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Articles › Third Dawn Campaign Setting - Preview #2
| Third Dawn Campaign Setting - Preview #2 (Article #12 Page 1) |
For the second preview of the Third Dawn Campaign Setting, we'll take a brief look at the Orlam society and the crystalcarver prestige class. While we won't cover the full details of these two items, we think it will give enough to be interesting.
Orlam
No capital city
Population: 56% orcan, 39% dwarves, 5% others
Government: Village democracy
Imports: Luxuries, wine, worked iron, wood
Exports: Deep crystal, meat, fur, livestock, salt
Overview
The orlamu as a people are staunch proponents of living close to the earth, being self-sufficient and not causing undue damage to the environment you live in. They disdain the very concept of cities and believe that no sentient creature should live in such crowded spaces because it leads to undeniable conflict and death. For the orlamu, freedom is paramount and freedom can only be attained when being self-sufficient and living away from potential conflicts that can draw you in. That does not mean that the orlamu are not capable of initiating conflict or are in any way pacifist, they just prefer to be in charge of when they do or do not engage in any conflicts.
Orlamu prefer to live in smaller villages, where they have small farms, hunt in the forest and herd mountain goats and other animals to provide them with food and any other necessities of life. They are more advanced than others would give them credit for, making extensive use of waterwheels, advanced building techniques, waterpiping and irrigation. Their respect for the world around them has allowed those with psionic potential to untap the power by connecting to the dormant crystals deep inside the earth, bringing them forth by using nothing but their psionic power. This has allowed the orlamu to become the premiere deep-crystal providers on the continent of Femon, something that Alyria has taken benefit from by controlling the Valley of Visma and thus preventing other nations from trading with the orlamu.
Life and Society
Orlamu life is centered around the village. Each village is autonomous and makes its own decisions regarding how to handle potential problems that arise, including the defenses. The village is a form of family democracy, where each family has a number of votes dependent on the number of adults in its care, each family putting its entire votes behind one position. Orlamu villages often number ten to twenty families at the most, each one having its own plot of land to be toiled, as well as full hunting rights. This interest in self-sufficiency means that each village tends towards some common attributes - closeness to a forested area, lying at or near a major river or lake and having enough arable land nearby to provide for all families.
Each child is taught the basics of farming, hunting and goes through their schooling thanks to the Wanderers, a social class of individuals who live outside the village form, but who are vitally important to the orlamu. The Wanderers are teachers, bards, architects, experts on different areas - areas that no specific village can support, but that all villages need in one way or another. When a Wanderer comes to a village, he is granted free lodging and food in exchange for his services and bringing news from the other villages. Usually this means teaching the children, helping design and raise a new house, constructing or repairing a waterwheel, repairing or making weapons and tools or teaching the villagers something specific. These Wanderers are those who tend to know the most, experiencing more things during their trips than an ordinary secluded orlamu does during their lifetime. Wanderers also often substitute for traders at each village, co-ordinating the sale of furs, deep crystal, meat and salt. These Wanderers then bring the trade goods to the village of Visma Valley, the one and only place where outsider caravans are allowed to come and where a majority of all trading is done - thus it is a busy trading hub. Even though a few orlamu villages border Luxor and the Barony of Soleil, the area is remote and difficult to get to from outside the mountains, which means that even the deep crystal from that far north goes south to Visma, rather than north.
This general consensus that all orlamu should be self-sufficient means that many more ordinary men and women here are capable of using a bow and spear, both for hunting and for protection. Few people know the woods and mountains as well as the orlamu and rumors claim that they are capable of diverting rivers, drying up entire lowland areas. All of this means that the orlamu retain their sovereignty, even when faced with the myriad armies and hostilities of the South, where city-states are in an almost constant state of war with one another. It also means that most orlam have learned to swim before they are adults, know how to fish with nets and are capable of using the canoe to travel through the extensive network of rivers that crisscross their homeland.
Major Geographic Features
Due to the large amount of deep crystal inside the earth and mountains in the Crystalshards, many plants take up the mineral while growing, creating one of the most spectacular sights on the entire continent of Femon in the crystalpine forests. Their needles carry with them so much deep crystal mineral that they shine and sparkle in the sunlight, making it appear as if the entire plateau is aflame with a deep purple light during the day and covering the area in a surreal shade of purple during the nights as the needles reflect the weaker moonlight. Almost all houses are built from crystalpine in Orlam, and most firewood comes from these mighty pinewood trees that can grow to heights of over 50 yards. The crystalpines are also used as firewood, creating a purple-blue flame instead of the normal orange-yellow flames of most fires, but the ashes left are full of deep crystal powder which is used by the orlam to create tattoos, potions, paint and as a strengthening medicine when disease strikes.
Overall, the Crystalshards are a massive mountainous region, with a dozen separate mountains pushing through the clouds here, the highest peak reaching well above 12000 yards (36000 ft). Pine trees, both of the crystalpine and normal variants, cover the mountains up to approximately 7000 yards (21000 ft) where they give away to snow-covered stone and ragged bushes. At 10000 yards (30000 feet), the bushes and snow gives up to blasted stone and sparkling crystal that reaches above the clouds and struggles for the stars. It is for this effect, when sun and moon reflects in the crystal veins that come to the fore at the peaks, that these mountains were given the name of Crystalshards.
Besides the majestic peaks of the Crystalshards, it is the home to almost all of the rivers that spread across the surface of Femon and in many places thunderous waterfalls cascade across broken landscapes into ice-cold lakes where fish of all sorts come to play and live out their lives. Here one can almost catch a salmon with their bare hands, but in these parts the bears come to hunt, the deer come to drink and the wolves come to feed. Few orlamu come to these cold lakes, mainly because their needs are well met at lower altitudes and in safer areas, but there are those who seek them out to commune with nature and feel at one with the wild world at large.
