Karilan Primer (March 14, 2020) Foreword
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Karilan Primer (March 14, 2020) Foreword My introduction to tabletop roleplaying games was D&D 3.0, and the system’s style imprinted on my future roleplaying experiences. After that, I have tried several other systems, but none of them satisfied my need for variety of options as D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder RPG. Eventually I got tired of mechanical imperfections of the aforementioned systems and turned to GURPS. I have played many games, tried out various optional rules, magic systems, other aspects of the system, trying to find the “perfect options” that would satisfy me and my group. A very important part of tabletop roleplaying experience for me is the setting. I never used premade settings in D&D or Pathfinder, because I felt that if I insert something self-made into them, other players who might know the setting well might get mixed feelings about that. Thus, I always created my own settings of dubious quality. However, that was a good learning experience. Now I know exactly what I want from a setting and have a universal system without any constraints, so I finally can create a setting I will enjoy playing in (and, hopefully, other players will enjoy it as well). First, what I wanted to accomplish was the variety of options in all aspects. Some would call it bloat or kitchen sink, but I am a proponent of this so-called bloating. Since this is a D&D-like setting, almost any character concept from D&D or Pathfinder can be realized. This is why the setting has many different races, power sources, magical and martial traditions. Of course, I did not put all the races in the world, but a large number of them. The world itself is Earth-sized (1 world map hex = 250 miles), giving enough room for different nations with different histories, cultures, and opportunities for adventures. This helps making the setting persistent and able to support many different types of games, not only dungeon delving. Second, I wanted the setting to be internally consistent. One of the things I despised in D&D was the large amount of interesting lore that typically was only mentioned once and then never explored further or supported (mostly because only a few of the supplements were available on the SRD, creating a need for supplemental material that does not require any supplements other than the core books). In this setting, I tried to piece together the lore pieces I liked from the aforementioned systems and see how they would interact. I even had to look up the fan-made D&D meta-timeline. From the mechanical point of view, my desire for consistency forced me to standardize magical traditions so they would use the same framework. The base framework of GURPS is advantages/disadvantages, so most supernatural powers are based on advantages (mostly variants of Sorcery). I have intentionally omitted all optional rules or houserules regarding the playstyle, so the setting can be used both for realistic and cinematic games. Also, I intentionally never mention the TL of the setting – it can be played either as proper TL 3, TL 3 with TL 4 weapons and armor (like Dungeon Fantasy), or proper TL 4 with firearms, works well for any of the listed options. Of course, as a player, you really should not read this whole document – just read the short description of the relevant nation, general houserules, and everything else can be skipped or skimmed. Nation descriptions are short and vague to avoid overloading the players with unnecessary details and to provide room for your own inventions and creativity. Have to say, I really enjoyed creating the setting, hosting games in it, and playing in it, and I greatly appreciate all the support, feedback, and critique I got from my players and/or friends. I often find mistakes or inconsistencies or get a new idea, so the document is often updated. Current State and Timeline of Karilan Currently Karilan’s geopolitical situation is not stable. Orcish hordes assault neighboring states, invasion of arctic creatures from the Northern and Southern Reaches threatens the whole world, kingdoms conflict openly and subtly for ideological, religious, and economical reasons, elven paladins aggressively try to expunge the drow from the Underdark, dwarven drug cartels become too influential, unsettled Savage Lands make colonists compete with each other for resources and lands, mind flayers of Thoon abduct or slaughter settlements seemingly at random. While the world is more or less explores, there are still many mysterious places – the Underdark, the Savage Lands, sunken ruins of Aventus, desolated mishtai cities, contaminated jungles and bogs of Sitaril, hostile arctic lands, and more. All this provides many reasons for