Category:Talmaron

Talmaron is Ryecatcher15's fantasy campaign setting. He is currently working on a game set in an Age of Exploration[1] brought about by the dissolution of the Great Maelstrom in the East.

The setting is, as is common in fantasy settings, a cosmopolitan earth-like planet with a diversity of life both sentient and non-sentient. Magic is increasingly entering an Age of Enlightenment where it is seen as a scientific pursuit, studied explicitly by alchemists and wizards, but understood intuitively by sorcerers and shamans of all stripes. A large portion of the world population follow a pseudo-monotheistic faith venerating a single great god (Maeleldil), under whom numerous formerly mortal Saints, Angels, and other Outsider servants act as intermediaries (and frequently objects of worship for clerics not devoted directly to the One True God).

The world is one of significant turmoil, with a large number of displaced peoples, religious strife and persecution, national tensions even in the most peaceful areas, and a sort of existential dread that says things buried centuries before may well rise up again one day.

Geography

The Old World is the Western World, comprised of the continent of Maron, divided into East Maron (Ar-Maron), known to many as the civilized world, and West Maron (De-Maron), frequently known as the Western Expanse. Ar-Armon is similar in many respects to real-world medieval or early renaissance Europe, while further West lie strange exotic lands, ruled by powerful emperors and separated by mountains, deserts and narrows isthmuses.

The far eastern world beyond Ar-Maron is a mystery for the most part. Only recently has the Maelstrom that divided it from the western world calmed such that it could be navigated by conventional means. There is known to be a number of islands and at least one continent, currently called Heilosh (after a human word for the sun, and an elven word for land, roughly meaning "elven land where the sun rises."

Nations

Major Nations

Gailifor

A land of quarreling feudal warlords with constantly shifting power bases.

Tantalon

A powerful magocracy with growing discontent among the lower classes.

Kurth

A land of once-powerful explorers and raiders, lulled gradually into peace and complacency by the promises of trade.

Avenia

A once-powerful empire, now reduced to a undesirable trade partner suffering from (and steadily overcoming) deep ongoing sanctions from her neighbors.

Minor Nations

Ostolia

A former superpower with a strong national identity that has been broken up and parceled out to its neighbors.

Povaria

A heavily demihuman populated land at the west of Tantalon, formerly part of Avenia.

Carthar

A nation of financiers and robber-barons.

Uninvolved Nations

These are outside the sphere of influence or otherwise uninterested in colonialism. They may have abiding interests in the actions of the other nations.

Qishan

The mysterious West, consisting of one of the few remaining super-empires; xenophobic, geographically separated from and virtually unknown to the majority of the Eastern world.

Eber

A meritocracy in the southwest that has stagnated due to inheritance from more competent (and driven) parents.

Hilsea

The Holy City of the faith of Maeleldil, perilously close to demihuman infested lands that lie between the Eastern and Western Old World.

Bohdon

A region rather than a single nation, where the many disparate tribes have been hastily labeled "Boh" by the "civilized" northern world.

Elven National Identities

Gerenyle

Elves who stayed behind after their defeat in Gailifor.

Syranyle

Elves who fled East after their defeat in Gailifor.

Darynyle

Eastern Old-World elves that were outside of Gailifor at the time of their defeat.

Kyrienyle

Old elves, now generally accepted as no longer existent in their truest form.

Half-Elven Nations

Greyns

An eastern island nation that was heavily contested before finally becoming the generally liberal and progressive homeland of half-elves.

Dwarven Nations

Rhenthar

Traditional dwarves, holed up eternally in their mountainhomes, coming forth only for exile, adventure or trade (and less and less for these purposes).

Sjobar

Surface dwarves who have made a mercantile life for themselves, having been banished from their homelands.

Khrythar

Surface dwarves who failed to show sufficient solidarity with the Sjobar and instead created communes in mountain faces.

Halfling National Identities

Touri

Gnome National Identities

n/a

Orc Nations

The Sapphire Coast

The Deities of the Talmaron Campaign Setting are divided into pantheons:

The Pantheons

None of the deities listed here are racially exclusive, although many of the primary churches of those gods are steeped in deep-seated racism. The gods themselves seem pleased to grant powers and gifts to any suitably devout servant (or, in the case or oracles, to whomever they see fit to grant power).

The Human Pantheon

There is only one major human deity in the Old World, with tribal deities and ancestor worship being uncommon, but not unheard of, alternatives. The primary human deity has numerous servants, mostly Saints and Archangels, who fill roles outside of those supplied by his purview.

