Gran Albionne

GRAN ALBIONNE

Much of the World Is Untamed. Wild regions abound. Kingdoms of various sizes dot the Iandscape, but beyond their borders the wilds crowd in. Wilderness reaches where the spirits of all things are masters and their kin, the Faeries command and the beasts and birds obey. Lost and forgotten castles, Witches and Enchanted forests lie there.

People know the area they live in well. They've heard stories of other places from merchants and travelers, but few know what lies beyond the mountains or in the depths of the great forest unless they've been there themselves.

The World Is Ancient. Empires rise and fall, leaving few places that have not been touched by imperial grandeur or decay. War, time, and natural forces eventually claim the mortal world, leaving it rich with places of adventure and mystery. Ancient civilizations and their knowledge survive in legends, magic artifacts and relics, and their ruins.

Conflict Shapes the World's History. Powerful individuals strive to make their mark on the world, and factions of like-minded individuals can alter the course of history. Factions include religions led by charismatic prophets, kingdoms ruled by lasting dynasties, and shadowy societies that seek to master long-lost magic. The influence of such factions waxes and wanes as they compete with each other for power. Some seek to preserve the world and usher in a golden age. Others strive toward evil ends, seeking to rule the world with an iron fist. Still others seek goals that range from the practical to the esoteric, such as the accumulation of material wealth or the advent of a god. Whatever their goals, these factions inevitably collide, creating conflict that can steer the world's fate.

Magic Is Everywhere. Throughout Gran Albionne the use of magic is an everyday occurrence, as the five races live close to the land. Ancient pacts between the spirits, who are the soul of all things, and the Great Races.

The Elves, Rare-born and highest. Last sons of the first Great Race.

The dwarves, earthborn once-fey of the mountains. Old and wise and close to the spirits of the Earth.

Halflings, the true keepers and masters of civilization. Forbearers of all good culture and society.

The Gnomes, once-fey, merry, mad, masters of peculiar magic and closest to the Faeries with the luck of the spirits.

Man. The Young race. Neither greatest, nor least. Though most diverse in their pacts and bindings of the spirits.

In the lands of Gran Albionne the least of the race of man, children of only five or six summers, can, by the grace of their ancestral pacts with the spirits, evoke the smallest magics, lighting candles, cleaning messes with the wave of a hand, freshening their faces and so on. Blessings of the spirits aid them. But only so long as they follow faithfully the obligations of the ancient oaths. To farm and forest wisely. To hunt and husband animals frugally and with care. And to give offerings to their spirits when they slaughter or sacrifice. Obeyed, the keeping of these promises ensure fortune and prosperity, vouchsafe the balance of their dominion with the right and rule of the spirits in the lands they share, and have led to the rapid advance of mankind over the face of the world.

RELIGION

Spirits inhabit every part of the natural world. Everything has a spirit, from the grandest mountain to the lowliest rock, from the great ocean to a babbling brook, from the sun and moon to a fighter's ancestral sword. All these objects, and the spirits that inhabit them, are sentient, though some are more aware, alert, and intelligent than others. The most powerful spirits might even be considered deities. All are worthy of respect if not veneration.

The Great Races don't typically pay allegiance to one spirit over the others. Instead, they offer prayers and sacrifices to different spirits at different times, as appropriate to the situation. A pious character might make daily prayers and offerings to ancestor spirits and the spirits of the house, regular petitions to important spirits such as the Seven Fortunes of Good Luck, occasional sacrifices of herbs or grain or meat to location spirits such as the spirit of a forest, and sporadic prayers to a host of other spirits as well.

The spirits of Gran Albionne are very tolerant. Most spirits don't care to whom a character also offers sacrifices, as long as they receive the sacrifices and respect they are due. People incorporate new spirits and deities into their prayers without displacing the old ones. Contemplatives and scholars adopt complex philosophical systems and practices without changing their belief in and respect for the spirits they already venerate.

Priests of all races serve the spirits as a whole, and so can choose any domain, representing a favorite spirit for that cleric.

People in Gran Albionne, honor spirits of their own and those of other places when they travel. Individuals pay homage to various spirits, regardless of alignment. A person might propitiate the Sea Spirit before setting out to sail, join a communal feast to celebrate the Crop Spirits of field and pasture at harvest time, and pray to the Forest Kings before going hunting.

Some individuals feel a calling to a particular spirit's service and claim that power as a patron. Particularly devoted individuals become priests by setting up a shrine or helping to staff a holy site. Much more rarely, those who feel such a calling become clerics or paladins invested with the responsibility of granted power.

Shrines and temples serve as community gathering points for religious rites and festivals. Priests at such sites relate stories of the spirits, teach the ethics of their patrons, offer advice and blessings, perform religious rites, and provide training in ways and wisdom their spirits favor. Cities and large towns can host several temples dedicated to individual spirit lords important to the community, while smaller settlements might have a single shrine devoted to any spirits the locals choose to revere.

