Adurian Empires Map

[Varsk Rider]

Perhaps you guys can help me...

Where can I find an online adurian map, with its kingdons?

Although there's a link to an adurian site in this forum who says that there has a map, I hasn't found it...

[Raesene Andu]

A map can be found at http://users.chariot.net.au/~hoss/images/ADURIA.JPG

[camelotcrusade]

Hey, that's a pretty badass map. Did you make that Raesene?

[Raesene Andu]

No, I didn't, it was drawn up by Rich Baker back when an official Adurian expantion was planned. I just added the boundries and region names (some based on Rich's original ideas).

[teloft]

just wanted to link

http://www.birthright.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2246

its more stuff about maps

[the Falcon]

Originally posted by Raesene Andu@Jan 24 2004, 06:01 AM
No, I didn't, it was drawn up by Rich Baker back when an official Adurian expantion was planned. I just added the boundries and region names (some based on Rich's original ideas).
Is there any other "official" stuff out there that I missed out on or am unaware of? I've never ever heard of this map before, let alone see it. Is there any more of this kinda stuff out there? I'd love to see it. :)
Do you have an original scan of the map available without the borders and names?

[Don E]

Originally posted by Raesene Andu@Jan 24 2004, 05:01 AM
No, I didn't, it was drawn up by Rich Baker back when an official Adurian expantion was planned. I just added the boundries and region names (some based on Rich's original ideas).

Could somebody upload the original map and Mr. Baker's notes to the download section?

Cheers,
E

[the Falcon]

Originally posted by Raesene Andu@Jan 24 2004, 06:01 AM
No, I didn't, it was drawn up by Rich Baker back when an official Adurian expantion was planned. I just added the boundries and region names (some based on Rich's original ideas).
So, is Rich's map also available without your added boundaries and region names? :)

[Raesene Andu]

I think this is a copy of the original file...
http://users.chariot.net.au/~hoss/ADURIA.JPG

I don't have Rich's original notes online at the moment, although you can download http://users.chariot.net.au/~hoss/Aduria_geographical.doc which is my version of his notes on Aduria, just expanded a little. The core information is copied straight over.

There is one major error in that document (it was carried over from Rich's notes, but has since been corrected). Lets see if anyone can tell what it is...

[Don E]

Originally posted by Raesene Andu@May 3 2004, 03:20 AM
I think this is a copy of the original file...
http://users.chariot.net.au/~hoss/ADURIA.JPG

I don't have Rich's original notes online at the moment, although you can download http://users.chariot.net.au/~hoss/Aduria_geographical.doc which is my version of his notes on Aduria, just expanded a little. The core information is copied straight over.

Thanks, a very interesting read indeed. How much of this is your creation, and how much more have you added since? And how much contact has the BR crew had with Mr. Baker the last few years? With the introduction of HackRight it seems even less likely BR will be supported by WotC :(


There is one major error in that document (it was carried over from Rich's notes, but has since been corrected). Lets see if anyone can tell what it is...

I don't know, but there seems to be more than six empires mentioned in the text althought it says there were six human empires in the part about the Nehalim.

Cheers,
E

[Raesene Andu]

Rich Baker's original material cover The Sere Coast, Oeried, Rhandal and Lurech, with mentions of a few other northern realms such as Aliatane and Mor Atha. The rest is my creation. I have more material than that obviously, but it isn't in a suitable form for releasing, although I can discuss my ideas for each region if anyone is interested.

[Fearless_Leader]

Originally posted by Raesene Andu@May 3 2004, 03:43 PM
I have more material than that obviously, but it isn't in a suitable form for releasing, although I can discuss my ideas for each region if anyone is interested.
I'm pretty interested in that. I ran a campaign set mostly in Aduria last fall. It went pretty well, though some of the cultural regions I used didn't sit well with me.

[Raesene Andu]

What sort of cultures did you use for Aduria?

Just rereading that file I mentioned above, I realise that my own ideas have changed a lot since I wrote it.

I have a primarily Anuirean influence culture across most of northern Aduria, with a few older cultures sprinkled in (primarily in Oeried and Lurech). The Maestian homeland I moved down to the eastern coast (for obvious reasons :)

For the rest of the continent I went for primarily african and middle-eastern cultures. The region knowns as the gold coast was african, more civilised, but still with the tribal cultures holding sway. Same with Nehalim, a mix of egyptian and african cultures.

The far south of the continent I have as more middle-eastern cultures (Persia, India, etc) and even moving into Asian (the mountain states). The region known as the Great Desert is a mix of various middle-eastern and african cultures. Ghanim is a mix of south-american and african. Lucitia is corrupt form of the roman empire and was the heart of Azrai's former empire.

