Working On The Atlas

[AndrewTall]

The problem with making thaele warmer is that the Rjurik Highlands and Vosgaard are south of Thaele while frozen parts of the northern hemeisphere - so unless you pull Thaele off to the side it is going to be seriously chilly barring major changes to rjurik and vosgaard or some intriguing geothermal mechanics.

Diplomacy follows population size so you could have a frosty race of some sort (walrus men from Krynn? ice goblins?) or dwarves (underground it can be warmer easily) to beef up the numbers of people to talk to / fight. In general though I'd see Thaele as more of a place to go to for adventures, wealth and glory than do nation-building in. Aquatic races might be another possiblilty, we have sahuagin mentioned in the great bay - you could have some more of the scaly peril near thaele easily, or selkies, etc.

[Rey]

Leader of the domain: Penguin the Awnshegh.

[ThatSeanGuy]

The problem with making thaele warmer is that the Rjurik Highlands and Vosgaard are south of Thaele while frozen parts of the northern hemeisphere - so unless you pull Thaele off to the side it is going to be seriously chilly barring major changes to rjurik and vosgaard or some intriguing geothermal mechanics.

Diplomacy follows population size so you could have a frosty race of some sort (walrus men from Krynn? ice goblins?) or dwarves (underground it can be warmer easily) to beef up the numbers of people to talk to / fight. In general though I'd see Thaele as more of a place to go to for adventures, wealth and glory than do nation-building in. Aquatic races might be another possiblilty, we have sahuagin mentioned in the great bay - you could have some more of the scaly peril near thaele easily, or selkies, etc.

Well, there are several ways around that, I think; just having the Rjurik colonies be a little west of directly northern Cerilia could give us the, "Warmer ocean temperatures and airflows." excuse, something that's been seen in the real world a few times. Volcanic and geothermial activity could also be a source of a more varied climate, or a few well positioned mountain ranges could explain dryer and wetter locations.

Or, if we want to go crazy, we could say something like a sleeping dragon's breath is warming Thaele...that could be the whole reason for the sudden colonial rush, as the great hunks of ice into a more temperate climate, while northern Rjurik and Vosgaard remain, in the old tounge, "Damn sure chilly.". Throw in a phrophecy and a dark conspiracy by the witches of Kriesha to return eternal winter to Thaele, and you've got a pretty neat storyline.

[Lee]

In a message dated 4/2/2008 4:46:22 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
brnetboard@BIRTHRIGHT.NET writes:

Maybe throw in a few dwarf and goblin kingdoms for zest(We`ve covered enough
on elves to last the next decade, I daresay.), and suddenly you`ve got a
region that`s worth running a campaign in.


Wasn`t there an ice goblin in the Frostburn book?

Or, is there a sea-going goblin trade network somewhere?

Lee.

[ThatSeanGuy]

Wasn`t there an ice goblin in the Frostburn book?

Or, is there a sea-going goblin trade network somewhere?

Why not both? Have a competition between the traditionalist ice goblin kingdom and the more modernist group of sea-fairing goblins who totally aren't pirates at all, really, they promise, and far more willing to trade with humans.

Then again, I've got a soft spot for Cerilian goblins.

[geeman]

At 01:45 PM 4/2/2008, ThatSeanGuy wrote:

>An easy way to improve this would be to make Thale`s climate a
>little less like the North Pole, and a little more like, say, North
>America. Give the other major Cerilian nations reasons to colonize
>the area, and you`d have an interesting political reversal of the
>Rjurik being dominant and unavoidable, instead of sort of shunted
>off to the side there.

The name "Thale" is likely based on the mythological land of Thule
which, along with Hyperborea, was a type of "unknown land" at the
edges of the Earth. Some myths say there is a hidden temperate zone
somewhere in the frozen lands of the North.

Gary

[Rey]

Frost giant kingdom.

Remorhaz, ice dragons, etc.

[Rowan]

You know, with Cerilia's giants and elves being more mythological and fey-like than "standard" D&D, why are goblins comparatively normal (if better organized)?

Why not toss in some more fey goblins (perhaps your remote ice and sea goblins), or make the whole race more fey-like. It might help explain why humans haven't been able to eradicate them, without having to rely on massive birthrates. It might also help explain how they could have rebelled against enslaving elves long in the past and succeeded in that rebellion.

To make them more fey, you'd have to give them some interesting, perhaps rather random or chaotic, magic powers--probably having to do with stealth, trickery, and brute force. 0-level spells might help, as might such things as 1 round displacement or a few mirror images, Enlarge or Reduce, Disguise Self, Alter Self, Blur or limited invisibility, auguries or divinations. I tend to give small goblins Sneak Attacks and big ones Rage, anyway; these could be given more mystical origins rather than act as skills.

Make those goblins a tricky and unpredictable lot, where some might be beneficial allies--or treacherous opportunists. The Orogs, after all, already fit the role of the super-militaristic tough monsters, gnolls are the ferocious tribal marauders, while trolls and ogres remain your rarer wandering brutes and giants live in remote clan dwellings. Goblins need not be just snivelling tribes and warbands held together in small kingdoms by great goblin kings. There's rather a lot of overlap with those other monstrous types in this vision. Rather, if they were individually more varied, with all manner of minor magics (each individual only having random access to one or two), they could become much more interesting story instruments--as well as being damnably difficult to deal with at the realm-level.

[AndrewTall]

You know, with Cerilia's giants and elves being more mythological and fey-like than "standard" D&D, why are goblins comparatively normal (if better organized)?

Why not toss in some more fey goblins (perhaps your remote ice and sea goblins), or make the whole race more fey-like. It might help explain why humans haven't been able to eradicate them, without having to rely on massive birthrates. It might also help explain how they could have rebelled against enslaving elves long in the past and succeeded in that rebellion.

I think I recall an alliance between Boeruine and Thurazor - but don't remember details off-hand. I figure something similar worked during the empire to let them survive - the goblins were members of a sorts or at least considered 'neutral' - somewhere handy to let hotheads blow off steam and the like. Some sort of elemental/spirit twist would be interesting though - certainly for some of the goblins (I like having goblin rabble around).

[Thorogood Roele]

I think I recall an alliance between Boeruine and Thurazor - but don't remember details off-hand. I figure something similar worked during the empire to let them survive - the goblins were members of a sorts or at least considered 'neutral' - somewhere handy to let hotheads blow off steam and the like. Some sort of elemental/spirit twist would be interesting though - certainly for some of the goblins (I like having goblin rabble around).

If I recall the history of the world the goblins rebelled far long before the humans came to Cerilia, however, there was indeed an alliance between Thurazor and Boeruine in the novel "Iron Throne" they were nearly hand in hand full allies, of course Boeruine had no real respect for them.