>>10266724
And yet, for all the darkness, for all the soul-defiling blight that the city contains, The Song is strong there. On the great Broad Way, temples to the Song's might line every block, and in the neighborhood of the Green Witch (so named for a druid's cottage that has long since rotted away and been built over) those that embrace the Song's glory and spread it outnumber those that merely listen.

The city strongest in The Song is actually a Technocracy by name - Detroit Rock City. Many great gods have sprung from the infertile, oil-soaked soil that surrounds the town on the Steel Gulf, from the Knights in the Song's Service to the strange cult of the Dark Carnival. While the Technocracy there is strong, it allows the souls of its inhabitants to breathe freely, and so the machinations created there, the great Thunder Chariots, are constructs that also bear a soul, not defiling creations of death and pain.

>>10266756
Other great Citystates include the Air City of the south - little more than a massive hub for zeppelin transport, but also possessing the processing plant for the great speed potion Koce - the city of Lost Angels to the west, the dusty sprawl of Nash, and the tangle of one-way streets and cruel spires called Chi-Town.

~THE CITY OF RAIN~
Separate from the Free Citystates stands the City of Rain. While the Free Citystates all control the land within 50 miles of the city walls, The City of Rain controls no land beyond its border, except the immediate area where its archers can target foes. Legally, anyway - no one really cares to try to claim the high, sharp spires about the city that surround the bay it sits on, the cold bay that remains chilled, still, and free of interference by means of the great mountainous peninsulas that seal it off from the rest of the sea, creating a pocket that traps vast amounts of clouds in - meaning that the City of Rain is indeed rainy for 300 days a year on average. It does not snow there, though it is often cold enough that the rain freezes, and rarely does the temperature reach above 50 degrees. In such a repressive environ, it is no wonder that the Munchkins who created the city are by and large so nihilistic and cynical.

The City of Rain does have one great boon working for it - beyond the patronage of the Fallen Lord of Paradise, anyway. The Magi-Net, the great network of crystal balls that allows information to flow across the world, is centered there; anyone attacking the city would have a hoard of angry wizards at their throats in hours.

>>10266879
~THE MROR HOLDS~
Across the Steel Gulf lies the homeland of the Iron Dwarves, the only access point to the Free Citystates being the Armistice Bridge in Detroit Rock City. A vast, rocky land of mountains, ice, and more mountains, the Mror Holds are largely fortresses carved into the rock faces, their supplies coming from underground farms and mines. There is no technocracy in the Holds, and the engineering and artifice so common in the Free Citystates is almost unheard of there. The Iron Dwarves greatly prefer magic that is "pure and untainted", to the machinations of the artificers. Even the Magi-Net does not reach every part of the Holds.

The Mror Holds are governed by a council of kings - seven kings rule the Holds, each one taking his own kingdom, but no decisions are made without the consent of the other six. Because any decision that changes things too greatly is always shouted down by at least five of the kings, the Holds remain as they were, in perpetuity...

>>10267064
~OIR~
Set apart by a great channel that was sliced into the crust by powerful magics, Oir is as rocky as the Mror holds, but its hills are low and rolling, capped with green. The severe climate of the rocky mountains across the channel is blunted, cool and damp versus driving and icy, and rains tend towards soft mists versus pounding storms. Despite the placid, quieter weather, the sky is often patched with bursts of black smoke - for those rolling, soft hills are dome volcanoes, and most are still active. It is here that the Magma Dwarves have made their home, fiercely independant - and to Dragontown with anyone that would dare to invade! - but on good terms with anyone that isn't trying to tell them what to do and how to do it. Well, except for those gloomy bastards in the Mror Holds...

Oir literally means "Hearth" in the Auld Dwarven tongue, and it explains what Oir is to the Magma Dwarves - a place of family, of respite, of rejoicing. The fact that the whole nation could one day erupt, slaughtering them all, just never seems to occur to them - or perhaps it's because a combination of clever invention and potent warding spells have begun to harvest the magma, to use the heat in their civilization's industry. Indeed, most industrial labor is done with semi-intelligent magma golems, overseen by a crew of magewrights. The populace of Oir is 80% Magma Dwarf, 20% miscellaneous other, and is ruled by an elected Parliament.

