GM Text Vomit

Wydmoor

This is shit Germain dug up about Wydmoor Free City before he moved to the city to decide which camps to try to ally with. Its worth noting that DM apologized about how short this was!

Political System

Very complicated. Essentially, once a year, everyone pays to submit ballots for a couple of executive-type positions, including Mayor and Sheriff. (Well, pretty much just mayor and sheriff.) The Commerce Council is elected only by those it represents and at a different time of year, though of course those members may still vote in the above two elections. Judicial system, like most places, is divided into the Church Courts (for moral crimes - murder, theft, etc.) and General Courts (for civil, property, tort, and stuff like that). The later are staffed in Wydmoore by judges appointed by the mayor (approved by the council) and balliffed by the Sheriff. (When you're done reading below, you'll realize this is at present a cause for some friction. The court officials require balliffs to enforce their decisions, but on several occasions Edrell has simply refused to carry out such orders. It's lead to the occasional bit of statutory neglect in regards to some General Court decisions. The city guard is actually responsible for Balliffing the Church Courts, as well, but has never refused one of their orders.

Regional Interests: Iros Forge mining town is a major source of wealth for the city as well as its aristocracy. Likewise, pilgrimage - Wydmoore is one of the most popular Tragidore shrines - brings in a lot of money. It brings a lot of trade this way that might not otherwise come to a relatively difficult place to get to (in that there are only a couple of means of approach, but means from a variety of different borders, facilitating trade and increasing defensibility)

(A note about "Income." Remember, in the time this is modeled after - a slightly advanced high-medieval - there was a lot blurrier line between "duty pay" and "corruption." Especially when one considers that, in a situation like this, the Officer of the People is responsible for covering the expenses of his entire staff. So, the Sheriff has to deal with the costs of maintaining a garrison (equipment and payroll), and the Mayor must pay for all the clerks and toll collectors (!!) such himself. The church (and maybe the Bog Wraths - you could discover little about their inner workings) are at an advantage here, since priests and monks and other church flunkies basically operate for free.)

(Also of note about "income", notice the lack of what we might call a "tax." Agricultural land, the basic unit of pre-modern taxation, is all owned by the city proper - at least within its area of strong influence in Wydmoore region, general. Some Freeholders pay a "tax" to the Bog Wraiths, but that's really more protection money. (Not that sometimes people don't legitimately need protection, after all) So, the mayor and council split the cost of operating the farms, because all the food nearby is basically kept in city granaries as insurance against siege. So, mostly money is raised by pilgrims, gate tolls, and licenses.

Fun Fact: Since there hasn't been a siege of Wydmoor in living memory, there's been a sort of eleborate system built up to deal with the grain when it nears spoilage. The stored grain is donated to the church, which distributes it to the poor. Since the granaries have been overflowing for generations, they've gotten the distribution down to a science, with handouts between once a month to once a week, depending on yearly climate. It's what keeps many of those in the Warrens alive, and many of the poor and beggarly in the Outer City often use the coin collected from their trade to buy their way into the Inner City of the Day of Contemplation (aka Sunday.)

Power Brokers

• Name: Calvis Wydsomme
  • Age: Late 60s
  • Occupation: Mayor; Master Vintner and Distiller - Family owns shares of Iros Forge, as well.
  • Derives income as Mayor from:
    • 2-shares of stake in the Iron and Red Iron mines of Iros Forge
    • 30% of all issued licenses (residency, mercentile, begging, and master-craftsman)
    • 30% of gate tolls
    • 10% of river tolls
    • 25% of municipal well tolls
  • Pays for (and thus can assume to control or influence)
    • 50% of agriculture
    • City administrators, toll collectors, city magius' salary

Notes: Wydsomme is one of the First Families of Wydmoore region, and dates back well before the city's Autonomy. He's old, he's by all accounts bright and cunning, but also demanding and retributive. Has served 13 mayoral terms in the last 20 years. Presently is quite popular with the entrenched, and reasonably popular with the guildsmen, but mistrusted by the mercantile establishment (beggars are allowed in merchant district but not in monument district, with predictable results) and downright despised by the disenfranchised. (Suck it!)

• Name: Hadriarch Oscart Medradell
  • Age: 76
  • Occupation: City Hadriarch
  • Income is in the form of administering regional Church estates, and administers Church funds collected in the city:
    • 10% Tithe from all Goodly Alexandrians
    • 100% of ecclesiastical well tolls
    • 15% of issued licenses (As a church official acts as "witness" of issuance, sort of like a notary)
    • one-half share of state in the Iron and Red Iron mines of Iros Forge
    • Churched own pilgrimage sites (which also lead to higher than expected Tithe totals, what with all the Pilgrims)
  • Pays For:
    • Nothing. "Alexandria never pays for dinner," as they say. Priests and flunkies galore. Church wealth pays for all kinds of things, including impressive alms giveaways and cathedrals. Notes: A pretty bland personality, it seems like. Interested in stability over everything else.

• Name: Magius Rolf Hemsley
  • Age: Not really sure. Middle-agey.
  • Occupation: City Magius
  • Income is a flat seasonal payment negotiated between the City Magius, the Mayor, the Bog Wraiths, and the Council. The amount, as well as the frequency of renegotiation or contract expiration, were beyond your ability to discover.
  • Pays for:
    • Repairs to the city's magical infrastructures (mostly this is hands on work)
    • Magical defenses of the city
    • Upkeep the the Keep of the City Magius

Notes: Been city magius now for 7 years. Previously he was a student at one of the major Universities - accounts differ, but most seem to settle on Flannery or even Hakan. Keeps to himself, mostly. What a surprise.

• Name: Ralth Onoridil
  • Occupation: Captain of the Bog Wraiths mercenary company
  • Perhaps derives individual income in his capacity as captain - unknown. Stats given are for institutional wealth.
    • 5-share of stake in the Iron and Red Iron mines of Iros Forge
    • 30% of all gate tolls.
    • 70% of all river tolls.
    • Occasional Mercenary Endevour.
  • Bog Wraiths have made up one-third of the Warden's Honor Guard for a long time. That pays, in good times AND bad.
  • Institution pays for 1/3 of Magius salary.

Notes: Like Edrell, is actually pretty new to town, himself, even though his institution and power base are the very definition of entrenched. Came in 1398 - aka two years ago - after leaving the Honor Guard upon the death of Ardrell Mathrew <http://wiki.memphisgamers.com/index.php?title=Ardrell_Mathrew>, the last (as in previous, not as in ever) Arch-Warden.

