Hello ! I'm new to Scarred Lands and have questions

[maceo]

Hello,

I backed the Scarred Lands 5E kickstarter and got my book a few weeks ago and have been really enjoying it. I have also been reading the older Scarred Lands books to get as much information as I can about the setting. I would like to start a new discussion here about questions I have and want to see how active the board is. I have some questions already written down so I'll just start out with one:

Where do the fey come from? It doesn't look like there is a Feywild or Plane of Fairie. Are they handled differently in the Scarred Lands? The elven PCs are still fey ancestry but what does that mean in Scarred Lands exactly? What are they descended from that give them that ancestry? Also the fey warlock patrons suggested don't seem very fey-like from what I can tell-they are a kraken (Queen Ran), a druid (Ilkuthsra) , a greater shadow Vextious or Vextius, and an evil outsider (Jack of Tears).

Any information to help me would be appreciated! Thanks

[Psyclus]

In the olden days, the elves (much like the other Divine Races) were created from an unknown Titan. It could have been one of the Greaters, could have been one of the Lessers, or they could have come from somewhere else. It isn't known.

Queen Ran and Ilkusthra were suggested because of their connection to dreams and dreaming and the fey in that way. (Ran is part of the Carnival of Shadows, and Ilkusthra the Autumn King has connection to... well, killing dreams of the living world). Ilkusthra is really only mentioned in the Serpent Amphora Trilogy and Ran herself is in Blood Bayou.

[maceo]

Ok, thank you. Next question is about the "The Ancients", the old human civilization. I don't mind a mystery but is the lore of that civilization expanded on anywhere other than the section in the Ghelspad Campaign Setting book?

What are your thoughts on where the ancient empires fit into the Titan Epochs? So far my guesses are:

• Kadum
• Gormoth
• Golthain
• Golthagga
  • The Dragon Kingdoms. I based this on the lesser beings learning smithing and forging from Golthagga and making weapons to finally defeat the dragons
• Chern
• Gaurak
  • The Dwarven Imperium. Chern and Gaurak ruin the surface and the Dwarves run things from underground
• Mormo
  • The Asaatthi Empire. Mormo cleans up the surface and helps the asaatthi. Lethene and Gulaben mess up the surface again and the asaatthi go underground and their empire never recovers
• Lethene
• Gulaben
• Thulkas
  • The Empire of Flames (is the "El'Thamian Empire" the same as the Empire of Flame?)
• Hrinruuk
  • Gods are born. The gods have to have been born in time to help defeat the Slarecians but I don’t think they were born that much earlier. In the Strange Lands book it says “What kingdoms may have existed before the icy Epoch of Gulaben, or the devastation of civilization that was the will of Hrinruuk, even the gods have not revealed. In the times since, three empires have stood the test of mortal history - they are remembered.” Then it lists three empires and says the gods were born during the third empire which to means the gods were born AFTER Gulaben and Hrinruuk but before the Slarecians were defeated. What do you think?
  • Slarecian Empire
• Mesos
  • The Empire of Lede
  • Charduni Empire

[haaz]

This is only my personal interpretation, but I would place the Ancient around the beginning of the era of Mesos (or the end of the epoch of Hrinruuk), but I would also place it slightly before the slarecian empire (the way I see it, is that the slarecian empire rose around the same time that the Ancients decline). The main reason for the Ancients to be around the epoch of Mesos is that they were clearly masters of arcane magic, so that would fit either Mormo or Mesos (but if it were Mormo there would have been mention of it in the Asaathi sourcebook), so let's go for Mesos. Then if I remember correctly the Ledean empire was directly founded after the defeat of the slarecians, which means that the Ancients have to be before that. Again, this is only my personal hypothesis ^^

An alternative is to have it just before the Dwarven Imperium, so that when the Ancients civilization collapse, there is a need for a greater power to reunite the fragments of the civilization. The dwarves could have learned runic magic here from the Ancients themselves. The "shadow" that consumed the Ancients could be a magical virus designed by Chern, which would fit the theme of his era as well

[maceo]

Thanks for the reply! I like both of those theories actually. Do you think Skykeep was somehow leftover Ancient technology?

[haaz]

It could well be (there doesn't seem to be any definitive explanation of where it comes from, so you could probably use whatever works best for your own game). Considering that the flying ships from the Blood Sea seem to be related to the Ancients (look for the League of Hydros in the Mithril sourcebook, or the Blood Sea sourcebook), that's actually a nice explanation

[Psyclus]

The simplest (but not necessarily best or even "most fun") answer to the Skykeep is that it was someone who cast Raise the Keep, the old True Ritual from Relics & Rituals 1 (the picture matched some other art seen of the Skykeep). HOWEVER, nothing in the old canon actually SAID that's what it was, and your idea seems far more likely to generate really nifty ideas.

The Ancients also MAY have undergone a late first edition-retcon as Echoes of the Past seems to indicate that the Ancients were Slarecians under a different name and before they became known as being truly dangerous (perhaps referring only to the Slarecian God-Kings, the Uthriach), but that doesn't quite mesh with the Ancient listed in Mithril and the Ghelspad Hardcover (both earlier in 1st edition's run than Echoes of the Past). 2nd Edition hasn't dealt with the incongruity yet, but here's hoping they do and that they take a path that opens the most number of plots.

EDIT: It could also be that the "Ancient" humans were intended to be related to the Slarecians and that's why Echoes refers to the Slarecians as "the Ancients." And meshes that up with Albadia's distrust of male sorcerers and civilization (there's a few Slarecian ruins around Albadia that the language they use is "the Ancients" and several old texts talk about how the language of the Ancients becomes easier to read once you go through "the madness.")

And I, too, like your idea.