Show me the Setting! (Part One)

Hello again. It is October 7, 2010, and it’s time for more of my witless rambling!

In my last blog post, I articulated my belief that an internally-consistent and well-developed game setting is playable, no matter the system. Now, again I would like to point out that a good system makes playability much easier. But, there is more to a game than just the rules.

Show me the setting! I can take it from there.

How am I going to make this point? Well, by doing what I love: WORLDBUILDING!

For my personal setting, The Fourteen Worlds of Ta’ar, I created a random generator to help me along. Pulling that up, I click on “Generate” and end up with the following:

This culture is on the ocean. It is a Human dominated society living on the surface in a floating city made by merpeople, with a noticeable minority of Ogres in the population. It has a sophisticated iron-age level of technology and a sophisticated understanding of magic. It is a very large sized culture organized along small family/clan lines traced matrilineally, and is controlled by a malevolent queen.

This culture has a reputation for being the home of a retired military leader of great skill with many skilled miners as followers supporting the local military, for having access to good farmlands, for the diversity of their economy, and for their important trade links with other cultures, but is also known for rumors of the dark rituals involving Charms their leaders practice, for their knowledge of some unspeakable and blasphemous theological matters of Learning mortals should not practice, and for the shocking poverty of the cultures lowest classes and for the abusive way their society treats clerics.

It is a polytheistic society, worshiping a caring female deity of Trade, a sad female deity of the Sea, a silent male deity of the Home, a forgiving male deity of Dreams and a neutral female deity of Murder. The members of this culture are fairly devoted to their beliefs.

Its military force is large for the size of its culture, is well trained in most aspects of combat and is fairly well equipped. It has an abundant amount of shields and a small number of magically enchanted engineers. This military force is widely seen as being a superior fighting force by the society. The military is mostly apathetic regarding politics. It does have some minor disloyal elements within it.

Ok, we have a sophisticated culture, living in a floating city on the ocean. At first glance, it has a human dominant population, with a high level of technology and magic. Matriarchy, lead by a “Malevolent Queen.” Now, I created my little generator to create both positive and negative ‘traits’ for the culture, but I don’t think these people are going to be very nice. In this context, words like “very large” and “sophisticated” should be taken into account in context with the region/setting/world the culture is set in as a whole. One region’s “very large” culture might be another regions backwater village!

Now, what I look for is an “in.” Something that grabs me and enables me to “see” or otherwise get a good grasp on the society. Lets look at the second paragraph again:

Hmmm… they are a agricultural and economic powerhouse, with the strong trade links that would imply. This may be a center of trade in this area, and are thus most likely a net exporter (deliberately or otherwise) of their cultural biases and normative point-of-view to other cultures in the region. Beyond that, the ‘positive’ aspects of this culture are fairly standard ‘vanilla’ fantasy, if you look past the whole “living on a floating city in the middle of the ocean” thing.

The ‘negative’ aspects are a bit more interesting, but I’m not really ‘seeing’ them yet. Their leaders practice dark rituals involving Charms (in this context, a “Charm” is a type of magic that makes non-permanent changes, for good or bad; in their target). The “blasphemous theological matters of Learning” thing seems odd. It’s a theological, rather than philosophical cultural practice, which may seem a very fine hair to split for some people. But, what people think and what people believe in often have little to do with each other, and can express itself in all sorts of interesting internal sociological aberrations.  However, I'll come back to this point later, because I'm not seeing it at the moment.  

Let's move on.  Hmmm... "shocking poverty in the lower classes" in a trading center?  Well, that implies a seriously non-equitable distribution of wealth and/or power in this society, as well as the very strong possibility of an "officially stratified" division between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ in society. Perhaps this can work with the line in the first paragraph: “organized along small family/clan lines traced matrilineally, and is controlled by a malevolent queen.” Obviously, we have some illusion of a ‘nobility,’ with women in charge of small ‘households.’ Certain “merchant-houses” rule as gender-restricted plutocrats (Plutocratrix? Heh, that’s just too funny not to use!). With a small percentage of Ogres in the society, perhaps this is a “minority rule” situation, where the statistically dominant element in the population is Human and the “elite” elements of society are the minority Ogre oligarchy based on wealth from trade? Hmmm… that’s interesting. I like it! The number of non-tyrannical Oligarchies in “real world” Earth history have been so rare as to the point of being almost legendary, it really wouldn’t be too hard to conceive of Ogres assuming a dominant and exploitative role in a fictional society.

Well, that tells me a little about the ruling class, but I’m not yet really getting a good ‘view’ of this society yet. Lets look at the next paragraph:

It is a polytheistic society, worshiping a caring female deity of Trade, a sad female deity of the Sea, a silent male deity of the Home, a forgiving male deity of Dreams and a neutral female deity of Murder. The members of this culture are fairly devoted to their beliefs.