• Name: Edrell Odenthorpe
  • Occupation: Sheriff; Bookbinder
  • Income as Sheriff derives from:
    • 1 and one-half share stake in the Iron and Red Iron mines of Iros Forge
    • 30% of all gate tolls.
    • 10% of all river tolls.
    • 25% of all municipal well tolls. [Has forgone this income for a 25% toll reduction]
  • Pays for:
    • City Guard

Notes: Showed up about two years ago. Agitated among the people in the warrens and Outer City for 8 months or so before winning the Sheriff's position in a close race with an impossibly high turnout among the warren-folk. He's basically known to have distributed large amounts of copper (the Sherriff's Ballot is the cheapest to cast) to the poor to win the election. He replaced a Wydsomme loyalist. However, he has actually done a capable job maintaining law and order - despite some distrubances assumed to be caused by Wydsomme agents. (Which has hurt the mayor's reputation among the lesser guildsmen and merchants, especially, and helped Edrell with the same.) It is unknown if he can repeat this feat, though enough middling merchants and unaligned guildsmen might line up behind him now for it not to matter.

• Name: Commerce Council - 9 merchants and guildsmen. Vinters Guild, Smiths Guild and Masons Guild are fixed seats held by the guild leader of each. 3 guild aldermen are elected by the combined guild burghers not represented by

the four fixed chairs.

• • 3 chairs are held by representatives chosen by those holding merchantile licenses
  • Institutional Income - to pay for infrastructure and other municipal costs derives from:
    • 10% of gate tolls
    • 10% of river tolls
    • 55% of issued licenses
    • 50% of municipal well tolls
  • Pays for:
    • Material Infrastructures - roads, walls, etc.
    • 1/3 of Magius' salary

• Name: Potmar Elx
  • Occupation: City Exchequer You know all these numbers? He's the guy whose job it is to keep them straight. Hired by the mayor, after the approval of the Council, and paid for by both.

Well, let me give you a little more recent history and extended city background that might influence your decision. Also: "Guard" can't be a profession. Profession is some vocational skills dependent type of job. The profession description actually gives a pretty good list. It might necessitate you being a member of a guild, depending on the trade, which might influence your thoughts, as well.

Anyway, so, Wydmoore is an old city. Not pre-Alexandrian old, otherwise it would have no claim to being the site of Tragidore. It's the most popular and "plausable," since it is the oldest, from when it was still a part of Ubrekti. It's also the reason the heretics chose that city to occupy. (And it kind of screws Ubrekt out of their own Tragidore shrine. They're the only country not to have one.. ANYWAY) Still, pretty old. At least 1000 years, and even though there was probably a lot of chaos after the Heretics moved in it's been independent for almost 700 - that's a still long enough for quite the ossified elite.

In the case of Wydmoore, a handful of families control most of the machinery of state. Wydsome is the foremost among them, but he is in many ways only first among equals. It is essentially an oligarchy in that respect, as the foremost families are all tied together politically rather than representing competing interests. Some friction exists, but most of the high ranking gentry are connected by the common thread of (1) wanting to maintain stability and the status quo, (2) partial controlling interest in the Wydmoore Bank* and (3) partial controlling interest in the mines of Iros Forge. (dating back to the a deal struck as part of the the Wydmoore Accord was agreed to by Odriss Rockheart that broke the seige. It was also during those Accords that the Bog Wraiths joined the Honor Guard of the Arch-Warden) Now, as it turns out, most of those powerful families are descended from the original Heretics. No surprise there, of course, but there are a lot of proud families, and old ones, among the craft and merchant classes. They are all proud of their independent heritage, however, and can generally be counted on to put the interests of the city over ancient history.

The Sheriff, by which I mean Edrell Odenthorpe, is sort of an odd hiccup in the system. This isn't to say that sometimes outside families don't have success or even serve the government, they do, but Edrell is barely even a resident. He showed up two years ago and set up shop as a bookbinder in the Warrens. He made himself known among the poor quickly, so a year and a half or so later, when he paid gave them all some copper, it was nothing to have them spend half to have him as the town's law enforcement head and keep the change. No one is exactly sure where he got that money from - and it's not like he does killer business asa bookbinder in the warrens. Some people think he's a benevolent alchemist who conjures up fortunes, while others think he's the leader of a brigand band. Other theories include he's an agent of some other country, or the church, or a cultist, or Alexandria knows what else. Anyway: Double win. Except for a public governance point of view, maybe. Like I said, Odenthorpe has taken to simply ignoring some of the decisions issued by the General Court. Within the past couple of months, Mayor Wydmoore has taken to sending his, ah. . . goons? Hm. Associates to enforce Court orders. Some clashes ensued, between the Sheriff's men and the Mayor's. The city is tense, but this sort of thing isn't TOTALLY unheard of, and people are nervous but not yet downright worried.

Where the Bog Wraiths fit into this complicates things. They're totally independent of the families control, as they are basically a self-selecting warrior community. It's not as if one drifts in and out of Bog Wraith service. They're known across the mainland, with ties among the highest reaches of the Church. They can afford to be discriminating in selection. As far as jobs go in the city's operation, theirs is to defend the city from external threats and maintain the mundane defenses.

The Sheriff's men, on the other hand, are tasked with maintaining law and order in the city - both inside and outside the wall. Odenthorpe, during his tenure, has decentralized the city watch a great deal : trusting a handful of loyalists with great autonomy and limited spheres of influence. Since they're seem to actually be not just corrupt cronies, it has worked well. (In the inner city, notice there are 4 wardhouses. Those are his Lts) Probably helped by the fact several high profile rogues and sin merchants ended up dead a few months after his taking office, making it that much easier to control crime. Best guess on the street is some sort of street war.

Rather than having banking "families," all of the families The proximity to three nations, along with the politically unique situation in Wydmoore and its renowned defensibility, compounded with its geographic location, as well as its shocking political stability and longevity, has made it a popular choice as a merchant bank for those who trade between nations, and sometimes nobles and kings of the nations themselves. You will note that I did not list the bank income on the info sheet. The Iros Forge mine shares attached to the office positions were because the mines were essential to the defense and upkeep of the city. Still, many of the powerful families at the time - maybe 3/4ths of whom by then were of the heretics - realized the wisdom of banding together (no reason to believe their city was going to stay free as long as it did), and what developed into the bank grew from a banding together of their financial interests in the face of what was considered to be an actively hostile outside world. (to say nothing of some pissed off folks displaced when the huge masses of heretics started coming) So, all that money is private income. If you want to think about it in Civ Terms, they've reaped the benefits of having stumbled across the Joint Stock Company first. The Bog Wraiths do not have a stake in the bank, but do receive payment from it, probably, since they tend to be the ones who guard bank shit. That Exchequer Guy also audits the banks book for the owning families.

Well, alright, fantastic. The Sheriff it is. He's probably easier to find employment with, since he is actuality an outsider himself who doesn't have the decades long connections within the city that Wydsomme and some of the families do. So, I'll let you know more about his structure.

