Post by The Storyteller on Jan 16, 2015 13:53:59 GMT
I don't know why, but I feel the need to lay out my influences for this RP. Sometimes, it's just nice to have people know where you're coming from. Thus, when I descrbe a scene or plot point, you can envision it a little better. I'm also a fan of giving credit where credit is due. (When I can remember who said what, that is.)
Elves are a standard fantasy staple, and very little of what I do with them can be called truly original. The idea of playing dark elves was suggested by a few other players, but the most popular depiction of underground, darwinist elves comes to us from Forgotten Realms. I was initially quite hesitant about even using the word 'drow' until I confirmed it actually hails from British mythology, and there is in turn derived from Norse mythology concerning trolls. ('Troll' became 'trow' became 'drow'.) The actual description of elves we have today also comes from the Norse. The Ljosalfar and Dokkalfar (Respectively, 'light elves' and 'dark elves') were the core inspiration for Tolkien's elves, and thus, almost all modern depictions.
The only real innovation I add is the idea that the elves never really faded out or weakened. Humanity never overpowered them, and the elves never fade into legend. They simply stuck around, holding onto their power and lands. It's a common fantasy trope that somehow 'the old ways are the best' and so I simply decided, if the old ways really were the best, then the old ways would remain in practice. At no point in the history of this world has humanity ever triumphed over the Firstborn merely because 'humans are awesome'. I also removed the concept of 'age automatically begets wisdom'. My elves are as fallible and nasty as any human culture. An elf may live longer, but greed, injustice, racism, and ignorance are just as easily found in the Firstborn as any culture today.
As for humans, Marius the Magnificent is obviously Alexander the Great, only with a much more memorable demise, and a proper legacy. The 'Greater Empire of the Western Reaches' is essentially a mishmash of the Roman, Ottoman, and Mongol Empires. I don't intend to give it any kind of timeline, as I like the idea of it being a collective of various nations united around the promise of defeating the vile elf tyrants next door. Sure, there were plenty of human wars and secession crises, but you can imagine every serious claimant to the throne was sure promise a 'final solution to the fae menace.' Otherwise, human players can describe their personal homelands in whatever way they like.
One thing I felt the need to avert as hard as possible was the concept of 'medieval stasis', the idea that a fantasy society will remain at the same level of technology after a hundred, thousand, or ten thousand years. George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is particularly guilty of this, along with the vast majority of fantasy stories going all the way back to Tolkien. In real life, there were less than a thousand years between the Roman Empire and the Renaissance. In this world, humanity is inevitably spurred into a sort of arms race with their elven rivals, and magic and technology as we understand it advances for it. You'll notice I treat magic as we might treat science, with a clear set of rules great thinkers try to bend and exploit to achieve a certain goal. The description for 'The Legend of Fort Greyhawk' was intentionally written as 'Seal Team 6 prepares to storm Mordor.'
The Long Storm is actually inspired by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, NOT any particular calamity in fantasy literature. The concept of nature's wrath is very much from a long tradition of Asian reflections on vengeful spirits, culminating in Godzilla. The Aether spirits are a somewhat more typical fantasy fare, and owes a large debt to Dragon Age's own views of magic. However, the Undying themselves are inspired by a little known 90s horror flick called Lord of Illusions, which featured a sorcerer who owed his power and resurrection to dark spirits. Clive Barker, the writer and director pf Lord of Illusions, also gave us a little known 00s horror game called 'Undying', which contributed a wee bit more than its name.
Aetherians are my own personal creation for the most part, though it all started when someone mentioned they wanted to play Tieflings and Qunari. Somewhere out of that and a love of certain Marvel comics came the Aetherians. Like humans, I never expected them to have a monolithic culture, or even a monomythic one, as they would be building on scraps of already diverse human cultures. I decided 'family' should be the defining unit of Aetherian society simply because it was the most basic one in ours, before you in bring in nationalism, religion, or exterior pressures.
