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Visitor :  Dice Roller| Game Info| The Cast |
| Setting Information. Posted by GM_R. | Group: 0 |
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| Author | Message | [bottom] |
There are a few things that are known to all people. The upper, middle and lower airs: We live our lives in the lower air. This is the air we breath and the wind. The middle air is where we go when we dream. Many magical effects happen in the middle air such as clairvoyance, the transmission of thoughts. It is much easier to receive a message from the upper air if you are in the middle air. The upper air is occupied by the gods, demons (both good and evil) and your ancestral spirits. Ancestor Worship Everyone may contact their own ancestors and ask of them a boon. This requires a simple ritual and the burning of incense and spices that the spirits will find pleasing, the smoke from the burning must be able to rise to the upper air for the ritual to be successful. This makes mountain tops the perfect place for temples and the carrying out of rituals. One of the worst things that can befall someone is to be cast out from their family. An outcast will be shunned not only by their living family but also by all their ancestors. Religion, Wealth and the afterlife The upper air is much like our own world but filled with fantastic beings. To live in comfort for all eternity requires great wealth. The prime religion is controlled by priests and monks but they worship many thousands of gods and demons, each of which may, and do, interfere with mortals lives. Money donated to the temples is used by the priests to venerate the gods and the value of that donation is credited to your ancestors wealth in the upper air. A dutiful child will make regular and substantial donations to the priesthood to keep their ancestors living in the respectful conditions they deserve and the way that one hopes to spend eternity themselves. Naming conventions Most people have two names, a family name which tends to be short (two to five characters) which comes first and then a longer personal name. For example Kai Lung is the son of Kai Chain. Northerners then to have both names separated by an apostrophe whilst southerners have their names as two separate words e.g. Wang'Wei and Wang'Fang would be northerners but Wei Zhang and Wei Li would come from the south. The North and Beyond The Northern Province (here) is a forested region that ends at a mountain range that extends many barren miles both east/west and further north. The mountains themselves are home or a nomadic people who are not part of the empire. These are known as the Yak People and they live a hard and impoverished hand to mouth existence. They do trade a little but have almost nothing that anyone wants to needs. Beyond the Yak People are barbarian lands. The barbarians occupy a great expanse of grassland and rolling hills which they cross using horses in numbers, many tens of thousands, unknown in the empire. Sometimes a barbarian will make it south across the mountains. | |||
The Empire is home to all the humanoid races. These mix freely and at all levels in society. Positions of power are gained through taking state set examinations in bureaucracy. These are exams are set each year and the exams last for several days. A candidate may sit the exams as many times as they like as long as they can afford the entry fee. Because if this Elves have concentrated at the top of the bureaucracy, being able to sit the exams many times and having a great amount of time to learn the books of rules, statistics and laws. The rule books are referred to as 'the classics' and can run to many volumes. Halflings are under-represented in the bureaucracy. They are mainly found in the warmer southern empire where they are common in the middle and merchant classes. Half Yeren, or half orcs in the barbarian speech tend to be distasteful to the upper and middle classes which makes it hard for them to find employment in all but the lowliest of jobs. They are welcomed in the Emperor's armies and many fill their ranks. Dwarves are common in the most mountainous regions where they are renowned miners and smiths. They are less welcome in the south as they do not recognise the divinity of the Emperor. To make matters worse it is common knowledge that a dwarven army battled and slew the mortal form of an azure dragon during your grandfathers day. Much of the bad weather that has struck the north is blamed on this act by the dwarves. Those dwarves that do venture south into the Empire or live permanently within it are most likely migrant traders dealing in metals and precious stones. They only buy, never sell. | |||
Money There are three denominations of coins in current usage.
Cash are small, wafer thin round coins with a square hole. These are threaded on to a string, normally 1000 per string and typically worn around the wrist, several per arm (think of them as looking like bangles). Jiaozi In addition to coins we have paper money. These are printed using copper press plates held by the local mandarin. They have no fixed value, you can hand over coins and have a Jiaozi note printed to that value. In practice these are normally for values of 5 to 500 Taels. This message was last edited by the GM at 10:55, Tue 27 Mar 2018. |
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