KhorasForum

Hi !

I'm currently preparing a session for a WE of RPG. The scene will take place just before (and after) the Sundering.

I have a question about the Alliand Mage Lords. They were incredibly powerful, but why ? I see several possibilities, but I would like to have your thoughts about that :

• they discovered a new way to do magic, much more powerful than standard magic performed in the other countries
• the lack of Drellis simply made mage of that time much more powerful
• the Alliance was funded heavily and it directly led to skilled mages
• the Alliance true idea was the cooperation between its members : by cooperating instead of competing, mages were able to learn and progress in skill much much quicker than traditionnal mages
• other ?

Of course the issue is to explain how they were so powerful, but also how it completely disappeared after the Sundering.

(in fact some Mage Lords were still alive after, like Karnus for instance, and were able to do quite good spells. So option n°2 is discarded)

Hi

My friends and I were wondering some technical points about the Citadel. That's not really important questions for RPG, it's rather for consistency and completeness of the world. And also because we love to investigate such technical points.

The questions concern the heat in the Citadel:
- is there a fireplace in each room ?
- is there a common heating system ?
- is the Citadel rather cold, rather hot, rather wet, with moisture ?

First I have perhaps to remind that the underground temperature is quite constant (day/night cycle is averaged quite quickly, and summer/winter cycle is averaged after few meters of rocks). So the sub-surface temperature is around the year average, around 15?C on Earth (I don't know how much in Farenheit), probably a little bit colder in the Citadel. This is why in summer (30?C outside) when we visit a cave we find it quite cold. Anyway 15?C (or worse 12?C) is not a temperature I would like to have in my house all the year.

I started wondering about that when I wanted to draw the players' room and place a fireplace. If there is a fireplace, there should be a chimney associated to it. And this chimney has to go through all levels up to the "roof" of the Citadel. Even if you imagine that several chimneys are mutualized between differents room and between differents levels, there still should be a quite large amount of such channels traveling vertically through the entire Citadel.
Another solution could be to have a common heating system: big fires in the lower levels, with again great vertical shafts. But this time, these chimney would redistribute the heat in each level and each Citadel section by a clever heating system (I remember that some roman villa had a heating system in the floor channeled through special hollow bricks).
This is probably technically possible but it leads to another linked question. Perhaps, the builders of the Citadel were gifted craftmen and architects. But I don't think generations of ogres and orcs have the ability and the will to maintain such a complex system.

Nowadays, perhaps a magical solution is used. It should be ok for a Black Sorcerer to produce a very small amount of heat in each cubic meter of the whole Citadel volume. Personnally I'm not fond of this solution, because I think there should a found a more "permanent" solution. But perhaps I'm wrong and they just don't care and everybody wear more clothes.

It leads to the last question: is the Citadel cold/hot/wet/dry ? I've always imagined the Citadel as a quite warm place, but that's probably anthropocentric. Perhaps it's a quite cold place. Perhaps a heating system is working in some part, and never repeared in others. Perhaps everybody light fires in its room without systematic chimney, and smoke evades in the corridors...

So, what is your vision of the Citadel ?

I have a very little question about the structure of the Citadel. Noty very important, just something weird from a practical point of view.

I imagine the Black Sorcerers invoking monsters and stuffs from other planes, or creating new creatures, in their own labs.
I guess they have pleinty of special rooms, quite large, for this purpose.
I also think they would like to test them, to use their ability... and for that they will often have to get them out of the Citadel (to laucnh them into war, to test them in the wilderness...).

But I find weird to imagine these foul beast getting out of the Citadel through the main staircasen through the main gate, going on the main large road into the city...
If I were one of them, I would like to bring them out more... clandestinely.
Would I be obliged to use a large piece of cloth to cover my monster? Ot do them have some sort of special -large- path to get out unnoticed?

Hi!

I have some interrogations about the life crystal. I never used it because I was never satisfied with it.
This crystal is supposed to detect life, but how could it be used? 
If anyone hold this crystal (or stand close to look at it), it will react firstly to THIS person before anything else.

