As I mentioned in a post that shouldn't be too hard to find, the inevitable Age of Wonders has come and gone. Like I previously mentioned, it is why we have rare artifacts... and why we don't all have access to them and why they are legendary.
I mentioned before one major thing that I have never touched upon is the actual end of the age. Well, I did finally. Had to. I made the general mistake of tying four different organizations to the various magical and technological disasters that have stemmed from the very long and agonizing death of the Age of Wonders and it's tortured remains that came afterwards... in other words... the 1300+ years that came after that... IE: My campaigns over the last 13 years or so in the same world.
Trust me, I got the original map from 1998 that I colored with markers... complete with desert that disappeared because I got over-zealous with the green but I was not going to redraw the damn thing since it was on card stock.
Suddenly, every little problem and justification was dragged into the light. At first, it was easy. It was simple. They were just ancient powerhouse organizations. That is all. Don't ask questions. Wait! What are you doing? You actually want to know about them? Okay... here is the pamphlet/Wikipedia stub about them. That is enough, right?
I mean, one of them is an organization that hunts evil... think the harpers from forgotten realms meet the templars and decide to co-op with some paladin type refuges from Wheel of Time. Toss in a bit of Imperium of Man Inquisition for fun and profit.
One of them searches the countryside for monsters. They don't care about evil. They just want to safeguard the people from terrors that lurk in the darkness. They guard a massive wall and draw some inspiration from refugees from A Game of Thrones.
One is dedicated to the hunting of the dark and forbidden arts of technology and it's proscribed sub-sect, magical based technologies. They detest the wonder weapons of the Age of Wonders and the rise of the Industrial Revolution that came in it's flame covered wake.
Another is an order of spell casters trying their best to police themselves, hoping no one remembers that at one time, it was their own kind... the god priests and terror inducing wizards who had brought the world to it's knees in the first place. A self regulating body to prevent the rise of another lich king or similar wanna-be godling from rising from their ranks. Think Psi-Corps... but for ALL spell casters... divine and arcane.
The last is simply an order of warriors meant to be the counterbalance for the previous group. Supreme warriors who hone their abilities without aid of magic or enhancement because the leader of the organization has access to five great artifacts that can negate all magic for a certain area. When the mages fail or a truly terrible threat rises, the masters of this order sorte to solve it.
This was enough for months and months.
That changed.
That changed when suddenly players attached themselves to these organizations as former, disillusioned members. Suddenly, I need to figure things out. Histories, doctrines, and the such. The lore that backs these details suddenly means something now.
I couldn't be happier.
It is just suddenly means I need to actually work again... because someone might actually stumble across a shred of truth and start actually assembling the great mysteries that have been laying dormant in my notebooks for years. They occasionally stumble and solve part of them but never truly get it all... but suddenly, there might be a player who might start asking the questions as to the origins of the two worlds I run on... and it might make sense.
For the first time in years, I might have someone who might be able to play the game on the level that I used to run on. Not on the person on person level or the party on party level... no, to debate policy with ancient powers, to give their versions of a B5 level speech and maybe even steal the keys the worlds from my hand to shape it to their will like the players of old that I have had the pleasure to run for.
I couldn't be happier.
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