Topic: Karnorthe

[Skaran]

Sorry for the delay in replying it is tax time in Australia.

The world was originally designed for use with Chivalry & Sorcery 1st edition! way back in 1978. But for many years we have been operating in this world using Rolemaster 2nd Edition with some bits brought in from Standard Edition.

The world is an ongoing concern and I am running a game in it every second weekend.

[Skaran]

Just to let anyone interested know. I have uploaded a revised map of the kingdom of Nuril Ka to

http://karnorthe.skaran.net/people/nuril/nuril.html

[Skaran]

Something of a long posting this time. This basically gives some information regarding the current game I am running in this world. I blame this plot line on the Dooms Imprecation spell.

The Curse of Athynika (The Imprecation of Doom)

Once the realm of Telorthen Ty Taros was larger, once it was an empire. The empire of Taros once covered the land from the northern borders of Pathe to the coast of the Deral Peninsular, modern Acysnae. All that changed.

It was in the later years of the reign of Malathk II of the house of Kelan, now some three centuries ago that the seed was created that would sweep away the empire of Taros. A seed that continued to grow, becoming a dark plant with tendrils throughout the territory of what was once the Taros Empire. Even now this plant continues to produce dark fruit to blight the region.

The origins of the dark tendrils are not hard to discern for those of wit and who have looked into the past of Telorthen Ty Taros. Some parts can still be discerned in tales told in inns. Others lie scattered around the old Taros Empire.

Rough Timeline (Telorthen Ty Taros)
Year   Events
1   Foundation of the city of  Taros Torthen
220   Birth of the Taros Empire
501   Civil war in the Taros Empire, loss of the provinces of Maladon and the north east (modern Nuril Ka)
505   Plague from Pathen sweeps through the former north east provinces of Taros and on into the central regions (modern Telorthen Ty Taros)
520   Former Maladon Provinces of Taros become the kingdom of Maladon
601   Start of 2nd civil war in Telorthen Ty Taros
701   Start of 3rd civil war in Telorthen Ty Taros, also spreads to encompass the ruined north eastern provinces of the former Taros Empire.
758   Birth of Erak Kelan ruler of Telorthen Ty Taros
774   Clerics of the dark trinity (Sharkan, Urmash and Niona) seize control of the kingdom of Maladon killing or driving off much of the old aristocracy.
778   Political exiles from the Morchaniti Empire land on the Deral Peninsular where the locals welcome them as liberators. The exiles found the duchy of Acysynae.
781   The Dark Theocracy of Maladon makes its first attempt to destroy Acsynae using an army of undead and conscripted peasants.
791   Erak Kelan assumes throne of Telorthen Ty Taros
Nuril Ka founded by clans of ship people who passed through the Gorgrin Tuvess. They absorb the remnant populations still living in the area.
794   Civil war in the Theocracy of Maladon erupts. The old Maladon nobility being supported by Acsynae and Telorthen Ty Taros.
800   Current year.
801   Prophesied 4th and final civil war in Telorthen Ty Taros

 
Rulers of Telorthen Ty Taros

Ruler                   Born   Ascended   Died   Notes
Malathk I Kelan   430   461   491   House of Kelan comes to power
Malathk II Kelan   455   491   501   Last Emperor of Taros slain in battle
Veerak Kelan   482   501   501   Only child of Malathk slain in battle
Falkar I Kelan   458   501   501   Eldest Brother of Malathk assassinated
Tesson I Kelan   457   501   509   Youngest Brother of Malathk
Halrak I Kelan   480   509   520   
Kalthan Kelan   500   520   535   
Tesson II Kelan   524   535   585   Regency from 535-543
Erak I Kelan   550   585   599   
Malathk III Kelan   574   599   601   
Helaka Kelan   597   601   602   Eldest son of Malathk III. Killed in battle
Falkar II Kelan   599   602   603   Youngest sone of Malathk III. Killed in battle
Genrak Kelan   578   603   627   Brother of Malathk III
Kelthrak I Kelan   600   627   640   
Halrak II Kelan   627   640   669   Regency from 640-645
Lanathka Kelan   655   669   678   Regency from 669-673
Falkar III Kelan   657   678   696   Brother of Lanathka
Thanathka Kelan   677   696   729   
Erak II Kelan   699   729   734   
Tesson III Kelan   725   734   774   Regency from 734-743, Killed in battle
Halrak III Kelan   747   774   774   Assassinated
Falkar IV Kelan   745   775   776   
Kelthrak II Kelan   747   776   791   Assassinated?
Erak III Kelan   758   791   -   Current Ruler
Erak IV Kelan   780   -   -   Heir

