Here are a few lines of description for the Kingdom of Hercynia. I am going to be inserting these lines into the campaign description, in the campaign builder, and I am curious how you think these few lines make The Kingdom of Hercynia sound.
On Solis Mundo, to the South of Ishigar; nestled between the foothills of the Mammoths Teeth and the Iodrorus Straits, lies The Kingdom of Hercynia. A land of plenty ruled over by a Druidic King and Queen. Powered by clean, unlimited magical energy, and with the natural world at its core, the Kingdom of Hercynia is a mecca of commerce and industry. A magic eutopia of law, order and virtue, and a haven for refugees fleeing across the Iodrorus Straits, to escape from the J'hada Imperium.
I am curious, what you would imagine the Kingdom of Hercynia sounds like based upon these few lines of the description as this is all my players will get to know about the Kingdom before they create characters and start to play in it.
Also, if you have any other thoughts, opinions or constructive criticisms that you care to share, then please feel free to do so.
To be honest, it sounds very cliche. You dump a load of locations in the first sentence that don't mean anything, the shift into conflicting descriptions of a druidic king/queen (without explaining what 'druidic' means in this context) and nature 'at its core' (again, what does that mean), but also being powered by 'clean, unlimited magical energy'. These two images seem at odds with each other because you don't explain them. You then say it's a 'mecca of commerce and industry' (I'd avoid using a real world place as a metaphor in your setting description, it's like saying it's the "New York" of Faerun) which further rubs up against the naturalistic descriptions; industry and nature are two typically conflicting concepts, so you'd need to explain how they don't in this place.
Then you say 'a magic eutopia [sic] of law, order and virtue"; what makes it a utopia? Because to many that'd sound like an oppressive dystopia. Show, don't tell. You can't just say something is a utopia, you have to show it.
And then you drop the 'escape from the J'hada Imperium' like we're supposed to assume they're bad?
Sounds pretty utopian, but then I would question how such a land came to power and maintained that power if its neighbors are having such hard times as to be funneling refugees their way.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
You are the one who was asking about Mythallas to power a technically advanced nation in the other thread, right?
I will just assume those are the "clean and unlimited magic energy". In that case, they should be mentioned. Also, since the J'hada empire seems to be "evil" you might want to contrast that empire to the kingdom of Hercynia. Right now it sounds like a Renaissance version of Italy, with todays refugee crisis and a nuclear fusion based energy supply. :D
Edit: I would also add more history, so the players can get a feeling for the place and imagine what the society is like. I obviously don't know your setting, so I just made some history and names up, because I think the easiest way to explain what I mean here is showing it with an example. Please note that english is not my first language, so it might sound a bit weird :D
----
Between the icy peaks of the Mammoth's teeth and the mild, warm seas of the Iodrorus Straits lies the rich kingdom of Hercynia.
Decades of rapid industrial growth have turned this country to a center of both commerce and industry. The people of Hercynia enjoyed unprecedented wealth, but it came at a terrible price. The air of the realm's biggest cities was thick with the smoke of a myriad factories, the river's waters turned dark and poisonous and diseases spread like wildfires amongst the poorer population, scuddled away in makeshift barracks on the city outskirts.
These dire circumstances only changed half a decade ago, when Archdruid and now current king Lathanel Staghelm discovered the answer to Hercynia's problems: Mythallas. Ancient power sources, that drew their strength from the magic of the weave and could supply energy to the industrial machines that polluted the kingdom.
This discovery lead to a rapid development. The old steam engines were quickly disposed and replaced with this new, clean source and the healing hands of Staghelm's loving wife, Queen Darya, and her sisters of the Moon worked tirelessly to recover the natural beauty of the land.
Today, Hercynia retained its important position as a central trading hub and a pioneer of industrial advance but is now a natural paradise unparalleled on Solis Mundo.
But there are always those who envy the riches of others, and just across the Iodrorus Straits lies the J'hada Empire. Like a looming thunderstorm the Empire only waits to plunder the wealth and knowledge of its smaller neighbour. Ships with refugees from this dark realm arrive in Hercynia every day.
And while the Hercynians initially embraced these poor people, the voices and whispers who talk about a hidden invasion from J'hada recently began to grow louder and bolder.
