Setting:Tabula Gloria
Introduction
Tabula Gloria (butchered pseudo-Latin sort of meaning Glorious Slate or Slate of Glory; that and it bears the initials TG for obvious reasons) is a collaborated setting which started in a thread made by an El Falcatero on 28 Novermber 2011 called Bestiary in /tg/. The thread itself was simply created to be a thought exercise: the first person posted a picture of a monster; the next would fluff the monster and post another picture; so forth and so on. Somewhere along the line, people were starting to fluff the same picture, and in some instances, some of them combined the different descriptions into a more cohesive whole. This in turn encouraged some of the writers to make the fluff of later creatures go with previously established fluff, slowly building the setting merely from the lore about the bestiary.
Two threads later, and the setting was becoming more and more developed and the bestiary thought exercise expanded into landscapes, people, and phenomena. This wiki is an attempt at editing all of the fluff that was collected in these threads and beyond, to make them fit seamlessly into a playable setting which can be adapted into your system of choice. Heck, in one of the threads, someone suggested that it could make for a Magic: the Gathering block, which would be interesting in and of itself.
The original threads can be found here, here, and here.
The World
As it stands, the world of Tabula Gloria is an Earth-like place set in a high fantasy setting. Magic and technology stand side by side, sometimes intermingling. The Empire is surrounded by various peoples, both friendly and antagonistic. Great ruins from former empires and feel creatures to slay are plentiful. The world has a feel of high adventure and a bounty of opportunity for those who wish to reach out for it. It also contains a generous deal of political and social intrigue within, allowing for campaigns to range from classic dungeon raids to plots to take over the Empire.
The world itself is basically divided into two continents, the Western and Eastern Continents. The Empire of For’Channar, in which the capital of Tabula Gloria stands, is located on the Western Continent. It is located in the relative center of the Continent, serving as a hub of sorts for peoples coming from and going to other locales. To the north of the Empire is the Northern Sea, a dangerous place ruled by the god-like Lord of the Tempest. To the east are the Drakonid Highlands, the stronghold of a native people who have been driven out of the Empire’s lands. To the south is the Garvenus Steppe, a bastion of wildlife and savagery protected by the titanic Sky Devourer. To the west is the Phrennoack Forest, a wooded land of competing tribes harnessing the powers of life and death.
At the extremes of the Continent lie more places to explore. To the north are the Iotold Homelands, a rough and cursed place haunted with the memory of its former inhabitants. To the east are the Benalor Mountains and the Rustwater Delta, home to an old empire which excelled in technology. To the south, there are the Wastes of Weylos, a great desert which was the former home of a militaristic people. To the west are both the Wastes of Vashial and the Shiallan Mountains, a barren and dangerous land still rife with the magics of its former inhabitants. To the south of Vashial is the mysterious tribal land of Vosagar, a people seeking holy war against the civilized world.
There are great wonders to be found on the Eastern Continent as well. Along the western coast of the Continent lies the Nation of Animar, a long-standing place existing from the time of the old empires of the Western Continent. To the east of Animar is the Earth’s Cry, a tremendous mountain range effectively isolating the civilized west of the Continent from the pristine wilderness of the east. South of the mainland of the Eastern Continent lies the large island of Espartum, home to various native villages as well as the sea-faring civilization of Bythene.
For the purposes of the wiki, the lore is divided by the region in which the majority of the lore takes place in. Note that sometimes lore may take place in multiple regions, and the possible ramifications of the lore may be far-reaching, depending on the campaign and the person running it.
The Empire of For'Channar
A Brief History
Located in approximately the center of the Eastern Continent, the lands in which the Empire of For’Channar exists have been historically coveted. For the majority of the recorded history of the world, the Central Lands have been a difficult place to gain, but with incredible strategic importance. Now-extinct tribes have lived on these lands for as long as anyone could remember, surprisingly resistant to the takeover attempts of the three Old Empires surrounding it. In due time though, one of the Empires managed to break the stalemate and take the Central Lands for themselves.
