Savage West Follow-up

To follow-up on the post of the other day, I am designing the Savage West to scratch several of my (current) itches:

- The Western-genre flavour of D&D-style adventuring: PCs ride into a borderlands town that seeks help, PCs deal with the villain of the day, spend their gold on ale and carousing and ride off into the sunset.

- The genre of flintlock fantasy, where muskets and pistols are the weapon of choice and conflicts carry more meaning than the latest land-grab by corrupt nobility.

- This ties into my third itch, I have started collecting Napoleonic 28mm miniatures. Yes, to simulate and play historical battles (and if you allow me a personal note, as a historian, I find the events and impact of Napoleon's 1813 German campaign, culminating in the Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of the Nations, far more interesting than the desperate Battle of Waterloo, at the tail end of the Empire - the Battle of Nations has every element of climactic fantasy battles contained in a frenzied five-day action-packed epic). But also to use in D&D home games. And I have long longed to emulate the roleplaying-wargame-domain game spectrum of the early days of the hobby where dungeon adventures eventually resulted into claiming strongholds and domains and commanding miniature armies across the tabletop.

- To continue this line, I take a note from Dark Sun which was meant to be partnered with the 2e Battlesystem ruleset to allow PCs to command city-state armies, rebellious slave tribe or warlike desert nomads. I am designing the Savage West to accomodate that degree of freedom as well, allowing armies from the nascent Kingdoms or warbands operating out of the wilderness.

- These wilderness warbands, consequently, have far less resources and couldn't hope to contend with the bloodstone-rich armies of the Kingdoms, yet are master and commander of the Wildlands and wastelands. 

- Another secret project I am considering is to collect miniature equivalents of Greyhawk's armies and replay battles of the Flanaess, starting with the Battle of Emridy Meadows. Collecting fantasy miniatures and not using them in a D&D game is a sin, hence the wilderness warbands.

- The Chainmail miniatures revival of 2002 was also set in Western Oerik. I am deliberately lifting elements from that line (like the death of the war god Stratis, albeit a bit different) to incorporate in the Savage West.

- I like the deep lore of the Sunset Realms that me and my homegroup have developed over the past decade. Sure, some of the backstory and mythology is going to get ditched in the transition to the Savage West, but the basics (an age of glory, a draconic empire, [demi-]gods wandering the land, the Tarrasque as harbinger of destruction and tragic hero at the same time) and some names (Aurora) will remain the same.

- I wanted to create more than "just" Western Oerik - even though it's a vast landscape many times the size of Greyhawk's Flanaess. Hence the addition of the Utter West across the Agitoric Sea. I'm flavoring these lands to be oriental in flavour, as in accordance with established Greyhawk lore. But I'm also inspired by Sarlona from the Eberron setting - a totalitarian nightmare ruled by invading telepathic aliens controlling the people through their dreams. Here, I'm going with the more pedestrian - and everybody's favorite tiger-headed - rakshasa.

I'm energized and inspired to throw all these elements into a new mix (and to return to this blog). 

Journey into the West

Western Oerik has been on my mind again lately, emerging once again in a weird way that setting concepts do after months or years languishing on the back-burner. I don't know what triggered it; it happened a few weeks ago after watching de Undeadwood Critical Role series. My mind went to the subject of Murlynd, the paladin-sherrif hero-god of the Greyhawk setting and I found myself asking: "Where did he get those six-shooters?"

I know the formal answer is "From Gygax's Boot Hill home game," or something along that line, but I went in another direction. I thought, wouldn't it be cool to combine my foray into flintlock fantasy with the world already developed here on this blog and in my 5E home game, set it in Western Oerik and add in some more crazy things? So I did.

A thousand years ago, refugees from two dying empires, lands consumed by war, fire and devastation, fled into the wild lands of the west. Encountering jeweled city-states and tribal kings, monsters, orcs, elves and each other, their destructive war continued, on a smaller, more primitive scale. But their new, savage environment demanded more and less of the survivors. In order to live, thrive and survive, the peoples had to adapt to their new home. Over a few generations, their inherited enmity petered out. Struggles for ideology and supremacy faded into the background, devolving into more common conflicts over land and resources. Within a century, the old hatreds had faded, bands of survivors and local tribes intermarried and new towns and alliances developed, coalescing into Nine Kingdoms.