Inside the valleys that lead out of the Crystalshards the earth is often verdant and makes for perfect farming areas, something that has lead both the Barony of Soleil and Luxor to settle these valleys in the north, claiming them before the orlamu had spread as far. Today these villages live a peaceful life, but all who are born and raised there know the natural borders that exist between them and the orlamu, and that while the orlamu might be peaceful, they do not appreciate people repeatedly breaching their borders.
Important Sites
Orlamu Plateau: High up in the Crystalshard Mountains massive, the plateau is a large swath of protected area with fertile soil. Most of the rivers that irrigate Femon wind through the plateau and provide plenty of fresh water and irrigation for the area. This is the hub of the Orlam culture, where most villages can be found and with the highest concentration of people, ending in the downwards sloping Valley of Visma where the two rivers Viser and Maner join into one great river. This fertile land means that even though the altitude isn't optimal for farming or herding animals, the nutritious soil gives the orlamu plenty of benefits. Even though the plateau is criss-crossed with rivers, there is not much natural farmland - what there is has been conquered from the large crystalpines. This means that there can be farms situated in the middle of a woodland territory, the village having been made by clearing the trees and simultanously clearing the ground for farming.
Valley of Visma: This valley was carved out of the bedrock after thousands of years as the rivers Viser and Maner joined into the Visma River, taking with it pieces of the Crystalshards until there was a valley where once there had been mountains. Visma River is one of the most important, and largest, sources of water and irrigation for the South and most traders leaving Visma do so on one of the large riverboats that ply that river, some even enhanced by low-level psionics to allow it to take more cargo than the wood would naturally.
Orlamu Crystalcarver
A group of orlamu dwarves, meditating in the groves of the Crystalshards, were the first to feel the thrumming of the crystal veins. They were all psions and proficient with working with both the naturally occurring crystal and the deep crystal powder that were a common occurrence among the orlam. These dwarves searched through their meditation, coming into resonance with the strange thrumming. By becoming at one with the intense, deep, thrumming of the earth, they could feel the veins of crystal spreading out from the Crystalshards, like the blood vessels that spring from the heart of a humanoid. Over time, their meditations gave them insight into the power of resonance, something which grew almost into a philosophy of its own, slowly spreading to the surrounding orlamu villages.
These first crystalcarvers spoke of living in resonance with the world around them, and this meshed well with the original orlamu philosophy of being capable of surviving and living off the land. Over time, the distinctions between what came from the crystalcarvers and the others disappeared, both influencing each other. To the crystalcarvers, living in resonance with the earth meant deep meditation. When they received their first students, they tried to codify their beliefs, but gave up in exchange for the requirement of a student to be capable of hearing the call of the earth themselves. So, today, when a new student show up, the crystalcarvers only suggest a silent grove or mountainous peak where the student can meditate in peace to find his own resonance. And over time, most do - returning to their teachers with purple eyes and a glimmer which means that they have become at one with the earth. Those who fail are given the suggestion to return to the villages, work the crystals more and meditate often, to find that resonance before trying again.
Once they have become accepted as students, the crystalcarvers teach their students to always rely on the resonance. That it will guide them, defend them, teach them and even empower them, if the students allows their bodies to be filled with the same resonance that echoes in their minds. Through this resonance, they learn how to change the world around themselves, and how to change how their bodies work. With enough training, a student can turn psionic energy into deep crystals, shedding them from his skin as a lizard sheds his skin. To an outsider, this might at times seem strange, seeing a crystalcarver's skin weep liquid crystal that quickly solidifies into deep crystal. To the crystalcarver, it is a natural extension of their internal and mental control over resonance.
Those whom have mastered the art of the crystalcarver, the eldest of the orlamu, say that there is a purpose to the world, a reason behind the madness that envelops the lives of all sentients. They mean that through their deep meditation, they can feel the suffering of the world, the meaningless conflicts and the spilt blood. Through their resonance, they can feel a deeper urging, pushing them to explore the world, to learn and understand the many cultures and creatures outside of the Crystalshards. To them, this is only natural, the earth wants them to spread the word of resonance, of being at one with the world and ending all conflict. They want to teach the world to seek resonance, to stop their senseless wars and focus more inwards instead of on the external world.
A crystalcarver can often find employment as prospectors at the beginning of their career, but the more proficient they become, the worse they feel about vicious miners gouging deep holes in the earth to carve into the stone and crystal that is the bone and blood of the world. To them, it soon begins to feel sacrilegious to consider such invasive procedures. They prefer to call forth their deep crystal from the depths, being in resonance with both the earth and its crystal veins. Most crystalcarvers say that they can make pretty accurate guesses at how far away from the Crystalshards they are even without seeing its peaks simply by feeling for their resonance - claiming that the further away they get, the weaker it thrums inside their mind and veins.
Rumors claim that the first crystalcarver, he who first opened his eyes and met the world with a glimmer and a touch of purple, has descended into the depths to be at one with the earth. These rumors say that before he left he spoke a prophecy of the time when the Crystal Heart would rise anew from its home deep inside the earth and bring an age of peace and understanding to the world. A time where there would be no wars and all would find themselves content with their new lives. To most this sounds like a paradise - but a few shudder at what they suspect to be the true meaning of this.
Dungeons & Dragons is a registered trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
The Expanded Psionics Handbook is copyright Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
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| Author | Jeremy.Smith |
| Date & Time | 22-05-2008 00:00 |
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