Though the story of exactly which of the Old Empires first took over the Central Lands depends on whichever source it is found in, what is agreed on is that the occupation of the Central Lands sparked the terrible Three-Way War. The War was fought over generations, weakening the Old Empires until they destroyed themselves. One gave up on the war and sought to conquer the heavens instead, with disastrous results. Another partook in mass ritual suicide out of shame until there was no one left. The third became divided, fighting each other until they dragged their realm down with them.
Despite all the bloodshed, what remained in their wake were the seeds of the next age in the history of the world. During the Three-Way War, people from the Old Empires migrated to the Central Lands, mingling with the few remaining tribal folk remaining. After the War ended with the destruction of the Empires, the Central Lands became peaceful once more. A new society was slowly brewing in the melting pot that ensued, eschewing the worship of the gods of the Old Empires and replacing it with a devotion to the survival of the people through service. Time marched on and the new society continued to develop until a man codified the goals of this new society.
This man came to be known as Margurim par’Channar, the honored Founder of what would come to be the Empire of For’Channar. He would rise to lead the new society with his code, later called the Founder’s Legacy, in hand. Slowly, the structure of the society came to resemble that of the Old Empires, departmentalizing the functions of government but still keeping the spirit of the Founder’s service-oriented philosophy. However, For’Channar would prove not to be the idyllic utopia Emperor Margurim I envisioned it to be from his lofty throne at the capital of Tabula Gloria. The Empire would inevitably expand. Wars would be fought. Alliances would be made. Obstacles would have to be overcome. But thus far, the Empire is largely successful. It still exists today.
The Old Empires
The following are brief histories of the Empires in which came before For'Channar.
Benalor
It is said that the first King of Benalor was forged in the mighty metals of the mountains in which the Empire called home. While that is certainly not the case, the greatest contribution of the Benaloran people was their mechanical creations. The mountains made for an extremely difficult place for people to live, but they have always were one step ahead throughout their history. They are theorized to be the first people to learn how to make and use tools, as well as learning how to improve upon them. This rich history of ingenuity eventually became ingrained into their very culture. With this tradition, it wouldn’t be too much to assume that they were the first of the Old Empires to form.
The first King of Benalor, Copal, was known to be an ever-busy man, always looking for new ways to solve problems. He came to power as the people had to band together under duress, fell creatures overflowing from the steppe to the east and the forests of the north and south were making their way into their precious mountains. Their rock and bone weapons could not last against the incessant waves of the monstrous horde besieged upon them. It was Copal who figured out how to forge weapons in the metals of the mountain, formerly relegated only as a decorative material. With these new, longer lasting arms, the Benalorans were able to drive the creatures back to the foothills of the mountains.
From there, the advances were rapid. The metals were also used to fortify homes and buildings upon the mountains. Further advances were made into making these metal weapons and constructs more durable. Then there was crude, man-powered machinery, the lever and pulley. Once that happened, the machinery only got more complex and more efficient. By this time, many Benalorans were starting to understand the mysteries of mana and using it to create magical effects. This was unsurprisingly applied to the machinery, advancing it into mind-boggling creations run without man or beast of burden. They soon became a feared power, holding sway over the developing Weylosians to the southwest and becoming a powerhouse in trade, able to retain that position for a while due to their distance from the powerful Vashialian people to the far west.
But things would not go in the Benalorans’ favor. First there was the Weylosian betrayal, in which the former ally sent spies to learn about their higher technologies so they could make them their own. Now at war with the Weylosians, they sought entry into the Central Lands to increase their holdings and to gain a strategic advantage. In due time, this dragged Benalor into the dreaded Three-Way War. After suffering insurmountable losses in the Central Lands, Benalor became the first of the Old Empires to back out of the war, the pride of the Empire in shambles. During this recession of power, there were attempts to bring Benalor back into prominence. The largest of these attempts was the World Engine of Bjalfi, animated by Nytherio Siev to become a walking mountain. It however went rogue and was eventually reprogrammed to wander in an unpopulated part of the Empire.
