#5e worldbuilding

[lutethebodies]

Well yeah, Creating Original Characters is great and glorious, but have you heard of my personal salvation known as Creating Original Places?

It's a good train! You should ride it!

Edited to add: Original Characters are crucial for Original Places to be successful! To me, pretty maps mean zilch without compelling stories about the people who live there.

[lutethebodies]

LTB Worldbuilding Wednesdays: The Union of Saván

A weekly series in which two of my BG3 Tavs describe the original homebrew 5e world they live in.

Cannor’s Guide

“People and places are complicated. Nowhere is that more true than Saván. Once an oppressive slave power, now a fumbling yet formidable outpost of freedom, and forever in the shadow of more prosperous Narán. Comparisons are unfair, but in my experience clichés exist for a reason, and extremes tell the story here. Wedged between the river and the sea, Saván has been a continental crossroads for millennia. The Hydra River floods regularly, but figurative floods also abound: slavery and freedom, hate and love, loss and salvation. Saván is flat and exposed, with only the river’s swiftly cold northern and meandering warm southern branches meeting in the fetid Sadhoura swamp to mark the eastern frontier.”

“In the north, both snakes and winds hiss through the ruined plantations and tall grass of the ‘seething fields’ where slaves toiled and rebelled. Formerly a cruel flesh mart, the city of Scalaba now dispenses impersonally pitiless justice against all wrongs—some say to the highest bidder, but primarily against Saván’s original sin: slavery. After that hideous institution’s bloody end, dependent martial organizations have spent the past fifty years devising new ways of life. The four frontier Curraisae fortresses simply flipped the script; instead of keeping slaves in, they’re now garrisoned with freedmen who fight to keep the Ovalansi horselords out. The elite, multicultural Arbascan Navy on their volcanic island base of Scandena, whose ships once transported slaves, now eradicates piracy from the Savansi coast and Narrow Sound.”

“The third most significant Savansi faction is the Schismatic Order of Sanduzca, or ‘Splitters’ (but don’t call them that). This rigid sect thrives among the urban masses, and they’re not fond of anyone remotely connected with slaver bloodlines. They’re dour, serious, and absolutely relentless; I myself got caught in a Splitter dragnet and spent a year in their dungeons because I fell for a slaver-descended belly dancer in Secabeira. The dry Sanduzcan countryside is full of ominous saints and hidden saviors from the Ausertian badlands and jungles at the bottom of the world, or the warm steppe and great lakes of the East, or even from wondrous Zeyira beyond the western sands. The Schismatics recruit them all with hyper-passionate, almost inquisitorial fervor. Saván’s a deeply spiritual place, with a faith more vengefully righteous than peacefully liberating, but can you blame them? Slavery isn’t subtle, and divine memory is forever.”

“Other Floodlanders choose more corporeal salvations. This is also a sensual, sensory place; the river and sky are bluer, the soil richer, the fields fuller—and all blend together in the humid heat. Savansca remains a symbol of refined passion, but not necessarily love. Former bed-slaves are now entrepreneurs, and the capital’s general opulence often drives the ruling classes to their estates in Fortaleva, like the Matriarch’s Court with its resplendent dragon banners. Despite raucous festivals and recent freedom, an endless longing pervades Savansi minds and souls, as if they’re still missing something unrecoverable. Don’t confuse Floodlander judgment for justice, pleasure for love, or sanctuary for shelter. Be judged here. Be saved here. And sadly—even now, in some ways—be sold here.”

Ruy’s Reckoning

“The Union of Saván is an oligarchic-democratic alliance of the three southern Sister Cities (Sanduzca, Savansca, Scalaba) and the territories they jointly administer: strategic Scandena (The Sentinel) and semi-wild Sadhoura (The Wetlands). Regional culture began in the Floodlands when native Anduz and Uve peoples mixed with western Elusi colonists to form the Damashi civilization. They expanded as far as the open sea in the north and the Great Curve range in the east, but conquering Aurigans destroyed everything in what they called Arantia and Avantia, rebuilding only the Six Sister Cities and imposing a patriarchal slave state for centuries. Post-downfall, local oligarchs controlled Saván until a violent revolution fifty years ago ended slavery and their rule. Saván today is more democratic than Narán, but also more kleptocratic—as the civilian assembly struggles to govern, the rich consolidate their wealth, and Schismatic fundamentalists preach uncompromising dualism.”

