- Imagine
if the Plague of Justinian (541-542) wiped out 75% of the population of
the Roman Empire, sending the Mediterranean and Europe back to the
Neolithic Era. (think Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt)
- The
starting town could be in a Kashmir/Hindu Kush/Torugart Pass-type
crossroads where there is something interesting in all directions
- East:
The western frontier of China
- Northeast:
Smaller warring kingdoms
- North:
the endless steppes, nomadic tribes
- Northwest:
more steppes
- West:
desert, scattered city-states
- Southwest:
the Sasanian Empire
- South:
Hindu Kush Mountains (Dwarves?)
- Further
South: Greco-Indian Kingdoms of Punjab: remnants of Alexander the Great’s
empire—this is where you have statues of the Buddha done in Greek style.
Descendants of an ancient elven empire?
- Southeast:
Tibet
- Silk
Road: Desert oases, caravanserai, cave monasteries. Nomads settled into cities built by
older civilizations.
 |
| Wizard, hireling, fighter, cleric |
Classes
·
Cleric: I can see the cleric’s role in society being the disposal of corpses in
towers of silence (give them a spell to summon scavenger birds?) in addition to
their traditional function as fighters of the undead. Fire and Water are agents of purification. Corpses are a host for druj, which reanimates impure
corpses.
·
Fighter: Cataphracts, nomadic
mounted archers, guardians of caravans, bandits.
·
Magic-User: The Greeks and Romans
claimed Zoroaster invented magic and astrology.
Ostanes introduced it to the West by accompanying Xerxes in his war
against Greece.
·
Thief: Explorers, merchants,
highwaymen, among other things.
·
Elf: The Xian, celestial beings
said to live in the Tian Shan mountain range
·
Dwarf: The Yaksha of Hindu
mythology (caretakers of treasure buried below the earth)
Alignment
·
Law: Asha, created in the world
through good deeds, etc.
· Chaos: Druj, the opposing force that
seeks to destroy the world (Although I personally don’t like the use of “law”
and “chaos” as synonyms for “good” and “evil”: Maybe instead of the
Law/Neutrality/Chaos system, a simple Good/Evil system to reflect the dualism
of the religion?)
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