Background information for my D&D 5e game

The following is a starting exposition note for players in my new D&D 5e game. Read this before you make a character!

The Land

You start in the town of Lessop, on the island of Torsfit, which is about 50 miles wide, the size of the main Hawaiian Island. On the island are a number of towns, wilderness, and small mountains. Torsfit is the westernmost island in a chain of islands called the Wild Islands, ostensibly belonging to the Kingdom of Fanlong. Since Lessop is the port town on the eastern edge of Torsfit, you get lots of ship traffic from the rest of the kingdom that service the isle and the other towns on it. The town has a good economy of tradesmen and merchants. 

Other port towns on the island include the sleepy Refport on the southwestern side, and the demi-human Diamondsilt to the north. Inland from the shore, mountains rise up fairly steeply, though a few small villages reside inland, mostly existing for lumber and other resources.

Most of the Wild Islands are considered diverse; Torsfit is no exception, though Diamondsilt to the north seems to be heavily inhabited with elves, dwarves, and halflings. Any race that can speak the common language can be found here. Strangely, within the past 20 years, upright, bipedal animal people have been appearing in the area, coming in on traveling ships from far away. They speak, they wear clothes, and they work hard, so not much fuss was made about them in Lessop. Even now one of those horse people is working at the blacksmith shop.

The Maritime Decree

The kingdom of Fanlong once attempted to cement his rule and expand his reach by imposing a series of regulatory laws known as the “Kingsland Law” over the islands. The law stated that any resource acquired from outside civilized portions of the kingdom, but within its borders, was property of the king.

This law had long put a damper on profiteering and free enterprise. If a nearby monster infestation didn’t actively harm the townsfolk, there was no reason to go clear it out, seeing as how any treasure – even something as basic as monster hides – belonged to the king. This was fine back when the kingdom was small and sparsely populated; the king was a benevolent dictator whose mission was the well being of his people. As the kingdom’s borders expanded and the population grew, the law took on a tyrannical bent.

This obviously created years of economic stagnation while the royal court flourished. This very month, near revolt, King Bern passed the Maritime Decree which abolished Kingsland Law. Tariffs were decreased to nearly zero within the kingdom. Trade regulations were loosened. 

Adventurers in Lessop turn their eyes to Lessop Lookout, the tall, sheer mountain standing between Lessop and the rest of the island, cutting the city off except for two roads that travel near either shore. Once, before the Wild Islands came under Fanlong rule, the columned tholos at the top of the mountain was a lookout for ships, and the tunnels inside the mountain were for siege defense. Now, the citizens of Lessop do not go near the place, for fear of haunting or worse. Even the wooded path between the mountain and Lessop is considered haunted. Now that the Maritime Decree has been passed, perhaps it is time to go see if the place is truly haunted.

The Pantheon and History

The gods that rule over this world and the history of the world are inextricable. One influences the other. Wars are fought above and below. No god is apart from the fate of the world.

The origin myth shared by the dominant intelligent races of the world was that the universe was made by four supreme gods, working together. They took upon themselves the different tasks needed to create life – creation, destruction, thought, purpose – for one goal: to create “children” capable of intelligent thought and eventual ascendance. Original worshipers of these deities thought that this was because of love for the world, a sentiment still shared by the majority of faithful today. 

Aira: elder goddess of creation, earth, life, love, sex, and nature. The world is named Airath in reference to her. She is depicted as a blonde woman, vines growing around her arms and legs, and is considered the most powerful of the gods, but also the most tied to the fate of the world. Sometimes she is depicted in a white robe or naked, and sometimes pregnant. She is the patron of parents, children, farmers, druids, and rangers. (NG)

Pheargo: elder god of destruction, fire, death, prophecy, and renewal. He is depicted as a pale, thin, bald man with a reddish black robe, hood over his head, a long knife in his hands. Not many people worship only him; he is usually revered as part of the larger whole of elder gods. He is considered deceased. His place in the heavens was taken by Kentaulo (see below). (LN)

Tria: elder goddess of thought, air, war, and light. She is depicted as a dark haired woman in full plate armor. She is often prayed to at the start of battle. She is a patron of warriors, wizards, and sages. (LG)

Dafisio: elder god of purpose, water, hope, and inspiration. Dafisio is depicted as a musician and witty storyteller, thin with a broad, thin mustache. He is considered “The First Bard”. Sometimes trickery is assigned to him, but he is not necessarily a god of lies. He is a patron of bards and leaders. (CG)

The combination of the goddesses of sex and violence was a neat package that many bawdy men were drawn to. "The Two Sisters" is considered a religion by the barest of margins, more an excuse for pirates to rape and pillage than anything else. However, there is some truth to the perverted nature of the two goddesses, alone with no others to temper them. They bore a son between them, Grapp. He was green and ugly. But he was no less a god. 

Grapp: lesser god of fear, anger, and tyranny. He is worshiped by "greenskins": orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, etc. He is depicted as ugly to the fairer races, though a Grapp worshipper sees nothing wrong with him. Each greenskin race depicts him as one of their own, though always with green skin. (NE)

There is also a popular, unorganized, generic faith of worshiping all four elder gods at once. It does not have any clerical power to speak of, only symbols split into four quadrants, with the colors reminiscent of each deity's dominion in each quadrant.

In the first age, a human named Kaijent became powerful and challenged the gods to his place among them. The gods did not kill the man for his arrogance, but did not agree that this challenge was what the purpose of his life was. Kaijent forced his way to the heavens regardless, and took his mantle as the fifth god in the world.

