LetsBuild5e:Questions
Currently voting
History and Mythology
What legendary artefacts are believed to exist?
1: The Bronze Arms of Kuhetzib
2: The Seat of Power
3: The Ark of the Dwarf-Maps
4: The Halfling Cornucopia
5: The Elven Compass
6: The Tome of Enkram
7: The Sacred Treasure of the Dragonborn
8: The Bardic Conch of Heroes
9: The Girdle of the Trickster
10: The Chalice of the Healer
11: The First Law
12: The First Lie
13: The First Tomb
14: The First Wine (or a recipe for it)
15: The First Song
16: The First Book
17: The First Treasure
Geography
What is the state of seafaring and maritime trade?
1: There is only riverine and coastal traffic. No-one even crosses the Inner Sea directly without some urgent purpose.
2: The elves and the wayehi-speakers have limited high seas capacity; lands further around the Inner Sea are known primarily from seafaring.
3: All coastal nations have some high seas capacity; a number of other lands, separate from the main continent, are known and visited.
4: Most of this side of the world is known, mapped, and visited by seafarers. Only the dreaded waters towards the edge of the world are shunned.
5: As 4, but the elves also have a credible, if untested, plan to cross the edge.
Politics and Society
Who, in theory, is the ruler of the orc kingdom of Brugo?
1: A descendant of the pre-imperial lords of Brugo.
2: Someone who claims to be descended from Kuhetzib the Conqueror, but is not believed outside Brugo.
3: A descendant of one of Kuhetzib's generals.
4: A member of a family that has risen to prominence more recently.
And in practice, who runs Brugo?
1: The monarch, an adult orc.
2: A single regent, in the name of an infant ruler.
3: A regency council, in the name of an infant ruler.
4: A royal steward, as the actual heir has been missing for a long time.
5: A chancellor, consort, or other senior court member, for a ruler who takes no interest in matters of state.
6: The court wizard, the senior local representative of a rival mage guild to the one which was overthrown in Gartihann, who manipulates the monarch.
7: Autonomous tribal chiefs run their own tribes with varying degrees of settlement or wildness; the High Monarch is essentially a figurehead.
8: No-one much is in charge; individual clans mind their own business, and the title of monarch has all but withered away since the empire fell.
Miscellaneous
What is the status of the undead in Axalvo?
1: Despite legends, undead are very rare in practice.
2: Mindless undead are seen as tragic; free-willed undead are scarce.
3: Mindless undead are seen as equivalent to vermin; free-willed undead are seen as tragic.
4: Mindless undead are seen as potential foot-soldiers for fiends and the like; free-willed undead exert secret political power.
5: Small enclaves of undead mark battlefields and mass graves; such places are shunned as major hazards.
6: Undead are generally rare; the appearance of large numbers of them is taken as a bad omen, provoking fears of a new flip.
7: Undead are seen as divine punishment, with mindless undead being punishment on the living for failure to perform religious duties, and free-willed undead as being punished for their own misdeeds in life.
8: Undead are rare except in legendary cursed locations, with specific tales explaining their presence.
Open for discussion
History and Mythology
What is the role of priests during worship?
1: They impersonate the gods
2: They represent the worshippers
3: They act as bridges between the mortal world and the divine
4: The lead the worshippers to encounter the divine personally
5: They act as mere servants, manipulating sacred objects on behalf of the worshippers
Geography
What is the scale of the continent?
1: The plateau of Axalvo is a small part of a vast Afro-Eurasia-like landmass spanning the whole light side of the world; the Inner Sea is properly landlocked.
2: The plateau is part of a huge, Eurasia-sized landmass dominating the light side; the Inner Sea is above mean sea level and drains to the ocean by a navigable river.
3: The plateau is part of a substantial, Africa-sized landmass which might be the largest on this side, or one of two of similar size; the Inner Sea is linked to the ocean by a series of narrow straits.
4: The plateau is part of a South-America-sized landmass which probably has at least one peer on this side; the Inner Sea is linked to the ocean by a single narrow strait.
5: The plateau is part of a Europe-sized landmass which is probably not the largest on this side; the Inner Sea has a fairly wide opening to the ocean.
6: The plateau, the Steppe and Taiga, the Desert of Sphinxes, the Basin Province, and the land of the Wayehi-speakers constitute pretty much the whole continent; the Inner Sea's outer edge is flanked only by narrow peninsulas.
Politics and Society
Do Gartihann and Brugo have neighbouring states immediately to the east, or is there a wilderness?
1: Two or three nations of similar size lie right beyond the hills.
2: A small and fragile state borders the part of Gartihann beyond the hills; the rest is wilderness.
3: There's a day's ride of wilderness before the next settled land is reached.
4: There are no nations there, but there are some settled 'free people'.
5: There are no nations as such, but there are settled lands controlled by monasteries and other individual holdings.
Miscellaneous
What's under Vikreng?
(Several of these might be true.)
1: The water-table is close to the surface; since the aqueduct has been out of order, sinking new wells has been easy.
2: There's a badly-maintained sewer system dating from the imperial era.
3: There are overfilled catacombs, where the dead were buried before the cemetery opened during the magocracy.
4: There are vaults, dug by the mages for some unspecified emergency and never used.
5: There's a handful of secret passages linking specific buildings, mostly dating from the late imperial era.