Finally, I owe a tremendous debt to The Death Gate Cycle, The Elder Scrolls, the various writings of J.R.R. Tolkien and Tad Williams, and the assorted players who sat there while I tossed any number of ridiculous ideas at them while making this.
Elves are a standard fantasy staple, and very little of what I do with them can be called truly original. The idea of playing dark elves was suggested by a few other players, but the most popular depiction of underground, darwinist elves comes to us from Forgotten Realms. I was initially quite hesitant about even using the word 'drow' until I confirmed it actually hails from British mythology, and there is in turn derived from Norse mythology concerning trolls. ('Troll' became 'trow' became 'drow'.) The actual description of elves we have today also comes from the Norse. The Ljosalfar and Dokkalfar (Respectively, 'light elves' and 'dark elves') were the core inspiration for Tolkien's elves, and thus, almost all modern depictions.
The only real innovation I add is the idea that the elves never really faded out or weakened. Humanity never overpowered them, and the elves never fade into legend. They simply stuck around, holding onto their power and lands. It's a common fantasy trope that somehow 'the old ways are the best' and so I simply decided, if the old ways really were the best, then the old ways would remain in practice. At no point in the history of this world has humanity ever triumphed over the Firstborn merely because 'humans are awesome'. I also removed the concept of 'age automatically begets wisdom'. My elves are as fallible and nasty as any human culture. An elf may live longer, but greed, injustice, racism, and ignorance are just as easily found in the Firstborn as any culture today.
As for humans, Marius the Magnificent is obviously Alexander the Great, only with a much more memorable demise, and a proper legacy. The 'Greater Empire of the Western Reaches' is essentially a mishmash of the Roman, Ottoman, and Mongol Empires. I don't intend to give it any kind of timeline, as I like the idea of it being a collective of various nations united around the promise of defeating the vile elf tyrants next door. Sure, there were plenty of human wars and secession crises, but you can imagine every serious claimant to the throne was sure promise a 'final solution to the fae menace.' Otherwise, human players can describe their personal homelands in whatever way they like.
One thing I felt the need to avert as hard as possible was the concept of 'medieval stasis', the idea that a fantasy society will remain at the same level of technology after a hundred, thousand, or ten thousand years. George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is particularly guilty of this, along with the vast majority of fantasy stories going all the way back to Tolkien. In real life, there were less than a thousand years between the Roman Empire and the Renaissance. In this world, humanity is inevitably spurred into a sort of arms race with their elven rivals, and magic and technology as we understand it advances for it. You'll notice I treat magic as we might treat science, with a clear set of rules great thinkers try to bend and exploit to achieve a certain goal. The description for 'The Legend of Fort Greyhawk' was intentionally written as 'Seal Team 6 prepares to storm Mordor.'
The Long Storm is actually inspired by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, NOT any particular calamity in fantasy literature. The concept of nature's wrath is very much from a long tradition of Asian reflections on vengeful spirits, culminating in Godzilla. The Aether spirits are a somewhat more typical fantasy fare, and owes a large debt to Dragon Age's own views of magic. However, the Undying themselves are inspired by a little known 90s horror flick called Lord of Illusions, which featured a sorcerer who owed his power and resurrection to dark spirits. Clive Barker, the writer and director pf Lord of Illusions, also gave us a little known 00s horror game called 'Undying', which contributed a wee bit more than its name.
Aetherians are my own personal creation for the most part, though it all started when someone mentioned they wanted to play Tieflings and Qunari. Somewhere out of that and a love of certain Marvel comics came the Aetherians. Like humans, I never expected them to have a monolithic culture, or even a monomythic one, as they would be building on scraps of already diverse human cultures. I decided 'family' should be the defining unit of Aetherian society simply because it was the most basic one in ours, before you in bring in nationalism, religion, or exterior pressures.
Finally, I owe a tremendous debt to The Death Gate Cycle, The Elder Scrolls, the various writings of J.R.R. Tolkien and Tad Williams, and the assorted players who sat there while I tossed any number of ridiculous ideas at them while making this.