When he took over as Sheriff, he reorganized things somewhat. Before there was the Sheriff, and basically everyone reported to him. Edrell instead divided the (Inner) city up into four wards: One covering the residential district, one in the merchant district, one in the craftsman district, and one in the warrens. Each ward is run by a Ward Captain, who has a great deal of direct control over the men of his ward and his ward itself. All the ward captains report and take orders from Edrell, of course. It's made things more efficient: a nimbler, more responsive city guard, but with some potential pitfalls you can probably imagine. Right now it seems to be working well, primarily because the ward captains are by all apperances competent and loyal to Edrell.

Edrell Odenthorpe acts as the Ward Captain of the Warrens, as well as being the Sheriff. He runs his Wardhouse out of his bookbinding shop, which has since been expanded somewhat. The Warrens are surprisingly safe for residents, and generally safe for outsiders. (Pickpockets: yes. Murders: Generally no.) He's *wildly* popular among the Warrenites, and he's taken pains to bring many of the more capable and/or well connected Warrenites into the City Guard. (Early on, he purged a whole lot of people, and replaced them with his own group.)

Teodoria Mayn was actually with the City Guard before Edrell took over. During the purges, she was made into one of his Ward Captains and most of her guards were hand picked to be spared from purging, and supplemented with Edrell's Warrenites. She's a stern and serious person by nature.

Fenn Lynrick came to Wydmoore around the same time as Edrell as a hawker of street wares and bogus relics for pilgrims. Edrell brought him into the city guard shortly after the reorganization and purge, for unknown reasons. He knows the people of his ward there, but is probably the weakest link in the Ward structure. It's widely assumed that Lynrick, while not corrupt, his probably the chief smuggler in Wydmoore city. (Thanks, no doubt, to the vacuum left by the underworld assassinations I spoke of in prior emails) He's kept the Bazaar pretty clear of vagrants and thieves, however.

Drandell is the fourth Ward Captain. Just Drandell. He's a recluse. By which I mean, he's an ABSOLUTE and TOTAL recluse. He's never been known to leave his house - ever. He might have been a resident before, he might have come after - no one is really sure. Either way, before he was made Ward Captain no one had ever heard of him. He has the smallest group of guards, as the Residential areas are generally the easiest to maintain order in, and he's assumed also to have some sort of spy network going on. (Why ELSE would he never, ever leave his wardhouse?) Ward Captains and some of his important guardsmen come in and out of the Wardhouse proper, but everyone else must deal with Drandell through a magical gargoyle head on his front door that acts as a two-way communicator.

Wydmoor, in case you haven't picked up, is a pretty flushed out town. I imagine ya'll will be kicking around there for many levels, unless everyone decides to just go some where else randomly. :)

Alexandria's Life and Times (the campaign and how it resolved)

The establishment gods - and thus establishment divine power - was essentially wiped out by the Prophet's War. What had existed before was religion on a roughly Hellenistic model. Polytheistic, sure, but also decentralized. Rome, you know, was polytheistic, too, but national power was wedded to the religious establishment in the form of Caesar being both secular ruler and Pontifex Maximus. In classcial Greece, most cities would have their own patron gods that had independent rituals, structures, whatever, even within a larger kingdom. Before Alexandria, each god's establishment was independent but interdependent. It's not as if the physical death and destruction of the demi-pantheon could be covered up, and the vast majority of civil society was damaged to the verge of destruction.

Now, this is the cynical take. The sort of beautiful thing about developing the backstory of this campaign as the aftermath of what I envisioned for your campaign is that I get to treat it very historically. That is, I know in broad strokes WHAT everyone did, and I know something of how their mind works, so I can SPECULATE into motives. But, in most cases there are clear alternate readings based on, say, how the character's personality might have grown and changed based on the triumphs and losses of the campaign. The Betrayal is a great example of this. My campaigns are always pretty sandboxy and generally light handed, I like to think, so the Epic Arc only called for a couple of "forced flags," 2 of which were completely out of party hands.

1. The Prophet's War (which was unavoidable. Those gears went into motion before most of the party existed. Set in stone, one way or the other, by Antioch's opening the first Obelisk.)
2. Alexandria Going to the West: (Alexandria served as a great vehicle to drive the plot, bind the party, and develop characters. She was meant to be "raised" by the party before "growing up" and accepting her own destiny, but she was also the mode by which the party members were to reach the mid range power and influence that traditionally comes around the 9-11 level mark, which we were just getting in to when the games stopped)
3. Antioch's attempt to assassinate the Dark Lord. (It was his knowledge and sagacity of the ancient Prophecies, in fact, that brought the party TO him.)
4. Alexandria becoming Omnity
5. Alexandria Being Betrayed (Such an obvious Christ figure requires a Judas, and since the Prophecies required that she be betrayed, I wrote some ambiguity into who that might be intentionally. The obvious suspects would have been Antioch, since what happened to him between Attempted Assassination and Return To The Material Plane was a big question mark and Sayid, who had a bad habit of becoming possessed. Sayid fails his save, the curse triggers, he's villified for all time. Or, it doesn't trigger, and Antioch's the one. This is also attractive to me on the scale that, since the die was never rolled, even *I* don't know the truth.)

"Pope Sterros" and the church he built is a good example of that sort of ambiguity, too. Going back to the first paragraph, Sterros was really uptight and vengeful, but also very lawful and no dummy. He would have also, by that time, probably been a high level religious administrator, either of the church itself or a major wing of it (how could he not?). Seems to me he'd see salvation through centralization, and the most obvious thing to centralize would be divine magical power. It was where his own specialties and those of his key followers were, and it would be absolutely essential to surviving and rebuilding in the dark days ahead.

Now Sayid clearly is going to write his memoirs, how could he not, especially after the first two became so widely read. (how could they not be?) Now, it's also pretty obvious why the Petrans would sort of organically meld Sayid's narrative into their own folk beliefs. His vague theology obviously developed from within the larger Petran belief system, so it would have been compatible on a very fundamental level. I don't imagine he wrote his tale with a political motive in mind - his position of power was by far the most secure, and of all the human kingdoms, his was by far the most stable post-Alexandria. Now, a great majority of the population of the world had set foot on another plane, personally witnessed feats of godly might, and some even came back to tell the tale to the rest. . . well, divine magic became much more palitble when it could be ascribed somehow to the singular godhead. His testimonial, intentional or otherwise, would be the obvious bridge to connect that. Then the Petrans address their one major cultural flaw, so coupled with their natural technological advantages and post-reboot stability, they get to have a long period of prosperity.

So, does Steros tell his tale with that development process in mind? He wrote his, like, 12 years after Sayids? 20 years after Kivan and Dadtim Jr's. He would have clearly seen the effect of those tales, especially when it came to welding together all the old sources of divine magical and political power. Knowing both Bob and the way he played his character, I can't imagine he'd have missed such a clear opportunity. But, to what degree? Did he realize it early on and spend over a decade crafting them for maximum effect, or were they more honest and personal documents, written as the power of the texts become apparent to him later on?

