Lore-24
Writing a new campaign setting every day.
The following is a transcript of my first seven days of the writing challenge #Lore24. The first of many posts covering my fiction writing. The images are a little hard to read and I’m self-editing as I transcribe so they’re tighter in terms of grammar and diction.
The world I’m building is centered around a continent filled with people who look like dragons, who live in a semi tribal system, and who take on a great pilgrimage as part of their religion. In tabletop role-playing game terms, I’m constructing a campaign setting. Essentially, a land in which players can drop their characters. My aim is to make this “system agnostic” so it could be played with any game systems such as D&D, Pathfinder, Old School Essentials, Forbidden Lands, Etc. This idea came about around 2019 and stewed on the edges of my imagination for a long time. Some things always kept me inspired like, Studio Ghibli’s “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind”, Middle Easter culture, Final Fantasy 12, and the nature I’ve been blessed to witness.
Welcome to my campaign setting I’ve dubbed…
The Khodo Pilgrimage
Day 1, 1/1/24
Falezir, a Northern continent of a planet, sister continent to Elezir, is situated at high latitude and is host to the great ancestry of the Khodo. Dominated by grassy plains, the continent has a wide variety of climates. From nutrient-rich piney forests on the Southern border, to the chilly taiga along the northern regions, the land is cleaved in two by a magnificent alpine mountain range. The highest peak of Mount Ahnkin serves as a landmark for most travelers. Beyond the Northern forests is a barren expanse of tundra simply called The White Wastes. To traverse those lands is to ask for a slow death from cold. Mount Ahnkin sits about two-thirds of the way from the Southern border and at its Southern base is a dangerous and long chasm called The Schism. These features make traversal from East to West difficult for merchants and pilgrims. Luckily, stretching from the base of Mount Ahnkin into The White Wastes is a monumental black wall created by the ancient dragon deity Narlin. The Great Gate of Narlin serves as an important respite from the cold for travelers and is under control of the Khodo people.
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Day 2, 1/2/24
The Khodo people are a rich and complicated ancestry mostly comprised of “dracokin.” Beings of a reptilian form who are believed to descend from the ancient deity dragon named Khodo. Khodo is the maternal dragon of the [land], responsible for growth and the cycles of life. She combined the paternal [land] dragon Narlin and bore the first dracokin children. The dragon of origin are a pantheon of dichotomies. The Khodo people worship Borothín as the major figure and worship the other dragons in smaller, more local ways. The pantheon is as follows:
Borothín - the bringer of [dawn], responsible for all life and light.
Marothín - the deceiver, bringer of darkness. A curse upon the name.
Brín - wielder of gravity. May her slumber be peaceful.
Marín - the arbiter of the void beyond the planet.
Khodo - [Land] mother and provider of growth and cycle.
Narlin - [Land] father who moves the mountains.
Shyudo - Ocean mother who commands the waves.
Shyulin - Ocean father responsible for storms.
Rajdo - Flame mother who provides warmth and comfort.
Gajilin - Flame father who burns and cleanses.
Bído - Gale mother who governs the wind and air.
Fahlin - Gale father who freezes and preserves.
The Khodo people do not view any of the dragons with negativity despite their destructive powers. They are all powerful forces necessary for all life on Falezir.
The only dragon marked and cursed is Marothín.
Day 3, 1/3/24
A great Schism occurred when Marothín, the deceiver, and Brín united their strengths against Borothín. Skirmishes broke out among the Khodo people who worshipped either side. The Eight Faraii dragons remained neutral as their powers seemed no match for the warring Ummii dragons of origin. Marothín disliked how Borothín became hailed as an almighty when Marothín was the one who provided darkness for the Khodo children to sleep and allowed naturally nocturnal creatures to thrive. As the two brothers would fight in the vast skies above, the Khodo people would fight each other throughout the continent. To the people, the Marothínians were seen as the aggressors as they worshiped one who would break the peace with his own brother.