>>10267172
~LERENATH~
The great land of Ice and Snow where Zepp himself is said to hail from, Lerenath is the home of the Winter Elves, the Ice-Men, and no small amount of Orcs and Hobs. Any laws in the vast icy plains are centered on the settlements a body is currently staying in, and while these rules are few, they are enforced harshly. One Ice-Man settlement decides all matters deemed dull by the local judge via darts - the two parties stand across from each other, shirtless, with targets painted on them, and throw darts at each other. The first to show any signs of pain loses the suit - or, if neither shows pain, the one with the highest score. Lerenath is a beautiful country; the crystalline ice flows hold vast deposits of cold iron and mythril, and the cold wilderness is overrun by owlbears and other such mystical beasts. It is a land where despite the constant threat of raiders and the cruelty of the people, life is generally peaceful and - for many - utopian. It is the land chosen by many Gods of Metal as their holy place.

Of course, that means that it has been set upon by demons as of late; beasts of fire and death seeking to melt the very foundations of the nation. They have been unsuccessful... for now...

>>10267279
~COG AND CRAG~
Two island nations bridging the vast oceans between the Land of Oil and Spice and the other nations, Cog lies in the Pancentric Ocean, Crag in the Attilan.

Cog is a great technocracy, where the very souls of the inhabitants are enslaved to the Technician-Overseers. Any land that existed in Cog was stripped away and molded, until nothing remained but a great machine, one that constantly draws magical energy from beneath the sea, pouring it out onto its peoples, enhancing their strength... their endurance... robbing them of the ability or will to sleep... making a perfect army of worker drones... but for what purpose, none can say. The people of Cog are rarely visited except in emergencies, as they have begun to withdraw from the world recently; as of last year, they have begun opening fire on random ships that come close to them.

Crag has a similar temperament in its dealings with the outside world, for completely different reasons; Crag is a nation of orcs. They have captured a tiny island that was used as a supply stash by the Ossaran Navy centuries ago, and have converted it into a small nation of their own. Amazingly, by raiding and by using what little fertile ground there is to grow herbs that are considered contraband in most places, they have prospered. Those that enter Crag must surrender all weapons, pay a hefty fine, and be watched at all times; that said, a few still do every year to stock up on the best trollweed in known existence, or to purchase the services of orc mercenaries.

>>10267380
~OSSAR~
The great island kingdom opposite Oir, Ossar is ruled mostly by men. A noble kingdom, Ossar is where the Four arose, as well as many other gods, such as the Madman. It is a spirited, proud nation, once a great superpower with holdings across the Lands of Oil and Spice, even extending to the Free Citystates. Now Ossar is just one great island, its holdings retracted, its gaze turned inward; its rulers have become a bit off in the head, attempting to "protect" its citizens through a more and more arcane series of laws that border on tyrannical, though so far it is still safe to live there... so far.

>>10267441
~THE LANDS OF OIL AND SPICE~
The Lands of Reason, where mankind first came into existence, it is hard to generalize about the land that finishes the ring of the world. A dynamic, ever changing political clime means that the nations of the Land of Oil and Spice change every few years, mostly in bloodless coups. The people that live there experiment endlessly with new musics, new magics, new philosophies, and yet, they remember the past more keenly and fully than any other place on the crust. It is here that the Wudang Monastery lies, that the mountain that was the titan Gormhos stands - the only titan to remain upright after death, and the only one whose face is still visible in stone - that the great foundries of the ironclad yard produce the finest ships known to man, and that the Endless Library keeps record of all existence.

Pic is a quick-and-dirty kinda-what-the-globe-looks like. Numbers denote the nations in order as of this writing.

Working on new domains for gods - particularly the Rock and Metal domains. Have been considering domains for Psychedelia and Mischief. Need to get out a copy of Complete Divine to check other domains... hmm~

Does /tg/ approve of the world thus far?

YES, YES, A THOUSAND TIMES YES.

FORTH, TOWARD THE ARCHIVE HO!

>Does /tg/ approve of the world thus far?
Hell yes.

