Ecumene

Blog

  • SD #2: Upper Floors

    SD #2: Upper Floors

    The stairs leading up to the raised structure of the Mausoleum proper is at its widest a rectangle of 120 feet (24 squares) by 90 feet (18 squares). 24 steps lead upwards and inwards towards what could be called the first floor, where the platform upon which the upper chamber, guarded by its grand wooden doors, stands ringed by aforementioned Tyrian pillars. Between each pillar is the image of a god, cast in bronze and dressed in garments of silk in a rainbow of colors. Unlike most depictions of the gods, which have them solemnly standing with symbols of their power, these gods are visibly frightened, bowing in reverence toward the building or recoiling away from it. Practitioners of the Cultus Deorum will recognize the Greek variants of Iuppiter, Neptunus, Dispater, and so on demonstrating obeisance on their knees, faces contorted in the fear one might only see in children before a snarling wolf. Only one goddess does not seem to be cowed, one who looks similar to Hecate (for those familiar) but not depicted as she ever was. She wears the radiate diadem of kings, and her finger is pointed toward the door in the clear sign of spellcasting.

    “The doors have no handle, and do not respond to pushing. Though they appear to be made of wood, they feel as if made of stone.”

    This begins the first puzzle the party will have to solve; getting into the tomb itself. The quick-minded adventurer will recognize that there is something special about the Hecate statue. If they search the statue, they won’t find any sign of levers, buttons, or anything that would mechanically control the doors. However, the Detect Magic spell heightened to 4th level will reveal that the statue is radiating with powerful magic. The creative adventurer will attempt to smash the statue, which is the answer to the puzzle. The statue will crumble away without too much forceful bashing, and the doors will crack in a web pattern, eventually shattering into splinters. Thus is the way open into the first room.

    “The walls are etched in epic poetry in three languages; the ancient ancestor of Greek, the ancient ancestor of Persian, and a third language not similar to any common tongue spoken today.”

    Any PC who knows both Greek and Persian may attempt to decipher the poetry. They will only be able to a small portion, where it is continuously Greek and Persian without any Carian between them (the former language of Caria, of which Halicarnassus was the capital of. Carian and other Luwic languages have not been spoken in hundreds of years.) The passage available to them reads as follows:

    “I am the one who tasted ambrosia. I wear the crown of Ethyra upon my head. I stand alone in the ranks of kings. Those before me and after me prostrate before my form. Those before me have died so that I may achieve. Those after me will die in the study of what I have achieved. Know this, you shall not mimic me. I am Mausolus, never claimed by Thanatos.”

    A PC speaking the poem aloud will cause it to shift, bowing inwards like a portal and revealing the room behind it. It is featureless, grey, and without any furniture, adornments, or designs. Any magic user who crosses the threshold will be Sickened 1, as they will be suddenly struck with a powerful headache and nausea. The observant player may note that there is no space behind the previous chamber for this one to exist in. If the players climb through, the portal will close behind them, trapping them in the room. Speaking the poem again verbatim will open the portal again, allowing them to return to the first room, but for a moment as the portal is opening a flash will appear on the walls in Doric Greek, saying the following: “Morning succeeds midday succeeds evening succeeds night.” The secret, here, is to repeat the poem word for word backwards in the previous more adorned room. Should they do so, the plain stone floor beneath them will reveal itself to be a large tapestry rug with a clever visual illusion. They will feel as if they were standing on solid ground, but looking down, their eyes may convince them that they are hovering over where a stairway leads down into a dark chamber below. In fact, it appears as if there are a great many stairways downward, of various sizes and tiled together like marble blocks. This is the work of dyes and artistry; thus, players will not be allowed to disbelieve it. The largest stair-like rug is in the middle, around which the others almost seem to spiral. This is a mimic. The moment a PC attempts to step onto one of its steps, it will wrap itself around the leg of said PC and initiate combat. The correct one is a smaller stairway tucked in the far northeast, which is an actual stairway and not a rug, and will lead down into the lower rooms.

