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[Let's Read] The Star-Shaman's Song of Planegea: Dungeons & Dragons, Prehistoric Style
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9253201" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/opY9Yxe.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>Chapter 10: the Primal World</strong></p><p></p><p>This chapter serves as the gazetteer section of the book, where we learn more about the lands of Planegea and the people and creatures that walk it. All that is has an origin point in the Worldheart Dragon who slumbers in the volcanic Blood Mountain. Even unconscious, this mighty being causes Planegea to expand as the eruptions of magma cause reality itself to expand. Everything is physically connected in terms of greater cosmology, although the gradual separation of regions is causing significant changes. Basically the closer one is to the center, the more diverse and closer things are to your typical “Material Plane” setting. Further out the land grows stranger and more unified, with four Elemental Wastes marking the edges of the world before one plunges into the Sea of Stars.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/62Shenc.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Planegea/comments/wk6ghf/higher_resolution_version_of_the_map_of_planegea/" target="_blank">High Resolution map taken from the Planegea subreddit.</a></p><p></p><p></p><p>Beyond detailed descriptions, each region provides slight details in the common types of Creatures encountered, what unique kinds of Treasure the region is known for, Lore about certain races, organizations, and individuals, and Challenge giving a recommended level range for what kinds of adventures are most appropriate. In regards to the last section, they more or less are split up among what is known as 5th Edition’s 4 major tiers of play. In regards to generalities, the places with Challenges for all levels of play are located in the Great Valley region and general vicinities, the various Giant Empires are levels 5th to 16th with Cult Riverlands being close at 6th to 16th, Free Citadel is either suitable for all levels in the city or 5th to 10th downriver, the Venom Abyss’s layers are solidly within Tier 2 at 5th to 10th while the Unfalls leading up out of the Abyss are strangely 1st through 10th, Nod and the World-Fangs are Tier 3 at 11th to 16th, while the most remote and “end game” regions (Sea of Stars, Elemental Wastes, Blood Mountain, and Kingdom of the Dead) are Epic Tier at 17th to 20th level.</p><p></p><p>While they’re not part of the book, David Somerville wrote 3 posts on Reddit expanding on regions found in this chapter. Notably these regions are some of the most underdeveloped ones in the Planegea core book, so it’s nice to see them getting some more love. As they’re publicly available free Internet posts I won’t cover them here, but I will say that they’re worth checking out.</p><p></p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Planegea/comments/168ek66/new_official_sea_of_stars_lore/" target="_blank">Sea of Stars.</a></p><p></p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Planegea/comments/15qixy3/new_official_dream_world_lore/" target="_blank">Dream World.</a></p><p></p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Planegea/comments/15vpkmd/new_official_nightmare_world_lore/" target="_blank">Nightmare World.</a></p><p></p><p><strong>The Sea of Stars</strong> and the <strong>Sky</strong> are not the same place, despite what their names might have you believe. The stars were the first things spewed forth from Blood Mountain, and should one venture far enough in the Elemental Wastes they will find a black void beyond where they live and their music can be heard. But more dangerous entities lurk here too, such as the Crawling Awful and their horrific machines, as well as entities who if they learned of the rest of Planegea would spell a dark day for the world. As for the Sky, this is the battleground of stars who dance and duel among each other in beautiful constellations. The last star remaining gains the right to be the Day-Star and bathe all of Planegea in their splendor. The defeated stars gather their strength, siphoning the light until night falls and the dance begins anew. As for the moons, they are formed from Blood Mountain’s volcanic eruptions, shooting into the sky and drifting among it until they inevitably crash into the land, which takes place over thirty days as their lunar phases mark their lifespan. Sometimes one moon is in the sky, sometimes more, but none last forever.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Elemental Wastes</strong> were the first true lands formed in Planegea that had solid (or liquid) foundations. They are not places suitable for humanoid life, being home to genies, aberrations, and the rare contingent of giant border guards keeping the monsters of the wastes from rampaging into their empires. In fact, the genies are one of the few groups the giants fear, and while both sides engage in trade they do not typically overtly move against the other. The Brinewaste is a grand sea home to marvelous palaces of marids, while aboleths, krakens, and other pelagic titans make war against the Sea Empire. The Quakewaste is home to Planegea’s tallest mountains where the dao live, whose never-ending greed for slaves is supplied by giants from the Stone Empire. The Scorchwaste is a great desert home to various factions of efreeti locked in battle with each other. The Fire Empire is well aware that the genies could crush them should they unite, so instead the giants manipulate the various groups to remain divided against each other. The Windwaste is a howling void of storms and clouds home to floating islands and settlements of Djinn, whose great magic allows them to reshape reality and thus seek to outdo each other in wondrous yet deadly projects.