Background - The Sea Kings

The Tiphrates River is the large river that flows into the Sea of Strife in the northern part of the eastern shoreline.

In the dawn of time a thriving, agrarian civilization of humans arose along the fertile banks of the Tiphrates River. As their population swelled many extended family groups began to migrate along the river valley. Some followed the Tiphrates upstream and were lost to the people of the valley. Many more went downstream until they arrived on the shores of a large inland sea, the Sea of Strife.

These people began building boats, first for fishing, and then later for exploration and finally to trade along the other shores of the sea. As the first merchant venturers in the region, the wealth they were able to amass  was staggering. With this wealth they began to build war ships to "protect" the trade lanes. This was quickly followed by great forts constructed at important trading locations and the wealth of the great sea captains was poured into rich palaces and cities on every shore of the Sea of Strife. 

The reach and power of the great captains was such that they began to be called the Sea Kings by the other dwellers in the region. The captains themselves are rulers of the polities and are styled as Tyrant of their city. At times the Tyrants will issue some edict or proclamation jointly. When they do so they issue it from The Sea Kings to reinforce their combined power in the region.

30 Day Challenge - Day 6

Favorite Deity?

This is kind of a difficult question for me. I play cleric and druid types with much enjoyment but rarely are my characters terribly concerned about their patron deity. In campaigns I've run over the years I created multiple pantheons and plenty of NPCs who were motivated in one way or another by the deities from those pantheons; but while I have an authors pride in most of them I would hesitate to claim one as a favorite.

I'm going to go back to stories from Bulfinch's Mythology that I read long before I started gaming (before D&D was released, I'm getting up there). The story of Tyr agreeing to put his hand in the mouth of the Fenris Wolf to give surety for the truthfulness of the Aesir, knowing that he would lose the hand as a result, has always resonated with me. 

Tyr, Lawgiver, you are my favorite deity. Lawful Stupid, arguably, but as an exemplar of sacrifice for a greater good that I consider an important component of lawful alignment, I salute you.

Background

I have been working on the background info for the Sea of Strife and it is threatening to take on a life of its own and never be completed. So rather than post one overly long article I'm going to post a series of articles with a brief-ish background of the various regions on and around the Sea of Strife.

30 Day Challenge - Days 4 & 5

One interesting question and one silly one today and I will be caught up with the challenge. On to it.

Favorite Gameworld?

I started playing D&D in the late 70's and the World of Greyhawk dropped a torch on the flask of oil that was my gaming imagination. I still have a huge affection for the Flanaes and I believe it holds up for well.

I also enjoy the flavor of The Old World setting for Warhammer Fantasy and, apparently unlike a lot of the OSR fans, I quite like the magi-tech feel of Eberron.

Your Favorite set of Dice/Individual Die?

On to the silly, my favorite individual die is the one I just rolled a 20 on. The truth is I'm a bit of die whore and will constantly buy new shiny ones and constantly give old favorites away to friends and to my kids. For my birthday, I backed the Kickstarter from these folks and I think the set I chose will be my favorite for a long time to come.

Map, Actually

For the couple of folks following along at home, I still haven't scanned my sub-continent map. I did take a decentish picture of it that I can post as an image.

Thanks for your patience.

30 Day Challenge - Day 2 & 3

Depending on which version of D&D you're playing day 2 and day 3 of the challenge questions may be inseparable.  Since I am worldbuilding for an ACKS campaign which uses racial classes, I am going to answer both of these in one post (that and I'm late getting started).

Favorite playable race?

Over the years I have played more humans than any fantasy race; but I have a soft spot for Dwarves and I reserve my greatest affection for my Dwarven characters.

Favorite playable class?

Far and away my favorite class, in all its quirky glory, is the original AD&D Bard. I love the difficulty of achieving it. I love its tight association with druidic colleges and its use of druid spells. 

30 Day Challenge - Day 1

How you got started?

I purchased the Holmes blue book boxed set with birthday money. My set included the dice and the module B-1 In Search of the Unknown. If various internet sources are to be believed that would make it a 4th or 5th printing version from 1978. Sadly, it disappeared decades ago. I ran that module many times for many different friends through junior high and high school. The last time was my own re-working I called Return to Quasqueton. Using the same maps and location descriptions, I populated the dungeon with a returned Rogahn and Zelligar who came back as a Skeleton Lord and Lich, respectively; and accompanied by suitably higher level retainers and followers.