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A Steam-Peek Guide to Orbis, Copyright 2013, Gaming Paper LLC, Author Dan Comrie
A Steam-Peek Guide to Orbis
A FAntASy StEAmPunk ADvEnturE WOrlD
by Dan Comrie & Steven E. Schend
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A Steam-Peek at Orbis“Looks interesting, but I don’t know what this is,” you just told yourself, right? This is a preview of Gaming Paper’s newest world for adventures and game supplements—the steampunk setting of Orbis.
This booklet is a brief primer on the world, its history, and only the briefest glimpses into the people and plots more intricate than the finest pocket watch. We’ll also look at how best to build Orbisan-native characters so you can play out adventures in a fast-changing and vibrant world. Hold onto your monocles and maces, because there’s adventure ahead in upcoming Gaming Paper adventures or in those your own design (if you’re excited and don’t want to wait until they see print)!
Orbis in a nutshell
Magic, religion, and nobility are the Old World, while the New shines with gleaming gears, technology, and firearms. Those who command arcane and divine magic are the long-established powers—the nobility and landed gentry, the churches, arcane guilds, and the various colleges. They controlled science, technology, and engineering in their infancy as its patrons, but failure to recognize its potentials and intransigence to change saw it slip from their collective grasps. Two centuries of expanding use of technology and science blurred the lines of power and control, resulting in a new social strata of a “middle class.” Settlements grew larger with people in new urban trades tied to the technological changes rather than tied to the overlords and their fields.
The Machine Age epoch (exemplified by the revolutionary “steam engine”) frightens the old guard. Technology challenges magics both arcane and divine as a way to command respect and obedience from the people. It upsets the sociopolitical status quo by putting weapons (and thus power) instantly into commoners’ hands, rather than spell craft’s requisite years of arcane study or religious indoctrination. Worse yet, there are no orders, such as the temples or wizardry guilds, through which the powerful can control them. Any with a mind to gain advantage from this new world can do so…though those long in power do their best to keep “their lessers” from realizing just that. Even so, no longer does everyone automatically assume they need an overlord to employ or protect them. People now slowly see they might tend their own lands with plows and defend the same with guns.
What has been slowly brewing for decades has
come to a head—the inevitable clash between rich and poor, between old and new powers,
between mysterious arcane lore and intricate science—as a struggle between
long-held control by the few and burgeoning freedom for the many. These central conflicts drive all the stories of Orbis.
Why Steampunk?Orbis rose from requests by Gaming Paper fans that wanted more Pathfinder games to delve into the steampunk fiction genre. To reflect a proper steampunk setting, we’re showing a world in flux due to the changes technology brings to it. We’re also adding new rules for technology that you may apply to these and
your other existing Pathfinder games.
This “Steam-Peek” provides the starting glimpse at the setting of Orbis, and we’ll
be expanding what it means to be a steampunk setting as we expand new rules mechanics, technology and statistics for them, and other details to expand what we know of Orbis and to allow you to use any or all steampunk adaptations in any Pathfinder games.
There are at least three adventures planned for Orbis in the near future. The “Orbis Unveiled trilogy” takes neophyte characters as far as 10th level (should they survive their adventures) in From the Darkest Heart (exploring the “savage continent” of Xahadool), To the Cobbled Streets (returning to Dinium & danger), and To the Velvet-Lined Steps (more details on Dinium). We’ve got loads more to share on Orbis and hope you’re excited enough to demand it. Should this setting prove popular enough, more Gaming Paper products centered on Orbis may become available! Go to www.facebook.com/gamingpaper to follow our progress.
Orbis - A Geographic Overview
The back cover of this booklet holds the preliminary world map of Orbis, so take a look to see where each nation lies with respect to each other. For ease of reference and use, this quick catalogue of information presents the nations in alphabetical order. We’ve also added some narrative commentary by a few in-world personalities, if only so you’ll realize that the cut-and-dried facts of a place rarely make it so, and much depends on one’s point of view (not to mention who’s writing the guide book).
Nation / Tribe: This is the official name of a culture or a collective group of peoples as recognized by the majority of Orbisans (not necessarily what the natives might call it in total).