  • Sample Dungeon #1: Ruins

    Sample Dungeon #1: Ruins

    “That rubble in the distance was once Halicarnassus, the jewel of the Anatolian coast. Those crumbled walls were once temples, towers, fortifications, and homes. They look so solemn there, like something out of a demigod’s legend. The remains of the city, you have heard from many travelers over many years, is full of the wealth of its once-lord. How it has not yet been plundered speaks volumes as to the true nature of the tale.”

    The party approaches the once-great city of Halicarnassus, which has not seen preeminence since the days of Alexander well over half a millennium ago. Any player with Lore: Architecture will be generally familiar with the great Mausoleum, the shining tomb of the sorcerer-king Mausolus who was buried with all of the riches of his dying state. If said player (and nobody else) succeeds a DC 15 Arcana check, they may also be aware that the stone used in the construction of the Mausoleum is no mortal stone, and there will be no warping it or drilling through by either mundane or magical means, nor will it be possible to teleport within or out. Critically succeeding that check will let them know that the stones themselves were created of an ancient and costly rite, draining the power of whatever resides in the mausoleum, and by their best estimates even the strongest living being that stays within those walls for three days will die an atrophied mindless husk, probably more like two days for the party.

    Their first and last stop will be the pandokeion of Diomedes, a friendly and surprisingly young man, who with his wife Artemisia consist of perhaps the last permanent residents of Halicarnassus. Merchants were known to come and go, stopping at the inn on their way to yet-living cities to the north and east, but Diomedes will admit that nobody stays here a minute longer than they need to. If you let him, he will tell the party some lesser-known myths he heard from his parents, as well as some humorous stories he picked up from other adventurers who have not returned. Artemisia will cynically warn the party of the mad shamblers that sift through the ruins of the city, noting that they are often magical but rarely intelligent, and that their minds have been stolen by an obsession with Mausolus and his power. She recommends scouring the city at night, when it will be easier to slip past them.

    When the party is fed, rested, and ready to leave, they may venture into the city proper, ringed with stone foundations long deprived of the buildings they held up.

    “Just behind every corner you can hear the sound of whispering and muttering, occasionally punctuated by dark chuckling, less of a malevolent and arrogant nature than of a natural philosopher uncovering the secrets of the world. Fragments of spells, of medical formulae, jammed together incoherently such that even the untrained magus could be certain they would never work, at least to the mind of the sane.”

    Non-Greek speaking PCs will be unaffected by the whispering, but every Greek speaking PC of Intelligence +1 or above will see their Wisdom reduced by that value until they either reach the Mausoleum or quit the city entirely. As GM, roll a d10. If the party enters the city during the day, then a result of 1 or 2 means they are being watched by a maddened scholar. If they enter at night, then only a roll of 1 will count (but at night the whispers will be noticeably louder and sound worryingly reasonable). Any humanoid creature in the Bestiaries within CR 6 and 8 may substitute for this encounter, so long as they are capable of magic. If the party decides to rest within the city’s ruins, they will certainly be ambushed again. This encounter shouldn’t be too difficult, but excessive caution on the part of the players will inevitably wear them down (start ramping up the difficulty of these encounters until they are forced to either abandon the quest or advance.)

    “The great tomb of Mausolus is the one building undamaged by time. It could have been constructed yesterday, or even today. Its pillars defy entropy itself, not even losing the luster on its Tyrian paint. The gold required to leaf every inch of the vast roof could buy a city’s worth of slaves and the land to house them.”

    At the foot of the steps patrol the elite guard of what was once the Carian Satrapy of the long-gone Achaemenid Empire. They are nothing but bones and armor now, some even having half of their feet worn away by the constant march. Use the “Skeleton Infantry” from Bestiary 3 statblock. When the party approaches, they will stop marching and form up into a phalanx. They will brandish their spears at the party, but will not advance or attack unless either the party attacks them or approaches within spear range (presumably to get into the Mausoleum). When the mass of undead soldiers is defeated, have one survive just long enough to speak. With an otherworldly voice and in the long-dead Doric dialect of Greek, they will say the following: “You have undone us; you have undone our city.” Then they will crumble. With the gates unprotected, the way is clear to enter.