To be honest, it sounds very cliche. You dump a load of locations in the first sentence that don't mean anything, the shift into conflicting descriptions of a druidic king/queen (without explaining what 'druidic' means in this context) and nature 'at its core' (again, what does that mean), but also being powered by 'clean, unlimited magical energy'. These two images seem at odds with each other because you don't explain them. You then say it's a 'mecca of commerce and industry' (I'd avoid using a real world place as a metaphor in your setting description, it's like saying it's the "New York" of Faerun) which further rubs up against the naturalistic descriptions; industry and nature are two typically conflicting concepts, so you'd need to explain how they don't in this place.
Then you say 'a magic eutopia [sic] of law, order and virtue"; what makes it a utopia? Because to many that'd sound like an oppressive dystopia. Show, don't tell. You can't just say something is a utopia, you have to show it.
And then you drop the 'escape from the J'hada Imperium' like we're supposed to assume they're bad?
So to answer a couple of the points you raised.
I was thinking that this place has a natural overabundance of magical energy, that flows through the natural world, causing plants and animals to grow bigger and stronger then anywhere else.
The original people who settled here were Druids, who worshiped land, sea and nature deities, and they saw this place as a blessing given to them by their Gods.
In real world mythological terms, imagine Hercynia as a garden of Eden kind of place
Over time, the small settlements grew into large villages, then towns then cities. As the population grew, people learned how to tap into the region's inherent magic to power their developing technology.
They began to cyphon off the magical energy and store it in devices similar to Mythallars. Although not true Mythallars, these devices do the same job. Storing magical energy and using it to power quasimagical devices - the magical technology of the Kingdom of Hercynia.
Although the Kingdom of Hercynia, is the ideal place for growing food and what have you, it has precious few other natural resources. However, using their magical technology and the natural safe harbour, the people of Hercynia, were able to establish trade with many other regions. They traded their overabundance of natural energy, food and wines, made from the finest grapes found anywhere in the world, for other resources and expertise they needed.
The magical technology of Hercynia is now very advanced, and the region has been transformed by its development and use, but at it's core, the technology is still rooted in the natural world, and the people of Hercynia still worship their Gods, given them thanks for the paradise in which they live.
The J'hada Imperium are not bad or evil. In fact they were once allies of Hercynia and once shared a very similar culture. Like The Kingdom of Hercynia, the people of the J'hada Imperium, also went down the path of developing magical technology, powered by the natural magical energy of their region. Unlike region of the Kingdom of Hercynia, however, the natural energies found in the J'hada Imperium, proved to be less resilient and less capable of renewing themselves and eventually were almost entirely drained.
As a result the region of the J'hada Imperium, became an extremely hard region to live in and people began to leave. In response to this, and out of fear that their population might fall so low, that they could not fend off an invasion (this region is rich in natural.minerals) the J'hada Imperium closed its boarders and forbade anybody to leave. They also banned trade with any other nation, and destroyed all references to the world outside of the J'hada Imperium, so that the next generations would never know the truth of what lies beyond their boarders
The Imperium then set about a propoganda campaign, to essentially convince the population and future generations that the world beyond their boarders was a place of pure chaos while evil gods and monsters reigned.
Think North Korea in the real world.
The people of the J'hada Imperium and not bad, but their lives are extremely hard, living in a region almost entirely drained of its magical energy.
Food and other rexources are scarce, and with all trade with other nations banned, the lives of the people of the J'hada Imperium, have little hope of improving.
A few escape each year, a hundred at most. Most settle in The Kingdom of Hercynia, a land of pleanty, whose magical technology keeps them safe, clothed, fed, housed and warm.
They are not bad people, they are a desperate people who give up everything in hopes of a better life.
Why would they want to escape you say? Well why do people in real world North Korea escape? Some see through the propoganda and lies, some know the truth etc.
So those where my thoughts whole I was writing the description, but I wanted to shorten it to just a few lines and also wanted to place the region in the world as well.
Maybe I could have done better. I will take your criticism on board and see if I can not rewrite it to be less cliche.
The basis of the campaign from levels 1 to 5, is to deal with undead and corrupted creatures that have begun to plague the outlying farms and villages.
Levels 6 - 11. The players finally discover the cause of the undead and corrupted creatures and learn that an Inquisitor (a member of the secret police and military intelligence unit, attached to the goverment of the J'hada Imperium), was corrupting the region's wellspring of magical energy, to weaken the region and make their technology less effective. The players deal with him of course and manage to undo any immediate damage, but they now have to deal with inquisition. Dealing with the Inquisition and finding a way to permanently undo the damage caused by the Inquisitor, is the focus of levels 6 - 11.
