Sog

From: David Cake <davidc_at_cs.uwa.edu.au>
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 1995 15:11:57 +0800

        I have long held that Sog City is the perfect place for a Gloranthan city based campaign, especially one with that old gothic feel.

        Its features include -
it is a major crossroads of civilisations - you can mix and match PCs from many backgrounds with relative impunity. It has mysterious, unfathomable rulers - the Brithini It is visually cool - it has the giant Waertagi drydock (for a waertagi cityship) and the Brithini citadel of molten brass. It has a neat place nearby for gratuitous monster bashing when you feel like it - the Dilis swamp, a chaos nest (and the Brithini have crystal balls for scouting the swamp - when they see something real nasty, they hire adventurers to knock it off).
It has a nearby Blank Land, so you have a place to put anything really weird. It has a nearby source of really vicious bad guys - the Kingdom of War. It has a great police force (for roleplaying purposes) - the Street Judges, mercenaries hired by the Brithini to keep the peace (but who often care little for other crimes). So the city has a huge, thriving underworld. It has the University, a great place for introducing strange old legends and curious new magics to the campaign. Lots of weird plot hooks can be spun off it.
And it has weird apocalyptic religious movements - the Ship and the City cult, which wants to restore the drydock because the Waertagi may return is the main one.

Read the bit in the boxed set - there is more than you think there. The Sog City Guidebook (I probably have the title wrong) that was published for How the West Was One is one useful reference as well (I don't know who might be selling copies still, though), which has MOBs take on the place. He gives credence to the theory that Sog (or Sogolotha Membrola, to give it its old name) was the site of Hrestls martyrdom by the Brithini.

        There are some notes on some related places in some of the old RQ Digests (Andrew Bell era, I think) from when Paul Reilly ran a campaign near there.

        I have some campaign notes of my own from when I ran a campaign there, and I will happily answer questions, and may get around to posting some of them

>What I'd really like to find are some suggestions for what sort of
>groups live in Sog.

        All sorts - it is a metropolis, and major trade centre and seaport. The original population are descended from Waertagi (and easily recognised by greenish skin colour), and probably worship weird sea gods, probably in a strange degenerate form. But you also get merchants, refugees, and travellers from all directions. You could meet many Hrestoli merchants or pilgrims, refugees from the Kingdom of Wars conquests up the Janube, Jonatelan exiles, Yggs Isles traders and mercenaries, even a few Uncoling reindeer Hsunchen or Oranor Orlanthi barbarians or pilgrims from far off lands. And a smattering of merchants from everywhere that has sea trade, particularly Vadeli.

 Most of the population will probably worship the sea
>gods and Malkionism with lots of cults thrown in.

        I made the three main religious movements be the Malkioni sects (Hrestol as dominant, due to the proximity of Loskalm), the River cult of Januba (the one the poor people worship, and the mainy refugees from up-river), and the Dormal cult (supported by all the sea trade). The Sea gods where only worshipped by the greens, and then in weird degenerate forms (and they were generally unaware of the underwater temples beneath the city).

> A Humath/Humact death
>cult that kidnaps people to ritually murder them will be fun.

        I had many of the cult members actually being roughly standard Humakti from Oranor. But most people had heard of the HUmakt cult only as worshipped in the Kingdom of War (where it is incredibly bloodthirsty, and without much pretence at honour), so Humakti where hated and feared. And Humakti kept falling into following the way of Humkt, and following heresies like the Lead Cross, or selling out people from the city to the KOW. Your death cult sounds all too plausible.

>I've also
>got plans for rival groups of Arkati in the city.

        It wasn't a big feature in my game, but its a big place.

        Cheers

                David



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