I precise that I don't like the possibility to build a life detector with lead (one of my player already tried to build a flashlight with a powerful glowstone and surrounding material). I don't like that because it uses a nowadays idea.

Well I guess it could be used when placed above a door, like a doorbell (another nowadays idea). But it's not very practical.

Has any one of you ever used lifestone? If yes, how?

There is a video published by Repubblica (it should be an italian newspaper) showing the border swings in europe during the past 1000 years.
It's incredible...

The video can be found here on a french newspapaer website :
http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2014/03/20/mille-ans-de-frontieres-europeennes-en-accelere_988551
I think the link won't work more than few days or weeks, and I didn't manage to find the original video.

After seeing that, only one feeling for me: shame on us...

Hi
After our discussion on the second demon war timeline, I was thinking about the Draxorith banishement.
It is a major event I think, and I'm not confortable with the fact to remove it from the lineline.
I understand your arugment (to let GM decide when this event occurs), but this very argument is also applicable on a lot of other events.

What is disturbing is that as this event is not related, we have no information about that. Info can only be found in your campaign notes.
And I would love to see it described somewhere.

Moreover, I think it has a great role on Duthelm.
We already have this discussion a long time ago, but I think the Draxorith semi-banishement is something very special, which has an impact on the Draxorith religion. How could this religion be as strong as before if they have lost their god? For 150 years, no cleric was able to "contact" Draxorith, and strictly speaking to obtain "powers" from him.

If anyone is interested in, how I "play" it is :
- after the first Demon War, Duthelm was in chaos, and as Draxorith was banished, it was understandable that he didn't want to answer. He was sort of sulking (is it correct?)
- after several years, answer began to come
- it tooks tens of years for Draxorith high priests to realize it was not him, but probably a sort of former lieutenant who usurped his throne
- they decided to keep this secret ("Hey guy, finally it's not Draxorith anymore, it's Characxul !") and explain to other that Draxorith was angry about Duthelmian people (that is probably true )
- the new "lord" didn't match the Draxorith's power, and especially his ability to send this power on Khoras priests ; that's why the priests and knight abilities were greatly reduced.
It was very difficult for those who have known the previous war time, to get used to these new conditions... So it was difficult times for the Draxorith Church.
- Draxorith high priest, helped by Black Sorcerers, began to unveiled the banishement events, look for the avisarr and so on... (I don't remember exactly these events)
- after the banishement completion, Draxorith will have to recover his throne, to re-establish his authority... he will be quite busy but will support Duthelmian priests again.

Hi
As you are now here, let's look at other questions.

In the orichalcum page, you mention that orichalcum can be used to "put magic in it", like defensive spell and such.
Do you imply that no other material can store spells.

I mean, if I want a magical sword (to take a very basic instinct), the sword would have to inculde an orichalcum stone in the pommel?
Does all magical item needs orichalcum?
If not, what is the need of using "orichalcum with a defensive spell", why not another material?

In my game, I've defined A LOT of different materials (from stone to gold, from diamond to fire agate...) each of them having their own capability (amount of magical energy, destructive interaction with the spell...). In fact a sorcerer can use the material he wants, but only few of them are good for that.

Hi everybody, hi Dave!
It's a long time I've not been here on the forum to ask some question about Khoras. And it seems to me it's very quit here, specially this section.
Let's wake it up with a difficult topic (and who knows, perhaps a debate).

Well, so my question deals with the deity in Khoras. I know Dave that it's not your favorite part of the world but I have some interrogations.
At present, deity are classified in "tiers" (greater gods, lesse gods, demi-gods...) and race. It seems to me that you wanted to change that but I guess other parts of the world caught your attention. So there are tiers, and nations here and there have a primary religion and some secondary religions.

And I have a problem to imagine exactly how it works.
On Earth, there are/were some different religions : greek or egyptian pantheon, god of christian or muslim... But the khorasian faith doesn't fit with that patern.

