imported>Catcherinthesty at 02:09, 14 September 2016

2016-09-14T02:09:31Z

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Talmaron is [[User:Ryecatcher15|Ryecatcher15]]'s fantasy campaign setting. He is currently working on a game set in an Age of Exploration[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Discovery] 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==

{{Category:Nation}}

{{Category:Religion}}

==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.

[[Category:Campaign]] [[Category:Talmaron]]

Talmaron - Revision history

imported>Catcherinthesty at 02:09, 14 September 2016