Just checkin'.

I've been spitballing as to the origin of the world as well... haven't done a writeup, but the short version so far -

-Song creates Titans spontaneously.
-Titans create world, use it as playspace for years.
-Demons invade from beyond, essentially the shadows cast by the titans, everything that the titans are not.
-Demons and titans fight. Titans create Titanspawn to battle demons, as the seven titans are overwhelmed in number.
-Titanspawn win, create first civilizations. Titans no longer immortal from their creation, but are satisfied, and die peacefully.
-Titanspawn spread, grow, and slowly become mortal races; other races spontaneously created from traces of the Song lingering in the world and the natural elements, IE Winter Elves.
-Time passes
-Bodhisattvas, Gods, recorded history to this point.

And since I have to get ready for an interview soon, and need to get more of my fine fa/tg/uys posting here so that it'll be around when I get back...

Time for gods that haven't been done yet!

THE KNIGHTS IN THE SONG'S SERVICE
The Knights were natives of Detroit Rock City early in their life, history records that much. They were believed to have been teachers, though much of their original identity is in debate. It is known that they became adventurers, and on their way, each one became far more than the humble man he was before. One became tainted with demonic energies after slaughtering a seducer and drinking its blood; and yet despite a strong streak of arrogance, fire-breathing, a tongue that could scare small children, and shameless braggadocio, he remained on the side of good. One became a wizard, turning to the stars for guidance, until his eyes became a vast starfield, his mind a whirl of everything that Was and Was Not. One was marked with a single star - a strange mark of prophecy, of what was to be one day. And one shunned the prophecies of god and man, worrying only about music, about the primal beat, and about the beasts of the world. Together, they ascended to godhood, ever mindful of the fact that the gods gave rock and roll to the people, and such was how it should be.

THE CULT OF THE DARK CARNIVAL
Waiting at the End of Time, there exists a demiurge known as the Dark Carnival. When the world ends, it waits to judge all souls, to send them to their final reward or torment. The Dark Carnival is endless, unfathomable and mind-altering; even its seven avatars, the seven symbols of the judgements to be laid before all souls, can shatter the minds of the unwary. To spread its message, the Carnival found two individuals to become its prophets, two men who could withstand the mind altering effects of the Carnival's presence. The Violent Juggler and Shag the Twain, who took the message of the Carnival, and instead of turning it into a cult of death, of the hopelessness of existence, instead turned the message into a warning, into a family determined to escape Dragontown and to enter Shangri-La together. Their great canvas cathedrals dot the landscape, ever-roaming sideshows of song, feats of strength, and liquid confection - followers of the Dark Carnival are strongly enamored of Ogyaf, an elven drink mass-produced in DRC.
Of course, the Carnival is not without its problems - despite being decent of heart, Shag and the Juggler are not bright, and their opposition of the Technocrats has reached knee-jerk levels of idiocy, and many are those that claim to follow the Cult, but who wallow in the darkness and hatred that the Cult despises. Some claim that the Cult needs new leadership, a new voice; others like it just fine the way it is. Either way, disaster is sure to follow them in one form or another.

There was some discussion of how the various classes would work in the last thread... is someone still working on that?

Oh, another thing - we need some good ideas for artifacts endemic to this world. So far the only one we really have that I can remember is Maxwell's Silver Hammer, a weapon sacred to followers of the Four. I'm thinking a +6 Silver Vorpal warhammer that makes a loud CLANG CLANG noise when it strikes true.

Any other ideas?

...`kay, guess we're good for the moment, then... moving on...

~ANGELS, DEMONS, DRAGONS, AND THE HOLLOW ONES~

There is one overentity in this world; the Song. However, despite having a will of its own, it is inscrutable, untouchable. The Song cannot be contacted, or conversed with. The Song simply... is.

Thus, since the gods are all ascended mortals, there are only three truly otherworldly influences on the mortal realm - four if one is to include dragons.

Angels are the servitors of the Song that were created before the Titans. They are beings of fire and iron, light and will. There is little generalization that can be made about their forms; they are as likely to appear as columns of eyes and flame as they are to appear as winged humans with blazing visages hidden by masks. They appear only to aid the gods when called, and therefore to aid their servants. If the Angels have any agenda beyond serving The Song, it cannot be discerned.

