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= Empires =

Possible starting city, Toledo.

Still left: Carthage, Atlantis, Transylvania, Eastern Europe, Details for all one by one.

Each country has a religious head and a state head with important smaller rulers (senators and legates, jarls and captains, etc). HAVE THESE TRAVEL! Could run into a Roman Senator in Hispania, or a Nordic delegation in London. SOMETIMES THE RULER IS A FIGUREHEAD AND WEAK/UNINTERESTING - RELIGIOUS LEADER, ADVISOR, NATIONALLY APPOINTED GENERAL, MAYOR HANDLES EVERYTHING. Occassionally a head librarian, significant family who aren't officially in charge, head of a guild/coliseum, etc. Villages have no official rulers but a kind of person of influence at most - easy!

Two/three cities/major settlements for each. Some plot hooks for each, two/three interesting things (can be places or people). Ruler and a couple other important NPCs. One interesting NPC or site on each road in between. A couple of additional core facts determined about each city. HAVE ONE CITY BE THE RELIGIOUS LEAD, ANOTHER THE CAPITAL AND ANOTHER THE BORDER MILITARY CITY. ALEXANDRIA IS THE SCHOLARLY CITY OF EGYPT... HAVE SOME CITIES BE THE HOME OF THE INTERNATIONAL GUILDS...

Each country has a pretender (at least one).

Make a map of each country with the key settlements before they visit!! This is how you can tell them which villages/towns are worth visiting. Explain that the map isn’t complete - just one they came across, back then maps didn’t have all the details just the most important bits.

Sino-Nordic Pact
All Nordic countries are Scandinavian territory. They form the Kingdom of Scandinavia.

Western Russia (West of Kazakhstan, roughly), Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are Sinaese. They form New Sinae, which is governed by the Sinaese Federation(?).

The Hordelands
Greater Germania includes all of Germany, Poland (including that annoying bit of Russia bordering the Baltic Sea), the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria and most of Switzerland. Not a nation as such, but Mongolian hordes rule much of this territory – the rest is owned by various monster races.

Free Germania.

The Dragon Pact
The Britannian Isles - including Albion, Caledonia, Cambria and Hibernia - as well as Gallia Nord (Bourges up) are Britannian territory, as are the Channel Islands.

Imperio Hispania has the entirety of Hispania (except for Gibraltar), the Palma islands, the Balearic Islands, Aquitaine and in theory the Madeira and Canary islands, but there are many a pirate there who would heartily disagree – then kill you.

The British Royal Navy and the Spanish Armada completely rule the waves. There are pirates in the Canary Islands giving the Spanish trouble, and Sino-Viking Raiders giving Britain trouble!! Vikings will raid the Spanish a bit and Pirates the British, mostly though it’s as I just said. Both raid the French, depending on the region.

Pacto Dragão

The Roman Empire
Italia, the strip between Italia and Greece on this map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_province#/media/File:Augusto_30aC_-_6dC_55%25CS_jpg.JPG and Greece – with the Greek borders raised to Sofia in Bulgaria. All territory North of Sofia which hasn’t been assigned to other factions is largely occupied by the Hunnic Empire (their borders are unclear). Egypt is also Roman territory but Sardinia and Corse are owned by Carthage. Anatolia is owned by the Scaleson Caliphate (including Istanbul), east of them is the Persian Empire. The Path of Illyricum.

This Empire is Rome-dominated but in theory Aegyptus is an equal partner - it entered the coalition willingly.

The Holy Roman Empire
The last faction of Europa is an interesting one, because its territories move regularly. This is not to say its borders change or its people move to different lands, the people and borders stay put but the lands themselves move. Some generations ago the horde of orcs raged westward through Germania. Though the Dutch are largest humans you’ll meet, the Netherlands’ army was not sufficient to push back the Horde, so they came up with a strange solution, separating their land from the Continent. The Netherlands became an island, sailing along the coast of Europa, it is said to travel from Aegyptus to the North of Ruthenia. This island has another name than the Netherlands, the Holy Roman Empire. And indeed, although it contains only a small part of the mighty HRE, the Netherlands is ruled by the heir of the last Kaiser – Prince Maximilian I, who would have been the 30th Kaiser after Charlemagne. He lives to this day (often those of Charlemagne’s direct line are long-lived), but he is rumoured to be frail, having aged poorly compared to previous Emperors.

