Thursday, January 21, 2010

More on the Order of Thoth Part III

Continued from Part II

Demonic Corruption and the First Magewar.
The first version mirrored events in Ars Magica but my version always had the conclaves in Lenap being corrupted. Since the conflict with demons is central to my vision of the Majestic Wildelerlands I jettisoned the Ars Magica elements and retained the rest. This section is important for establishing to the player how serious the Order takes detailing with demons.

The Great Crusade and the Ghinorian Wars.
This section was added well after the original all-mage campaign and reflects the work I did on detailing present day (for the setting) Ghinor. During the all-mage campaign the upper hierarchy of the order based in Tula came across as very distant and impact little of what the players were dealing with. After detailing Ghinor I realized I had a reason for this.

This section is a possible source of roleplaying for the players. Do their character try to turn around the Order's focus on the Ghinorians or take advantage of the distraction to benefit themselves.

Salm-Lorin is intended as a cautionary tale against mage characters that would try to set themselves as rulers. It may seem contradictory considering that I want players to make a mark on the Wilderlands. However at high levels in most Fantasy RPGS (GURPS, D&D, etc) magic become very dominant. This explains why mages don't rule everywhere keeping the setting plausible and aiding suspension of disbelief. More importantly giving mage characters a more satisfying challenge than what the rule mechanics alone allow.

Recent Events are pure plot seeds for players to pursue. The one that I suppose will dominate the current campaign is the "land rush" for magical orders occulting in the remnants of the Viridstan Empire. I say suppose because it will be up to players to pick which direction they will go in. All I can do is supply the world.

Finally it ends up with the Code of Thoth which is the essence of what the mages of the Order of Thoth believe in. Note that there is five tenets. This reflects the Ghinorian origins of the founders who knew of the Fivefold Code of the Church of Mitra.

I hope this helps you write your own campaign handouts and to make them relevant to how your players roleplay their characters.

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