Great Coast Games: Overview

First played in the year 608 of the Age of Dragon Fire, the Great Coast Games is a two-month long competition held between every major power in the Green Coast. Excepting the hobgoblin empire, every city-state and nation send representatives to win glory, prestige, and more than a little bragging rights for their homeland. The first Great Coast Games were held between Chor Kolav, Glastig, Argoport, and the Aetherian Kingdom, after an age of war.

Behind the Screen: Cultural Queries Part I

Welcome to the first of a tips and tricks series I'm calling Behind the Screen. Not the most imaginative name, but it fits.

This first series deals with creating cultures for worldbuilding. There are dozens, if not hundreds of guides out there on the internet but all the same I thought I'd share my thoughts on the topic. One of the most important, and in some respects least looked at, aspects of creating a fictional world is devising the cultures that reside within it.

In most homebrew settings that I have seen, the designers fall into a trap. It is an all too easy trap to fall into and it is one that I have gotten caught in more than once. Heck, I would be surprised if there wasn't an example or two in this very blog. The trap is to copy and paste a real-world culture into a fictional world. Sure, there are examples of cultures like the Dothraki from Game of Thrones that don't, but I'm not talking about million dollar entertainment projects.

Cozmology: Zarth, the God-Corpse

     The easiest plane to reach after the River of Dreams, the only entities that are regularly conjured to the Material Plane are fire elementals. Despite an inability to communicate with the natives, enough has been gleaned from the rare resurrected person and interviewing other outsiders to paint a picture of the plane.

     The first thing to be understood is that Zarth is massive, as can be expected of the corpse of a god. The most knowledgeable outsider interviewed, a demon under Zorutsok called Tarnathak, described traveling from ankle to knee as having taken him more than a year of traveling without pause. This considers difficulties due to terrain and his ability to outrace a warhorse. When asked why he had traveled to Zarth in the first place, Tarnathak’s reply was a toothy grin.

Languages in the Green Coast

Dozens of languages are spoken throughout the Green Coast, and most languages have distinct regional accents and even full-fledged dialects. Though the lingua franca is Aethron, frequently called the Common Tongue or Common, most races have their own languages that they prefer to use when with each other. In addition to the civilized races, the savage races have a myriad of languages and the races that live under the ocean waves also possess their own, unique means of communicating.

Green Coast Calendar

Even with much of the Green Coast’s history lost to time, a ­long and storied history has been recorded. Though several groups claim to have created it, most scholars agree that the current calendar was put into widespread use by the priestesses of Aelma. Each year has 367 days divided into 11 months. Each month has either 33 or 34 days, split by 7-day weeks.

The first month of the year, Chazron, begins the day after the summer solstice. The following months are Aesto, Noth, Dartos, Moros, Lethis, Krynik, Estas, Vorn, Aras, and Lystmel. Chazron, Dartos, Estas, and Lystem have 34 days while the remaining months have 33. Like our world, a week is seven days, though the names for the days of the week differ: Firstday, Mythday, Valeday, Wheatday, Stormday, Aleday, and Lastday. Below you will find a calendar for the current year: 1097 of the Age of Northern Expansion.

Akkardon: Port by the Storm

Akkardon

LG metropolis

Corruption +2, Crime +0, Economy +4, Law +4, Lore +3, Society +0

Qualities academic, prosperous, tourist attraction

Danger 10

Demographics

Government Overlord (King Sargoth IV)

Population 39,531 (12,639 merfolk, 10,673 tabemisu, 7,115 squoros, 3,953 zang, 3,162 koup’ira, 1,581 dohrnii, 408 other)

Notable NPCs

Royal Mystic Advisor Gilgorthanto (LG old bronze dragon)

Grand Hierophant Hamurbai (NG tabemisu medium 9)

Zikur Albyn, Head of the Blackfin Mercenary Company (NE zang barbarian 15)

Marketplace

Base Value 13,000 gp; Purchase Limit 75,000 gp; Spellcasting 6^th

Minor Items 4d4; Medium Items 3d4; Major Items 2d4

The largest city outside of the koup’ira kingdoms in the Cyan Shelf, Akkardon is located within a large bay near two major currents from both the north and the south. The Trade Spires each stretch at minimum twenty feet above the surface, even during high tide, so as to facilitate the blue-haired surfacers that come to trade. The Royal Quarters also breaks the waterline, allowing them to sleep without fear of drowning.

     Despite what King Sargoth and the authorities would claim, several powerful crime syndicates operate in the shadowy depths of the city. A black market thrives, selling poisons, surfacer artifacts, and things taken from the dark depths of the ocean past the Long-Drop, where the Cyan Shelf ends and the ocean desert begins.

Race: Zang

Zang

Considered to be the fiercest warriors on the Cyan Shelf, the semi-nomadic zang roam the seas in large clans. Though many fear the zang due to their ferocity in defending their hunting grounds from any perceived trespassers, none would deny their dedication to fighting the sahuagin. On more than one occasion, a zang has boastfully claimed that the sahuagin would have overrun the Cyan Shelf centuries ago if not for the clans. Many scholars from elsewhere on the shelf agree.

A Letter to Admiral Tarath Longinus

To Admiral Tarath Longinus,

     Per your request, I have located a member of one of the many zang clans that is willing to speak with a surfacer. Finding one was much more difficult than I originally anticipated, and I am now writing to you from a mostly sunken city called, assuming that the translation potions are working correctly, Akkardon. From what I can tell it serves a similar role as Argoport, a hub of trade for the whole region. I’ve even seen two sea gnome ships meeting and exchanging goods.

Blood in the Water

     The nervous seaman looked over to his captain at the front of the boat, before cautiously asking the question that was at the forefront of his mind, "Cap'n, ya sure this is a good idea?"
     Turning his head so that his steely gaze locked eyes with the question asker, index finger pointedly stroking the hilt of his sword. The lone blue eye, like chips of ice for all the warmth they held, stared into the mud colored eyes of the ship hand, the only other acknowledgement of his question being a single raised eyebrow.

Iconic Barbarian: Ragnoth Frost Serpent

Playing Ragnoth Ragnoth lives by a code taught to him by his uncle: “Die on your feet, or live on your knees.” By his understanding, a person that does not choose his own fate is a slave to those that would choose it for him. When utilizing his rage, he is imagining the presumptuous noble that thought to determine Ragnoth’s fate.

Ragnoth Frost Serpent        

Male Half-Orc Barbarian 1

CN Medium humanoid

Init -1; Senses darkvision; Perception +1

Defense

AC 13, touch 9, flat-footed 13 (+4 armor, -1 Dex)

HP 21 (1d12+9)

Fort +7; Ref -1; Will +1

Offense

Speed 30 ft.

Melee scythe +4 (2d4+4/*4)

Ranged orc war bow +0 (1d12/*3)

Special Attacks rage (9 rounds/day)

Statistics

Str 16, Dex 8, Con 20, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 10

Base Atk +1; CMB +4; CMD 13

Feats Toughness

Skills Acrobatics +0, Climb +4, Knowledge (nature) +6, Survival +5, Swim +4; Armor Check Penalty -3

Traits killer, savage*

Languages Common, Orc, Halfling

SQ fast movement*, orc blood, orc ferocity, intimidating

Equipment scythe, orc war bow, quiver with 80 cold iron arrows, hide armor, barbarian’s kit

* The effects of this ability have already been calculated into Ragnoth’s statistics