Greetings weary traveler! I can see that you have spent a long day in traveling. Pull up a seat next to the fire; it will warm your body while the mead warms your soul.
This region is called the Great Basin, and everything from the name to the politics stems back from an event called Land-Shatter or the Shattering. It happened about 1750 years ago and formed that ring of mountains surrounding the Great Basin.
The only reason there is still any life here is thanks to Kieros and her Five Heralds of Virtue to save us from destruction. You see, this massive rock from the heavens impacted, creating the basin. It was only through the heroics of Kieros and her Heralds that the everyone was able to unite in time to save the realm from extinction, or so the story goes.
While she lost her life to save all of us, the most prevalent use of her name know a days is the Koncord of Kieros. I’m not sure how it was founded, but the Ten Kingdoms now control it. Depending on who you ask, the Koncord is either a formal place of negotiation and grievance or a tool to ensure the stability of the top of the socioeconomic ladder. It is an archaic body with both no formal power but absolute power over its members. I’d heard that they forced kingdoms to violate their most sacred traditions to please the greater body of the Forum, simply over the fear of disobeying.
The Forum, or ruling council of the Koncord, is composed of the 10 largest powers in the Basin and each one gets two representatives. All smaller powers like city states or wizard enclaves are considered to be within the borders of one of the 10 Kingdoms from the eyes of the Koncord, even if they receive no benefits or support from the power representing them.
The Forum operates on a system of resolutions and grievances. Resolutions are non-enforceable decrees that all members should follow, while grievances are allegations of wrong doing filed be a plaintiff against a respondent. Resolutions can to anything from mandate the market price of goods or add and remove members from the council. Grievances have been used to stop executions of high value political prisoners, expose spies or do things as petty as force a kingdom to take down unflattering artwork of another kingdom’s ruler.
If no resolutions or grievances have been filled about a topic, then the Koncord has no official stance on it and anything goes. The few times it has become an issue, the Forum’s parliamentarian has ruled that resolutions are binding across multiple instances of an issue but grievances are never binding outside of their original context, however they can be argued as precedent in future rulings on any issue.
I personally doubt that Kieros would approve of the Koncord, but after her death it has continued to evolve into its current form. Their is no real guiding document, only her journals which focus more on crises response and optimistic visions for a unified future free of oppression after the Shattering.
The Forum represents both the legislative and executive power of the Koncord, with resolutions serving as ’laws’ and various titles distributed between the delegates. Those titles are
- Herske (Prime Minister): The formal head of state. Ties in the Forum are broken by whichever side the Prime Minister voted for.
- Krig (Commander in Chief): Serves as the military leader and primary coordinator between of the join military operations the Koncord conducts.
- Regler (Parliamentarian): Maintains the rules and protocols of the Forum.
- Viden (Scientific & Arcane Liaison): Advises the Forum on updates of either arcane or scientific natures and is responsible for allocation of research based funds.
- Penge (Economic Advisor): Advises the overarching economy policies of the Koncord which regulate inter-kingdom trade.
The judicial power of the Koncord is run indirectly through the Kerkrad city guard, also called the Bastion of the Sky, as primarily a bounty hunters guild. The Forum votes to place a bounty on somebody’s head stating the amount and if they are wanted dead or alive. Anybody can then capture the bounty and turn them in to the Bastion of the Sky to receive the reward. If they are wanted alive, any living condition is accepted but if brought in dead, no reward will be given except under spacial circumstances. Generally speaking, most of the people both are brought in alive are questioned and then executes either by blade or sometimes by being dropped off the side of Kerkrad. In the last few years, the Forum has realized that this system can be easily adapted to monster hunting as well, however they see to favor dead rewards for some reason I cannot fathom…
The Koncord is headquartered in Kerkrad, the City Above. The basis of that city is actually the core of Xylte, the rock from the heavens which caused the Shattering. The magics behind how that thing achieved flight is well beyond a barkeep like me even though I live here now, but somehow it did. I do remember hearing that they wanted to base the Koncord off that rock so that the Central Forum would be equally accessible, or perhaps equally inaccessible to all. There are certainly a lot of nobles who have moved to the city.
Decisions from the Forum are relied to the populous of the Basin using a network of Bard, like that jackass over there Hi Steven, who are frequently seen talking to crows.
But what do I know, for I’m a humble barkeep here.
Now, would you like anything to drink?