Beyond that I haven't thought of anything because I'm not sure if it will get that far.
To be honest, it sounds very cliche. You dump a load of locations in the first sentence that don't mean anything, the shift into conflicting descriptions of a druidic king/queen (without explaining what 'druidic' means in this context) and nature 'at its core' (again, what does that mean), but also being powered by 'clean, unlimited magical energy'. These two images seem at odds with each other because you don't explain them. You then say it's a 'mecca of commerce and industry' (I'd avoid using a real world place as a metaphor in your setting description, it's like saying it's the "New York" of Faerun) which further rubs up against the naturalistic descriptions; industry and nature are two typically conflicting concepts, so you'd need to explain how they don't in this place.
Then you say 'a magic eutopia [sic] of law, order and virtue"; what makes it a utopia? Because to many that'd sound like an oppressive dystopia. Show, don't tell. You can't just say something is a utopia, you have to show it.
And then you drop the 'escape from the J'hada Imperium' like we're supposed to assume they're bad?
So to answer a couple of the points you raised.
I was thinking that this place has a natural overabundance of magical energy, that flows through the natural world, causing plants and animals to grow bigger and stronger then anywhere else.
The original people who settled here were Druids, who worshiped land, sea and nature deities, and they saw this place as a blessing given to them by their Gods.
In real world mythological terms, imagine Hercynia as a garden of Eden kind of place
Over time, the small settlements grew into large villages, then towns then cities. As the population grew, people learned how to tap into the region's inherent magic to power their developing technology.
They began to cyphon off the magical energy and store it in devices similar to Mythallars. Although not true Mythallars, these devices do the same job. Storing magical energy and using it to power quasimagical devices - the magical technology of the Kingdom of Hercynia.
Although the Kingdom of Hercynia, is the ideal place for growing food and what have you, it has precious few other natural resources. However, using their magical technology and the natural safe harbour, the people of Hercynia, were able to establish trade with many other regions. They traded their overabundance of natural energy, food and wines, made from the finest grapes found anywhere in the world, for other resources and expertise they needed.
The magical technology of Hercynia is now very advanced, and the region has been transformed by its development and use, but at it's core, the technology is still rooted in the natural world, and the people of Hercynia still worship their Gods, given them thanks for the paradise in which they live.
The J'hada Imperium are not bad or evil. In fact they were once allies of Hercynia and once shared a very similar culture. Like The Kingdom of Hercynia, the people of the J'hada Imperium, also went down the path of developing magical technology, powered by the natural magical energy of their region. Unlike region of the Kingdom of Hercynia, however, the natural energies found in the J'hada Imperium, proved to be less resilient and less capable of renewing themselves and eventually were almost entirely drained.
As a result the region of the J'hada Imperium, became an extremely hard region to live in and people began to leave. In response to this, and out of fear that their population might fall so low, that they could not fend off an invasion (this region is rich in natural.minerals) the J'hada Imperium closed its boarders and forbade anybody to leave. They also banned trade with any other nation, and destroyed all references to the world outside of the J'hada Imperium, so that the next generations would never know the truth of what lies beyond their boarders
The Imperium then set about a propoganda campaign, to essentially convince the population and future generations that the world beyond their boarders was a place of pure chaos while evil gods and monsters reigned.
Think North Korea in the real world.
The people of the J'hada Imperium and not bad, but their lives are extremely hard, living in a region almost entirely drained of its magical energy.
Food and other rexources are scarce, and with all trade with other nations banned, the lives of the people of the J'hada Imperium, have little hope of improving.
A few escape each year, a hundred at most. Most settle in The Kingdom of Hercynia, a land of pleanty, whose magical technology keeps them safe, clothed, fed, housed and warm.
They are not bad people, they are a desperate people who give up everything in hopes of a better life.
Why would they want to escape you say? Well why do people in real world North Korea escape? Some see through the propoganda and lies, some know the truth etc.
So those where my thoughts whole I was writing the description, but I wanted to shorten it to just a few lines and also wanted to place the region in the world as well.
Maybe I could have done better. I will take your criticism on board and see if I can not rewrite it to be less cliche.
