Regional Overview

The Telstara Region of the Valadian Empire is so named because of the port city of Telstara, the largest and most important city within many miles. Situated on the coast of the Mære Ocean, Telstara is an important trade city with many Imports and Exports leaving its docks nearly every hour of every day.

To the north, the great Ellengæst Peaks rise majestically along the city's horizon. Once pocketed with several dwarven strongholds, they were abandoned as the dwarf populations dwindled in the face of their mysterious curse. Now, many people of the Empire have begun to explore the strongholds, seeking out lost treasures and veins of precious metals. Forge's Claim is the first mining town to grow around such a claim, but are more are sure to follow. These mountains are surrounded by the Hebban Highlands, a hilly region left relatively undeveloped in the west. It is here that several tribes of monstrous races call home and occasionally head out to prey on the good peoples of the Empire.


To the east and west, two great forests stretch on for miles, much of which has been unexplored. The woods grow thick and dark the deeper one travels within and rumors of fae, elves, and far worse keep most people out and dissuade the establishment of any towns on the forests' edge. Lone woodsmen or small groups may establish a few camps along their borders, but the last long term settlement attempted to be established was razed to the ground soon after completion by large group of halflings. It was here the people of the region learned that those halflings left abandoned to the woods have banded together and formed some semblance of a community. Many cursed with halfling births now killed their child quickly, but there are still those that cannot bring themselves to such actions and continue to leave their deformed children along the wood's edge, hoping they'll taken in by those that live in the woods. Thus, the halfling bands continue to grow.

Two great rivers, along with their branches, wind their way though much of the grasslands of the region, providing many nutrients as well as irrigation opportunities to the land. This, along with the temperate climate and ample rainfall coming off the ocean, means there is a great amount of agricultural development around the city. Vast farmlands, dotted by occasional farmhouses, water mills, and barns and stables can be seen for miles around the city itself. While the occasional several storm coming off the ocean and being trapped in the region by the mountains may wreck havoc on the farms, the people are hardy and swiftly rebuild and carry on their lives, making the region very prosperous. Telstara is mostly self sustaining and relies on few imports, meaning it prospers from the taxes of the amount of goods coming out of and into the city that they don't need themselves.

The importance of the city as a trade port meant the Empire commissioned a great road, the Telstara Run, to connect Telstara to the rest of the Empire in the north. This two wagon wide, cobble stone paved road is well maintained and patrolled, making it one of the safest and smoothest roads in the Empire. Fort Renault sits in a hilly region of the road, flanked by treacherous, mountainous terrain to the west and a tangled swath of forest to the east making it highly defensible. From here, riders head out along the road to keep it clear of highwaymen, ravenous beasts, and monstrous creatures. It is also the only viable land route into Telstara for trade caravans, giving the soldiers an opportunity to check traders for illegal cargo as well as impose a tax for passing through the fort, much to the chagrin of traders and the joy of Imperial coffers.

The only other places of note in the region is Ashencor and the Tel'ur'Rath. Ashencor a small village situated on the banks of the Nædre River and nestled in a valley between two hills. Generations ago this was a sacred site, a monastic order built a monastery atop one of the hills that has long since been abandoned. The village continues to live on however, offering a good resting point for those traveling the Run, and sitting in the shadow of the old abandoned monastery. The ruins of an ancient fortress, Tel'ur'Rath sits along the southern edge of the Grénian Forest. Much of it has been explored by Imperial scholars, though their are rumors that there are entrances to areas beneath the ruins not yet discovered. The name comes from a bastardization of the elven words for Old Tower, after the scholars noted much of the architectural design is similar to that of the elves. Those elves who have seen the ruins say that, while their are similarities, the actual design and fading decorative work is not truly elven design but something different.

Faiths of Valador: The Three Alignment Gods

The Valadian Empire's official religion is built around three primary deities, higher powers representing Law, Neutrality, and Chaos. It is the only recognized religion in the Empire and as it expands, it looks to abolish or absorb other religions into their own. In terms of other information... well I don't have it yet.

In a show of true cooperative world building, the full look at these gods and the religious practice built around them is actually being left up to some of my players. It shall eventually be turned into an article for our first published work. It's just exciting to see others working on this as well and I just wanted to share that.

Hiatus Brings Inspiration

Well an interesting series of real life events has taken a good hold of my time these last few weeks. In the end, it all lead to very good things and was well worth any distance from the internet world and my projects that came from it (and really, there's some awesome stuff out there that's not the internet... I know, I didn't believe it either).

However, I didn't lose all interest in my Megadungeon, in fact, I came up with a few solid ideas while I was away.

The most important? I've decided to take all the collective work that I've been developing for the MegaDungeon to be run and put it together into .pdfs to share with the world!

Inspired by reading through one of Paizo's Adventure Paths, each release would be broken into two files, the Player's Section and DM's section. The DM's section would mostly contain a particular level or subsection of the Megadungeon as well as any DM only type articles, new monsters, background of villainous organizations, the truth behind an ancient mystery. The Player's section, meanwhile, would stick with things more useful for player's trying to develop their characters, articles about the various religions of the world, a nearby town described in detail, an article about dwarven holidays, etc.