It is in fact what I know of Sterros and Sayid that informs how I imagined how the Orphans, who were much more nebulous personality wise, developed. Mostly, I just made them more extreme versions of their mentor's personalities. Mikos had more of Sayid's charm, recklessness and hucksterism than he did Sayid's brains. Mythrian, on the other hand, was played by you, who I've never known to run zealous PCs. I figure he was a paladin of "Justice" more than he was of "Vengence" (which was how Sterros was, or at least started out. I imagine he softed the most over time, as one can't operate an army or government on vengence), and, while he was something of a mounted warrior-baddass in his young days, if you consider the entrity of his life before he became the Big Boss, he'd spent far more time administrating than warring. To say nothing of the fact he had his dragon mount killed... people are always mega attached to their dragons. So, yeah, Mythrian becomes the evolution of Sterros, an almost Octavian/Augustus-level political strategist and long term plotter, but a someone lacking in personality and empathy on a personal scale.

Heh. That's a good point as to the Gnostic view of Judas, which of course I'm familiar with. I'm sticking with my dice roll theory, though. :) She might have also asked Dadtim Jr. to do it, since he was essentially the only *friend* she ever had. (She had lots of mentors, teachers, and followers, however.)

Good point about the dragon, I'd forgotten about his initial ambivlence about the egg. Paladins have Detect Evil inherrently, though, so I'm pretty sure when they thing had a demonstrably good aura about it, it wouldn't have taken him long to take to his new mount. I believe he was even the reincarnation of an older dragon of an ancient paladin. Heck, he might even have seen the practicality or even symbolism in fighting the Great Wyrm with a Goodly Wyrm of his own. As you said, he was no doubt changed a great deal by his experiences with the dragon, though I see him as coming to become more "Just" rather than more "Forgiving." (Sterros was full bore witch hunter, at least to start. I imagine he cooled some, but I think of Mythrian as aloof and even handed like Augustus rather than compassionately wise like Solomon.) I also think Sterros probably changed the most out of all the characters, as he was forced to compromise the most politically and ideologically as he worked with a lot of other people to build the Church. Besides, I saw him as more retributive, as in seeing the wicked punished, rather than simply vindictive.

Taking what you said as far as personal growth and attachment to the dragon, I think her death was probably a big blow to him - especially if he thought it was his fault. The only person he was ever close to that he didn't lose was Sterros, and I think Sterros was about as distant a father figure as one could have.

In any case, I think it's fair to say he ended up as pretty aloof and distant. Never had a family, except Sterros, who basically turned him into a solder from day one at age 15 or so. He'd have been, what, about 25 after the battle, having spent that ten years prosecuting a war and being a leader of men. Alexander the Great, after all, had tutors and generals, but not really friends. Then he spent like 10 or so years helping Sterros build the structure of an organization, and then spent 30 years perfecting it. He spent almost his entire life dealing with people in terms of abstractions - either the manichian ones Sterros poured into him or civic and instutitional ones as he spent 40 years building and running a church.

Also: You'll notice that the fifth arch warden is a *half-elf* "Hadrian Teldandilion." While it doesn't say in the Wiki anywhere, I sort of intended that to be the child of Mythrian and Marrwyn, who was also kind of aloof and ambivilent about people. I think, if you look at the timeline and the list of Arch-Wardens, most of the formative events of the church, like succession and organization, was done by Mythrian, but was still very decentralized even at his death. It took almost 200 years, for example, for the various tales, testimonials, apoligia, epistily, and so forth to be wheedled into a textual canon. In fact, I always assumed he never really got along with Alexandria, although if that was because of jealousy or guilt or simple difference of personalities, I dunno.

Oh, I knew about the spawn. I didn't figure he'd be interesting in adding anything or working on it, just thought he'd find it sort of amusing.

golf clap. Better than they deserve. Looks good. If you're keeping up with these emails, add another 150 xp to the tally. I'm enjoying this way too much, as walls of text indicate. I'm pretty sure at least ONE player will read this stuff. :)

As to the artifacts: Powerful and prominent, yes.... but most of all, Intelligent. One must assume, if not destroyed outright, they are where they want to be. The family blade most likely ended up with Mikos, as the cursed artifacts might have, who would have taken whatever he had off into the Ulan in exile. Considering he got the Moon Children to follow him, good bet he had the bracers at least. He would be the perfect personalty target for those types of cursed magic items. From there, who knows.

Its funny you bring that up. I was thinking about the relic/artifact level stuff everyone would have acquired and where it would be now, just because I have a fetish for generating magic items, I guess. I figure the Mythrian's Holy Avenger was lost in one of the Interregnums. Kivan had a wicked pair of short swords as I remember : Something like Flaming Burst/Icy Burst (with associated 5/resist). He went off on his own once the threat was past, in traditional Half Elven Ranger style. His only true loyalty was ever to Alexandria. Anything could have happened to those since he was never reliably heard from again.

PS: The bit about the Petaran warrior is fortuitous. Read Quin's PC wiki again. Way to play to the crowd.

Artifacts

We can explore magic items, or some key relics, sure. Certainly even the religions of our world have powerful relics associated with them, such as the Spear of Longinus legend or the Arc of the Covenant or Holy Grail. The intelligent items are no doubt, as I hinted, off and about doing their own things, but I haven't given them too much thought as to impacting our present campaign. I don't think that it's unreasonable that many, of not most, would have been lost in one way or the other between civil wars, soverign wars, and interregnum war periods. After all, if you're leading an army, are you REALLY going to keep that +5 Holy Longsword of Smiting or whatever just up on the mantle? Nah, I think not. I think combat oriented relics, arms and armor, have a high probability of being destroyed, lost, or in secret hands. (If you recovered the Arch Warden's theoretical Sword of Smiting, mentioned above, would you advertise that fact?)

I absolutely agree, though, that some signature items deserve some sort of addressing in the wiki. Though, it's also important to keep in mind, that not only has 1,400 years of history past since then, there was easily 2,400 years of recoreded history before that. The Alexandrian Narrative is the dominate folk tale, sure, but there are lots and lots of things that have happened before and after that generated equally powerful items, many of which might also be worth exploring. One of which, in fact, might make an appearance soon. Anyway, even though all history leads through Alexandria, she is far from making up the entire of the history. The background should be as rich as possible through the wiki, but I'd expect the crossover between the Knoxville campaign and this one to be quite minimal, and likewise the Old Memphis Campaign. OTOH: Having Many Many magic items from ancient wars scattered about with semi-historical paper trails also leads to the possiblity of actively relic hunting, The Great Hunt style. I certainly like imaging the long term concequences of all this stuff, it is sort of the whole basis of the campaign, ya? :) I like the idea of an abjuration heavy Petra - doubly since the empire has always been a sort of oddball, minority appendage to the mainland. Besides, as the only gunpowder using civ in the world, why concentrate on offensive magic? Fireball is not the friend of a gunpowder army. I figure the Zupanists are more of elementalists, as the decendents of shamanistic forest gatherers and desert nomads.