The All-Word: This one-sentence primer sums up this people/place in a nutshell (or at least defines their overarching perception or personal belief).
Natives: These are the standard singular and plural terms for natives followed by the possessive form or descriptor for items held by or made by these natives (if this differs from the plural native term).
Major Settlements: The capital of any nation is always first noted, followed by the most prominent cities & towns (whether noted for their size, social status, or trade importance).
Notable Tech: While all manner of technology can be found all across Orbis (within reason), each nation embraces different sciences. These denote what this nation develops over others (and thus makes this a potential export to others). In short, when people think of this nation, this
is the science or technology associated with them.
AvernyThe All-Word: A Fragile
Alliance of Warlords Needing Stability
Natives: Avern, Averni; Avernese
Major Settlements: Soanta’s ruins are home to more obvious rogues and monsters than its former nobles and royals. Each of the seven regional capital cities has briefly served as an interim Avernese national capital at least twice since the Uprising (listed by population/size): Dolor, Grac, La Roca, Les Falaises, Canroir, Delamer, Celois. None currently claim that honor.
Notable Tech: Military (anti-personnel weapons, anti-artillery defenses) and Communications
(pneumatics)
Unlike neighboring Dinium or Grunbaia, Averny failed to rise from the ashes of its rebellion five decades past. Its decadent nobility remained ignorant of lives outside their own…until the Uprising 54
”Who’re You Calling a Steampunk, eh?”“First time skyborne, friend? Whoa there, didn’t mean to startle you…Hey! I’m hardly the tallest, but my eyes are a bit further up, goggler. There goes, aye. Best not to ogle your host, lad.
“Welcome aboard, but step back from the rail. It’s none too sturdy after that tussle in Krusov with press-gangers last Careth, and you don’t seem to have your sky-legs yet. Don’t want you falling off of my craft and making one blasted mess across the rooftops of La Roca now, do we? You can like the view, so long’s you don’t ruin it with falling and screaming and the like.
“There you go, splasher, there you go. Now, name’s Avraem, tho’ most call me Themodor—it’s my title as commander-owner of the four skycraft of Convoy Greenstorms. The Lass Aloft here is my flagship and, ah! Look to that break in the clouds for a last look down sky at Averny before we lose our light. I call those black waters the Enmity Straits on my maps, though most call it the Goldwater. By dawn, we should be coming on the eastern shores of the oh-so-stuffy-majesty-of-Dinium. We’ll stop at a little town called Skysea to take on some friends and provisions. Then we’ll float over to Eastbridge by mid-day and unload whatever dross we can. I swear, those Dinami fools buy anything if you tell them someone else prizes it…and they’ll buy three just to keep the Averni from having it. Heh. Like taking sweets from swaddlers…”
—Themodor Avraem of Convoy Greenstorms, a halfling trader of mixed repute whose tight command over her four emerald-
tinged sky-crafts matches the tautness of her purse strings
Advice thAt truly counts“it is said that even the most common serf may serve his lord in ways never predicted until such time as providence demands he do so, and that is why we speak today. i am told that you are both to be trusted in discretion and action, but that you have
minimal understanding of orbis and how her peoples operate. how the menial task of training servants falls to one such as i is of no matter. My wizardly training acclimated me to occasional distasteful tasks that serve to build better relations among our commoners and we who rule.
“Pay attention now, for your service to my County Woseny or our greater dinami overlords may depend on your gleaning truths from common rumors and the rarified knowledge I present unto you now.”
—Lord Thomas Woseny, Count and Lord Protector of County Woseny, adjutant of his Excellency Robert Hangor the Duke of Calwich, and loyal vassal of his Imperial Majesty Harold I whom we once called King George III
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years ago claimed more than 350 noble and royal lives in its first month. Within a year, anyone of royal or notable noble blood either departed from or died within Averny’s borders. Five chaotic decades saw no stable government convened for longer than five years.
