[Discussion] Groam

[Midgardsormr]

* The Pathmages' Guild employs magic-users who specialize in travel, survival, and communication magics. They are often employed by the Council as mapmakers, surveyors, and demographers.

* There is a race of hillpeople who are short of stature that inhabit the Uzuid Mountains. They may be the remnants of the cave-dwelling aborigines, or they might be related to the Stoutlings who live along the Coriander Coast to the southeast.

[industrygothica]

Torq, what are your plans for the Grey Watch, if any?

Your description says that they are long forgotten and the subject of late-night and tavern talk. I can't help but think that they still exist in some fashion; I keep envisioning them as something similar to the ringwraiths in LOTR: A fearsome enigma thought to live only in the nightmares of children.

Of course this is far cry from what the Grey Watch was originally intended for, but not unheard of considering the atrocities they'd likely have committed in keeping the borders safe.

If you've got other ideas, let me know. Otherwise I'd like to see if I can't take this a bit further if you don't mind.

[Midgardsormr]

I'd prefer to avoid obvious undead in my area, but I have been thinking about the possibility of some dark force that might have somehow dominated the wills of many of the former inhabitants of the plagued lands.

If the grey watch are still living humans, there is the possibility that adventurers who try to enter or move around the area can do so by guile in addition to the usual methods of stealth and arms.

I'm sort of waiting on Kagehito to give me some indication of his intentions with the areas further east, since the epicenter of the plague is probably in either his or Del's areas. Their maps will give us a better idea of what's going on with the Grey Watch.

[industrygothica]

I'd prefer to avoid obvious undead in my area, but I have been thinking about the possibility of some dark force that might have somehow dominated the wills of many of the former inhabitants of the plagued lands.

If the grey watch are still living humans, there is the possibility that adventurers who try to enter or move around the area can do so by guile in addition to the usual methods of stealth and arms.

I'm sort of waiting on Kagehito to give me some indication of his intentions with the areas further east, since the epicenter of the plague is probably in either his or Del's areas. Their maps will give us a better idea of what's going on with the Grey Watch.

Or they could be bound Groam proper, constantly patrolling the border between Groam and East Groam, but never allowed to cross.

That is, of course, assuming there is a definite border between the two. I've always seen them as two separate regions, but that may be just me.

[Torq]

Torq, what are your plans for the Grey Watch, if any?

Your description says that they are long forgotten and the subject of late-night and tavern talk. I can't help but think that they still exist in some fashion; I keep envisioning them as something similar to the ringwraiths in LOTR: A fearsome enigma thought to live only in the nightmares of children.

Of course this is far cry from what the Grey Watch was originally intended for, but not unheard of considering the atrocities they'd likely have committed in keeping the borders safe.

If you've got other ideas, let me know. Otherwise I'd like to see if I can't take this a bit further if you don't mind.

My views on the Grey watch are kind of set out in the Second part of my "brief history" of Groam, in the Map thread for the area. I dont have any ideas set in stone though. They have an ambiguity in my own mind. I'm not sure whether they are hardline soldiers dedicated to saving Groam from what they peceive to be a deadly menace, or scheming opportunists who would make a pact with any diabolical power. Quite happy to let the creative impulse of others decide that question.

Torq

[industrygothica]

My views on the Grey watch are kind of set out in the Second part of my "brief history" of Groam, in the Map thread for the area. I dont have any ideas set in stone though. They have an ambiguity in my own mind. I'm not sure whether they are hardline soldiers dedicated to saving Groam from what they peceive to be a deadly menace, or scheming opportunists who would make a pact with any diabolical power. Quite happy to let the creative impulse of others decide that question.

Torq

To be honest, I was thinking a bit of both. Maybe something like the soldier who continues to fight the war because nobody told him it was over.

[industrygothica]

As I continue this work on Groam, it becomes more necessary to discern whether Groam and East Groam are two separate entities (much like Virginia and West Virginia here in the US), or one region under one government.

[Torq]

I dont want Mid to feel he is being dictated to because of what I'm doing so I'm happy for them to be connected in terms of their peoples but different in terms of government (if any) so that Mid has enough freedom to bring some of his own ideas to bear.

Torq

[industrygothica]

I dont want Mid to feel he is being dictated to because of what I'm doing so I'm happy for them to be connected in terms of their peoples but different in terms of government (if any) so that Mid has enough freedom to bring some of his own ideas to bear.

Torq

That's what I wanted to hear. I'll assume, then, that the purpose of the Grey Watch was to push the plague infested back to the eastern border of the Uplands, and that they didn't much concern themselves with what went on on the other side, other than the occasional scouting expedition.

I should think it'd be a fairly harrowing experience indeed for a lone soldier to go off scouting the plague-infested regions by himself. No telling what dark things he might meet and bring back to the others...