  • DD #3: On the Gods

    DD #3: On the Gods

    Before the dev diary begins in earnest, I think it worth clarifying that the lore pages are not written with an omniscient perspective. By the language used, I tried to imply that they were being written by the hand of a historian of the period’s perspective on the world. Obviously, Yazatas are not the “slaves” of Ahura Mazda, and Shiva is not the “brother” of Vishnu. However, a scholar working off of second or third-hand accounts, generally skeptical and possibly somewhat prejudiced, would naturally attempt to rationalize other worldviews and attempt to cram all the nuance into a framework that fits with said scholars pre-existing knowledge. I will most certainly, when doing second passes in future lore pages focused on specific regions and cultures, have a much more nuanced take on matters (including religion, but other aspects of culture and society as well), likely written from indigenous (or near enough) perspectives.

    With that out of the way, time to talk about gods for real.

    Let’s say it’s just around the dawn of the European bronze age, over three and a half thousand years ago. You are descended from some of the warlord settlers who have conquered their way south from the banks of the Danube to the hills and mountains of Attica. Their fire for pushing new frontiers lives on in you, and you abandon your life as a Mycenaean aristocrat for a ship, the sea, and the stars. In short, you are a ranger, and a high level one at that. You have sailed west, past where the stone corpse of Atlas lies reputedly slain by your kinsman the king Perseus, and saw there beyond the stone cities (which you name “Atlantis” but the locals call “Chichen Itza”) beyond that nearly endless sea. You have gone east to face the titan progenitors of the Varanidae (Karbash) on the island known in myth as “Komodo”. You have gone beyond even that, sailing the entire coast of Serica, and further to stop at mysterious and wondrous lands you would never have known would one day be called California, Panama, Peru, and Chile. When you return home with all of your treasures, your magic items, and your experience, you become an instant legend. You are nigh-invincible; you have defeated monsters of CR 20 and above; everyone will remember the name Hermehas. When you pass, your legends become myths, and somewhere down the line, your tribe eventually decides that your feats could not have been done by a mere human, and thus is your godhood born in the minds of your descendants.

    Does this count as becoming a god “for real”? There is a modern and Abrahamic-normative perception of gods as omniscient, omnipotent (or near enough), and eternal, each aspect of which was not necessarily considered an absolute in the eyes of the ancients. Osiris and Odin have been known to die (though admittedly not permanently), Ahura Mazda requires the assistance of the human Saoshyant to defeat Angra Mainyu, and the Olympians notoriously punished the kings who outwitted them. Often, the line between people and gods is blurred, especially where Pharaohs are worshipped as gods in the flesh and emperors in the Cultus Imperialis are considered to have ascended to godhood in death. In short, what separates a god from a person, so long as said person has enough power to hold the life and death of civilizations in their hands? On the scale of us mere mortals, an adventurer or a dragon might seem worthy enough of worshipful servitude (if only to avoid the consequences of refusing).

    If you are the sort who considers such a rationale unreasonable, then I suppose from your perspective Ecumene is a decidedly atheistic setting. There is no power behind the coursing of rivers or the falling of rain, no guiding hand regulating the spark and flow of magic, nothing except the fundamental laws of (fantasy) physics. This is why divine magic would not be compatible with the world; it requires that the prayers of a cleric must be heard by an intelligent power, which then must intelligently grant that cleric the power they seek, and reward or punish them according to their whims. I, personally, cannot imagine anyone or thing having the time for that. Perhaps this makes the world feel cold and purposeless, which is understandable, but look on the bright side; killing a god for your lv 20 quest has never been easier.

    Next update will be the start of an ambitious new project, depicting the first sample dungeon for the setting, with some insight into how the world is meant to be played in.

  • LP #3: Cultus Deorum

    LP #3: Cultus Deorum

    “When we beheld the Great Pantheum of Iulianopolis, before it we made three great sacrifices in thanks; to Brahma Fabricator, for our wealth, to Mercurius Sobrius for our safety on the road, and to Mithras Tauroktonos for our honest kin.”

    -Journal of a Syrian merchant

    Where there reside men, there reside gods. Gods defend all beings, having before partitioned the earth to their liking, and granted all gifts and curses to the world. Gods who wrote the natural laws, by which all must follow, even the most rebellious and strong-willed, for no king may command the rise of the tides, the fall of leaves, and the growth of pastures. No king may conquer the gryphons that fly, the krakens that swim, the bears that roam, for they serve masters higher and more powerful than any king may imagine themselves to be, even the prideful master of Halicarnassus.