Ancient greek did believe in different gods but they were a sort of a familly, with Zeus or Poseidon as greater gods. Some greek were priest of one or the other lesser gods (for example Appollon) without denying the other gods. This was a pantheon.
Nowaday, it's impossible to believe in God and Ganesh at the same time. Monotheist religions don't "allow" other gods. But it's possible to believe in Ganesh, Shiva and Vishnu, because it's also a kind of pantheon.

But in Khoras it's more difficult to understand how the faith works.
Can a people believe in several gods in the same time? in a lesser god and a greater god? in several greater gods?

Can all deity of human be considered as a pantheon (implying that every human "believe" in all these gods, even if he only pray for some of them)?
If yes, is there a chief god (like Zeus)?

Or on the contrary perhaps each god has its own unique religion. But it would imply that no one could pray several gods...?

If anyone here has some idea to help, I would be very glad to hear other point of view.

Hi everyone

I have a question about the new calendar. Now that there are 4 weeks of 7 days, you have put :
- the 1st day balanced
- the 7th day Karrym maximum
- the 14th day balanced
- the 21th day Drellis maximum
- the 28th day balanced again (it should be only 14th and 28th balanced and not 1st, 14th and 28th balanced, but it doesn't change the spell multiplier you put)

Well it seems fine as long as we do not look at week, since they would be completely mixed. First week half-balanced half-Karrym, second week half-Karrym half-balanced, third half-balanced half-Drellis...

Woulnd't it be more sociologicaly better if week were more specific. As Karrym Drellis deeply affect there life, they could have separated week another way : first week around balanced point, second one around Karrym maximum, etc... It After all the gregorian calendar is not set from to the soltices.

Other small point.
The Ithrian name for the month were magic-related, with hints about the Drellis or Karrym effect on spells. As each month is now completely equal, it's weird to have months like "spellfade" or "magereign". Isn't it?

Hi!

One of my player and I were discussing endlessly around the topic of illusion this night. So I would like to have your point of view.

As said in another thread a long time ago, I wrote a complete set of rule to describe the sorcery. It's base on quantitative values given for various major arcana (Time, Space, Power, Controle) and minor arcana (Illusion, Mentalism, Biomancy, etc...).
Each minor arcana describes exactly what could be done on that field and at which level. For instance, Mentalism enables :

• at low skill : emotion reading and modifying...
• at medium skill : confusion, thoughts reading, desire modifying...
• at high skill : thought alteration, memories reading, mind control...

Concerning the illusion arcana, I needed to explain what were these illusions. For me the illusion of an object is an artifical creation of light which imitates the object (obviously it's not solid). In so doing, the light is "real" and if camera would exist they would see the object. You can also make illusion of sounds by creating air vibrations and so forth... These illusions has a physical range (not a magical range). They can be seen or heared from far. The Space arcana only describe the distance spellcaster/illusion. Moreover "real light" or "real sounds" are not affected by magic resistance (IMO).

Another way to describe illusions is to suppose that the object only exists in the mind of people observing the scene. In this way, the "object" is not here : it's a magical phenomenon which prints the image in the surrounding minds. For such illusion, the Space arcana describes the area of effect and the magic resistance of the victims is taken into account.

As you can see, two very different ways for illusion description. I would like to know which one is your favorite? I mean which one fits with what you think an illusion should be.

Hello!

I'm currently playing with one of my player during this war (started in 2705) in the Duthelmian side. In fact he started in 2700 but time is going and the war is finally coming. And I'm a little bit disappointed by the time line given.
Some time ago, the time line said the war was very short (few months between 2705 and 2706). You corrected that and it's now much longer. But I found strange the date of the siege of Myranor. You put it four year after the beginning of the war! I see Duthelmian army as a horde of humanoides and even if Kitar is aware of a war coming, I would guess they cannot withstand alone such a force.

On the contrary I would think  that the horde of Duthelm can effectively reach Myranor in few months, and subsenquently be beaten by the Rukemian forces.