Demons, on the other hand, have a very clear goal; tear down the last bit of the will of the Titans and corrupt the Song itself; instead of being a Song of life, the Demons seek to change the Song into a ballad of eternal frustration, living death and pain without end. They seek to leave what is negative in the song - the parts that would be cathartic twisted into sheer torment - while stripping out all the triumph and light of the Song. Their plan for this is simple; kill the gods, and seduce their followers. Recently, they have also taken to quietly supporting the Technocracies, although they rail against the Demons as well...

>>10269727

The Hollow Ones existed before the world, waiting for - something. When the world came into existence, they swarmed upon it, and took aspects of it within them. They became stones and wind, waves and rain, trees and grass, and the beasts of the field. They forgot what they were before, only remembering the horrible feeling of being hollow and unfinished, and became their component parts fully. They are the animas that keep the world anchored, providing the archetypes for most of existence - while the mortal races exist in constant evolution, both due to the influence of crossbreeding, the Song's influence, and other such arcane factors, there is only so far you can breed a wolf, transmute a blade of grass, or alter a tree in nature - oh, yes, singularly you may change a specimen forever, but across the world, if you were to attempt a sweeping alteration, you would fail - because the Hollow Ones lock their chosen forces and entities in place, keeping them steady, ever unchanging.

Lastly, there are the dragons. Nearly immortal themselves, they came to the world from another, from a distant star, bringing ancient knowledge and great power. Their goals are their own, and most seek power and knowledge for their own sakes, seeming to view life as a game. Only a few dragons take anything seriously beyond accumulation of wisdom and wealth, and those make wonderful allies... and implacable foes.

Bump for content?

Notable Chaples?

The Strawberry Fields
The Houses of the Holy
The Silver Mountain
Suffergate City
The Road House
Octopus Gardens
Temple of Love

Guilds of Note

Sgt. Pep'ers' Lonly Hearts Clubs Band
[the followers of the Four]

Neon Knights
[Protectors of the Silver Mountain]

Black Dogs
[the darker followers of the Zep]

D'yer Makers Guild
[The foil to the Black Dogs]

>>10270794
All of Detroit Rock City, pretty much
The Unknown has the formerly mobile temple, the Arcane Bus, broken down and converted to a... more... sessile form, on a roadside in Ossar.
The House of the Rising Sun, a demonic temple hidden amidst a bog, that doubles as a house of gambling and slavery.
The Mystic Halls of Radio City.

A few more guilds -
The Triggermen are followers of Lord Alice, nameless justicars who peel back their own identity that they may focus only on slaughtering the wicked.

The Psycho Circus - A splitoff sect of the followers of the Knights in the Song's Service that have taken the worship style of the Cult of the Dark Carnival. Not well liked by either the mainstream followers of the Knights or the Cult.

The Sanitarium - Less a guild, more a tightly knit organization run by followers of The Tyrant, that claims to want to help people stricken with madness. This translates to finding followers of the more free, chaotic gods, and pumping them full of drugs until they can't think at all anymore.

Ho fuck, moving my stuff over here, 'cause I couldn't find this thread.

THE CRIMSON ORDER OF HA'BIN-ERO

This brotherhood of battle seeks apotheosis, much as the Four had achieved in days of yore. Led by a similar quartet, their path to their goal leads into a mystical plane oft-mentioned by others of the realm, Kahl Lih-foronya. Many question whether or not they've managed to reach that legendary place, but they spread many tales of it, which lends credence to their claims. The group's original leading composition was the brawling man who fought in chains known as the Jack of Irons; savage axe wielder Lilslo Vakhil; the infamously cheerful, ruthless maniac known only as the Blood Louse of Bahl-zari; and Dammet Cole, AKA the Swan, Spinner of Sugared Words. The untimely death of Lilslo drove the Jack of Irons to a despair-filled departure, and for a time the Crimson Order faced dissolution. While others passed through their ranks, lingering briefly, they re-coalesced when the masked mastercrafter known only as The Smith joined their ranks. Though he forges and repairs the equipment of the Crimson Order, he is known to slip away for projects of his own. The second-in-command position is in flux once more, however, due to coming and going of Phrushiante the Addict - who seeks to shed his appellation. In his absence, the remarkably multi-talented 'Clinging' Adam has filled in, humbly and without indulging in the plethora of drug-fueled orgiastic binges that are known to be Phrushiante's weakness.