    Persia, foremost, seems to be the land of gods. From the center land through which all trade must flow, Persia gathers all the superstitious and pious into one land, and spreads them outwards to all the roads that emerge from it. The emperor of Persia has given himself to the god known as Hormazd, who is the highest of all the gods, who is caretaker of wisdom itself and writ into the stars the law of magic and nature. Below Hormazd are his loyal slaves, called Yazatas, who care in part for the world and its functions. Greatest among them are Sarosh, Mihr, and Rashn, who each in part care for the dead, as well as Bahram and Tir, who serve their master in war. His brother and foe is the vile Ahriman, whose slaves the Daevas are equal in number and strength to the Yazatas, but seek the destruction of all that is good. The Persian worshippers hold the three elements of fire, water, and magic in highest regard, and build grand temples within which they may be housed and kept pure. The college that keeps the cult of Hormazd, the Mobads, are strictly open to those skilled in the art of commanding magic.

    Elsewhere in Persia is the worship of Mani’s god, the practice of which is forbidden both in Persia and in most of the world beyond. The priest Mani held a god known as Zurvan up to the highest rather than Hormazd, and below him are his sons, who Mani’s superstitious believe to be the gods of all other cults. His foe is the Darkness, known by many names, and their spawn, who entrapped the world of the mind in the world of flesh and of the physical. Thus, it is the view of the cult of Mani that wisdom is the mind attempting to escape from its prison the body, and respect highly the act of death. Mani’s cult demonstrates clear derivations from more ancient cults, which they justify by claiming that all cults before are simply imperfect observations of the great truth, and all cults after are corruptions of the truth already granted.

    East of Persia lies the empire of Chandragupta, who has dared to claim all of India for himself. He has dedicated himself to the god Vishnu, who preserves the balance of the world, and alongside his two brothers Brahma and Shiva are responsible for writing the laws of nature. Below them are a number of other gods and daemons, greatest among them being Ganga, Shakti, Ganesha, and Aditya, although Emperor Chandragupta allows the worship of cults to each of them, some of whom proclaim their own gods to be above Vishnu himself. The priestly body of Vishnu, called the Brahmins, are called often to be personal advisors on all matters to the emperor, and are known to conduct themselves strictly, studying many earthly matters and rejecting the consumption of meat, fish, and eggs. Despite this, the gods of India have been known to accept the sacrifice of animals, especially that of horses, the practice of which is associated with royal legitimacy.

    India is also the origin of the mystery cult of Buddha, which worships a number of gods who had through great study and the rejection of hedonism and lavishness ascended from mankind, and calls their adherents to do the same. Some consider Vishnu and the more ancient gods of India to as well be ascended men, and make sacrifices to them in much the same manner as the Gupta lords. Despite the rejection of personal wealth, the cult of Buddha has been known to construct great and magnificent temples, equaling or exceeding that of other gods in their splendor, and receiving the patronage of great kings. Another cult, that of Jain, grows in prominence in the same region, much similar in many ways, but which is strange in the idea that their practitioners believe that all peoples are themselves gods, or that there are no gods at all.

    West of Persia is the lands of Rome, wherein the emperor has proclaimed a mandate recognizing the sun as the foremost and highest of all gods, and from which all things emanate. The imperial cult equates the sun, which they call Sol Inuictus, to be equated as well with other grand concepts as logic, the universe, magic, and goodness. Sol has very recently, within the Roman world, usurped an older god by the name of Iuppiter as foremost of all gods and daemons, and many subjects of the Roman emperor continue to venerate Iuppiter before Sol, as father or kinsman of each of the other gods now decreed as lesser. Below either Sol or Iuppiter are a number of lesser gods, greatest among them holding rulership over some portion of the world and its forces, including Neptunus, god of the seas, Dispater, god of the earth, Diana, goddess of beasts, and Minerua, goddess of wars. The Roman religion is rarely strict in its practice, often adding the gods of their conquered people as siblings or children of the gods they already worship, yet with the recent upheaval that practice has swiftly waned.