adventures of all types and scales, from dungeon delving to political intrigue and war. The world’s history is summarized in the following table. It is not required for reading for players and GMs, and most of the player characters should not know too much about it. Only history scholars of Karilan know the following timeline. The common human people know that there was Aventus, the greatest human kingdom, and that it was flooded, and the survivors found all the current human nations, but they do not know much about the mishtai. Elves know of Seylaril, their ancient empire, but only the scholars know why it has collapsed. Dwarves know about Gurdolm and why it has collapsed, but know of Stat-Und only through legends. Year Event ca. 16,000 BF The avatar of Corellon Larethian visits Seylaril elves and teaches them the ways of magic and war. ca. 11,500 BF The mountain dwarven calligraphists of Stat-Und develop the Und-Rask, the first magical runic alphabet. ca. 11,000 BF A fleet of mind flayers (also known as illithids) arrives from the outer space. Illithid colonists settle in expansive caverns under northern Stat-Und. Seylaril elven explorers traverse the north pole and reach Mishtafalon. First elven settlements are being built there. ca. 10,500 BF Mishtar, an empire of the mishtai, forms on the continent that will later be known as Mishtafalon. ca. 10,000 BF Seylaril enters its golden age, as their masters of arcane magic improve the quality of life greatly, research the other planes, and create powerful artifacts. They consider the mishtai and the primitive human islanders unworthy of their knowledge, and thus do not hold any diplomatic relations with them. ca. 9,500 BF Seylaril archmages combine their powers to open the Vast Gate – a gate that connects all the planes. The ritual goes poorly and attracts the Far Realm to the multiverse. With severe losses, the elves manage to destroy the gate, but the damage to their lands is irreparable. Accusations and revolts threw the elven realm into chaos. Internal strife overtakes the people, and in the end, the remnants of the vast empire were divided into five small kingdoms. - Elves of the northern Mishtafalon hills and deserts formed Indaril. In this realm lived the fire elves. - Coastal elves to the west of Indaril formed Kwataril, the realm of the water elves. - Elves of the former central Seylaril formed the Opharil, the realm of the wind elves. - Elves of the former southern Seylaril traveled southward through the Perdition and settled in the tropical forests of P’ktal. They began calling themselves the wood elves and their realm Sitaril. A relatively small group of elves led by mages fled to the depths of the Ethereal Plane. They called themselves the metal elves and their extraplanar realm Hwaril. ca. 9,000 BF Loose tribes of dwarves unite to fend off Ortimaze, a female ancient iron dragon that was terrorizing the lands. With the dragon fleeing south, the dwarves form the Clan Holds of Gurdolm. ca. 8,500 BF A neogi deathspider crashes south of the Perdition, a tall mountain chain that separated Seylaril from the rest of the continent. With no way to repair the ship, the neogi settle there and found P’ktal (“Temporary Home” – a rough translation from Neogi). ca. 8,000 BF A powerful earthquake ravages Stat-Und. The dwarves recover, but the earthquake opens up a way to the deeper underground caverns, where the Domains of the Mind Flayers already have settled. The same earthquake damaged the mind flayers too – several of the cities were flooded. The mishtai discover incarnum, the soul energy of every living thing, and harness its power. This will be known as the Tal Period on the mishtai history. ca. 7,800 BF A group of wind elves of Opharil fall to the demonic influence and incite a civil war. The war splits the realm into three groups. The first group (that later will be known as the high elves) waged war with the second group (that later will be known as the dark elves, or drow). The third small group fled into the deepest caverns and started to live in isolation (they will later be known as the rockseer elves). In the end, the high elves forced the drow to flee to the underground cave systems and found a new realm in the ruins of Opharil. This realm became known as Sifaril, or “free kingdom” in Wind Elven. ca. 7,500 BF Mishtar lands spread eastward and peaceful contact with island and coastal human kingdoms of Aventan is made. An exchange of knowledge occurs. Gurdolm dwarves are wracked with drought. A priest of Roknar the Tempter, the dwarven deity of lies and greed, claims that this is only the first of the cataclysms to come. A large group of dwarves leave the kingdom and settle deep underground, led by the priest (his name was lost to time), hoping to evade the oncoming cataclysms there.