In reality evil religions don't exist.

The Blood of Prokopius is an interesting blog and has a lot of interesting posts on how FrDave Christian Faith relates to D&D and his campaign. Recently he had a post on Evil. I responded with a lengthy post on my cosmology and the theology behind it and he replied.

The main point he picked out was this statement

My whole system came about because I wanted true evil, rejection of creation, but I wanted shades of gray in religion. In my reading I know that "evil" religion don't exist in reality.

The problem with evil religions in D&D is that they are not realistic if they are part of a culture or nation. My definition of a evil deity is somebody like Lolth, Elemental Evil, Bane, Howard's Set, etc. They are not realistic because throughout human history cultures just don't go into worshiping evil deities. Isolated cults yes which often manifest as small groups or individuals rejecting the larger culture they are part of.

The technical definition of these type of religions is Maltheism.

Maltheism (from "mal" meaning bad, or illness, and theism, from... well, theism) is the idea that god is just out to get us and that he or she or it is malicious, like a kid who keeps selecting "Monster" from the disaster menu in Sim City. A Maltheist, therefore, is someone who believes that a god or gods exist, and that they are evil, malicious, incompetent, or otherwise causing the suffering of humanity.

The Cathars of southern France during the Middle Ages believed Earth was under the sway of an evil god, the Demiurge. The Demiurge was equated with Satan. But being a Cathar wasn't about worshiping the Demiurge. Their whole faith was about rejecting the world (mainly through a severe form of asceticism) so their souls would be put on the road to the realm of light where God exists.

This doesn't mean cultures haven't adopted religions or philosophies that were considered abhorrent by neighboring cultures. Also various cultures adopted religions that essentially turned their nations into totalitarian states with all that entails.

The "evil" religions have some fig leaf that makes it appealing to members of that cultures. Usually by preaching some type of racial or cultural superiority. The worst practices of these religions (and they can be pretty bad) are reserved for those they conquer or capture. But among those in the "in-group" the religion can be benign. The Assyrians around 800 B.C. are a good example of this.

The way I apply this to a fantasy campaign is rather simplistic. Religions involving a truly evil deity have cults and never dominate a nation or a culture. The rest have various fig leafs to make them appealing to the cultures that adopted them.

In my own campaign cultures dominated by Set are totalitarian and tyrannical in nature. The culture worshipping Hamakhis believe that the practice of human sacrifices aids the god in holding back the chaos that will destroy creation. And that culture has an ongoing reformation that is trying to return the worship of Hamakhis back to it's older form in worshiping him as the Judge of the Dead. The last evil god of campaign, Kalis, is a nature goddess of blood and revenge. She is only worshiped by cults.

On nature of Good and Evil in the Majestic Wilderlands

I haven't used alignment for a long time even back when ADnD 1st edition was still my primary fantasy RPG.

Recently the issue of good and evil came up in the last session, resulting in a major decision for one character.

What is good and evil? That is something each referee has to define. There is no right answer, my only firm recommendation is that there is answer and that it is consistent.

My personal choice is to make the issue a challenge. On one hand I don't use alignment. One consequence is that what is right and just depends on a character's point of view..  On the other absolute good and evil do exist. How can I have both in the Majestic Wilderlands?

The short answer is that when the Wilderlands absolute good was baked into the creation of Elves and Men. That it involves individuals achieving the purpose of their creation. Not in the sense of individual destiny but in achieving the potential that all sentient life have. This includes helping other achieve their potential. Absolute evil is the rejection of the above and the elevation of self above all other considerations or consequences taken to a terrible extreme. While ideal good exists it is rarely encountered due to imperfect choices made by deities and mortals exercising their free will. The difference between a deity and the a mortal is similar to the difference between an experienced parent to a young child. And like parents the various deities of the Majestic Wilderlands have developed different attitudes on how best to teach the mortals to achieve their potential.

The detailed answer is under the fold.

Things to consider for your Religion

What should go into the one page description of your religion?

Motivation
Most RPG religions have deities that are powerful beings with cosmic concerns. I deliberately chose the term powerful beings. As most deities have limits on their reach and knowledge. Sure they can smash a PC, or kingdom like a bug but in a nutshell they are thought of people who have a lot on their mind. In many ways they are like a parent to the mortal races.

This conception of deities gives us a good starting point for describing them. Think of your deity as a person with cosmic concerns. They had a beginning, they have a history. All of this shapes the personality they have today. You don't need to go into great detail, a sketch is all you need to start with.

Teachings
From the deity's motivation you can derive a set of teaching. Come up with a half dozen or so tenets.

Background
Set the deity within the history and cultures of your campaign. This is another area where you can go overboard so try to limit yourself to a paragraph. What this helps with is to decide the scope of the religion. There are a lot of ways you can go but the main choices are cult, local, cultural, or universal.

A cult religion has a handful of followers and are mostly secretive. Cults are traditionally associated with evil gods. On the flip side nearly all religions start out as a cult at some point.

A local religion is tied to a specific place. Gods of city-states also fall into this category. For example a toad god that protect a large swamp and all those who live it. Because of the turmoil of the region he also become a protector god of refugees who traditional hid in the swamp as the invaders pass.

