The Dark Age Question and Answer Page
From RPGwiki
Hello. This page is being set up to help sort out any confusion based on the background for my campaign. Obviously we haven't been playing it for as long as Ed's, so we're not all as clued up as we are when it comes to things like who are Waltdorf's allies and who is the Mage of the Vale.
So whenever anybody has a question about the background for the Dark Age campaign, whether it's as simple as 'What country do we work for?' or as complex as 'What exactly is Peredur's curse?', plonk it on here and I'll get back with an answer as soon as possible. It may not be the whole truth, but it will be the truth as far as your character is concerned.
Just to get the ball rolling...
- What country do we work for? - Alex
Dumnonia.
- What exactly is Peredur's curse? - Alex
You're not sure. He did travel to Ireland where he was ensnared by an enchantress who made him her warrior-slave. He was rescued by Myrddin, but the tales say he was not the same when he returned and that some curse haunts him still. What that is remains a mystery, but it seems to have left him certain gifts as well. You've seen him track a man by smell alone, see perfectly in the dark, and punch right through a man. He also seems to have potions made for him by Myrddin to hold the curse back.
- Who is Peredur anyway, and why do we care about his curse? - Andy
As we seem to be lacking in an online-Sandy I'll try and cover for him.
As I recall Peredur was the leader of the warband we accompanied when we had all that ninja-trouble, he was the only one outside of our group who really kicked any bottom during the big ambush they did. He was also the one who had us running for so long after the ninja when they kidnapped the baby-king.
Craig
Craig's answer is pretty much correct. He is one of Dumnonia's top warlords and probably the fifth most important person in the country. His warband, the Ravenshields, are a small but disciplined force. Kev's character, Mardoc, is technically still a Ravenshield, although he has now been 'on loan' for the best part of a month, game time, and a year, real time.
Incidentally that means the three warriors all carry different emblems. Mardoc (Kev) as I said above has a black raven on a red background on his shield. Gwydre (Geoff) carries the king's symbol, the red dragon on the green background, on his shield. I can't remember if Aethelbeorn (Andrew) has a shield with that big two handed axe of his, but if he does it would be Arthur's emblem of a black bear on a green background he would carry. It wasn't intended but that's the way they seemed to join the campaign.
Oh, I'll be checking this about once a week so be patient when it comes to waiting for answers. I will do so, even if it takes a while.
Aethelbeorn doesn't have a shield, but he probably has the symbol on him somewhere, quite possibly on his tunic.
As a side note, if you want to expand on the dark ages page a bit, you could add a characters section, a bit like on the Taladas page, I might start us off actually, seeing as Aethelbeorn is a bit of a stranger to the group.
Andy
I don't think embroidery skills in Dark Age Britain allow for symbols on tunics but the idea of a bear-emblem brooch for his cloak would probably work. If Arthur gave it to him when he joined him it would probably (based on your character description) be seen as a symbol of the bond of trust between Arthur and him and be quite precious as a result. Just an idea.
Oh, and I have been thinking of a Dark Ages character page for some time (there's a file on my computer at home with the beginnings of an NPC section). I'm just going to rename it with the words 'Dark Ages' though. If we call it just 'characters' then it prevents any other page being called that.
Any other questions?
- Tell me a bit more about Morgan, seeing as she lives close to Aethelbeorn. My memories of her in the traditional arthurian legends are a bit vague, beyond the fact that she turned against Arthour. In some way.
Not that our game is entirely traditional. The brief description said she used to be married. How long ago? Is she much older than Arthur? Does she have any children? Is there any tension between her anybody else yet? What is Arthurs attitude towards his half sister?
Andy
And what's not traditional about my version of Arthurian myth? (he types with a huge grin on his face...)
As far as we can tell the early versions of the story are not as harsh on Morgan as later ones. It was when the Christians got their hands on the tales they started demonising the magician characters (so that didn't just start with Harry Potter. Merlin couldn't be got rid of so easily but Morgan was turned from an ambivalent, or maybe even helpful character into the scheming villainess of La Morte D'Arthur. My version of the character (at least at this point in the campaign) is based on the earlier version.
