Anquar

[Delbareth]

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...

[avisarr]

Yep, I'm busy! But I can answer this one.

Of course, for the purposes of your game, you're free to adjust things and fine-tune the world as you want. But to answer your questions, here's the way I envision it:

Does the Resistance have the support of the population?
The Resistance does have support from a good portion of the population. Not everyone, but many. About a quarter of the population has been swayed to Dalmoran. Probably the wealthiest 25%. About a quarter of the population is fiercely against Dalmoran and covertly support the Resistance. And about half the population is simply trying to get by and not get involved in the struggle. They are simply looking out for themselves. It's sort of like Nazi Germany - you've got one powerful group led by a very powerful ruler who dominates the rest of the nation. Dalmoran has built up an elaborate hierarchy of followers and supporters around him and has positioned himself at the pinnacle.

If Dalmoran has "god like" powers, why doesn't he use it? (I'm compiling all of your questions into one).
There are two answers to this and you mentioned both of them in your original post:

First, Karnus was one of the oldest and most powerful of the Alliance Mage Lords. He spent years crafting the Talisman of Anquar and it was the crowning achievement of a long and illustrious career - quite simply, it was the most powerful item he ever created. Also, keep in mind that the Talisman was created after the War, after Karnus had been working on other projects for years. The Talisman was the product of an immense amount of knowledge from the Great War.

Second, the term "god like" is a bit vague. It's just a word. Dalmoran is not really a god or even god-like. He's simply a powerful mage with four pieces of a very powerful artifact/weapon. However, the powers of the Talisman HAVE been overestimated. The abilities of the Talisman have been built up in myth and legend for two centuries and Dalmoran probably perpetuates this exaggeration of his power. Could he defeat a dragon in one-on-one combat with the Talisman? Probably. Could he defeat an entire nation? No. He's still just one man. Rather, he uses the Talisman to keep himself surrounded by an army of loyalists and maintains a tight grip on his own nation. The Talisman is very powerful, but not strong enough to win an entire war by itself. Dalmoran probably knows this. Also, the Padashan Empire is VERY powerful. The Padashan Empire is bigger and stronger than Anquar... but Anquar has four pieces of the Talisman. Overall, I would say that these two nations are probably pretty evenly matched. The discovery of another piece of the Talisman could sway that balance one way or the other. And that could be a good plot for an adventure or a campaign. Even the mere possibility of recovering one of the other pieces of the Talisman could push several different nations and groups into action.

Anyway, that's how I see it.   

[Delbareth]

Wonderful!
You know that I prefer to adapt my game to the world, rather than to adapt the world to my game.
I'm definitely satisfied with your answers, it solves problems!

I've got a last point I forgot yesterday, but there is no time for this now.
Thanks

[tanis]

I just wanted to say that Anquar has ALWAYS been one of my favorite nations. Nothing quite like toppling an evil empire to get you out of bed am I right? You might try to do a session summary of your adventures if you have the time. I'd be interested in reading them.

Also, I wanted to say a little about the Talisman, and the other mages. That's really what has always most intrigued me about Anquar. The politics behind it's founding, and all that. I've been toying with ideas about it, but the thing that most fascinates me is Anark. Obviously, he still has his piece of the Talisman, and I assume that even just the one piece would make one effectively immortal barring violent death or illness, such as with Karnus's Miradic Syndrome. Therefore, he has to be out there somewhere. And there are three missing pieces that are either unspoken for or are in the hands of people who aren't talking about the fact that they have it. There are just so many opportunities for a return, for a coup to restore the government, for all sorts of interesting angles for a great story.

[Delbareth]

You're absolutely right. There are plenty of possibilities.

And I was just wondering about Anark. Does one piece of the talisman really confer immortality? I'm not sure... First because it would imply that the same kings and queens have shared the power during 2000 years (exept exceptionnal death). I'm not sure it is the best way to obtain "rulers of great wisdom". Secondly even if the talsman is very powerful, immortality is not an easy things to acquire. Moreover immortality is unnatural and often deals with dark magic/sorcery and that was certainly not the first goal of the talisman... In my opinion, Dalmoran with four parts really tried to keep power beyond a human time by doing what needed to be done (sacrifice of young people? dark sorcery?).
David, could you tell us if kings were immortal from the beginning? Is Anark still alive (I guess you let it an open question as you like to do )?

My fourth point I mentionned previously was concernign magic school and number of mages. It is said that the Tower is the only allowed magic school of the realm (plus the one of the resistance). The Tower graduates about thirty mages each years. Compared to other university in the world it's in the average. But contrarily with other nation, it is explicitely said teaching magic out of the school is forbidden. There is so 30 new mages each year and no more. Even if it is said "Because of Anquar's strict regulation of magic, there are few wizards and sorcerers here than one might expect for a kingdom of this size.", I would think that 30 mages/year for the whole nation is very low. Perhaps it's the best students that study here, it would imply that there are no poor or medium mages but only few good one (why not?).
Well, I'm a little bit disappointed by these statistics but perhaps I'm completely wrong .

