Albana - WIP

[AslanC]

Tonight something magical happened at my gaming table.

We sat down to start a new AD&D 2e campaign, with plans to play in the world of Hârn and all my players seemed less than enthusiastic. When we started discussing it, we all agreed that Hârn is an AMAZING setting, but it's level of detail, realism, alongside fantasy just was too dense for us. Too much information. We all had read, me more than then, bunched of documents and realized it just wasn't for us.

So we decided as a group to build our own setting for the campaign. Normally I make the setting, they play, but tonight we made the setting and came together in a way that just blew me away.

We used random roles, random name generators, and then edited to get there.

We all agreed that we wanted an island, I suggested instead of mimicking the British Isles, we look at Japan. That led to us deciding to have a right-justified map instead of the bog-standard left-justified one.

Then the story unfolded and here is what we came up with. Note that the map is a BIG TIME WIP and I will try to develop it here with you all. The greyblue lines on the map represent mountain ranges btw.

Nations of Albana

• Athait (a-th-ate) – Former power player. Last king died heirless 300 years ago. Infighting for succession
reduced them to near savages. Warlords, wilds, danger.

• Brucca (brew-ka) – Infernalists. Devil worshipers. Monsters and demons roam loose. Giant volcano in
the middle.

• Davon (dav-on) – Most chivalric. Landlocked. Good king but no heirs make many think of Athait and
its' fate.

• Drale (d-rail) – Former Efrana homelands. Invaded by giantkin from the Aegos. Strong warrior culture.

• Ecthalien (ek-thall-ee-ann) – Pagan holdout, rejects the Church brought over from the continent. Very rural and rustic people with lots and lots of forests.

• Eskaine (es-cane) – Imperial holdout. Safe on island. Home of the Last Legion. Warm currents make
good wines.

• Guilea (guy-lee-ah) – Former province of Pelabria. Won independence in Civil War. Most cultured,
civilized, and advanced kingdom on Albana. Home of the Guilean Codex, a book of science and
knowledge.

• Oscait (oss-kay) – Merchant clans. Control Pelabrian Peninsula. Best sailors/fishermen around.

• Ostraad (oss-tra-dd) – Monotheistic backers of the Church. From the continent (Aegos). Conqueror nation. Took Urydae in
holy war.

• Pelabira (peh-lab-ree-ah) – Former major kingdom. Lost Guilea in a civil war. Couldn't pay back Oscait,
got annexed for debts.

• Urydae (Yuri-day) – Former northern reach of Pelabria. Gained independence in civil war. Refused to
accept God by Ostraad. Conquered by Ostraad.

Other Notes

• Aegos – Western Continent
• Aglesh – 2nd immigration wave to Albana
• Austor – Origin nation of the Ostraad conquerors
• Efrana – Indigenous peoples of Albana, now gypsies. Used to control the lands now known as Drale
• Erdaine – Elven forest city
• Manu Plevra – The Hidden Hand. Secret order of wizards who police magic to reduce witch hunts from the Church
• Othais – Aegosian nation from which Oscait descends
• Tulemar – Dwarven mine city

[Diamond]

Sounds like an awesome start. Even more awesome is that rare herding-of-cats that is peaceful and successful. Congrats!

[AslanC]

Sounds like an awesome start. Even more awesome is that rare herding-of-cats that is peaceful and successful. Congrats!

Thanks!

Reaching out to you via PM

[Straf]

Do you normally use the British Isles as a basis for your campaigns? I'll have to look out for lost adventurers next time I'm wandering the forests and heaths

I like the way you've regionalised the land in terms of what are in effect tribes. People with a common theme coming together and settling around a cultural centre eventually forming nations. Borders are unlikely to be clearly defined and would have been subject to change, often through the use of sharp things and heavy blunt things. "They're getting more fish out of the river on their side", "Those weirdos over the hill are getting more sun than us, we should take that land from them", or even "Ha! They worship their god with white charlock instead of red, our god demands we destroy this blasphemy!" are all valid grounds for conflict.

It gives the whole place a sense of flux and makes a great setting for narrative. Have some rep from me for this and also the way you brainstormed it

I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops.

[AslanC]

Started to flesh out more ideas.

Moved some islands around to get a better distribution.

Started laying down mountain ranges and rivers.

Over all I like the shape, but am seeking someone to just fill in the details and force me to work around that, otherwise I predict I will be obsessive about this map, just like so many others over the years.

Le sigh...

[AslanC]

Do you normally use the British Isles as a basis for your campaigns? I'll have to look out for lost adventurers next time I'm wandering the forests and heaths

Also beware toadstool rings, willow trees, and stone rings

I like the way you've regionalised the land in terms of what are in effect tribes. People with a common theme coming together and settling around a cultural centre eventually forming nations. Borders are unlikely to be clearly defined and would have been subject to change, often through the use of sharp things and heavy blunt things. "They're getting more fish out of the river on their side", "Those weirdos over the hill are getting more sun than us, we should take that land from them", or even "Ha! They worship their god with white charlock instead of red, our god demands we destroy this blasphemy!" are all valid grounds for conflict.

That is more what life is like in Athait (which I am thinking of renaming actually), the failed Kingdom that is now warring martial tribes of once civilized men reduce to barbarism. The rest of the island might not be THAT primitive. I mean they have knights and stuff too

It gives the whole place a sense of flux and makes a great setting for narrative. Have some rep from me for this and also the way you brainstormed it

I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops.

Thanks! It is definitely settling in roughly 5 centuries after shucking the yoke of Empire. Will it unify into a single island Kingdom, or continue to be shifting borders and petty bickering fiefdoms?

Time and players will tell

Cheers!

[AslanC]

Been working it since and have updated stuff... which is as follows;

So the first people to arrive on the island of Albana were the Beastmen, primitives who's relation to humans is as valid as their relation to animals. They say that there are STILL tribes of Beastmen living in the caves and valleys of Brucca.

Then the Efanna came, ending their mass exodus from the Aegosian continent. They pretty much went straight to war with the neolithic Beastmen, but their knowledge of bronze gave them the edge and they took most of the island from the Beastmen.

Then, the Empire came, and with it came iron. The Efranna were conquered or driven to the edges much like the Beastmen before them, but eventually the empire fell and the Efranna began to repopulate their isle.

That was when the Aglesh invaders came and either drove out or bred with the Efranna, except in what is now Drale where the Efranna resisted and held out.

As the Aglesh began to form a society and culture, a new invader from Aegos came, the Baruzen tribes, who brought steel with them. The Aglesh were easily, and some suggest willingly, conquered and thus the Angle-Baruz kingdoms were formed, coming to be known as the Aglbarish Age. Over the years their languages would mix and meddle, and eventually become the common tongue today, also know as Albarish, which is also where the island gets it's name Albana (Island of the Albarish).

There would be a later invasion by the Othais via the Oscait islands, brining some of that culture into the south-western part of the island, the Gathmen (Giantkin in Drale) brought their culture to mix with the Efranna in the north-east, and the Ostraad invasion by Austorian forces brought that culture to the North-Western part of the island.

The Guileans, who never crossed bred, but stayed on their island, slowly lost their swarthiness turning to a pale-skinned people, but not their black hair and dark eyes. They are essentially "romani-goths" in the modern sense of things.

Note that there are no elves, dwarves, orcs, etc... and like Hârn which inspired it, monster will tend to be unique and less "species" like traditional D&D.

Also redoing the map to be wider than it is longer as that works better for my mind.

More to come as I have it.