</p><p></p><p><strong>The World-Fangs</strong> are what would be the <a href="https://dungeonsdragons.fandom.com/wiki/Paraelemental_plane" target="_blank">Para-Elemental Planes</a> in official planar sourcebooks. Or rather, future timelines of Planegea. Their names derive from the shamanic belief that Planegea itself is a wide mouth where four sets of teeth sit at its corners. They are where the crossroads of the four Elemental Wastes converge, and are too inhospitable for even the giants to make residence. The Fang of Rock and Flame is a realm of constant volcanic ash, sulfur, and lava whose inhabitants have a murderous need to destroy anything that can burn. The Fang of Sand and Wind is a wind-swept desert with deadly sandstorms and the rays of the Day-Star are unrelenting. The Fang of Shadow and Thunder are cliffs pelted with constant thunderstorms and avalanches where rain gathers in bottomless depths. Saltfang and Slimefang is a sprawling swamp home to oozes and tentacled things ever seeking things to consume.</p><p></p><p><strong>Blood Mountain</strong> sits in the center of reality, rising out from a jungle sitting at the bottom of a great rift. Dragons of all kinds and minds live here, and five powerful Sacred Dragons are the Worldheart Dragon’s consorts.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Venom Abyss</strong> surrounds Blood Mountain, the major barrier for those non-flying creatures who seek to set foot upon Planegea’s center. The tall trees of this rainforest reach far, creating a canopy so thick that its bottom cannot be seen, and both the canopy and the ground below are large and diverse enough to count as their own regions. Among the treetops are entire ecosystems and villages of people who never knew of a life where they tread upon soil. Poisonous beasts, plants that feed off the blood of the living, and other dangerous life forms give the abyss its name, and it is a realm that more or less remains unclaimed by gods and their hallows. Instead, many clans here worship the dragons who fly to and from Blood Mountain. As for the forest floor, it is where the dinosaurs originated and whose number spread elsewhere to Planegea via swimming up the Unfalls. The most prominent civilization here is Keledhros Ascendant, a group of shapeshifters who discovered the secrets in claiming the powers of other forms and seek to grow their numbers in the lands beyond via subterfuge and murderous rituals. As for the Unfalls, they are four rivers whose streams are forced upwards by the volcanic tremors of Blood Mountain, the waters making their way up the rift’s edges and carrying various things with them. Goblinoid people live in cave networks behind these falls, whose societies are arranged in caste systems whose kinship determines their roles and labor, but spellskins occupy a ruling caste of their own.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/IvqCQ10.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>The Great Valley</strong> is the central region of Planegea and thus gets the most coverage in this chapter. It is more or less the “starting location” for most Planegean campaigns and whose clans more or less serve as the societal baseline for what was covered in prior chapters. The most prominent civilizations are the clans of various humanoid people and the gods they serve. Three particularly large and powerful clans are known as the Brothers, who each hold their own broad regional territory and seek to destroy the others. Even then, borders and territory are fluid, with seasonal migration and raids causing various groups to hold onto and lose new territory. All three clans are named after the species of their host gods and the rivers that come from the Venom Abyss.</p><p></p><p>The Bear Clan is a clan of <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BoisterousBruiser" target="_blank">boisterous bruisers</a> whose patron deity is the Unkillable Bear-God Urhosh. Like their deity, the clan’s members are fond of holding great feasts and friendly games of strength. Interesting places in their territory include the monster-filled lake of Bitewater whose resources still encourage brave fishers to harvest its resources; Killbrother Vale, whose overwise beautiful surroundings are marred by regular clashes between Bear and Ape and whose butterflies are said to be the reincarnated souls of people slain; the mammoth graveyard of Shatterbone home to secret lairs of Scavengers; and the Whispering Veldt that is haunted by ghosts whose voices call out the names of the departed.</p><p></p><p>The Ape Clan’s territory is home to many forests, and their people are known for various innovative tools. Their patron deity, the Many-Armed Ape-God Kho, can communicate with his followers in his sleep and shamans use drums to aid his slumber, for he is most agreeable when asleep and thus in the best mood to bequeath gifts and favors. Interesting places in this region include Saltwood, whose trees are covered in crystalline waters brought in from the Bittersea, and the region is home to untapped magical power that is attractive to spellskins; an old dwarven ruins at the edge of the Bittersea that serves as a trading post of tents known as Swapshore; and the Dire Grazelands bordering the Fire Empire, home to enormous animals far larger than their kin elsewhere. Entire villages are built on such animals, their people known as the Direstaves. A separate culture from the Ape Clan, they serve as a buffer zone against the fire giants and highly prize their hard won freedom in the face of such adversity.