This is my start on a setting for 5.5E D&D. I have no idea how far it might go - it might fizzle out in a few posts. But I’d like to give it a go. I am also well aware that it is unlikely that readers of this blog will use what I write wholesale - I fully expect them to pick out the bits they like or think useful and to drop everything else. It is in the world of Xerros that I mentioned in previous posts, focusing on an area called the Caloma City States.
Do I expect to produce adventures like I do for Logos Locations on this blog? Not at the moment. In fact I see this more as a place for populating with NPCs and the potential for adventures rather than fully fleshed-out scenarios.
A Map of the Caloma City States
All good settings require a map. Tolkein’s Middle Earth, R.E. Howard’s Hyborian Age, So do quite a few bad settings. There is a much larger, world-view map on my computer, split up into squares of about 500 miles per side. This particular one is square I5. The misspelling of “Xeros” is actually the original name of the setting - any time you blog readers see Xeros rather than Xerros you know it’s been sitting on my hard drive for a while. Also this map is a work in progress . I may well add to it as needed.
Xerros
Xerros is very old. The oldest elvish writings from the Empire of the Silver Sun date back to 500,000 years ago. Even for the elves who can live up to a thousand years this is a near-incomprehensible stretch of time. Humanity is first recorded by elvish scribes, aparently as wild savages barely beyond apemen, about 150,000 years ago. Nearly all areas of land have been inhabited at least once by one species or another. Those who have read Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique series or Jack Vances Dying Earth series will have some comprehension of how old Xerros is. The collapse of the Empire of the Silver Sun 100,000 years ago was the biggest disaster the elves ever endured, yet this is so lost in the ancient past that only the elves remember it, and only then from writings not living memory. Nearly every field, every road, every settlement has clues hinting at the past, from shards of pottery to arrangements of stone that were once building foundations to decayed metal chunks that used to be a tool or weapon. And of course that means lots of dungeons, a few of which have been left by cultures or characters that not even scholars or sages of the current day know of.
Xerros is also big, about twice the size of Earth, with about half of it land and the other half seas and oceans. The biomes and ecosystems are approximately those of Earth, with colder areas to the north and south and tropical areas around the equator. Caloma is between temperate and subtropical in climate, a bit like Spain, Italy or California.
Caloma
Caloma used to be a single kingdom that had lasted for over 500 years. But then about 100 years ago the great betrayal happened, a civil war erupted and noblemen and commoners alike took sides. The Royal family of Caloma was wiped out and as different noblemen claimed the throne, central authority failed. A few cities and towns were destroyed, but many more survived mostly intact within a complex web of rivalries, alliances and feudal featly, trying to deal with new-found independence but also a lack of central authority that might protect them from aggressive neighbours. Now the cities and towns have stabilised somewhat and are known as the Caloma City States. Fifty years ago there was another war, the War Between the Cities when tensions between the newly formed city states erupted. What exists now is a little more stable but there are still disagreements and distrust between the cities.
Major cities within the Caloma City States include
- Alcorpolis
- Belcropolis
- Caldaropolis
- Dalaropolis
- Istarias
- Kormarin
- Kristarchis
- Mendopolis
- Metrailopolis
- Malkoropolis
- Senthopolis
- Talkiar
- Venthoris
Towns that owe loyalty to the larger cities include
- Breamshore
- Calistrant
- Fort Perilous
- Isodar
- Hashettis
- Marshedge
- Rilldenthos
- Sasderin
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