I think the most important thing would be to include some of this detail into the description, so the players have a chance to understand the kingdom and how it works. Good luck with it, the setting sounds interesting. :-)
To be honest, it sounds very cliche. You dump a load of locations in the first sentence that don't mean anything, the shift into conflicting descriptions of a druidic king/queen (without explaining what 'druidic' means in this context) and nature 'at its core' (again, what does that mean), but also being powered by 'clean, unlimited magical energy'. These two images seem at odds with each other because you don't explain them. You then say it's a 'mecca of commerce and industry' (I'd avoid using a real world place as a metaphor in your setting description, it's like saying it's the "New York" of Faerun) which further rubs up against the naturalistic descriptions; industry and nature are two typically conflicting concepts, so you'd need to explain how they don't in this place.
Then you say 'a magic eutopia [sic] of law, order and virtue"; what makes it a utopia? Because to many that'd sound like an oppressive dystopia. Show, don't tell. You can't just say something is a utopia, you have to show it.
And then you drop the 'escape from the J'hada Imperium' like we're supposed to assume they're bad?
I have to agree with Davedamon on this. Half way though I was thinking the Kings name is Sanders.
Here are a few lines of description for the Kingdom of Hercynia. I am going to be inserting these lines into the campaign description, in the campaign builder, and I am curious how you think these few lines make The Kingdom of Hercynia sound.
On Solis Mundo, to the South of Ishigar; nestled between the foothills of the Mammoths Teeth and the Iodrorus Straits, lies The Kingdom of Hercynia. A land of plenty ruled over by a Druidic King and Queen. Powered by clean, unlimited magical energy, and with the natural world at its core, the Kingdom of Hercynia is a mecca of commerce and industry. A magic eutopia of law, order and virtue, and a haven for refugees fleeing across the Iodrorus Straits, to escape from the J'hada Imperium.
I am curious, what you would imagine the Kingdom of Hercynia sounds like based upon these few lines of the description as this is all my players will get to know about the Kingdom before they create characters and start to play in it.
Also, if you have any other thoughts, opinions or constructive criticisms that you care to share, then please feel free to do so.
Cheers
Foxes
It sounds suspicious.
First of all, perfect utopias do not exist-- because they logically cannot exist. They are an expression of an ideal and if you do not share that ideal, then you are going to find utopias start looking a little more dystopian. Utopias are not only an expression of an ideal, they are an absolute expression of an ideal. If you believe a little conflict is good for the soul, then a society in which no one ever needs to face real adversity or struggle is oppressive.
It sounds like the beginning of every episode of Star Trek, where they go down to a planet, discover a paradise and by the end they realise what dark secret keeps this paradise afloat. This Side of Paradise is the perfect example of this trope. If I encountered this kingdom, I would be suspicious. Something would not seem off and I would be on my toes: the hair on the back of my neck would stand on end.
Not every setting needs to require a PhD in history to understand the nuances that go into their societies. However, having clear good guys and clear bad guy is not desirable. Part of exploring the world is to explore its morality and upon seeing these arguments each side makes, decide for yourself what is right and wrong. In terms not including demons and the undead and perhaps also brutal raiders, each side should have an argument which is right in parts and wrong in others and their conflict should be an expression of those differences.
Besides that, how does a country become a mecca of industry and centre itself around nature? Industry famously plunders nature for its resources. Druids famously complain about that. I can't see them building grand cities at all, actually. That seems to be something counter to their nature.
It all sounds far too good to be true, which generally means that it is.
To answer your specific point in which you stated:
"It sounds like the beginning of every episode of Star Trek, where they go down to a planet, discover a paradise and by the end they realise what dark secret keeps this paradise afloat."
I find this interesting because, even in Star Trek, it is canon that where Earth might be paradise, the Federation; despite its portrayal, is not a utopia. Taking this speech given in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, about the Federation:
I know you. I was like you once. But then I opened my eyes. Open your eyes, Captain. Why is the Federation so obsessed with the Maquis? We've never harmed you. And yet we're constantly arrested and charged with terrorism. Starships chase us through the Badlands, and our supporters are harassed and ridiculed. Why? Because we've left the Federation, and that's the one thing you can't accept. Nobody leaves paradise; everyone should want to be in the Federation! Hell, you even want the Cardassians to join. You're only sending them replicators because one day, they can take their rightful place on the Federation Council. You know, in some ways, you're even worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You're more insidious, you assimilate people - and they don't even know it.