A cultural religion is found throughout a particular culture. Two variant to consider are cultural religions that are religions of state and it opposite a cultural religion that followed by a conquered or oppressed populace.

A universal religion is found throughout multiple cultures in multiple region. The key attribute is that they teach something that has universal appeal. For example Dannu's teachings of living in harmony with the earth, home and hearth is far more likely to be followed by many cultures than the Toad God's obession with a swamp.

Universal religions can rise by a variety of means. A varient where a culture become dominent over many regions and enough time passes where it becomes fused with the local cultures (like Rome). Another variant is continued contact with longer lived races like the elves. The continuity offered by the elves has a powerful effect on the surrounding human cultures resulting a shared core set of belief. In someways this parallels the effect of China on the surrounding regions.

Calender
This is not commonly done but I found that having some type of calender greatly add to the players sense of place. Now this does not mean I hand the player a calender of dates. But rather periodically a festival or a special day occurs. Dates to consider are Traditonal founding day, Important dates of the deity life, seasonal festivals.

Priesthood
Up to this point we have defined little that will have an impact on adventure prep. With the belief defined, a basic mythology, the background, and calender you should have enough information to setup what type of priest that follows the deity.

I find it useful not to think of the priesthood as a organization of the cleric class. But rather than a description of all those who make serving the deity their primary profession. So for the forest god he may have a order of cleric who job is to maintain sanctuaries, a order of fighter who protect the sanctuaries, and a order of rangers who patrol the woods between and carry messages between the sanctuaries.

The result should be one or more template you can use to flesh locales four your adventures. Think of the guidelines for orc tribes, and merchant caravan in 1st edition's Monster Manual.


Lay Followers
The body of the deity's believer is more than the priesthood. So having a paragraph describing what typical adherents are like will help in prepare adventures. Perhaps they live under some strict code, are they open to talking with outsiders, do they try to convert, and so on. The end result is another template you can apply to help you when you need to create a village of followers of Mitra vs a village of followers of Set.

Religious Structures
Put some thought in how temples and other important religous structures are laid out. There will be variation based on locale and regions but in general structures for religous purpose follow a pattern. Like the cross layout of many of the great cathedrals.

Miscellaneous
Finally if you have note any neat ideas you have for your religion that don't fit anywhere else. And if you need combat stats here is where they would go.

The last couple of Harn Days

Columbia Games has been releasing Harn material just about every month for the last year and a half. Far quicker than their track record of previous years. Here are the last two releases.

First a general comment, all of these products are set in Harn's low fantasy medieval setting. While tied to Harn in many says because of their fantasy medieval foundation they are easily ported to any similar setting like Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms. When pressed for time to have a detailed settlement I often go into my Harn books and use one of the settlements in there.

One of the projects has been to released expanded versions of the original Cities of Harn. It not just more content, they go more into the personalities of the place. The kind of stuff you need when trying to bring a place to life in a session.

This time it is the City of Shiran turn. It is one of Harn's smaller cities located in the merchant controlled Thardic Republic. It is noted for its hedonism and for its arena games.

And it comes with this cool map of the Arena for those desiring for some action with blood and sand. 

Next is the Order of Hyvrik one of the clerical order of Larani, the Harn goddess of Justice and Honor. As in real life the various Harn religions have sects and orders. Hyvrik dominates the Church of Larani in the western portion of Harn. 

Next is the Order of the Checkered Shield. Some of Harn's religions have fighting order like the various order that fought in our history's crusades. Unlike the rest of the island western Harn has a good vs evil conflict between the Agrik dominated Kingdom of Rethem (god of fire and tyranny), and the Larani dominated Kingdom of Kanday. The Checkered Shield are on the frontline of Kanday's border with Rethem. Lots of adventuring possibilities with this organization.

In the past years Columbia Games have been putting out small location articles. They take a building or a small area of land and detail it. This location is about the Temple of Larani in the Castle town of Dyrisa. It shows how the above two articles (Hyvrik and Checkered Shield) work together in something an adventuring party would interact with.

Onto the second release.

Many of the cities and castle of Harn have been detailed in articles already printed. Now Columbia Games is expanding to smaller keeps.

Heru Keep is located in the Kingdom of Kaldor. It show the effect of the succession crisis meta-plot of Kaldor as on a smaller settlement.

Menio Keep is located in the Kingdom Melderyn. It is interesting example of a settlement dominated by a single industry. In this case pottery. While it sound mundane, where there is money involved there is intrigue and this place is just as dramatic in its own way as Heru Keep and the succession crisis.

Next is an addition to the Harnmaster beastiary that focuses on Harnic Lycanthropes. An interesting section are details of the attitudes of the various religions towards Lycanthropes.

Last is another small location article, this time focusing on a Charcoaler outside of Harden Castle in Melderyn. What makes this useful is that Charcoaler not only have a shop in town, they have to maintain forest camps where the charcoal is made. This can be used to add an interesting encounter to a wilderness adventure.