She is Arthur's older sister, although that might be hard to spot at first, since he is an orc and she is a beastman (beastwoman?). See below for a more full explanation of this phenomenon. She is a tall, striking woman with long black hair, red skin and, not normally noticable until you spend a while with her, four small horns coming out of her forehead. Oh, and slightly too pointy canines. Arthur is somewhere in his mid-twenties while she is in her early thirties. She was about seventeen when she was married off to an up-and-coming warlord called Owain to secure his loyalty to her father Uther. The marriage lasted about three years before she left him. This was practically unheard of but she was a mystic of great potential and was clearly being called to a higher purpose (or at least the druid Blaise said she was) and both Uther and Owain were forced to accept it (especially since the druids had given her their protection). Her main powers are in the area of healing. She has a son, Urien, from the marriage but he is much more his father's son and she hasn't seen him for some time.
While she gets on with two of Dumnonia's three druids (Blaise and Cuan) she has a rivalry with Myrddin, mainly because she was Blaise's earlier pupil and he is a little jealous of her from that. They will still work together and do trust each other (for example, when Myrddin travelled overseas for two years he left his pupil, Cuan, in her care. As far as Arthur is concerned he is her little baby brother and she would fight to the death to protect him. Likewise he is (as you would expect from Arthur) utterly devoted to his family. Technically her home on the tor is his land but he is quite willing to let her have it for as long as she likes. Her home has become a natural wonderland on the top of the hill where she instructs her sisterhood on how to use their mystic powers.
How does genetics work in this world? - Alex
Right. Fantasy genetics. Always a tricky one. There's two schools out there that I've come across. There's the AD&D school of half-elves, half-orcs, half-angels, half-demons and half-dragons (ad infinitum). And there's the Palladium Games school of "No" said in a firm voice to anyone even thinking about it. Both have their problems. AD&D has to cope with all the "What happens if my half-elf marries the child of an ogre and an orc?" Palladium has to explain how populations can grow very fast if you can only mate with about an eighth of the population and also stops any diplomatic marriages unless all royal families are of the same species. Here's my solution...
All the current races are descended from the same ancestor species. This explains why they can all interbreed (in the way a dog and wolf can still interbreed even though they are now different species). The exception are manimals, where either the magical interference in the genomes of the race originally crossed with the animal or the fact it may have begun as an unconnected animal species means the chances of viable offspring is dramatically reduced. If you want children then dating a manimal is a hit-and-miss affair.
When breeding occurs between individuals of the same race then there is only a tiny chance that the resulting offspring will not be of the same race. Orc meets orc, resulting in orc, is the most likely outcome. Only when one of the orc parents is the child of a non-orc is there likely to be any chance of the child coming out different, and even then it will probably be the same race as its grandparent.
The fun starts when the parents are of different races. There is a 25% chance of the child being of each parents race, and a 50% chance of emerging as a beastman, a kind of null state for the various races when they aren't being anything specific. The only difference is when a beastman mates, when there is a 75% chance of the child being the non-beastman parent's race and only a 25% chance of being a beastman. It is this last rule that prevents the world from being drowned in beastmen.
A good example would be to look at the love life of Uther, an orc. Uther, being king, had two mistresses before he got married for dynastic reasons. His first mistress was a human woman to whom he had three daughters. Morgan was first, and as mentioned above is a beastwoman. Morgause, the second, was also a beastwoman, although she looked very dissimilar to her sister (a result of the occasionally random way the beastman genetic code can be sometimes). The youngest daughter, Anna, was human like her mother. Uther's second mistress was a beastwoman, and so unsurprisingly the result of that birth, Arthur, was his father's race, an orc. When he married Norwenna, who was human, the resulting child also favoured his species and was an orc, Medraut.
So there we are. About as scientifically accurate as research into the aether, but it works for story purposes.
Arthurs an ORC?!?!?! It's amazing the things you can fail to pick up on.
Can't say as I've ever thought too deeply about crossbreeding. To be honest, the big bad NO answer makes quite good sense to me. It's certainly simple. I'm not sure if it would slow the breeding rate down all that much. In most worlds the different races tend to congregate together, so it wouldn't be that hard to find a wife/husband.
