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    Building an Ecology

    Building an Ecology

    Building a new world where the players is a big part in building the world is an approach to worldbuilding that is new to me and many of my friends. But it is a quite interesting way to make it less static than if one person would build it.

    So for the first mission the players are on the vessels on the oceans away from Gatia expelled from the paradise. The players and the rest of the humans created by the gods are on their way to their new homes in whole new areas of the world.

    When the players arrive to new parts of the world they find areas of lands never before explored by anyone that have all kinds of creatures and challenges placed there by the gods. So besides that the pre-made map is almost filled with resources (this will be a post of it own) the world needs something that the players can meet and be challenged by when setting up the first civilizations.

    The Creatures of Thurian

    As a starting point the “greater creatures” are being made as adversaries. Lesser creatures might have stats later on but for now if they can be one-shoted by a singel bad slingshot they do not have it … for now.

    All the creatures can be found here: https://thurian.net/doku.php?id=tag:adversaries&do=showtag&tag=adversaries and the list grows larger every time. I found that there need to be some quite intimidating creatures of different sizes, from the mighty aurochs, lions and wolfs that have resources that can be harvested and are dangerous enough for a tribe to settle down and build an defence against them. A great civilization is built on a common ground against a great enemy.

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    The Origin of Thurian, interpretation II

    An extended interpretation of the Origin

    After sitting a few nights in front of the fire reading tales of the ancient Greece. I have now expanded the short origin to include quite a lot more information that I later can build upon. I believe that even though i want it to be as easy to remember as possible, as short and practical as possible it still need to give some form av answer to the basic questions.

    • Why were the world created?
    • Why would an omnipotent being create the humans?
    • How did the humans come to have a free will?

    Coming to realize that the name Thurian also might be subject for change, since its not very Greece sounding.

    The Creation

    In a sea of chaos and force there flows a string of pure magic through uncontrolled collisions that ignites a spark that after millenniums creates a parallel universe to all the others in the time-space continuum with a massive explosion. This explosion of an unparalleled force create a rift in time and space from which a twelve entities from our own universe is pulled into.

    The surrounding force starts to recognize these new entities and giving them the ability to wield the force it self to control their surroundings.

    With this power, the long lost humans of a classical civilization starts to build up a world of their on, in the same matter that they have long been familiar to. They build a sun that has one single planet in its field, a planet that to all that we know has a resemblance to earth it self regarding atmosphere and climate. The landmass is what they believe the earth looks like, and since they have just been around their local areas this is quite random.

    On the planet they start with one island, an island that also is the home of the volcano Olympus that holds the golden doors to the eternal palace that is their own home.

    The humans

    The source of magica

    When creating the world to their tastes the twelve Olympians discovers that the magic that they were using is not an unlimited source as they had once believed when they started to experience its power.

    The Olympians spent many attempts of refining and trying to preserve this finite source of magic before they by an accident discovered that the source of their own powers was not that far away from them as they had once believed.

    A day, like any other Zeus walked the open fields in the outskirts of the woods of Gatia with his son, Aiakos. When Zeus saw the tears of loneliness drop down from the cheeks of Aiakos he used the tear with dirt to form a woman in the image of his wife Hera, this woman he called a Human and gave to Aiakos to have as a mate for playing with.

    After discovering that the Human had started to worship Aiakos and Zeus he also felt something that he had not felt in eons, a stronger source of magic than he just had. From this he drew the conclusion that the worship from another could help them grow, and even expand their powers to something grater than he had ever had.

    With the help of the other Olympians they built a basic population that everyday would worship their creators, build shrines in their image and procreate new worshipers. Creating a life of this value for them was at a great expense in magical powers and left them almost drained, the investment would soon turn to a great profit when all the worshipers were beginning to repay their debt in their simple and monotone life of worshiping the Olympians.

    To protect the humans, and the Olympians. Zeus used some of his power to form a bound magical law between the human and the Olympians that could not be broken. Since the human did not have a free will they could only do tasks instructed to them by a Olympian.

    This magical law was with the looks of the human to be inherited from mother to daughter until infinity was at an end. In return of this loyal worship the Olympians had to sacrifice the ability to harm the humans if they were to gain their magic.

    The thought of beauty

    One misty day Olympus Zeus took the form of a mere human and traveled over to the nearby island of Avantic, here he wandered around the small village that his brethren and sistrens had built for the human slaves to inhabit to protect them from other beings that had been created.

    When walking along a simple road he met a young woman, with the purest blond hair and eyes like chestnuts. Her smile was beyond what he could imagine a simple human could posses but quickly remembered that also his wife and Aphrodite had been part of creating this race. His body was filled with lust, and he took the young offspring of a human to a chamber.

    Artemis, who had taken it as her sacred duty to protect the coming worshipers noticed that Zeus had copulated with the human. This she saw as a betrayal from the humans as they were not allowed to have any contact with the Olympians either they wanted or not. She cursed the human with a pregnancy of nine months with hard labor and aches.

