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+--- Thread: Blackmoor history (/showthread.php?tid=2053)
Blackmoor history - Sturm - 10-08-2015
Hello All, I hope this one is the right subforum.
I wanted to ask if and what fan developments are available for the history of Blackmoor.
I mean, I know there is RobJN Throne of Star campaign but I think there isn't a public Player's Guide for the setting, right?
(found some info here: viewtopic.php?f=67&t=2845&p=18875)
What about other periods of Blackmoor history?
Expansion on James Mishler's Age of Blackmoor (http://pandius.com/ageblack.html) or different takes?
Re: Blackmoor history - RobJN - 10-08-2015
Blackmoor historical periods are sort of tough to nail down, mostly due to how the setting evolved over its different iterations. Havard posted a poll a ways back that gives a pretty good breakdown of the different "when's" of the setting, largely driven by the various licensors (TSR,s "DA" series of modules, Zeitgeist's d20 line)
For the record, "Last Days," in which the Throne of Stars is set, is ca. 1980s, in the calendar of the North, about 1100 years after Uther's rebellion. Ah! I knew I blogged a bit about this very subject: http://thornschronicle.blogspot.com/201 ... round.html
I don't think I've added very much to the timeline since I posted it for Rafe in that thread you referenced (also here, at the Piazza).
Still huge gaps in my "fanon" version of Thorn's World That Was... but then, that just means I'll have to fill them eventually. :lol:
Havard and the rest of the gang can (and probably should) chime in here sooner or later.
Fanon material is sort of hard to pin down, because we've all developed Blackmoor in different ways. I've taken it one direction, Havard is exploring other angles in his Vales campaign. Rafe spent seven years on his Company of the Maiden Blackmoor saga. Havard and I both, I think, build off the DA module series material. Our Blackmoors are definitely rooted in Mystara's past. Rafe's "Maiden's" Blackmoor, I think, is a bit more of the Greyhawk/Wilder Lands type. I highly recommend reading through both the Vales and the Company of the Maiden material. Rafe and his crew's writing style puts my paltry efforts here to shame. :oops: (And he had Greg "The Great Svenny" Svenson playing in his game. You just can't compete with that)
Re: Blackmoor history - Sturm - 10-09-2015
Ok, thanks for the links. I'm not sure I envision my latter Blackmoor as a fully modern society, I mean with mass production of goods and suchlike.
I'm more inclined to have it as a technomagic society, where technomagic "toys" are only partially available to the population at large.
For example, Blackmoor houses have all running water, magical or gas lights and heating or only the rich have such things?
Who can afford a domestic construct for doing chores?
I'm not sure I want blackmoorians as builders of skyscrapers, as I think relics of such huge buildings should be still around in the world (even if Blackmoor city was completely destroyed) after "only" 4000 years.
In my article about New Blackmoor in 3050 BC in Threshold issue #2 (i.e. the area of modern Known World) I rather envisioned blackmoorian society as something like a steampunk society, visually, with technomagic instead of steam.
Their "trains" are magical power lines, of which almost nothing remains now. But if they had an extensive net of railways, factories and skyscrapers, a huge number of relics would still be around in modern Mystara.
But I still like very much your story about the Last Days of Blackmoor, for what I've read so far!
Re: Blackmoor history - RobJN - 10-09-2015
The Blackmoor of the Throne of Stars era has evolved past its "steampunk" phase. Its modern conveniences are all of a magical or magi-technical nature. (See: Magitech articles here at the Comeback Inn, and here at the Piazza.)
Shortly after the second Afridhi war, the noblity and richer merchant families used decommissioned warforged (and even a few of the still-functioning shrikes and sirens) as servants and laborers. There were a few incidents of post-cognitive-warrior-state-relapse, and the practice was abandoned in the interest of public safety.
For a more steam-punk-y look at what Blackmoor might have been like, you may want to read currant and upcoming installments of the main Chronicle -- the Glittering Empire of Loktal Ironshield beneath the Cruth Mountains is based on dwarven reverse-engineering of some discovered/stolen Blackmoor tech. We've already seen boiler-driven carriages and land-barges, as well as a crude method of using the black dragonstone's soulbinding and control powers with the torenwhyr.
Re: Blackmoor history - Sturm - 10-09-2015
Interesting, I've read something and will read more! I also plan to re-read the material from the start to better see what I can steal
Re: Blackmoor history - Rafael - 10-10-2015
Clicky
The Maiden's Timeline, which I wrote for "The Last Fantasy Campaign".
Privately, I've expanded Blackmoor's timeline until around the 1500s.
HERE you can find some material from my old blog as well.
Re: Blackmoor history - Sturm - 10-11-2015
Thanks Raphael, seem very interesting stuff!