To lift the curse a number of conditions must be met

1.   The remains of lady Athynika must be recovered and properly sanctified so she may enter the realms of the dead. She lies somewhere amidst the ruins on Kaltha Isle where Malathk II imprisoned her.
2.   The remains of emperor Malathk II must be found and the crown removed from his head and destroyed in the First Forge of Siloth. He is not in the Kelan crypt in Taros Torthen. (There are a number of barrows located west of Deslin
3.   The house of Kelan must be removed and replaced with a new house.

Failure will result in continuing problems to all the realms now occupying territory of the old Taros Empire. The prophecy regarding a 4th ?civil? war in the territories of the old Taros empire lead scholars to believe that the region will be destroyed if such a war erupts and lasts for more than a few months.
 
So far my players have managed to fulfill condition 1 and are partway through condition 2 (they are currently searching for the ancient First Forge of Siloth.)

[Skaran]

It really would be nice to get some comments now and again.

[markc]

It really would be nice to get some comments now and again.

 Yes this section of the forums can sometimes get a little slow. But on the other hand at limes it is a flury of activity. One thing that has an impact is that school is started here in the states for some and quite a few are getting ready for school.

[Skaran]

Well I shall continue to persevere and certainly from the view counter a lot of people look here even if most of my posts simply inform of updates.

I could put more content here directly but that may clutter things up. What do people think?

[markc]

 I am a bit tied down right now but by Sunday this week I should ahve some time to take a more closer look. I have a motherbaord problem right now as well as a couple of other hardware issues that I need to find a solution for then I will have some free time to go over it.

MDC

[Skaran]

Ah yes hardware problems, the computer I normally use won't start without crashing first. Not sure if its the motherboard, cpu or memory that's the probem. Though once the fan note drops back to something normal (it sounds like a heavy truck when switched on) the system becomes stable.

[markc]

Ah yes hardware problems, the computer I normally use won't start without crashing first. Not sure if its the motherboard, cpu or memory that's the probem. Though once the fan note drops back to something normal (it sounds like a heavy truck when switched on) the system becomes stable.

 Have you blown the dust out of the computer latly. I have had quite a few computers set on the floor have problems because of dust picked up by the fans. I also had a friend who lost a computer to a fire that started becaues he did not clean the inside of his computer and the dust and cat hair collected on the MB and started the fire.
 IMO it is a bad day when you site down and work on your computer and the smell smoke and look down and see orange flames from inside your computer box.

MDC

[Skaran]

Had worse than that I was sitting next to a computer when its power pack actually exploded. A big bang and a very impressive flame. As for my machine, it is relatively dust free but I am beginning to think that the cpu fan may be the culprit. Does the cpu heat up fast enough that if its fan is lagging a bit it has "unstable" behaviour until the fan reaches cruising speed?

It's times like that that a good old fashioned repair spell would be handy.

[markc]

Had worse than that I was sitting next to a computer when its power pack actually exploded. A big bang and a very impressive flame. As for my machine, it is relatively dust free but I am beginning to think that the cpu fan may be the culprit. Does the cpu heat up fast enough that if its fan is lagging a bit it has "unstable" behaviour until the fan reaches cruising speed?

It's times like that that a good old fashioned repair spell would be handy.

 It can depend on the age of the MB and how you have it set up. You can check in most BIOS and see what the temp of the CPU is or there are some utilitues that can also give you that info. CPU fans can go bad but IMO the fan is lagging to allow the CPU to heat up because it performs better at a specific temp. There are and were a lot of heat problems with CPU's before the first Intel duel core CPU's came out. For ecample my CPU is a 650 90nm I think and I have 7; 60 or 80 mm fans in my case to keep it cool. That CPU line was very prone to over heating and the line was at the end of its cycle. The duel core's had beter heat dispensation and used less power so not as much of a problem and did not need as much power.
 Another problem can be your GPU and how powerfule it is and if you have more than 1 GPU. I have seen some duel Nvidea GPU's run fine and have no heat problems but put that into another computer and it gets the blue screen of death do to the excess heat.