    South of Persia is the grand empire of Axum and its ring of clients, who worship the cult of Christ, which has been banned in both Rome and Persia and not for the first time. Unlike the other religions, the followers of Christ do not believe in a single great god ruling over lesser gods, but either a pair or a triumvirate of gods, who share the task of managing all the universe between themselves. One, the elder god (who to the Christians is nameless), shares its worship with the cult of Iudea, although the two cults despise each other fiercely. The younger god is called Joshua Christos, or Galileo (by his place of birth), and is the son of the elder god by an Israelite woman, or alternatively the elder god himself having been birthed through an Israelite woman. Occasional practices recognize a third or fourth god, they being the Sacred Form, which is again often interpreted as the elder god by another face, and a vile god called Shaytan or Diabolos.

  • DD #2: The ABΓs

    DD #2: The ABΓs

    This entry will be rather unfocused, as there are a lot of things regarding ancestries and classes I feel must be mentioned, few of them having much relation to each other. However, if stray thoughts, concerns, and ideas can be gotten out of the way here, the next entries can be much more cohesive, and therefore fun.

    To begin, wherever the word “tribe” comes up in lore pages, it is generally meant in the sense of the Latin “gens”, which would translate back to “people” or “ancestry”. It also handily avoids having to use the term “race”, although some English translations of classical texts have used that phrasing. Furthermore, the term “clan” has been used to denote smaller groupings of a tribe (i.e. “the Corvidae clans of Africa Proconsularis” or “the Sahalia clans of Mesopotamia”), despite them not necessarily being of a clan or kinship per se. It is important to note that there is no “segregation” between ancestries, such that it is unreasonable for some polities to be known as “x tribe polities” (i.e. “the Rodens city of Velutonia”, in the case of Velutonia being majority-Rodentes and ruled by a hereditary Rodens dynasty). It can be safely assumed that every ancestry is represented in every city or state of sufficient size and connection to the wider world, especially in a fantasy world where one may ride a hippogryph or teleport.

    One of the major fantasy staples I distinctly did not want to include in Ecumene were the conventional fantasy ancestries such as elves, dwarves, orcs, and goblins. While I did consider during the very early stages populating the world with them, I ultimately decided against this course of action on account of concerns that they were drawn primarily from Germanic mythology (which was Tolkien’s passion and area of expertise), and thus fitting them into the world would have meant bending the entire world to fit a Germanic mythological framework. Instead, the running theme among the ancestries represented is human-animal hybrids. Catfolk, Ratfolk, Grippli, and Tengu make their appearance under different names and slightly different appearances, which I have distributed about the world according to some personal judgements regarding the native distribution of the animals on which they were based. It is Herodotus who has the best perspective on the origin of the various ancestries, with every non-human having some humanity imbued within them by ancient sorcerers, and thus they would adopt a vaguely humanoid form, no matter how jarring the transition between their original species is.

    Regarding class, it is worth mentioning first the role of gods in Ecumene (for some classes depend on the worship or patronage of gods and similar powers). This will be expanded on in the next dev diary, but safe to say there are either many gods of little “godly” power, or there are no gods at all. Thus, I would recommend not allowing players to choose any class that forces them to depend on a higher power for class features, including Witches, Clerics, Oracles, and Champions. Some class options for other classes should not be chosen as well, including the Monk’s Sacred Ki or the Angelic bloodline for Sorcerers. Ecumene will also take a more nuanced perspective on morality, expressed not as a cosmic battle of ideologies between manifestations of the cosmic order, but rather individual decisions based on fickle and mortal minds, more in line with how humanity behaves in the real world.

    That is not to say religion is without its place in Ecumene. In fact, religion might be a more important component to the lives of those in the 4th century than in other fantasy settings where gods are both real and active. During this age, the greatest upheaval in the social order was one of religion. The spread of Manicheanism and Christianity, the suppression of Buddhism by Hindu powers, and the intellectual fortification of the Cultus Deorum and Zoroastrianism before much of their theology was intentionally destroyed. Germanic kings would be expected to keep a Bardic skald to sing their praises, itinerant Monks study the Jain Dharma across India, and the Neoplatonic School is always ready to teach new Wizards. Even without Clerics smiting the enemies of gods with divine lightning, religion is of singular importance to the world and its people.