The Netherlands has no reliable allies, holding steadfast alone against threats from European nations and the nations outside of Europa.

Beyond Europa
The territories beyond Europa are considered by civilised opinion to be exceedingly dangerous places. From the vast expanses of Africa to the fractious Holy Lands, to darkest Sinae and Seres - which were abandoned by their native populations, to disastrous effect on the continent of Europa.

Except for Carthage and Aegyptus, not much is known about these nations. What is known is that the Scaleson Caliphate occupies Jerusalem – to the great anger of the Riteguarders and Revelationaries across Europa – and Constantinople – to the rage of the Roman Empire, in particular Graecia. It is also known that the Caliphate has ambitions for Aegyptus, and the wider Middle East.

Less still is known about the Persian Empire beyond the Caliphate, except for the epic tales told about their past battles of these Lizardmen with Greek city states.

The Middle East
The Crusades!!!

Africa
Zulus will be a thing, but do them later! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu_Kingdom#The_rise_of_the_Zulu_Kingdom_under_Shaka

= History =

I THINK IT'S ABOUT 200-300 YEARS ON. VERY FEW ELVES MAKE IT TO 300, SO THE OLD EMPIRE HAS MORE OR LESS PASSED OUT OF LIVING MEMORY ASIDE FROM EXCEPTIONALLY RARE NPCs. BUT THE GREAT WAR WENT ON FOR SOME TIME, SO THE VERY OLDEST DO STILL REMEMBER.

WHAT IF THERE WAS A GENUINE SPIRIT OF UNIFICATION?? THE WHOLE OF EUROPA WAS UNITED AND GOT ALONG... BUT THEN THE MONGOLS CAME AND CERTAIN KINGDOMS FELT THEY WEREN'T SUFFICIENTLY AIDED FOR CERTAIN BATTLES. THEY DEMANDED TO KNOW WHY THEY WEREN'T GIVEN PROPER ASSISTANCE - AND BAD BLOOD GREW. THE GERMANS AND POLES FELT A DEEP SENSE OF BETRAYAL - AND AFTER THE KINGDOMS GREW MORE INSULAR. SOON THE KINGDOMS GREW MISTRUSTFUL OF EACH OTHER AND OLD BORDER DISPUTES RESURFACED. AND THE WAR WENT ON FOR SO LONG THAT THE OLD ROUTES OF TRADE HAD BEEN SO DISRUPTED - SO THEY FELT INCREASINGLY SEPARATE. But what happens next if this is true? Did they briefly agree to unite to finish off the Mongols? Did they have a war? Maybe the tensions were simmering throughout, they agreed on a final plan to finish off the Mongols and it worked. Then after the war no one could come together again, tensions rose - The Holy Roman Empire had no authority any more, nor did the Crown Prince - after the loss of the Imperial Heartlands. And something sparked off a war. After a short war where more blood was spilt an urgent halt was called - and the Old Empire was formally split. The occupation of Francia had begun by the British and Hispania because of the power vaccum left there - they had helped push out the orcs and brought order. But there are quiet mutterings between the two about borders and where these should fall - the Dragon Pact still holds but there are tensions underneath, and who says what could happen. The New World may also cause tension between the two Empires, but I don't think it's particularly likely as one will take the North and one the South.

The calendar year is… debatable, depending on your allegiance. However, the age of Kaisers is over, Europa now exists in what is fast becoming known as the Age of Allies. A great war raged across the land, known by different names across Europa, known by many as the War of Egress, mainly due to the separation of the great Holy Roman Empire which spanned all of Europa into various Kingdoms after the great Mongol Horde swept across the Europa under the mighty Orc Chieftain, Genghis Khan, wielding powerful artefacts and having amassed a dangerous Horde of followers.

Khan was defeated, by who depends largely on which nation the story teller hails from, but it is not a matter of controversy that many from all over Europa died to bring the invading army to heel. The cost was great, and even seven generations later the former Imperial Seat of Power of Greater Germania is still occupied by the Orcs who invaded and mighty Francia, the most prosperous part of the Empire, lies ruined and occupied by two Kingdoms – the powerful Britannian and Hispanic Empires.