</p><p></p><p>The Lion Clan claims the eastern highlands and rivers stretching to the AIr Empire, and prize the virtues of courage mixed with wisdom as well as artistic pursuits. They believe that there is strength to be found in enduring intolerable conditions, so they rarely make use of shelter and prefer to sleep exposed to the weather. Their patron deity, Glelh the Unblinking, lairs in a hallow that grants him an amazing vision of the surrounding valley that visiting shamans can take advantage of. Interesting places in this region include the Howlgrove which home to werewolves and the hidden headquarters of Scavenger’s Vow; the Eyestone, which is a gigantic monolith with a single hole drilled in its middle home to an ever-changing rainbow of lights, and its nature is unknown save that those nearby experience an uneasy sensation of being watched; Prideblood Slopes, a hilly region home to the bulk of the Lion Clan’s members and is well-defended with a variety of traps and defenses; and Sorrow’s Edge, the last bit of land before the dark expanse of a sky without end and where the Air Empire holds sway. Captured druids are regularly brought to Sorrow’s Edge to be thrown to their deaths.</p><p></p><p>Wintersouth is the broad region of the Great Valley to the south of the Brother Clans. It is a sparse, dry land, and would ordinarily not be ventured into save for the herds of the north that seasonally migrate here that are pursued by the clans who live off of them. The deities here are cruel and spiteful, known as the Winter Gods and who would later become known as demons. Two of the larger humanoid settlements in Planegea can be found here: the village of Edgegather that sits at the edge of the Venom Abyss whose lawlessness and celebrations are legendarily infamous, and the divine refuge of Seerfall home to shamans of all kinds who make pilgrimages here to converse among themselves about the fate of the world and the gods. Interesting places in this region include Sharpfang Sweep, a common area clans migrate through each winter even as they’re hunted and stalked by tyrannosauruses and raptors; the Hallow of Twr, a portion of boiling river home to the Winter God of the same name who sees a regular influx of cultists desperate to seek her power and/or to assuage her wrath; the Allhunt, a place occupied during the winter months by clans for its watering holes, and the scarcity of resources is ironically one of the more peaceful times of inter-clan warfare due to non-aggression pacts where hunters can pursue prey without fear of attack from other hunters; the Daggerwood, home to wicked treants and various kinds of scum and villainy who have only the barest of alliances in their Cutthroat Council; and Lake Littleblood, whose cliffs are a favorite spot for spellskins who make use of the rising and falling tides from thawing water to create complicated works of fluid cave paintings.</p><p></p><p>Edgegather itself has 3 pages of content, one of which is a full-page map. There’s 73 marked locations, a minority of which have proper detail. The village is separated into three regions. The first is the Platform a rickety assortment of wood, mud, and vines with an enchanted network of beams supporting it as it gazes over the Venom Abyss. Then there are the two neighborhoods of Lefthand and Righthand, who have a bitter rivalry where they view themselves as civilized and cultured people and the other side as fools and bullies without any morals. The enmity comes from a long-ago family feud that drew in others to the point that long-standing alliances were formed out of common contempt. Edgegather’s places are full of neat plot hooks, such as the House of En which is occupied by servants of the Gift of Thirst’s vampires looking for dupes and recruits; a hidden group of druids known as the Pulse Enclave who worship the Unfall as blood from the Worldheart Dragon; a passage known as Templehole that leads into a set of old temple ruins that only the goblins seem to know anything about but who remain tight-lipped for reasons unknown; the headquarters of the Venomguard, a group of monster hunters who have a hidden treasure vault of salt that many a Scavenger seeks to rob for their “big score;” and a hidden safehouse for criminals serving a green hang known as Themlish, who seeks to attain political power in Edgegather.</p><p></p><p>There’s several more regions in the Great Valley which are comparatively much less detailed. They include the Eel, a river that is considered to be cursed and its source is the former giant city of Dakru, now the Free Citadel and governed by their former slaves. The Eel is also home to a temple of chanters claiming to worship a living fungus known as the Mushroom Lord that communicates via spores. The Undershore is located in the relative southwest where the land meets the sea, where a barren plain scarred by lightning strikes known as the War-Way is the dividing line between the free peoples and the Sea Empire. The Scattersea is an archipelago of nomadic clans who travel by boats, and whose most powerful clan is the Whale Clan. The Cult Riverlands are a dry region in the northwest, home to arid gulches and whose primary river, the Eagle, is barely a trickle but is greatly prized by various wicked gods who would later become known as Devils. Underground reservoirs known as qanats were shaped by arcane and divine magic by people of unknown origin. Many enterprising souls in the parched lands above seek to find such hidden reserves, but it is said that an evil and powerful god lurks in the depths.