FORCES AND PHILOSOPHIES

Not all divine powers need to be derived from the spirits. In some situations, true believers hold enough conviction in their ideas about the universe that they gain magical, power from that conviction. Impersonal forces replace the spirits by granting power to mortals attuned to them. Just as druids and rangers can gain their spell ability from the spirits of nature, some clerics devote themselves to ideals rather than to the spirits. Paladins might serve a philosophy of justice and chivalry rather than a specific deity.

Forces and philosophies aren't worshiped; they aren't beings that can hear and respond to prayers or accept sacrifices. Devotion to a philosophy or a force isn't necessarily exclusive of service to one’s pact-owed spirits. A person can be devoted to the philosophy of good and offer worship to various good spirits, or revere the force of nature and also pay homage to the spirits of nature, who might be seen as personal manifestations of an impersonal force. In this world of powerful spirits with demonstrable power, it's unusual for a philosophy to deny the will of the spirits, although a common philosophical belief states that the spirit lords are more like mortals than they would have mortals believe. According to such philosophies, the great spirits aren't truly immortal (just very long-lived).

The power of a philosophy stems from the belief that mortals invest in it. A philosophy that only one person believes in isn't strong enough to bestow magical power on that person.

POWER AND RULE

In the feudal society of Gran Albionne, power and authority are concentrated in towns and cities. Nobles hold authority over the settlements where they live and the surrounding lands. They collect taxes from the populace, which they use for public building projects, to pay the soldiery, and to support a comfortable lifestyle for themselves (although nobles often have considerable hereditary wealth). In exchange, they promise to protect their citizens from threats such as orc marauders, hobgoblin armies, and roving human bandits.

Nobles appoint officers as their agents in villages, to supervise the collection of taxes and serve as judges in disputes and criminal trials. These reeves, sheriffs, or bailiffs are commoners native to the villages they govern, chosen for their positions because they already hold the respect of their fellow citizens.

Within towns and cities, lords share authority and administrative responsibility with lesser nobles (usually their own relatives), and also with representatives of the Guilds, such as traders and artisans. A lord mayor of noble birth is appointed to head the town or city council and to perform the same administrative functions that reeves carry out in villages. The council consists of representatives elected by the middle class. Only foolish nobles ignore the wishes of their councils, since the economic power of the middle class is often more important to the prosperity of a town or city than the hereditary authority of the nobility.

The larger a settlement, the more likely that other individuals or organizations hold significant power there as well. Even in a village, a popular individual-a wise elder or a well-liked farmer-can wield more influence than the appointed reeve, and a wise reeve avoids making an enemy of such a person. In towns and cities, the same power might lie in the hands of a prominent temple, a guild independent of the council, or an individual with magical power.

COMMERCE AND TRADE

Even small villages can provide heroes access to the gear they need to pursue their adventures. Provisions, tents, backpacks, and simple weapons are commonly available. Traveling merchants carry armor, martial weapons, and more specialized gear. Most villages have inns that cater to travelers, where adventurers can find a hot meal and a bed, even if the quality leaves much to be desired.

Villages rely heavily on trade with other settlements, including larger towns and cities. Merchants pass through regularly, selling necessities and luxuries to the vilIagers, and any successful merchant has far-reaching contacts across the region. Traveling merchants pass on gossip and news to the heroes as they conduct their business. Since merchants make their living traversing roads that might be menaced by bandits or wandering monsters, they hire guards to keep their goods safe. They also carry news from town to town, including reports of situations that cry out for the attention of adventurers.

These merchants can't provide the services normally found in a city. For instance, when the characters are in need of a library or a dedicated sage, a trainer who can handle the griffon eggs they've found, or an architect to design their castle, they're better off going to a large city than looking in a village.

FACTIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS

Guilds, Orders, Secret Societies, and Colleges are important forces in the social order of Gran Albionne civilization. Their influence stretches across multiple towns and cities, with a similarly wide-ranging political authority. Organizations can play an important part in the lives of the people and their heroes, becoming their patrons, allies, or enemies just like individuals might. When heroes join these organizations, they become part of something larger than themselves, which gives their exploits and accomplishments a context in the wider world.

Factions and organizations provide ties to key personages and a clear agenda beyond a heroes individual gain. In the same way, villainous organizations create an ongoing sense of menace above and beyond the threat of solitary foes. Adventurers representing different factions might have competing interests or priorities while they pursue the same goals. Adventurer organizations are also a great source of special rewards beyond experience and treasure. Increased standing in an organization has value in and of itself, and might also come with concrete benefits such as access to an organization's information, equipment, magic, and other resources.

In many Kingdoms of Gran Albionne, such as Westphalia and Ruritania, organizations also keep the wheels of progress and governance turning. Orders of Knighthood, such as The Knights of Westphalia and The Knights of Ruritania constantly guard their nations against threat from inside and out. They bolster and support their crowned rulers, expand the goodwill of their sovereign by protecting and helping the people of their lands. Creating goodwill toward Kings and Queens and a sense of pride in one’s kingdom.