Okay, they are polytheistic, worshipping multiple deities, with a reasonable level of devotion to those beliefs. Now, the primary reason I include religion in the generator is to see who the culture has felt the need to pray to and find a place in their hearts to revere. As well as being helpful for PC’s playing clerics, it gives another potential “in” for understanding the culture. For example: A violent Orc nation probably will not worship a Virgin Goddess of Puppies! Although that would be really interesting, it doesn’t really fit the “cultural psychology” of most sane civilizations.  This only charts out the 'dominant' deity or deities in the culture, leaving the door open for the possibility of an entire pantheon of 'lesser' deities if it becomes necessary/interesting.

Well, they worship a “Caring Female Deity of Trade.” No big surprise there. Matriarchy, Trade Center, Plutocratic. Not to hard to determine she is one of the dominant Deities of our little as-yet-unnamed culture! The next is a “Sad Female Deity of the Sea.” Well, it is a floating city made by Merpeople, so sea power is obviously going to be in the forefront of most people’s thinking. But, why is she sad?

Hmmm… perhaps the people once were the Merpeople who built the city? Damned for the Sin of Pride, the ancestors of the City-That-Floats were forever cast out from the Mother-Ocean and condemned to breathe the dry air above it’s shimmering surface for the rest of their lives. Those who were most monstrous at heart (in other words, the leaders) were judged by the Mother-Ocean more harshly than most during the Time-Of-Judgment, and made into Ogres. Everyone else in society were turned into “normal” Humans. Now, after many generations, the Mother-Ocean is still worshipped. She is, after all, their holy mother.  The people of the City-That-Floats and their inhuman leaders have long-ago given in to their dark urges and the monstrous appetites it implies, and in doing so have found a wicked delight in this new form their Mother-Ocean has ‘blessed’ them with.

The Goddess of the Mother-Ocean, in short, is sad because her plan to punish her wayward children and teach them a lesson has completely failed. The Mother-Ocean (the goddess, not the actual large body of water) is a perfect archtype of the kind and loving parent who has finally learned she has given birth to children of unrepentant wickedness that she is now totally powerless to stop.

Next up on the Deity parade is a “Silent Male Deity of the Home” and a “Forgiving Male Deity of Dreams.” Well, that sort of fits. As a culture descended from an exiled population, these two deities (brothers, perhaps?) would represent a cultural yearning for the security of the past (with “home” being a metaphor for that safety) and the hope for the future (with “dreams” the obvious metaphor for an idealized utopian vision of that future).

But, wouldn’t that contradict the previous paragraph? Not necessarily. Already, we’ve indicated a divide between the Human-populated lower social classes and the Ogre elite in this society. Perhaps the oppressed Human majority keeps this secret hope of eventual redemption and forgiveness alive in spite of, rather than with the support of, their Ogrish overlords? That would also explain why these two Deities are male in a female-dominated society. The obvious “empower those who are disenfranchised” metaphor, combined with a promise of future forgiveness should be a center point of this particular bit of theology. Perhaps even wrapped up in some form of messianic belief of their comming savior? Yeah, you don’t see that often in many fantasy RPG’s.

Since the men are probably the ones doing the manual labor on behalf of the women in this culture (even amongst the Human lower-classes), a message of redemption and forgiveness brought by the Twin Brothers, Sons of the Mother-Ocean may be the only thing that keeps hope alive amongst the opressed. The Twin Brothers promise the coming of the King-Of-The-Waves someday, who is destined to bring a peaceful balance on land and in the sea with the Mother-Ocean. The second paragraph indicates a “shocking poverty of the cultures lowest classes and for the abusive way their society treats clerics.” This would fit in well here, as the secretive priests preaching the coming of the King-Of-The-Waves amongst the oppressed masses of Humanity, a fact obviously opposed strenuously by the Ogrish elite and the Queen Plutocratrix.

Finally, we have our last important Deity, a “Neutral Female Deity of Murder.” Well, this would be another reason clerics are treated abusively! After the Time-Of-Judgment, the Ogrish elite found for themselves a new, darker deity that appealed to their cruel appetites. The Bride-Of-Knives is not “openly” worshipped or even acknowledged in the City-That-Floats. But, even the lowest of the low in the City-That-Floats knows “a friend of a friend” who can whisper words of revenge into the ears of women in dark robes and sharp knives. For a price too horrible to contemplate for any but the desperate and the obsessed, vengeance can be obtained.  Dark Goddess, mix in some assassin and the implication of organized crime for flavoring, and mix until smooth.  Add Salt, Pepper, and Vodka to taste!

Now THAT gives me something to work with! I have a good ‘view’ of this culture, which I will continue describing on my next blog entry.

Caerwyn