Again just a warning Harn products are pricey but the the quality is always top notch.

Harnworld in Hardback Kickstarter

 

I have been a fan of Harn, both the setting and the Harnmaster rules, for a long time. Ever since I encountered the original Harn setting folio at Games Unlimited in Pittsburgh PA. 

Columbia Games just announced their latest Kickstarter, HarnWorld: Medieval Fantasy RPG Setting Hardback.  This hardback will contain the following Harn articles: Harnworld, the Harndex, Ketheria, Lythia, and Cities and Towns as well as the physical map of Harn and PDFs of the above.

Background

Harn has been continuously published since 1983. Harn is a fantasy medieval setting that located on an island the size of Madagascar. Harn is divided into several distinct realms including one dominated by the elves and another dominated by dwarves. Some realms like Kaldor are feudal realms, some are merchant republics with vague echoes of Rome like the Thardic Republic. There is an "evil" kingdom, Rethem. And there are Vikings in Orbaal. 

I recommend downloading the Harnworld preview from DriveThruRPG. Columbia Games cleverly made a version of their map with an overview of the setting. 

In addition there is my own summary of Harn, All about Harn

Overview

As I mentioned in previous posts, Harn is a premium-priced product line. One thing that warrants its price, is the consistent quality of its releases since 1983. Not only they are of good quality, everything released for Harn remains compatible with the initial release in 1983. There are not many other RPGs settings that make the same claim. 

Another quality of Harn is its ability to be used with other settings especially those made for Dungeons and Dragons. While Harn emphasizes the medieval over fantasy it still originates from the same wellspring of fantasy that Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax drew from for DnD. This makes it very easy to incorporate Harn as part of another setting or more commonly to use parts of Harn in another setting. The individual entries of Harnworld and Harndex articles are useful for fleshing regions of your setting if you don't opt to run Harn itself. 

So what are you getting for your $69.

Harnworld and Harndex

The original version of Harn was a folio containing two staple bound letter sized books; Harnview and Harndex. 

The hardback has newest version of both; Harnworld and the updated Harndex. Harnworld is an overview of the setting and in 58 pages describes it's history, gives an overview of feudal life, cultures, and religions, along with a few useful aides like prices, incomes, and weather generation. Basically everything mention in the summary earlier but fleshed out in more detail.

Harndex is a 152 pages index containing one or paragraph entries on geography, economics, religions, cultures, realms, rulers, and points of interest. 

Here are some examples.

Kethira

Kethira is the name of the planet on which Harn is located. This ten page article give an overview of its geography and other physical details including a star chart of Harn's night sky. And yes those square show the possible regional maps to cover the entire planet. Although only a dozen regions have been fleshed out to date.

Lythia

This 32 page article describes the continent that Harn is part of. Unlike Kethira is also describes the various cultures and religions found on the continent. Half of the article, 16 pages, is similar to the Harndex, an index of geographical and cultural entries describing the continent.

Wrapping it up.

There are only a few RPG that I have consistently used for over forty years and Harn is one of them. Not everybody is a fan of the product line's loose leaf format, and now having the core Harnworld material in a single hardback hopefully makes it more accessible for everyone.

Finally, I can't stress enough how well Harn is written. While the product line (and community) does go down to the Nth level of detail each level is written in a terse format giving just enough at that level of detail. The additional material fleshes out what in the core Harnworld articles but it is not required reading.

Today is Harn Day

Currently new Harn material is produced on a semi-regular basis. About once a quarter Harnquest subscribers get charged $25 by Columbia Games and receive a new packet of Harn material. In terms of dollars per page count Harn is expensive. However the quality of the material is outstanding.

In the past (1990s) Harn material was good but since the inauguration of the Harnquest format it gotten better. The earlier Harn material was a through description various locales and entities in Harn. It was very dry despite it's quality.

When they inaugurated the Harnquest several of the older articles were slated for expansion. In addition to the dry description of the locale you now got description of the people involved. This little change has made these articles far more useful. Plus the illustration of these folk are all down to earth. Hardly a Elmore style heroic pose in the bunch and a whole bunch you wouldn't want to be caught in a alley with.

In past year they have started new article formats, the first is a geography description of a region of Harn like a mountain range. While not as people oriented as the locale articles they are very useful if an adventuring party is moving through the area.

Another is a trail article. This article takes an important road or trail and follows it from beginning to end. The first one they did was the Silver Way from Kaldor to the Dwarven Kingdom of Azadmere. Very useful for referees who have parties going along the trail.

Another are bestiary articles, in two or four pages they give you everything you about harnic beasts. Even mundane creatures like cats and dogs have interesting articles about them. The cat include the great cats of Harn and the dog include the various wolf species.

So Today is Harn Day and here what I got

First this packet is the beginning of the revision of the Kingdom of Rethem. This is one of the western kingdoms of Harn and is is the "evil" realm. Mainly because much of the kingdom is in the hands of the Orders of the Church of Agrik (Lawful Evil) and the Church Morgath (Undead )

Important to the history and politics of Rethem are the Kubora barbarians and this article focuses on them.