[Osprey]

Interesting. My own version of Aduria, or at least the parts I've mapped out, also use a lot of those same cultural influences, though in some cases there's no one strong Earth-like cultural influence. The maps of the places I wrote out can be found here http://home.earthlink.net/~blaede/

Too bad I learned about your Adurian map after I had already started into mine. :(

The Eastern Adurian Coast I had set up as a set of independent city-states, pockets of varying sub-cultures still bearing scars left over from the massive civil wars that racked Aduria after the collapse of the Imperial Theocracy (Deismaar = end of the priesthood's real power; didn't take long for poeple to start turning on their masters).

Slavery was a huge part of the Adurian Empire's labor force, and slave uprisings were one of the major contributors to the violence of the civil wars and the general anarchy as the social order disintegrated in many places. A few remnants of successful slave uprisings have survived as council-ruled city states along the eastern coast: Aelrath and Gundarin. But these 2 are the real exceptions to the rule, most of the rest are ruled by warlords of one stripe or another. Trade happens, though it is limited and paranoid in the extreme. Every caravan is heavily guarded. Raiding and small-scale border wars are a common feature here...things never really seem to progress very far. The people of this region have become justifiably paranoid of their neighbors and outsiders in general - xenophobia is the cultural standard in this place.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Given the brutality of the Imperial Priests of Azrai, I always imagined the backlash would be severe. The land had already been groaning as the Empire raped it for every last scrap of known resources...as arcane magic was mostly unknown or undesirable to the priests, they had purposely crushed the natural sources beneath the bootheel of civilization - invasive mining, large scale deforestation, over-farming and irrigation...much of this went into feeding the Imperial armies in preparation for the Great Battle that Azrai promised was coming. No need to worry about there being nothing left, there was a whole new continent to the north just waiting to be exploited once the enemy tribes were crushed once and for all.

And so the land was already strained to its breaking point when Deismaar happened. The civil wars only intensified as the few resources became fewer - a deepest Dark Age fell over the land. Millions died in the years following the collapse, be it by rough violence, starvation, exposure, or disease - death showed every one of its leering faces then. Those who survived did so in pockets, either because they were well-hidden and isolated, or because they were militant enough to stake a claim and hold it...at least for a while, until someone stronger came along. Chaos and brutality reigned in this era, and its echoes still pervade throughout Aduria.

[Osprey]

I also have the Masetians originating on the Eastern Coast. On my map there's the Toldarian Isles, where can be found a fairly peaceful island people who are the closest thing to surviving ancestors of the Masetians. The Toldarians are rather unique in the Adurian mainland, thanks to the isolation and natural defenses provided by the sea. I imagine them much like Polynesian islanders, though just a bit fairer skinned (probably looking somthing like a Phonecian/Polynesian hybrid race). Coconuts, cinnamon, and some other spices can be found on the isles, which in my campaign became the first trade partner with Mieres after Blaede and Jetana made landfall and peaceful contact with them. They were undoubted;y the nicest people they were to meet on their Adurian voyage of discovery...

[Raesene Andu]

It seems like your view of Aduria is not too different from mine. I also had a big slave backlash following Deismaar. One of the big things I'm working into the storyline is that Azrai's legion comprised of a large number of slave or conscribted troops, along with his faithful and the beast-men, Ssarak, Gnolls, etc. So following Deismaar, many of these former slaves returned home possessing powerful bloodlines and then proceeded to kick out the old puppet governments installed by Azrai's sorcerer-priests and take charge. They were back by popular uprising from the enslave peoples and before long vast regions of Aduria were back in control of their native people.

All of the most faithful servants of Azrai (include his powerful lieutenants) were at Deismaar and a large number of them vanished during the battle (sucked into the Shadow World with Azrai) and this effectivly wiped out most of the upper levels of Azrai's religion, leaving Raesene as the most powerful of Azrai's followers surviving (and he went north to Cerilia). The heartland of the old empire held on for a while, but as it started loosing income and slaves from captured lands as each in turn rebelled and broke free, the economy collapsed, which lead to civil war and the destruction of the imperial capital in a massive fire. All of this combined, lead to the majority of the populace turning away from Azrai. The new gods then showed up on Aduria and the people turned to them. Of course, things are starting to change now as Azrai's lieutenants (the Lost) has begun returning to Aebrynis as the dark god begins to reawaken in the shadow world. Three of these Lost have appeared in Cerilia, and another two have returned to Aduria (one in the Beastlands, another is hidden and not moving openly yet). The expanding Anuirean empire in the early centuries after Deismaar also had an influence in Aduria as well, especially in the northern regions and Anuirean culture still influences many lands.

As for your view of Eastern Aduria, it seems to match mine very closely in some respects. I also went with a collection of City-states for north-eastern Aduria (south of Mieres). They are a mix of cultures (Maesetian origins) and primarily along the coast line. Inland is dry grassland ruled over by nomad and a race of Wermic-type creatures.

