Novymir (Campaign Seed)
History of Novymir[edit]
At the dawn of time the great god-spirit Ymir rose from his frozen tomb to begin the creation of the world. After four days he had created all of Novymir, but he had found his new world to be empty with only himself to observe it, and so Ymir crafted life. He experimented with all the variety he could imagine, but soon with this too, he grew bored. Leaving his inventions to their own devices, he continued to sculpt the earth beyond Novymir, and after many days and many nights of building, grew tired of his labor and returned once more to Novymir.
In his absence however, his creations had wrought chaos despite all that he had given them, he showed them his frustration and the world shuddered. After this Ymir realized that the world no longer held any place for him, and that his creations had aged beyond the infancy he had held them for. And so it was that Ymir fashioned seven lesser spirit gods to oversee the world he had forged, before taking his leave of Novymir forever to expand The World Beyond with countless others like it.
Among Ymir's many creations, the most prominent in Novymir following his passing was Man. Balanced in hardiness and intellect, they formulated the first bastions of civilization in the form of the four great tribes. The Tribe of the North, with it's embrace of noble huntsmanship, The Tribe of the West, with the tranquil honor of the great plains, The Tribe of the East, with its deepened understanding of the world, and The Tribe of the South, with a passion as hot as the sands. The four tribes found themselves in constant interaction, through trading, through war, and through coincidence. However, they were not the only of Ymir's creations to find a place among his world: From the row of stony peaks that would become known as The Demon-Spine came the Goblins, from the South came the Orcs. And while the four tribes united to make the Southern threat all but destroyed, the intelligent cunning of the Goblins brought their race the forefront of conflict with the Humans. In the Tribes of West and South, attack from the Goblins was impossible, but to the East and West, the invaders could spell their doom. As the tribes became more and more isolated with personal struggles, their relationships dissolved, and the Age of Awakening had begun.
This new age had no time for mercy, it was an age of survival, and as the rift between the mortal world and the ceaseless Void began to blur, the demonic hordes of Ymir's Frustration began to seep once more into the world. Survival was against unfair odds.
An Introduction To Novymir[edit]
This setting first began conception a number of years ago, when I was (at around the same coincidental time in retrospect) introduced to the world of Robert E. Howard's original Conan stories as well as the unlikely companion piece to reading those books: The Warrior Cats series by Erin Hunter. I had always held the two unconnected, wanting to hold a campaign set in the savage lands of Hyborea, while at the same time thinking of how cool it would be to watch players interact in seemingly living, breathing social clan communities. Condition these two major ideas with a motivation to actually do something with them, and suddenly the Novymir setting was born. It definitely takes a lot after its "source material", also including some influence from the beginning of William King's wonderful Space Wolves novels (tribal life and warfare galore), but in the end, it is my hope that there is something to be made of smashing all these ideas together, and that Novymir will become the localized dark-world I want it to be. The setting differs most greatly from many others due to it's unique time frame and small world space. Novymir is set in what some might interpret as the latter end of the Stone-Age, with tribal cultures on the cusp of civilization, but decidedly before the Bronze Age proper. The fantasy of the world is largely downplayed, the intelligent races are refined to Man, Goblins, and Orcs, the magic is lessened, the monsters are wild, and an acrid sense of realism grounds the setting from working up into romantics. This is a harsh and brutal world where only the strongest and the smartest survive.
Hopefully some of this stuff intrigues you, or is at least worth a gander of a look, but without further commentary, the world of Novymir. - The Violet Citadel
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