    Lore and Dev Diary #3 will expand more on the religions of Ecumene, including some further insight on the nature of gods.

  • LP #2: Gentes

    LP #2: Gentes

    “The Serpent-men are known to be as wily as they are powerful. Perhaps this task is better suited to the Lords of Odisha.”

    -Report to Samudragupta, regarding a failure to pacify the eastern coast

    The peoples of the ecumene are many; their forms, innumerable. Many philosophers, priests, and thinkers have wondered as to the origins of man, and many answers have emerged from such fruitless questioning. Herodotus posited that it was humanity that emerged first, and with the power of magic now lost shaped the beasts around them to familiar forms, that they would serve as guides and slaves in climate once unsuitable for settlement. Sallustius Crispus claimed that all the peoples of the world once shared a single origin, and the realities of different climes wrought themselves upon the first colonies of civilization. Ammonius Saccas suggested that in fact there are many origins of flora and fauna alike, and that all paths of descendance converge upon a single perfect form, which would thus be the form of the gods. For whatever reason, it is clear that humanity is not the sole master of the earth.

    The Yejibi people are often seen in two forms, with one being far more common than the other. In both cases, they are a hairy tribe, with a long face like a snout and elevated feet as if standing upon their toes. The striped Yejibi is a wandering people, perhaps as humans once were when they expanded the breadth of the world, coming to settle much of the Persian Empire, Arabia, India, and where Africa meets the Internal Sea. The striped tribe is known to coexist well with humanfolk, speaking the many tongues of their many homelands. The spotted tribe, conversely, is insular, and known only in the lands of Aethiopia. Rare are the cities of men able to pacify their clans, and they have only been known to speak the Ge’ez tongue of Axum. There has, in various legends persisting among both the peoples, of a third cousin of the Yejibi, of solid coloration and powerful inborn magics, but such a figure has never been recorded except in folklore.

    The Anura people are said to have emerged from an island off the coast of Africa, though such a landmass has never been found. Anurai are often of a sticky, smooth skin, often saturated in water so as to be slippery. However, the barbarian variant known in Transdanubia and Gallia are often seen with rough, mottled skin, which may cause sickness on the touch to those not of their blood. No matter the type, Anurai are known to have large and bulging eyes, and are incredibly rarely civilized or accustomed to urban life.

    The Karbash is a scaled tribe, known most often for their strength and large stature. A common myth among their clans are that they possess the heritage of dragons, and that the gods reside on a hidden island far to the east of India. Today, the Karbash are commonly seen about the latitude of Syria and southwards, but any further north and the sight of them becomes very rare. No matter how well integrated with their neighboring tribes, the Karbash people have a tendency to avoid the consumption of plant matter, but do not shy away from meats often deemed unsuitable by the other tribes, including spiders, worms, and (in the case of Karbash following the Jewish religion) oysters and pigs.

    The Nagaji is among the most variable in form of all the tribes, with some not even possessing legs and rather ambulating on one large leg that slides upon the earth and ends in a point. The Nagaji are most associated with the land of India, where they are more often well-integrated with other peoples and most often seen in ruler positions, but there are many variants existing in all three known continents, and the Germanic Nagaji clans are much-feared by the Romans on the other side of the Rhenus. It is commonly considered that the Nagaji are of one ancestry with the Naga beasts (also commonly of India), but why one branch developed limbs and became civilized while the other remained largely barbaric is currently beyond the natural philosophy’s limits of understanding.

    The Mejaw, conversely, are the most variable in terms of culture and adaptation to the spread of human society, and are thus known by the most names. Mejaw are befurred and snouted, yet distinct from the Yejibi in visible ways. The Mejaw of Egypt have long held a special status in the age of their empire, and have thus most persisted with those millenniae-old ancient traditions even now that the majority of them have converted to Christianity. The Greek Mejaw (or “Leonidae”) are known as fierce warriors, and it is a common stereotype from the Roman perspective to see gladiators as maned with golden fur.

