Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 13 Feb 2003 to 14 Feb 2003 (#2003-46) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 15/02/2003, 19:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 9 messages totalling 490 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Desert of Desolation 2. Ylaruam and Mages (3) 3. When was the NoS moved? (2) 4. Mystara.fr.st UPDATED, new map available 5. Dwarves 6. OD&DITIES Issue Nine is out! ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.dnd.starflung.com/ To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 09:50:34 +0100 From: Felix Holtschoppen Subject: Desert of Desolation Hi, I am thinking about playing through the "Desert of Desolation"-Series, locating it in Ylaruam (as suggested in the GAZ). Of course some changes to the story are needed to fit it into the Mystaran context. Has anybody done this already and is willing to share his/her experiences with me? Or is there some material published on the net about it? I'd be really grateful for any help, since I never played in Ylaruam before. My campaign is based in pre-wrath Karameikos about 1000 AC and the player's are all new to Mystara, so after some campaigning in the Duchy I thought they should learn that there's a whole world existing beyond its borders waiting to be explored. Introducing one nation after the other seems to work well, making it easier for the players to get used to them... bye, Felix ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 09:58:42 +0100 From: Felix Holtschoppen Subject: Ylaruam and Mages Hi, I was just reading the Ylaruam Gazetteer and the description of Ylaruam in the RC again and stumbled over the contradiction that the RC states that Magic-Users are forbidden in Ylaruam and hunted down when found out. The Gaz on the other hand has the Ylari respect Mages and even a School of Magic in the capital. Should I substitute Glantrians for Magic-Users? The RC was published after the Gaz-series. Where does this Ylari vs. Mages notion stem from? Has it anything to do with the date of the campaign? Is the RC-Appendix standard 1000AC like the Gaz. or later? The maps indicate 1000 AC... Bye, Felix ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 13:58:08 +0100 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?la=20Volpe?= Subject: Re: Ylaruam and Mages > The Gaz > on the other hand has the Ylari respect Mages and > even a School of Magic in > the capital. Yes, big contraddiction, isn't it? 8-) > Should I substitute Glantrians for > Magic-Users? Very good idea. I'd go with it. > The RC was > published after the Gaz-series. Where does this > Ylari vs. Mages notion stem from? Has it anything to > do with the date of the > campaign? Is the RC-Appendix standard 1000AC like > the Gaz. or later? The > maps indicate 1000 AC... I think that it was simply a mistake. I don't know why they couldn't even read in their own books or ask their contributors when they wrote that...8-) ===== Iulius Sergius Scaevola Captain of the XXth Cohort Port Lucinius, Thyatis "We poor few forged as brothers in this furnace will emerge as the steel of future generations" -- from "Legionary's Prayers", by Ionaos Nolan ______________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Cellulari: loghi, suonerie, picture message per il tuo telefonino http://it.yahoo.com/mail_it/foot/?http://it.mobile.yahoo.com/index2002.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 08:14:27 -0500 From: Chris Cherrington Subject: Re: Ylaruam and Mages > > From: Felix Holtschoppen > Subject: [MYSTARA] Ylaruam and Mages > I believe the notion is not just against Glantrian Mages, but agianst all Foreign mages. This hatred of mages most likely began when the Ylari started to rebel against the Alphatian and Thyatian rulers. I do know they especially hate Fire Mages, and would assume that all Glantrians are Fire Mages. It has only been of recent years that they have accepted foreigners into their school of magic, mainly because the need for water magic for the Dream of the Desert Garden. If there are any more contradictions, you can blame that on the two ruling factions. These factions are like the open mided leftist, and the dogmatic extreme right; depending whom is in charge at the time can cause alot of misinformation and or executions. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 16:39:26 +0100 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: Re: When was the NoS moved? --- John Calvin : > Thanks Jacob. I'll skim Gaz 3 over again and see if > I can find a definite time > or not, but that was basically what I thought. > I'm working on a Mystara BC 2300 campaign setting > and one of the ideas I was > trying to work out was why the dwarves moved into > the KW region around that > time. What I want to do is have them drawn to > sources of the radiance. > They'll get to be big time radiance spellcasters > (these are pre-Kagyar dwarves > we're talking about) which is going to be one of the > reasons that the race is > steadily dying out. Traces of the radiance using > culture will eventually > evolve into what we know today as the Mordrigswerg. Interesting ideas. I dont have an official source for this, but I always assumed that the Old Ones placed the NoS in Glantri after the destruction of the Beagle. Noumena didn't move the thing, he just tampered with it. It is unknown how he could have done that, or even whether he was under influence of the Old Ones at that time. With the Dwarf-ideas, keep in mind that the pre-blackmoor dwarves also first appeared in this region and then moved to Skothar. So, unless the Rain of Fire destroyed the original dwarven caverns, those would still be around... Håvard ______________________________________________________ Få den nye Yahoo! Messenger på http://no.messenger.yahoo.com/ Nye ikoner og bakgrunner, webkamera med superkvalitet og dobbelt så morsom ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 18:58:39 +0100 From: Thibault Sarlat Subject: Mystara.fr.st UPDATED, new map available hello everyone. I took some time to update my site and i uploaded a great map for you: The entire Isle of Dawn in 8 miles per hex. I shall soon add some other minor borders and stuff on this map but it is already a good tool as it is now for any DM willing to set adventures in that region. As always feedback is welcome. Thibault Sarlat. Techniques de l'Ingénieur Port: 06 84 92 32 55 Fax: 05 56 96 85 24 www.techniques-ingenieur.fr ICQ 16622177. Personal homepage http://www.mystara.fr.st thibault.sarlat@wanadoo.fr ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 12:12:08 -0800 From: John Calvin Subject: Re: When was the NoS moved? >> With the Dwarf-ideas, keep in mind that the pre-blackmoor dwarves also first appeared in this region and then moved to Skothar. So, unless the Rain of Fire destroyed the original dwarven caverns, those would still be around... << Interesting. I was focusing on after the GRoF and figured that after that disaster the dwarven survivors living in Skothar (near Blackmoor) would migrate out of the region and back to Brun. What your saying is that pre-Blackmoor dwarves were already living in Brun. If that's the case, then I wonder why they left Brun in the first place? The definately did because Gaz 6 (and others) state that circa BC 2000 the dwarves and gnomes were migrating into that area. Perhaps they left in the first place to migrate nearer to Blackmoor during its rise... but that can't have been the only reason. Beastman incursions pushing them out? That might make sense. THen they would have been drawn to Blackmoor because it was a bastion of civilization. After Blackmoor was destroyed they moved to reclaim their ancestral lands. So you'd be right that some of those cavern complexes on Brun would survive the GRoF... if they ever existed... but did pre-Blackmoor dwarves live in caverns? The Kogolor seem to suggest not. I don't think that the dwarves really took to caverns until the time of the GRoF and after. One explanation might be that they sought shelter from the catastrophe underground (much like the shadow elves did in BC 1700), but that they always maintained some form of contact with the surface. Just some random ideas. -John ===== Rule #85. I will not use any plan in which the final step is horribly complicated, e.g. "Align the 12 Stones of Power on the sacred altar then activate the medallion at the moment of total eclipse." Instead it will be more along the lines of "Push the button." from "A Guide to Becoming an Evil Overlord" by Peter Anspach __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day http://shopping.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 15:01:42 -0600 From: Magister Mystaros Subject: Re: Dwarves <> The Pre-Cataclysmic map from the Hollow World boxed set showed the Dwarves being in residence on Brun in the time of Blackmoor. Here are the references to the dwarves from my Blackmoor history: 10,000 to 8000 BC: The Dwarves, an offshoot of the Brute-Men race, lived in the hills and mountains of the continent of Brun; they were not, at this time, a subterranean race. By this time they had already domesticated the goat and the dog. 8000 to 6000 BC: Also at this time the Oltecs learned how to domesticate the dog and the goat, a trick they learned from the Dwarves; this technology quickly spread to the Neathar and thence to the Tangor. The Dwarves had by this time domesticated numerous plants, most importantly Barley, which became the staple of their diet (as bread and beer). 6000 to 5500 BC: The Dwarves had discovered bronze (either independently or from the Giants), and with a burgeoning population, many Dwarven clans began migrating out from their ancient homeland. A fair number of Dwarven clans reached Skothar, where they settled in and around the mountains in the north, where the only major tin deposits on the continent were found. 