Averny teeters on the brink of dissolution, its uncontrolled lands far from safe. Common Averni struggle to maintain their national identity in the face of threats without and threats within. Only the various Ducale Warlords remain a civilizing (or despotic, depending on who you ask) force, keeping their own laws in the old Ducate by their weapons and armies. Those who serve the warlords have very lucrative (but also quite short) careers, given the widespread troubles. The technological revolutions at hand help stabilize things to a degree, as most desire to make money and make their homes safe again. Some entrepreneurs miss the freedom to build and test weapons technologies in abandoned Avernese estates with impunity. Still, even the most powerful warlords now cooperate and employ diplomacy that doesn't require a shouldered rifle, if only to retain some hold on their power when a true government coalesces. Whether a regime rises from the power of gewgaws or gold remains to be seen.
The BennsThe All-Word: Dwarves Tempered by Anvils of Austerity and Piety
Natives: Benn, Bennan (for any dwarf whose tribe is unknown)
The dwarves of Orbis hold the traditional distaste for arcane magic, so technology only faced resistance from the various churches, but that resistance was stout and firm. When first the dwarves embraced engineering and steam, their orthodox clergy withheld judgment while they reconnoitered the situation. After two generations, the rapid changes among the Benns birthed the Pyrodarchy, a temperance movement with a charismatic new leader that overwhelmed any opposition in many bennan councils. Now the dwarves live under a restrictive theocracy that interprets any excess as sin. Many new technologies are deemed sinful as well (although the cindarchs begrudge the people any science in the Benns for more than 50 years, like its notable mine and forge knowhow). The average dwarf citizen moves very carefully, lest he be brought before the cindarchs for 'reeducation.'
Though not the tallest mountain on Orbis, Benn Lowe is an active volcano and the joyful religious symbol of many
a cleric. Heart of the dwarven Pyrodarchy, Benn Lowe embraces its harsh reputation as the most difficult dwarven nation to reach. Benn Lowe has slowly eroded the influence of the other benns to become the final authority on all dwarven law. All respect the edicts of the Megas Pyrodarch (although some hint that his control of the richest veins of ore and minerals forces that respect more than the weight of his faith). As the Pyrodarchy is strongest here, Lown dwarves are quick to report any suspicious activity they spot, lest charges of heresy or apostasy be leveled. Those who don't fit the Pyrodarchy's narrow ideal of dwarvenness often find reasons to move abroad.
Benn Stane
Natives: Stane (for singular, plural, or descriptive)
The oldest and most traditional of the benns, Benn Stane nestles within the largest mountain range on Orbis. Difficult to reach before the rise of the steam engine and the locomotive, Benn Stane now enjoys its new status as a trading post sought by the whole world. With riches second only to Benn Lowe, all Stane prosper by sharing their abundant wealth rather than limit it to the Pyrodarchy. As a result, the Stane resist the strictures of the theocracy, pursue new technologies, and grow more liberal by the day (all of which the cindarchs allow, for now). Benn Stane is an ideal place to start a business or keep your nonperishable goods safe before they're shipped elsewhere. Aided by the invention of the vertical-elevation cart and smaller stone-carving machines, Stane have shattered the limits of their city’s plateau. They now build taller buildings onto the mountain or carve into the surrounding cliffs, increasing Stane’s notoriety as a place to live. Numerous grand stone spires rise far above and around the Stane plateau, giving many a commanding view across miles of surrounding countryside and numerous docking points for Raenmei zeppelins and skycraft.
The Pyrodarchy’s toughest conversion was the forcible settlement of a tribe of nomadic dwarves here at Benn Snaw, Snaw dwarves begrudgingly accept cindarch law for fear of what bloody “enlightening” reprisals would occur if they did not. Benn Snaw is the smallest benn and barely a city-state rather than a nation, though its Pyrodarch seminary and college ensures this has the largest contingent of cindarchs outside of Benn Lowe. The Snaw give up no more of their original nomadic culture to the Pyrodarchy than necessary. They once prayed at found-stone altars built by their own hands (as their worship ritual) along their trade routes. Now
they worship passively within the Pyrodarchy’s monolithic temples to avoid being shackled in heretic-chains. Centuries of treks across Orbis have made them experts in all kinds of travel, and canny traders besides. While difficult to pin down, Snaw dwarves know stone and earth like few others, and may have access to the secret ways in and out of any nation.