Main settlements: Sanduzca (“The Schism” in Auransi, population 126,791; large city), Savansca (“The Sanctuary” in Auransi, population 112,075; large city), Scalaba (“The Scales” in Auransi, population 76,112, large city), Arbasca (The Base; small city), Livrea (Freeside; town), Convisceia (Conviction, town), Secabeira (The Dry Edge, town). Fortresses: Forquimeira (The Summit), Cuernacaba (Cape Horn), Asprecas (The Fangs), Chaveia (The Key), Norecurrais (North Corral), Maoicurrais (Main Corral), Meiacurrais (Middle Corral), Fortaleva (Overworld), Sulecurrais (South Corral), Forquonsca (The Forks). Rulers: The Conselhordém (Council of Order; Sanduzca), The Livirtasémbleia (Assembly of Liberty; Savansca), The Honoradiréito (Court of Honor; Scalaba). Languages: Auransi (Naransi and Savansi dialects), Ovalansi. Economy: Oligarchic, expansionist mercantile, producing alum, cotton, linens, paper, steel, sugar, textiles, and wheat; trading (with anyone) for coal, copper, iron, silks, spices, and wine. 

All text and imagery taken from "The Nua Gazetteer, Volume 1" by Keir DuBois (2022).

[lutethebodies]

LTB Worldbuilding Wednesdays: The Confederation of Narán

A weekly series in which two of my BG3 Tavs describe the original homebrew 5e world they live in.

Cannor’s Guide

“Narán is home. Or rather it was home, and ideally will be again. I know it well, because I spent most of my life there; I may be Kalen, but I grew up in Sevanhra with the Exiles, and called Caranácia home for many years while I was at the Equiposium. I miss it all so terribly. Enáncia in the south, paragon of strength. Caranácia in the north, bustling with opportunity and fortune. Naráncia in the east, effusive with wisdom and culture. The Tramontines further east, fearlessly facing the lands beyond the sunset.”

“I could tour the Orangelands exclusively and be a happy man—and perhaps I will, before I’m too old. I’d love to go back sooner and get set for life with the right patrons, because Narán is a rich country. The triangle of Naransi cities is built on gold, both because and in spite of their time as Aurigan subjects. Between surviving the Empire, abolishing slavery immediately afterward, fostering free trade, and sending a ship or three across the eastern sea, Orangelanders have done well for themselves since the Downfall.” 

“The pleasant climate definitely doesn’t produce frivolous indolence; only the ignorant and hateful would slander Naransi as “fruity Easterners.” The Orangelands isn’t named for citrus, though many groves exist (another legacy of Auriganopolis) and figurative pulp does too (Narán pours forth with sensual stimuli). Likewise the name isn’t from the local setting sunlight over the eastern sea, though that’s one of the most beautiful things you’ll see there. No, Narán is named for the mix of red and yellow—be it life and sunshine or blood and coin—that links their culture across a large, rugged land at the forward edge of civilization.”

“Naransi are a spirited lot: creative, enthusiastic, vibrant—intensely living life and enjoying that experience to the fullest. They’re truly superlative people: working hard, fighting harder, and playing hardest. Everyone seems to have a hale constitution (though illness happens just like anywhere else), a zest for successful learning, being, and doing (but don’t ever interrupt their midday repose) and plenty of money to spend on self-improvement (so don’t expect to go far if you’re poor). Naransi are voracious learners, passionate lovers, and ruthless competitors.”

