Talk:Wessia

Editorial Talk

I like it a lot! I only skimmed it while i was in New Orleans, I think I've sorted the election detail out in a way that still works for you? -gm

Yeah that works well and prevents rework, Thanks -E

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Are you going to run a campaign? I am only asking, because if you like the setting enough to set a campaign in it i'd be filled with delight, but the current 1401 setting is full of moving parts operating in very close proximity to each other, and the balance becomes more precarious as time goes on. If you decide to go with the Mattie Method, of staking out a claim somewhere backstream, we can put some date markers on the new content and feed some Wessian history into the master Timeline of Major Events. -gm

Thinking about a campaign, will depend on how some personal things play out, but i had some ideas so why not flesh them out like this? Even 10 years ago is fine - modern post-Alexandrian era, but out of the way. -E

Hm! I'm shocked - in a good way - that you'd chose this setting rather than some other one like Athas or Faerun. It's still basically a ghost town content wise, although I think I've stated why that's partially a design decision. That's great news! The most recent Arch-Wardency (1268-1398) is a huge period of calm and stability if that's what you're looking for. The early 11th century was the most recent crisis in the timeline, the heresy of Redzan the Clean. From like 1050 until 1270 is basically uncharted so open season.

Feel free to email me for any spoilers. As Mattie knows, I'm happy to open up the secret files to anyone trying to design material or run campaigns in the setting. It's not like there is a finite amount of mysteries to use up, and it helps prevent major cosmological inconsistencies from cropping up.The great news is the Silverwalkers are unlikely to be returning to the mainland for a good while yet, so any real spoiler talk shouldn't impact your enjoyment. -gm

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Also, how attached are you to the people's names? -gm

Not the slightest - E

It's actually not something I get really worked up over, but I try to use the historical pastiche to inform naming decisions of people. Sometimes. Sometimes, I just don't bother. Anyway, most of them, if not all of them, are pretty obvious. Most of them also have fake historical pastiche progenitors if you care that much about fake history.

Ubrekt = Faux-Roman / Faux-Italian

Celestia = Interior: Scottish, Irish, Welsh, and other Celtic. (Informed by geography: Highlanders, Lowlanders, Lakelanders, etc.) The original settlers of southern Celestia came largely from Petera, so there is also a lot of Petaran infleunce along the costal regions. The people of Northern Celestia are in many cases the descendants of the Pon (Fake Carthage)

Odessa = Fake England, Briton, Denmark, Holland, and other Fantasy White North European That Isn't German.

Fresia = Fantasy White European That Is German. Fake HRE.

Alexia = Fake Greek with a hell of a lot of Ubrekt. Formerly a mix of Merchant Republic and old school Theocratic or Militaristic city states. Operated as a sort of tight confederacy during Post-Alexandrian time and in the current era (late 1300s/early 1400s) the area operates as a warzone and ecological catastrophe.

Flannery = Fake France, Fake Brittany, fake Aquitaine and Aragon.

Human Hakani = Fake Eastern European and Slavic.

Peteran Empire = Lowland side of the mountains, fake Persian, Highland of the mountains fake Europe-Facing Turkish and Arabic.

Bedowyld Steppe = Fake Central-Asian Turkish and Timurid. Not Mongols.

The Ulan = Fantasy Barbarian Land.

Demihumans = I just assume that any demihuman name is like the English name that cosmopolitan chinese and others adopt to deal with english speakers as a matter of convenience.

Hakani Gnome: In my own play, I always give my hakani gnomes simple nouns or single syllables as names operating under the assumption that most gnomes that interact with humans think that humans are morons. That is by no means an accepted standard. The Wild Gnomes are just whatever, man.

Gildenhome: Dwarf Name is a pretty clear tradition. Though, in my own play, I tend to favor names from or close to those found in Dwarf Fortress on account of how much of DF dorf-lore is borrowed for my games, most obviously the dwarven habit of keeping weirdo pets and also having a "anything without a name is fair game" take on morality. Kitten leather gloves, pet bison, and forcing their will on kobolds and goblins being the most obvious.

http://www.rdinn.com/generators/1/dwarven_name_generator.php

Halflings: Who cares, really?

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Also, also, what is your conception of how big the senate is? I was thinking something more on the Roman model - an exclusive club of like hundreds of folks, not a few dozen like the US Senate. How attached are you to the very small number of senators? -gm

I want the Senate seats to mean something and be few enough that I can create rich intrigue around positioning for them. Campaign works a lot better with fewer unless we can have some uber-position above Senator (could be local to Wessia). - E

Hm. Alright, we'll zero in on a number.

Random Thoughts on Wessia's Economic and Historical Connections to the Wider World

Several of those impossible looking rivers are in fact canals created using mega-magic during the Empire period, mostly for agricultural distribution more than luxury commerce. Sherdam, for example, is connected to Boggril via the Grand Canal that cuts through the Crestfall Forest. Ubrekti cities have always been bigger than they really should be, and agricultural production is only enough to keep pace with that through pretty heavy maximization. The Seat of the Ubrekti is gigantic and a huge sucking maw drawing all of the food and good of the realm southward. The wealth of a great number of Ubrekti Great Families comes from their ownership of this land and their monopoly on prized agricultural production. Another set of (Lesser) Great Families derive income and status through nominal titles and great mercantile principates. The final (Least) Great Houses derive status and income from nominal titles and control of aristocratic guilds that ruthlessly control trade. The Hakani generally comprise a massive underclass whose power stems from control of the church, largely due to their king's unique ability to practice Lay Investiture, by tradition granted by Alexandria Omnity herself when she re-established the Hakani royal line and forcibly relocated the Hakani human people in order to return that land to the Gnomes, from whom it was seized by the Ubrekti empire in antiquity. Since Ubrekti in Alexandria's day was ground zero for the churches of the Demi-Pantheon, the priests, aristocracy, and secretive necromancer cults and secret societies were on the wrong side of the Prophet's War they were forced to accept and provide for these new citizens. That relationship holds up and breaks down with some regularity. That means the church is generally controlled by the Hakani human side of the equation. The Hakani, and their Sorcerer-King Antioch, were among the first to declare for Alexandria during the Prophet's War. Some mildly heretical debate surrounds the equity of that particular trade, but it is what it is. Ubrekt used to be a theocracy: when all the gods powering the theocracy die everybody's apple cart gets upturned. -gm

I expect Wessia is probably the final port of call to the markets across the Stormchalice and abroad for things coming from Wydmoor, Sherdam, Turstram and Middrom. Sherdam is also connected to Boggril and Sedgemire, but the markets to the south are going to be much more lucrative than those with largely self-sufficient and Gildenhome-pivoted Fresia. Probably also main port for whatever is going on in that land on that hilly land on the western shore of the Stormchalice. I'm going to go with herding and maybe mining further up the Kalthresian Range. Middrom probably fishing and lumber, both valuable products in Wessia due to the probably important shipbuilding industries in Wessia and the other Pearls. Turstram is probably all about logging and agriculture, sending logs harvested from the Crestfell forest downstreawm to Middrom to be processes into lumber sent to Wessia for those above industries. Food crops probably go down the same path in great, simple barges whose lumber can be broken down in Wessia to sell for extra profit. -gm

And, also, some of these cities no doubt deal in... freshwater pearls. -gm