[Osprey]

Here's an interesting aspect of Aduria to consider, that I only briefly touched on before:

When Azrai, in his existing incarnation, was destroyed or fractured at Deismaar, what would happen to his priests' clerical (divine) magic?

As I see it, they would lose their divine powers altogether. Since in BR there aren't clerics allowed to have divine magics except through a deity granting them, the Imperial Priests lost the divine power that had always been used to back up their temporal power. And it wouldn't be too long before word of this would get out, and spread like wildfire through an Empire long under the fear and oppression of these priests...there would be a lot of temple sacking, priest-hunting, and the rise of martial warlords who suddenly found themselves to be the big powers now.

Eventually, those priests who survived might find some aspect of Azrai, such as the Cold Rider, to worship and get back their power, but this would be much further down the road, and the bloody interrim would likely wipe out most of the priesthood.

And here's another creative element I added in for flavor and a unique part of the history:

One of the reasons Azrai, manifested on the battlefield of Deismaar, was so powerful and a match for all of the other gods combined, was that a large number of his priests were supporting him through ritual prayer and magic while the battle was raging.

The Grand Imperial Temple of Azrai, in the Imperial capital, served as a nexus of ritual divine magic. Here the First Primarch (any suggestions on names for Azrai's clerics and ranks?) led the temple clergy in an ongoing ritual through which the temple's power was being focused through prayer, chants, and divine magic. At the same time, each temple throughout the Empire was engaging in a similar ritual, channeling that power and sending it to the Grand Imperial Temple, which acted as a focal point or nexus, and then channeled this accumulated power (which would have been immense) directly to Azrai, essentially sending it in a great stream of divine energy that would massively empower Azrai. A direct manifestation of the combined power of Azrai's hundreds or thousands of clerics, boosting the god to untold levels of power and giving him the power to match the combined power of six other gods, and even stand a good chance of winning.

Naturally, this would only contribute to the overall effect of the Cataclysm. But there was another effect: with such a direct connection to Azrai, the Cataclysm sent a backlash through that conduit back to the Grand Imperial Temple, causing a smaller version of the Deismaar blast in the Temple itself. This then splintered and continued along the myriad channels to the various other temples fueling the GIT, spreading the Cataclysm even further, though much diluted at that point.

This had 2 main effects: As this was only Azrai's uncontained essence flooding the temples, the actual blast was one of pure corruption and evil. As such, the resulting blight was highly destructive to the land itself. Crops withered, livestock and people died, and the land became blighted and barren, especially around the Imperial City itself. In my Aduria, there is a second blight similar to the one around Deismaar, spreading outward from the ruins around the Imperial City, an area now called the Plains of Sorrow (in the Adurian Interior).

The second, immediate effect, was that of creating bloodlines of Azrai deep within Aduria, long before any survivors from Deismaar straggled home.

Within the Grand Imperial Temple, I reasoned any surviving priests may have gained Great and Major Bloodlines, as if they had been in close physical proximity to Azrai. Powerful satellite temples may have spawned major bloodlines, while the lesser ones would have created minor/tainted lines.

The converse is that there weren't many survivors from Deismaar who made it back to Aduria. I imagine the very large majority of the Imperial Legions were wiped out at the battle or in its aftermath, as the land died and couldn't support large numbers struggling to return home, never mind the infighting and bloodtheft going on as returning scions discovered their powers and battled one another for the scraps. Some did make it back, of course - the Warlord of Kargaad, the city-state on the NE extreme of the eastern coast, is descended from a great captain of the Imperial Legions, and still carries a major bloodline of Azrai (and provided one of the first major opponents for my Mieres campaign).

Some ideas for you anyways.

Osprey

[Fearless_Leader]

It seems like both of you have similar ideas on Aduria as I do (not surprising, given that I used the map Rich Baker drew and then used many of Raesene's ideas with an injection of my own). One thing I do find unique is my use of a Sumerian/ Babylonian like civilization. This culture was the original worshippers of Azrai when he was the god of pride and knowledge. Unfortunately, this pride lead to arrogance and this culture brutally repressed many of the others. Eventually, the Masetians and a coalition of other civilizations destroyed the Azrai worshippers, driving them further south... where they became consumed with the idea of revenge and forcing all others to see Azrai's greatness for what it was.

[Osprey]

Interesting. I like the Masetian tie-in, setting up a reason for why the Masetians were such a targeted enemy of Azrai and his people. Pride goeth before the fall, aye? ;)

[Raesene Andu]

I had something similar to this for my history of Azrai's worship as well, with the followers of Azrai persecuted for their beliefs (back when he was god of pride and knowledge) and driven out of their homeland, only to return some years later and conquer their homeland and then go on to conquer all of Aduria (except Mor Atha, which continued to hold out).