“Many Orangelanders are riding high these days, and it’s the forward-thinking women (known as Lady Lions) of the Five Families who’ve made that happen. Cultural equality’s always been sacrosanct, and when the laws changed early on to allow matrilineal succession, Narán began influencing its neighbors—from backward northerners to emancipated southerners. If you’re worldly-wise and reasonably accepting, you’ll fit in well here—as long as you don’t lose too much money or standing. Not everyone’s happy and healthy, and there are real problems—debt and poverty in the cities, perilous isolation in the countryside—but overall it’s a welcoming place in wild times.”

Ruy’s Reckoning

“The Confederation of Narán is a loose oligarchic alliance of the three northern Sister Cities (Enáncia, Naráncia, Caranácia) and the protectorates they govern: Arrizosa (The Stone Coast), Altemisa (The High Table), and the Tramontines (Sunset Islands). The Orangelands were conquered by the Golden Empire only a few centuries after the Damashi had settled that far north, so today’s independent Narán is culturally more Aurigan than Damashi. Orangelander dualism is largely secular, fueling advanced education at academies such as the Eximium (Academy of Spirit), Equiposium (Academy of Balance), and Ermadium (Academy of Strength). A proud nation of laws (but not a democracy), Narán is ruled by three councils backed by five prominent familial houses, all aggressively commercial and always seeking new trading partners, especially to the east.”

Main settlements: Naráncia (“The Essence” in Auransi, population 52,673), Caranácia (“The Coffers” in Auransi, population 46,764), Enáncia (“The Narrows” in Auransi, population 34,952), Suertacaso (Serendipity; town), Sevanhra (Take Fire; town), Portelarán (Orangeport; town), Salitora (Sunshoal; town). Fortresses: Gatua (The Gate), Isena (East Narrows), Oscarretera (Westroad Fort), Iscarretera (Eastroad Fort), Orgaiarida (Pride’s Den), Veravanza (Greencastle), Fuértazal (Suncastle). Rulers: The Econclávio (Ecumenical Conclave; Naráncia), The Consejoro (Guildmasters’ Council; Caranácia), The Tribunalmirán (Admiralty; Enáncia). Languages: Auransi (Naransi and Savansi dialects), Ovalansi. Economy: Oligarchic open mercantile, producing citrus, cod, iron, silver, steel, sugar, textiles, and wine; trading (with anyone) for coal, copper, linens, paper, silks, spices, tin, timber, wax, wool, and wheat.

All text and imagery taken from "The Nua Gazetteer, Volume 1" by Keir DuBois (2022).

[lutethebodies]

LTB Worldbuilding Wednesdays: The Theocracy of Salusceia

A weekly series in which two of my BG3 Tavs describe the original homebrew 5e world they live in.

Cannor’s Guide

“The Havenleague isn’t so much a society as a loosely-connected populace of fearful, raving hypocrites masquerading as a society. Not all of them, but certainly anyone who’s in charge of anything. They could all benefit from removing whatever got stuck up their holes during and after the Downfall. Maybe they’ve all got volcanic embers in there. Salusi priests seem to relish burning away anyone who dares to think differently. They loudly proclaim their freedom and boast of their god’s hatred of slavery, but from what I’ve seen, the indentured peasants on those vast estates might as well be enslaved. It’s a controlled, oppressive society. They criminalize magic, and they distrust music, drama and even sports. I think they hate fun. It’s a baffling place.”

“Salusi believe they’re Aurigans come again, which they are by language, and mostly by looks as well, but oh so much less. Imagine beautiful people made ugly and aged by fear and hate. Pinched, judgmental faces and terrified piety wrapped up in a dubious sense of mission as some essential balance against the allegedly evil Vati barbarians from Zeyira. The Vati loom large in Havenleaguers’ minds, to the point where they erupt from crazy priests’ sermons more resembling monsters than the civilized, refined people they are. I’ll bet the Voice of the Lord is just itching to sicc his inquisitors on the whole of heretical Koprua, but we’ll never know unless ol’ Erracho feels his britches are too big for Emberhaven and decides to ‘do something about those heathens.’”