 So the short answer is maybe yes maybe no and depends on the conditions in which th ebox is located and what other componets you have in your machine.

MDC

[Skaran]

Time for the Creation Myth of Karnorthe

In the beginning there was Karno and the Void of Chaos. There was no time, no elements, no life, only Karno and the Void of Chaos.

Since there was no time Karno was instantly aware that there was nothing save Karno and the Void of Chaos.

Since there was no time Karno resolved instantly that this should not be and since there was no time Karno instantly expanded to encompass as much of the Void of Chaos as was possible.

Since there was no time Karno instantly erupted into and through the Void of Chaos mingling with its substance which was not substance.

Almost instantly things changed for at that instant time began.

The beating heart of Karno, the purest part of Karno became the heart of the world Karnorthe, so named to honour the sacrifice of Karno. The rest of Karno, commingled with portions of the Void of Chaos created the elements of the universe, the gods and other life forms which were the first manifestations of the universe.

Some of the newly created elements with portions of the Void of Chaos incorporated into their essence fell upon and surrounded the heart of Karno forming the world. Onto this world and others formed at the start of time fell other essences with varying proportions of Karno and the Void of Chaos. Some became forms of life some became other things but all are made of the mingled portions of Karno and the Void of Chaos.

But great though Karno was the Void of Chaos was not completely consumed and somewhere lies a remaining pure portion of the Void of Chaos as a balance to the pure Heart of Karno.

[Skaran]

Just uploaded the creation myth to
http://karnorthe.skaran.net/knowledge/creation.html

Yes I showed it here first!

Much more to come.

[mibsweden]

I have not had time to read all the information, but i have taken a brief look. The amount of work you have put into the world is impressive.

[Skaran]

Stacks more to come since we game every second weekend on this world. Now I am having to do family trees for the chief nobles of Telorthen Ty Taros since the players are working on removing the current ruling house and need to know who is in line of inheritance.

[Skaran]

Time for another update.
I have posted to the Karnorthe site details of the rulers of Telorthen Ty Taros, Maladon, Nuril Ka and Acsynae as well as correcting a few minor errors and adding a tweak here or there. The rulers details can be found at;

http://karnorthe.skaran.net/people/acsynae/ruler.html
http://karnorthe.skaran.net/people/maladon/ruler.html
http://karnorthe.skaran.net/people/nuril/ruler.html
http://karnorthe.skaran.net/people/torthe/ruler.html

You know just doing these can generate a lot of potential history for your campaigns.

[Skaran]

Given the discussion in another part of the forum on Self Discipline penalties for elves I thought I'd post my game notes (not a complete writeup) of the Halmyri of Karnorthe in case anyone is interested (I could be mistaken). They are based on RM2s High Elves with a dollop of Michael Moorcocks Melniboneans thrown in.

Halmyri

The Halmyri have deteriorated in human tales to bogiemen, things to frighten small children with. If you don?t do your chores the Halmyri will come, carry you off and eat you. If a sudden plague erupts a Halmyri was responsible. If a terrible monster appears a Halmyri has let it lose. What humans have forgotten is that at one time these stories were true. Perhaps luckily for humans for the last thousand years or so no Halmyri has been seen on the continent of Ethryn, were dwell most of the world?s humanity. But the Halmyri are not yet gone and who knows whether they will again notice the masses of humans on Ethryn the largest landmass on the planet.

As for the real Halmyri;

They are bipedal, somewhat taller and more slender than the average human and effectively unaging though not immortal. Halmyri do not die of natural causes. Most Halmyri die as a result of political struggles, something which still interests their leadership. If one believed there would be a political advantage in involving humans or one of the other races on Ethryn in a struggle then the Halmyri would return.

Once great craftsmen and magic users they have gradually falling into ennui (SD penalty to start anything) and have lost much of their older lore. Much of their old craft remains in the form of artefacts and here and there ancient libraries with books few Halmyri can now read.

