtaining what they were denied at the dawn of time.

I won't go into a deep analysis of every term in that sentence. I will instead focus on a couple of key terms that form the "backbone" of the setting.

Dark: The word "dark" is brutally abused in a lot of entertainment marketing-speak: "a dark retelling of a classic tale", "a dark, gritty take on the world of professional sports", "this sequel presents a darker story than the original", etc. It's used so much, it lost a large chunk of its meaning.

In the context of Forbidden Skies, "Dark" implies a tone and a general "feel" (one day, I am going to have to write something about how I do not like the word "feel" with regards to mechanics) to the world. It's a world where hope was crushed for a long time, and where folks had to hold on to the tiniest, faintest glimmer of light. It's also a world with a Noir aesthetic approach; heroes might succeed, but at great cost, villains are often fallen figures of virtue, etc. All of that exemplifies the "darkness" found within the setting.

Fantasy: This is a fantastical world, filled with magic, wondrous creatures, and featuring breathtaking, enchanted landscape. Forbidden Skies is also a place where magic is tricky and behaves in ways that make it both alluring and dangerous. I sought to bring back an air of mystery to the practice of magic, to make its practioners seem more unpredictable to players. I took a lot of inspirations from pulp writers in their portrayal of mystical forces, but also from classic literature and its early and more modern exploration of the supernatural.

Broken lands, fractured nations: The Age of Starfall reshaped not only the political landscape of the world, but also its actual physical appearance: mountains were crushed, vast land masses were wiped from the map, seas devoured coastal towns, and families were split up as rifts tore territories asunder. Most heroes were born in the New Age; to them, this is how the world always was. But some remember, and some others dream of reuniting the once proud empires now lost to time.

Along those key words are concepts such as "progress", "civilization", "ancient entities", etc., I'll try to provide more details about those specific aspects of the game/setting in future posts.

Overview

Over a thousand years ago, a cataclysmic event shook the world to its core: the gods, servants of the Divine Architect, fell from the skies as fiery comets. They soon became the flesh and blood shepards of the people of Ordalhia, Raveyn and Corsiri, the three major regions of the continent of Kyrohn. They swore pacts that outlawed agression and warfare amongst themselves; what they had failed to achieve in the Heavens, they would accomplish in the material world. Soon though, the rivalries that had plagued them as celestial beings flamed anew in the mortal realms. Fearing destruction, they sent vast armies of their followers to attack rival powers and unleashed apocalyptic magics at whoever dared to oppose them.

As their wars went on, their physical forms became warped and corrupted. They transformed into hideous, twisted monstrosities that fed on the worship of their devoted and cowed servants.  Their reign lasted a full millenium of darkness, torment, and war, until heroes from around the world rose up and slew them all, ending the Era of Starfall.

Barely a century as passed since the slaying of the Last God, and a fragile peace holds. But new stars shining in the Heavens signify the return of the gods, and a dark fear grows in the hearts of the Free Folk of broken Kyrohn.

Themes

Among the themes I hold to be central to the setting is the idea of destiny versus individual choice. It is an old theme, common in many types of fiction, but I feel it takes a different form in a world where the divine is seen as alien, impersonal and threatening. In a lot of ways, the people of fantasy universes take comfort in the belief that sins are punished and good actions are rewarded, even after death, but what if you can't trust the arbiters of divine justice?

Horror is also an element that I feel represents well Forbidden Skies. Existential horror, specifically is a tone, but also a theme that I wish to put forth as central to the setting. Faced with terrifying challenges what are simple mortals to do? What happens when you face creatures bent on nothing less than absolute, abject destruction and mayhem? What if you fear you are one such creature?

Inspiration

As much as possible, I try not to draw inspiration from "classic" fantasy literature; Tolkien is fine, mind you, but it's been done... a lot!  And by better writers and designers than me at that! So I try to find sources that are more, dare I say (at the risk of sounding like an absolute hipster), "obscure" or that channel that same sense of wonder that the great fantasy classics seem to convey.

One source that I have been going back to recently predates my love of D&D (and RPGs in general); it's something I read before I was allowed in the "mature" section of my town's only public library: choose your own adventure books, namely the Lone Wolf series.

The world of Magnamund is so richly detailed and filled to the brim with classic fantasy tropes, but it spins those in interesting ways: evil plague-brewing druids, mutated lords of darkness, corrupt old kingdoms... it's got a lot going for it! The way the order of the Kai functions is a key source of inspiration for both the "ranger" and "monk" class that I am working on.

Dungeon Siege (the first two games) are also wells that I have been drawing from. The vast wilderness of the setting, its immense, intricate dungeons (I guess that's where the name came from), the general look and "feel" of the world, the scope of its stories are all elements that scream fantasy role-playing game to me. The way the lore of the setting just enhances those elements is something I am trying to incorporate through the writing of both the setting and the system.

In general, I try to avoid "self-referencing" material: drawing inspiration from books designed for D&D. Of course some Forgotten Realms supplement is going to be a solid representation of what D&D is, it was specifically made for it. Still, two works make the list simply for being clever twists on the fantasy genre: the Eberron campaign setting (created by Keith Baker), and Ptolus, city by the Spire (by Monte Cook). Both present excellent exemples of "urban" fantasy settings, and both tackle subjects that are typically outside of the traditionnal D&D fiction. I honestly wish I could design a city as detailed and as vivid as Ptolus for my campaign.

Aside from all of those, I am drawing from tons of literary sources, most of them not fantasy in their nature. Crime novels (I love Noir and detective fiction), historical narratives, and books about exotic cultures (mostly Western Africa and South America right now) are what I mostly read these days. I've also been pawing through my old collection of Magic, the Gathering cards, and leafing through various RPG books that have recently come back into my possession. For mechanical design purposes, I've been dissecting the PHBs from 4 editions (and a half) of D&D, and mining other RPGs for ideas and mechanical tidbits that I can plug into the system.

Finally, I listen to a lot of music. When I write, I get bothered if I hear lyrics, so I tend to put on some classical or electronic music, perhaps a soundtrack (cue Inception horns), but, and I will end this section on this, the biggest inspiration for the campaign as been metal.  I am hoping to create what will be a heavy metal setting and game.

That about does it for this post. Next time we'll have a look at some of the base mechanical choices that went into crafting the Forbidden Skies system.

Thank you for reading, and be well.

E.L.F. - AKA The Choice
(10/08/12)