Benn Sliek
Natives: Sliek (for singular, plural, or descriptive)
The silt dwarves of Benn Sliek benefited from dwarven unification and thus prefer life under the Pyrodarchy. Unifying the Benns allowed the Sliek to expand mercantile holdings all around the coasts of the ancestral dwarven lands. Those who once profited from a dwarven dislike of the sea grow nervous as the Sliek work on their own ships and navy. While dwarves are notoriously slow to change, how long before proselytizing dwarves sail out to bring all to heel under the Fire Mountain's glorious will? Sliek dwarves are opportunists more likely to pay lip service to their religion than fervently support it, but they will blow the whistle immediately if they think turning someone in will give them an edge. Sliek dwarves are disliked by other dwarves, but suffer no particular stigmata elsewhere.
DaigomovThe All-Word: Island Laboratory of Extraplanar Inventor-Refugee Gnomes
Natives: Daigomovar, Daigomovara
Major Settlements: Southern Outpost; Eastern Outpost
Less a country than a very large refugee camp, Daigomov is home to the only gnomes on Orbis. The gnomes currently inhabiting Daigomov were the first gnomes on this world, shipwrecked after their interplanar craft fell victim to some unknown phenomenon and they splashed down in the coastal waters west of Shansa. Twenty-two more malfunctioning planesails have crashed on Orbis over the intervening three centuries, though none for four decades now. While much of their technology self-destructed upon arrival, the gnomes proved their ingenuity by settling an island long thought uninhabitable. Calling it Daigomov
('temporary home'), the gnomes built homes from native materials and scavenged shipwrecks. They diligently guard their technology, parting only with the trinkets and small items they export in exchange for certain foods or information. Gnomish hoverafts skim over water at great speed, but fishing skiffs dwarf the largest hoveraft ever seen. The last attempt to steal a hoveraft and crack its secrets led to the Ahresavali Pyre and the deaths of over 400 Scalese more than 50 years ago.
The Daigomovara have spent decades trying to rebuild their “planesails” and return home. Their powerful sciences and magics incur debates among both revolutionaries and the old guard. They are living proof the gods exist and can be terrible in their wrath; they also provide a window on how far technology can be mastered. The gnomes prefer to be left alone to continue their great works, as they retain their technological know-how and assorted components from 12-20 planesail wrecks, but they lack essential resources not native to Orbis. Also, Orbis (or its star system) seemingly acts as a sargasso attracting and trapping gnomish planesails. Any Daigomovara found living away from the
island are younger gnomes born on Orbis who seek to learn more outside their home and who never carry technology not available to others already on Orbis.
DarsuThe All-Word: Holy Nature’s Sanctuary from Unnatural Technology
Natives: Darel/Darsush, Darellar/Darsusha; Darsusha (Darellar never a possessive or descriptor)
Major Settlements: Kernkern; Darkern
Notable Tech: Hunting (camouflaged traps) & Military (bows, arrows)
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Eldest of the Three Crown Kingdoms and home to the Darellar (dawn elves), Darsu dislikes the smell on the winds of change. These staunch purists see engineering as unnatural and its practitioners “over-proud mortals play-acting as gods.” Harsher critics equate those embracing science akin to necromancers & undead: a devaluation of the soul, the tendency to cloister alone, open contempt for those who don't share their thoughts, and no respect for the sacred places of the gods. Darsu's relative isolation away from non-elven nations s aids their fanatic stance and its borders remain closed to any beings with technology beyond what dawn elves have known for centuries. In this, Darellar neither bend to honest diplomacy nor bow to coercive aggression. They understand the value many see in their woods and other resources, ignoring the religious devotions Darellar have for the Horned Hunter’s blessings. Those who trespass often suffer Darsusha arrows through the neck before an axe falls, as many illegal loggers discover (and their masters find only corpses & ruins at their secluded landing sites). Some suggest using invading boats so Darsusha cadres may visit equal violation upon any loggers’ home ports in return, should incursions continue.
