>> Overall events up to 1640 are pretty well documented and known, after
>> that things get much more vague in terms of dates and such.
>I'm bemused. What's your source for "events up to 1640"? All I have is
>the dodgy, parochial, partial history from "King of Sartar" -- only one
>POV, only covering Dragon Pass and the Holy Country in any detail.
Nick, I'd love to see that detail on the Holy Country after 1625 - apart from a very short mention in Minaryth Blue ("Nice land, but too flat") and an obscure, unsubstantiated (nowhere in CHDP or any other allegation) claim in the Saga that Argrath became successor of Brian in 1628, there is no action in the Holy Country any more, and only a few (important) commanders and troops from there mentioned in the major battles.
>If that's "pretty well documented", I'm a Dutchman.
The dates of Argrath's wars against the Lunar Tarshite kingdom and the Lunar counterstrokes after his conquest, during his wooing of Saird, are pretty shaky, although all versions agree on a couple of major events - a defeat at Yoran/hound knob/somewhere on the Oslir (in the Saga: refusal to fight); flight through Balazar and Gonn Orta's Pass; return from Prax and victory at Dwernapple. Hard times in Dragon Pass after Yoran...
And yes, that's well documented - we have at least three different written sources, two of these contemporary (CHDP and Minaryth Blue). Compare the written material on Arthur of Britain... Not even Mohammed's Hedshra or Caesar's wars in Gaul are documented in any detail by anyone except the key person.
>And if that's worth ditching a campaign for, I'm... well, I'm something
>worse than a Dutchman. (Whatever that might be).
There's nothing anywhere in print worth ditching a campaign for, so don't strain your imagination.
BTW, Simon "Van" Hibbs, the Genertela Book ends its information in 1620, 1621 being the current year, but that shouldn't stop us - RQ2 gave its information for 1615 (in the Biturian Varosh narrative in Cults of Prax) or around 1630 (in Paulis Longvale's reminiscences in Cults of Terror, reprinted in Lords of Terror).
Richard, if you want more detail knowledge about the ongoing history, just do as I did and start _before_ 1621. You get all these world events up till 1621 in definite dates (except for the kings of Tarsh) and some detail.
If your PCs do anything which might impact the historical outcome, just change a few names, or adjust a year number or two. In my campaign, I had the PCs work on the periphery of the great events - in 1616 Holy Country they caught the killer of the Heortland King's last cousin, and delivered him to the court in Durengard just before the king's last direct heir - his uncle - perished at the Lion King's Feast in Ditaliland. This service brought them a houghty-sounding court title ("thegns of the kingdom") without any material benefits except being invited to accompany the king's entourage on the 1616/1617 Sacred Time Short LBQ, where the king (and his questing companions) received an uncurable wound. My PCs, after having a good time trying to get to a Cacodemon fiend through the king's supporters, went off on a quest for an artifact one of the characters knew of, a heirloom presumed lost when his father disappeared shortly after returning from the Rainbow Mounds after the end of the Starbrow Rebellion. The success of this quest will define how many (or few) of the king's companions can be saved; the king is beyond hope, being possessed by a crimson demon.
The next thing the PCs are likely to do is to support the Orshanti Laird Korlaman's claim for the empty throne of Heortland. Korlaman is going to move prematurely, forced into action by the antics of a group of allies (in my campaign the PCs of Jeff Richard's parallel campaign, but if the PCs manage to do this themselves, they may as well share the blame).
One important point here is to set a task to the PCs which they can solve without solving the core problem. Their actions do have a measurable impact on their own people, even though the PCs were little more than boys in 1616. I hope they will produce one or the other major blunder by succeeding in minor tasks, causing them to recognize that they are responsible for some of the problems, and then I'll let them try to set things right again. This is a well known mythical theme for the Orlanthi - Orlanth demands his place in the world, is denied by the Bad Emperor, slays the Bad Emperor, imposes his order on the crumbling world, sees the world under his order fall apart, and sets out on the LBQ.
(I wonder whether Argrath does a second LBQ to bring back the Red Goddess...)
P.S. Great dialogue from the Bat, Richard!
Powered by hypermail