Their cities on the islands of Kilrayath are ancient and decaying. But people should not think that this race is ?done.? It takes time for a Halmyri to start anything, due in no small part to a belief that they have all the time in the world, once a Halmyri does start something it is carried through to completion with great skill.

The Halmyri deal a lot with various demons (humans would claim that the Halmyri are either demons themselves or descended from them). They also now use their magical skills to ?create? new monstrosities. (They may have been responsible for the creation of ?Minotaurs,? which they delight in showing off to each other (perhaps they need new ?stock? for such a contest?)

Use Race Abilities modifications for High Elves.
The SD penalty is applied as a bonus to Hide and Moving Maneuver type skills. It remains a penalty for Caving and other skills. With one exception. If an SD roll has been successfully made to initiate a goal future SD rolls for this project (GM call) are applied as a bonus until the project is completed.

Preferred occupations;
Arms Users,
Archmages,
Channelling and Mentalism mages (no pure Essence users) such as
Sorcerer (channelling/mentalism variety)
Chaos Lords
Warlock (a channelling version)
Mentalists
Warrior/Mage (channelling version)
Magus (channelling version)

Weapons in use;
?Elven longbow?
Kynac and long Kynac,
Longsword
Longsword/Shortsword two weapon combos.
Spear, pikes

Armour
Chain in common use

[providence13]

I like the 7 herbs and spices of the flavor text. It does have a "sorcerer rooster king of chickenhawk isle"  feel to it.

And taking time to actually explain why so many "monsters" are running around always helps.
"being attacked by a gelatinous cube! what, the wizard couldn't read the directions on a box of Jello?"

Back story always helps and your 30 year campaign (!!) has it in spades. Awesome job!

[Skaran]

Now a brief description of one of the races from the world.

Wyrana
6’ 0” tall; 100-110 lbs;
15’ wingspan
The Wyrana are a tall though slender humanoid race. The Wyrana dwell in high mountain regions in eyries carved into cliff faces and steep slopes. The upper back and shoulders incorporate a wing structure. The wings are made from a tough membranous tissue covered in a velvety fur of a generally golden or light brown shade. The wings fold up when not in use. Skin colour tends to be fair with hair of again a golden or light brown shade though other colours do exist. Eye colour tends to be also of a golden hue though both green and blue eyes are found.

They are a generally long lived race with a natural life span of around 200 to 250 years though most do not die of natural causes, accidents being the most common cause of death. The Wyrana are very clannish each eyrie being the home of a number of related bloodlines. In case of desperate need members of various eyries will meet to try and overcome problems.

The Wyrana care for the elderly and infirm within each eyrie but many Wyrana who lose the ability to fly will often leave the eyrie and either join settlements of the “flightless” or commit suicide. Children who have deformed wings and are unlikely to fly are placed in the settlements of the “flightless” when they are old enough to fend for themselves or are taken in by foster families already dwelling in such settlements.

The Wyrana do practice magic and seem to have a greater aptitude for magic of the realm of mentalism. They are also excellent craftsmen  and their eyries are not rough hewn caves but carved and decorated places of beauty.

[Skaran]

Here are the extended stats and race ability ratings for the Wyrana

Wyrana
[(ktcf)-(@A)-6]
Level: 3C

Movement Statistics
Base Rate: 90  Max Pace: Dash  MN Bonus: +25
Speed (MS/AQ): MF/MD
Size/Crits: M/-
Hits: 50D  AT(DB): 1(35s)
Attacks: 50 Melee/50 Missile/Spells

Encounter Statistics:
Encounter Number: *  Treasure: * 
Bonus EP: C  Outlook/IQ: Varies/AA

Expanded Race Abilities
Stat Bonus Modifications:
ST +5, QU +10, PR +5, IN +0, EM +0, CO +5, AG +10, SD +0, ME +0, RE +0

Resistance Roll Modifications:
Ess -5, Chan -5, Ment -5, Poison +10, Disease +20, Soul Depart 8

Healing, Injury and Misc.:
Stat Det. 0, Recovery X 1.0, Lang 3, Dice Type 1-8, Max Hits 110

Char Generation:
BGOs 3
RLO With BGO 1
RLO Without BGO 3