The above quote comes from Star Trek Deepspace Nine, but it is how I imagined the Kingdom of Hercynia as being. It is paradise, in the same way, that Earth, from Star Trek, is paradise. Spend enough time there, bathe in its splendour for long enough, listen to the people and drink enough of the Koolaid, and in the end, you too will start to like it, you also will want to stay.
That's the thing about the Kingdom of Hercynia; it welcomes everyone, the tired, the hungry, the rich and the poor. The huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of distant lands; The Kingdom of Hercynia welcomes them all, and one by one, they are all assimilated, without them even knowing it.
I suppose a more apt analogy for D&D would be to say that the region occupied by The Kingdom of Hercynia, is a material plane counterpart to Elysium because that is more or less what I wanted to make. I wanted to make a place that is so beautiful, so good, so lovely and peaceful, that it would seem impossible if it did not exist, made possible by the region's abundance of magical energy and the focus of all desire and envy in the world.
While the other old Kingdom, Empires or Nations of the world are experiencing a decline, The Kingdom of Hercynia is growing in power influence and population; a growth that is flued by the regions natural resource - magical energy - its exports, and its increasing population.
The Kingdom of Hercynia is not warlike; it has few soldiers, but its cities towns and villages are heavily defended by magic, and the Kingdoms magical technology is indeed formable when used for the defence of the kingdom.
Hercynia doesn't invade or conquer others like some other nations of the world. Instead, it absorbs them through assimilation and by naturalising those who seek shelter within its borders.
I am not entirely sure that I have explained my thoughts adequately, or how to balance them with the way I imagined this place as being a paradise.
I kind of hope I have made some kind of sense anyway.
Hi, guys,
Here are a few lines of description for the Kingdom of Hercynia. I am going to be inserting these lines into the campaign description, in the campaign builder, and I am curious how you think these few lines make The Kingdom of Hercynia sound.
I am curious, what you would imagine the Kingdom of Hercynia sounds like based upon these few lines of the description as this is all my players will get to know about the Kingdom before they create characters and start to play in it.
Also, if you have any other thoughts, opinions or constructive criticisms that you care to share, then please feel free to do so.
Cheers
Foxes
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
To be honest, it sounds very cliche. You dump a load of locations in the first sentence that don't mean anything, the shift into conflicting descriptions of a druidic king/queen (without explaining what 'druidic' means in this context) and nature 'at its core' (again, what does that mean), but also being powered by 'clean, unlimited magical energy'. These two images seem at odds with each other because you don't explain them. You then say it's a 'mecca of commerce and industry' (I'd avoid using a real world place as a metaphor in your setting description, it's like saying it's the "New York" of Faerun) which further rubs up against the naturalistic descriptions; industry and nature are two typically conflicting concepts, so you'd need to explain how they don't in this place.
Then you say 'a magic eutopia [sic] of law, order and virtue"; what makes it a utopia? Because to many that'd sound like an oppressive dystopia. Show, don't tell. You can't just say something is a utopia, you have to show it.
And then you drop the 'escape from the J'hada Imperium' like we're supposed to assume they're bad?
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Sounds pretty utopian, but then I would question how such a land came to power and maintained that power if its neighbors are having such hard times as to be funneling refugees their way.
You are the one who was asking about Mythallas to power a technically advanced nation in the other thread, right?
I will just assume those are the "clean and unlimited magic energy". In that case, they should be mentioned. Also, since the J'hada empire seems to be "evil" you might want to contrast that empire to the kingdom of Hercynia. Right now it sounds like a Renaissance version of Italy, with todays refugee crisis and a nuclear fusion based energy supply. :D
Edit: I would also add more history, so the players can get a feeling for the place and imagine what the society is like. I obviously don't know your setting, so I just made some history and names up, because I think the easiest way to explain what I mean here is showing it with an example. Please note that english is not my first language, so it might sound a bit weird :D
----
Between the icy peaks of the Mammoth's teeth and the mild, warm seas of the Iodrorus Straits lies the rich kingdom of Hercynia.
