THE DREAMING SEA

Between the deserts of the south and the vast expanse of dense jungle that is the far east stretches out a sea beyond imagining. It rests beyond the summer mountains and past the grasslands and hunting savannas. This is a land of adventure. Ancient temples rise in the forests, girded in vines and barely concealed beneath the overgrowth of life. Unknowable secrets lay buried beneath the sands, forgotten since the world was young.

The dreaming sea itself shimmers and pulses, moving as if its waters stirred with a life all their own. Miracles of chaos swim the unseen depths of the sea, guarding the broken shells of ships sunk long ago, their bellies still pregnant with forgotten treasure. Catamarans skim the surface of far flung waves as merchant galleons ferry exotic cargo from the far flung shores of sorcerous Ys to the opium halls of Prasad and back again. All the while, pirate frigates wait in the mists, sailing from the shadowed city of Champoor, home to all manner of scum and villainy. And in the reaches, strange vessels prowl the burning mists, hunting for hapless mortals to add to their cargos of doomed souls. Numerous islands with hidden wealth dot the horizon here, while temples of lost wonders lay buried beneath the waves or hidden on occluded archipelagos. The wonders of this strange place hold promise for any hero daring or mad enough to take them. Is that you?

PRASAD

In the glorious kingdom of Prasad, the Dragonblooded rule not only as enlightened princes of the earth, but as literal gods amongst men. Here, in this new holy land of extravagant temple palaces carved of white sandstone, domed roofs reaching towards heaven, Dragonblooded pilgrims of the Immaculate Order deviated from their own orthodoxy. Now, this so-called "Pure Way" places the Dragonblooded as not only arbiters between the mortal and divine, but as chief divinities themselves. Two families of exalts sit atop the celestial order, ruling from the capital of Kamthahar.

• Our Prasad will draw heavy influence from some of its obvious roots, the old kingdoms of India, but also Cambodia. The dragonblooded families are not only royal; they're divine. As a result, their homes include palatial as well as temple inspired architecture, and their cities are built of white stone and plaster with great jeweled or stone clad domes.

YSYR

The sorcerer kings of Ysyr preside over a nation shaped by the weave and weft of magic. Their power . . . their very forms, are shaped by it. In Ysyr, sorcerers are the masters, and all others slaves. Yet, in their grand vaults and libraries, they possess knowledge lost to the rest of creation, and in the shimmering waters of their scrying pools, they see much that transpires across the Dreaming Sea. For all their power, though, the sorcererous overlords of Ysyr are troubled. Their island home is awash in mutating energies from the frequent Wyld incursions and the ancient sorcerous engines that still churn deep beneath the isle. Their natural resources are few, and so they turn their attentions outwards with their fleets of mutant warbands and sorcerously bound servants to capture what they need. The unending conflict between the masters of this land, however, constantly undercut their efforts at expansion. Were Ysyr to ever stand united, the other denizens of the Dreaming Sea would face a terrifying foe indeed.

• My Ysyr is inspired by numerous works of dark fantasy, but chief among them is Michael Moorcock's Melnibone, especially as depicted in the most recent batch of comics. The sorcerous lords erect impossible palaces of black and ruby glass, twisted into organic and spined shapes. Their balconies look out on the dark waters and black sands of their home, strange and alien isle that stands simultaneously as a bulwark against the wyld and a looming shadow over the rest of the Dreaming Sea.

VOLIVAT

In a bygone age, the great city of Volivat was a technical marvel. Its people lived amidst a marvel of the lost world, their city hidden beneath the waves, ensconced by a great wall while titanic pumps to keep their homes and streets dry, their great, marbled spires stretching towards the sky. The sage rulers of Volivat had developed great magics and sciences, and through their arts, had conquered nature . . . until the plague came. With the horrors of the great contagion at their door, Volivat's rulers made a terrible choice. Reversing the pumps, they flooded their home, stopping the plague, and destroying everything they cared for. Hundreds of years later, explorers rediscovered Volivat's lost towers, and through the secrets discovered therein, they have founded a new society in the image of the old. Their greatest achievement is the marvel through which children are created through the union of ten fathers and a single mother, each father donating some of their own strength to the resulting offspring. While not quite so mighty as the chosen, Volivat is relatively more able to breed their 10-fathered champions than Prasad to restock their supply of god-princes.

• For me, Volivat is a city of modern explorers who've rediscovered a lost Atlantis and begun rebuilding society within its ruins. Now, Volivat is a marvel by modern standards, but it is still a shadow of its former self and much yet remains to be reclaimed.

CHAMPOOR

The city of night, a dark port on an ocean of miracles, and a haven for the roughest lot of sailors for leagues around . . . Champoor is all of these things and more. From its spiraling docks whose piers are lit with blue-flamed lanterns to the Veiled House of Whispers where small prayers are offered up to gods of thievery, death, and things darker yet, it is a city with a wealth of opportunity . . . should you lack the moral compunction that might stop you from seizing it. The mistress Tenephesu holds ultimate sway here. She appears before her court as a quietly confident woman with alabaster skin, the tracks of black tears stained down her cheeks to frame a wry smile from plush, midnight lips. In her robes shimmer the barely visible images of every dark deed done within her city. Her true form, however, a massive, serpentine dragon whose body is cloaked in dark, undulating waves, has not been seen in centuries . . .

• My Champoor takes visual inspiration from old Chinese port cities, particularly Shanghai, Shenzhen, and last-but-not-least, Hong Kong. Its shadowed streets are a rat's nest of parlors, tea houses, street markets, and more.

PALANQUIN
Poor Palanquin. The city of old glories sits on a mote of earth suspended high above in the arms of massive stone colossi. The city's streets are stacked with old temples and palaces at the heart of lavish gardens. The further from the heart of the plateau one travels, though, the more dilapidated the dwellings and desperate the people become. The outskirts are known as the ledge, and the people there live in poor dwellings built out onto scaffolding. These makeshift homes continue even down the sides into The Ladders, and the people here make a living ferrying goods up and down, regardless of the risk. On the ground below is an entire second city, living in the shadow of the Colossi and under the runoff of the city above. Decades ago, Palanquin became the most recent vassal state of the sorcerous lords of Ysyr. Though they have been allowed to maintain some independence, the sorcerers now rule the city through edicts from afar, their lieutenants administering their orders with an iron fist.

• In characterizing Palanquin, I'm going to be drawing on Cambodia and its ancient temple cities/palaces. I'm also going to add a bit of Persia for its hanging gardens.

MOUNT NAMAS


This message was last edited by the GM at 18:43, Tue 18 Apr 2023.