In my game, the arrival of Karthus and his army set in motion the war preparations but Duthelm cannot be ready in one day and Karthus's army quickly head to Myranor, with minor forces from Duthelm. They will conquier the first cities and do the famous siege of Myranor before being routed by Rukemian knights. After that the big part of the Duthelmian army will eventually arrive and fight at their side. Then the front will set not far from Myranor. It will move during the war and it will end with a total rout for Duthelmian forces with breaking in their side (Xorian problem, no Draxorith to help them as "promised" by the Draxorith Cult, ...).
Well it's how I will play that part...  

Hello here!

Some times ago, a friend of mine told me that he thought the mount Durrodis geography was not very realistic. He found that it was a little "fantasy" or "odd" although the rest of the world map was very much like real continents. And I just found an image during my internet surfing :
http://www.lefigaro.fr/medias/2010/04/22/20100422PHOWWW00144.jpg

It's an island south of kamchatka (called Onekotan, other images can be found easily), nor very hospitable, like the Sea of Ash region...

Hello!

During my last game session, I was wondering about the size of an army. How many men/orcs/ogres/whatever compose a typical army?

The only comparison I have is found in Tolkien book (Unfinished Tales). It gives some explainations about the Gondor army. During the War of the Ring, Gondor has sent 7,000 men at the Mordor's door. It is said that this is a quite small army since it corresponds to the rearguard of what was the Gondor's army during the great time. It is said that the Gondor's real army size should be approximately 70,000 men! Well this is an example of the army of a powerfull kingdom.
I don't remeber (shame on me) if a number is given for the Sauron's army. It is said 10,000 orcs in Mordor in the movie but I doubt it's in the books (too low in my opinion).

Now the same question can be applied to Khoras. In particular what would be the size of the Khartus' army. It is said "horde of Khartus" but how many orcs does it represent? 30,000? 50,000? 100,000 perhaps? How many "regular" soldiers of Duthelm join them? Or what would be the army of Kitar?
Here my objective is only to have order of magnitude, not precise numbers. It's just to have an idea...

Hello all!

I have a very simple question : does Drellis effect works at night? 

I know I know as GM we can do whatever we want but I like coherent explanations. The magic section brings a lot of idea concerning the Drellis effect but it leads to somethings strange to me : if drellisian effect is due to "radiations" from Drellis, such radiation should not reach Khoras surface on the night side of the planet... And everybody knows that these radiations are absorbed by large amount of material (i.e kilometers of ground)

Personnally I do not want to obtain only a daily Drellis effect. Huuuugh! 
If anyone has an idea?

I know I know David, you already have A LOT of things to do. But I just wanted to finish that before hollydays.

Arcane Items:

• Artifact: in Farastu page, there is an unfinished sentence at the end of the last section. - Sentence Completed.
• Jewelry: Tulyken's Ring is said to be an artifact but it is not in the artifact section. - Fixed.

Talis :

• founded in 621 CY : "Although they had lived in cooperation peacefully for many years, they formalized their relationship in 621 CY with the first Verral." in Talis page VS "Talis is discovered. [...] they are recognized as an independent nation." in history timeline page.  - Fixed.  
• history section : "...an enchanted talisman in the shape of stone statuette that bore the likeness of a cat sitting in quiet repose"
  VS "Stone Phelysien" page (in legend and lore?) : "It appears as a small, stone statuette of a feline humanoid kneeling in supplication".   - Fixed.

Bathynia :
  history section "he united the clans of the region in 423 TIC and ruled over them. [...] Many served him at his sprawling estate including several legions of troops led by his greatest warrior, Krugendaur." and "Finally, in 28 CY,  met his fate in battle against phellysian marauders."
There are 75 years between 423TlC and 28CY. Was Krugendaur's life extended with magic? Such a long life-span is quite obvious for Threll because he's a sorcerer, but less explainable for Krugendaur, isn't it?  - Krugendaur was older, but had some help from magic. I'll add a comment to clarify.