We've toyed around with the idea of Goth Rock being the Evil version of the song, well, here's some imput from my take on the Rock Parthenon.

The Bat House
Convent of the Merciful
Abberant Mating Tieflings
The Ragamuffins
Lidda Zarius

>>10271467
Make sure you put it on 1d4chan!

>>10271548
My main concern is that I implicitly want them to NOT be Gods, but sort of hovering right on the brink of that ascension. If we're using real world record and album sales to reference, yeah, they'd be ascended already. Thing is, I don't want to get ahead of Duck in regards to the Cosmology. While the City of Lost Angels is in place, I was picturing that Kahl Lih-foronya was a whole separate plane unto itself, a 'heaven' of sorts, or so the legends would have it.

>>10268880
There are three things that immediately come to mind.

The Blood Louse's Axe, which allows one to do incredible things due to having taken on a touch of his nature. The Blood of the Roaring One, which is not consumed, but is painted onto one's face to gain a touch of his charm. The One True Cowbell, which in the hands of a non-Cultist simply cures fevers, but in the right hands draws upon the portion of Song in all beings in the area, to produce the note that will summon the mightiest of Kaiju; after all, history shows again and again how nature points up the folly of man.

Campaign seed time?
Campaign seed time.

1. As initiates of your order, you must go On Tour to spread the Song of your god to the masses; invariably this involves completing epic quests, meeting hot chicks, and taking lots of potions of Greater Liver Regeneration.

2. Why worship a god when you can become one?

3. Your Thunder Chariot has fired up for the last time. It's unfixable - time to get a replacement. But to do that, you have to hitch to Detroit itself...

4. You have been hired into a vast war between two citystates... a war that no one will acknowledge is happening.

5. You're dead, chum. And yet... you won't stop moving. Undead? Or just cursed? Find out how to get your body fixed, or how to move on to your final reward!

6. Death. Such a pesky thing. But the followers of the gods of Black Metal claim that there is a way to reverse it... join them, or infiltrate their compounds and steal the secrets of lichdom!

7. After a bitchin' conert, you and your buddies have ripped into the best trollweed you've ever had. The problem? It's now 2 AM, and you all have the munchies. Time for a snack run... EPIC HIJINKS ENSUE. And giant hamsters. Best for a campaign involving followers of the Comedian or the Contented Deceased.

>>10271787
Dude, don't sweat it. This isn't a one-person project... okay, so I'm doing a lot of the fluff, but this is /tg/! Pick it up, run with it, have fun! If we didn't, we'd never have gotten the Beatforged!

>>10272077
Fuck year.

8. A gateway of some sort has opened in the midst of the City of Lost Angels. Through it appears a realm of unyielding brightness, a shining mirror of the City. Could it be the mythical realm of Kahl Lih-foronya? Perhaps the Prophesy of the Swan holds answers; 'Under the bridge downtown is where I drew some blood; under the bridge downtown, I could not get enough.'

9. The Hordes of Akkdekk are on the march, and they're heading for New Jack City. All towns in their path have put out a clarion call for aide from any that might assist.

10. A beast out of time has rampaged across the plains, a creature the locals call the Trex. If it can be slain, perhaps they will receive as a gift from the Song itself a sacred Thunder Chariot, so fast that it leaves explosions of song in its wake - the legendary Bang Camero.

11. After a righteous rocking battle, the heroes are approached with an offer of wealth, wenches, and influence, if they but bear equipment bearing the marks of their benefactor. The offer might be a sincere offer from a local business or even a city-state...but it could be the binding creation of an Agent, seeking to subjugate the heroes with their contracts.