“What’s so maddening is that it’s not difficult to praise the best of what’s on offer here. The harbor at Cenefuegira is first-class, and the taverns there pull better pints than almost anywhere in the East. I could marvel all day at the light bending through the Cathedral’s stained-glass, or the master woodwork from Selvacineira, or relish a bite of trout from the Santi River. I’ve not yet been to the Stone Hill on Colinetreia, nor seen the Island of Doubt’s ancient relics, but I’m told they’re wondrous. Salusceia is actually a beautiful place, as long as you bleat piously and don’t have any fun at all. Zealously perverting old creeds for the sake of cultural survival is no way to run a country.”

Ruy’s Reckoning

“Salusceia was the first foreign territory the Aurigans added to their Golden Empire, and a few decades after the Downfall it transformed from the refugee-choked province of Anaxia to one of the most prosperous and powerful Golden States. The Havenleague is both alike and different from its fellow refugee-founded main trading partner, Griseia. Salusi society is religiously regimented, based on their Heavenly God’s Law, but instead of isolationism, the Salusi state’s insecurities manifest as xenophobic aggression, mostly against the Vati Empire on their southwestern border. Salusceia also draws comparisons to Nevela; both entities claim to preserve and exemplify the best of Aurigan culture, but both have effectively become unique societies. Like Nevela, Salusceia’s pleasant countryside produces abundant sustenance and exports; Salusi textiles are renowned throughout Avorea, and Cenefuegira is the most populous capital in known continental Avorea.”

Main settlements: Cenefuegira (Emberhaven; large capital city), Santistrima (Sanctumstream; small city), Balamonte (Bellmont; town), Selvacineira (Nearwildhaven; town), Colinetreia (Stone Hill; town). Fortresses: Osservare (Westguard), Lacuscela (Heavenlake), Santesta (Holyhead), Vettacuta (Summitsharp), Santisena (Sanctumsound), Paganacusti (Paganguard), Pontecusti (Bridgeguard), Morandesar (Saltgrave). Ruler: Erracho III, the Voice of the Lord. Languages: Auransi, Elusi. Economy: Closed mercantile, producing linens, sugar, wheat, and woolens; trading (mostly with Griseia) for iron, copper, silver; trading with Easterners for spices and steel.

All text and imagery taken from "The Nua Gazetteer, Volume 1" by Keir DuBois (2022).

[lutethebodies]

Lore Bards Gonna Lore Bard

BG3/5e folks: do you like lore? Do you like homebrew? I need your opinion. I have one more encyclopedia-type entry for the current run of homebrew-atlas-reposting, i.e. my bard's and cleric's exceprts describing the second of four world regions from a 5e fantasy gazetteer I self-published in 2022.

I know I post about it a lot, especially on a blog nominally dedicated to my BG3 Tavs, but it was a big deal for me and I'm really proud of it. It was literally 30 years in the making, and this may sound like bragging but I really crushed it. Furthermore, I'm ramping up to tackle a second volume later this year and probably most of next year.

But I understand it might not be very compelling to read for most people, who of course aren't in my head and can't get stoked for a homebrew world they don't play in or encounter in a compelling way. I'm not sure if the bardic history/clerical encyclopedic nature of the entries helps or hurts that, but I know the whole book isn't like that.

For example, I just re-read two of the scene-setting pieces I wrote a year ago for the second, in-progress gazetteer, and they feel pretty compelling. They're based on the framework of corresponding entries for the first gazetteer, which ain't bad either, if I do say so myself.

I guess what I'm saying is that I can post lots of writing on this blog, but it won't be BG3 fanfic because I'm not good at that and don't really want to be. I'm good at lore, and specifically I think I'm good at personalizing lore, i.e. writing about Big Doings from a character-driven perspective that makes them more interesting to read than conventional/dry names-and-dates history.

This stems from my feeling that interesting characters become more so when readers understand the world these characters live in and how that made them who they are. As a map-illustrator, I work with a similar concept: pretty maps may look great, but without stories of the people who live in these places, pretty maps is all they'll ever be.

Would that be interesting for any of you? I don't want to alienate anyone and I especially don't want to post things that I think are awesome but which totally miss the reality of why people probably followed this blog in the first place. I also understand that I'm kind of a demographic outlier in terms of Tumblr users so what I write might not be what most folks are into.

