The Burned Lands Part 1 – The Beginning

I’m a huge history buff.  One of the most fascinating eras for me is found in Britian after the Roman’s pull out, but before it converted to a Saxon realm.  This is the time that any historical King Arthur would have lived, and the era is beyond cool in my opinion.  This has inspired me to create a world based on this era of our own history.  Since Donny the DM has started the second RPG Blog Carnival, and I missed the first completely, I figured “what the hell” and figure I’d post my world.  The name, The Burned Lands, is tenative.  This series, however, will not continue uninterrupted. 😉

History

For over 1,000 years, the followers of the Gods battled for dominion over the world as the Gods themselves battled for dominion in the heavens.  The war itself practically destroyed the mighty Intarian Empire, and left most of it’s citizens on their own.  Most of the great cities are now independent, the lords of those cities having lost all sense of Intarian citizenship during the time since the Empire fell.

Now, people are having to fight for their homes against savage humanoids who seek to take the lands by force, particularly on the islands.

Land

Most everything starts off on the Island of Arius, which is the equivelent of Britian roughly.  Across the Ellian channel is the main contenent.  The primary city of the continent now is Ellamore, an elven land surrounded by ocean for half, and mountains for another half.  During the Intarian Empire’s hey day, they generally left Ellamore alone.  As such, the elven peoples were independent and weathered the effects of the Intarian Empire falling fairly well.  However, they did NOT escape the ravages of the God War.

Races

All the 3.5 Core races are present, along with one custom race.  I’m also considering adding Warforged from the Eberron campaign setting.  Other races could, theoretically, be played without it being a problem for the world to handle.  However, at this time I don’t feel comfortable running a bunch of exotic races.

Classes

Most of the 3.5 Core classes are present except Monk…at least for now.  Frankly, the class just doesn’t fit with the world as it is now.  In time, as the world is explored, it’s entirely possible to discover a culture with Monks.  Three classes that aren’t Core classes are the Warblade, which I like alot to fill the role of a student of single combat rather than a fighter with extra spiffiness, the Scout, and the Warlock.  I do require that Warlocks have a background explaining where their power came from (using the pacts from 4e as a guide works for me).

For most PC classes, there are equivalent NPC classes.  For example, there are the 3.5e DMG warriors for fighters and warblades, adepts for wizards (which work differently in my world…but just a bit), and priests for clerics (priests can’t cast any type of magic, they just minister to the masses).

One additional note is that the Barbarian class is called the Berserker class.  In this world, barbarian is a culture, not a class.  Berserkers are the elite warriors of the barbarian cultures.

Magic

As noted above, magic works differently in this world.  However, this will require a post all it’s own.  However, magic is just as powerful as any high magic world.  However, there just aren’t a lot of wizards.  As such, a 1st level Adept looks to the masses like a powerful wizard!

Conclusion…sort of

That’s about all for this post.  Obviously, there’s still plenty left to cover here, but I think this gives one an overview.  I hope others find this world as interesting as I personally do!