Reign of Drapetes
This is a work in progress setting for a potential Play-by-Post game using the ORE / Reign ruleset.
Contents
The Pitch
Once, long ago, an inhuman race of slavers came. They collected many of us, and we were forced to work to help turn our world into theirs. For generations we toiled beneath them, slowly replacing our world with theirs, but our spirit was not broken. We protected what we could, remembered what was possible, and learned whatever could be used against them. Finally, the time had come and we set the Plan Of Hope into action. Many died, but many escaped. We became a migratory nation of escaped slaves, hiding from the Slavers and searching for a safe haven that we could call home.
That was a century ago. Just before dying, the last of the First Fled announced we had found our home on a calm and verdant shore.
Our days of running of ended, and our days of building, hiding, and defending have begun.
Aesthetic and setting inspiration
The beginning concept, in a phrase, is "fantasy iron-age Polynesian culture."
The World
The world is broken now. It was once very Earth like, but the slavers brought their alien ecology with them, and spent a good deal of their effort trying to establish it on the world. Maybe it's because the slavers are gone, or maybe it is because the escapees have managed to get to the edge of slaver control, but the place they are in now is mixed: both earth-like and slaver like ecology exists. Sometimes they mix, sometimes they don't.
The Fled find themselves in an awkward position in that neither ecology is 'natural' to them any more. They are still human, and the other-worldly flaura and fauna of are deeply unsettling for humans. On the other hand, humanity has not existed within a "human" environment for generations, making it almost as alien itself. The Fled must achieve some sort of stable arrangement in order to survive.
Magic
Two forms of magic are known to the Fled: Numen (or mana), and sorcery. All living things have some magical power; this is their mana. It can be developed and shaped by one's actions, personality, and one's socialization. Numenous effects tend to amplify other activities.
Sorcery, on the other hand, is the breaking and reworking of the world. It is powerful, overt, and dangerous. Sorcery was learned (and stolen) from the Slavers.
Social Structure
Society is organized around households - extended families and associated lesser families connected together culturally and economically.
Warriors
Due to the history of the Fled, all are expected to have a basic knowledge of combat to help defend the community.
Uncles of All
The Uncles (and Aunts) of All are a special order of people charged with defending and maintaining the knowledge and history of the fled. They are wise-men, sages, and teachers. The vast majority of literate individuals in society are Uncles of All.
The Tethers
Once, Tethers were humans who were selected to act as translators and heralds for to the Slavers, delivering orders to humanity and giving reports in return. Some tethers were mercenary, and others were (or became) quite mad. However, many were doing what they could to defend their communities as best they could. To better serve the Slavers, Tethers were taught sorcery. Over time, Tethers began to accumulate more knowledge of sorcery than the Slavers knew. The Plan of Hope depended largely on Tethers and their sorcery. Tethers are viewed with suspicion by some, but generally they are accepted as having a necessary role in society with very carefully proscribed boundaries.
The Black Leaf Society
In every society there are those who harbor a darkness inside them. The Black Leaf Society is spoken of only as a rumor, always laughed off by the elders as a boogeyman to scare children with, but there are those who say that the Society is more than just idle talk around the cooking fires. And what kind of rumors are there that swirl around them? It is said by some that the Black Leafs wish to bring about the reign of the Slavers again but replace the Slavers with themselves and reign over all of the Fled and unleash their most twisted desires upon the peoples of the boats.
Geography
The First Fled made a daring escape from the Slavers whose "city" was alive and resembled a mass of kelp and algae that occasionally grew a hard shell. They managed to escape and traverse the Wiping Sea, a sorcerous body of water surrounding the Slavers Hold that caused disorientation, madness, and memory loss among humans. They then fled inland and into the wastes. Over the decades, the frequency of Slaver raids decreased, until one day, the Fled found an apparently uninhabited and calm shoreline on the other side of the continent.
(I think that it doesn't make sense that the Fled sailed away from the Slavers for decades I mean that is a lot of water to put between them and where they were held. What about having them stop at an island and then resupply and build more ships and then the Slavers found them and they fled again?)
