I'm looking for a bit of a critique on the back story for my next campaign, just to make sure that it links in ok to existing Mystaran history - if anyone spots any gaping holes please point them out. I've tried to make it as consistent as I can, and so far it seems to fit with what I've read.
4000 years ago when the civilisation of Blackmoor was at the height of its powers, before the Great Rain of Fire, the demon city of Mabob was ruled by Minas, lord of Fury. The Enduk of the Savage coast are the only beings today who have even the dimmest recollection of this period, and even then it is only hinted at in the most ancient of their writings.
Mabob was a city of pain and terror where mortal beings where tortured in the breeding pits, under the ever watchful gaze of the Eye of Auros, an artifact of immeasurable power, which filled the demonic citizens of Mabob with the fury of its Master.
When the Great Rain of Fire fell from the skies Mabob was blasted from the face of Mystara and its demonic denizens destroyed utterly. All that remains of this evil empire today is one lonely island in the Sea of Dread.
The Isle of Auros is to this day a savage and dangerous place, inhabited by hostile cannibals who are maddened beyond any reason. Deep within its jungle interior lies the forgotten and ruined temple of Minas, inhabited by strange and fell creatures, warped by the power of the Eye which still lies deep within its catacombs.
DM notes.
Mabob was indeed a great city that was destroyed around the same time as Blackmoor. It was inhabited by an evil race of Enduk and ruled by a being called Minas, who had in his possession the aforementioned Eye of Auros.
Minas was in fact an Avatar of the Evil Immortal Arik (Mentioned in B3 - Palace of the Silver Princess) and the Eye of Auros was one of his hundred eyes. Mabob was Arik's great crime, the one for which he was imprisoned by the Immortals for intervening directly in mortal affairs.
The Eyes of Arik, including the Eye of Auros, are in fact some of the first artifacts ever produced by the newly made Nucleus of the Spheres, and are very similar to Shadow Elf Soul Crystals which are produced naturally by the power of the Radiance. When the Nucleus was created Arik discovered the crime perpetrated by the Immortals of Energy and demanded the crystals as payment for his silence. However Arik was flagrant in his use of the crystals and the Sphere of Energy feared it was only a matter of time before the Radiance was revealed by Arik's indiscretion.
The Immortals of Energy foresaw only one course of action and revealed Arik's crimes to rest of the Immortals, seeking in turn to mitigate their own wrongdoing. Thus Arik was imprisoned and the Radiance cursed.
Surviving remnants of Mabob civilisation can also be found in the North where Gylgarid is worshipped by barbarian tribes (Crown of ancient Glory) and it is possible that the Sorona Crown itself bears one of the Eyes of Arik.
Thoughts please
Rick
I'd also take a very careful look at the dates required for this - I don't think the Nucleus of the Spheres could have been used to create the artefacts before the explosion.If you can work your way around all that then nice, I like it, and it does provide some nice logic behind the history of the Nucleus.
Oh yes - as for people with recollection of the period - the Elves do have records. Since the elves who fled Evergrun did so in reasonably good time they did keep records of what hit them, that said those records will be in the Sylvan realm, and not Alfheim etc.
Kheldren
Apologies for being negative
No apologies necessary - its quite important to me to get this right.
southern Sea of Dread would (I think) be polar ice-cap.
I did think I was pushing it with the Sea of Dread - Especially seeing as there is already the Isle of Dread there anyhow. I'll have to look for somewhere else jungly and deserted - suggestions are welcome.
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To actually get hit by the explosions themselves you probably need to move the location somewhat
I'm thinking this might not be a huge problem. No doubt the Immortals themselves destroyed the city and history records it was destroyed around the time of the Rain of Fire. Given the reasons for Mabobs destruction I don't think the Immortals would be rushing to set the record straight.
I'd also take a very careful look at the dates required for this - I don't think the Nucleus of the Spheres could have been used to create the artefacts before the explosion.
This was also something I was a bit unsure about. I couldn't find a definitive source on when the reactor of the Beagle was altered to become the Radiance. The crystals occur naturally (as stated in the Shadow Elves) but presumably only after the reactor has been converted into the Nucleus of the Spheres.
This is actually a fairly crucial piece of the campaign as it centres around an exiled shadow elf who recognises the Eyes of Arik for what they are - namely soul crystals imbued with the power of an Immortal. So I guess the question is was the Nucleus of the Spheres created before or after the Great Rain of Fire?
the Elves do have records
Sodding elves have got an answer for everything don't they :P - but yes duly noted - and that could actually be advantageous to the campaign as I intend it to be of the world-spanning variety of adventure.
Originally posted by Richard Hannah
This was also something I was a bit unsure about. I couldn't find a definitive source on when the reactor of the Beagle was altered to become the Radiance. The crystals occur naturally (as stated in the Shadow Elves) but presumably only after the reactor has been converted into the Nucleus of the Spheres.