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/jCiRd8Q.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>The Giant Empires</strong> would be Bronze Age civilizations in the world of Planegea…that is, if bronze and other metals existed. The giants do not live in nomadic bands of subsistence hunters and foragers, but have walled communities of their own, whose cities have paved roads, fortresses, ziggurats, and other marvels unseen in the rest of Planegea. And that’s saying nothing of their magical rites and artifacts. Yet such progress is not done to bring the world into greater innovation, but instead to conquer and exploit it. To those weaker than they, such as the humanoids of the Great Valley, the giants enslave and treat little better than animals.</p><p></p><p>The Stone Empire of the west is home to two large clans of frost and stone giants. The frost giants are raiders living on the surface of mountains, gathering in the border city of O’oteka to stage raids into the Great Valley whose captives are brought back to the Wailing Markets. As for the stone giants, they mostly live in the caves below and work magic through chants, scrying pools, and dreams to divine the future. Their capital city, High-Walled Akmon, is jointly ruled over by the respective Stone Emperor and Frost Empress, and its streets are alive with ceremonies, rituals, and songs that occur at all hours.</p><p></p><p>The Fire Empire of the north is a highly militarized society of fire giants who view the other empires as weak in body, mind, and soul, believing that they’re the only civilization worthy of ruling the world and shaping its future. Their capital city of Shining Eknis is forged from volcanic glass, which in the daytime is so terrifyingly bright that many slaves taken there have gone blind. The fire giants, predictably, love gladiatorial matches as a form of entertainment, and even captives of smaller people might earn favor with the Emperor if they prove themselves in the ring. There is a ruined city known as Bosa, built by a long-dead Emperor who sought to settle the Scorchwaste and earned the retaliation of the efreeti. Bosa now stands as a burned-out ruin scarred by magic and undead giants.</p><p></p><p>The Air Empire can be found among the floating islands and towers in the cloudy void of the east, so suspended due to the laws of gravity working differently here than elsewhere in Planegea. With their own magic and that of the djinn, the cloud giants have extremely high living standards and want for naught. Their settlements are more like palaces, yet the giants are still cruel and find sadistic joy in torturing and killing slaves and captives. Beyond the giants, there are some particularly brave godless clans, many ruled by orcs, who occupy islands and cliffs with winged beasts to raid others, even the cloud giants themselves!</p><p></p><p>The Sea Empire of the south occupies coastal land and ocean alike. The storm giants believe themselves to be fighting for a noble cause, unlike the jaded sadists of the Air Empire or the expansionist conquerors of the Stone and Fire Empires. Locked in war against kraken, aboleths, and the evil cults that serve them, the Sea Empire holds the line against such monsters from claiming other lands. But this perpetual war footing is ever hungry for blood, blood that the Sea Empire is all too happy to supply with slaves and conscripts. Unlike the other three Empires, the storm giants are the most likely to approach the smaller peoples for advice and counsel, such as the shamans of Seerfall. The Emperor focuses first and foremost on the war effort, letting seven advisors handle administration and domestic affairs.</p><p></p><p><strong>Nod</strong> is two worlds in contrast, that of Dream and Nightmare, their lands mutable and changing like the dreams of the sleeping. Not much new is said here that can’t be found elsewhere in the book.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Kingdom of the Dead</strong> is the final region of this chapter, and people come here in one of two ways: through the Dark Door seen by souls of the recently departed, or the Long Way which is known only to the most powerful and ancient of beings. Nazh-Agaa rules this dark land, the souls of the dead tasked with building a seemingly-endless city until they vanish from existence. The souls found here are those who violated social conventions but also include the murdered and the lost.</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> This chapter does a good job of providing interesting locations to host Prehistoric Fantasy adventures. The Great Valley clearly gets the lion’s (and ape’s, and bear’s) share of content, and the four Giant Empires come in relatively close seconds. This unfortunately comes at the expense of the other regions. These places, such as the Elemental Wastes and the Kingdom of the Dead, get scarcely more than a few paragraphs. While these regions tend to be Epic tier or similarly high level and thus may not see the majority of playtime, this falls into a related problem I’ve seen with planar adventures in official DnD settings. The idea of certain areas being gated off for high-level play is something that may not be to everyone’s tastes. While one can argue that it fits with Planegea’s themes of a dangerous world where the PCs are but a blip among literal and figurative giants, I’d have preferred it if there was encouragement and plot ideas for mid and even low level groups finding themselves briefly adventuring in such areas. Heck, Nod is listed as being appropriate for 11th to 16th level, yet clans supposedly use them regularly for migration!