Each packet comes with a map detailing one of the square grid regions of Harn. While Harn is overlaid with a hex grid of 5 leagues (12.5 miles) per hex it also has a square grid running from A to N west to east, and 1 to 10 north to south. Each of the these maps are contour maps and shows every manor and settlement on Harn.

In this package we get the map for J4 which completes the grid encompassing the Kingdom of Kaldor. It not related to the other articles but finishes up the work on Kaldor done in the previous series of Harnquests.

Next we get two articles on a Agrikan Order the Order of Mameka and their associated fighting order the Warriors of Mameka. Both of these are excellent articles detailing the personalities of the orders, their history, and structures. We get some rules for Harnmaster that showcases their unique rituals.

The reasons for the different orders the Church of Agrik has never been detailed in the core Harn products before. Here we learn that the Mamekas are actually originated as a heretical sect of Agrik obsessed with the finding a lost cairn. If found it is said the lost cairn can be used to trigger the final conflict between Agrik and his rival the goddess Larani (Lawful Good) and bring on his victory. It happens that they believe the lost cairn is somewhere in Peran to the north of Rethem. This is one of the origins of the centuries old conflict between the Rethemi and the Kubora.

Then we move on to a expansion of the Kubora article from Harn Barbarians. Here we get a breakdown of the individual tribes and some of the Kubora personal ties. Plus we get a few interesting bits about various Kubora customs and lore.

Next is a short bestiary article on Tavedogs. Thing of them as a treant looking orangutans living in a pacific northwest style forest. They are about ogre size (1 1/2 the size of a man) and have a mean left hook with claws. They are sentient although not tool users. It expands the list of the known Harnic beast which is nice.

Next are two geography articles.

The first is about Peran the home of the Kubora and Urdu tribe. It breaks Peran into it's different regions and give you a lot of useful bits to use if a party adventures there. I like the Hand of Crador myself. It is a limestone karst region and it's central feature is a cluster of limestone pillars. It looks like somebody thrusting their hand out from the earth. The region has a eerie feel about it, along with several legends about an evil that dwells there. The fact the numerous streams combine into a large marsh doesn't help.

The second is about the Afarezirs a island chain off to the northeast of Harn. It also doubles as a articles on one of the more isolated Kuboran tribes the Nolgind. It is pretty interesting detailing maritime life in a northern climate.

Overall I feel like I got my money's worth and look forward to seeing the other Rethem articles.

For non-Harn fans these article will be broken out and sold individually. I recommend the Mameka articles. They will be useful generating ideas and personalities involving LE religions in your campaign. The two geography articles can serves as useful templates for similar regions in your campaign. The Kubora expansion can give a sense of how different tribes and clans in a barbarian nation can interact. Athough the Tavedog article is good to have if you referee Harn it has limited utility for other systems.

Small Islands of Wonder, Magic and Society Part III

 Part II

After the end of the last post, the world of magic is dominated by clerics, religion, and divine magic. With the exception of the Elves and their allied culture where a tradition of arcane wizardry was developed along divine magic. 

As world rediscovered bronze and later iron technology. Arcane magic remained in the background. Cultures and religion proved to be a barrier but not an impenetrable wall. Independent discoveries and trade with the elves slowly spread arcane knowledge, spells, and rituals. Like in Earth's history the endless summer of small regional cultures doing their own things was to be shattered by the rise of the empires.

The Rise of the Viridians

Despite being divinely constructed and guarded by the Great Dragons, the entrance to Abyss that chromatic crystals guarded was a location in the world that could discovered and explored. Chance and circumstance combined with evil intent to allow a powerful wizard to steal one of the chromatic crystals, the Ebon Flame. The story of that wizard and the war against him is epic but is a tale for another time.

The theft of the crystal left a gap within the ward. and a thousand years later, the weakest of demons the Green Lords or the Viridians found the gap and they were just weak enough that they could use it to escape. Once free they sailed away and founded an empire. Soon other races including the Elves came into conflict with the Viridians and war broke out.

For magic, the Viridians had the first major independent tradition of arcane magic outside of Wizardry. Demons had no access to the divine as they considered themselves enemies of creation. So they developed arcane rituals into a high art including the development of the powerful 7th to 9th level rituals.  

The Rise and Fall of Empires

The Viridians did little to endear themselves to humans and the other races. They believe themselves to be lords of creations and sought to enslave whole cultures at every opportunity.  But their numbers dwindled and like neighboring cultures their realms experienced a rise, a fall, a dark age, and rebirth.  In both the Majestic Wilderlands and the Majestic Fantasy Realms there were three empires over the centuries. The downside of how the Viridians acted that for many cultures, arcane magic became associated with demons and evil.  It wasn't until the rise of the next great empire that arcane magic came into it's own.

That empire was the Ghinorian Empire in the Majestic Wilderlands, and the Bright Empire in the Majestic Fantasy Realms. Both considered themselves universal empire espousing ideals to appeal to all people regardless of cultures. Both had a dominant religion that preached these ideals as divinely ordained and both were highly successful in spreading to all corners of the main continent.

