Briar
Scope
The motivation behind building Briar
I really want to try worldbuilding. so far i only used other settings and i really want to creaty my own that i can build on and develop
The goal of the project
The goal here is at least 1 campaign with either a new campaign on a different continent afterwards or a new campaign on the same continent with a different focus.
Briar's Unique Selling point
I"M FUCKING QUIRKY. The goal will be to put my own spin on most races, racial dynamics and try to create a living world
Theme
Genre
The genre will be a political character drama with the clasic dnd combat. The focus will be on the characters, there families, there standing in noble sociity, the development of that socity. Whilst still fighting cool monsters.
Reader Experience
I should feel like a living machine your a part off. A giant churning mass of gears where u can see and understand why all the small gears lead to certain outcomes.
Reader Tone
The tone will be a combination between dark and whimsical. With my stories I tend to lean towards the sad kind and i think an oppressive feeling is to an extend part of the politics noble genre. I also like my stories starting off on a sad/mysterious note, just a preference really. The goal will be to have this interposes with moments of triumph and absolute victory. But i got to work on that and resist my natural tendency of just buff dudes taunting the party.
Also obviously my I̶n̶c̶r̶e̶d̶i̶b̶l̶e̶ terrible jokes are a core part of me and the goal is always to have a gay old time. Although i wil try to limit the humor when it comes to actual important parts of the world. The extend will probably be a couple funny gods and place names that are shitty jokes cause naming things sucks.
Stuff might be kinda whimsical/out there cause i like that sorta worldbuilding
Recurring Themes
The biggest ones will be blood ties (meaning both your literal family and the effects of distant ancestors such as demons) and the meaning of nobility.
The Solstrum principality is a country run on the importance of bloodlines. Both in the sense of magical blood that grants extraordinary powers and in the sense of inherited nobility. I really wanna explore this concept and what it can mean to a person.
The other is nobility. Nobility is mostly seen as a guy who owns shit just cause he was born in a good family and as such is often abused by the undeserving. On the other hand nobility is seen by some as a duty to others. Nobility just means you have been trained your whole life to serve and defend your country to the best of your extraordinary abilities. I wanna explore the differences between these viewpoints and how they manifest.
Character Agency
Semi-limited yet very high at the same time. There will be things you can't do due to the power of the entrenched originations. Starting the campaign with assassinating the king won't be possible since the king is a big boy and will realistically survive your plan and have you executed.
There will also be a lot of assigned missions. Its your task to go here and kill this monster solve this problem etc. The party can always deviate from this. But this will mean a massive campaign shift most likely. If you really don't wanna go to the shit swamp you might be able to talk your way into getting a new mission but most likely a blanket refusal or abonnement of duty will involve fleeing to another country or some other massive change that shifts the campaign. This is always a possibility but its a big jump.
Besides this the goal is to have the party have large narrative impact. At the start this will probably mostly focus on the impact the party has in there individual family. The goal is to have this eventually extend into a real impact on the politics of Solstrum(the country there in).
Focus
Drama
The new emperor of the Solstrum Principality, Eltnam Cordullius, has legalized the worship of Conquest and is restructuring the military. This has made the other countries worry and many believe war is inevitable.
The Impesta Confederacy can't agree on what to do about Emperor Cordullius. This has caused great internal strife between the states. This has led some believe not all of the states will remain independent.
Spoilers: I think its important for expectations to know this information but your characters don't. So don't read it if yah don't want to:
Mythic power is a zero sum game gained only trough death. The total amount of mythic power can never increase nor decrease. And the only way to transfer it is by dying. You can't die and take the power with you. When somebody with mythic powers dies the power will pass on regardless of other factors.
END OF SPOILERS LOL
The goddess Wenna can extend a pact to the desperate to grant there desire and turn them into monsters if they accept with a very low intelligence, these monsters run on instinct alone. These monsters will attack anything in sight and rampage till they succumb to exhaustion and hunger. Typically if one of these monsters appears in a village they will eat all its residents and die of exhaustion and starvation before they can reach any other place. Not having the intelligence to properly hunt or gather food.
This constant treat has reduced many villages to rubble and is one of the main reasons for the general stagnation in Troïka.
The new Emperor Eltnam Cordullius has decided to restructure the military. His vision is to turn nobles into generals besides there normal functions. On the one hand this grands nobles greater command of there soldiers and gives them acces to more troops as well as equipment. On the other hand these nobles are officially generals and part of a strict chain of command. They can order there troops how they want to but they get a superior who's orders they must follow or be court martialed for treason. Using his vested powers as Emperor Cordullius has also been very vocal about his dislike of certain nobles and noble houses before dismanteling them and stripping them of there power altogether.