</p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we go into detail on Planegea’s notable organizations and villains in Chapter 11: Factions & Threats!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 9253201, member: 6750502"] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/opY9Yxe.png[/img] [b]Chapter 10: the Primal World[/b][/center] This chapter serves as the gazetteer section of the book, where we learn more about the lands of Planegea and the people and creatures that walk it. All that is has an origin point in the Worldheart Dragon who slumbers in the volcanic Blood Mountain. Even unconscious, this mighty being causes Planegea to expand as the eruptions of magma cause reality itself to expand. Everything is physically connected in terms of greater cosmology, although the gradual separation of regions is causing significant changes. Basically the closer one is to the center, the more diverse and closer things are to your typical “Material Plane” setting. Further out the land grows stranger and more unified, with four Elemental Wastes marking the edges of the world before one plunges into the Sea of Stars. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/62Shenc.jpeg[/img] [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/Planegea/comments/wk6ghf/higher_resolution_version_of_the_map_of_planegea/]High Resolution map taken from the Planegea subreddit.[/url][/center] Beyond detailed descriptions, each region provides slight details in the common types of Creatures encountered, what unique kinds of Treasure the region is known for, Lore about certain races, organizations, and individuals, and Challenge giving a recommended level range for what kinds of adventures are most appropriate. In regards to the last section, they more or less are split up among what is known as 5th Edition’s 4 major tiers of play. In regards to generalities, the places with Challenges for all levels of play are located in the Great Valley region and general vicinities, the various Giant Empires are levels 5th to 16th with Cult Riverlands being close at 6th to 16th, Free Citadel is either suitable for all levels in the city or 5th to 10th downriver, the Venom Abyss’s layers are solidly within Tier 2 at 5th to 10th while the Unfalls leading up out of the Abyss are strangely 1st through 10th, Nod and the World-Fangs are Tier 3 at 11th to 16th, while the most remote and “end game” regions (Sea of Stars, Elemental Wastes, Blood Mountain, and Kingdom of the Dead) are Epic Tier at 17th to 20th level. While they’re not part of the book, David Somerville wrote 3 posts on Reddit expanding on regions found in this chapter. Notably these regions are some of the most underdeveloped ones in the Planegea core book, so it’s nice to see them getting some more love. As they’re publicly available free Internet posts I won’t cover them here, but I will say that they’re worth checking out. [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/Planegea/comments/168ek66/new_official_sea_of_stars_lore/]Sea of Stars.[/url] [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/Planegea/comments/15qixy3/new_official_dream_world_lore/]Dream World.[/url] [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/Planegea/comments/15vpkmd/new_official_nightmare_world_lore/]Nightmare World.[/url] [b]The Sea of Stars[/b] and the [b]Sky[/b] are not the same place, despite what their names might have you believe. The stars were the first things spewed forth from Blood Mountain, and should one venture far enough in the Elemental Wastes they will find a black void beyond where they live and their music can be heard. But more dangerous entities lurk here too, such as the Crawling Awful and their horrific machines, as well as entities who if they learned of the rest of Planegea would spell a dark day for the world. As for the Sky, this is the battleground of stars who dance and duel among each other in beautiful constellations. The last star remaining gains the right to be the Day-Star and bathe all of Planegea in their splendor. The defeated stars gather their strength, siphoning the light until night falls and the dance begins anew. As for the moons, they are formed from Blood Mountain’s volcanic eruptions, shooting into the sky and drifting among it until they inevitably crash into the land, which takes place over thirty days as their lunar phases mark their lifespan. Sometimes one moon is in the sky, sometimes more, but none last forever. [b]The Elemental Wastes[/b] were the first true lands formed in Planegea that had solid (or liquid) foundations. They are not places suitable for humanoid life, being home to genies, aberrations, and the rare contingent of giant border guards keeping the monsters of the wastes from rampaging into their empires. In fact, the genies are one of the few groups the giants fear, and while both sides engage in trade they do not typically overtly move against the other. The Brinewaste is a grand sea home to marvelous palaces of marids, while aboleths, krakens, and other pelagic titans make war against the Sea Empire. The Quakewaste is home to Planegea’s tallest mountains where the dao live, whose never-ending greed for slaves is supplied by giants from the Stone Empire. The Scorchwaste is a great desert home to various factions of efreeti locked in battle with each other. The Fire Empire is well aware that the genies could crush them should they unite, so instead the giants manipulate the various groups to remain divided against each