– Matthew Schween, Barkeeper, The Blue Crow, Kerkrad.
Other Information#
Calendar#
The modern calendar which is officially used by the Koncord for all business matters, currently has the year as 1763, and has 9 months per year:
- Sproutmoor (35 days)
- Verdantwave (35 days)
- Goldwave (34 days)
- Fireharvest (36 days)
- Shimmerfall (33 days)
- Whitermire (34 days)
- Frostgain (33 days)
- Iceharvest (35 days)
- Darknight (33 days)
- Snowdwindle (36 days)
- Riverrun (34 days)
The year starts in early to mid spring, as the crops are being planted around the Great Basin. Each week has six days:
- Kierdaq
- Azeedaq
- Gradaq
- Xuldaq
- Izudaq
- Rimedaq
Lore#
The days of the week, like many other things in the Great Basin are named after the heroes who saved the basin from destruction from Xylte before it was a basin. This group of adventures were lead by Kieros and are collectively called The Six Heralds, or sometimes just The Heralds and occasionally Kerios’s Heralds and derivations there of.
- Kieros: Savior of the Shattering
- Azeem: Herald of Foresight
- Gralf: Herald of Courage
- Izuka: Herald of Knowledge
- Rimev: Herald of Happiness
- Xul: Herald of Stealth
Creation Guidelines#
Everything in this category is optional, but strongly encouraged as a starting point for the creates of your character and kingdom. All pathfinder rules can be found on the Archives of Nethys, which does an excellent job aggregating options like feats, spells and magic ideas from 10 years worth of source books. Your character is level 5, using a 20 point buy for ability scores. You should have 10,500 GP to spend on equipment. Please try to even distribute the money and not buy a super expensive magic sword but have no armor or other items. I reserve the right audit all equipment purchases for character creation.
Character Backstory Guidelines#
Just like all of us, your character has a history before meeting the rest of the party. Here are some fairly standard prompts to get you thinking about your character.
- Where are they from within your kingdom? A rural village or the capital city?
- Why did they decide to join the government? How do they feel about their government and the Koncord of Kieros?
- What is there family like? Parents or siblings or children?
- What is there favorite food and beverage?
- How old are they?
- What are some core moral principles that they will try not to violate? What would it take for them to violate these believes?
- Who is your character’s role model?
- Pet peeve?
- What is your character’s biggest flaw?
- Who do they trust, or distrust and why?
- Any secrets?
Here is a link that I found with a long list of questions in case you would like to see some more.
There will be a few thinks that I expect from your backstory, but of course the more information and better.
- Relationship with family
- At least one friend or ally that you could go to in an emergency
- At least one rival or enemy within the government, perhaps somebody you to crossed to get a promotion or don’t think your character is fit for their job.
UPDATE This is a very important one that I completely forgot about:
- Give your character a strong ambition. What do they want to accomplish? What drives them into the political fray? Why do they think they can help their government?
Kingdom Creation Guidelines#
A government according to the dictionary is
gov·ern·ment
/ˈɡəvər(n)mənt/
- the system by which a nation, state or community is governed.
- the relation between the governed and a governing word.
So the most important thing to think about is the relationship between the government and the people. In no particular order, here are some considerations and questions.
- What responsibilities does the government owe the people, if any?
- Where is power concentrated within the government? How do the people welding this power feel about it?
- Where does the power of the government come from? A mandate from the people? A military backed regime? Something else magical and exotic? While it is important to keep this somewhat grounded in reality, this is a government in a fantasy world with a different sets of resources and problems than any government in the real world.
- How is power transferred between administrations or regimes?
- What are the overriding government ethics and principles of this government?
- What are the ambitions of this government?
- How do the people feel about the current government? Are they happy with it? Do they think it is stagnant and weak (which can be the public view even if it’s incorrect), or maybe suspicion and mistrust?
Once you have the general feel of the government, more concrete details are needed. Your character is part of this government. How do they fit in? How do they feel about the government as a whole and the people in power there? What is there specific duties within the government?
A kingdom is more than just a government. It is a people and a culture too. What are the people of your kingdom like? How diverse is the population, only human or dwarf or squirrel or are there multiple species represented? If the latter, how to they get along, has the government favored one or more of them in the past?
What traditions are upheld in your kingdom? Any festivals or rites of passages? What are your people proud of?
These are just some starting points, if you have any other question or wish to discuss anything with me, please reach out.