Speaking of Gaming Nerdery...

[the_gneech]

OUT OF CONTEXT THEATER PRESENTS...

I need something cool to put in that however-many-thousand year period between the First War of Gysgodion and the creation of the Warlord, starting the Second War of Gysgodion.

Y'know, sorta like during the downtime between the sinking of Númenor and the Battle of Mount Doom.

Any suggestions?

-TG

Comments

[ketrava.livejournal.com]

You could go with the time of peace that hides seething racial resentment between two factions. You could go with the common enemy alliance war. You could go with the country has been fragmented and low level barons squabled over land and rights with no central power base for lack of a king. I have no context so shooting in the dark.

[azhdragon.livejournal.com]

Epic party ?

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

brief flourishing and self-destruction of a splinter/fringe society? Would give some fun ruins to explore.

[grayalynn.livejournal.com]

Succesion Wars. Nature abhors a vacuum and if you have a great power that was defeated the little ones are going to try and take its place. Add to that Pirate and Barbarian Wars, as outsiders try to prey on the week. Somewhere in the middle you get the False War, as someone who claims to be the Warlord rises and tries to take over using fear as his main weapon. Oh and a good stretch of Dark Ages filled with plague and disaster, perhaps associated with the aftermath of the Barbarian and Pirate Wars.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

The problem with posting out-of-context like I did, is that, well, there's no context. :D Gysgodion isn't just a power, Gysgodion is essentially Prometheus/Lucifer wrapped into one, banished to the mortal realm for being uppity in heaven and so vowed to screw up, dominate, or destroy everything good out of spite.

So it's not like the middle east, where taking out the biggest bully on the block just makes all the little bullies scramble for power. Defeating Gysgodion is more like the global version of putting cancer into remission-- it means you can get on with your regular life for a while, until it flares up again, possibly worse than before.

That said... figuring out what "regular life" is like while Gysgodion is sulking in his fortress, is something that needs doing with this setting.

-TG

[mecampbellesq.livejournal.com]

"In the aftermath of the First War of Gysgodion and the establishment of the warlord as the absolute ruler, there was an unheralded period of peace and prosperity, with one Warlord passing the Eternal throne to an appointed successor or a worthy heir.

It was during the reign of Dimosthenes II however that the end truly began. Desperate to be wed, he could find no woman who met his exacting standards save one. So in the 644th year of the warlords he wed the most powerful sorceress in the realm...and his own sister, ushering in 'the age of the Sorcerer Kings'.

Although the union was considered unnatural it was indeed productive with the couple having no less than eleven children, each of them incredibly powerful in the field of magic. Regrettably, their parents established the precedent of their siblings being the only worthy mates.

This insane practice continued for nine more generations, each one growing more and more powerful, but each generation growing more and more mad and ambitious. By the reign of Molutus IV, there were no less than 161 members of the royal family, each of them wielding immense magical power. Fighting among them was common with each heir creating armies of monsters, demons, or common soldiers wielding foully enchanted weapons to do battle. Their battles scarred the land and led to unimaginable suffering amongst the common people.

By the reign of Palkotos (aka 'Pakoltos the unseen') the 14th sorcerer king, the 'common people' had enough. Led by a small cadre of The former soldiers of the various heirs and the prophets of a newly rising church, the new army arrived on the borders of the kingdom and began heading toward the capitol, gaining new soldiers as they went.

The 'Second War of Gysgodion' lasted almost seven years, with the initial reactions of the heirs being almost nonexistent: "They are mere mortals, who are they to challenge us?" was the words one one heir. Only after the battle of Caloga Pass did the Heirs of the Sorcerer King take the threat to their ruler seriously, and by then it was too late.

Ahmut Khan, The last of the Sorcerer Kings was too powerful to be slain by normal means, but he also expressed little interest in anything outside of increasingly indicate beadwork, and was essentially exiled to the last remaining Royal Palace. Only upon his death was the the Second War of Gysgodion officially over."

(Sorry about the long windedness, I've been freebasing Roman History lately!)

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

That's pretty darn nifty. :D Not really what I'm looking for, alas, but nifty nonetheless! You should use it for your own game. ;)

That said, some purely mortal politics are definitely something this setting I'm working on needs. So far it's been all about Gysgodion (basically Satan straight out of Paradise Lost) and his attempts to screw up the world out of spite.

I would not be at all surprised if I end up rewriting The Silmarallion for this stupid game setting. And end up never being able to use it for anything but gaming, 'cause, y'know, Tolkien already wrote it.

-TG

[mecampbellesq.livejournal.com]

Sigh. As much as I'd love to use it in my game, I don't have one at the moment. It's the ultimate in irony: I live in Wisconsin, the birthplace of modern adventure gaming, and I can't gt a game started to save my life :(

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Reveal the true reason the elves are waning? That they became addicted to hunting the balrogs that escaped from Valinor? After all, that's what killed off Feanor.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Chewy Nougat