I would like to see them published once every month, though the first one would not see print until after a few levels of the Megadungeon was run through by my players (free playtesting!) and would hopefully stay behind them as we went on. This also gives me time to back log several articles (especially as topics come up in play) so I'm not scrambling to come up with articles and authors last minute.

Hopefully I'll get some of my group in one the writing as they'll be contributing to the world building as I set out to do when I first started. We'll see if I can "force" them to be creative.

World Building 1.4 and 2: Delvers and The World!

The Delver has (finally) joined the rest of the human classes as having full rules written out for him, there is one small tweak in his rule set, we'll see if anyone notices.

More importantly, the Wilderness Area in which the megadungeon is set has been made and posted by yours truly. Not only will you finally see where Ashencor and Telstara are, but also a few other places named as well. These places may never be visited, or the PCs may want to take a trip to one or more of them, at which point they'll be further developed, for now, they're just tantalizing points on a map. Most importantly though, the world itself (or atleast the region occupied mostly by humans) has gotten a name, the lands of Valador! Many thanks to Sean for being the only one to suggest something and winning by default, couldn't do it without you!

World Building 1.3: Delvers and Magic-Users

The final two class descriptions, Delvers and Magic-Users, are finally up and read to be read. Yes, took a bit to finish, but there was some silly holiday that up and got in my way.

With that out of the way, I'll be putting together the rules, weaving in house rules throughout so that everyone has the same set of rulings on the Portal Page in case a dispute comes up. Also, the few house rule ideas I've put out here on the blog (found here and here) are starting to get feedback, once all the players weight in, or it looks like they won't one way or another, we'll see what makes the cut. Meanwhile, I'll fill in the few red world links that are scattered about, with just the small bits of information that is known about them so far.

On the actual MegaDungeon creation side, I'm pleased to say that the first level (in terms of character level's challenge, there are many ways up and down in this MegaDungeon and the simple "each level deep is a higher level of difficulty" doesn't fully apply) is fully mapped and stocked and the ideas of the theme, tie-ins, and basic layout of the next is under way. Also, I'm beginning to put together Ashencor, though the level of detail will be the subject of a forthcoming post, stay tuned!

World Building 1.2: Clerics and Fighters

The fighter and the cleric entries have been added to the Obsidian Portal page. Again, this is just expanded information from my original thoughts on the classes from earlier, but it's hopefully helpful stuff for those playing in the campaign. I've been having fun with the "Why They Adventure" and "Role-Playing Tips" sections, as I try to figure out exactly why said classes do indeed do what they do.

I've also been having fun trying to find pictures that best fit the concept of the characters I have in my head while avoiding and actual standard D&D pics (be them old school pics or ones from newer additions) where ever I can. I hope the slightly different graphical representation of each class (and race as class) helps provide inspiration as well.

Delvers and MUs will get their turn next.

World Building Part 1.1: Races

The Races section for PC choices is complete over at the Portal page, this sheds a little more light on the base descriptions I gave earlier. If you allow me to gloat for a moment, I find the halflings particularly well done, the concept sort of came to me as I was developing the other two demihumans and I just had to run with it. I think its a interesting take on the race and the most radically different from the "Tolkien Standard" that is expected from the classic D&D races.

The Classes will follow suit soon after and I may get the "Player Introduction" down sooner rather then later as it provides the last piece of pre-game world building I need to do before the campaign can begin.

Question: World Bui...Naming

The world needs a name, not the whole planet necessarily, but atleast the region in which the game is taking place.

Forgotten Realms has its Faerun, Dragonlance has Krynn, Dark Sun has Athas, and even Mystara has The Known Realms.

Hmmm, someone give me a name for this place...

World Building Part 1: Character Classes

Since the players will need to pick their classes before play starts (imagine that!) giving a brief description of how each class (and race as class) fits within the world falls upon my shoulders. Not only is it the first bit of world building, but it lays the foundation on how the rest of the world works, as the concepts and tone of the classes reflects the overall concept and tone of the world. Let's take a look:

Clerics: Clerics are divine emissaries, sent to spread the word of their religion and smite undead where ever it may lie. Players creating clerics are free to invent their own gods and religions based around those deities. The gods and religion are very much a part of the world, however, the gods do not take the active role that many do in other fantasy settings. Much like real world religion, gods are not expected to perform miracles or send down angels to protect man. Because of this, not every person (no matter what race) is as religious as they are in other worlds. In fact, the idea that every cleric, no matter what god/religion he belongs to has the same abilities and spells like all the rest have some people speculate that a cleric's power doesn't come from the gods at all, but some far more sinister, dark, and secret power. Clerics are not always welcome in some places and the word of their god may invoke little fear and have little meaning in some civilizations.

Fighters: These guys are pretty classic; trained at various guilds and war colleges, fighters adventure for riches, fame, honor, or most likely a combination of all three. Fighters are the most tolerated of the "adventurer" profession by the common folk, especially when they are hired to save them from some rampaging menace. A fighter's ability with all manner or weapons and armor, combined with a healthy stamina and oft times macho attitude means that sometimes the fighters themselves can be the rampaging menace as they often look down on the common folk.

