Setting

Page history last edited by Xenix 2 years, 8 months ago

The setting has been described as "Steampunk-esque", although this is a broad generalization, at best. At worst, it is actively misleading. It will suffice for a good starting point, though. Litanaea is as much "steampunk", "victorian", or "fantasy" as McCaffery's Dragonriders of Pern and Saberhagen's Book of Swords series are "science fiction". They bear little resemblance works by David Weber or Robert Heinlein, but at their core they are still books about science and what it might do. At its core, Litanaea is a story about the godtouched, their world, and how they interact with it, specifically in a setting where instant communication and continent-leaping powers are downright amazing, let alone being able to control fire or command obedience from the dead themselves. I will adapt the setting as necessary to accommodate what I and my players want to do with it, and if this involves a little bit of hand-waving or creative anachronism, then that's what it involves. If you really must apply hard and fast labels to things, then call the setting "litanaean" and we'll figure out exactly what that is as we go.
Fun-size: Litanaea is a small world; numbers haven't been finalized, but they're not going to have a total population over 200 million. Their 'great empire' isn't even twice the size of the modern UK! You can get from one end of the known world to the other in perhaps a couple of months. It's tiny. While they can and do have (honestly remarble) internal variation, the size issue is going to mean that things tend to happen there in a faster, more unified way, just because there's less land to conqour, fewer people to convert, etc.
Technology
Fashion
Climate: Ranges from sub-tropical in northern Sarantica to downright frigid in southern Thevia. Everywhere is livable, but some places will be cooler or warmer than others.
Education: Better than you'd expect. One religious order is devoted to the spread of knowledge. They serve as teachers to both the rich (very well-read scholars retained as private tutors) and the poor (itinerant teachers for several hamlets and the like). Your average peasant can figure, read, and write at a grade school level, at the very least. Moderate physics or even basic scientific principle might be beyond them (depending on the area), but they can read road signs, count their change, and write a letter to their grandmother in the next hamlet over. Their education also depends on what their teacher knew, as each can only teach from what they, themselves, know.
Gender Equality: Mostly schleped off to individual nation's notes. However, as a general rule of thumb, the higher up you are in society, the more stringently enforced a lot of rules are - sure, Miln preaches gender segregation, and escorts, etc, but if you're a factory worker who barely makes enough to pay the rent and keep his family fed, you're not going to have the choice to winge too badly when you find Old Briown's daughter manning the store for her gout striken papa.
Religion: While many nations have given birth to various religions, the most organized and wide-spread one would have to be the Children of Iomei. They're not bad sorts, given how they regularly help the poor, shelter the homeless, feed the hungry, nurse the sick, and generally promote a good life for all mankind. They just equate 'godtouched' with 'demon' or maybe 'uncontrollable firestorm'. Most of Litanaea's religions, like any successful religion, generally improve the lives of their people. Some are better than others and who is 'right' is entirely a matter of belief and opinion. aka: If you try to play a 'religion is horrible and horrible and evil' character...well, okay, you can, but most people are going to (a) think you're an idiot and (b) probably ask pointed questions about who, exactly, provided your hometown with education, medicine, emotional solace in hard times, family counseling, etc.
Hygiene: While your mileage may vary, your average individual is aware of the important of hygiene and proper bathing. Public baths have been popular in Afrene for the common folk for centuries, and the Milanese middle and upper classes have blatantly stolen this tradition (although their baths are more, shall we say, 'exclusive'). Not washing for a day or two won't get you looked at too oddly if you live away from the coast or have a long, tiring job, but going more than a week in most places will certainly start people talking.
Languages: Assume that each nation possesses at least one language, with several dialects for larger nations. Also assume that the language of a given country is its adjective (So, people in Miln speak Milanese, etc.) and that your character can likely understand at least one language other than their birth language. If you're looking for a Litanaea-wide understood language... Thevan works for most nations. Think of it like english in the modern world. It's not that it's a better language.. it's just invasive.
Native Creatures: While 98% of all creatures in Litanaea are naturally occurring, this is a world where veritable demigods have been wandering the land for millennia. Expect the occasional oddity, such as Süminthur's coastal wyverns and rumors of Afrennen steeds that are distinctly un-horse-like.