Decades of rapid industrial growth have turned this country to a center of both commerce and industry. The people of Hercynia enjoyed unprecedented wealth, but it came at a terrible price. The air of the realm's biggest cities was thick with the smoke of a myriad factories, the river's waters turned dark and poisonous and diseases spread like wildfires amongst the poorer population, scuddled away in makeshift barracks on the city outskirts.
These dire circumstances only changed half a decade ago, when Archdruid and now current king Lathanel Staghelm discovered the answer to Hercynia's problems: Mythallas.
Ancient power sources, that drew their strength from the magic of the weave and could supply energy to the industrial machines that polluted the kingdom.
This discovery lead to a rapid development. The old steam engines were quickly disposed and replaced with this new, clean source and the healing hands of Staghelm's loving wife, Queen Darya, and her sisters of the Moon worked tirelessly to recover the natural beauty of the land.
Today, Hercynia retained its important position as a central trading hub and a pioneer of industrial advance but is now a natural paradise unparalleled on Solis Mundo.
But there are always those who envy the riches of others, and just across the Iodrorus Straits lies the J'hada Empire. Like a looming thunderstorm the Empire only waits to plunder the wealth and knowledge of its smaller neighbour. Ships with refugees from this dark realm arrive in Hercynia every day.
And while the Hercynians initially embraced these poor people, the voices and whispers who talk about a hidden invasion from J'hada recently began to grow louder and bolder.
So to answer a couple of the points you raised.
I was thinking that this place has a natural overabundance of magical energy, that flows through the natural world, causing plants and animals to grow bigger and stronger then anywhere else.
The original people who settled here were Druids, who worshiped land, sea and nature deities, and they saw this place as a blessing given to them by their Gods.
In real world mythological terms, imagine Hercynia as a garden of Eden kind of place
Over time, the small settlements grew into large villages, then towns then cities. As the population grew, people learned how to tap into the region's inherent magic to power their developing technology.
They began to cyphon off the magical energy and store it in devices similar to Mythallars. Although not true Mythallars, these devices do the same job. Storing magical energy and using it to power quasimagical devices - the magical technology of the Kingdom of Hercynia.
Although the Kingdom of Hercynia, is the ideal place for growing food and what have you, it has precious few other natural resources. However, using their magical technology and the natural safe harbour, the people of Hercynia, were able to establish trade with many other regions. They traded their overabundance of natural energy, food and wines, made from the finest grapes found anywhere in the world, for other resources and expertise they needed.
The magical technology of Hercynia is now very advanced, and the region has been transformed by its development and use, but at it's core, the technology is still rooted in the natural world, and the people of Hercynia still worship their Gods, given them thanks for the paradise in which they live.
The J'hada Imperium are not bad or evil. In fact they were once allies of Hercynia and once shared a very similar culture. Like The Kingdom of Hercynia, the people of the J'hada Imperium, also went down the path of developing magical technology, powered by the natural magical energy of their region. Unlike region of the Kingdom of Hercynia, however, the natural energies found in the J'hada Imperium, proved to be less resilient and less capable of renewing themselves and eventually were almost entirely drained.
As a result the region of the J'hada Imperium, became an extremely hard region to live in and people began to leave. In response to this, and out of fear that their population might fall so low, that they could not fend off an invasion (this region is rich in natural.minerals) the J'hada Imperium closed its boarders and forbade anybody to leave. They also banned trade with any other nation, and destroyed all references to the world outside of the J'hada Imperium, so that the next generations would never know the truth of what lies beyond their boarders
The Imperium then set about a propoganda campaign, to essentially convince the population and future generations that the world beyond their boarders was a place of pure chaos while evil gods and monsters reigned.
Think North Korea in the real world.
The people of the J'hada Imperium and not bad, but their lives are extremely hard, living in a region almost entirely drained of its magical energy.
Food and other rexources are scarce, and with all trade with other nations banned, the lives of the people of the J'hada Imperium, have little hope of improving.
A few escape each year, a hundred at most. Most settle in The Kingdom of Hercynia, a land of pleanty, whose magical technology keeps them safe, clothed, fed, housed and warm.
They are not bad people, they are a desperate people who give up everything in hopes of a better life.
Why would they want to escape you say? Well why do people in real world North Korea escape? Some see through the propoganda and lies, some know the truth etc.
So those where my thoughts whole I was writing the description, but I wanted to shorten it to just a few lines and also wanted to place the region in the world as well.