    The Rodens is one of the few tribes found most commonly in the lands of Europe. Rodentes are rarely above half the height of a human in stature, with large ears above their heads and, in the case of most Roman Rodentes, large and durable teeth. Indeed, many of their clans were among the oldest allies of Rome as they bloomed from a city-state to a nascent empire. Since then, Rodentis colonies and communities have appeared in every port along the Internal Sea, though some barbaric groups persist in the mountains of the Caucasus, in Germania and Slavia, and well beyond. Imperial Rodens families have even been elevated to the Senate (especially during Caesar’s rule), although none have yet managed to wear the diadem.

    The Corvid is as well a mostly European tribe, though their clans are most usually less peaceable than most. Corvidae are feathered, as well possessing a blackened beak in place of a nose or snout, and clawed of feet. Their clans are often wanderers and raiders, and lands where they once lived have at times displaced them through wars and conflicts. It is commonly considered among the people of former Carthage and Numidia (where the Corvidae were often most well integrated) that this people had a natural inclination towards sorcery and the magical arts, and Corvidae were able to attain high status in those societies before the Roman conquests.

    The Vanara are thought to either have descended from or are the ancestors to humanity, at least according to myths common among their clans. Indeed, they do in many ways resemble humanity, excepting their more nimble feet and notable tails. Vanara clans are incredibly common in India and Aethiopia, but very rarely elsewhere in the ecumene, excepting a notable few Amazigh clans just south of the Atlas Strait.

    Finally, the Florid people are by far both the most widespread, surviving in lands where even humans do not dare to settle, and the least populous. Floridae are often green-toned in their skin, but the coloration of them are so diverse that it’s possible no two are even remotely alike. Little can be said of these reclusive people, as they only ever seem to appear in vagabond bands, and the rare few clans that come into contact with Florid societies are non-literary, and thus nothing much can be said more than that said individual Floridae seem to share an inherent kinship with those of their own blood, no matter the distance between their origins.

  • Dev Diary #1: Overview

    Dev Diary #1: Overview

    -Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and India in the 4th century, according to Ollie Bye

    “Ecumene” is a Latinization of the Greek term “Oικουμένη (Oikoumeni)”, and refers to the breadth of the world as the Greeks knew it. Within the breadth of this setting, magic may lift the great stones that assembled the Great Pyramids of Giza, a champion, sword in hand, may cleave through a century, and dragons may guise themselves in the forms of men and demand worship from the people under assumed names as “Freya”, “Osiris”, and “Demeter”. The world of Ecumene will be grounded in the beautiful and diverse world of our real history, but dotted near and far with monsters to slay, dungeons to delve, and heroism to achieve that we all love from our Pathfinder (and other tabletop) experiences.

    For historians of the immediate following centuries looking back on this time, it often would have seemed to them to have been the beginning of the end of civilization. That is one of many reasons why I have chosen this particular period to represent. In three centuries, two of the four great empires shown on the map above will have disappeared, and the remaining two will have been diminished to mere wisps of what they once were. The descendants of those who lived in this time will, for a millennium or more, look back on this era as the sunset upon a “Golden Age” of humanity, that they will then desperately attempt to claim and reclaim until the days of Napoleon.

    Although our real civilizations are built by humans and continued by humans alone, Ecumene will have no shortage of ancestry options for any player character. The humanity of Ecumene has coexisted with many intelligent kin, from the befurred gnolls along the Horn of Africa to the brightly-scaled nagaji of southern India to golden-maned catfolk of the Greek peninsula. People of all shapes, colors, and stripes may appear in many unexpected locations and hold unexpected status in any part of the world, at least if archaeological evidence is to be believed. Do not feel as if you must “limit” yourself to “likely” options as a compromise for having fun and making the character you want; stranger things have happened in reality, and in the magic-rich setting of Ecumene, stranger things may happen still.

    Lore and Dev Diary #2 will deal with ancestries and society’s perception of them, as well as the role character classes will play in a world that mirrors our own.

  • Lore Page #1: Orbis

    Lore Page #1: Orbis

    -Map of the world according to Pomponius Mela, as designed by Konrad Miller

    “It was the thousand and one hundred and thirty-first year from the founding of the City . . .”