The Mercantile Guild of Westphalia, sometimes called The Westphalia Company, sails far and wide across the world, trading for wonders and oddments from far, exotic shores. Mysterious silk, whose secret of making is unknown in Western lands. Rich foreign Samite, cloth of gold, exotic pelts and furs and so many more wondrous goods. Members of the organization travel far and wide and see the most amazing places.

Secret Societies flourish in times of peace such as Westphalia now enjoys. Mystery cults and secretive religious organizations based on a ritual of initiation, in which the initiate is mystically identified with the strange and heretical notion of a ‘god’, or a life-altering philosophy. Mystery cults are intensely personal, concerned with the initiate's relationship with the force or philosophy of the divine.

Sometimes a mystery cult is a type of worship within the Animism of Gran Albionne. It acknowledges the myths and rituals of the spirit lords, but presents its own myths and rites as primary. For instance, a secretive order of monks might immerse themselves in a mystical relationship to a spirit who is broadly worshiped.

A mystery cult emphasizes the history of its patron Spirit or ‘god’, which is symbolically reenacted in its initiation ritual. The foundation myth of a mystery cult is usually simple and often involves a spirit’s myth or a god's rising, or a journey to the underworld and a return. Mystery cults often revere sun and moon spirits and agricultural spirits whose portfolios reflect the cycles of nature.

The Mercenary Companies of many Gran Albionne kingdoms gain renown and fame and glory in battlefields at home and abroad. Their reputation being of the greatest order of importance to individual fighters. The ‘Hessians’ of the Kingdom of Hesse-Kassel are a feared and respected order of disciplined warriors that battle wherever kings pay coin to Mercenary Guilds. The Hessian Mercenary Company is famed for its brave ranger-archers called Jägers, fierce cavaliers called Hussars, and fearless, tough fighters armed with axes, longswords, round-shields, and chain mail.

The Sable Company is comprised of landless knights and squires from throughout the world. They comport themselves with dignity, discipline and a reputation for battle pragmatism and true grit that daunts even knights with its caliber.

Also famed throughout the land are the Varangian Guard, composed of hard-fighting, hard-drinking Vikings. Winning entrance into the unit was no easy task. Initiates have to demonstrate their prowess in battle, and are forced to pay a small fortune in gold as an entrance fee. Still, the gifts showered on the Varangians ensured that its members leave extremely wealthy, and some even go on to achieve positions of immense power. One of the most famous guardsmen was Harald Hardrada, who later claimed a throne.

Genovia – A peaceful Kingdom of long tradition and history, ruled by a benevolent Parliamentary Monarchy headed up by her majesty the queen Grand-mère Clarisse Marie Grimaldi Wreynald. It is a small and coastal nation with amicable relations with all bordering polities. Careful not to

Graustark - During the last century, Graustark's ruler, Prince Ganlook of Graustark, was killed in a war with neighboring Ruthenia. As part of the ensuing peace treaty, Graustark agreed to pay a large indemnity to Ruthenia, to be due, with interest, in fifteen years.

Graustark found itself without the resources to pay the indemnity when it was due, and in desperation, Princess Yetive—Ganlook's daughter and now occupying Graustark's throne—was on the verge of contracting a state marriage to Prince Lorenz of Ruthenia in exchange for more favorable payment terms. But before the marriage could take place, Lorenz was murdered. The princess's true love, whom she had met while travelling appeared to be the murderer. Lorenz's father insisted on the murderer's punishment, but the execution was prevented by the revelation of the true murderer: the villainous Prince Gabriel, ruler of Riechtenburg, who was another of Yetive's suitors. With Lorenz dead and Gabriel imprisoned, Yetive instead married her true love.

During Gabriel's imprisonment, Riechtenburg was ruled by his younger half-brother, Prince Dantan, a popular figure among his own people and a staunch friend of Graustark as well. But after two years, Gabriel escaped from prison and, supported by the Riechtenburg army, returned to the throne. Dantan was forced to go into hiding in disguise in Graustark. For a time it appeared that Graustark might be forced into war with both Riechtenburg and Ruthenia, but this was averted when Gabriel was recaptured. Meanwhile, the disguised Prince Dantan had fallen in love married upon his restoration to the throne of Riechtenburg.

Yetive and her husband were tragically killed in an avalanche, leaving their young son Prince Robin as ruler of Graustark. While still a child, Robin was the target of an assassination plot by anarchists acting under the direction of the exiled Count Marlanx, whose ultimate goal was to establish himself as sole dictator of Graustark. But the assassination attempt was foiled and Marlanx was killed in the ensuing attack on the royal palace.

Graustark was still in financial difficulties by the time Prince Robin reached adulthood. Robin married Bevra, the Crown Princess of Riechtenburg, daughter of Dantan.

Riechtenburg

Duchy of Strackenz

Evallonia

Duchy of Grand Fenwick

Ruthenia

Laurania

Livonia

Servia

Grimmburg