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Re: Online D&D Gaming

Now that we are getting underway again, I would like everybody to send me updated HTML exports of their character sheets to update the web site with. Thanks.

Re: Online D&D Gaming

When I try to connect, my server list is empty. I have no idea how to fix this, but I'm pretty sure I can manually enter the ip address, so what's your IP Fyron?

Re: Online D&D Gaming

Thank you, that worked. I'm guessing the central server where the list is stored is down atm.

Re: Online D&D Gaming

Well, at least we got the site updated today. http://dnd.spaceempires.net/

Re: Online D&D Gaming

I have to apologise. I was afraid this would happen. I have to fill everyone in first. As some of you might know I am on medication. This medication makes me sleep... a lot. As a result I slept for practically 12 hours last night. I went to bed at 10pm so I could try to get up at 8am. It succeded partly in that I woke up at 5am http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif. Unprepared to wait for 3 hours I went back to bed sure that since I already woke up I would be awake enough to get up. Unfortunately I went into my induced coma http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif where I was woken up by my clock but was only half awake and unable to move. It is possible I could try to wake up in time by not taking my medication the night before, but on this occasion I had already done that the night before and it is NOT a good idea to do it twice in a row.

Re: Online D&D Gaming

I should have bothered to write all this before but never had time (although I wrote it in my notebook). Anyway as a little treat while I am away (and because I was bored this afternoon http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif) I typed up a brief introduction to Va'Qum (which if you didn't know is the name of my world)

Excerpts from the Human book of Creation and history.

From nothing was creation. Holding its hands together the first god formed the world. Breathing into its hands it created the wind, and from its sweat formed the oceans. Seeing that custodians of its creation were needed it thought and created many lesser gods. To these gods were granted dominion over the world and responsibility to populate the lands and seas. Arbor was the manifestation of nature, the growth of the world. The first, he covered the lands in green plants and animals and filled the seas with creatures. Above the land he placed the birds, gifted with flight. Even Arbor though granted power to his subordinates. He created lesser gods to watch over each of his domains. Ignis, lord of flame, fed the fires of the world. Next came Tor, unyielding master of the earth, gaining command of the land. Aqa , lord of the watery depths and all that flowed, and finally Aeris, the unseen, who was formed from the breaths of animals and whom lifted the birds in the sky. Their first act was to join and create in the sky the sun. Formed from flame, it was also solid and existed in the sky. Its warmth flowed from the sky to shine on the animals. However soon its heat burned the land and sea and so its flame was extinguished, however nature could not exist without its light, so it was decreed that for half the time it would shine, and this was called day, and for half the time, called night, its flame would dim barely holding back the dark. From this decision was formed two new deities, the luminous and the umber, each responsible for the light and the dark in turn.

From almost the beginning existed the mortal creations, plants, animals, birds and fish. Created by the gods they formed nature, and left, to their own, they lived and died, in harmony, no part overcoming another. However by this time lesser gods were created and wishing to emulate their masters they created their own creatures. Tall Karelas took the trees of his master from the eternal forests and carving them he created the Elves. Tall and slim they blended into that from which they were created, the trees, and dwelt there. Karelas looked on his creations with pride, thus creating their downfall for basking in their creators light the Elves could not help but consider them the greatest in creation. The god, Garthus, looked at what his friend had created and felt envy. He existed before Karelas and so surely was greater. Taking the hidden animals, he formed his creation, the Orcs, and within them placed his envy and anger, from that time the Orcs looked upon the Elves and swore eternal hatred. There were others. The other gods created their own races. Dwarves were formed from the deep stone. Hard as stone they kept to themselves and hid in the depths, out of the light, hoarding the treasure they mined. The god, Huhm, took the creatures under his rule and formed from them the race of men. Not suited for the deep forests, or the dark places, or the mountains, they spread out from their lands and filled those places left. The Elves looked down on the men of Huhm, and watched as they cut down trees making more space as they grew and grew, for only the Orcs could rival mans ability to grow. After this came the other races, Ursine, Aroonin, and others.

Great Empires were built. In the depths the Dwarves descended, finding greater and greater treasure, but keeping the most to themselves, only occasionally coming out into the light to trade with others. Elves secure within their forests developed greater magic and using their power built great cities that soared into the air. Mankind built their own empires but fighting amongst themselves caused them to fall and rise and fall again. One Empire of note grew so great its people began to rival the gods, but they took their greatness too far and delved into realms not suited for man. They fell to their own greed and in the process released horrors onto the world.

In time the Orcs grew great. Taking what they wanted by force they became a great Empire. Man and the other races, save Elves, were not prepared and became slaves, but eventually the elves secure in their woodland homes and defended by mighty powers equal to the Orcs brute strength took note and decided to bring down the Orcs, not for the sake of the other races but to guarantee their own survival. They struck at the Orcs, beginning a war that would last for an eon. Heedless of the other races, they unleashed great power striking down masters and servants alike. The Dwarves by their own fought the Orcs and their servants in the earth, but did not ascend to join the Elves. The power of the Elves was great, but the Orcs were seemingly without number and had hordes of lesser beings to carry out their will.
In time however the last remnants of both Empires met to end their struggle. Led by their gods they fought, and near the end Karelas and Garthus, once friends but now sworn enemies, fought. Until this time the Gods themselves could walk the world, but as the two foes fought their unleashed power would scorch the earth striking down friends and foes alike. Never again would the first god allow such power to be unleashed on the world. For many days and night the two gods fought, until Garthus cleft Karelas with his axe. With Karelas brought to his knees, Garthus stood triumphant finally realising his wish to be superior. The Elven hosts rebounded in shock to see their god brought down and the Orc hoards shouted their victory. But as Garthus held back his final blow, basking in his victory, Karelas used the last of his strength to pierce his opponent with his spear. The Orcs, on the edge of victory, were now the ones to reel in defeat. Emboldened by their gods sacrifice; the Elves struck back, all but annihilating their foes. From that day the Orcs would never again rule. They were removed from the world and their legacy passed on to their servants, the goblins, though some rumours hint that the Dwarves still fight them in the depths, although of this the Dwarves speak little.