In a last ditch effort to rekindle their status as the first and the best Empire, Benalor launched the Heavenrider Program under King Esteg III to seek possibly greater gains in the Heavens Above. They built magnificent technology to accomplish this task, the likes of which never seen or imagined even by the technologically savvy laymen of the Empire. The launch of the Heavenriders towards the sky was successful, that in and of itself sending the Empire into a delirious celebration. Over time though, the gifted Heavenriders would never return, bringing immense political pressure unto the Benaloran government. But then one of them came back, falling to the ground like a shooting star blazing through the night sky. Though it was indeed the body of a Heavenrider, even in its signature uniform, the voice was of a denizen of the Heavens Above foretelling the Empire’s doom for trying to escape their place on the world.
The stories of Benalor’s end vary only in what the creature, the Wight, told the witnesses of his fall to the mountains. Though the words conveyed by the creature could be interpreted differently, the meaning is all the same. A brilliant bolt of light shot down from the Heavens Above, piercing through the Imperial Seat, causing a fireball that shot back towards the Heavens as if in protest. All of this was followed by a deafening boom which rang through the ancient mountains, the sonic blast followed by a maelstrom of debris and fire in every direction.
The only survivors of the catastrophe were those who had evacuated to the Gate, a shelter and escape ship they had built during the development of the Heavenrider Program for the slight possibility that something like this would happen. However, the refugees had only locked themselves inside the massive machine, unable to go back out after the dust settled. They too would die, but with a whimper. Dehydration, starvation, and madness gripped those unfortunate enough to have escaped the blast, leaving them inside their massive coffin. And such was the end of the First Empire. First to exist. First to fade away.
Vashial
While Benalor was rapidly growing in the east of the Continent, a consortium of mystics were convening in the western Shiallan Mountains. A war had just been fought among various tribes, an event which had almost spilled into the entire Continent. A truce had been made as those who could commune with the flowing mana came together upon one of the northern peaks of the mountains, a neutral place in which its ancestral name has been forgotten to history. The Congress of the Magi as it would be called had the task of permanently ending the strife which was going to tear not only themselves apart, but the world around them as well.
It was during these meetings that the Congress formed the Realm of Vashial, a place which would include all of the tribes of the war, both the winners and the losers. The slate would be wiped clean and the people, Shialar and Anshial, Elborn and Alhamuur, would have a chance to start over, absolved of their crimes. Though in this configuration, the oligarchy of the Congress put itself into a tremendous position of power. Their collective mystic power concentrated, they would be very much able to demand just about anything with the threat of imminent destruction if they had wished. Fortunately for those beneath them, that would not be the case.
Under the charter the Congress had drawn up, the gift of magic was to be taught to each and every Vashialian, to never allow one to become more powerful than the rest. The proliferation of magic made what was once a potent tool of war into a commonplace tool of peace. Of course, there were to be cases in which this ideal would not come to pass, as some were simply incapable of communing with the mana, and others were exceptionally gifted at it. That problem would eventually work itself out over time and life would go on, the majority of the Vashialian population adept at performing magic to some degree. This was important because by the time this was achieved, the last of the oligarchs had died upon the Vashialian peak two hundred years after the formation of the Realm.
The final clause of the charter was put into place for this eventuality. It had put the Realm of Vashial into the people’s hands, now that they had spent time with each other, learning the ways of magic and becoming a generally more cohesive people because of it. At this point, the people would have to figure out the fate of the young nation amongst themselves, now that all their wise men were gone. A mother of three would soon come into the spotlight during this debate.
Tarekh al-Anshial was a middle-aged woman, unassuming in stature but spoke in a compelling way, reminiscent of the departed oligarchs. She would come to convince her fellow Vashialians that the ultimate gift of the oligarchs was not that of the magical arts, but rather the unification of the people, the chosen people. The ability overcome rivalries and wars spanning beyond their memory has certainly made them a cut above the others out there waiting to be taken into the Vashialian fold. Under her banner of assimilation, Tarekh would become the first ruler of the renamed Empire of Vashial.