Like most religions in other cultures, the empire had a tradition of Arcanists subordinated to the church. One specialty found among others in various orders of scholars and monks. The success of the empire meant contact with many different cultures including the Elves and their tradition of Wizardry. And the Viridians and their tainted  tradition of arcane magic. This widespread contact lead to renaissance of learning and scholarship spearheaded by the church.

But as the centuries rolled on, the empire developed cracks and faltered. Both versions weakened by civil war, and both had their death blow delivered by barbarian invasions. In the chaotic centuries after the fall, the church shattered and it adherent left to fend on their own. The old arcanist used their knowledge of elven wizardry, the rituals of over a dozen cultures, and Viridian own tradition scrubbed of any demonic taint to create a new form of arcane magic, the Magic User. Freed by the demand and constraints of religion the early magic-users were able to prefect the new way of casting spells and teach it to others. 

Like a wizard a magic user performed mediations to memorize a spell form that could be filled with energy and released as spell. But instead of internalizing the forms, they made a crucial innovation of the spell book. The use of the spell book allowed many more forms to kept in a magic user's mind compared to a wizard. In addition it only took a short amount of time to rememorize new forms. Although the number and powers of the memorized forms depended on the skill of the magic orders.

The Magical Orders.

Art by Richard Luschek

The centuries after the empire's fall saw the rise of various magic orders. The Order of Thoth arose from some of the early magic-users banding together for protection. The Order of Sarrath was an alternative tradition of ritual casters that became an important part of the Ochre Empire one of the largest successor realms to emerge from the collapse of the Bright Empire. The various viking cultures developed an order of ritual casters using runes. Alongside these new order Wizards from the elves and their allies and Viridian artificers who used the old form of ritual magic to create magic items.

All of the orders are still finding their way. The present day of my campaigns in both the Majestic Wilderlands and the Majestic Fantasy Realms is set during the time where these orders are coming into their own. The turmoil's of their early history is past and each have established a place in their respective cultures.  

The wider world is also coming into its own as the various realms have move past the dark age after the fall of the empire. Commerce and finance has step alongside land as a source of wealth and power. And nobody know what the next few centuries will bring either for the realms or magic. 

The Mechanics

Magic Users

The same as any classic edition. Additionally magic users can cast 10 minute rituals from their spellbooks. The maximum level they can cast as a ritual is equal to 1/2 of the high spell level they can cast (rounded down). If a magic-user can cast 4th level spells they can also cast 2nd level spells as ritual. In this area magic-users regressed compared to the older ritual caster due to the focusing on memorizing spells. 

Order of Thoth

The same as magic users above. In addition they learn the Shield of Magic which confers 20% magic resistance per level until it maxes out at 100% at 5th level when they become a master in the order. I recommend limiting this to non-damaging spells that require a save like charm person. Not to spells like fireball or stinking cloud that create something else that does the damage. The Shield of Magic was developed to protect mages from being controlled as a slave by another mage. 

Order of Sarrath

This is a order of the ritual only spell casters known as Theurgists. As an official arm of an empire dedicated to worship of the dragon god of war and order (think lawful evil) these spellcasters learn to cast joint rituals. They can combine their caster levels for an increased spells effect. For example 5 5th level Theurgists can cast a 25D fireball.

Rob's Note: I have to admit, I thought this would work out better than it did. At the time I thought there were a fair amount of spells in the classic editions like fireball where they were more effective when cast by higher level magic users. This turned out the exception not the rule for the classic editions. 

But would out work out fine if 5e is being used. In 5e most spells are more potent when cast through a higher level spell slot.

Runecasters

This is another order of ritual only spell casters originated among the dwarves and human viking cultures who used runes. Instead of scrolls runecaster can scribe runes that function the same. Used the spell is cast and the rune disappears. The difference is that runes are more compact so Runecaster can make runewands or runestaffs with many runes on them. And they are more lasting than paper being carving into a durable material like wood or stone. Runes for a spell take up around three inches of length for a staff or wand. A three inch by three inch square on a flat surface.

Charms

Charms are like scrolls except they remain after being used. They cost double (money and time) what a scroll costs and half to recharge (money and time). They also can be activated by non-spellcasters as one-use magic item. For runecasters they are an advanced form of runes.

Wrapping it up.

My hope with this short series of essays on magic and society provide some useful insight and inspirations for your own campaign. The history of magic I outlined is not the only way it could have played out. With different premises and history turning in a different all kinds of interesting possibilities emerge. 

One thing to keep in mind if you believe that a magic utopia is inevitable. Once way to sidestep that issue to set the campaign prior to the time in which the utopia will happen. Everything has a beginning and Rome wasn't build in a day. 

Finally this material is also preview of the upcoming Lost Grimoire of Magic. The next book in my Majestic Fantasy RPG series with will debut late this summer after the Wild North is released.

Culture Motivations

Two days I had a post about motivations of a culture. Telecanter and FrDave asked for some specific examples of motivations.

Using examples from the Majestic Wilderlands. Note that I am focusing on human cultures for this post. If there is interest I will be glad to go into the other races like Viridians, Elves, Dwarves, etc.