5500 to 5000 BC: In 5500 BC Chromatic Dragons, huge powerful beings from another galaxy, arrived on Brun in the lands inhabited by the Dwarves and decimated the Dwarven civilisation (which lay in and around the "Wyrmsteeth Range"). The Chromatic Dragons formed their own Draconian Empire, and began enslaving numerous Neathar clans in the region. On Skothar the Dwarven migration had combined with the continuous Neathar drift to cause intense cultural revolution among the Human cultures. The Neathar of Skothar and the Tangor had quickly assimilated the metallurgical and agricultural skills brought to the region by the Dwarves, and as a result whole new societies developed nearly overnight. The Human population of the middle lands of Skothar jumped from the Neolithic straight into the Bronze Age. Several kingdoms sprung up overnight, mostly to the south of the Dwarven lands, where the land was easier to farm and there weren't as many monsters inimical to Humankind. Among the new kingdoms was a small realm known as Thonia. The Thonians were the first Human culture on Skothar to domesticate plants, notably Wheat (like Dwarven Bronze, Barley spread to the Human population, but the Humans also domesticated other plant species). The Dwarves of Brun had been decimated and enslaved by the Chromatic Dragons; the only remaining free Dwarven lands were found on Skothar, to which a very few Dwarves from Brun were able to flee with their tale. The Dwarves of Skothar, hoping to assist their brethren on Brun, began developing new weapon technologies with which to combat the Draconian menace, as the scales of the Dragons were more than a match for the Bronze weaponry of the Dwarves. The Dwarves developed Iron, which was rather more capable than Bronze of dealing with the tough armour of the Dragons. The Giants of Brun, though caught off guard by the Draconian invasion, were more than able to hold their own against the Dragons. 5000 to 4500 BC: The continuous advance of the Chromatic Dragons kept the Oltecs from developing their civilisation any further, save the addition of Iron Age technology, which they learned from bands of vengeful Dwarves that arrived from Skothar. The Neathar slaves of the Chromatic Dragons were not easily broken, and the Chromatic Dragons often had to put down slave uprisings. The Dwarves of the Draconian Empire were as wilful as the Neathar, though a number of clans became the willing servants of the Chromatic Dragons. Many Dwarven clans escaped underground, where they adapted to a subterranean lifestyle. Note that during this time they also fled south, into the mountains now known as the Altan Tepes. 4500 to 4000 BC: Three great hordes of Beastmen were immediately sent out against the enemies of the Draconian Empire. The largest was sent to the south against the Oltecs; the second largest, against the Neathar; and the smallest was sent across the "Frosthaven Land Bridge", straight into the lands of the Skandaharians, the followers of Odin. Whole clans were sent into the tunnels of the Dwarves, to root them out and destroy them. Great slaughter occurred across the Northern Continent. The Oltecs were again pushed back by the Beastmen invasion; their very existence at stake, the Golden Empire sent massive reinforcements, and the Beastmen invasion was halted, though the Oltecs had lost a lot of territory. The horde sent against the Neathar was chewed up in the deep forests, as the Neathar had adopted guerrilla tactics; already semi-nomadic, it was easy for the Neathar to use their knowledge of the land to their advantage. The survivors of that Beastmen horde decided not to return to the Draconian Empire, and instead they retreated to the north and west, to settle in the "Borean Valley". The last horde was continually harried by the Skandaharians, who viewed the Beastmen as worthy opponents, and would not leave the Beastmen alone even when they tried to escape. Eventually, a major force of the Beastmen fled into the Northlands, where they settled far away from any of the human lands. Another force fled into the lands of the Afridhi, where they were utterly extirpated, and thus the mountains of the Afridhi earned the name "Goblin Kush", or "Goblin Killer" (the Beastmen were known to the Thonians as Goblins, or sometimes as Orcs). The Beastmen that had been send into the Dwarven delvings had no more success than their brethren; few returned to the surface. 