Anquar:

• Kannor and its island is not included into Anquaran Kingdom - Anquar Locator Map has been fixed to include Sollok Island and the town of Kannor.
• bug in population density - Demographics now adds up to 100%.
• bug in founding date 678CY (it does not correspond to founding date of Ipotal, nor ascention of Dalmoran)  - Good catch! Wow, I have no idea where 678CY came from. That's definitely wrong. I've fixed this and also added some new material to the history section of Anquar. Hopefully, that ties off the loose threads in that section.
• allies and enemies categories have no link (to Border Clans (or Borderlands???) and Padashan Empire). Generally speaking you have to check because there are conflicts in these categories between Anquar / Border Clans / Padashan Empire (and few have links) - I added Border Clans as an enemy to Padashan, but other than that, everything looks ok here.

Ipotal page:

• governement type conflicts with Anquar page (Imperial autocracy VS Theocratic autocracy) - It's a theocratic autocracy. This is Fixed.  
• shops and guilds : unfinished sentence in Copper Bell - Fixed.

Language : Quaryn

• it refers to the language of the "Kingdom of Quar" which is in fact Anquar
• and in the Anquar page the language is said to be the "Anquar" and not the "Quaryn"
    ... probably some changes in the names... (personnally I prefer "The Kingdom of Quar", too bad )  - Fixed.  

• in Entropy (organisation page) :
     Primary location -> "Arcanum" link dead (the second "Arcanum" link is good)  - Fixed.  
  


• Flora :
     forest : in Clabbergill page, repetition of the sentence about the tolerance at the end  - Fixed.
  


• Fauna :
  
  
  
  • desert : Durgang and Dune strider have the same second name : "sand runners".  - Fixed.  
  • swamp : in Dragonsnake page, the last sentence in "habitat" unfinished...  - Fixed. 
  
  

The end. Enventually not as many things as I thought.

Hello everyone!
I'm planning to do a one-shot based in Anquar, and I've some questions about this nation.

First concerning the influence of the resistance. It is said that:

• king Dalmoran do its best to win the people over (patriot festivals, etc... but still taxes heavily with the other hand)
• the conflict with resistance is almost an open warfare (guerrilla style?)
• some people are said to help the resistance (for example Isabella ven Mira)
• Dalmoran relies heavily on propaganda (as said for drama favorable to him)

Knowing that king Dalmoran took control of the nation two centuries ago, and because of propaganda, does people know the truth about him? Do they believe resistance are illuminated guys or do they agree with them? In one word, does the resistance have major support from the population?

Second point concerning the power of the talisman. I have a problem with that because it seems too powerful to me... I explain. Karnus was propably an Alliance Mage Lord and then an incredibly powerful sorcerer. He made the talisman and it is said that each part made the advisors demi-gods and that the whole was "awesome". After two thousands years, Dalmoran manages to obtain four parts and his power is now nearly unbeatable. So there are some annoying points in all that:

• why Alliance Mage Lords were not asked to create such useful items by Thullian Emperors? Were they less powerfull than Karnus?
• if Dalmoran is so powerful ("half-god") he should be able to win any battle just doing it himself. Even against Kannor, against the Padashan Empire, or against the Gynfeld Forest dragon... Is he a coward?

So my point of view is clearly that the power is over-estimated: it contradicts Ithria's history and is not very logical in a military point of view. The second "issue" could be explain by writing the reasons why Dalmoran doesn't want to imply personnaly. The first "issue" is more delicate. I have few ideas but I would like to know your point of view.

The third point is closely related to the second one since it still deals with the talisman and the advisors. Is it necessary to have magical ability to wield it? Probably all Karnus advisors were mages of great talent. But -apart if magic capability is completely genetical- their heirs are not automatically. I don't know what it could imply, but perhaps it can help finding explanation about the second point.

Well, a lot of questions and more work for you. I hope you are not too busy with your real life and the trip preparation...

A little question to wake up a too quiet forum.
It is said that the iron eater is not interrested in consumming flesh or vegetation but only metals and minerals. As we are what we eat, I guess the chemical composition of the iron eater is made of silicon, iron, copper... I guess it explain it's greyish skin color but you don't tell a lot of things about its resistance (one time again, I guess it should be quiet hard if composed of array of metallic fiber) or its regeneration rate...
And what is approximately its size? "terrible beast to behold" means 2.5 meters or more?