The Uttermost War
The common myth that nearly all cultures in the Wilderlands share is that there was a Dawn Age set in a Garden of Eden. The Demons revolted and enslaved the world driving the gods themselves into hiding. Then in the Uttermost War the Gods battled the Demons and liberated the survivors. The Demons were thrown into the Abyss and imprisoned. The survivors were given their freedom and the gods withdrew from the world and left priest to teach the mortal races how to survive and live together. Variants of this myth are found in all the religions and even the most tyrannical and twisted of the gods teach that the demons are to be feared and shunned.

The Powers of the World
Gods are real. Their power is vastly beyond the mortal races but they are not omnipotent or omniscient. The way I visualize is that they are the parents and the mortal races are six year olds. For various reasons they decided to spread their teachings through faith and are able to grant power to true believers. There are only a dozen greater gods who are known by different names in different cultures.

While their are a few other twists the main effect of this is that there a catholic or universal aspect that alway been present in the Wilderlands. Just as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam share some common belief and history. Many of the religions of the Wilderlands recognize a common origin beyond that of mere chance. So far it hasn't ignited a Renaissance, Reformation, or Enlightenment but it has been noticed.

Then there are Elves. Immortal they provide a living memory back into the depths of time for the cultures they come into contact with. It as if in the 21st century we have people who knew and spoke with Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, and other historical figures of the past. Cultures impacted by the Elves share common traits and are loosely grouped as Sylvan.

But Elvish influences has a dark side in that it acts as a deadweight around cultures of the shorter lived races. Most Sylvan cultures are by all accounts pleasant places to live but they are also stagnant. The vast experience of the elves is very useful for solving problems they encountered in the past. however fails when events occur that fall outside of elvish experience. Regions under Sylvan influence often have centuries or millennia of stable existence followed by a catastrophic collapse.

Humans
Humans are the baseline. Generally characterized by their sociability and loyalty to various groups starting with their immediate family.

Ghinorians
The dominant thread running through the Ghinorian culture is their relationship with the Goddess Mitra. Mainstream Ghinorian culture believe they are her chosen people called upon to be the shining example of justice and honor in the wilderlands. To be the vanguard against the evil of the demons. The day to day application of their central myth is their adherence to the Mitra's law and their love of organization. The negative side is intolerance to other cultures with differing belief. The central drama of their culture since the fall of their Empire has been the conflict believe that Mitra's law is for all the Wilderlands versus who believe that Mitra's law is only for those born Ghinorian.

This is not to say that every Ghinorian is a feverant devotee of Mitra's law. Only that their upbringing is defined by it. Whether they love it, indifferent, or hate it.

Thules
The Thules are not really on-stage but after they discovered the existance of the demonic Viridians and their Empire two millenia ago they been sending missionaries northward into the Main Campaign Area.

Like the Ghinorians they believe they are the chosen people of a god. In this case Set. Set has adopted them as his sword-arm to rid the Wilderlands of Demons and their minions. Whatever the cost the Demons are to be destroyed or cast back into the Abyss. The Thules are noted for their love of Order, and their society is highly regimented and is considered tyrannical by other cultures. The central tension of their culture is with corruption. If it wasn't for Set's involvement through his priests Thule society would have long collapsed like the Mongols, Assyrians, Aztecs, or the Soviet Union.

Thules are not all order obsessed, demon haters. But like the situation with the Ghinorians and Mitra, those are born into Thule society are defined by their reaction to it.

Sarnic
The Sarnic are perhaps the most tragic of the Wilderland's cultures. Like the Thules and Ghinorians they believe they are a chosen people. In this case the chosen people of Hamakhis, Lord and Judge of the Dead. Originally they were peaceful and their defining quirk was the highly ritualistic natures of their daily life. For every actitivy they had a ritual invoking the name of Hamakhis, from the laying of the wood for the morning fire to the tucking at night of the children. Because Hamakhis was Lord and Judge of the Dead many of the ritual had necromantic trappings involving bones and other death symbols. Although at this time the undead were not part of mainstream Sarnic culture.

However at the height of their empire's power the Ghinorian made contact with the Sarnic. They were repelled by death symbols used everywhere in their lands and this led to conflict. Eventually the Ghinorian Empire launched the Sarnic Crusade and conquered their lands.

The conquest was the defining event for the Sarnic. To liberate themselves they turned to true necromancy and began the practice of human sacrifice. The war was bloody and long and left the Sarnic in the hands of ruthless warlords willing to do anything for power. Centuries after they freed themselves most Sarnics were slaves to the warlords and their necromancer priests.

Finally several hundred years ago the Order of Pangana appeared with the blessing of Hamakhis. Focusing on his aspect as Judge the Order checked the worst excesses of the priesthood and the warlords. Today the Sarnic are just coming out of a long dark age. Under the aegis of the Order of Pegana a Renaissance is beginning to sweep their City-States as they begin
to rediscover their pre-conquest culture.

