Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 25 Dec 2006 to 26 Dec 2006 (#2006-197) From: MYSTARA-L automatic digest system Date: 27/12/2006, 19:00 To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 4 messages totalling 258 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Ochalean Mini-Gaz (4) ******************************************************************** 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: Tue, 26 Dec 2006 10:58:58 +0100 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Ochalean Mini-Gaz Hi all, as a sort of new year present, I've cooked up a mini-gazetteer of Ochalea. You can find it here: http://www.elet.polimi.it/upload/agosta/.private/Ochalea.pdf An html (hyperlinked) version is on its way to Shawn as well. It is written using AD&D notation for the few game mechanics elements present. For OD&D conversion, some adjustment may be needed (dropping the Good/Evil part of the alignment, dropping kits). Comments are welcome, as usual. Have a nice holiday, GP ******************************************************************** 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: Tue, 26 Dec 2006 12:39:16 -0400 From: Steven Carter Subject: Re: Ochalean Mini-Gaz GP, It's a wonderful work. I'm seriously jealous. ;) Haven't had more than 20 minutes to read through it. It's funny though, I just two weeks ago received copies of Dragon #237 and #247 to get the canonical references to lupins and rakasta on Ochalea. I was expecting something a lot more in depth and found them saddly lacking details. Do you imagine the Cypri who arrived on Ochalea in 800 BC (page 3) to be a cross section of various Cypric people or one particular ethnic group? Perhaps those of a people already living in a diaspora within southern Alphatia. Is it possible that the Foo Dogs in the Mystaran context are creatures from the Spirit World? Did spirits lead the persecuted Cypri to Ochalea to ally with the lupin? I had toyed with the idea that the Cypri colonists were lead by a priest-king, Tsa-Li, of Alphatia. The island was granted to him legally and he took his people. The current name is a Thyatization of that name. On page 4, do you mean the Wai were pro-Thyatian and ascendent (probably due to collaborating with the Thyatians and the assassination of the Gu hierarchy) during the Tatriokanitas Empire and brought Ochalea into the Imperium even though popular opinion would still have been pro-independence? Is the use of "spirit folk" in the population tables an out for people wanting to play OA-style spirit folk characters instead of FR-style planetouched characters? On 26/12/06, Giampaolo Agosta wrote: > Hi all, > > as a sort of new year present, I've cooked up a mini-gazetteer of Ochalea. > You can find it here: > http://www.elet.polimi.it/upload/agosta/.private/Ochalea.pdf > An html (hyperlinked) version is on its way to Shawn as well. > > It is written using AD&D notation for the few game mechanics elements present. > For OD&D conversion, some adjustment may be needed (dropping the > Good/Evil part of the alignment, dropping kits). > > Comments are welcome, as usual. > > Have a nice holiday, > GP > > ******************************************************************** > 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. > ******************************************************************** 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: Tue, 26 Dec 2006 18:14:45 +0100 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Re: Ochalean Mini-Gaz On 26/12/06, Steven Carter wrote: > GP, > > It's a wonderful work. I'm seriously jealous. ;) Haven't had more > than 20 minutes to read through it. Thanks :) > It's funny though, I just two weeks ago received copies of Dragon #237 > and #247 to get the canonical references to lupins and rakasta on > Ochalea. I was expecting something a lot more in depth and found them > saddly lacking details. Yes, there are more game mechanics then background elements -- but that's to be expected: Mystara was basically already OOP at the time of the articles. Still, the two articles are IMO quite good, as they give a lot of small hints on what's going on in several less detailed regions -- e.g., thanks to the Rakasta article, we know there are Rakasta M-Tibetan and M-Indonesian tribes (or nations) in the Tangor region, as well as an idea of what is to be found in the semi-desertic regions of north-eastern davania (a lot of M-Masai Rakasta). The Lupin article has more use for the Known World, and gives at least four Lupin subraces races for Ochalea (I think the Shag-Head is also very appropriate). > Do you imagine the Cypri who arrived on Ochalea in 800 BC (page 3) to > be a cross