Though, I guess, to be fair, the responsbility for all of that falls to me. I dunno if you realize this, but the Alexandria campaign was actually built on top of a campaign I used to run up in Vermont, so we're talking a setting that has been in use and thought, if not outright development, since I was like 19 or 20. Heh. Jesus, that sounds horrible, actually.

So, some noteworthy weapons and items. . . Hmm. Lets see what we can remember and invent. Feel free to correct or embellish

• Bracers of the Moon King: Want to say they were, like, Bracers of Armor +6 Teleport w/o Error x3/day
• Crescent Maimun: I think you were right, a +2 or +3 Keen Scimitar
• Black Scythe: As you described.
• Flame and Frost: Kivan's matched pair of short swords. Flaming Burst/Icy Burst respectively, each granting 10/resist to energy type. +1, probably
• Hammer of The Eight: (Planned for Mythrian) Holy Avenger Longsword
• Marrwyn's Blade: Candace used a Greatsword. I don't remember it being anything great. One can assume she upgraded to something Mage friendly. I'm thinking +1 Spell Storing Greatsword of Dancing

Oh, here is a big one:

• Thorn of Midnight : Forged by Antioch, with the assistance of The Stand (That weren't off adventuring in Petra). A magical longsword crafted specifically to fight the Dark Lord. Created while Antioch was under the impression HE was savior of prophecy. It was toward this goal the mainland party was operating toward, I think, when the campaign ended. Though it started out as a bastard sword, Alexandria reforged it into its final state after assuming the Omnity. One can

assume it was substantially upgraded in the process. Since it was lost in the Martyrdom, I dunno that its worth mentioning, except that it would probably play a huge symbolic and imagistic role in Alexandrian culture.

• +5 Axiomatic Star-Iron Katana of Greater Outsider Bane Intellegent, with abilities of a level 14 sorcerer.
  • Note it is not a holy weapon. Alexandria, in Deities and Demigods terms, would be a LN deity, not a LG one. The Dark Lord would have been a CE one, despite the word "lord" indicating a more lawful bent. Dark Marrauder might actually be a better name. Blame sterro's and Mythrian's own lawful worldview for that quirk of language.
  • It's probably worth nothing that the Ego on an intellgent weapon of this magnitiude means it's probably best it was destroyed. I doubt any mortal could pick it up without instantly becoming dominated.

Orphans of Tragedy

Yeah, good job all around. I like having a lot of stuff left as unknowns. I'm impressed, with Steros as well. I'll put some WoT up on the blank sections later. Maybe try to have it filled out by the end of break, if I decide to drink a lot of coffee and not get school work done. Good chance of that much, at least, wiki or no wiki. I'm looking forward to diving into Mikos and Mythrian, who are sort of my favorite characters out of the mythology. Probably because, influence and creation wise, they're a 90/10 split in my direction instead of yours and bobs. (Oh, and C's, as well. Didn't she have a half elven kid she trained as a bodyguard or something? Maybe twins?) More Mythrian, actually, since I find his ultimate tragedy the most compelling. Namely, he never liked Alexandria growing up. She was sort of an outsider and aloof and quiet, and the just never kenned. It makes sense that he'd never really grew to like her. He was two years older, and male, and sort of the all-around athletic, personable, and martial one but ended up having her call the shots. She gets just sort of touch of fated into this huge destiny, and wanders off to mysterious places while Mythrian and Steros spend 10 years doing the grunt work of winning a religious civil war and forging a nation out of city states. To say nothing that, after ten years of working closely with Steros, the old man jumps right back behind Alexandria once she comes back. She gets to be queen of everything and, compared to becoming a literal godhead, his own destiny comes along (recovering the Hammer of the Eight and his dragon mount) as a small thing - a footnote in someone else's grand adventure. Not to mention that, while Steros and Mythrian were both Lawful Good, Alexandria was not - she was Lawful Neutral. I imagine Steros always erred on the side of lawful (in that he enjoyed enforcing laws) while Mythrian trended toward the good. I can imagine him as being uncomfortable being called on to build a religion around someone who he was always somewhat skeptical of morally. (And never being able to show that feeling, for fear of damaging legitimacy)

Not to say that he always felt that way at the time, necessarily, or felt it in a bitter way, but thinking again about the longest time of their lives being the poltiical and administraive part: all of these complicated feelings, then he gets to watch his adopted dad build a literal religion around this girl, then has to continue it himself!

Ha, that's true. I remember them being sort of warderish rip off bodyguard types, I like the idea that she really didn't have an attachment to them other than material. It'll be interesting to explore that characters personality, since I don't remember there being a strong one at the time. I like the snobby idea, actually, although I'd think of it more as a critical lack of empathy. I mean, just comparing lifespans, an elf's relationship with a human would be like a humans relationship to a dog or cat. It is literally incapable of thinking on the same frame of reference as you. It's also interesting to me in that all of the orphans grew up knowing each other, so from a point of view of these "lesser" characters, how do they feel about being press ganged into being a lifetime bodyguard for someone they are maybe ambivilant about? I'm thinking that, regardless of their feelings, both of them probably ended up going overseas with Alexandria on the pilgrimage. (If they were both there? I think that Marwynn came back by then.)

Dadtim. Ha. As I remember, Curtis' dwarf wasn't brought in with a prophecy hook. He came a session late or something, so his hook was independent but related: his nephew, who he was a frequent correspondent with after the death of the young lad's father, went missing. Dadtim showed up to investigate. I know curtis quit because he didn't like the setting (he was all about 7th sea which had direct historical connections he could make), but I imagine Dadtim just being sort of increasingly exasperated with all the religious nuttery and hairbrained adventures his nephew insists in taking part in, despite all good sense. I tihnk he probably just eventually decided the kid was old enough to make his own choices, and was clearly capable of taking care of himself, and just went home. So, yeah, kind of a prick, but also in the way that he's sort of an interested bystander who gets swept up in someone else's prophecy epic. He's not terribly vested in the whole campaign.

Also: finished Steros and Antioch. It's long and ugly, enjoy and feel free to polish.

Yeah, that is a pretty interesting take. Considering her returm to basically rule over the beginning of long elven withdrawl and decline makes an interesting contrast and even possible tragedy. (Is she ruling out of a sense of responsibility or retreating because ennui caught up with her after a life of grief and loss and violence?) Elven involvement would be a lot more difficult to have come by without her, that's for sure. I've tried to occasionally drop secondary characters in wiki entries and throwing brackets around them, to try and build up a stable of secondary people that can be flushed out or expanded on later as needed. Feel free to do the same, especially since there are plenty of orphans to have killed off or switch sides as a matter of pathos and conflict. Having them get killed off is a not bad outcome, especially considering they all go through a 10 year civil war. It's morally interesting to me, as well: you rescue these kids, then agree to raise them after their lives are wiped out, and you do some - only to raise them to be something that will almost certainly get them killed. How did everyone feel about that, or how did it make those kids feel as their childhood friends started getting wiped out because of this whole religious crusade thing. thoughts to ponder.