4000 to 3500 BC: The developments on Skothar turned the attention of the Draconian Empire away from the Oltecs. The Dwarves under the lands of the Chromatic Dragons began counterattacking, and actually pushed the Dragons and their Beastmen servitors out of many of the mountain valleys. The Dwarves declared their reconquered lands the Free Dwarven Principalities. IMC, the Free Dwarven Principalities went on to become an ally of Blackmoor agains the Draconic Empire and the Beastmen, and grew great on the wealth derived from their knowledge of metallurgy. The FDP was destroyed in the GRoF, just as everything else was. The dwarves survived the GRoF better than their neighbors, however, as they had never given up fully their underground lifestyle, nor had their civilization gone totally bonkers as the human civilizations had. Around 2800 BC a rift occured in the Wyrmsteeth dwarves, between those that supported technomantic ways and those that desired a return to the ancient ways (as happened among the elves). Those that desired to maintain technomancy lost, were kicked out of the tunnels, and fled to what is now the Northern Reaches. There they tried to maintain their technomantic civilization with the assistance of the local gnomes. In 2600 BC the northernmost surviving pricipalities were wiped out by the dragons of the Wyrmsteeth, leaving the dwarves of the Altan Tepes the last major pocket of dwarves in the world. There were a few small surviving colonies here and there, notably the northern lands group and those on the Isle of Dawn. However, the technomantic disease that caused the madness that led to the GRoF continued to survive in the dwarves' genes, and mutated, such that all the dwarves were slowly dying off. The technomantic dwarves sought a solution through technomancy, and their experiements warped them in body and spirit, as they could not find a cure. The dwarves of the mountains had lost all faith in the Immortals, and did not even have the technomancy to try to save themselves. The other various surviving colonies of dwarves, such as those on the Isle of Dawn, either died out or nearly did so. When they were "re-created" by Kagyar in 1800 BC, the dwarves re-occupied their ancient caverns in the Altan Tepes and believed that Kagyar had created the caverns for them. The northern colony dwarves that were warped by ancient technomancy were also returned to their lands as the Modrigswerg. Some of the other colonies were abandoned, with the survivors going to Rockhome or Kogolor. <> Remember, GAZ 6 states that Kagyar reinforced their already existing "natural affinity" for underground living and turned it into an instinct. Of course, it also states that he and some other Immortals made the Rockhome caverns, but with the dwarves already having lived in the region, I just assume that he expanded on them, and made them look more natural. Plus he eliminated all remaining evidence of the ancient society. James ****************************** James "Mystaros" Mishler Freelance Writer and Troubleshooter mystaros@earthlink.net ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 22:13:02 -0600 From: Web Warlock Subject: Re: OD&DITIES Issue Nine is out! OD&Dities is without a doubt my favorite *D&D related online zine. This latest issue is not only full of great content, but it looks great too! It is this zine that has got me to dust off my basic books (I have the blue and the two reds) and think back to time before BAB or even THAC0! (of course what do they do in this issue...) But if you have not checked it out please do so. Great job Richard! Tim -- Web Warlock web.warlock@attbi.com Author, the Netbooks of Witches and Warlocks The Other Side: http://www.xtreme-gaming.com/theotherside/ -- "You wanna know how you do it? Here's how, they pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue! That's the Chicago way!" Sean Connery (Jim Malone) "The Untouchables". > -----Original Message----- > From: Mystara RPG Discussion [mailto:MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM]On > Behalf Of Richard Tongue > Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 3:44 PM > To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM > Subject: [MYSTARA] OD&DITIES Issue Nine is out! > > > Well, it's finally here. OD&DITIES Issue 9 is now avaliable for > download at > http://www.tongue.fsnet.co.uk ! This issue features excellent > cover artwork > by Jeremy Simmonds, and the first half of an excellent interview of Gary > Gygax. Another excellent article is the first part of the 'World > of Herol', > a new campaign world for OD&D designed by Carl Quaif. Other articles > include: > > Governing Gods, by Guy Robinson > First Strike, by Erin D. Smale > Some Enchanted Item, by Erin D. Smale > Combat sans Matrix, by Erin D. Smale > Street of a Thousand Adventures, by Geoff Gander > > Please let me know your opinions, items, thoughts and suggestions, at > Methuslah@tongue.fsnet.co.uk > > Enjoy! > Richard Tongue, > Editor, OD&DITIES > > ******************************************************************** > The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp > The Mystara Homepage: http://www.dnd.starflung.com/ > To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM > with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. > ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 13 Feb 2003 to 14 Feb 2003 (#2003-46) ***************************************************************