From the article archive
Tales of the Wolf Folk Sea Part One
Welcome to this, the first in a long running series about a world. We'll be looking at how the world came to be, the people of the world, its sights and sounds, everything one might find useful in running it. The game system it was designed for is Dangerous Journeys. Specifically the Mythus fantasy game. You are welcome to use it, should you wish to do so, with any system you prefer.
The world is being designed using the World Builders Guide by Richard Baker and published by Wizards of the Coast. The book itself is currently out of print, but you might be able to find copies on the net or your local game store. I'm not using it as is, but with a few modifications. Unfortunately, I can't import tables to GO, so those will have to remain off-stage. Instead you will be seeing the results of the die rolling thereon.
Foundation
Every world needs a universe to exist in, some foundation upon which the designer can build. The World Builders Guide gives you a choice. In this case I'm going to exercise my creative perogative and opt for "real physics". Since our world is to be a fantasy world, we can't use "real physics" per se. In this case "real physics" means that the universe is understandable, and that understanding can be taught to others. In addition, it can be tested, and either verified or found false. A lot like the real world. In other words, you can use science here.
At the same time, there are phenomena that don't exist in the real world. Magick for one. The thing is, in this universe magick is understandable. Theories can be formulated concerning the workings of magick, and those theories tested. As knowledge of the workings of magick becomes greater the flaws in the current theory of magick can -and will- become obvious and a new theory of magick will be formulated to take its place.
(Peeking ahead a bit, the highest level of technological devolopment is mid 19th century western Europe/United States, and that's among the elves. Everybody else is stuck in early 18th century Europe or earlier. As a matter of fact, most of the world is at late medieval/early renaissance with pockets of even earlier technology here and there. Back to our regularly scheduled article.)
Magick and similar things aside, the universe is largely similar to our own. It has the same sort of stars and planets, with the same sort of stray items that wander into the ken of sapients on the odd occasion. However, the presence of magick does have effects on the universe as a whole. That we'll deal with in the next section.
Magick and the Universe
The very core of this universe is magick. To be more accurate, the energy that powers magick. Indeed, everything that makes up this universe. Getting ahead of ourselves again, the energy of magick is known as, Heka. Heka being an ancient Egyptian word for magickal energy. Since Mythus uses Heka I've decided to use it too. Other words for magickal energy include, mana, vril, orgone, and baraka. Those are the ones I've heard of, there may be more.
Getting back to the theme of this section. Heka is everywhere. In a sense it is everything. You could say that all other forms of energy are variations on Heka. This includes matter, which is simply a form of energy. In this way our fictional universe is very much like the real one. In effect, what one is doing when one uses magick is converting energy from one type to another through manipulating the very foundation of the universe. (But that's wandering away from the section's theme, so let's head back again.)
Heka, for all intents and purposes, takes the place of the dark energy and dark matter that makes up most of our universe. It is found in association with normal matter and energy, and can "pile up" all by its lonesome. This is how Heka pools and reservoirs can be formed. How a caster can gather the Heka needed for Castings and psychic abilities.
Heka also tends to flow, going from one place to another, from places of high Heka concentration to places of low Heka concentration unless otherwise constrained. As it flows it also tends to form transitory patterns. Sometimes these patterns are not so transitory.
Sometimes these patterns become stable, self sustaining. On rare occasions they become able to replicate themselves. On very rare occasions they become sentient. That is, self aware. A number of these have become highly sapient.
Very often these Heka "creatures" gain power, power of a high sort. The ability to manipulate the universe in a way more mundane creatures would find hard to do themselves. When ordinary beings capable of appreciating what they're dealing with meet these Heka creatures they are apt to call them gods.
The gods like a universe that they can be comfortable in. Much like us, you must admit. So over the æons they have modified our fictional universe so it's more to their liking. And so while many things may resemble their real universe counterparts, there are important differences. Over the course of this series some of those differences should become apparent.
Next Time
We'll be taking a look at the stellar system our world calls home. First we'll look at the gross structure, then have a look at the worlds and moons of the first star. Part two will be much longer than this piece. Part three will be about the worlds and moons of the second star, and part four will cover the worlds and moons of the third. With part five we'll be starting work on the world itself.