The Vashialians would campaign to the west, all the way to the coast. They then conquered the lands as far south as the marsh of Narsum Cas’shren and as far east as Alboniset Lake and the Eternal Flow. After securing their natural borders, they then began to march their magical armies to the southeast, towards a fledgling nation of tribes known as Weylos. They believed that the Weylosians were very much like them in their infancy – a collection of warring peoples forced to unite under difficult times. But unlike the Vashialians, these savages knew not of the power of magic. This led them to assume that conquest was inevitable. However, they ran first into a martial prowess unheard of, and then into the mechanical wonders of the Benaloran reinforcements.
With the failure at Weylos, the slowly aging Queen Tarekh would bring her forces eastwards, towards the Central Lands beyond Phrennoack to gain an advantage over their worthy Weylosian foes. However, they would be stymied by Eltya and his Stags, powerful spiritual forces which greatly hindered their advance. By the time they had ended up taking the sea route into the north of the Central Lands, Queen Tarekh had died despite her efforts to extend her life further at 322 years of age. Her daughter and successor Jentha would vow to continue upon her mother’s campaign into the Central Lands.
Though the story of who made it to the Central Lands first varies from source to source, there are a number of sources which seem to agree that Vashial got there first. However, there is record that their stay there wasn’t without hardship, especially given the Stormlords’ dislike of their presence in the wild lands. Though the Stormlords couldn’t hold them off themselves, they did have an ally of their own – a stronger, more unified Weylos, free of Benaloran influence, as well as the mighty Sky Devourer at their disposal. Regardless of the Weylosian situation, Benalor still entered the fray, also seeking retribution against Weylos. Vashial and Benalor could have allied with each other to decimate Weylos if they had wished. Unfortunately for them, the glory-seeking Jentha did not even consider it.
The Three-Way War would ensue, with Vashial pushing Benalor back through sheer attrition. But their weakened mage warriors could not stand up to the combined forces of Weylos and the Stormlords, forcing their retreat back to the north of the Central Lands and back to Vashial in defeat. Back home, the defeat ate at the hearts and minds of the Vashialians, splitting them into three camps. The first was those loyal to Jentha, advocating that they lick their wounds and try to retake the Central Lands later. Another was an angry mob seeking to remove Jentha from the throne and install a better leader there. The third however saw the gift of magic as a curse and relocated themselves into the mana-thin western coast, becoming the Triolites.
Civil war broke out, skirmishes across the land splitting communities apart, devouring the very Empire into its own war with each other. Magic was turned against each other, the clashing of mana building up as the combatants tried to one-up each other. This was all until Jentha, who had become known as the Progenitor due to the large family she had spawned, unleashed the most hellish magic imaginable. The very life force of the Empire was drawn into her. Flora, fauna, and people alike suffered her wrath, no matter the association they had. The Empire of Vashial became Jentha’s in its entirety, a surge of power which drove her dead with madness. The residual magical radiation said to be coming from her corpse still taints the Wastes they left behind to this day.
Weylos
Very much like Vashial, Weylos was originally a group of tribes. Unlike Vashial however, the tribes were generally at peace, for they had more to worry about than each other. Their land was one with some of the most dangerous wildlife imaginable, a land they shared with the Stormlords. Back in the ages in which the fauna was the only threat they had to contend with, the tribes worked well as they were. But then came two foes in which they had never experienced before. First was Benalor, a mechanical powerhouse to the east. Then came Vashial to the west, a magical juggernaut. To the tribes, having lived out the law of natural selection for so long, had to unite in the case that the new powers would try to take them over.
It was natural that the tribes headed south to Askanderre, the territory of the tribe with whom they held in the highest regard. The tribes’ collective concerns were brought to attention and they allied under the banner of Weylos, the Askanderian tortoise god of survival and the wild. From here, they had set along a path of combining the best qualities of each tribe into a unified combat force. The Ponbans of the western forests brought their skills of guerilla warfare. The Falmars of the central plains contributed their expertise of ranged weaponry. The Sedhors of the eastern highlands showed how to cultivate their many herbs. And finally the Askands applied their leadership to the myriad of disciplines in this new united force.