Maeleldil

Saints

Though it is not expected to have a mechanical effect, the holy symbols of saints are typically icons carved as cameos or painted on slates.

St. Erden Dragonblood, patron of dragonslayers

St. James, patron saint of wizards and sorcerers.

St. Michael, patron saint of messengers and travelers.

St. Peter, patron saint of death, judgement and justice

St. Justine, patron saint of deposed nobles, prostitutes, maimed soldiers and those fallen from grace.

St. Frederick, patron saint of mourners, loss and necromancy.

St. Jude, patron saint of desperation and technology.

St. Agab, patron saint of divination and fortune telling.

St. Roger of Hawkins, patron saint of grifters and ad hoc solutions.

St. Tithus, patron saint of war and conquest.

Others too numerous to mention.

The Halfling Pantheon

Halflings worship a single mad moon god who wears many different faces. While they acknowledge- nay, insist -that each of these faces is only one facet of the same mad god, they also argue that each should be treated as though it is a distinct entity with distinct desires and goals.

Chiura

The Elven Pantheon

The elves have a pantheon of gods, each of which represents one of the four classical elements.

Losh

Makila

Gnorri

Shori

The Gnome Pantheon

Gnomes who don't follow a deity from one of the other racial pantheons tend to be animistic nature-worshipers.

The Orc Pantheon

Orcs primarily worship Archdemons, although many of these are restyled as gods in their own right, and their worship may even be sanitized to a less brutal form, especially as orcs become more comfortable in their roles as pirate-kings of the high seas.

Other Races and Cultures

Gnolls

Gnolls, like Touri and humans, worship the sun and the moon. They view the moon goddess as a supremely powerful matriarch queen, and her husband the sun as a lazy but good-natured dabbler, who rests by night so he may join in dreaming. It is said among the gnolls that the moon went on an errand for many years once, and left her husband in charge of the world. He imagined and created all the various races, growing more excited and whimsical with each of his creations. When his wife returned, she laughed at her husband's folly and created the gnolls as her chosen people to harry and feed off the strange creatures her husband had created.

Illithid

Deep within the earth, the scheming aberrant race of squid-faced wizards known as illithids practice a sort of philosophical religion known to them as Illthea, the worship of the divine self. They are able to grant themselves, though devotion, meditation and strange self-determined prayers, divine power. To date, no other race has ever replicated this feat.

Goblins

Goblins (and Bugbears, Hobgoblins and other miscellaneous goblinoids) primarily engage in fetishism, ascribing spiritual purpose, volition and intent to inanimate objects, typically things make of animal parts, bones, hairballs and/or bezoars. This ranges from the simple object fetishism of common goblins to the dolls and rattles used by hobgoblins and bugbears.

Kobolds

Kobolds worship dragons, ascribing power to dragons beyond what even dragons claim. Kobold shamans erect totems in honor of their draconic patrons and, in time past, used to make substantial sacrifices to their dragon masters.

Connections

The Elven Pantheon is sometimes believed to have originated as animistic concepts from within gnome religious practice, which predate all other pantheons (and might, in fact, be the source of all deities). Losh, Makila, Gnorri and Shori have shared suffixes that are common to both Elven and Gnomish languages (the -ri suffix indicating vitality), although the elements of gnomish animism include aether (Orikal), the substance between the stars, and mana (Sirri), the pure essence of magic. "Chei" is a gnomish word similar to the prefix of Chiura's name that means "color of moonlight." Maeleldil doesn't have a direct connection, but in defense of this theory of theistic origins, the worship of Maeleldil (at least as a sun god) predates the concept of historic records.

Most scholars of ancient history agree, at the very least, that Chiura and Maeleldil were once deities from the same pantheon, possibly as the goddess Chia and the god Ma'illumen. The halflings are pleased to concede that this is possible. The humans are horrified by these implications.

Technology

Technology is early medieval. Black powder is in short supply and high demand.

Most transportation is on horseback or via carriages. Airships exist, mostly using magical means to stay aloft and mechanical means to navigate, but are by no means as common as sailing ships for traversing great distances (and air travel tends to attract unwanted attention from territorial flying creatures such as dragons, wyverns and the like).

Medicine is in its infancy, and the efficacy of magic mostly precludes its growth outside of peasant circles, where folk medicine is used by the poor as a substitute.