The central drama of Sarnic Cultures is will the Renaissance take hold or will the necromancers and warlord reassert themselves and renew their tyranny. Those born Sarnic have a wide variety of backgrounds depending how and where they were born. Some experience their early years as slave while other experienced freedom under the protection of the Order of Pegana.

Tharians
The Tharians are horse nomads from the Sea of Grass far in the west. Four centuries ago they swept into the Main Campaign Area carving out petty kingdoms from the husk of the Dragon Empire and eventually came to rule the City-State of the Invincible Overlord.

They are a clan based society and struggle to be loyal to anything beyond their clan. They believe that the spirits of their ancestor join the Lars under the watchful eyes of the High Lord. The Lars guides and defends the clan through the Mystics (clerics). The Tharians are noted for defending the honor of their clan to the death. The defining symbol of Tharian wealth are the number of horses an individual owns. Most Tharians conflicts are caused by horse thieves raiding other clans.

The central conflict of Tharian society is their success in conquering much of the Main Campaign Area and the City-State. Their own culture is suffering due to having to rule the older and more sophisticated Elessarian and Ghinorian Cultures. Their history have not prepared them to rule city states, and judge commerical disputes of merchants. Their society is fracturing as many are attracted to other religions and cultures that provide the answer their own lacks. The remainder wrap themselves in tradition and try to hold back the world by any means they can. The arrival of Thule Missionaries bringing the teaching of Set has particular appeal to many younger Tharians.

Elessarian
The largest of the Silvan influenced cultures they arrived in the Main Campaign Area several millienia ago after traveling from the Sea of Grass far to the west. They originally settled in the Elphand Lands to the west of the Elven Kingdom of Irminsul. There was some initial conflict but after a century the two societies became allies in the Elvish wars against the Viridians. They proved instrumental in the fall of the First Empire and afterwards spread eastward into the rest of the Main Campaign Area.

For the next two Millenia their fortune waxed and waned. Some of their lands like the Kingdom of Dunador in the Elphand lands and the Kingdom of Antil to the south of City-State are free kingdoms. While others are subjects of the Viridian Successor Kingdoms or the Tharians of City-State.

Their cultures is clan based. But the clans are smaller than Tharian clans; being more of an extended family than a entire tribe. Individual clans focused on a single estate or occuputation like blacksmithing or tailoring. Their contact with the Elves awoken a love of learning and bards became one of the highest callings in Elessarian society. From the early Bards the the druidic order of Trehaens developed. Today the Trehaen incorporate clerics, druids, magic-users, as well as bards. In the free kingdoms of the Elessarians the Trehean are the keepers of the law and judge all legal dispute based on an extensive body of common law . Elessarian nobles act more as police and military commander then rulers issuing decrees. Even Elessarian Kings are subject to the law of the Trehaen.

Currently the central conflict of Elessarian society is the feeling is that their culture is waning. While they learned a lot from the Elves it left them unprepared to deal with younger and more dynamic cultures. Several time in the past millenia they had to deal with other cultures sweeping into the Main Campaign Area. Each time they adapted often emerging as full partners with former rivals. Now with the Tharians, the Elessarians struggle again. But there is hope with the collapse of the Viridistan Empire and the fact there are still free Elessarian Kingdoms.

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There is lot of information to digest here. There is a lot that I didn't put into this post. To be honest it is mostly timelines and king's list. While useful to me to keep all this organized in my mind. Many don't find them interesting.

My job as referee is to take all these specifics and distill it for the players. As I explained in earlier posts, I ask the players what they want to play in general terms and then lay out options and explain their implications.

If the player is starting City-State and wants to play a thief. I know that City-State is a cultural crossroads with Ghinorian, Elessarian, and Tharian cultures. I would explain that there is the Bortherhood of the Lion which was originally a Ghinorian resistance group to the conquest of City-State. Now it is a century later and they are little better than a gang of thugs. There are also the Beggars which are dishonored horseless Tharians who banded together for survival. Finally there are a few Elessarians down on their luck who hang out in traveling minstrel bands do what they can to scrap a living by their wits.

From these broad descriptions I work with the player to refine his character concept to specific allies, and enemies along with bits of information. All of this provide an initial point for the player make decisions about his character in the larger sandbox campaign that is my Majestic Wilderlands. It also lessen my workload as often there only a handful of reasonable choices that I have to do prep for. It provides for future adventure as the players works towards achieving his goals and resolving the conflicts of his background.

It is also works for players who can't roleplay as this process sets up what I call natural situations. Even if the player is roleplaying a version of himself in the setting his reactions still ring true as he adventures and reacts to the consequences of his background.

From the Attic: Harn

The first time I encountered Harn was in a rack around 1984 at Games Unlimited in Pittsburgh. It came in a folder (shown to the left) with two books and a map. The Harnview and the Harndex.

Harnview was an introduction and overview of Harn. The first section was the Overview containing the Introduction, Culture Map, Cultures, Religions, Economic Map, Economics, History, Chronology. It is well written and packed a lot of information in only 20 8.5 by 11 pages.

The remaining 12 pages was titled Using Harn and consisted of a brief explanation of the regional map, a systemless method of character generation, an explanation of the pregame, time and motion, scenario suggestions, Encounter Tables, the infamous weather generation table, and the movement table.