[avisarr]

I did intentionally leave certain parts vague. But to answer your question, a single piece of the Talisman does not infer immortality. One piece of the Talisman would grant long life, but not immortality. Therefore, the Talisman would be passed down through the eight ruling families from generation to generation. This would most likely involve each ruler spending years teaching and grooming the next one to hold the Talisman in order to ensure that the highest ideals of Karnus are upheld through the centuries.

Is Anark alive? I'm leaving this one completely open to interpretation. His piece of the Talisman is definitely out there, somewhere, waiting to be uncovered or found.

Regarding the Tower, I'm not sure I understand your question. Thirty mages per year is a fairly low number for a kingdom of this size. However, that's the way Dalmoran likes it. These 30 mages are among the best and brightest. But it's not just that they are talented. It's also that they come from families that are in the upper social levels. They are families that are supporters of Dalmoran and these are families that can be trusted.

Dalmoran doesn't want too many wizards in his kingdom and those who are allowed must be regulated. Dalmoran does not want any mage amassing enough knowledge and power to become a threat to him. The Tower provides a means of regulating who can learn magic while indoctrinating them at the same time.

The 30 mages graduating from the Tower each year are not the only mages. The Resistance has their own mages who study and train without having to follow any of Dalmoran's laws. In addition to the Resistance, there are likely a variety of independent people who study magic on their own. This is, of course, illegal. So those who pursue independent magical research and study do so very discreetly.

[tanis]

Hmm... Well, Anark's family left too, I would assume, so that still leaves room for his heir to reestablish the old kingdom, though it would be very interesting if Anark was at least alive long enough to have personally tutored whichever mage would try to collect the four pieces and take on Dalmoran. IN FACT, that's actually a GREAT plotline for a campaign. Imagine having the campaign effectively start with Anark coming to your mage, somewhere in his lifetime, maybe at around level ten or so, when he's powerful, but still a fledgling mage in comparison with archmages like Anark, Dalmoran, or Morlokk. Then a campaign could be run to overthrow Dalmoran. I don't know how you would want to do that, but it would have a LOT of opportunities, especially over a longer time frame. And this is going to be a high profile campaign, with lots of preparation and pitched battles, so even though the party mage would get center stage, the other characters would still get plenty of incentive for being in the party.

[Delbareth]

As you said there are plenty of possibilities
For my part I'm preparing a 4-days week-end with old friends. Not long enough for a whole campaign but I think we can still do something good (and longer than what was done in the Iron State ).

I plan to give them the opportunity to find a piece of the talisman. They are told that a drunken guy has claimed to be a member of one of the eight family. There will be a race between them and "officials" in order to find this guy and to follow the track until the talisman location. There are four lost parts and it can be anyone of them but I'm not sure I'm going to use Anark's one.

Concerning the number of mage in the nation, it's ok. Dalmoran decides
It's interresting to think that all officials mages comes from wealthy families. I see them as gifted, proud, arrogant and loyal to the tyran. They look like the bitter enemy of a sooooo faaaamous little sorcerer.

[Delbareth]

Tanis, You implicitely guess that only mage may effectively use the talisman. For myself, I'm not completely decided concerning this point.
In fact if a piece provides long life, it would enable a king to wait for a magically-gifted heir. It changes my previous point of view where each king has to give his piece to his son, whatever is its magical skill.
Well I guess I would say that the talisman may be used by anybody, but only mages -and specially talented mages- can obtain complex powers with it (concentrating energy to launch fireballs is only for dummies).

After thinking about that I think it's not an easy life than being such a king. As they had a long life, they certainly had seen their wife, their children, and their grand-children died before finding the proper heir, giving the talisman, and quietly dying.
Anark must have gone completely mad!!!

[tanis]

I don't know. I DID assume that it would take a powerful mage, or at least a promising one, to fully master a talisman piece, but I was generally of the impression that in a line with enough archmages to produce consistent heirs, even if the next person down the line isn't strong enough to use the piece, or if the current reigning member of the family isn't ready to pass it down until the direct heir is no longer capable or interested in ruling, for whatever reason, even those who are younger children, girls, and wives, not to mention all of the people who would likely marry into such a family, anyone with even a more distant relation such as a 3rd-5th cousin would likely be a powerful mage, quite possibly powerful enough to have extended their own lives by some, even if not to the extent of an archmage or a mage with a talisman piece in his possession. So it may not have been so lonely. Though, certainly the responsibility was great, and the original kings were all disciples of Karnus, so they took their positions VERY seriously, wanting to rule as well in his stead as was possible. Even Dalmoran, though he later became power-hungry, was once a loyal disciple and earnest ruler. I've always read the history of Anquar as he was a good ruler, at some point, either before, at the moment of, or shortly after he killed the first fellow king, he changed, and began to lust for the power of the talisman. A man who fits into the Disgraced or Fallen Hero/Ruler stereotype. But even if someone other than a mage could use it, to attempt to get the most out of the piece, one would still need to at least understand the theories of controlling magic. Magic in Khoras strikes me as very mathematical, very theoretical. It seems like something like music theory, where just because you understand it perfectly doesn't mean you can play an instrument well enough to make men weep, but you at least understand what makes music work. I would think that even if the control necessary to wield magic was not there, to use such a powerful artifact, since it was intended for mages, you would at least need to know HOW magic works.