There are two mountains, the Western Mountain (the Silver Crown/The Silver King/The Crown of Life) and the Eastern Mountain (the Jade Mask/The Mask of Death/The Jade Baboon). The statues (Baboon and King) have the Crown and the Mask on them, they give life to the entire continent.

The Mongolians invaded China and stole the Mask of Death from the Jade Baboon. The whole of China begins to die. Scouts track the Mongolian Horde back to Russia, they slaughtered scores of the Russians (who unleashed ancient magics in an attempt to stop the Mongolians, resulting in even more destruction). The Horde was searching for the Western Mountain.

China sets up operations in what remains of Russia, helping the local residents fight off the enemies, and refugees trickle over. The Horde had already headed into Germany. The Horde recruits the Mountain Dwellers in Germany and wrecks everyone up. They decide they need the blood of the Chinese Emperor and the Holy Roman Emperor to awaken the Mask and the Crown’s true powers. After killing the Holy Roman Emperor (but failing to secure the Crown) a long war sets in. The Horde think the Silver Crown is with the Crown Prince on the Netherlands, which has now broken from the continent. The Netherlands basically ends up drifting past France, thought to be the strongest nation after Germany (hence why they headed that way instead of north).

The Horde rip through France, killing Charlemagne and some of his Knights, and annihilating huge portions of the French army to get to the Netherlands as it floats along France. They are stopped as the Romans enter the picture with the British and the Spanish, the Lupine Empress (or Rome?) at the army’s head, wearing the Silver Crown. Genghis Khan is wounded, the Horde are forced back towards Germany. They go back to Germany and defend their borders.

The Allies and the Horde constantly clash, eventually the Horde make a dash for China in an attempt to get the Emperor’s blood. The Chinese have been building a wall for all this time, the Mongolians end up not being able to breach the Stone Curtain. The Horde hear the Romans are coming from the South. Genghis unleashes a huge burst of Death Magic, across the region there are now undead and monsters and stuff. The Horde head south to confront the Romans, Genghis and the Lupine Empress slay each other. All the forces now have lost around 20% of their forces, and 10% more are wounded.

France was ruined in the Horde’s invasion, so the Spanish and the British make their moves while they still can. Everyone is put on guard by this, no one trusts anyone and everyone decides to defend their own borders, having weakened the Horde and stopped their assault. Germany (which now includes all of Austria, Czechia, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary) is de facto ceded to the Horde, though technically no treaties are ever signed. A new Cold War begins between the powers of Europa.

Silver crown: Arcane Power? Jade Mask: Divine/Nature Power?

= Gods and Faith =

The Gods are constellations in the sky. When the avatar of the God visits earth one star is missing from the constellation.

The Stallion
Genghis Khan is secretly the Avatar of the God of the plains, the Stallion. He is represented as a three legged horse in the Sky, the last ‘leg’ is Ghenghis Khan, the missing star. Usually there is a woman riding him (the Maiden) but she is not there.

The Gods cast down the Maiden and banished part of the Stallion to the Earth. The Gods had to have a huge source of power to make the land healthy, the Maiden had the power they needed and there were only two Gods in her Pantheon (her and the Stallion) so she was split into two. One part sent to the Western Mountain, one sent to the East. Have one piece of the statue break after it comes into the players’ hands, causing the avatar of the Maiden to emerge.

Mongolian Faith: It is thought that horses are greatly focused on in this faith, play a Mongolian to know more.

The Three Dragons
The Triune Dragon, the Scaled One, AWAITER NAME.

The Persian Scalesons have a pantheon! Incorporate the Persian Gods. The Dragon is just the head of the pantheon.

The Arabian Scalesons have just the Dragon, but the Persians have a pantheon. This is the reason for the heat rising and a schism approaching... which could ignite a war.

Muhammad was a Red Lizardman. Exceedingly rare. Most believe he left his kingdom to SOME DUDE, a Green Lizardman, but many to SOME DUDE, a Black Lizardmen. The supporters of the Green became Arabia, the supporters the Black became the Persian Empire (greens are common everywhere, there are still plenty of greens in Persian Empire (though they’re a slight minority to the black majority) but there aren’t many Blacks in Arabia). The primary difference in practice comes in that Sunni Muslims mainly rely on the Sunnah, a record of the teachings and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad to guide their actions while the Shiites more heavily on their ayatollahs, whom they see as a sign of God on earth.

