Just as a heads up, the 101 posts are going to be pretty informal compared to the In My Campaign posts. Not that those are particularly formal. The In My Campaign posts are just written from a more..."in world" perspective I guess, whereas these 101 posts are just me rambling. I'm not posting them because people necessarily care (if they do, its definitely a plus though) but more from a belief that I should have these types of things written down somewhere. They'll all be going under the "In My Campaign" tag on the right though because they're basically the same thing.
If you game with me and have read some of my background material you know that Kaleshmar was an ancient civilization and was also a magocracy (mages and their like run shit). You also know that it was a huge continent and that eventually there was a disaster and it exploded and became all the hunks of beltanizine all over the world. You also know that the descendants of the people that were the citizens of Kaleshmar are the Eldumans of the Old Empire and their descendants in the New Empire.
Aside from a few basic details, most of that is untrue.
Kaleshmar was a mighty empire based upon a floating continent perpetually winding its was across the skies of Hekinoe (the planet my campaign takes place on, have a better name in mind?). They were a highly advanced civilization, so advanced that they could manipulate energy and matter itself. Some of my fascination with Tesla and his ideas for limitless and wireless energy are inspiration here, so if you see a theme, that is why. Basically their entire style of technology was based upon manipulating matter and energy. This coupled with immense technical libraries from ages past and intense mental conditioning allowed them to basically direct energy and craft matter as they desired, this training and conditioning took centuries though so its not like the were born with the ability to make mountains of candy and gold.
The basic rundown of everything (keep in mind that I am a layman and know nothing about physics or any discipline of science really) is that this empire was an empire of cyborgs. They had antenna and various other bits of techno crud implanted within their bodies that allowed them to draw energy from various storage facilities (including temporary storage facilities built from the techno crud within their bodies) and store all kinds of data and schematics in a sort of virtual H.U.D. that appeared before their eyes. They were able to use this invisible H.U.D. as a sort of touch screen to access info and direct energies, the H.U.D. could also be used via voice command as well (in fact, some types of matter and energy could only be accessed with the proper verbal command codes), and there were even some users so skilled and accustomed to their hardware that they could access and use this interface via mental commands alone.
To continue, Kaleshmar was a big and awesomely powerful empire and the Elduman's claim they are its descendants and were once its masters. This is true, in part. The empire of Kaleshmar was composed of three ancient and separate races. The first race, and the most powerful, were the race that A'lst is a member of and the Goblins and their kin of the Fell Peaks are descended from. The second race is the race that originally enslaved the Abraxen people in their desert homeland. The third and youngest race of the collective were the sentient crystal ancestors of the Elduman.
In addition to this, Kaleshmar was an empire of slavers. It was a continent of huge crystalline towers (built by the ancestors of the Eldumans, which was the reason they were elevated from slave race to master race) and there were over one billion inhabitants of the empire. Only about 37% of the population were members of one of the three races mentioned above though. The empire of Kaleshmar was built on the backs of many weaker and younger races, in particular the Abraxen race. Perhaps this was a blessing though. Because of the subjugation of the Abraxens and their drive to combat the "magic" of their masters with technology in their quest for freedom, the Known World enjoys the benefits of advanced medical, electrical, and mechanical technologies.
What caused the disaster and why does beltanizine absorb magic? Something from the space above the planet, maybe a weapon of some kind, blew a hole through a cluster of massive energy/matter batteries/converters when it fell to the earth below. The batteries ruptured and all the stored energy and its converters went haywire. As the continent fractured and impaled the landmass below, the converters began absorbing and replacing the matter of Kaleshmar with matter in the shape and format of its battery technology, turning the shattering continent into a big battery. The residents of the continent attempted to stop the catastrophe but their reserves of energy were dwindling faster than they could access them and as the land beneath their feet transformed it ate away any energy they were able to muster before they could do anything productive with it.
Are there beings that survived the fall of Kaleshmar? Obviously. A'lst is still around and the Eldumans are as well. What happened to the rest of A'lst's people and that nameless third race? Volung is a member of the third race, so technically his children are its descendants, just as the Goblins are the descendants of A'lst's.
Just because Eric may at some point in the far flung future read this, the Nel (Fey) are not a descendant or remnant of anything that lived on Kaleshmar and Keroen Skathos (Cromm Cruach) isn't either.
There are some pureblooded people of A'lst's race still around and when the Abraxens threw off the shackles of their enslavers the enslavers went north, far north. Beyond knowing they exist, I can't really say too much more about A'lst's people. I don't have a "Hey! They're over there!" idea for them. If the PCs had gone sightseeing across the oceans in my campaign instead of deciding on a rebellion, I'd have probably thrown them into wherever the group landed. Suffice it so say that they'll probably end up placed on whatever deserted island I create next.
Whoa, got a bit off track here and left that whole magic absorption thing blank. Magic is basically energy hammered into a certain shape by the caster's mind, not entirely unlike the technology of Kaleshmar. So that is why the chunks of Kaleshmar absorb and store magic, although it takes quite a bit longer and is far more clunky and unpredictable than what Kaleshmar had going on. The reason the spells within beltanizine go active when the rock is exposed other high energy sources is because none of the converting technology was operating correctly and the "batteries" basically lock up when they absorb something and this prevents them from absorbing anything else. However, the incorrect copying done by the ancient technology has fused the chunks of beltanizine into a broken amalgamation of battery and converter and any further energy they absorb is converted into the original shape of energy they have saved within them.
So there's some stuff about Kaleshmar and some half-assed (but not quite Magic Did It!) justifications for beltanizine.
Music: Wrong - Depeche Mode
Music: Quarter Past - The Fall of Troy
No comments:
Post a Comment