More on the First Stand

Eh, you might be right about distant, dispassionate authority figures, especially in regards to Antioch (old world). I don't really view the stable as being all of them distant and dispassionate. I've tried to mostly make them have some sort of growth and develoment, but sort of operated under the theory that all of these people who spent their lives dedicated to Some Greater Cause did so at the expense of "normal" socialization and interaction. Compassionate? Hmm. . . Well, let's see

Antioch: Started out, actually, as a rogue who UMDed his way after a lifetime of study into unlocking an Oblisk, which then bestowed on him huge arcane power, but only within a certain distance from the tower. That was, in fact, why he made his sword have a Sorcerer personality: so he could cast spells "on the road". His primary motivation was always intellectual - to study his nature and abilities, as well as the prophecies. In that sense, he would have given two shits about the actual administration of state, as state only existed as an entity to further his research. It makes sense he'd be a disengaged ruler, leaving things to ministers and burrowcrats. If we're going to try to classify people by theme, his biggest, I think, is a sort of humanist arrogance.

Mythrian: Is hardly distant, but I think his theme is that of responsibility. He toils to build a church dedicated to someone he never really personally got along with, yet for whom he continually sacrificed a great deal (including the last good dragon), both in combat and in peace, for his whole life, because it was the legacy of his adopted father and because he's essentially a good person who realizes it's the best way to promote common welfare and rebuild. He's set up the rules for arch-wardens and established a lot of the *long term* structures of the church. There's a good chance he was involved in an affair with Marwynn, which also doesn't strike me as dispassionate?

Steros: I think is a little more chase and aloof, but he's a much more intense guy all around. I see him as being sort of an Architect: He started out dealing in small time vengence, but grew to realize threats to civil society were far greater than exacting retribution for petty crimes, and ultimately the power of organizations best promoted law, order, and stability. He's always been about "justice", in one form or another, developing from the local to the global level. He's a powerful, forceful, ambitious figure from an early age, and his actual accomplishments outrun even his ambition early on. (It's one thing to want to be President, it's another to grow up to be literally God's Right Hand.) IF you think about it, he's the story of the Establishment Man. He grows up in the church, gets in good with the Powers the Be, learns adminstration from the ground level, and is assigned ever growing areas of responsibility until finally he's on the right side of a World War and, essentially, in Churchill's seat drawing up the new order. Except there's no Stalin, even.

The elves are dying off. They cannot help but be aloof, it is a lesson hard learned for them, and the only way to grow - intermarrying with humans - would destroy them in a more profound way, not to mention the demographics of that relationship have never been peaceful.

Well, I guess... where is the ambivilence in those you mentioned, and better yet - what form would a contrasting character to that take? There are still significant names left to be imprinted with personality. Kivan, for example, is probably sort of misanthropic outright, but I think for sure Dadtim Jr. is a very, for lack of a better word, "human" character. I think his feelings for her were the truest, all things considered, as he was really her only friend before Tragidore, and never abandoned her, right down to the explosion.

Tarot Shit--Random Important Events and People

Yeah, add whatever flavor you want. A tarrot would be an interesting idea. Unsolicited input: If you plan on having suits, I'd consider that the church organzation has a martial origin and ultimately a martial organization and also that suit symbology should be something that is easy to write: one or two strokes maximum. One question to consider is who developed the tarot arcana, and when? If it came from a church background, then it would make sense than more arcane symbols (wands) might be replaced with something else (horses, say). If it came from an arcane tradition, well, I guess the suit would have different symbols.

Also: Would the images come just from the Alexandria story? From the beginning through the alexandria story? Or even up to the recent past? The answer will determine what images are available. Anyway, don't forget that the Quicksilver Dragon was a female. One of the two bodyguard twins was a girl. If you go back into pre-Alexandrian times, there will be more wimmins, and we can always make more as prominent anniciliary characters, especially in the murkier Prophet's War years.

You've also got a chubby for Gnosticism. In fact, it's wrong to call it a heresy, because heresy implies it grew out of a heterodoxy, when in fact gnosticism existed in a tme when there was no strict orthodoxy, and so was really just one rival claimant, essentially, for the title. You should read some of Ehrman's books on the topic: I recommend Lost Christianities. But, as far as applying the ideals of gnositicism to develop some heretical traditions, go ahead. There's already one out there - the Kelvinite Heresy - that lasted for about 5 years and got pretty big. It lines up pretty closely in the "secret knowledge" aspect, in that it began because Redzand the Clean (Mattie) met up with a time traveleing Bartley (Kivan) around the 10th century after Alexandria and Kivan pointed out all the inaccuracies (as he saw them) in the offical history. Redzand was also crazy about clean, and so there's plenty of room for weirdo rituals. Feel free to invent your own, as well, however, there's plenty of years to fill.

Also, if you want to think about it in historical terms, "control of divine spellcasting ability" would be the good kept scarce by the church in the same way "access to chuch canon" was used in the middle ages. The funny thing is that divine power doesn't just pop into people because they believe, but it is bestowed on a priest of paladin (meta?)physically. Likewise, it doesnt' fall off just because you do something "out of alignment", it has to be (meta)physically stripped, so once a heresy generates a critical mass of believers, it can start creating its own priests. A city made up of 25% lvl 1 shaman would be difficult to take in a siege. But, even if heretic leaders are taken out quickly, many low level priests could still operate, long after the main contingent of a heresy is wiped out.

Ah, yes. If you want me to do some more thinking about Riqtello, but I'm pretty sure she was assassinated by a disgruntled gnomes. (Political assassination is a gnomish trademark) Possibily for doctrinal reasons, possibly (at least in part) at fears that the chruch would become a dynastic rather than dynamic organization. Just as likely, or moreso, there was some sociopolitical dispute the church got on the wrong side of. Steros is looking good, which i think will be good for the party as well. The entries on the church and alexandria are stubs in the extreme, so when the Steros article is done, it will allow - for one example - the party's cleric to have some basic understanding what her church is about.

Also, you might want to also consider having aspects of pre-alexandrian mythology and important pre-alexandrian figures show up on the pip cards. The One of Swords, for example, could be Tedril Eladrith (the first murderer) or Eladrith's Blade if you wanted them to all be items and not people. Hadrian Ubrekt, the builder of the first empire, might be another option, or someone like Grannet Adlethor (founder of the Travelers) if you are doing early church history, too. If so, events like Exile of the Sidhe might have a place in there,

As for your face cards, I don't think Kivan would make a bad Jack of Hearts. He hasn't been mentioned much, but he was with Alexandria right up to the end. Teldar Stoneweld was the third arch-warden, before even Marwynn, which means he was a critical part of at least the crusades and was a church father, for your Jack of Obelisks.

re: Elves: In Marywnn's day, the elves were an active and involved people. They'd developed into the preeminent naval power on the mainland by Alexandria's day, and were in a solid, centuries long defensive alliance with Odessa. It was only after the Crusade that the elves started to withdraw, over the course of a couple of centuries, because they'd lost like 80+% of their (already small) population. That's not even enough people to maintain pre-Alexandrian elven civilization. Not to mention, considering how slowly elves must reproduce - especially compared to humans - engagement is a loser's game.