Even if it does slow population growth down, that might be counteracted by the amazing medical science of the ad&d world, ergo clerics. When you've got people who can instantly cure any wound, purge any disease, regenerate lost limbs, help the blind to see and the crippled to walk, I think populations would tend to grow. Supplies of food also limit growth, but, well, clerics. Again.
Interesting idea about the 'latent' race gene. I can think of another way of handling crossbreeding - can ones que from the real world. When two species can interbreed, the resulting children are infertile, like mules. If it is otherwise, scientifically speaking their not really seperate species. This way you can get half elves and all the rest, but more further than that. Some races might be too far removed to crossbreed, like elves and orks perhaps.
That last sentence raises an interesting point actually, because I'm inclined to say that humans could breed with most of the demihuman or humanoid races. This would indicate that they are the root species from which the others evolved. This might upset the elves and dwarves, who tend to think of themselves as predating the humans. Mind you science always seems to upset people with believes.
Andy
Though from what I rememmber Elves & Dwarves weren't optional races for us. I think Sandy has hinted that they might exist, but they aren't (or at least the Elves aren't) necessarily related in the same way as Orcs, Beastmen, Humans and so on. And therefore might precede all the other races...
Which brings up a question -
- What (if anything) do we know of these races?
Craig
Oooh. Interesting one. Dwarfs, you know nothing. As far as your characters are concerned the world has never known any dwarfs.
Elves, otherwise known as the Sidhe, as the Fair Folk, as the Tuatha De Danaan, as Oberon's People and as the Faeries, are long gone from this world. They headed into the Otherworld a long time ago, before sealing the way behind them with stone obelisks that mark the gates into their world (although some legends, especially in Ireland, claim the druids drove them into the Otherworld and that the druids put the stones up to imprison them in the Otherworld). Either way there is little contact with them. The spirit familiars of the druids are connected to the Otherworld and maybe to the Elves. There are legends that some places (often the holy places of the druids) are home to Elven folk who bound themselves to the land rather than leave for the Otherworld. And some places are said to be half in this world and half in the Otherworld, the nightmare realm of Lleyn being the most famous.
All in all, anything to do with Elves is pretty much tied up with druids...
Alex
Some of that is coming back to me now, I definately remember you saying that Elves were more Tuatha De Denan then Tolkein.
I take it that being the newbie amongst the Druids the truth behind the rumours aren't (yet) known to Cuan (Though he might suspect that Myrddin, Morgan & Blaise know more then they've let on...) and he knows as much as any other individual outside of the druidic order who is interested in mystical phenomenon (like Ed)
As thats revealed some hints as to the origin of Druidic magic, how about doing the same for Ed's Roman magic..?
Craig
Roman magic is even more mysterious in its origins than druidic magic. Nobody outside of those circles really knows anything of it's past. Not that its a secret or anything but nobody really cares to ask. But we can assume that since you've displayed an interest that Cuan has too, and this is what Morvawr has told you around a campfire one night...
Despite Myrddin calling it Roman magic it isn't really theirs. The Romans plundered most of their mystic knowledge from Egypt during their takeover in the time of Julius and Augustus Caesar. The Egyptians were acknowledged masters of necromancy, but many of their more elemental forms of magic have an even earlier origin in Mesopotamia, amongst the city-states of Babylon, Nippur and Ur. The Egyptians' magic was learned from their gods, Osiris, Thoth and other older, darker gods. The Mesopotamians claimed to learn it from their gods, Mahnmut, Eru and Tiamat. There are legends of older cities, older civilisations that also practised great magics, but the land of Tir n'an Og sank below the waves long ago (or possibly passed into the Otherworld with the elves).
It's interesting to note, as Alan Moore does in the notes to From Hell, how far Tiamat has fallen in the past seven thousand years. Once she was an awesome fountain of feminine power. Now she's a coloured piece of plastic that makes up a D&D cartoon merchandise toy...