DiniumThe All-Word: An Empire Empowered by Change and Weaponry
Situated on the southernmost islands of “civilized” Orbis, Dinium is a human nation in technological transition. Once a stolid bastion of landed gentry and sturdy peasant dichotomy, Dinium has watched carefully and learned from the transitional errors and successes of others. They now as a culture embrace virtually every military application that technology affords them. Weapons factories now dot the eastern coast of Dinium, belching smoke into the sky to arm an increasingly formidable Dinami navy. The nation has changed dramatically with the slow but successive erosion of social boundaries between noble overseers and skilled commoners. While the education system in Dinium still favors the gentry by conventions and costs, skilled commoners may gain entry and often disrupt the traditional noble-dominated parlors with innovative ideas. Dinami colonies and mercantile interests pockmark every Orbisan landmass, and (astonishing to most) all expatriate Dinemm remain loyal to king and country. Dinium reaches outward, and doesn't look to be stopping any time soon, though zealots of the old ways (most notably Blackgate’s guild arcane, and others more covert) work covertly on many levels to slow science’s march or slow it to controllable levels (as they also curb the unregal whims of their self-proclaimed Emperor).
The Great Crocodilian EmpireThe All-Word: Newly Unified Empire Reaching Out for Trade (or Prey)
Natives: Crocodilian, Crocodilians
Major Settlements: Shansha; Temtakheru, D’janji (These are each the capitals of their respective land masses and the names of the sub-nations as well; crocodilians merely shift pronunciation to final syllables when referring to the capital’s name.)
Notable Tech: None; all technology is imported from other nations and peoples. (They most actively seek transports adaptable and usable within their swamps and archipelagoes to aid in trade and internal unity.)
Known in court documents and histories as the Infinitely Unfolding Lotus of Princely Dominion, the Great Crocodilian Empire is three nations brutally unified under the rule of the Maharaja Gundash the First. As most nations on Orbis face revolution and balkanization, this empire grows stronger and more integrated. Its fearsome monarch has eliminated any credible rivals and now seeks to improve his nation and its people. Racism and xenophobia run rampant within the empire, and the three crocodilian peoples within the empire integrate poorly because of this. Nonetheless, the maharaja’s zeal cannot be denied and there are many advantages in acquiescing. The empire’s holdings contain large swathes of jungle, swamp, and highly treacherous archipelagos just off its shores. These make the empire difficult to enter and traverse for trade, though profitable enough to risk. The maharaja and his court lust for goods from the outside world, be they intricate steam engines for building trains or ostentatious works of art that can be mounted in public squares. Where once the crocodilians were insular, now they stride forward, ready to be a part of a globalizing community.
GrunbaiaThe All-Word: A Bastion of Prosperity Through Study & Industry
Natives: Grunbaian, Grunbaians; Grunban
Major Settlements: Seinhaus; Faltar, Schloss Zoltan
Notable Tech: Communications/Education (printing, bookbinding), Military (artillery & heavy weaponry), & Miscellanea (pocket watches, microscopes & other scientific mechanisms)
Grunbaia is the most stable and orderly of “the civilized Orbisan nations” (i.e. southern hemisphere human realms), though only within the past two generations. Characteristic of Grunban practicality, many nobles embraced various sciences and technologies early on, also recognizing their potentials for power and profit. Retaining control by noble and royal patronage also allowed those yet in power to study and control which technologies rose and to what extents.
Industry entered the Grunban domestic character easily since the nobility embraced it and made no effort to keep it out. Imposing factories loom across the northern shores of Grunbaia, emitting engineered goods from ten-pound cannons to the tiny gears of the latest fad: pocket watches. Grunbaia is home to the finest, most respected colleges and universities, and new alchemical discoveries happen there almost daily. Aware of their prosperity, Grunbaians desire to maintain or improve their already good fortunes. This drives Grunbaians to all sorts of pursuits, including adventuring. The only unhappy Grunbaians are their wizards, as modern technology leads more people away from the rune-wise.