It's alright, though I hate having encylopedic detail on everything. I honestly always assumed long term motivations to be beyond the scope of a chaotic evil will. Of course, the inclusion of Shahugan kind of makes me care less about all that. After thinking about it, I realized the beauty of history is we can both be right. Changed and colored accordingly. Overall, though, I think that "less is more" really goes a long way, especially in something that was 1,400 years ago. Muddy the waters: obfuscate as you inform. I know you're a lovecraft and tolkien fan, but I'm ok with it having gone of out contact once the Shahugan got it - and possibly even caused them to be less of a presence due to internicene conflcit. (which is also a net good, since I'm overall anti-water races is a concept). Besides, if the item is intellegent (though I always presumed the bracers to be sort of the brains of the BlackSuit operation), the last thing it would want is to be constant tracked and traced. (Unlike, say, the Bracers, which are actively more, not less, poweful when exposed, at least to the right sort) So, I think you're right about it being a shadow force in operation somewhere, either as an intellegent actor or a joker-like force of general destruction, but I don't think a 1,400 year bullet point history of the thing is terribly fruitful. What is best is that that is left to the imagination, ya?

I like the general idea about Hadrian and his assassination though. Importantly since he was their SON, he was really the first or one of the first leaders who didn't actively engage in the battle. In fact, most or all such vets might actually be dead. Sort of the first generation of running things on what you were taught instead of what you experienced: not building a church, but inheriting an institution. As long as there's a church father or mother around, there's someone to look to for a solid answer. After that, it's all a little muddier. Reasonable some sort of heresy might spring out of that as the faith goes from dication to intepretation. You see the same thing in Islam even quicker, like 5 leaders and one generation in, which is actually a better example in this case as Islam, like Alexandrianism, is a top down constructed religion from the outset.

I'l leave most of the cards to you. I don't see why it needs to be done on the urgent priority list, and might actively improve on the backburner, as an expanding mythology will provide more options for cards.

Demi-Pantheon

After the war between the Eight and the Dark Lord, the eight sacrificed themselves to imprison the dark lord, vesting a portion of their divinity into their generals and high level followers so that humanity could have divine spellcasting (and also to act as divine mana batteries for the coming Omnity, but the demi-pantheon did not realize that part). So, for a time the demi-pantheon rule as actual people on earth, which turns out to be a complete disaster, as you could imagine. (Take the kings AND sages of the earth, give them divine powers and immortality, and imagine what kind of havoc goes down). To say nothing of the fucking, greek mythology style, with predictable results insofar as having half-divine bastard children running amok. Finally, when a couple of dwarves actually ASSASSINATED one of the Demi-Pantheon and grabbed his powers, they realized being directly involved in the world was a huge hassle. A large majority decided to vacate the realm of earth and go occupy the now vacant heavens. (Forcing the minority to go along with them. Including the two usurpers) As a note, the heavens were a bit of a fixer-upper, as it was heavily damaged in the war. In fact, most contemporary paintings of Alexandria place her among sort of gigantic ruins rather than an oppulent city, usually in dwarven or ancient Ubrekti style.

From that point on, the gods made it impossible for them to interact with the material world except through the their child prophets. This, obviously, helped Alexandria enormously since they could only sit by and watch as she took their powers and caused their ends. So, a major enough event I think, and with enough possible imagery and symbology that you can apply some meanings to it in that context.

Stone-Warden and Interregnums

In order to address concerns that the leadership of the church might become unhealthily dynastic (though dynastic itself was not seen as a problem), Mythrian created the Stone Warden, a magical statue that took the form of whoever the previous Arch-Warden was. It is loaded with divination/obscurement magic. The Arch-Warden tells the statue in confidence who the successor to the church will be. When he dies, the Warden reveals the successor. All of the Church Wardens (who are in one way or another hand picked by an Arch-Warden) may tell the statue Yay or Nay. If too large a percentage nays, the Statue asks for a roll call opinion, taking the person with plurality. It also means that the "heir apparent" can be left secret and changed at any time.

This worked well enough until a quirk of fate. The Arch-Warden's choice died several days earlier during the same event as the Arch-Warden. Since the trigger for the roll call vote happened after the reveal of the heir, which was an null string. It took a LOT of magical research and hacking to work that bug out. Paggnellot Hargadramd, the gnome woman in charge of the project was eventually elected by a strong plurality after it was fixed.

The first time the Nay vote actually went off triggered the second interregnum, which was a much longer and bloody affair. Thardar Speaker died and his choice was revealed to be Handen Hand, a not particularly beloved Halfling. Chicanary was suspected, or at least accused, and the vote went off. The pluralities were all so marginal the Stone Warden would not accept them, and soon the divisions became violent. An eleven year civil war ensued, beginning as thirteen factions that eventually whittled itself down to three: those that supported Hand (Hakan and the Gnomes and Gildenhome), those that supported Marrwyn Sablehand (a half-elf supported by Odessa and Alexia), and those that supported Landrik Thale (A human supported by Flannary and Celestia. Fresia during this time was plagued with internal war, as each prince favored different factions.). Since the Stone Warden required the living wardens all to be present for the vote, they had to be subdued or killed. Finally, the Cadrick faction allied with the Sablehand faction to beat out the Hands. Sablehand was annoitned, which ended the interregnum but not quite the war. The Thale faction was heavily favored in the new appointments (since many wardenships had been vacated by death), though when she finally bore a son later in life she granted him the arch-wardenship.

(which he only held for a couple of weeks, due to a plot by the grandson of Handen, Ratnot Hand that led to another church crisis, but that's a different story. Marwynn herself was Arch-Warden for over 100 years.)

Since the Second Interregnum, also, the statue no longer morphs to represent whoever last held the post. Instead, it seems to be an amalgamation of all the people that have ever held the post. (When one dies, the statue changes subtily yet perceptiably) This has led to it appearing to be a rather disconcerting figure.

