Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 24 Aug 2005 to 25 Aug 2005 (#2005-166) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 26/08/2005, 17:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 3 messages totalling 108 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Northern Reaches History? 2. Mystara d20 3. the boor ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 11:26:39 +0300 From: Ville V Lahde Subject: Re: Northern Reaches History? (Regarding Chris's post) Originally the NR Gaz pushed the X13 timeline into the future along with the Forsettian/Ruthinian faith, but it seems that they indeed reeled back this idea in later products a bit. In my original campaign I made a decision very early on (well over 10 year ago RW time) to recreate the Northern Reaches. Actually I didn't have the GAZ at that time, but regardless I decided to drop the idea of RW model Immortals/Gods. Later on I brought them back through my "Twin Campaigns" idea, into the secondary campaign that we have been playing in the same historical timeline, but 500 years earlier. I created a notion of the Great Withdrawal, a time when gods of old days retreated and were slowly replaced by the rising Thyatian pantheon and new "ethnic" cults like the Forsettian faith in Vestland. There were many reasons for this and I'm not getting into them here. The main thing is, I got stuck into a home-brewn history very early on, and it has been hard to use some canon material for those reasons. I run X13 during 1007 or something, and it worked quite well into my timeline. One important reason is worth mentioning: I really wanted the appearance of the crown Sorona and the revelations at the Standing Stones to be a significant historical event, one that reformed the Vestlandians during a time of great stess and chaos. Forsettian faith filled a void, so to speak. But still: It is actually quite nice to (finally!) have a new Mystara campaign with totally new players, so I can introduce a new version of the world without being "tied down" bu my established campaign. About the modrigswerg: I have actually recently used Giulio's wonderful material in a solo-adventure with the dwarven PC. The PC's retinue of dwarves set out with Thoric Redhand to investigate legends of the Morkwarf and the Svartalven (the PC dwarf found some historical artefacts in the lair of the Beholder Kruagg in the Lost Caverns adventure). They learned a lot of the pre-Denwarfian history, ran into dreadful Morkwarf ghosts, had to clear an old ruined Morkwarf fortress of trolls and found an ancient gate into Svartalfheim that the victorious Kagyarian Kogolors had sealed after the great battles around 1900. Meddling by Kruagg had caused the gate slowly to open, and they had to make a pre-emptive strike at the heart of the mysterious svartalven. I made the Svartalven into gremlin-like demon-worshipping beings not at all related to real elves. The PC actually found that the word "Alf" used in Known World was very old, and it originally referred to otherwordly beings - and only later on when memories of those events had faded, the word was transformed and used of the newcomer elves, as they resembled the creatures of myth. Pointy ears and all that. They realised that some of the cultural suspicion against elves in the general area [common to Alasiyans, Ethengarians, Denwarf dwarves and the Antalians of NR] had roots in ancient history! Ville ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 01:36:35 -0700 From: la Volpe Subject: Re: Mystara d20 All great ideas...so, what are you waiting? Hurry up! We all are eager to see the finished product!!! 8-) Giulio ____________________________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 01:40:31 -0700 From: la Volpe Subject: Re: the boor Well, of course we are interested!!!! Send us all the details! The more the merrier! Giulio ____________________________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 24 Aug 2005 to 25 Aug 2005 (#2005-166) ****************************************************************