Kaijent: ascended god of will and magic. He is depicted as a monk; head shaved, loose, billowy clothing, wielding a staff. He is a patron of individuals, anarchists, and sorcerers. (TN)

In the second age, a portal opened in the heavens and a blackness came forth, a chaotic alien essence that threatened the five gods and the universe they reigned over. Both gods and mortals fought this blackness and drove it back, damaging the world in the process; a whole continent was eaten away, while another was sundered in half by the very forces trying to save the planet. This was known as the Black War. Pheargo died, but before he did, he passed his gifts on to his steward, Kentaulo. The second mortal ascended into the heavens, though he is considered to only be a steward of the heavens, and that he is only a humble intermediary to the forces of nature that he commands. Still, he gives the gift of power to his clerics and paladins like any other. Strangely enough, whether a Cleric or Paladin worships Pheargo, Kentaulo, or both, the powers granted are the same. Even the denouncement of either of the gods (in the case of, for example, Pheargo purists) does not affect their powers.

Kentaulo: ascended god, steward of Pheargo. He holds dominion over the same areas that Pheargo once did. He is depicted how he is remembered in life: a black robed youth, once a cleric of Pheargo, bearing two glowing sickles that represent the twins Burden and Gift, that the god bestowed upon him. (LG)

One individual intelligence from the black universe remained, named Mahkeon, though the gods do not say why, when it should have been eradicated from existence. Mahkeon survives as a being on par with the gods, and has worshipers itself. It is considered to be a god of chaos, darkness, lies, and oblivion, whose followers are slowly, gladly consumed with madness.

Mahkeon: invading god of chaos and madness. He is not depicted the same way twice. It is said he is unable to take a form that makes sense to mortal eyes. (CE)

In the third age, Dafisio slowly grew insane, making the whole of his church insane as well. His madness threw the world into turmoil. Nearly 800 years after the black war, Mahkeon had gathered power and allies, attempting to destroy Dafisio and replace him. A former paladin, once cursed by an insane Dafisio but still loyal to what he represented, took upon the mantle of purpose. She is considered a steward of the elder god's power, much like Kentaulo.

M'Hairi: ascended god, steward of Dafisio. She is depicted as a tall, stout, armored woman with the head of a horse, wielding a war hammer. (LG)

**************************

Like many RPG fans, I've created a world for running my D&D games in. The first campaign ran in 2e in the 90's. Then I re-ran the storyline in 3.5e around 2010 or so. This time around, I am using the 5e rules, but also fast-forwarding the timeline hundreds of years. I told my players in the last campaign that the stuff they did will be mythologized in the next campaign. Time to make good on the claim! The most obvious shout-out is to Kent, the Pheargo cleric who eventually ascended to the pantheon to be the steward of death. (Thanks, DJ!) Less obvious is the barbarian dully named Thor...one of those shrug and move on moments, I guess. After the campaign, his happily-ever-after was the reestablishment and repopulation of this barbarian people. The island name of Torsfit is a neologism literally meaning "Thor's Foot". Few non-elf NPC's will have remembered the source of the island's name. 

D&D 5e Player's Handbook

I picked up the Player's Handbook first thing last Friday. I've been reading it, helping friends make characters for fun, and thinking about running a game some time in the future. Here's my thoughts on it so far:

- They kept the layout designers from 4e. So much art, so much a work of art. It's beautiful.

- They're taking the "flavor" route and writing things out in paragraphs. Sure, there are the normal charts: ability score bonuses, items and their cost and weight...you know, the usual. But there's a lot of plain English. This can be good and bad. The way older editions (1e, 2e, BECMI) read like textbooks or instruction manuals. Bad for creativity, good for reference. Once I get past the beauty of the book, I'm going to tabulate this thing with the little 3M page stickies. I'll be labeling Races, Classes, Combat, Spells, Armor, and so on. Perhaps the DM screen - which I know they're going to sell eventually - will be more efficient.

- Warlocks are an advanced class. I can't even get a character name out of my players, but to set up a backstory detailing how you interact with your infernal patron? That's a lot of pure imagination right off the bat. I'm going to enjoy the ramifications of such a class, though. Someone choose Warlock!

- The index isn't bad. That's way more important than anyone realizes.

- The first chapter is an okay character creation summary section. It doesn't summarize the races when it says pick a race, for example. Unless you know it by heart, you have to read the entire chapter on races to know which race to play. In comparison to, say, Werewolf: the Forsaken (the last game I ran), the creation summary section is less informational. Just as a talking point, though, I have to ask myself: is summarizing the "Bone Shadow" tribe as this kind of werewolf who behaves like this and takes these powers, all on one page, a credit to the game world? It's a credit to speeding up character creation, for sure. It may lend itself to flat, two-dimensional characters. But does the impatient character creator, grumpily ignoring most of the chapter on races, make a ONE dimensional character as soon as he chooses a race? Would he even know what it means to be a dragonborn? At least, the new Werewolf player knows his Bone Shadow stereotype. The new D&D 5e player less so. I don't know whether that's a bad thing. I don't know how much pandering to bad, impatient players I and the book need to do.

- WTF is up with those triangular silver coins? They'd poke you in the pocket, get the edges snapped off, and generally would be strange to carry around. Bleh.

- There needs to be a sentence saying how many skill proficiencies a character has at start, and where they come from. (Class, Background, etc.) My friends would choose their class proficiencies, thinking that was all they were going to get, and then they get more. Well then!

All in all, I'm liking it more than 3e, 3.5e, and 4e. It's on a par with 2e rules-wise, but on par with 4e beauty-wise. I had high expectations, and the book is meeting them fairly well.