For generations, the Weylosians honed their skills and formed a bond with each other which was truly special. They were determined to keep their world under the natural order, to ward off those with ambitions so lofty as to bring the world to any other order. In the meantime, they took all the resources it could from the land in order to accomplish this task. Under the providence of the Great Tortoise, the Weylosians would come out victorious and they could restore the wilds afterwards. If Weylos is to be damned however, then they will give their lives before it is pulled under the thrall of an unnatural order, leaving the victors without spoils. They knew a war was coming, though they would not know of its outcome. And a war they got, a war which would end up beyond even their lengthy preparations, preparations which included entering an alliance with the less-aggressive Benalorans.
The opening salvo came from the magi of Vashial, marching across the cut-down Forests of Ponbanair. In the thick stumps of the former forests was where the Weylosians made their first stand, slowing down an overconfident Vashialian advance. However, their magic would easily wipe them about before advancing towards the dying grasses of the Falmarch Plains. It was there where the Benaloran allies had installed the mighty machines of the Ansal Corps, decimating their magical abilities with the mysterious devices on the Ansals. Together , the alliance was able to push the Vashialians back to their lands and the two nations celebrated heartily at Askanderre for days to come.
However, the Weylosian elders knew of Benalor’s threat still. Though the Ansals were instrumental in defeating the Vashialians at Falmarch, they were sure that Benalor was a host to even more advanced technology which could wipe them out more easily. By now, the elders were led by the master tactician Tremaine Laurense of Sedhorane, a man who suggested the use of espionage against the Benalorans while they still officially were allied. The Weylosians who were taught how to operate the Ansals were becoming more and more mechanically adept in the process, and Laurense knew that if they had information as to how to build their own battle machines, that this new breed of warrior would ensure a Weylosian victory across the board.
Unfortunately for Laurense though, the spies were caught at the College of Shapers at the Ebony Tower, looking in places in which they had no clearance. It was only a matter of time until the Benalorans would figure out the Weylosian ruse. Also by now, Vashialian forces were gathering to the far north in the Central Lands and the Stormlords have sent an emissary of their own to Askanderre. They would have to shift alliances now, quietly letting Benalor execute the spies without formally accepting responsibility for the matter, a political move which was intended to buy them enough time to fend off the second Vashialian offensive before they can refocus on Benalor.
What Laurense would never have guessed was that Benalor had also remotely deactivated the Ansals, rendering them inoperable. They would have to fight the Vashialians without this advantage, something the Stormlords were very unhappy with. They had heard of their might with the battle machines they had learned to master. Suffice it to say, the fight claimed the lives of many Weylosians and Stormlords alike, forcing the Garvenite natives to summon forth their powerful guardian, the Sky Devourer for the first time in their history. While the Sky Devourer ultimately ravaged the steppe irreparably, it clenched the victory for the new alliance, driving the Vashialians back home for the last time.
Though it was a victory, it was an expensive one, a fact which infuriated the Stormlord commander, Crenskaw of the Rushing River. In his rage, he commanded the remainder of his retinue to eliminate the Weylosian troops, the warriors massacring the exhausted warriors. Soon enough, Weylos would be invaded from the north by Crenskaw and a furious Stormlord army, with the Sky Devourer amidst them. Weylos’ doom was to be handed to them not by their unnatural enemies to the east and west, but to their primal brethren of the north. Unable to accept this fate, the vast majority of the Weylosian people kept true to the last part of their vow to the Great Tortoise, to give their lives as one last act of defiance. People dropped left and right as they dealt their own final blows to themselves, the last of which was Laurense, the man who brought all this to pass.