Alex
That covers a lot of the magic throughout history then, but are there any other forms (that me & Ed might of heard of at least...) out there that we just aren't likely to come across that often? Does Nippon have its own magic, for example?
And theres another thing, are there any theories (other then you wanting us to fight ninja...) as to how an island jumped over a couple of continents?
Finally, psionics. Do they seem to run in the family? (Sugesting some sort of sci-fi style evolutionary step.) Or do they just crop up at random? And if so, are there any theories on them?
Craig
You mean fighting ninja isn't a good enough reason for you?
OK, three questions and, funnily enough, linked. Mysticism (as psionics is known in my world) is linked with Nippon. There was no mention of such things before the island jumped to the other side of the world, and the first cases of people being born with power rather thn learning it came from children of immigrants from Nippon. Since the number of immigrants has been relatively small the number of mystics has been equally small, and still only in descendants of Nipponese.
Very few people in Britain know anything about Nippon, but the time your characters have spent with Pellana, Myrddin's Nipponese bodyguard make you better informed than most. Even so he could not tell you much. Just over 800 years ago the world was threatened by a great darkness, 'a shadow that never lifted' according to the old tales. The land of Nippon was faced with a terrible invasion by what Pellana called 'the oni' who had come, not to kill, but to change the people of the land into monstrous things. In its darkest hour heroes arrived from beyond the end of the world and using great and terrible magic whisked Nippon from harm until it came to rest in the place it lies now. No sign of the oni has ever been seen in Europe so it is reasonably safe to assume the decision to come here was a good one.
As far as magic goes there are also the priests, both in Roman lands and in Nippon, who seem to have less spiritual contact and more independence than the spirits allow for the druids. (Nipponese priests are also often ascetic martial artist monks as well.) Saxons have their wizards, but to the eye of the more civilized Romanised characters amongst you (and especially to Aethelbeorn whose family has had more contact with both groups) they are very similar to the druids, coming from the same northern shamanic roots. There are also priests in Nippon who treat with spirits called kami and sound slightly druidic, but your characters know little of these. Myrddin once mentioned a Nipponese wizard called a wu jen but didn't elaborate. Pellana has also shown himself to be a kind of mystic warrior (or kensai), though what he can do and how he came by this power is unknown.
Sorry about the vagueness in some areas but you are pushing around the limits of your character's knowledge here...
Oh, and peeking behind the veil for a moment, the main reason Nippon is floating off the coast of Europe is Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson's Orb game-books (the Way of the Tiger books and Talisman of Death in the Fighting Fantasy range). In them they had a mainly European setting but with several Oriental style lands floating off the western coast. As with so much of my campaign I saw a good idea and nabbed it.
Alex
Hi are there goblin in this campain setting? and if so could i play one as a pc. i was thinking about playing a fighter/theif, specialising as a mounted archer/scout tipe.
witch also rasise the question do the goblins of this would ride the stero tiped big mean temperd wolves of other campains? or have i got to stretch my imagination to come up with some other mounte for sort legged riders may be a giant badger or a saint berned or somthing even stranger.
Geoff
Yep, there are goblins, such as the treacherous Ligessac who opened the gates at Caer Mai Dun to let the hydra in (I'm not sure if you were there for that one). They are the usual craven, beaten-down snivelly types, but as with the orcs and the manimals they live amongst the humans and teh hobbits. Most live peaceful lives as farmers and traders but those that do become fighters tend to drift towards the scout/archer end of things. Cavalry though are thin on the ground in Britain at this point with Arthur being the only true exponent of heavy horsepower. Still I was planning on having a few more guys on horseback as the campaign heads north so if you can hang on an adventure or two we can probably get him in when you hit Scotland. As far as mounts go, well I'm sure we can rustle up a pony or something...
Alex
A scotish Goblin I could Live With That. Half naked plad waring goblin it a shame that the blue wode was not that coman up north. As for the mount haw about one of the Larger Breeds of hunting Dog like the Irish Wolf Hand Or a stag Hound or there dark agies Equivelent.
P.s. I could also train it to fetch stick could be fun on a dark night with those glow sticks.
Geoff