Monetarily, the concepts of fiat currency and national debt exist as ideas, but are too distrusted to be used outside a few exotic locales in the western world, such as the

Weaponry

Mundane weapon technology initially peaked with the advent of steel, although exotic materials such as mithril, adamantine and yet more exotic materials are imported from the dwarven depths. Weapons are produced both en-masse through primitive industrial processes and as lovingly crafted masterworks. More recently, firearms have come into vogue, and the earliest examples or repeat-firing guns with cartridge ammunition, cannons and even explosives like grenades are starting to make their way onto the battlefield.

Magic

Magical weaponry has advanced to the point where magical equipment is common among adventurers, aristocrats and even sometimes passed on as family heirlooms. Thaumium, a rare silvery material that represents the undiluted essence of magical energy, is used in the enchantment of weapons and other equipment, and is a much-desired resource. Magic as a replacement for technology is certainly feasible, but only in the aristocracy of Tantalon is magic sufficiently common that it is used for such frivolities as food preparation, water purification or transportation.

It is said that in bygone ages, the Tantalian elite used magic as a solution to every petty problem or passing whim, with subjugated elementals in stoves and fountains, enchanted housewares performing chores, beds that were supernaturally comfortable to provide a full night's sleep in a mere two hours, and even, it is whispered, magical pleasures both of mind and body. Why the magocracy of the powerful nation scaled back these efforts may be due to exhaustion of resources, or simply fear of the inequality growing great enough to spur a full-fledged uprising.

Transportation

As previously stated, magical transportation is not typically considered a practical matter. While individual teleportation spells are available as a service in any major city, the chances of a cataclysmic failure for long-distance teleportation is too great a risk for such services to become commonplace. Furthermore, despite the calming of the Maelstrom, even powerful teleportation magic seems incapable of bridging the gap between old and new world.

In the recent years, there have been incredible, albeit impractical, innovations in technology. While equestrian transport is still the most common method of overland travel, in certain regions of Avenia, trains and horseless carriages exist, driven in most cases by magic engines propelled by elemental forces. An engine utilizing steam power has been invented and tested, but not yet used widely in such. Likewise, there is a theoretical framework for both magical and mundane horseless carriages, but any such items existing today would be unique works of magical art or tinkering aptitude.

Airships using both lighter-than-air materials and magical lift systems exist, and while they are commonplace enough that most peasants in the civilized world have HEARD of them, rare is anyone who has actually seen one, and rarer still anyone who has actually come into contact with them. Airships, like horseless carriages, are all unique creations, typically the work of teams of master artisans and wizards.

Politics and Society

Concepts of macro and micro economics, such as central banking, the exchange of stock, double entry accounting, insurance, debt as value and currency by fiat are all emerging, in various forms, usually to disastrous effects. Most commonly, new means of manipulating market forces emerge among the principalities of Gailifor, most commonly in the southeast, where there are less options for profitable trade.

Campaign

In the year 1300 A.D. (anno draconis, the year of the dragon, 1300 years after humans drove the elves and dragons from the lands of Gailifor under the leadership of the legendary hero Erden Dragonblood) the nation of Gailifor remains a superpower, though by no means the universal power it once was, and the powerful neighboring human states of Avenia, Tantalon and Kurth seem to be moving toward inevitable resource wars. The advancement of warfare, trade and the science of spellcraft has made land wars a largely unprofitable and risky venture, and there is fear that the next great war will be world spanning and, very likely to result in the complete eradication of entire nations or races.

The fortune of nations would not, however, be quite so simple, nor dire, as a group of smugglers operating off the coast of the island nation of Greyns discovered, quite accidentally, that the Maelstrom that once blocked Eastward passage has calmed itself, and is no longer the monstrous storm that impeded all possible travel, but rather an ongoing and seemingly perpetual squall, crossing the which might prove difficult, but not an insurmountable goal. Almost immediately, expeditions were mounted to the East to determine whether there was land beyond the storms (curiously, only the most powerful magic can pierce the veil of the former Maelstrom). Landfall was made, and a few explorers returned with exotic spices, valuable lumber and local beasts, as well as, in some cases, examples of the native people of the world beyond the edge of the map.

Now, the race is on to establish firm footholds in the New World, with opportunists, smugglers, freedom fighters, xenophiles and colonists all competing both with each other and with the natives of the New World for power, wealth, and a slice of earth to call their own.