The pregame was eye opening in 1983. It basically outline a simple procedure where you use the character generation chapter to come up with a background. Then in a one on one session with the player you bring the character up to the "present" in the campaign. The section is brief only taking up one column on one page. However it proved the key in keeping the Majestic Wilderlands approachable for all the players that I referee afterwards.

The Using Harn section has a lot of good information for use in other games. The weather table is one of the most straight forward I seen. It involves using a track with 20 elements. You have another table that you roll on that tell whether you move up 1, no change, down 1, or down 2. The track is structered so that weather changes happen naturally. It one of the more elegant solutions I seen.

The only problem is that is only for the cool temperate climate that dominates Harn. The Ivinia Regional Module as an additional sub polar chart but that where it stopped. In practice I use it only when weather makes a difference such as crossing mountains or venturing into the wilderness.
The encounter tables I used quite a bit. They reflect well the gritty medieval feel of the majestic wilderlands. Monsters are a part of the table and for that I go into Chgowiz's Swords & Wizardry Reference guide to roll up instead of the Harn sub table.

As for Harn itself it is a wooded isle the size of Madagascar and the climate of the British Isles. It's long axis runs east to west. Harn is part of the continent of Lythia which is on the world of Kethira.

The map is huge and one of the best map I ever seen for a roleplaying setting. It was ingenious at the time for it's depiction of both terrain and vegetation intermixed. Vegetation was represented by color. Terrain was represented by semi-transparent fills. This allow forests, heath, and plains to cross hills and mountains naturally.

Harn was the original arrival point of Kethira's Elves and possibly the Dwarves. For a long time it was a sylvan island until migrating barbarians made landfall. First the Jarin who made peace with the Elves and Dwarves and then later the Lythians who made war.

The wars with the Lythians ended the Elves rule of Harn and in the wake of their downfall scattered tribes and petty kingdoms made Harn their home. A dark lord by the name of Lothirm arose a couple of centuries later and threatened to conquer all of Harn. To cement his power he created (or imported) the Gargun (Orcs). He met his downfall in a war with the dwarves. After this dark period of history several kingdoms were created from the wreckage of the surviving petty kingdoms.

Melderyn, Home of wizards and perhaps the strongest Harnic Kingdom.
Kaldor, the largest Harnic Kingdom
Chybisa, the last of the old petty kingdoms now much shrunken due the surrounding barbarians.
In the west the geography is dominated by the Thard River and the Corani Empire was formed along it. It grew to be Harn's largest state and then collapsed in a series of civil wars. It was replaced by the Theocracy of Tekhos dedicated to the worship of the undead god Morgath. Eventually the Theocracy broke up. The northwest was conquered by barbarians who founded the Kingdom of Rethem. Rethem still allows the worship of Morgath and other evil gods. The northeast became the Thardic Republic and dreams of the restoration of the Corani Imperium. The south became the Kingdom of Kanday dedicated to the worship of Larani. Larani is a goddess of justice opposed to the evil deities of Rethem. All three vie for dominance in western Harn.

To the northern the last stronghold of the Jarins was conquered by Ivinian Vikings who founded the Kingdom of Orbaal. Azadmere is the last surviving kingdom of dwarves on Harn. And the Elves retreated to Evael in the south central portion of Harn.

All of these lands are surrounded by a dozen barbarian tribes each with their own cultures.
The details of all this are given in the Harndex which is an alphabetical listing of places, people and events of Harn. It is 64 pages, not long but densely packed with information. The most useful bits of the harn is the medieval information which includes an extensive pricelist.

While I only ran Harn as a campaign a handful of times the books have proven to be a gold mine of information that entered into my Majestic Wilderlands. Today they set next to my desk as they are used constantly for reference and inspiration.

Stuff in the Attic updated with Faeries and Demons!

 I shared these PDFs on other forums but forgot to update my Stuff in the Attic page.

Demons and Divine Servants

This booklet contains how I handle demons using my Majestic Fantasy rules along with a first pass on what Divine Servants are like. It also has a short essay on the nature of evil and demons. Note that when it comes to my take on fantasy settings I am not a fan of Milton's approach where Lucifer is a anti-hero. Although I did thoroughly enjoy the Lucifier series. 

Demons and Divine Servants

Sometimes I like to do things because I find them fun like making a in-game religious document. This is the Scroll of the Beginning which is a version of the Bible's Book of Genesis for some religions of the Majestic Fantasy Realms. This also relevant to the origins of the demons. 

Scroll of the Beginning

Faeries

For a long time, I struggled to come up with a "hook" that allowed me to roleplay Faeries. Faeries in the Majestic Fantasy are born from magic coalescing around strong emotions both positive and negative. In order to grow and thrive, they seek to recreate these emotions. The more emotions they master, the stronger they become. This booklet contains a short essay about their nature.

Faeries

Wrapping it up

Hope you find both of these useful for your campaign. As for Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms, I am in the midst of southern mountains and deserts describing what I find. Currently, I am about 75% of the way through all four maps.