Magic User: Arcane magic is not nearly as trusted as divine magic is, mostly because of its potent offensive capabilities in comparison to the more benign (and more helpful to the "common folk") form of casting a cleric does. There are no great magic guilds or great wizard towers in the center of cities, instead, magic users are taught in secret, mostly in underground areas or far from civilization. Magic users are ambitious, inquisitive, and not content to live life without asking why. Many religions don't like a magic user's desire to learn the "deeper meaning" to everything and the more zealous man may burn a magic user at the stake lest he can prove that the gods don't exist.

Thieves (Delvers): There are thieves throughout the world, often in urban areas where prey is most plentiful. Many form guilds in order to regulate their "trade" and work together for bigger profit. These thieves are not the ones that are out adventuring however. In this world the "thieves" available as characters are known as delvers and they are the equivalent to a tomb raider like Indiana Jones or Lara Croft. They are the ones investigating old catacombs for ancient scraps of text and hidden treasure or running the goblins out of an old temple to preserve the artwork still left inside. Delvers share an inquisitive nature with magic users and the two often get along in the pursuit of similar hidden knowledge, atleast until both want to possess the same ancient manuscript.

The above are all human classes, of course, and humans are the de facto dominate race on this world. In the area in which the megadungeon is located the vast Valadian Empire holds sway of much of the land, claiming all they can see as belonging to the humans. However there are the race as classes available and each has a slightly different spin then their Tolkien inspired classic counterparts.

Dwarves: The dwarves are a dying race, many of their females are barren and unable to conceive and even among those that can, many children are stillborn. The once vast dwarven clanholds now lay mostly empty as the race dwindles in number. Ever stubborn, if the dwarves cannot pass on their legacy through offspring, they have chosen to do it by deed. Mix Klingon with your standard barbarian fantasy troupe and add a little dash of Warhammer Slayers and you have the dwarves of this world. They look to die gloriously in combat, preferably after saving nations or the entire world from unspeakable evils. Dwarves are well respected in the human communities and would be a welcome part of them, if the dwarves weren't so insistent on moving on to the next area of trouble, always looking for a glorious death.

Elves: Elves are alien and distant in comparison to humans. They are immortal and not born of this world, instead migrating from the land of the fae for reasons unknown to all but them. Humans to them are simply a curiosity, short lived, seemingly impatient, but possessive of fierce emotions that an elf could never replicate. To the humans, elves seem cold, distant, and often times uncaring. An elf can see a plan work itself out in the span of centuries instead of days, and see no issues with sacrificing the lives of short lived creatures (intelligent races included) to further these plans. They are master of both marital combat and arcane skill and are often called the Eldritch Fae. Elves most often adventure out of sheer boredom or while on the hunt for (by human standards are) ancient artifacts lost to time. While tolerated in human lands, both races tend to agree to disagree and not deal with one another if possible. The exception is other adventurers as they can prove useful to a elf's plans. Players wishing to play elves should really try to separate them from just "graceful humans" and play up the alien, detached nature.

Halflings: Halflings are born of human parents and are often seen as a curse laid down upon those that have sinned in some way. Halflings that survive to adulthood are stunted, thin, and often the host or one or more physical deformities, be it odd skin pigmentation, patchy hair on their bodies, a small vestigial tail, misshapen hands, etc. Most halflings are put out into the woods to die of exposure, though some parents take pity on them and raise them. Others have survived in the wilderness and now live on the outskirts of human settlements collecting those halflings left to die by their parents and raising them into adulthood. Halflings can never produce offspring of their own as they're born sterile. Halflings are rarely accepted in human society (outside of entertainers of the "freak show" variety or jesters for nobles) and many look to adventuring as a way to sustain themselves. Adventurers are already often seen as outcasts of society and many are much more accepting of halflings then the common masses.

Those will get cleaned up and transferred to the Portal in due time and provide players with both a first look at the world and hopefully some inspiration for character concepts.

Shared World Building

So what is this Shared World Building I speak of?

Well I'm using my own created world for the Megadungeon, as well I should, in order to avoid mucking up anyone else's canon and just going with what I want to put where.

However, this isn't a campaign setting in the sense that I'm going to have a 300+ page tome with a detailed history of every town down to the dietary habits of each citizen. No, instead, I'm going to build each part of the world as I need it, and then fill in the blanks as they come up. If a player wants to know the tenets of a certain god's faith, I'll tell them on the spot, then take notes about it to use it later. What's the name of the river beyond the hills, well, I'll come up with one when someone asks. It makes for a more liberating experience and is the DM's equivalent of growing a character organically; i.e. coming up with one or two concepts and letting it blossom as the game moves on.

But I did say "Shared" didn't I? What that means is that the players are fully encouraged to build the world right along with me. If someone playing an elf decides that all elves sing battle hymns while in combat, then that's how elves work. As long as there's a fun reason for it and it still "respects the setting" (not trying to be wacky just for the sake of being wacky), then bring it on.

There's a real possibility of creating something far better then any pre-thought out world ever could be.