Maybe I could have done better. I will take your criticism on board and see if I can not rewrite it to be less cliche.
The basis of the campaign from levels 1 to 5, is to deal with undead and corrupted creatures that have begun to plague the outlying farms and villages.
Levels 6 - 11. The players finally discover the cause of the undead and corrupted creatures and learn that an Inquisitor (a member of the secret police and military intelligence unit, attached to the goverment of the J'hada Imperium), was corrupting the region's wellspring of magical energy, to weaken the region and make their technology less effective. The players deal with him of course and manage to undo any immediate damage, but they now have to deal with inquisition. Dealing with the Inquisition and finding a way to permanently undo the damage caused by the Inquisitor, is the focus of levels 6 - 11.
Beyond that I haven't thought of anything because I'm not sure if it will get that far.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I think the most important thing would be to include some of this detail into the description, so the players have a chance to understand the kingdom and how it works. Good luck with it, the setting sounds interesting. :-)
I get some serious Selesnya vibes from this country.
I have to agree with Davedamon on this. Half way though I was thinking the Kings name is Sanders.
It sounds suspicious.
First of all, perfect utopias do not exist-- because they logically cannot exist. They are an expression of an ideal and if you do not share that ideal, then you are going to find utopias start looking a little more dystopian. Utopias are not only an expression of an ideal, they are an absolute expression of an ideal. If you believe a little conflict is good for the soul, then a society in which no one ever needs to face real adversity or struggle is oppressive.
It sounds like the beginning of every episode of Star Trek, where they go down to a planet, discover a paradise and by the end they realise what dark secret keeps this paradise afloat. This Side of Paradise is the perfect example of this trope. If I encountered this kingdom, I would be suspicious. Something would not seem off and I would be on my toes: the hair on the back of my neck would stand on end.
Not every setting needs to require a PhD in history to understand the nuances that go into their societies. However, having clear good guys and clear bad guy is not desirable. Part of exploring the world is to explore its morality and upon seeing these arguments each side makes, decide for yourself what is right and wrong. In terms not including demons and the undead and perhaps also brutal raiders, each side should have an argument which is right in parts and wrong in others and their conflict should be an expression of those differences.
Besides that, how does a country become a mecca of industry and centre itself around nature? Industry famously plunders nature for its resources. Druids famously complain about that. I can't see them building grand cities at all, actually. That seems to be something counter to their nature.
It all sounds far too good to be true, which generally means that it is.
Thanks for your reply,
To answer your specific point in which you stated:
I find this interesting because, even in Star Trek, it is canon that where Earth might be paradise, the Federation; despite its portrayal, is not a utopia. Taking this speech given in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, about the Federation:
The above quote comes from Star Trek Deepspace Nine, but it is how I imagined the Kingdom of Hercynia as being. It is paradise, in the same way, that Earth, from Star Trek, is paradise. Spend enough time there, bathe in its splendour for long enough, listen to the people and drink enough of the Koolaid, and in the end, you too will start to like it, you also will want to stay.
That's the thing about the Kingdom of Hercynia; it welcomes everyone, the tired, the hungry, the rich and the poor. The huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of distant lands; The Kingdom of Hercynia welcomes them all, and one by one, they are all assimilated, without them even knowing it.
I suppose a more apt analogy for D&D would be to say that the region occupied by The Kingdom of Hercynia, is a material plane counterpart to Elysium because that is more or less what I wanted to make. I wanted to make a place that is so beautiful, so good, so lovely and peaceful, that it would seem impossible if it did not exist, made possible by the region's abundance of magical energy and the focus of all desire and envy in the world.
While the other old Kingdom, Empires or Nations of the world are experiencing a decline, The Kingdom of Hercynia is growing in power influence and population; a growth that is flued by the regions natural resource - magical energy - its exports, and its increasing population.
The Kingdom of Hercynia is not warlike; it has few soldiers, but its cities towns and villages are heavily defended by magic, and the Kingdoms magical technology is indeed formable when used for the defence of the kingdom.
Hercynia doesn't invade or conquer others like some other nations of the world. Instead, it absorbs them through assimilation and by naturalising those who seek shelter within its borders.
I am not entirely sure that I have explained my thoughts adequately, or how to balance them with the way I imagined this place as being a paradise.
I kind of hope I have made some kind of sense anyway.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.