This is actually a fairly crucial piece of the campaign as it centres around an exiled shadow elf who recognises the Eyes of Arik for what they are - namely soul crystals imbued with the power of an Immortal. So I guess the question is was the Nucleus of the Spheres created before or after the Great Rain of Fire?
OK, here's my two cent's worth:
1) AFAIK what caused the Rain of Fire was a nuclear disaster in the Blackmoor Realm where Rafiel worked as a nuclear scientist at the time. He then became immortal.
2) At some other point, the F.S. Beagle spaceship crashed in present-day Glantri. I have been unable to find out whether this was while Glantri is still under the ice or whether it is after the Rain of Fire when the ice and the poles have shifted. I usually figure that it is after.
3) The Nucleus of the Spheres has caused Radiance from the beginning. It is a nuclear reactor, which was the primary engine of F.S. Beagle. The Immortals of Energy then altered it to allow mortals to attain immortality without a sponsor, questing etc. etc.
4) To my understanding, the soul crystals are the effect of Radiance, not the Immortals' tampering with the Nucleus of the Spheres. But of course, you can change that as you like :D
The main problems with consistency, as I see it, is that if the Eyes you mention were created by the Sphere then they could not have been created before AFTER the Great Rain of Fire and the crashing of F.S. Beagle?
On a different note, the Sorena Crown from X13 is an exceptionally Lawful artifact, whose purpose it is to identify and help the legitimate ruler of Vestland. I find it hard to believe that a "demon eye" would be a part of such an artifact...
P.S. There is more information on Gylgarid the Minotaur God at the Vault:
http://dnd.starflung.com/moreimm.html
JesperBlackmoor began its meteoric rise to nuclear power after the Beagle crashed on Mystara. The technology of the starship was looted by scavengers and agents from Blackmoor. This tampering with technology ultimately resulted in the destruction of the Beagle (see WotI and the Blackmoor adventure City of the Gods).
The destruction of the Beagle is not the event known now as the Rain of Fire - the Rain of Fire came later as the Blackmoorians began to try their hand and replicating the Beagle's technology. This took decades if I recall correctly. Their imperfect understanding coupled with thier haste caused the destruction known as the Rain of Fire.
Back to the Beagle: the destruction of the Beagle, I think, is when the ship's reactor began to interact strangely with Mystara's highly magical environment, inadvertantly modifying it into the Radiance.
I am at work and away from my Mystara library, but I can look up a timeline if nobody else comes up with one by the time I get home.
Originally posted by katana_one
Blackmoor began its meteoric rise to nuclear power after the Beagle crashed on Mystara. The technology of the starship was looted by scavengers and agents from Blackmoor.
But wouldn't a pre-Rain of Fire crash place the wreck of Beagle underneath one of the poles?
How did they salvage the technology?
:-) Jesper
1) Beagle Crashes on Mystara, near Blackmoor.
2) Beagle Technology is sold by the alien Treel to natives
3) After a conflic between Treel and Benekander, Treel is killed, but damages the core reactor of the Beagle, making it unstable. Benekander, in an attempt to prevent an explosion, alters the configurations to make the core implode instead. The Beagle vanishes, but the engine is preserved and altered by the Old Ones, to be returned to Mystara at a later time.
4) The Blackmoore/Thonia civilization uses the aquired technology to begin its "meteoric rise", basically conquering the world.
5) Great Rain of Fire destroys Blackmoor.
6) Radience returned to mystara and placed under Glantri.
7) Modern civilization as we know it gradually appears in the Known World region.
The above is based on WotI. Earlier texts may contradict some of this, but this explaination is the one that IMO makes the most sense. For a more detailed version, check my blackmoor website in the URL in my signature.
Cheers!
Havard
But wouldn't a pre-Rain of Fire crash place the wreck of Beagle underneath one of the poles?
In a word, no.
I do not recall the Nucleus being removed from Mystara by the Old Ones or the Immortals - when the Beagle was destroyed, the engines melted through the bedrock and came to rest in a cavern far below the surface where it remains to this day.
Looking at the maps of pre and post-Rain of Fire Mystara from the Hollow World set shows that the region known as Glantri has always been in or around a latitude of approximately 35°N. Blackmoor was roughly at the same latitude, but on the eastern continent (forget the name at the moment). Once the planetary axis shifted, Blackmoor ended up north of the Arctic circle, while the region that would become the Known World only shifted slightly. The cataclysm played havoc with the ecosystem and brought an abrupt end to Mystara's last Ice Age.
If Havard's recollection of events is correct (or you choose to use them) then the Beagle could have crashed anywhere.
As an experiment in creating a whole new kind of Immortal, (an Old One) moved the artifact to its current location and changed it to make it capable of granting Immortality to those who fully mastered its secrets.
So, while the Old Ones never actually removed the Nucleus from Mystara, they did move it from the original crash site.
Apologies to Havard! Been a while since I read that, I must have forgotten it. So many books, I can't keep track of them all …