section of various Cypric people or one particular ethnic > group? Perhaps those of a people already living in a diaspora within > southern Alphatia. We know there must have been several Cypri ethnic/cultural groups. It's likely that one particular group formed the core of the migration, but due to its reason (escaping from the magic-using Alphatians) it's very likely that many non-magical Alphatians of various ethnic backgrounds joined the migration. These are left for future development, as the gazetteer leaves a lot of space within the individual provinces for subgroups (which can easily associated with Chinese dialects -- I envision "Beitungese" as Mandarin Chinese, Ogre Magi as Cantonese, and Pardasta as Korean, but the rest is there for use in more detailed works) -- a higher percentage of Cypri from a non-mainstream ethnic group might have led to ethnic minorities in certain provinces. > Is it possible that the Foo Dogs in the Mystaran context are creatures > from the Spirit World? It is possible, though I didn't specify it. Actually, "spirits" in Mystara do include Immortals (at least some of them), so Foo Dogs who reside in the Spirit World (as opposed to the Outer Planes) might be considered spirits -- or they might simply be Animal (Dog/Lion) Spirits? > Did spirits lead the persecuted Cypri to > Ochalea to ally with the lupin? I don't know. Actually, I'm not certain that the early Cypri had already developed priestly skills at the time, nor that the spirits were able to manifest in Alphatia. > I had toyed with the idea that the > Cypri colonists were lead by a priest-king, Tsa-Li, of Alphatia. The > island was granted to him legally and he took his people. That's a possibility. I kept the migration as only semi-official, giving the Alphatians a reason to occupy Ochalea later. > The current > name is a Thyatization of that name. The name is most likely Thyatian (or Milenian adapted to Thyatian) -- I don't know how Allston chose it, but it appears in a mythology dictionary (search it on Google) as a Latinization of a Greek name. > On page 4, do you mean the Wai were pro-Thyatian and ascendent > (probably due to collaborating with the Thyatians and the > assassination of the Gu hierarchy) during the Tatriokanitas Empire and > brought Ochalea into the Imperium even though popular opinion would > still have been pro-independence? I think most of the population didn't get a say in the annexation. Basically, Valentia granted independence to Ochalea under a Wai king, who rejoined almost immediately. There were, within the upper classes, both pro-independence and pro-Thyatian parties, but in time these parties shifted to different position (pro-Senate and pro-Emperor) -- this happened mostly under the (mixed Ochalean-Thyatian-Alasiyan) Kerdolion dynasty and the reign of Senate-elected Emperors Naur and Wein: supporters of the Kerdolion dynasty (the Teng family, for example) were at the time members of the Imperial party, while the supporters of Wein (and the Wai cadet branches) joined the senatorial party (gens Aemilia). Later descendents of the Teng family distanced themselves from the Imperial party, due to the influences of the Ochalean philosophical schools. > Is the use of "spirit folk" in the population tables an out for people > wanting to play OA-style spirit folk characters instead of FR-style > planetouched characters? Actually planetouched are supposed to be Planescape-style :) Anyway, one can use any type of "spirit folk" -- even only Lycanthropes and odd-looking Humans, if preferred. Mechanics-wise and in AD&D, planetouched are more flexible than OA spirit folk, so I generally used the Planescape races. In OD&D, one would need to use custom races, so it would be better to create them with specific powers. In 3e, any of these option could be acceptable, but that's not my field. What's actually important is that in Ochalea, "spirit folk" are descendents of spirits (nature and evil, since shapechangers are the descendents of animal spirits). GP ******************************************************************** 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: Tue, 26 Dec 2006 16:15:01 -0200 From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=C1tila_Pires_dos_Santos?= Subject: Re: Ochalean Mini-Gaz On 12/26/06, Steven Carter wrote: > > GP, > > It's a wonderful work. I'm seriously jealous. ;) Yes, this one is really great, Giampaolo =) ******************************************************************** 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. ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 25 Dec 2006 to 26 Dec 2006 (#2006-197) ****************************************************************