The Rise of the Nihilists: Setting

[Gwen]

I suppose this will also help with the understanding of the game, but I didn't want to lump this discussion in with the Mechanics discussion.

I will try to sum up the important details without making it seem to hodge-podged.  It's chronological

The Beginning  The Great Creator, the First Deity, Omnius created all things.  The world of Wythmaie and its three children:  Terribus the Deity of Conflict, Dominica the Deity of Resolve and Haag the Deity of Death.

The Creation of Life  To entertain themselves, Terribus and Dominica created life on Wythmaie.  Terribus created the Immortal Races (Dragons, Griffins, Pegasus, and Pheonix) and Dominica created the Mortal Races (Ogres, Humans, Fairys).  These Mortal and Immortal Races are known as the Major Races.

(Fairys consist of Elves, Brownies, Pixies, Sprites, and Gnomes.)

Omnius created his own races for his own enjoyment.  (Unicorn, Mouselings, Dwarves, Firrish, Elo, Orxx, Naga, Gargoyles, Leviathons, Wolven, Salamanders, and O-Laavin.)  These were the Minor Races.

Haag, racked with pain from her unity with Death drove herself mad with her screams.  Omnius, nearly driven mad as well, sealed her beneath the ground of Wythmaie to silence her.  There she swallowed up the souls of the dead and gave them new life on the Isle of the Dead.  (White Skeletons, Yellow Skeletons, and the Dead.)

The Struggle for Provinces  Terribus and Dominica watched with delight as their numerous races fought endless wars to establish boundaries.  Eventually, after much warring, boundaries were established and peace had been accomplished.

The Arrival of the Dead  After these wars, the population of the Isle of the Dead has increased and, using their combined magic, sailed the whole island to the main continent where it collided and created a massive mountain range.

Skeletons and the Dead spilled over the mountains to reclaim the world, but soon they were driven back and peace was once again acquired.

The Infected  Following the war with the dead, the Elves had been wiped out.  So had the Unicorn.  The Wolven and Salamanders had dwindled to small populations.

Some infected races developed into new races.  Dwarves became Strogdytes, Ogres became Trolls, and Humans became Giants.

The Minor Races Revolt  Desiring endless peace, the Major races (Humans, Ogres, Dragons, Pheonix, Pegasus, Griffins and Fairys) all formed the World Council.  They invited the Dead to join as well to maintain peace.

The Minor Races were outraged at their exclusion while they Dead were asked to join.  They revolt and war breaks out again.

During this war, the Immortal Races built four cities in the sky, one for the Dragons, one for the Pegasus, one for the Griffins, and one for the Pheonix.  From there, they controlled the seasons.

Dragons - Fall
Pegasus - Winter
Griffins - Spring
Pheonix - Summer

The Second World Council  A Second World Council is established and all the races are included.  There is peace again.

The Griffins Domination  Refusing to bring about the season of Spring, Winter remains on Wythmaie.  They soon descend and attack the cities to bring them under Griffin control.  The other races fight a futile fight as the Griffins soon take control of the entire continent.

This, however, breed solidarity between all of the Mortal and Dead races.

The Dragons, Pegasus and Pheonix attempt to stop the Griffins, but the Griffins drive them away.  They crash the Pheonix's floating city into the ocean and kill many many many Naga, Leviathon and Firrish.

The Magic Purge  Fearing an inevitable revolt, all mages are killed.  Their year long search leads to the destruction of 99% of the magic population.

However, the Elo (a blue skinned reptile race) possess the unknown ability of MindWebbing.

MindWebbing:  The ability to enter a tance like state to preject ones mind to the MindWeb, where all minds are linked.  There, the Elo can communicate and share memories.

The Science Revolution  Left without magic, the Elo coordinate a world wide delve into science.

Dynamite in invented.  Steam power is invented.  Flintlocks are invented.

Brownies create micro steam engines, which lead to the creation of steam-powered machines called Clockens.  Clocken arms replace real arms, clocken eyes replace real eyes.

Soon, they develop a sentient machine race, known simply as the Clocken.

Meanwhile, the Dwarves discover undergound veins of super-heated combustible minerals known as "Fire Rock."  One stick of dynamite composed of Fire Rock equals a million sticks of normal dynamite.