Persians more commonly rely on charismatic war clerics to guide them ahead (reflecting Shiite reliance on Ayatollahs) while Arabians follow the creed laid down by Muhammad (reflecting the Sunni following of the Sunnah).

The Awaiters, the Scalesons, the Riteguarders and the Revelationaries are four Draconic religions in this world. The Great Tri-Dragon is the God of the Riteguarders and the Revelationaries.

All are certain that the Dragon existed (like all the Gods in this world), and he certainly had only one head in his life on Earth. The Revelationaries believe he had a child with a mortal, the Bride, and this child could adopt different forms like his father. They believe this is why Dragons are mortal now and can shapeshift, all dragons are descended from this original one. They are much more recent than the Riteguarders, their faith being only a few hundred years old. Their holy book describes the Child as having been born in the Middle-East over a thousand years ago. The Revelationaries are mainly present in Britannia, North Francia and the geographical Netherlands, but there are a significant minority in Scandinavia.

The Riteguarders also accept the Bride, but they believe she was another dragon in human form, otherwise the dragons of today would not be purebloods. Riteguarders point out that dragons who breed with mortals today do not produce dragons, but halfdragons, so how could the Bride have been human? Riteguarders believe that all living beings are Dragons stuck in a specific form (human form or orc or whatever), they refer to Dragons as ‘Changing Ones’ and their versions of ‘Saints’ are those who become Changing Ones (unlocking their divine abilities to shapeshift). This means they don’t see any creatures as irredeemable (even orcs), and seek to spread their word to literally every creature in existence – that they are dragons stuck in mortal form. The Riteguarders are mainly present in Hispania, South Francia and geographical Belgium, but there are many in Roman territories and some still in the Middle-East and Aegyptus.

Riteguarders eat raw meat and drink animal blood in sacred ceremonies once per week (and whenever they’re at shrines). The Revelationaries eat dried fireweed and drink water instead.

Riteguarders and Revelationaries believe the Child of the Great Dragon ascended eventually and merged with its sire, becoming the Second Head. Riteguarders believe the Bride became the Third Head, Revelationaries belief in the third head is more complicated. Both faiths have reclaiming Jerusalem as a primary objective, and there are murmurings across Europa of the leaders of each faith agreeing to attempt this.

The Awaiters and Scalesons believe the Great Dragon only has one head, but are drastically different to each other.

Awaiters are the oldest of the Draconic faiths, they have less people than the other Draconic religions and are scattered everywhere through Europa. They believe they are descended from the original followers of the Great Dragon and think they alone are blessed with Dragonblood. They are often persecuted, especially by Rome, they long to return to the Chosen Land of Judea and reclaim Jerusalem. They do not believe the Child is the son of the Great Dragon, and they are still waiting for the Great Dragon to send the Last Prophet who will lead them back to the promised land of Judea – hence their name. They are lizards of a different colour and appearance - taller and thinner, visibly Awaiters.

The Scalesons have a different set of beliefs with some overlap with the other Draconic Religions, there aren’t many in Europe. They believe they were once dragons but their scales fell off after a great wrong was committed by their kind, so they encourage covering up their skin with scaled clothing and armour to hide their shame. The players won’t know much at all about these people until they encounter more learned sources or Scalesons. The Scalesons came about after the Riteguarders, but before the Revelationaries, they are mainly present in the Middle-East but there is a significant minority in Aegyptus. If you want to play a Scaleson this can certainly be arranged, but we’ll have to talk it through to make sure it makes sense.

Greek-Roman-Aegyptian Pantheon
A merger of the Greek, Roman and Egyptian pantheons, they add Gods to this Pantheon as they go. If you want to play a character which solely follows one or a few Gods from this pantheon that can be arranged, it’s not uncommon in Greece to reject the Roman versions of their Gods and the new Aegptian Gods.