Your comments are welcome, post on the GO article forum. Part Two on Wednesday, January 16th, 2002. I hope at an earlier time than this. See you then.
Alan Kellogg
The world is being designed using the World Builders Guide by Richard Baker and published by Wizards of the Coast. The book itself is currently out of print, but you might be able to find copies on the net or your local game store. I'm not using it as is, but with a few modifications. Unfortunately, I can't import tables to GO, so those will have to remain off-stage. Instead you will be seeing the results of the die rolling thereon.
Foundation
Every world needs a universe to exist in, some foundation upon which the designer can build. The World Builders Guide gives you a choice. In this case I'm going to exercise my creative perogative and opt for "real physics". Since our world is to be a fantasy world, we can't use "real physics" per se. In this case "real physics" means that the universe is understandable, and that understanding can be taught to others. In addition, it can be tested, and either verified or found false. A lot like the real world. In other words, you can use science here.
At the same time, there are phenomena that don't exist in the real world. Magick for one. The thing is, in this universe magick is understandable. Theories can be formulated concerning the workings of magick, and those theories tested. As knowledge of the workings of magick becomes greater the flaws in the current theory of magick can -and will- become obvious and a new theory of magick will be formulated to take its place.
(Peeking ahead a bit, the highest level of technological devolopment is mid 19th century western Europe/United States, and that's among the elves. Everybody else is stuck in early 18th century Europe or earlier. As a matter of fact, most of the world is at late medieval/early renaissance with pockets of even earlier technology here and there. Back to our regularly scheduled article.)
Magick and similar things aside, the universe is largely similar to our own. It has the same sort of stars and planets, with the same sort of stray items that wander into the ken of sapients on the odd occasion. However, the presence of magick does have effects on the universe as a whole. That we'll deal with in the next section.
Magick and the Universe
The very core of this universe is magick. To be more accurate, the energy that powers magick. Indeed, everything that makes up this universe. Getting ahead of ourselves again, the energy of magick is known as, Heka. Heka being an ancient Egyptian word for magickal energy. Since Mythus uses Heka I've decided to use it too. Other words for magickal energy include, mana, vril, orgone, and baraka. Those are the ones I've heard of, there may be more.
Getting back to the theme of this section. Heka is everywhere. In a sense it is everything. You could say that all other forms of energy are variations on Heka. This includes matter, which is simply a form of energy. In this way our fictional universe is very much like the real one. In effect, what one is doing when one uses magick is converting energy from one type to another through manipulating the very foundation of the universe. (But that's wandering away from the section's theme, so let's head back again.)
Heka, for all intents and purposes, takes the place of the dark energy and dark matter that makes up most of our universe. It is found in association with normal matter and energy, and can "pile up" all by its lonesome. This is how Heka pools and reservoirs can be formed. How a caster can gather the Heka needed for Castings and psychic abilities.
Heka also tends to flow, going from one place to another, from places of high Heka concentration to places of low Heka concentration unless otherwise constrained. As it flows it also tends to form transitory patterns. Sometimes these patterns are not so transitory.
Sometimes these patterns become stable, self sustaining. On rare occasions they become able to replicate themselves. On very rare occasions they become sentient. That is, self aware. A number of these have become highly sapient.
Very often these Heka "creatures" gain power, power of a high sort. The ability to manipulate the universe in a way more mundane creatures would find hard to do themselves. When ordinary beings capable of appreciating what they're dealing with meet these Heka creatures they are apt to call them gods.
The gods like a universe that they can be comfortable in. Much like us, you must admit. So over the æons they have modified our fictional universe so it's more to their liking. And so while many things may resemble their real universe counterparts, there are important differences. Over the course of this series some of those differences should become apparent.
Next Time
We'll be taking a look at the stellar system our world calls home. First we'll look at the gross structure, then have a look at the worlds and moons of the first star. Part two will be much longer than this piece. Part three will be about the worlds and moons of the second star, and part four will cover the worlds and moons of the third. With part five we'll be starting work on the world itself.
Your comments are welcome, post on the GO article forum. Part Two on Wednesday, January 16th, 2002. I hope at an earlier time than this. See you then.
Alan Kellogg
Recovered from the Gaming Outpost database backup. Original wording is preserved; damaged punctuation and presentation markup have been repaired. Historical links without a local match point to the Internet Archive.