Homebrew Setting (long)

[Ben Lehman]

You (by which I mean Mike) asked for it.

Please note that this is in the very early design phases.

Props go out to John Major's excellent and sadly out of print "Heaven and Earth in early Han Thought" for the 5 phase theory information.

Blurb:
 United, the empire must divide.  Divided, the empire must unite.  So it has always been, so it will always be.
 The 7000 year Metal Empire came to power in a storm of blades and gears, crushing the corrupt and decadent Wood Clan, and it has held power with those tools for the last 50 years.  The common people languish in their smoke-belching factories and are shipped about like cattle on their iron rails.  In the west, the oceans are fouled with cinnabar, and the multitudes have become pale and sickly in the cities.  In the south, the 10,000 god bull-priests are rounded up and killed like so much cattle.  In the mysterious west, a great wall of steel and cannon rises above the mountain wastes.  In the north, the soldiers hunt for children with the Rebel's blue eyes, for the blue-eyed would be the next rulers of Zhongwu.
 And, in the great capital of Dijing, the emperor's scholars research twisted electric brains that will someday replace them.

 This is the Zhongwu empire -- a land rests on a knife-edge balance between harmony and degeneracy.  Will you make the difference?

Cosmology--
This game is strongly founded in 5-elemental phase cosmology.  The basic idea of this is that all things under heaven are naturally fall into five categories, which shift and interact with each other to form the myriad things.  These are associated with elements, but it is important to recognize that the elements are merely another :

Earth:  The primary, central element, it balances all the others.  It creates Metal, destroys Water, is created by Fire and is destroyed by Wood.

Metal: The element of the west, it represents internalization and "coldness."  It creates Water, destroys Wood, is created by Earth, and is destroyed by Fire.

Water:  The element of the north, it is the fullest state of yin introspection.  It creates Wood, destroys Fire, is created by Metal and is destroyed by Earth.

Wood:  The element of spring, emergence, and growth.  It creates Fire, destroys Earth, is created by Water and is destroyed by Metal.

Fire: The element of summer, passion, and full yang.  It creates Earth, destroys Metal, is created by Wood and is destroyed by water.

The elements have numerous associations, including animals, directions, colors, grains and foodstuffs, rituals, governmental actions, times of day, weapons, musical modes, and so on...

History sketch--

There was no civilization when the Celestial Dragon Lords descended from their lunar palaces to enlighten the savage peoples of the world.  Whatever culture was here before their arrival has been completely lost to history.  The Celestial dragon lords introduced language and culture.  Their reign lasted 10,000 years, and no one knows how the fell.
The people that the Celestial Dragon Lords gave control to were call the Earth Dynasty.  Their reign lasted 5000 years, during which time they discovered agriculture.
The next dynasty was called the Metal dynasty.  In this time, the people started forging metal tools, and the empire was expanded west, into the mountainous regions.  The Metal dynasty lasted 6000 years.
The next dynasty was called the water...
(you get where this is going.)
After an entire 49,000 cycle, the Earth provinces were set once again to reign.  However, after only 100 years, a rebellion arose in the east, and the empire degenerated into chaos.
 Eventually the chaos was settled when the king of the Eastern panghai province claim the throne.  The reign of the Eastern Empire only lasted 90 years, however, when it degenerated under a incredibly complicated web of corruption and nepotism.
 Emerging out of this chaos was the Metal Dynasty, coming from somewhere in the east.

Geography--  This is about the limit of depth I'm going to give the geography-- the rest can be developed in play.

The central lands are good and fertile, and the people conservative.  Think the yellow river area.

The western lands are extraordinarily fertile, but also filled with jungle and insects.  Think of mainland southeast Asia.  Further west, there is the barbarian peninsula, whose inhabitants are barely literate and hardly capable of rational thought.  Further out is the ocean, and sunspine island, and further than that are the islands of the 144 immortals.

The southern part of the empire reaches down into a great peninsula.  The people here are wide-eyed and passionate, and here is where the worship of the 10,000 gods originated during the Ancient Fire Period.  The peninsula dwellers have a strong racial identity, and are quite passionate and warlike.  Think of India.
Further south lies the ocean, and the islands of the Southern Barbarians, who are savage, passionate, and worship volcanoes.  Further south, it is said, there is a whole continent of even more savage barbarians, who eat hearts and are all men.

The western part of the empire is full of mountains.  The people here are few and far between, and it is here where the Realization of Dream Religion retreated when it was persecuted during the Ancient Fire Period.  The west is generally very mysterious.
Further west are the lands of the Western Barbarians, who are angry, contemplative, and ready with steel.  Their skin is paler and their eyes are very round, and most suffer from Yin poisoning.

The northern part of the empire is a flat plain, with good grazing plains as well as thick forests.  The people here are cold, indifferent, and prone to deep and powerful emotion.  They are quick to act, and deadly in combat.  Think of a strange cross of Mongolia and England.
 Further north are the northern barbarians, who are blue-eyed, white skinned, and pale haired.

