Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 16 Jan 2004 to 17 Jan 2004 (#2004-18) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 18/01/2004, 19:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 4 messages totalling 184 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Dwarven lifespan 2. Dwarves & Modrigswerg + question for Skytte (2) 3. Small update to my Taymoran project ******************************************************************** 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: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 10:31:24 +0100 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?la=20Volpe?= Subject: Re: Dwarven lifespan I'm currently at the process of polishing the history of the dwarven race. I have two or three issues that bother me, I'm trying to solve them (thanks to Giampaolo). Anyway, I hope to translate it and send it soon...it will deal better with the issue of abdication, too. Giulio ______________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Mail: 6MB di spazio gratuito, 30MB per i tuoi allegati, l'antivirus, il filtro Anti-spam http://it.yahoo.com/mail_it/foot/?http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 10:42:53 +0100 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?la=20Volpe?= Subject: Re: Dwarves & Modrigswerg + question for Skytte It seems that the Dwarves of Dengar are rather prone toward exiling all those that don't align with their philosophies...personally I find the attitude toward the Filwarf too harsh. I'll borrow your informations but I'll tend to put the accent on a natural decadence, not the result of divine intervention (as I like to think of Kagyar being more a Benekander non-intrusive Immortal). Anyway, good work. But after the Modrgiswerg I think the Denwarf dwarves would think twice before exiling so many dwarves...again. Iulius Sergius Scaevola Captain of the XXth Cohort Port Lucinius, Thyatis ______________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Mail: 6MB di spazio gratuito, 30MB per i tuoi allegati, l'antivirus, il filtro Anti-spam http://it.yahoo.com/mail_it/foot/?http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 08:11:23 -0800 From: Andrew Theisen Subject: Dwarves & Modrigswerg + question for Skytte la Volpe wrote: > It seems that the Dwarves of Dengar are rather prone > toward exiling all those that don't align with their > philosophies...personally I find the attitude toward > the Filwarf too harsh. I'll borrow your informations > but I'll tend to put the accent on a natural > decadence, not the result of divine intervention (as I > like to think of Kagyar being more a Benekander > non-intrusive Immortal). > Anyway, good work. But after the Modrgiswerg I think > the Denwarf dwarves would think twice before exiling > so many dwarves...again. These are the same race that, when Mystara is faced with a crisis of international proportions, withdraw from the world and hide their heads underground, refusing to get involved with what they see as "other people's problems". Then, later, when the Western Defense League won't jump to their tune (by declaring war on the Shadowelves, when the dwarves wanted to claim the city of Oenkmar), they withdrew from the League. To me, the dwarven tendency to turn their backs on those who don't follow with the "dwarven way" is well established. Which is- and perhaps my brief history didn't make it clear enough (my intention is to flesh it out quite a bit more)- which is pretty much what happened with the Filwarf. They were the ones who first turned their backs on the "dwarven way" by turning their focus away from family and clan loyalties and more to the acquisition of power and wealth through exploiting the (largely) human conflict that was raging across the Isle of Dawn during that land's troubled history. They were the ones who first began to turn away from the teachings and precepts of Kagyar and their dwarven kin, and so he turned his back on them (as I have it). I actually based the concept on a) wanting to do something different with the IoD dwarves (rather than just have the standard Rockhome variant that pops up everywhere), and b) something similar that seems to happen to dwarves outside of their homelands, as first brought up in Gaz7: The Northern Reaches. The "troubled youth" that are described in the s ection on dwarves there (not to mention the long exiled Modrigswerg) seems to me to give a good indication of what happens to dwarves (and, to another extent, all demihumans) that abandon their traditional clannish ways and have no clan relic to guide them and rally around. The filwarf are not a clan, and haven't ever been a clan, but were individual dwarves pursuing new and possibly lucrative efforts in a new land. Their efforts to establish a new clan (or clans) and "traditional" dwarven strongholds simply didn't take hold, falling victim to individual avarice and self-interest, and resulted in the filwarf- who are not exactly exiled, per se, but rather viewed in much the same way the Wyrwarf or other lower class dwarves are. They are the shameful distant cousins of the denwarf dwarves. They're a failed attempt to colonize outside of the "original" dwarven homeland. Anyway, that's just my take on them. I created them because- like I said- I wanted them to be something different, to make the Isle of Dawn more unique and different. Maybe I didn't stress all the various influences and experiences that resulted in them turning out the way they have- as I said, I've got more writing to do about them yet. I'll be interested to see how you incorporate them. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 20:43:30 +0000 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Small update to my Taymoran project Hi all, after some months, I come back to this project with a small addition, a discussion of Taymoran Lycanthropes. I kept it short, since the matter was already covered by John Calvin and James Mishler, from different points of view. What I add here is mostly the areas where the various lycanthropes were created and employed. Now, I still have to write up the elves, the albinos, and the malpheggi lizard-kin... Comment and bug reports are welcome, GP Lukka, the beast-men During the XXII century BC, several Taymoran Necromancer Kings concentrated their research efforts into the creation of new races that would fit the roles of soldiers in their armies and servants in their palace. In doing so, they followed the will of Nyx, their patroness, an Immortal creator of new nocturnal races. The greatest accomplishment in the first field was certainly obtained through the creation of the dread disease, Lycanthropy. According to the most recent sources1, these first lycanthropes were mostly stuck in a hybrid animal-human form, and were created to match the animal species that the Nosferatu could summon and control. The first, and most successful, lycantropes were therefore the Werewolves, powerful warriors who would end up in the shock troops companies. Wererats and Werebats followed shortly, but they were not as successful as their more powerful cousins. Werebat were employed as scout troops and raiders, and Wererats as underground shock troops or as scouts in the swamplands in western Taymora. Mortality rate were exceedingly high, both for the violent occupations of most lycanthropes and, more importantly, for the debilitating effects of the disease itself. A few more phenotypes were later devised by Nosferatu and Vampire Kings endowed with the ability to conjure different species of animals, and a few even appeared from random mutations. When the end of Taymora grew near, the Lukka, the lycanthropic people, formed a major part of the Taymoran armies in the cities of Tarshiz, in the Northern Taymoran Frontier forested lands, and Tzur. Massive use of Lukka troops was indeed the cause of Tarshiz' success as one of the few borderland city-states to become a powerful force in the political scene of Taymora. The Necromancer King of Tzur, on the other hand, devoted much effort to the creation of Wererats, which he employed for warfare in the swamps in order to wrestle control of the river trade from his rivals, the Kings of Amarshish and Darqis. A number of the most resilient individuals had been able to survive longer than the few months most would live as beast-men. These Lycanthropes started resenting their vampiric masters, and formed a secret society devoted to overthrowing them. A previously unknown Immortal manifested to them, calling himself Lykaion2, and offered them help against their masters for their worship. Statistics These statistics are thought for an AD&D 2nd edition game, but are easily adapted to OD&D. A Taymoran Lycanthrope has usually a single, hybrid form. It gains the HD, AC, immunities and any bite attack of the standard lycanthrope, plus it retains the ability to use simple weapons (maces, clubs, daggers, and axes). All others statistics remain as the standard form, but the character receives a bonus to Strenght and Dexterity as do lycanthropes of his phenotype in "Beast at Heart"3, and has the same dietary requirements. In general, Lukka characters (including player characters) can appear anywhere in the Taymoran lands between the XXI century and the fall of Taymora. These characters have a serious disadvantage in that they are extremely vulnerable to the Necromancer Kings' magic and vampiric powers4. Notes 1: See "A Treatise on Lycanthropy" by J. Calvin. 2: This is thought to be an identity of Loki. Whatever plan he might have been for his werewolf followers, it likely folded when Taymora sunk. 3: See the Book of Souls, at the Kargatane website. 4: See Mystaros' Lycanthropic Magic. -- di nuovo come un tempo sopra l'Italia intera urla il vento e soffia la bufera ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 16 Jan 2004 to 17 Jan 2004 (#2004-18) ***************************************************************