other. The Windwaste is a howling void of storms and clouds home to floating islands and settlements of Djinn, whose great magic allows them to reshape reality and thus seek to outdo each other in wondrous yet deadly projects. [b]The World-Fangs[/b] are what would be the [url=https://dungeonsdragons.fandom.com/wiki/Paraelemental_plane]Para-Elemental Planes[/url] in official planar sourcebooks. Or rather, future timelines of Planegea. Their names derive from the shamanic belief that Planegea itself is a wide mouth where four sets of teeth sit at its corners. They are where the crossroads of the four Elemental Wastes converge, and are too inhospitable for even the giants to make residence. The Fang of Rock and Flame is a realm of constant volcanic ash, sulfur, and lava whose inhabitants have a murderous need to destroy anything that can burn. The Fang of Sand and Wind is a wind-swept desert with deadly sandstorms and the rays of the Day-Star are unrelenting. The Fang of Shadow and Thunder are cliffs pelted with constant thunderstorms and avalanches where rain gathers in bottomless depths. Saltfang and Slimefang is a sprawling swamp home to oozes and tentacled things ever seeking things to consume. [b]Blood Mountain[/b] sits in the center of reality, rising out from a jungle sitting at the bottom of a great rift. Dragons of all kinds and minds live here, and five powerful Sacred Dragons are the Worldheart Dragon’s consorts. [b]The Venom Abyss[/b] surrounds Blood Mountain, the major barrier for those non-flying creatures who seek to set foot upon Planegea’s center. The tall trees of this rainforest reach far, creating a canopy so thick that its bottom cannot be seen, and both the canopy and the ground below are large and diverse enough to count as their own regions. Among the treetops are entire ecosystems and villages of people who never knew of a life where they tread upon soil. Poisonous beasts, plants that feed off the blood of the living, and other dangerous life forms give the abyss its name, and it is a realm that more or less remains unclaimed by gods and their hallows. Instead, many clans here worship the dragons who fly to and from Blood Mountain. As for the forest floor, it is where the dinosaurs originated and whose number spread elsewhere to Planegea via swimming up the Unfalls. The most prominent civilization here is Keledhros Ascendant, a group of shapeshifters who discovered the secrets in claiming the powers of other forms and seek to grow their numbers in the lands beyond via subterfuge and murderous rituals. As for the Unfalls, they are four rivers whose streams are forced upwards by the volcanic tremors of Blood Mountain, the waters making their way up the rift’s edges and carrying various things with them. Goblinoid people live in cave networks behind these falls, whose societies are arranged in caste systems whose kinship determines their roles and labor, but spellskins occupy a ruling caste of their own. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/IvqCQ10.png[/img][/center] [b]The Great Valley[/b] is the central region of Planegea and thus gets the most coverage in this chapter. It is more or less the “starting location” for most Planegean campaigns and whose clans more or less serve as the societal baseline for what was covered in prior chapters. The most prominent civilizations are the clans of various humanoid people and the gods they serve. Three particularly large and powerful clans are known as the Brothers, who each hold their own broad regional territory and seek to destroy the others. Even then, borders and territory are fluid, with seasonal migration and raids causing various groups to hold onto and lose new territory. All three clans are named after the species of their host gods and the rivers that come from the Venom Abyss. The Bear Clan is a clan of [url=https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BoisterousBruiser]boisterous bruisers[/url] whose patron deity is the Unkillable Bear-God Urhosh. Like their deity, the clan’s members are fond of holding great feasts and friendly games of strength. Interesting places in their territory include the monster-filled lake of Bitewater whose resources still encourage brave fishers to harvest its resources; Killbrother Vale, whose overwise beautiful surroundings are marred by regular clashes between Bear and Ape and whose butterflies are said to be the reincarnated souls of people slain; the mammoth graveyard of Shatterbone home to secret lairs of Scavengers; and the Whispering Veldt that is haunted by ghosts whose voices call out the names of the departed. The Ape Clan’s territory is home to many forests, and their people are known for various innovative tools. Their patron deity, the Many-Armed Ape-God Kho, can communicate with his followers in his sleep and shamans use drums to aid his slumber, for he is most agreeable when asleep and thus in the best mood to bequeath gifts and favors. Interesting places in this region include Saltwood, whose trees are covered in crystalline waters brought in from the Bittersea, and the region is home to untapped magical power that is attractive to spellskins; an old dwarven ruins at the edge of the Bittersea that serves as a trading post of tents known as Swapshore; and the Dire Grazelands bordering the Fire Empire, home to enormous animals far larger than their kin elsewhere. Entire villages are built on such animals, their people known as the Direstaves. A separate culture from the Ape Clan, they serve as a buffer zone against the fire giants and highly prize their hard won freedom in the face of such adversity. The Lion Clan claims the