Little Bit of Political History

I think it works best if Flannary took the territories that are now Fresia and Hakan with it, then Fresia broke from Flannary, it would also further cement the emnity between the two, which is supposed to be the most venomous on the mainland. I would say that Hakan remained a Ubrekti holding until the end, however, which would explain why Hakan was also it's own human kingdom, and why that nationality was descended from Ubrekti. (based on the langauge tree) I expect the initial break was something along the lines of the East/West split in the Roman Empire - initially for management purposes that quickly grew to conflict. (After all, flannari is a branch of ubrekti - so the split was between close, not diverse, groups. It also explains why the Flannari got so much land, as well as why they consider themselves an ancient culture (like the Greek/Byzantine/Classical connection)

1. Ubrekti Empire unifies all of the mainland except for Gildenhome, Petara, and the Elven Lands (Alexia).
2. Is divided into two administrative halves.
3. Civil War! Ubrekti Empire, Flanari Empire. (Hakan is kept by Ubrekti as colony to trade with dwarves.
4. Fresian states break from Flannary.
5. Odessa Break from Ubrekti
6. Ubrekt finally lose hold of Hakan (the two connected, perhaps, by some ancient and powerful waygate?), the final dynasty colapses, and the government is restructured by the prophetess of the Goddess of Peace, the followers of whom inherrit the remaining territories (what is now Ubrekt)

This was all before reading the thing you wrote, so we can synthethise as needed, though mine is at least BACKED IN RESEARCH!

ALSO: Slavery in the Mainland: Petarans and Dwarves (who force kobold and goblin slaves harvested from the Scar to do their agriculture for them)

Hakan was originally a Gnomish state, conquered by Ubrekt. They paid off the dwarves to assimilate the gnomish refugees, and colononized the shit out of it. (The origins of the Hakni humans) Perhaps Hakan is the only source of some ore, so Ubrekt kept some of it after the split and civil war. The Western Ubrekti probably helped the Fresian uprising, so if anything their control of Hakni territories became firmer after that split, not le so.

Dwarves use kobolds and goblins coerrced by force.

Petarans use a weird sort of religious servitude where they capture people in the Ulan then basically say Convert and you don't have to be a slave! OH, and to prove you mean it, you have to work faitfully for 10 years after declaring your conversion. (Course, then your master has to buy you some expensive crap and set you free.)

Well, good point. I teach the kids that Feudalism is the political system, It deals with the relations of power between the king and the aristocracy. It is highly decentralized : it is based on direct loyalty to whoever pays your tab, rather than to "the crown" or "the nation". Manorialism is the economic system - the production and distribution of good. It deals with the relationship between landed nobility and the peasantry. Though, since land is the real currency of feudalism, the two are highly related.

Fresia is good for a few things besides beer. Fresian craftswork, like shoes and tools and chairs and stuff, is all really top notch because the guild system in Fresia is quite strong, even though the political ties are weak. Also, they have a lot of raw materials from mines in the mountains, as well as timber from their lots and lots of forests. So, yeah, right along the line of what you were thinking. I like the idea of odessan tropical wood bows being the key to their longbow dominance, and if anything I think Fresians are going to be more about axes. (They probably make great Tools That Are Also Weapons - knives, hammers, axes)

Old Ubrekti Empire

The short of the whole Divine Blooded thing:

After the First War (between the Eight Makers and the Dark Lord), several (a few dozen) of the major generals and aides-de-camp of the Eight were elevated to demigodhood to manage divine power. This was the original game world from college that ended up being wrecked as the climax of the Alexandria campaign with a standard decentralized pantheon of multiple gods dedicated to specific spheres of influence.

For a time, they resided on the material plane and managed things directly. They also did normal stuff like sleep around and cause drama, as one can only imagine when a few dozen people are elevated to ultimate power that all know each other but may or may nor get along. Reality TV stuff. So, they eventually withdrew from the world and put back up the barrier established by the Eight. (But, of course, being made by something greater than them, they couldn't pull it back down again, and so could only watch helplessly as Alexandria stole their power and live) So, during that time, there were several half-human/half-divine babies, many of whom ended up founding cities - ancient greek myth style. Lots of them were extingished, but several are still active and demonstrable - the Flannary is one, the Odessan is another. (The Odessan throne ALSO has ties to Elven nobility through the same line - the goddess of Love, who was of Elven derivation as a mortal)

Hadrian was one of those, tied to the god of War. (Go Figure.) He and his descendents forged all of the Human nations (plus Gnomish and Halfling territory) into the Ubrekti Empire. His line was extinguished during the last War of Fracture.

The house of Veromii was probably a cousin line to the Ubrekt - which became a title passed between the titualar family heads of oligarch families descended from Hadrian - more than a family name proper. I'd say that the Ubrekt was a dynastic line for only a few generations before it became more of a military head, while the military proper would be dominated by Hadrian's extended family, including those who were "adopted in" during the early campaigns. Veromii probably was one such adopted line.

Universities

Hahaha, nice! It's funny, forgot Germaine was Fresian. I wonder if on the very borderest areas of the two (which you may or may not be from), if the people aren't sort of ambivilent about both sides, if they're basically getting the honor of hosting a battleground between two perpetually waring states, for their own ostensible benefit.

http://wiki.memphisgamers.com/index.php?title=Marrwyn_Collar

There is actually a list of universities with origin dates :

http://wiki.memphisgamers.com/index.php?title=List_of_Universities

Most are quite old by this time, yes, at least 1000 years. When founded, the earliest at least, all tended to have very focused specialties, that eventually grew into the more full blown campuses that we have in the present. Even the youngest (Dwarven) was founded ~500, which would have been 900 years before present campaign time. The first of the modern string of Universities was Antioch's University of Hakan, which he founded after unlocking the Obelisk, in order to study it's properties and magic in general. (His greatest secret : he was a ROGUE who used UMD to "hack into" an obelisk*, then needed to learn arcane magic PDQ after the fact to maintain his position as "Sorcerer King." He eventually did, of course, become a legitimate Arch-Mage in his own right)

It showed a lot of success over the first half century, and inspired by their example, the High Preistess of Ubrekt established the University of Ubkret, which was initially oriented more historical and sagecraft, particularly into Ubrekti Empire and associated things (The pre-Demipantheon world). Flannary started one about 50 years after that, which from its origins was far more expansive in scope and focus.

The Petrans, perhaps independently, though probably not, set up a school in 75 BI for the purposes of warcraft (naval and land based), and 50 years later, followed up by establishing one dedicated to Art (Arcane and Mundane) and Philosophy (which would later grow into a school of divinitry, as well, once Divine magic was practiced there).

So, I guess universities can be divided into "Pre-Alexandrian" (Those listed above - the oldest, most storied, and most prestigious. Except for Petra, maybe, because they're all morons and we all hate them.) and "Alexandrian", which were formed as part of the religious unification plan drawn up by the Second Stand - so all the Alexandrian school started out at first as religious schools that later developed into other areas, whereas the PA one started out with some other focus and later had a religious aspect grafted onto it. (In the Case of the University of Hakan, the "graft" did not take well at all. They are a pretty secular society.)

• This is why his own powers with the Obelisk were so miniscule compared to

Marrwyn, who opened hers the "correct" way (by being the correct race and class, plus knowhow). Antioch could level armies 50 miles from an obelisk, Marwynn could wipe out regions 200 miles away.