HansuThe All-Word: Protectors of Trees, Traitors to Progress (though other elves reverse those sentiments)
Of the three troubled elven nations, Hansu is the realm in most direct peril. Home of the Hanellar (dusk elves), this forested realm has suffered most due to its direct borders with Grunbaia (and indirectly with Grunban trading partners as well). The voracious scientific advancement among the humans, halflings, and dwarves would matter little to the Hansusha, were it all ideas. However, production of those technologies demands efficient fuel for the machines. As the Pyrodarchy of the Benns keeps its coal resources clenched in an iron grip, the holy scaldtrees of the elven forests are the next best thing. Hansu at first rebuffed all negotiations for logging rights to their sacred groves, but weakened across many decades of near-constant border incursions and skirmishes and illegal logging. The costs of defending all but their eastern borders with Darsu coupled with a drop in healthy births (some Hanellar “know” that Grunban factories pollute their rivers, causing many stillbirths) led to the Hansusha seeking to protect their people more than the trees. Now walking a razor’s edge, Hansu seeks ways (including actually studying new less-than-elven ways to cultivate and protect or more quickly induce scaldtree growth) to protect its people and its trees from the encroaching logging camps that now dot their borders. Seen as toothless and cowardly by Darsu and Kostaw, the Hanellar know things may soon change for the worse, and hope to avert a dark fate for themselves and their children…perhaps even by embracing the anathema that is technology to use it against Hansu’s enemies.
The HekonamalaThe All-Word: Aquatic City-States in Cautious Détente with Lightworlders
Natives: Hekon, Hekona
Major Settlements: Broken Reef, Stone Shadow, Steam Blood, Ripple Home
Notable Tech: Travel (submersibles) & Military (subaquatic firearms)
Most surface-dwellers believe hekona all belong to one nation, but that is far from the truth. The oceans are vast, and the small portions habitable by the hekona are few. Each hekonamala (“throne-circles-of-hekonam”) resembles a small surface city-state, and hekona rarely recognize any central authority beyond one individual hekonam, or ruler. (Numerous hekonam hold intricate alliances and treaties that loosely link their cities by trade or mutual defense.) Each hekonamala has its royal palace at the center surrounded by eight rings of streets (one for each hekona limb), the extent of which vary in size depending on the location, conditions, and the relative wealth and strength of a given ruler. Every hekon also remains fiercely patriotic about his or her birthplace, including exiles no longer welcome there. To them, hekonamala is more about people, not place.
The hekona have watched the past century’s changes with amusement, content to watch the air-breathers' nations fight over anything from political borders to physical resources to minutia about godheads. They enjoy some trade with every nation, due to their coastal locations and a notable lack of aggression towards any sovereign nation (each hekonamala trading with no more than two or three specific trading leagues or coastal settlements within two days’ travel). The recent surface-world invention of the diving bell has released bubbles of fear among the hekona, now that air-breathers can visit the ocean floor with far more ease than before. Humans march boldly into every frontier, so many wonder if their ocean will be any different…and for how long…
KostawThe All-Word: A Labyrinth of Lawless Profits and Perils
Natives: Kostan, Kostani
Major Settlements: Kostanow; Voshatano, Yoshatano
Notable Tech: Any available; this region is a source of individual inventors or items deemed too dangerous to develop in other regions (i.e. high explosives, anti-personnel poison gases, etc.)
Unloved by neighbors, Kostaw is the most approachable elven nation, though this says only that their borders do not bristle with active armies. The Kostani (sea elves) had a singularly quiet revolution with repercussions still being heard today. King Armol (since dubbed “the Cowardly” or “the Chaotic”) understood the costs of fighting to keep non-elves at bay and chose a unique solution. In his final royal action, the last Kostani king opened Kostaw’s borders, ended all trade restrictions and tariffs, and fled to parts unknown after abdicating his throne. His lack of a recognized heir or succession amplified the chaos after his departure to
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accomplish exactly what Armol intended—his people are neither trapped by war nor limited by dwindling economic options (unlike Darsu or Hansu).
Kostaw is a governmental and diplomatic nightmare, making it oddly safe, as almost everyone is afraid of Kostaw in every sense. There's no telling whether or not official channels exist, and if so, whether or not any communication will pass through them effectively. More than thirty years from his departure, some begin to see the brilliance of King Armol’s intent in protecting his people. With no reliable information entering or exiting the country, military action is costly to the extreme, so he spared Kostaw the horrors of protracted wars of attrition (unlike Hansu). The only mercantile ventures there are of a piratical nature (and dominated by no one race other than the Kostani themselves), and sea trade has only increased in intensity and volume since Kostaw became effectively a haven for pirates. Anything can be found there, if you're willing to search diligently and pay for good bodyguards. Armol’s choice yet horrifies many Kostani, but his knowledge of both his people and their neighboring powers proved too effective. Legal and illicit forces of all races rely on Kostaw’s liberties for their profits, anonymity, safety, or all three, and even Kostani realize this. For now, they guard their communities and their most sanctified scaldtree groves, but work with, not against, the opportunists (unlike Darsu or Hansu). The most recent generation of sea elves has grown up among pirates and see them as the anti-heroes that saved them from war and reveres “Armol the Prescient” as a wise visionary. Both of these attitudes worry their elders significantly.
