The Game
The world is Etherea; the setting is L’Isle (pronounced “Leel”), one of several island-continents scattered about Etherea’s Great Mother Ocean.
This is a free-form, tale-weaving story. The idea is that each player develops their own story for their character and then writes that story, sometimes in solo posts, sometimes in joint posts with one or more people. In addition, the narrator will provide an overall plot that can encompass each character in some small way. Players have the option of joining in the overall plot or not.
I will use characters as NPCs if a player is inactive in the overall plot for more than a week, in the interest of keeping the main plot moving. I will not interfere in the character’s individual story.
Character Creation
New players are encouraged in their character bios to create their character’s birthplace, which will be added to the world information, or they may always use a currently existing location. Players should stick with the religions mentioned below.
The creation of custom cards is encouraged, subject to narrator approval.
All characters are natives of L’Isle who have lived on it their whole lives. Posts should be written in third-person, past tense.
If it becomes necessary, the narrator will mark this game as NSFW, because the Dakartan priesthood is not nice, and in a world where there are swords, people will use them. Frankly, though, you shouldn’t be reading Storium at work, anyway, tempting though it is. :)
This game welcomes characters regardless of their sexual orientation. That is not the focus of the game, however.
Posting Format
Please begin your posts like this:
Character Name: Post Title
(Location)
Game References
The reference place for this game is located on LiveJournal: http://etherea-lisle.livejournal.com/ It is currently under construction.
The Plot
Devastating political upheaval is about to occur in Calypsa, and this will have consequences for all of L’Isle.
The World
There are only humans on this world. No elves or dwarves, etc. Mythical creatures exist but are so rarely seen as to be considered legendary by the average person.
The kingdoms of L’Isle are:
Calypsa
Capital: Geneva
Calypsa is located in the northwestern plains of L’Isle. Its climate is temperate and its soil arable. It has forests and pasture-lands. Its primary exports are wool, cereal grains, lumber, textiles, cotton, silk, beer, wine, and hard cider.
Calypsa is ruled by Queen Elenis of Calypsa who, at age 29, is expected to give birth to the heir soon.
Its people mostly follow the Three Lords of Justice (commonly known as The Three) and the goddess Mista, a protector of nature, who is served by druids.
Dakarta
Capital: Castelle
Dakarta is located in the southwestern swamps of L’Isle. Its climate is hot and humid, almost jungle-like but too temperate for that. Its primary exports are rice, rice wine, alligator-hide products, various esoteric poisons, peppers, hot sauce, sugar cane, gourds, mushrooms, eel ink, and seafood.
Dakarta also claims a small island, called Yllaris, off the southern coast. This is the home of Dakarta’s current rulers, Queen Folashadae, and her husband, King Abassi.
Folashadae is a formidable sorceress and is High Priestess of the state religion, as her husband is its High Priest. Imoset Palace, the royal residence, is considered to be impregnable, protected as it is not only by sturdy construction but also by powerful protective spells.
Dakartans worship the Seven Spirits of the Abyss, usually just called The Seven. Worshipers of The Three are vehemently opposed to them and their followers, with good reason. The clergy of The Seven practice the dark arts, and their rituals are feared not only by Trinists, but also by their own followers.
A form of devotion to The Seven exists whose clergy are called the Wise Ones of the Swamps. They take a more philosophical, neutral view of The Seven than the state-established clergy do. Tutelage in Swamp Wisdom is from master to apprentice. Who the Modres and Fadres-Eld are is passed along by word of mouth.
L’Montaigne
Capital: Highgate
The Jakar Mountains run vertically down through L’Isle, bisecting the continent so that Calypsa and Dakarta extend three-fourths of the way across L’Isle, while Medina takes up the easternmost fourth of land from north to south.
Nestled in a large, fertile valley is the Kingdom of L’Montaigne, home to a mix of peoples from all over the rest of L’Isle. Here can be found people of the Dakartan ancestral stock, druids, and reclusive mountain dwellers distantly related to the desert nomads. Ancient languages are spoken here, from Old High Dakartan, to an ancient version of the desert nomads’ language, to Calypsan as the trade tongue.
The climate is mostly cool in summer and bitterly cold and snow-locked in the winter.
In L’Montaigne’s borders lies the Withren Forest, a mysterious, dense forest that people are warned not to enter save at their peril, for fear of its ghosts.
L’Montaigne’s exports include lumber, mined metals, gems, and quarried stone, medicinal herbs, furs, molasses, cheese, herb teas, and river fish.
It is currently ruled by Myradin, Duke of Greenwall, who holds it in trust for the true rulers, who have disappeared.
Medina
Major Cities: Agrabah, Ah-Gharad, Jaq-ti
Medina occupies the eastern part of L’Isle. Save for the coastal regions and the western part of it that abuts the Jakar Mountains, Medina is desert and is home not to a kingdom as such but to several city-states that are each ruled over by a sultan. Political alliances between and among these city-states constantly shift. At any time one or more of them are likely to be at war with each other.
In the deeper desert nomadic tribes roam whose people rarely, if ever, venture near the cities, save to buy and sell the hardy desert horses that they breed. These are considered to be some of the finest horses in the world, and the nomadic people are experts at breeding, training, and riding them.
Medina’s primary exports include glass, salt, sandstone, ceramics, figs, dates, olives and olive oil, and race-horses.
Medinans don’t really have a state religion because there is no over-arching state. They worship various local and ancestral gods. The nomads have their own deities, but they are very private about their religious practices.
Technology
Tech level is medieval–no gunpowder used in weapons. The setting is high fantasy, so magic exists and is well known. It, like anything, is a skill that most people can learn if they are willing to devote many years of study to learn it.
Religion
Deities of Etherea ascend to Godhood, starting life as human. Deaths of deities and the ascension of new deities are rare occurrences. Currently there has not been a new ascension for at least a thousand years.
Deities actively involve themselves in the lives of particular people, aside from their clergy, to serve them. This is rare, and the relationship between deity and such a follower varies from deity to deity. Some such pairs have a companionable relationship; others are very much master and servant.
Deities are very limited in how they may affect the mortal world. Mortos may not kill everyone. Mista may not cause forests to take root in cities overnight, and so on. It causes a deity suffering if they extend their power beyond the scope of their influence.
Credits
The original email version of this game was created back in 1998 by Janet DelaCroix, and it was called Imperial Secrets, aka IMS. It was a wonderful, wonderful game, rich in detail and home to a group of truly talented and dedicated writers, some of whom are now professional fiction writers.
This Storium version of the game uses elements from the original Imperial Secrets but also incorporates different cultural elements created by the Storium writers. The beauty of IMS was that its players created the world as they went, fitting new aspects of it seamlessly into the whole. I wanted the Storium writers to have the chance to make this version of Etherea their own, rather than using only what had been created before.
Hosted by:
Chantal G. (Gaudialis)
Narrated by:
Alotte
Completed 09/12/16.
Scenes played: 5
License: Community License