However, that's pretty much all conjecture, and regardless of how it works, you can always add something to the character. Want the barbarian or fighter to be the talisman's wielder? Say that though he has no control of magic, nor training in it's ways, he has some form of nature magic present inside him, so he can use it. Or whatever. But it seems to me like at least as far as the canon answer, it would be a mage or spellcaster-only artifact.

[Delbareth]

Well, it's not that obvious if you look at statistic since there are very few people with tha capability of doing magic. Ok I guess probabilities could be increased through genetic since mage parents could give more mage childrens (for instance 1/10 instead of 1/1000). Moreover a ruler has to find somebody with a good spirit/soul : he has to be wise and to look for the benefit of the nation before its own benefit.

Concerning the talisman I think we nearly agree. I think that only a mage (specialy a powerful mage) is able to understand the talisman and obtain complex powers from it. Let's give example :

• a non-mage would be able to extract raw magical energy, enough to launch fireballs and death rays, to move objets, to paralyse telekinetically, to protect with invisible force fields
• a mage would be able to shape raw energy into more complex spells, like fire prisons, healing, flight, read mind, control people  
• a talented mage would then be able to cast really complex spell : animate objets, divination spells, invocations, gravity modification, wormholes/teleportation

... and each of these one could be cast on a tremendous scale because powered by the talisman. And of course a new wielder may be taught by the ruler how to control the talisman.

And I remind that they are wise rulers : all this is only to prevent somebody to try to take the throne by force, not help them convicing their advisors with a magical burning cold. So a non-mage could be chosen by a ruler just because he has the right spirit/mind/soul to be a wise king.

Going further into this hypothesis it implies that Dalmoran (ok perhaps a good guy at the beginning, but too ambitious for the charge, like Anakin for example ) was a great mage capable of magical prowess with the talisman. With this mastery he managed to find a flaw in the raw energy defense of one of his collegue. The others were not able to withstand the power of two or three pieces, even if they were better than him.

At the end, if somebody want to overthrow Dalmoran, he would have to wield the four pieces (obviously), to be able to understand this magic (a talented mage), and take the time to master it.

Well, this is how I see it.

[tanis]

I would pretty much agree with that.

[Delbareth]

While we are still focused on Anquar, I would like to submit another question dealing with demography.

Let me summarize what is written.
On anquar page we have : "Human (Anquar) 76%, Human (Ithrian Southerners) 5%, Orc 4%, Ogre 3%, Grum 3%, Saurian 2%, Hurkyte 2%, Urtas 2%, Sea Gypsies 1%, Mandalar1%, Other 1%"
On Ipotal page we have : "Human (Quaryn) 70%, Human (Southern) 9%, Human (Padashi) 7%, Ogre 5%, Orc 3%, Mandalar 2%, Urtas 2%, Hurkari 1%, Other 1%"

My question is the following: where and how are organized the mandalars and the hurkytes?
It is said they are quite brutal races, trying to be the strongest, competing to the chiefclan position before being defeated by a younger opponent... It is explicitely said that theses -stupid- beings do not like civilization and cities and we understand why! So are they organized in small villages appart from big cities ? Perhaps much more present in the north-east ? In this case how are organized those who are said to be in cities ? Are they slaves? Is there a civilized part of these races who agree to mix with humans ?

[avisarr]

I have an answer for that. Well, sort of... first of all, I recently updated the demographics of Anquar, but I totally forgot to adjust Ipotal. My fault. They are not necessarily the same, but I did forget to review Ipotal. So, let me take a look at that and make some adjustments. So having said that, the percentage of the brutish races in the capital city would be fairly low. 1% or less. And yes, maybe I need to dial down that percentage a bit in both Ipotal and Anquar. The hurkytes and mandalar would be a very small segment of the population.

Second, regarding these "brutish" races... I think there are a lot of niches in civilization that they could find - low-paid unskilled laborers, farm hands, mariners, gladiators, thieves, beggars, brigands, slaves and so on. In some unique cases, perhaps even soldiers or bodyguards - if properly trained or otherwised leashed.

Outside of the major cities and towns, I think most of them would be part of clans who just happen to be living in Anquar territory. Imagine a clan of mandalar living in a nearby forest or a tribe of hurkytes in the foothills of the mountains. The local villages may not want them nearby, but they are a part of the national population, none the less. Pretty much if they are in a nation's territory, they get counted. And yes, I imagine that the concentration of such humanoids would vary depending on the nature of the individual provinces or regions of that nation.

Most of the humanoids races, though, live in the wilds in between nations and don't get counted into any census.

[Delbareth]

Very interesting answer, as usual!