The most powerful of these new towns came to be named Aurora, city of a new dawn. From the westernmost coast of the land, Aurora’s influence spread across the Nine Kingdoms and outposts and trade roads were established. Secrets of a forgotten past were discovered, and magical lore reached new heights. Across the sea, contact was made with the peoples of the Utter West. Many tribes and city-states united under the banner of the Dragon Empire. Yet war continued. 

The War God, Stratis, strode across the Savage West, playing an intricate divine game of dragonchess, setting the Nine Kingdoms comprising the Dragon Empire against one another, sharpening the machine of conflict. Never peace, always war, the Dragon Empire wasn't able to build a sphere of protection and security. 

One man, a priest, sought to change that. His name was Aenarys and it was he - a prophet of peace - that dared to challenge the God of War. He failed even as he succeeded.

Stratis died, but his dying breath changed the land. A red veil covers the land, scarlet shadows bring forth terrible monstrosities and the Dragon Empire crumbled. The Crimson Shroud brought madness and despair to the metropolises of the Dragon Empire. Instead of ushering an age of peace, Stratis' death fanned the flames of war as armies clashed and survivors gathered into warbands. Dragons claimed new territories in the wilderness, reducing the free peoples under their wings to savage slaves. New monsters and aberrations flooded the towns and castles of the Nine Kingdoms, the great Tarrasque among them. Civilization was brought to the brink of extinction, clawing to hold on. Only the heavily fortified cities of the Liga Elves in the interior, and the well-defended band of holdfasts, including Aurora, on the Agitoric coast were spared the destruction.

Now, centuries later, the Nine Kingdoms have rebuilt themselves, in the image of a forever war. Using magic and military might, and the mineral known as bloodstone, the Kingdoms have eked out a perimeter of safety in the vast and savage land. 

This is a land of stark contrasts, savage beauty and howling wilderness. The Savage West is home to a large variety of environments, flora and fauna. From the scorching deserts of the southwest, to the forested mountains of the Agitoric Northwest, to the Great Plains abutting the Redwall Mountains to the east, to the humid jungles of the southeast, every climate and all manner of beasts can be found here. During the day, the sun bakes the interior highlands into searing deserts, while providing a comfortable warmth in the northwestern forests. At night, the pale moon of Raenei sheds wan light on the lands beneath, accompanied in quarterly phases by her aquamarine sister, Kule. 

Ruins and dungeons of the centuries-distant Age of Wonder dot the wilderness. Ancient magic and forgotten lore can be found in the remains, if one is brave enough to face the dangers these expeditions entail. When traveling the Savage West, one can stumble into pockets of high magic, demarcated by an electric buzz playing on the skin and a strange sensation. These Wildlands are pockets of primal magic, connected to dragons, monsters and magic. Most times, these fading lands are wild and beautiful environmennts but sometimes these pockets are shadowy and dark, pulsing with the energy of death. These Shadowlands give rise to spirits, ghosts and the living dead. The Savage West is beset by wild monsters and dark magic. Yet there is hope, for brave adventurers venture into the wild to aid burgeoning towns, fight monsters and establish new outposts. To plumb forgotten dungeons and seek out relics of the past, and to discover and mine veins of bloodstone, to forge into new tools and the foundation of a new age of peace and light. 

The most powerful of these tools are the weapons of the current age, bound to the Crimson Shroud, unable to function beyond the western lands bearing Stratis' curse. Made from bloodstone, yet effective all the same, these Firebrands are  brandished by Legions of wielding soldiers, raining elemental fire and hot lead on the battlefield. Aided by the automaton-cannons known as Pulverizers, armies march across the wartorn landscape, fighting monsters, warbands and enemy nations.

Welcome to the Savage West.