Eh, maybe instead of fretting about it I'll just throw some stuff up here and see what sticks. The way the real world is going I'll still need something to escape to while everything burns, so it might as well be something that makes me feel accomplished.

[lutethebodies]

Battles Bore Me

Been re-reading Fire and Blood since "House of the Dragon" Season 2 landed, and the book has felt super-dull on this second go-round. I wasn’t sure what it was until I realized “gee, there’s all this gory detail about seemingly each kill of this or that Important Lord or Brave Knight in every battle and I honestly don’t care about any of them.” That and it's a history instead of character-based tale, of course, but the point is I’ve learned that reading about battles bores me.

I shouldn’t be surprised—army battles on TV or in films always makes me tune out, and I never rewatch the "big battle" episodes of any show I've liked—but it was nice to finally realize this. Even on nonfiction/historical topics that really hold my interest, like Alexander’s campaigns or Killer Angels-type Civil War narratives or whatever, I always gloss over the bits about battles. I just do not care. Politics? Intrigue? Lore? Drama? Gimme! Pages on pages of actual armies butchering each other? Pass.

I don’t mean to disparage military history or the study thereof, however. If that’s your thing, do it to it. Reading about why certain tactics worked (or didn't), or why a certain faction achieved victory (or failed to) still seems compelling. I also don't dislike the blow-by-blow of character-driven small combats or duels, like D&D/5e combat, exhibitions of skill, or unique feats of heroism (David vs Goliath, Bruce Lee's/Jackie Chan's amazing acrobatics, etc.).

But actual mass violence and its explicit recounting feels gratuitous. It reminds me of something I read about "Guernica," (in a book on U2, of all things) describing how, from "The Rape of the Sabine Women" on down, realistic depictions of violence can be too easily glorified or sanctified. Picasso instead expressed the inhumanity of war in distorted, grotesque ways. That's maybe the most simplistic TLDR about that piece, but it said what it needed to. "Saving Private Ryan" comes to mind as an exception—showing D-Day's carnage to emphasize the Allies' achievement in overcoming it—but to me that still walks a fine line, and one I needn't see trod more than once, if at all.

The upshot is that this makes me think of when I've elided big battles in my own work, like my homebrew atlas (pictured in this post's hero image), and confirms that I made the right decision. I tend to describe historically-significant violence/combat/war obliquely—not in a hand-wavy way, but more like a "that happened, and this was the result" way. I think I only have one sequence calling out specific battles, because it was part of a regional conflict relevant to my setting's immediate backstory that player characters could incorporate if they wish.

Anyway, there's no big overarching point to this; it's just something I typed out after thinking over text with friends, and a handy excuse to post one of my fantasy gazetteer's vector maps.

[lutethebodies]

LTB Worldbuilding Wednesdays: The Wilderness of Monskava

A weekly series in which two of my BG3 Tavs describe the original homebrew 5e world they live in.

Cannor’s Guide

“I must say I’ve never been to the Hollow Hills. I feel it’s important to be up-front about that, because avoiding places with obviously incorrect names makes sense, don’t you think? If those sky-scraping, snow-capped peaks qualify as ‘hills,’ I wonder what makes a mountain! Perhaps that’s a mistranslation, because ‘Monskava’ is old Vaali, and the Broken Hand brothers tell me their ancestors didn’t stay long in this area, if indeed they ever visited at all. It’s certainly less than hospitable for civilized settlement. What’s not rock in Monskava is sap-sticky pine, ice-cold stream, or rickety bridge. I’m not surprised it’s essentially unclaimed territory.”

“As for rumors of old Mizam-Akal—dwarven stonerealms with deep mines and empty cities—call me a romantic, but I’d love for that to be true. Ask any dwarf about the Hollow Hills and their eyes well up with every emotion at once, as if they’d briefly glimpsed something irreversibly lost only to have it snatched away again. Unfortunately, these days Monskava’s got a whiff of danger about it. Harsh weather, sudden landslides, and dizzying altitude. Show me anyone who’s gone up the mountain and come back down alive and I’ll show you someone a few cones short of a pine. I want to see it if I can, though. Maybe rustle up some Bargeldts or Gorunns on the Maarker side of the Spine—some hardy souls itching to go back home—and see how much my voice can echo down in those endless caves.”