RaenmeiThe All-Word: The Halfling Airlords of Orbis Look Down on the Big Races Now
Natives: Raenmei, Raenmeisi
Major Settlements: Raenmei (the capital city-state); there are scores of isolated mountaintop villages used as sky ports for rest, refueling, and news-sharing, though most are smaller than hamlets and unnoticeable save from above. (Benn Stane has long been the largest non-halfling port for Raenmei airships.)
The halflings of Orbis exist as a single nation only because they were herded there by the surrounding human and elven nations millennia ago. The Raenmeisi are long since past resenting their status as the 'idiots' of the continent, and instead turned their thoughts inward and washed their hands of the other races. They remained ignored for centuries, even after the rising tide of scientific revolutions began to flood the continent. They claimed no reaction at all to these changes and sciences, “for your tall-folk fashions come and go, same as ever.” And then, just more than 60 years ago, a lone halfling crossed from Raenmei's sliver
coast to the eastern shore of Dinium without touching the water. He'd invented an unassuming (but soon-considered-glorious) machine of canvas and beams and gasses and fire that could lift a halfling and three hundred pounds of gear and carry them, through the sky, fifty miles. While this was hardly a new or remarkable feat on Orbis, what was extraordinary was doing so with no magic beyond patience and several years of crashes on his family's homestead. The secret of heavy-freight flight has since stayed with the halflings, as they and they alone control all of the zeppelins that are seen in Orbis' skies. Where once halflings were deemed bumpkins to be lumped in the middle of nowhere, now they are a global force in an economic sense, since no one can guarantee safer shipping. While clannish and difficult to understand, given their insular nature and unique language, halflings are starting to spread across Orbis, and are making their mark on a world that once dismissed them as “rustics as small in brain as stature.” A phrase now commonly heard in many trade ports is “Those forever forced to look up took to the skies and enjoy the view in reverse now.”
The Ten Thousand ScalesThe All-Word: An Empire of Tradition Sheltered from Change
Natives: Scalee, Scalese
Major Settlements: The Forbidden City; Jua Lin, Ya-Hei
Notable Tech: Architecture (reinforced & larger buildings) & Construction (concrete)
Largest but the least feared of the human empires, the Ten Thousand Scales dominates its continent, stopping only at the numerous natural barriers that separate it from the nonhuman empires on its borders. Possessed of a massive population, rigid religious control, and a reign of peace that has allowed it to grow and buttress its power significantly, the Ten Thousand Scales and its Emperor has grown lax, believing itself to be a tiger but in truth a fat lazy cat in the far east. While eager to trade with any nation in the world, the Majestic Emperor of the Scales has issued a curious decree, bringing unending frustration to the other humans and dwarves that trade with his empire: “his Glittering Majesty of Ten Thousand Scales shall suffer no feat of engineering, steam engine, or other blasphemous technology not of our own origins within our lands or holdings.” Despite this edict, steam tech does slip its way into isolated parts of the Scales, but must do so quietly. Death for smuggling and sedition awaits those caught with the contraband technology.
While possessed of great resources and many citizens, the Scalese refuse to follow the technological discoveries of their fellow empires, and do not take any military action against neighbors they could easily crush simply by weight of numbers. Why they do not is a topic of endless speculation in parlors the world over. When questioned directly, the Majestic Emperor only smiles and states that he has no need to threaten his neighbors or trade for their
worthless amusements. The technologies the Scalese alone have are their ability to pour and mold stone (i.e. concrete) and build taller buildings without buttresses (i.e. reinforced walls, domes). Scalese engineers travel the world over to sell their architectural or construction services to clients rich enough to afford them, though these secrets are never taught to non-Scalese.