    When the nine months had passed a girl was born, but since she was not human to the core she possessed something that her sistren did not. She had a will of her own and was not bound by the magical laws created to govern the humans, this she came to realize in her young adulthood when she did not see why her fellow humans did certain tasks. But to keep up a charade even she followed the rhythm of tasks.

    The new era

    When this young woman, who had taken herself the name of Pandora after her grandmother laid with a man to strengthen the power of worship to the Olympians she to was cursed by the same curse that was laid upon her mother. Artemis now realized that something must be wrong for simple magical curse to be inherited down from her mother, nothing but the magical law and looks could be inherited.

    Therefor she confronted Zeus with this information and revealed that she did know of his earlier adventures in the village of people and that something of divine nature must have been passed down from him to the girl when she was born.

    Furious that something like could have happened commissioned Hephaestus to build a pyxis, in which he trapped all the fears, diseases and evils that Zeus could imagine, all of which would be released if the jar were ever opened. Around the jar Hephaestus illustrated a warning and command that no one was to open the jar, a command that anyone bound by the magical law was bound to abide.

    This pyxis was then given to delivered in disguise to Pandora as a gift, for her becoming a mother. Unsuspectingly she accepted the gift and placed it in her home. After watching it and realizing that the images told the tale of a prohibition to open it.

    Intrigued about why this beautiful jar was not allowed to be opened she often stared at it until she one day decided that she had to take a peek inside. She waited until the dusk had settled and opened the jar to look. When the lid was opened a bright light filled the room and voices of an unspeakable horror filled the air.

    The trap had sprung and evils, diseases and fears spread around the world as a punishment for not abiding the law. With this fear and evil the magic law that protected the humans was broken and from this moment forward all belonging to the race of humanity did now have the freedom to do what they wanted. At the same time the protections set by the gods to ensure their survival was broken and Zeus himself manifested in the village in his true form. When i spoke in a guttural voice the men and women of the village trembled to their knees in the presence of the king of gods.

    As a punishment for opening for Pyxis of Life you are now deemed unworthy for the islands of Gatia. You my children have betrayed our trust and must never return here if hold your life valuable. We will allow you all to live for now, but make no mistake. We, the Olympians are no longer bound to the sacred code to not do you any harm.

    As long as you all worship us as before you will be free of pain and suffering. But wonder to long from the righteous road and you and your friends will feel the wrath of the titans.

    By the sea my brother have provided you with a few vessels, spread yourself around the world and settle for here you are no longer welcome. When you are standing in the doorway to death your life will be evaluated and if you prove that you are worthy, I or my brethren or sistren can grant you a immortal life here in the paradise of mankind.

    After the speech a lightning bolt hit the nearest house and started to demolish the village house by house until only ash was present.

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    Building of Thurian, The basics

    Welcome

    So first of all welcome, i will on this blog post on the updates of the gamesetting for Genesys i’m building. The setting it self will be hosted on a wiki in a new future once i found a system that is to my liking and is designed some what good.

    The first decision I made when starting out this world a few years ago, was a nice standard High-Fantasy setting that I love to play in. Though when I last year picked it up and started to continue I felt that thats not anything fun. To do what everyone else is doing. So keeping the map, and the name I started to remake everything.

    The theme?

    The theme i choose, since it has always been very dear to me, was some kind of resemblance to the ancient Greek. This is a classical era that is truly amazing in many different ways, and it’s not that many settings for roleplaying games that are set in this era.

    So how did the world form?

    Lets start with that.

    In a sea of chaos and force there flows a string of pure magic through uncontrolled collisions that ignites a spark that after millenniums creates a parallel universe to all the others in the time-space continuum with a massive explosion. This explosion of an unparalleled force create a rift in time and space from which a twelve entities from our own universe is pulled into.

    The surrounding force starts to recognize these new entities and giving them the ability to wield the force it self to control their surroundings.

    With this power, the long lost humans of a classical civilization starts to build up a world of their on, in the same matter that they have long been familiar to. They build a sun that has one single planet in its field, a planet that to all that we know has a resemblance to earth it self regarding atmosphere and climate. The landmass is what they believe the earth looks like, and since they have just been around their local areas this is quite random.

    On the planet they start with one island, an island that also is the home of the volcano Olympia that holds the golden doors to the eternal plane that is their own home. One by one they forms races, animals and all entities that are needed in a ecosystem, entities that can worship them and give them more powers.

    Questions that needs answer

    Not every world is created from nothing, the world must come from somthing. And I belive in the aproch less is more, a short and somewhat broad origin makes is easier (and harder) to continue my work when building since some of the lore can be filled in by players through the years of playing I hope we will have.

    I will of course by the time i publish anything on my future wiki have changed this origin story more than once. And every input i can get is valueble for making it perfect.

    Though a few questions i do not have the answer to, that i want to specify in this part is:

    How should the race of humans come to existance? Even though the gods have been humans, why would they create these again? Why whould anyone create a race with a free will that will in time question their existance?

    Would a god build a secluded but still with strength accessible palace for them self on a mortal plane? I do want to keep planes to a minimal at this stage, but I think this might be a port to another plane, or they do live with the humans in a different part of the world

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To provide feedback, please email me at oliver@forrtitvau.se