    -Saturninius Salustianus, Neoplatonist scholar

    “It was the six hundred and ninetieth year from the dawn of Iskandar . . .”

    -Shapur Sakanshah, governor of Sistan

    “It was the four hundred and thirty-seventh year of the Krita Samvat . . .”

    -Ramagupta, exiled prince

    “It was the three hundred and eighty-first year from the birth of our Lord . . .”

    -Frumentius, bishop of Axum

    . . . and the emperor was dead. Year after year, one after the other. The causes were many and, to all the greatest thinkers of the age, seemed unrelated. Four great lights, four conquerors who belonged to the four centers of the earth, snuffed as their flames reached their greatest heights. Civilization itself seems to have taken a step back, paused to lament its loss, or perhaps, having been blocked of its rise, descended again into the mire out of which it was pulled. The sun dimmed on those days, it is said, and the wind lost its swiftness. The tallest trees bowed and the beasts slumbered the entire day. What is to become of the world now?

    In Rome, the Companion of the Sun has departed to rejoin his master. In his place is his son, adopted from the line of his cousin, the gentle Claudius Iulianus Procopius, to whom it seems the gods have turned against. His late father built the empire of Augustus and Traianus into a sphere of marble and steel and gold, the first land under the sun and the first to touch its light. Such an ascendance was paid for heavily, in seas of blood both Roman and barbarian. Now that the godlike presence of his predecessor is gone, those he has subjugated now consider Rome an open gate. Will the numerous tribes pay their tribute, no longer cowed by the might of legions? Will opportunistic generals and Caesars dutifully serve? Only the sun knows, and it is silent.

    In Eranshahr, there sits upon the Takht-e Padishah a young Shapur III, thrown into the glamor of the Persian court where the hidden knife strikes deeply and in complete silence. His father spent his whole life staying assassins and those who buy them, with bribery, with force of arms, with the strength of his own will and the brutality of dubiously loyal servants of the state. The Seven Houses, each more unpredictable than the last, close in on the new king of kings, a boy just shy of growing into manhood. He may have his father’s blood, he may even have his father’s spirit and mind, but one man alone, even a great man, does not rule in the mountainous land of Hormazd. To be shahanshah is to give trust those who do not deserve it, and to pray often.

    In the Gupta Raj, kin slays kin, and the call of power is irresistible. Lord Chandragupta II has made a name for himself on the field of battle, such that those sworn to him have taken to calling him by the name “Vikramaditya”, and it was true. With spear in hand and hatred in his heart, he truly does become for but a moment the sun, and he carries the army as a burning ray to scorch his enemies red and black. But the man held a lust for battle, perhaps insatiable, that can only end with his surrendering it for the peace of the gods or his dying in a pool of his own men. Whispers under the gaze of the maharajadhiraja persist, after having been rooted out and crushed many times, of his brother Ramagupta, the man who despised war too much, such that it drove his own brother to kill him. If he yet lives, the mere second son’s reign may prove tenuous after all, no matter how many victories he claims.

    In Axum, an upheaval of conscience may just sweep the realm itself away. The kingdom has collected its loyalties under its previous kings, tribe by tribe and city by city. A hundred peoples, perhaps more, look to the mouth of the Red Sea for a ruler to guide them. Yet, who is to say if the ruler who does not have its own head could be held responsible for others. The new god is no friend to the old gods, and a way of life so ancient and entrenched is at once uprooted. Negusa Nagast Ouazebas loves his new god, but if the people do not share his zeal, he might not be able to call himself king for long. The tributaries export their treasure and their gifts, and import a strange new doctrine of total subservience and fear and awe before the one star that dots the sky. Such a strain pulls taut the fabric of society that could snap suddenly, and tear an empire from the pages of history.

    One thing is for certain; the world is young again. Four boys stand where four men did once, and with each passing day the worth of gold becomes replaced by the worth of iron. A life of battle is to be the life of ignobility or a life of greatness, and that allure summons both slave and lord alike to abandon their lives on the farms in favor of a life in armor. There is wealth in this world, hidden in its harshest crags and its deepest marshes, buried under tombs centuries old and with long-dead kings. To claim it is only natural, for those who envision themselves heroes.