Ruy’s Reckoning

“Monskava is a landlocked, mountainous territory occupying the Sanctum River’s northeastern bank and the eastern high thermal lake country. Sparsely populated throughout its history, ‘The Hollow Hills’ has never been claimed politically by any neighboring surface-dwelling culture since the Downfall. The Aurigans only ever held it loosely themselves, evidenced by several ruins of that era matching up with similar names in ancient records. Abundant reports persist of dwarves returning to archaic Mizam-Akal beneath the Spine, but that has never been verified to any unanimous satisfaction. Other, even less-substantial rumors tell of horrific, supernatural beings terrorizing the northeastern Havenleague, but investigating the truth of such assertions is beyond the scope of this chronicle.”

Main settlements: None of substantial size. Ruins: Skaavianua (Dwarves’ Door), Sansorgente (Bloodsprings), Itenavita (Place of Immortals). Rulers: Unknown. Languages: Unnakh (rumored). Economy: None of substantial organization.

All text and imagery taken from "The Nua Gazetteer, Volume 1" by Keir DuBois (2022).

[lutethebodies]

LTB Worldbuilding Wednesdays: The Wilderness of Griseia

A weekly series in which two of my BG3 Tavs describe the original homebrew 5e world they live in.

Cannor’s Guide

“The Grey Coast is an enigma, no question. Long after Moreia’s devastating eruption, the Griseian countryside has returned to something like habitability, but most Griseians live as they have for the past five centuries: underground. My understanding is their heroic forebears survived through so much collective discipline, creativity, and sheer persistence that those traits have simply been ingrained in each new Griseian child. Their tunnel network is an impenetrable maze to any non-native, and the caves of Grain, Spoils, and Dust are more hospitable and hold more than those names imply, but that’s all we know from visiting Salusi traders or vindictive Goldrock scouts. Griseians see little sunshine and even less of the outside world, but they enjoy one of the most efficiently cooperative societies Nua has ever known. Certainly the Downfall’s fire has burned away many sins, to leave only the most essential Aurigan virtues.”

“Moreia itself remains a wasteland of lava and smoke, both the island caldera and its two lesser mainland siblings. This deadly triangle keeps about 200 square miles hostile to most life; it’s impassable by land and given a wide berth by sailors at sea. Even so, it’s said some of the richest Aurigan artifacts lie in its superheated vicinity. That seems impossible, but every decade or so a haggard fortune-seeker stumbles back to civilization with red-gold treasures in various stages of meltdown, so the Grey Coast continues to lure its share of adventurers despite the literal mountain of risks.”

Ruy’s Reckoning

“Like its neighbors to the north and east, the Grey Coast used to be a core province of the Aurigan Empire. Unlike Asceia and Repeia, Griseia was never densely populated. While its countryside endured the Downfall’s full physical force, nearby provinces suffered more loss of life. Griseia’s rugged landscape never supported much agriculture, but its ancient, resource-rich mountains yielded as much copper, gold, and iron as Aurigan slaves could extract. What’s left of those mines today is much different. For centuries after the Downfall, Aurigan refugees of all classes carved out a strictly-regimented, radically egalitarian society, surviving underground like some Aviridian elves and dwarves. The Griseians of today are their descendants, trading with western Salusi allies but otherwise resolutely keeping to themselves, so the historical record has significant gaps concerning the Grey Coast.”

Main settlements: Grottagrana (Cave of Grain), Grottapraeda (Cave of Spoils), Grottapulva (Cave of Dust). Rulers: The Buried Assembly. Languages: Auransi. Economy: Socio-communal, producing raw ore (copper, gold, iron) and trading exclusively with Salusceia for everything else.

All text and imagery taken from "The Nua Gazetteer, Volume 1" by Keir DuBois (2022).