System Changes:

6 spiritual phases:
I am changing the spiritual attribute system slight.  First, I'm giving the characters 6, rather than 5, for purposes that will become clear below.

Each spiritual attribute is tied to an elemental phase, the five earthly phases and the heaven phase.  The spiritual attribute must be appropriate to the element it is tied to (i.e. Water attribute must be deeply internal, Wood attribute must have to do with one's internal state effecting the world, etc.)  The attributes fire and advance in the usual way.
In addition, when one is appropriately "attuned" to the element in question, one can add bonus dice equal to the attribute as normal.  For instance, if I was in the southlands, fighting with a halberd (this counts for two, because fighting is Fire attuned), wearing red, during the summertime, I would be able to add dice from my Fire attuned attribute.
In general, one must have a number of harmonized objects equal to the level of the spiritual attribute +3.
This is cumulative with the normal spiritual attribute bonus.

Further, I'm toying with the following ideas:

Supporting elements:  If a spiritual attribute fires, all "supported" spiritual attributes (for anyone) are effectively +1 for the duration of the scene.  For instance, if I was using:
Passion/Fire: Love of the Mandarin's Daughter.
Then all the Earth spirituals would be +1 for the duration of the scene.
This is cumulative.
(I'm trying to think of a better way to handle support.)

Conquering elements:  If a spiritual attribute fires, all "conquered" spiritual attributes (for opponents) may not be activated.  For instance, if I was using:
Destiny/Earth: Die Happy
You could not activate your Water attuned attributes.
(this seems a little harsh)

Other ways the spend SAs:  I'm looking at running a campaign that is episodic and not really linear in time (think of the old pulp stories, in publication order).  Thus, it seems strange to spend SAs to advance.  Thus, I'm thinking about adopting something like:
Spend 1 point: +2 to ANY die roll.
Spend 1 point: +1 to any die roll after the fact.
Spend 1 point of appropriate attribute: Autosuccess.  You cannot use this if anyone else who has an SA firing objects to it.

The die bonuses stack with any SAs firing.  Effectively, the expenditures don't hit until the end of the scene.
Thus, if you had 6 SAs firing, all at 5, and spent all the points, you could have 95 bonus dice.  (+30 normal, +60 for expenditure, +5 for supporting element bonus.)

Race Table:
The races of Zhongwu are very different than those of Weyrth,  Hence, a new table:

A:  Earth Child, Wood Child, Fire Child, Heavenfallen, Magic using Barbarian, Avatar / Satvha
B:  Water Child, Metal Child, Northern Barbarian, far Southern Barbarian
C: Other Barbarian, Paragon, Constructed Metal Child
D: Exemplar, Reborn
E: Normal Human
F: Wretch, Soul-Eunuch

Explanations:

[Elemental] Child, Heavenfallen.  These are people who are infused with the essence of a particular element, and are empowered by it.  They get a flat +2 to the associated SA, along with an effectively "magical" set of special abilities.  Of particular note are:

Metal Children:  Getting increasingly common throughout the empire, these are people who (either from birth or through some mysterious process) have had Metal infused into their bodies.  Whole chunks of their flesh are made of metal, and they are superhumanly strong and fast.  Further, many of them have various fantastic devices buried into their flesh.  The sight of a Metal Child is quite disturbing to those who are unused to them.

Avatar:  You are the embodiment of one of the 10,000 gods.  You have special, unique abilities are your own.

Satvha:  You have become enlightened, but have refrained from your Cosmic Journey to be reborn on the earth.

Barbarian:  You are one of those poor, unfortunate souls born outside of Zhongwu.  Well, at least you made up for it by coming here.  The types of Barbarians are described under geography.  Some barbaric groups have their own types of magic, and if you want to use that, you need to spend Priority A.

Paragon / Exemplar / Wretch:  As discussed in the "empty slots" thread.

Reborn:  You have been reborn from a previous life, and have a good deal of subconscious memory of your previous existence.  Add 2 skill packets.

Soul-Eunuch:  You have (voluntarily or as a punishment) been transformed into a soulless automaton (think of a frontal lobe lobotomy victim).  You have no spiritual attributes.

Campaign ideas:

Agents of Empire:  You are an elite squadron of Metal Dynasty Agents with a special mission from the emperor to travel around the nation, righting wrongs and solving problems.  Most characters would be warrior/sages, with a few court/scholar/mandarin types.

Rebels:  On the theory that Water is generated by Metal, the Metal Dynasty is attempting to hold its position with a series of radical extermination campaigns in the northern territories.  As survivors of such a campaign, you must band together and try to defend your homeland and restore dignity to the nation.

Wanderers:  Although the Metals have cracked down on brigandry and mercenaries, there are a still a fair share of wanderers and ne'erdowells at the edges of the empire.

Itinerant Sages:  Pursue enlightenment!  Argue philosophy!  Go you!

Mandarin and Co.:  You are the Mandarin (and his hand-picked servants) assigned to govern some difficult province.  Can you get the local officials in line, resolve trouble, and keep the taxes on schedule?  Contains its fair share of moral dilemmas and mystery solving.

Thoughts?

yrs--
--Ben