eastern highlands and rivers stretching to the AIr Empire, and prize the virtues of courage mixed with wisdom as well as artistic pursuits. They believe that there is strength to be found in enduring intolerable conditions, so they rarely make use of shelter and prefer to sleep exposed to the weather. Their patron deity, Glelh the Unblinking, lairs in a hallow that grants him an amazing vision of the surrounding valley that visiting shamans can take advantage of. Interesting places in this region include the Howlgrove which home to werewolves and the hidden headquarters of Scavenger’s Vow; the Eyestone, which is a gigantic monolith with a single hole drilled in its middle home to an ever-changing rainbow of lights, and its nature is unknown save that those nearby experience an uneasy sensation of being watched; Prideblood Slopes, a hilly region home to the bulk of the Lion Clan’s members and is well-defended with a variety of traps and defenses; and Sorrow’s Edge, the last bit of land before the dark expanse of a sky without end and where the Air Empire holds sway. Captured druids are regularly brought to Sorrow’s Edge to be thrown to their deaths. Wintersouth is the broad region of the Great Valley to the south of the Brother Clans. It is a sparse, dry land, and would ordinarily not be ventured into save for the herds of the north that seasonally migrate here that are pursued by the clans who live off of them. The deities here are cruel and spiteful, known as the Winter Gods and who would later become known as demons. Two of the larger humanoid settlements in Planegea can be found here: the village of Edgegather that sits at the edge of the Venom Abyss whose lawlessness and celebrations are legendarily infamous, and the divine refuge of Seerfall home to shamans of all kinds who make pilgrimages here to converse among themselves about the fate of the world and the gods. Interesting places in this region include Sharpfang Sweep, a common area clans migrate through each winter even as they’re hunted and stalked by tyrannosauruses and raptors; the Hallow of Twr, a portion of boiling river home to the Winter God of the same name who sees a regular influx of cultists desperate to seek her power and/or to assuage her wrath; the Allhunt, a place occupied during the winter months by clans for its watering holes, and the scarcity of resources is ironically one of the more peaceful times of inter-clan warfare due to non-aggression pacts where hunters can pursue prey without fear of attack from other hunters; the Daggerwood, home to wicked treants and various kinds of scum and villainy who have only the barest of alliances in their Cutthroat Council; and Lake Littleblood, whose cliffs are a favorite spot for spellskins who make use of the rising and falling tides from thawing water to create complicated works of fluid cave paintings. Edgegather itself has 3 pages of content, one of which is a full-page map. There’s 73 marked locations, a minority of which have proper detail. The village is separated into three regions. The first is the Platform a rickety assortment of wood, mud, and vines with an enchanted network of beams supporting it as it gazes over the Venom Abyss. Then there are the two neighborhoods of Lefthand and Righthand, who have a bitter rivalry where they view themselves as civilized and cultured people and the other side as fools and bullies without any morals. The enmity comes from a long-ago family feud that drew in others to the point that long-standing alliances were formed out of common contempt. Edgegather’s places are full of neat plot hooks, such as the House of En which is occupied by servants of the Gift of Thirst’s vampires looking for dupes and recruits; a hidden group of druids known as the Pulse Enclave who worship the Unfall as blood from the Worldheart Dragon; a passage known as Templehole that leads into a set of old temple ruins that only the goblins seem to know anything about but who remain tight-lipped for reasons unknown; the headquarters of the Venomguard, a group of monster hunters who have a hidden treasure vault of salt that many a Scavenger seeks to rob for their “big score;” and a hidden safehouse for criminals serving a green hang known as Themlish, who seeks to attain political power in Edgegather. There’s several more regions in the Great Valley which are comparatively much less detailed. They include the Eel, a river that is considered to be cursed and its source is the former giant city of Dakru, now the Free Citadel and governed by their former slaves. The Eel is also home to a temple of chanters claiming to worship a living fungus known as the Mushroom Lord that communicates via spores. The Undershore is located in the relative southwest where the land meets the sea, where a barren plain scarred by lightning strikes known as the War-Way is the dividing line between the free peoples and the Sea Empire. The Scattersea is an archipelago of nomadic clans who travel by boats, and whose most powerful clan is the Whale Clan. The Cult Riverlands are a dry region in the northwest, home to arid gulches and whose primary river, the Eagle, is barely a trickle but is greatly prized by various wicked gods who would later become known as Devils. Underground reservoirs known as qanats were shaped by arcane and divine magic by people of unknown origin. Many enterprising souls in the parched lands above seek to find such hidden reserves, but it is said that an evil and powerful god lurks in the depths. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/jCiRd8Q.png[/img][/center] [b]The Giant Empires[/b] would be Bronze Age civilizations in the world of Planegea…that is, if bronze and other metals existed. The giants do not live in nomadic bands of subsistence hunters and foragers, but have walled communities of their own, whose cities have paved roads, fortresses, ziggurats, and other marvels unseen in the rest of Planegea. And that’s saying nothing of their magical rites and artifacts. Yet such progress is not done to bring the world into greater innovation, but instead to conquer and exploit it. To those weaker than they, such as the humanoids of the Great Valley, the giants enslave and treat little better than animals. The Stone Empire of the west is home to two large clans of frost and stone giants. The frost giants are raiders living on the surface of mountains, gathering in the border city of O’oteka to stage raids into the Great Valley whose captives are brought back to the Wailing Markets. As for the stone giants, they mostly live in the caves below and work magic through chants, scrying pools, and dreams to divine the future. Their capital city, High-Walled Akmon, is jointly ruled over by the respective Stone Emperor and Frost Empress, and its streets are alive with ceremonies, rituals, and songs that occur at all hours. The Fire Empire of the north is a highly militarized society of fire giants who view the other empires as weak in body, mind, and soul, believing that they’re the only civilization worthy of ruling the world and shaping its future. Their capital city of Shining Eknis is forged from volcanic glass, which in the daytime is so terrifyingly bright that many slaves taken there have gone blind. The fire giants, predictably, love gladiatorial matches as a form of entertainment, and even captives of smaller people might earn favor with the Emperor if they prove themselves in the ring. There is a ruined city known as Bosa, built by a long-dead Emperor who sought to settle the Scorchwaste and earned the retaliation of the efreeti. Bosa now stands as a burned-out ruin scarred by magic and undead giants. The Air Empire can be found among the floating islands and towers in the cloudy void of the east, so suspended due to the laws of gravity working differently here than elsewhere in Planegea. With their own magic and that of the djinn, the cloud giants have extremely high living standards and want for naught. Their settlements are more like palaces, yet the giants are still cruel and find sadistic joy in torturing and killing slaves and captives. Beyond the giants, there are some particularly brave godless clans, many ruled by orcs, who occupy islands and cliffs with winged beasts to raid others, even the cloud giants themselves! The Sea Empire of the south occupies coastal land and ocean alike. The storm giants believe themselves to be fighting for a noble cause, unlike the jaded sadists of the Air Empire or the expansionist conquerors of the Stone and Fire Empires. Locked in war against kraken, aboleths, and the evil cults that serve them, the Sea Empire holds the line against such monsters from claiming other lands. But this perpetual war footing is ever hungry for blood, blood that the Sea Empire is all too happy to supply with slaves and conscripts. Unlike the other three Empires, the storm giants are the most likely to approach the smaller peoples for advice and counsel, such as the shamans of Seerfall. The Emperor focuses first and foremost on the war effort, letting seven advisors handle administration and domestic affairs. [b]Nod[/b] is two worlds in contrast, that of Dream and Nightmare, their lands mutable and changing like the dreams of the sleeping. Not much new is said here that can’t be found elsewhere in the book. [b]The Kingdom of the Dead[/b] is the final region of this chapter, and people come here in one of two ways: through the Dark Door seen by souls of the recently departed, or the Long Way which is known only to the most powerful and ancient of beings. Nazh-Agaa rules this dark land, the souls of the dead tasked with building a seemingly-endless city until they vanish from existence. The souls found here are those who violated social conventions but also include the murdered and the lost. [b]Thoughts So Far:[/b] This chapter does a good job of providing interesting locations to host Prehistoric Fantasy adventures. The Great Valley clearly gets the lion’s (and ape’s, and bear’s) share of content, and the four Giant Empires come in relatively close seconds. This unfortunately comes at the expense of the other regions. These places, such as the Elemental Wastes and the Kingdom of the Dead, get scarcely more than a few paragraphs. While these regions tend to be Epic tier or similarly high level and thus may not see the majority of playtime, this falls into a related problem I’ve seen with planar adventures in official DnD settings. The idea of certain areas being gated off for high-level play is something that may not be to everyone’s tastes. While one can argue that it fits with Planegea’s themes of a dangerous world where the PCs are but a blip among literal and figurative giants, I’d have preferred it if there was encouragement and plot ideas for mid and even low level groups finding themselves briefly adventuring in such areas. Heck, Nod is listed as being appropriate for 11th to 16th level, yet clans supposedly use them regularly for migration! [b]Join us next time as we go into detail on Planegea’s notable organizations and villains in Chapter 11: Factions & Threats![/b] [/QUOTE]
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[Let's Read] The Star-Shaman's Song of Planegea: Dungeons & Dragons, Prehistoric Style
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