Hi everyone!
The Coalition is a quite desertic place, lot's of rocks and sand. But even ogres and orcs have to eat and I was wondering about the agriculture there.
It is said to be only 19% of arable land. So I guess theses land are mainly located one the shore of the blood river. Is it right? In this case the Coalition looks like Egypt with the fertile Nil valley and the steril desert all around. Is there really lots of vegetable fields and animals in grassy lands?
The other solution would be to import food, but I don't know which surrounding country would accept to sell food to them. And it would be a key military weakness.
So David, could you describe me a little bit how you see that?

...I use this occasion to show a new list

The Shattered Mountain page:
   there is a big image on the beginning and after that a small text, and after that something which is not opened...  [Fixed]

Calendar :
   "Sarroth's day" Isn't it "Sorrath's day" instead? [Fixed]

The Mindmelding Stone :
   It is said to be an "artifact" but I don't find it soooo powerfull.. Perhaps you could explain why it is an artifact (for example, the Stone is so powerfull that nothing can prevent it from detecting lies, or reading thoughts...). Ok I know you want to reorganize this whole section, so check this point at the same time    [Yeah, yeah, I know. This is one of the MANY things that's going to get cleaned up in the November spotlight... which will be all about the magic items...]

People of Note :
- Grepoc
   "He has consulted kings and councils for countless decades" Isn't it the contrary? "Kings has consulted him"?  [Yes, there's a missing word there. He's consulted FOR kings... etc. That's fixed now.]
- Demetrius:
   conflict between the spoken language given at the beginning of the page and in the "notable skill" paragraph (at the very end of the page)  [Fixed]


Jungle :
   "Karth jungles" leads to the Karth nation page. Isn't there a specific page for this jungle?  [Fixed]

God :
- Daraugmor (dwarven)
      no "status" line -> Greater God  [Intentional omission. I'm considering eliminating the "Status" line in the upcoming religion overhaul.]
      unfinished sentence in the description section  [Fixed]
      contradiction in the Uchayor description : one in each temple VS one for the whole Church  [Fixed]
- Barrinor and Agethos has the same "holy day" : the seventh day of the seventh month  [Fixed]
- Draxorith
     artifact : perhaps could be mentioned that the location of the Avisarr is unknown (either in the lost Citadel, or thrown into the Conduit into the demon plane)  [Added]

Ogrish :
"It is spoken in many nation in the west" "east"!  [Fixed]

Country :
- Coalition
   Murron's Pass : this city is not on the map  [No, not yet. It will be on the next version of the map. The town does exist though.]
- Rukemia / Mercia / Ormek...     link for enemies "Coalition" dead   [Fixed]

Cities :
- Freeport
    gods describes in the first table and and the "Temples and Shrines" section are not the same [Fixed]
   "The Rising Mast" is said to be the best brothel east of Asylum, but it's without counting "The Raven and the Serpent" in Tyrrenkor (no?) [I'm sure they all claim to be the best.]
- Aerith :
     46,500 inhabitant in the Aerith page / 36,000 in the Vorrik page / 46,000 in the cities list page [Fixed]
     secondary religion given for Vorrik and Aerith not the same [Fixed]
- Tyrrenkor page :
     Blood Feasting (in the festival page) not found in the Tyrrenkor page [Fixed]

Errors in the populations of the country given in the capital page :
ex: Kitar is said to has 4 millions inhabitants in the Kitar page, but only 200,000 on the Myranor page (first table, nationality line)  [Fixed]

Lark Meadow :
    there is a page for this Kitaran village, but this page cannot be accessed from the Kitar page (only glossary, site map or search menu)  [Fixed]

I've just red the page about Agethos, the hatred's goddess.
There is much more information on this page than usually. We can find some myths and legends, a description of symbols, rituals, holy days... Even the first table at the beginning is more precise with new boxes : type of religion, allied and opposed faith... I really like that

To David :
This page is very different than the other pages on gods, and I wonder why. Is it the first example of what will be (soon? ) the new religion description? Or is it more precise just because it was used in one of your campaign?