12. Groupies. Lots and lots and lots of groupies. And they keep getting into trouble.

>>10272210
Well, it was a question that played to my strengths; had no one asked, I'd not have gone for it (plus, while I love Rock and Metal, I'm a shameless Techno whore).

That said, if Kahl Lih-foronya can be a Plane, then Detroit Rock City can have it's own sort of Song-Perfect 'Spirit Twin'; People that twine with the Song may become Gods, but places should become more than what they are, physically. Were I suitably ambitious, I'd want to make an Adventure Path of sorts to reflect this, involving Herald Louis and his band of Criers, traveling in pursuit of legendary lands where the pulse of the Song beats strongest. District Capital, Saint Anthony, The Cleaved Lands...and yes, DETROIT!

>>10272285
13. The party finds a lovely little inn on the side of the road and decides to stay the night. As they eat and make merry, they swear that voices are welcoming them... saying they can check out any time they like, but never leave.

14. A militant cult of the Sired called the Sons of the Shining Skull are causing trouble in the City of Rain. They've bound a crying spirit to their will and are using it for all sorts of shit. The party is told to sort it all out

The Ugliest Guitar Ever must be a part of this.

>>10272906
Artifact.
Demon bound into a guitar, it rages against it's owner, but still it plays.

archived.

=THUNDER CHARIOTS=
These vehicles are forged of steel, bound with fire, and fueled by ambition...and other miscellaneous substances, depending on the crafter. Originally invented by a mad renegade artificer from Detroit Rock City, his designs have been altered, duplicated, imitated, and refined over the years. The basic design is four wheels, a metal chassis, a covering frame, and a noisy beating metal heart, often called an engine. Within the engine is bound a furious, psychotic fire elemental, whose attempts to escape fuel the movement of the Thunder Chariot. While some claim to have tamed the Spirits that power these creations, the very fact that they remain temperamental, vindictive, and subject to failure refutes any such declaration.

The Mercurial approves of this thread!

15. You've got half a tank of gas, no headlights, it's dark out, and you're wearing sunglasses....

16. Your party has been hired by a barbarian tribe to join them in epic combat. Now if only you could get your guide to say something that wasn't about flying over frozen wastelands and slaying demons... over... and over again...

17. Your party has run afoul of the meanest mamma-jamma in the Citystates... a man whose anger is fueled by a lifetime of mockery over the fact that he was given a woman's name.

18. Who wins when 100 bands of the followers of the song meet to do sonic battle?

...the audience, of course! Either get into the battle, or figure out a way to profit from the masses of humanity that have come to watch the tourney!

>>10273578 continued

=BATTLE WAGON=

The larger version of the Thunder Chariot, these are designed to better accommodate both the heroes and their possessions. Large enough to serve as a mobile bases of operation, the bigger problem is that they require a specific sort of alchemical fuel - every 30 days, a mixture of 100 gold, strong spirits, and a few drops of the owner's blood (1 HP worth), transmuted by an alchemist, must be fed to the Battle Wagon, lest it refuse to function after the thirtieth day barring a successful Intimidate or Persuasion check. Every five days thereafter, the check increases by five, until the check and the binding seals of the engine fail and the spirit within escapes. Repairs and possible re-bindings of the spirit may or may not be possible - a new engine may be required.

19. The Crimson Order of Ha'Bin-ero has set on a journey to seek the legendary blind Oracle of Wonder, who has supposedly fallen ill. They intend to test their research, and see if their work might ascend the aging wise man to Demi-Godhood, if not greater. They are determined to keep on trying 'til they reach the Highest Ground.

20. A caravan of self-proclaimed prophets, calling themselves the Mercurial Caerulean, has been recruiting the strong of arm - yet cool of temper - to join the ranks of their martial order of protectors, the Blanched Sateen Knights. Players might join, or may be sent to investigate the group when individuals ran off to join.

>>10273800

#15.

Time to fight some Popzombies.

21. A mighty one-armed dragon is rampaging across the country side. Can you stand the burninating?

22. The Crimson Order of Ha'Bin-ero has told the story of a being called Sir Sexy the Mad that woman can resist and it seems he's come to NJC. Man in a mask or freak of nature?