The blood of the Weylosians soak into the dead land around them, the transformation to the Wastes they are now already having started. From the parched land rose a mighty beast rivaling the might of even the Sky Devourer. Other than the rise of the Great Tortoise, recorded by one of the few Weylosians not to kill themselves, there is no other surviving record of the battle that must have ensued. But the result was just as the Weylosians planned – there would be no spoils for the victors. Whether the Stormlords and the Sky Devourer won or not is up for debate, but there are no Stormlords in the Weylosian Wastes today, so one can simply assume.
The Nation of Animar
Long has the Nation of Animar stood on the western coast of the Eastern Continent, said to have existed from the time of the Old Empires on the Western Continent. From its turbulent beginnings as a collection of fiercely independent Kingdoms to the relatively harmonious political and economic cooperative it is today, Animar has become the epitome of civilization on the Eastern Continent. Despite its long and powerful standing, they have kept their success to themselves, only ever acting in the capacity of an observer of Western affairs during the time of the Old Empires.
As such, Animar has built up an impressive collection of history from a relatively unbiased third-person perspective, something that was found to be immensely valuable to the Imperial College of Antiquities when an expedition team of theirs made For’Channar’s first contact with the Nation. In turn, this attracted the attention of the Emperor at the time, Margurim X, who funded expedition after expedition, almost bringing his government to financial ruin in the process. Under public and internal pressure, the Emperor became the only one to voluntarily abdicate his throne, going to Animar himself to learn more about them until the end of his life. His son and successor, Margurim XI, would commission and open the Embassy of Animar in Tabula Gloria in the meanwhile.
Since Animar became more of an active world power due to the opening of the Embassy, the people of the Western Continent have come to learn more about the Animari people and their way of life. At the root of all this is their federalized form of government. During the formation of the Nation, the many Kingdoms were in heated debate about maintaining their identity. Sure, the political and economic situation would certainly improve upon the Nation’s founding, but the Kingdoms were worried that they would be absorbed into a single culture based on the dominant Kingdom at the time, Paserna.
To alleviate these fears, the committee in charge of structuring the new National government decided to keep the Kingdoms the way they were, including their own individual governmental systems. This preserved the royal lines of the Kingdoms instead of abolishing their authority. However, the rulers of the Kingdoms would in turn elect a King and Queen to rule over a new entity, the Grand House, which would rule over the Kingdoms in major matters of political disputes, economic troubles, and matters of security. Of course, the Grand House would be located in Paserna per the charter that was drawn up, but it would be strictly forbidden to meddle in affairs of a Kingdom which are not expected to directly affect other Kingdoms in the Nation.
For the most part, the system worked better than expected to this point. They managed to subdue and even drive back the ever-present threat of the Chaktari natives to their south, forcing them to close themselves off to the southwestern peninsula of the Continent. When the Kingdoms weren’t united, they all had different methods of dealing with the tribal folk, all with varying degrees of success. If one Kingdom proved to be less effective than a neighbor, the Chaktari would go there instead. But with a unified approach to the Kingdoms’ collective security, they could all utilize the best strategy and utterly overwhelm the natives back to the peninsula.
On the other side of the coin however, there are some difficulties of seeking a majority opinion on other matters. It is common knowledge now that the Earth’s Cry, the massive mountain range to the east of Animar which spans through the center of the Continent, is indescribably dangerous to travel over. The seas to the north and south of the Continent are equally as difficult to traverse. These geographic obstacles have long prevented the Animari from expanding east into new territories and to gain new resources. Figuring out how to tackle this task has been debated for a long time with one point becoming downright impossible to overcome – the costs of the endeavor to the different Kingdoms. While by now trade has been simplified by the creation of a common currency, some Kingdoms which weren’t interested in eastward expansion feared they would have to unnecessarily pay into the project. In this case, a private explorer by the name of Zannawa Rosen undertook the task and recently completed the underground Rosen Passage which connects Animar to the southeastern part of the Continent.
The Animari experiment is still a work in progress, however long it has taken thus far. But their long road is still a point of pride among the Animari people, as well as a point of admiration among the Imperial people of For’Channar.