The Contendings of Horus and Set
https://www.ancient.eu/Set_(Egyptian_God)/ Set was a great ally of Ra, who kept Apep away by spearing him each night when Apep hypnotises and tries to kill the other Gods. So Set is the one who ensures Ra can make the Sun rise. The Contendings of Horus and Set. Set killed Orisis, husband of Isis and ruler of Aegyptus, becoming ruler himself. Set now ruled in Aegyptus, Ra at his side. Set was a chaotic monarch who brought many storms and was unpopular with the other Gods (who want Horus, Set’s nephew and Isis’ son to be ruler). But with Ra’s support Set could not be dethroned. Isis tricks Set into admitting what he did to Orisis, convincing Ra that Set should not rule the Pantheon. Set is dethroned and Horus becomes ruler. Soon after Horus was killed – details on how this was done are a matter of debate but Set was blamed and was viewed to have a clear motive. The Gods were horrified, and Isis is made the leader of the Pantheon. Isis wanted Set killed, but the other Gods would not allow it - after all Set is the one who keeps Apep away. Instead Set was banished and now rules the forgotten, dry and barren desert lands of Aegyptus – as well as having influence in the lands beyond Aegyptus.

Aegyptians who don’t follow Set view him as a necessary evil, and representative of the dark chaos of life. They will say a prayer to him when traveling through the barren lands of Aegyptus or when living in a dangerous foreign land, they pray for mercy and to be spared from his schemes. And they include him in their religious rites out of fear. But they do not love him like Isis, Ra or many of the other Gods – who they attribute the long period of safety and stability to. The followers of Set view the long, relatively stable period that has followed under the throne of Isis as a time of stagnation and slow decay. They believe Set will once again come to lead the Pantheon and enact great change.

The Legend of Ra, Isis and the Snake
https://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/egyptian-god-ra.html https://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/isisra.html Isis steals Ra’s power, some claim for good reason. What is known is that Ra has now been sidelined as lead deity.

Ra is still highly respected but Isis has the greatest temples and the most followers.

Norse Buddhism
You read that right. Norse Buddhism, the Norse Pantheon with some meditation and reincarnation thrown in. Plenty of Dwarves will reject the new-agey mumbo jumbo just like many Buddhists won’t be interested in laying down their lives for Thor, but a level of merging between the two faiths is popular in Scandinavia and Sinae.

Folk Religions
Really cool faith I missed out from the real world? Try it! If you want to worship ancient Celtic Gods or Romanian deities send me the info and I’ll take a look, chances are if it existed I’ll put it in my campaign. There’ll certainly be some folk religions in my world which haven’t been mentioned.

Religious Languages
This is a concept I borrowed from the first edition of D&D, which had ‘alignment languages’ you could only speak if you had a certain alignment. This itself was borrowed from real life, where Latin was widely spoken in Christian Europe in the first millenium and Arabic is widely spoken today among Muslims. All Revelationaries and Riteguardians will speak Ancient Latin, all followers of the Greek-Roman-Aegyptian Pantheon will speak Greek, Scalesons will speak Arabic, Awaiters will speak Hebrew and followers of Norse Buddhism will speak the Ashtongue.

Hunnic Faith
Who knows? Historians sure don’t. If you want to make your own religion or import any D&D Gods here feel free, for all we know the Huns worshipped Gruumsh so I don’t see any issues.

= Europa Generalis =

Lizard Villain dude is really rich and runs a villainous organisation, he goes ‘Drat! Hissss. Foiled again, you haven’t seen the last of me heroes!’

Plothooks
Missions to other places/Germany. Come up with an equivalent to the Wells of Power. Come up with an equivalent to the Wells of Power (could be the unique things for each location)

There’s a kill list! They find it on an assassin (or maybe an NPC who turns out to be opposed to their interests) and it has a bunch of other targets on, they can see who is crossed off and who is alive.

Troll girlfriend broke up, have to keep on diet. Stolen by Chad (who is Zeus, he keeps turning into different people/creatures to seduce people/creatures)dw

Orders of Tradesmen: Italy: Gardeners. U.K.: Leerie. Egypt: Something to cool down. Scandinavia: Alesmen. Russia: Bloodmules (youngish men and women who provide blood to the vampires).

A girl's friend is 'suffering from amnesia.' She's forgotten the gnomes that live in the forest. When they confront the girl's friend, she looks embarassed and explains that there never were any gnomes, it was make believe. When they go back to the friend she feels isolated as she was the only one who believed - everyone else looked at them like they were silly or crazy. When the girl's friend agrees to go into the woods with them all, no one shows up.

A man is found on floating debris, he has a backstory but is missing some details.