Freed from servitude the other races again built their lands. The Elves though, left bitter by their loss, looked down with increasing arrogance at the other races. They had paid the supreme sacrifice to free the lesser races and now year by year the humans cut down more trees and moved into the forests, growing more and more by the decade. Eventually the Elves decided that only they were suited to guide the other races. For a hundred years they worked their way into power, many generations to humans, but less than a short lifetime to the Elves. Then there came the day that the humans awoke to find themselves in thrall to the Elves. For three hundred years they laboured under Elven domination, unable to fight the Elves magic.

There came the day though that a man would rise from the masses to lead his people from Elven mastery. His name was Rad, and with his band of companions and with the help of a resistance movement he created he led mankind against the Elves. Rad himself slew the Elven king and the rest of the Elves retreated into their deep forests. There they would take refuge planning their retribution. Meanwhile Rad was declared the Emperor and his companions were named the dukes of the various provinces created from the new human lands. Rad would eventually ascend to godhood, by the prayers of his followers he would become defender of the Empire he created.

The time is now 200 years later.

Re: Online D&D Gaming

Looks good. I don't suppose you could go into a bit more detail about the whole pantheon so I can choose one for my character to worship? As it is his character sheet says "None", and that's just not right for someone with the Vow of Poverty and several other exalted feats. While I could go with the same explanation that allows clerics to follow "the cause of goodness" or some such instead of a god, I never have liked that option very much. The list garnered from your post consists of a god of nature; four gods of the elements; and four gods of specific races, two of which are dead, and the other two are both human, and one of them is local. None of those really fit my character - he's not the type to worship the god of a particular race, I don't envision him as a pyromaniac or the equivalent for other elements, and while he respects nature I wouldn't put it past him to torch a whole forest if he had a really good reason for it - though something on that scale would be a last resort and require a really good reason.

Re: Online D&D Gaming

I'll try to work on it tomorrow. At the moment I'm getting an eye ache. I was thinking some sort of God of Knowledge. Your character come from the south where Psionic masters meditate in their towers and worship the god of the mind. At least that's what I had in mind (excuse the pun). I can also include details of your origin. I got the exp psionics book and can now understand more what sort of character you have.

Re: Online D&D Gaming

Hmm, that might work for the general background he comes from, but I'd think Shaorin is considered something of a rebel by the dominant organization, a worshiper of a competing god or possibly a minority sect of the same religion. The dominant religion or sect promotes the pursuit of knowledge for it's own sake, or for the enrichment of the researcher, while the minority hold that they have a responsibility to use their knowledge and the power that comes from it for the greater good of all. Shaorin would be one of a few that take this to an extreme of self denial, constantly wandering as dirt-poor vagabonds doing good deeds whenever they see the opportunity. This sect or religion would feature a much larger portion of adventurers than the general population and has little central organization. Hmm, now that I'm thinking about it, maybe I should try to come up with a prestige class for these extremist psionic do-gooders http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif. Also, there's no reason to restrict a God of Knowledge to lands where psionics are relatively common; I'd think such a god would be one of the more common patrons of wizards as well, and of course there are all those scholarly priests. Perhaps Bishop Artor Sinn follows him http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif?

Re: Online D&D Gaming

hmm. I did have something in mind, but what you are thinking is more elaborate. Here is some more background, as I may be too busy tomorrow to do anything.

The Zethamn chronicles.

In ages past a vast human empire existed. Fuelled by magic, the Council of mages strictly controlled all magical powers in their realm. However they soon came to learn that another power was growing. Year by year more and more people began to manifest magic like powers. These powers however, instead of feeding from the magic in nature, manifested through the power of their minds. The Mages, unwilling to have within their empire mystical power they could not control began a program to round up and deal with these �Psionic� individuals. Having no teachings to guide their new powers a select few were guided south across the great wastes. They were led by a prophet who taught them the worship of a new deity. Zethamn, the Shining Hand. This deity granted divine powers to his followers but also guided those individuals gifted with Psionic powers. The refugees crossed the wastes and were guided to a new land. Within this new land they established a kingdom fighting off many beasts and monsters. Over the eons the kingdom, united in their worship of Zethamn, grew. Most of the descendants of these refugees are little different from normal humans and occupy themselves much as other humans do, but the Church of Zethamn also keeps watch on the populace. Those children seen to harbour Psionic powers are taken from their families and educated to develop their abilities. Most of the Psionic masters pursue knowledge and study for it�s own sake, but a new minority have started to question this neutral attitude and advocate using their gifts and knowledge to help the common people.

I think the god itself could be based on Zuoken from the exp psionics book. The way I see it is as an Arabic/Indian setting.

Re: Online D&D Gaming

So was this the week that Randall is going to be away, or is that next? I forget.

Re: Online D&D Gaming

I guess it's this one??...