Brín recognized that while neither light or dark were making peace Borothín was unwilling to work with his brother who made valid points. No one of them should be hailed as a one god. She, led by her brother, attacked Borothín with her mighty magic. She brought him to crash into the continent causing a great crater to form South of Mt. Ahnkin. There he rested and waited until the time was right.
Day 4, 1/4/24
Brín The Sleeper rests in the schism after a century of darkness. When she was deceived by Marothín to bring the great dragon Borothín crashing to the land with her gravitational manipulation, it created The Schism on the land. While Borothín slept, Marothín launched the world into a century of darkness. Great monsters came from all over to thrive and feed on the Khodo people. This dark century forged a religious dichotomy between the two sides as mythic evil and good who would rise again. Try as they might, the Faraii could not resist one of their fathers and they came to heel. Their magics were used to artificially prop up the ecosystem that suffered in the dark. Their magics produced symptoms of desecration in several spots throughout the land. These became barren and poisoned the waters. Some still exist to this day but most have been healed through hard work by the Khodo. The Dark Century caused strife and civil unrest and battles waged until Borothín returned.
Day 5, 1/5/24
Beseeched by five refugees from the warring tribes, Borothín set into motion a plan to distract his sister Brín. He gifted the refugees a scale and a claw with which they could craft weapons and armor of great power to fight the Goddess of Gravity long enough for Borothín to emerge from The Schism. The refugees became the Warriors of Light. They traveled to the peak of Mount Ahnkin where Brín had perched herself fore a century ensuring Borothín remained grounded.
There they fought her, wounding her enough that borothín emerged from the Schism bringing the Dawn of Ages with him. The first dawn in a century. It was glorious to behold and the Khodo still sing of it in their rich oral traditions. During his imprisonment, Borothín had developed great magics and ascended his previous form. He was now a master of both the outer light and the inner light- the soul, and thus he blinded Brín to the aether, and withdrew from her the spiritual light. He cast her down gently into the Schism and called upon his progeny to bury her sleeping body. She would not die, for her form was immortal but her magic was snuffed out causing her to fall into an everlasting slumber.
Day 6, 1/6/24
Brín is still worshiped and prayed for today as the Khodo people believe her awakening will bring the end of days forever. Th crater caused by her power was to become her resting place as the Faraii dragons covered her in magma, mountains, the seas and storms to prevent anyone from disturbing her. The Schism is now a treacherous wasteland of unexplored mountains, caves and canyons South of Mount Ahnkin. To venture here is to wish for death. To prevent further chaos, Borothín permanently set the land’s gravitational forces to a natural rested state. His power had grown from hers and soon he would rid the world of the insidious darkness his brother had brought.
Day 7, 1/7/24
With Brín subdued, Borothín and Marothín clashed once more. The day-dwellers were now rising to fight the nocturnal tribes. They fought them the precipice of the White Wastes. There in the pass between the mountains and the wastes is a small pass of boreal forests and wintry plains. The cold was relentless and made any advance difficult. Four of the Warriors of Light heard rumblings from their homes and had to leave to route the Marothínians who were causing chaos in their homelands. The one who stayed, named Yorseth, stayed with the day-dweller garrison in the pass to monitor the situation. Yorseth was the de facto leader of the Warriors of Light as she was devout and kind. She wielded a mighty bow and sandals crafted from the gifts from Borothín. She recognized the attrition brought by this stalemate. She saw the pain of both camps and her pure heart spoke to the might Land Dragons. She called to them, inspired by the majesty of Mount Ahnkin, for a refuge befit for the gods. She simply wished for a refuge for all who would be cold.
So there we have it, the first days of January. I’ll continue updating these and sharing more about The Khodo Pilgrimage with you all. I’d like to work on putting these together into a single book or ‘zine for publication some day. Please look forward to reading more as I transcribe them and do not forget to be on the lookout for the free monthly post as well.