Overthrowing the Griffins  Through with slavery, Clocken armies marched from the distance to attack the Griffins.  Flintlocks shot Griffins into bloody lumps.

A ton of Fire Rock (a mega-ton bomb) was catapulted into the floating Griffin City and knocked it off its axis, crashing it into the Equatorial Deserts.

The Griffins had been defeated and they retreated to the other 2 remianing floating cities.

Eternal Winter  Now the world is in a state of reform.  A massive world-wide war had done unspeakable damage to the geography, the culture and economy.  With the Immortal Races gone, no seasons change and it is always winter.

Many people are fed up with magic.  Others are fed up with the Immortal Races.

But a great deal of people blame these seemingly endless wars on one thing:  Organization.

Now, 25% of the world has fallen under the command of Haag and her teachings of Nihilism.  They believe the only way to live peacefully is to wipe out all organization and live in chaos.

Haag controls their minds with the blue honey from the Bleeds.

Bleeds are insect sized lions with the wings and stingers of bees.  Bleeds make sweet, sweet honey which is intoxicating and makes the consumer suseptible to suggestion.

---

So where does that leave you?

Characters find themselves in a shattered world where the Nihilists are covertly trying to wipe out organization.  It is a world wide witch hunt, where any opposition to organization leads to Nihilistic accusations.

Fight the Nihilists.  Stop their advancement.  Don't taste the honey.

But keep an eye open for the Griffins, because they'll surely be back with a new plan.

Pay for everything in copper, silver, gold or mercury.  Pay- don't trade.  Currency is organized.  Trading is anarchy.

Duel, don't brawl.  Dueling is organized.  Brawling is anarchy.

You're not a Nihilist, are you?  Surely there must be some way to proove it.

[Spooky Fanboy]

Since no one else has said anything, I will.

This is a sweet setting. I don't know many fantasy settings that combine D&D (multiple fantasy races) with Paranoia (witch hunts).

So, even among the various races and cultures, this Nihilist movement and the countermovement manage to work together well? Is there that much culture drift between the races to begin with?

[Gwen]

Thanks for taking the time to read it, Spooky!

In answer to your question, no the Nihilists and the two opposing governments (the Third World Council and the Militant Movements) are constantly at eachothers throats.

The Nihilists are always trying to sabotage the organization that holds the political systems together.  The governments are trying to exterminate the Nihilists.

There is very little conflict based on race alone.  The constant wars have driven rufugees out of some provinces and into others.  When the Griffins took over, each race was equally as opressed, giving them an unspoken sense of solidarity.

Now, the major conflicts lie in political beliefs opposed to race.

Racial dislike is still common on the individual level, but the entire race conflicts (dwarves vrs. elves) only exists in the case of Griffins vrs. everyone else.

[Spooky Fanboy]

Okay, now how do people eat, as it is always winter?

Also, how does alchemy play a role in this world? Why alchemy? Just curious.

[Gwen]

Livestock is still raised and used for food, along with store houses of vegetables and grains.  However, the most common form of nutrition lies in alchemical potions.  The most common of these known as "Meals" are bottles the size of a soda can which proved the body with enough nutrients for one week.

They're tasteless, odorless and mass-produced cheaply.  The ingredients are easy to come by, so travellers can even create them while on the road.

They do not- however- provide the consumer with protein.  Livestock is still a high priced commodity to keep people alive.

I chose alchemy because I find spell casting to be quite cliched- used in fantasy, cyberpunk, modern and even some space games.

Alchemy is a magical system that is occasionally used, but rarely the ONLY magic.  Plus, alchemy is easy for a GM to keep under control.  If a potion is too powerful and unbalances the game, he can simply make the ingerdients impossible to find.

[ethan_greer]

I like what you've laid out here - particularly the alchemy concept.  That's all I have to say, but I thought I'd pipe in with my encouragement, FWIW. :)

[Ron Edwards]

Wow!

Gwen, write this up! Sign me up for the earliest version of a playable draft.

Best,
Ron

[Spooky Fanboy]

That's why I'm really glad I started looking on this list as well as the Independent Forums: up and coming games like this make my continued involvement in the hobby all that much more worthwhile.

Sign me up for a playtest too, Gwen.