Natives: Xahado, Xahadooli (or particular tribal or national names to be unveiled later)
Major Settlements: Hale Bay (Dinium), Landesfall (Grunbaia), Cote de Teinture (Averny); these are garrisoned colonial settlements equal to large towns in their home states. There are thousands of native villages and hamlets and several hundred towns, though few if any exist on recognized maps other than by colonial explorers mapping out desired resources.
Notable Tech: None, and the general technology level here is at least a century or two behind the colonial powers. There are small pockets of rebels learning how to sabotage colonial technologies to hamper the inevitable march of their oppressors.
Contrary to the ignorant reports of the colonial “civilizing” powers, Xahadool is not one country, but scores of them. Home to the northernmost dwelling humans, Xahadool is a land wracked by hubris. The immense landmass has long been home to a vast mosaic of cultures with no need to battle over apparently endless resources. Conflicts over territory or food supplies occurred only when tribes or peoples grew large enough to expand beyond their natural isolation. Averni, Dinami, and Grunban explorers “discovered” Xahadool at different places and different times (though all within two human generations), but all came with gun and cannon to greet the coastal tribes with their displays of power. The foreign white men sought new trade opportunities and cheap labor. Many coastal tribes saw the way to eliminate nearby rival tribes and claim their territories: use guns to overwhelm them and sell them to the white foreigners. All they asked in return was to share a coastal trading post and use small patches of land for crops transplanted from their homelands. At first, many Xahadooli happily fed their enemies to the foreigners until it became clear they intended to stay and expand their hold over territories and peoples including their erstwhile allies.
The three largest colonial settlements on Xahadooli shores have each spawned networks of at least two or three smaller settlements—trading posts or garrisons—to expand their territories for their respective origin nations. However, unrest at home means the colonies suffer for their parent nations' lack of interest. The native Xahadooli, consistently taught at the barrel of a gun that they are inferior to these
invaders, have something to unite every tribe equally for the first time in their history—mutual hatred of their oppressors. With the empires of the past rolling up their efforts and consolidating their borders, their enslaving grip loosens on Xahadool for the moment. The natives currently fight to reclaim their freedom and power from their colonial “masters” (in some places more effectively than others). Time will tell what Xahadool's ultimate fate is.
Orbis—A Historical Overview
This is only the briefest of peeks into Orbisan history and what’s led to the present-day setting of steam-tech disruptions. There are many more centuries of details and world behind this, but the gist of what has set the world on edge and led to much change for every level of society is noted below.
Two hundred years ago and more, Orbis was a relatively stable near-medieval society can be. The nobility ruled from mansions and castles, their right to rule secured by religious and social conventions. If they had no ability to improve their lots, peasants labored in the fields, mines, or worse. Those with better minds or skills served in other ways—as warriors in the military, craftsmen in the trade guilds, or as learned sages in the colleges. Others touched by the gods learned arcane magic and lore in secluded towers or divine blessings and doctrine in their churches and temples. This life seemed constant and unchanging other than some slow advances in metalwork or other arts.
Someone began to extol the virtues of a new method of producing goods or improving existing goods. The identity of the “First Engineer” is open for debate, as too many Orbisan cultures or group claim to have birthed the process called “engineering.” Its core ethos was simple—“if something does not work or work well enough, change it." Most waved this idea away, insisting that no sane folk abandoned centuries of tradition for no reason.
Some craftsmen and artists listened, despite the disdain of colleagues or patrons, and experimented with new processes. Of these, most gave up after a few tries, taking what little they’d learned from the process and returning to more conventional knowledge. But a select few saw failure not as evidence of a doomed idea but simply a way that didn’t work and adopted these new ideas with newfound zeal. They tried and abandoned many methods in search of elusive yet superior methods or products. There were casualties of this process, both in property and lives, as many did experiments without precautions, and exploration is rarely safe even for those not deemed foolhardy.
Slowly but eventually, results came about almost despite the setbacks. Noblemen now received petitioners they once considered “mad” after seeing the profit in their inventions. These new technologies made peasants more productive with better equipment or processes. Early inventors gave their patrons improved irrigation, safer water supplies, or stronger metal alloys. Now seeing concrete and profitable
