Between the Serpents of Smoke & Steel - Setting Primer

Here is a very rough primer on the setting for my campaign, Between the Serpents of Smoke & Steel (either BSSS or just Smoke and Steel for short from now on). This is mostly for the benefits of my players, but hey - why not get a blog post out of it while I'm at it?

General Inspiration 

The sales pitch is - Ancient Mesopotamia as written by Robert E. Howard. Though with less racism, hopefully.

So while set in what should be a Bronze Age society, there is still plenty of iron and even steel (I mean it is in the name of the campaign after all), along with borrowing very loosely from the actual historical realities of Sumer, Babylon and Assyria. The Mesopotamian aspect is going to be mostly just an aesthetic coat over fairly typical S&S nonsense. 

The setting is very human-centric. There are no elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes or other such standard fare. Most people you will run into are either humans, or something else, but difficult to identify and put into a neat box. 

Background

The Fertile Lands is the most used name for the territory in the immediate vicinity of the Twin Serpents rivers. The Lands were ruled for several centuries by an empire - not a particularly large one, but a local power in it's own right. However the old empire is no more. About 100 years ago it fell and broke apart under the pressure of the various barbarian groups that had been steadily pushing into its territory for a few decades. That combined with internal problems and pressure resulted in its ultimate rupture and dissolution into a variety of petty kingdoms, city-states, even semi-nomadic groups like the Chariot People. 

The fall of the empire also heralded a more metaphysical shift (or perhaps the shift was what ultimately cased the downfall. It's never easy to say with these kinds of things) in the landscape. The forces of Law, represented by the legalistic, bureaucratic and conservative empire, grew weaker, and an incursion of the forces of Chaos soon followed. Some of those were through mortal agents like the northern barbarian folk, some were a bit more alien, like the enormous chaos worm that devoured an entire city from underneath, leaving a massive gaping wound in the landscape from which hordes of demonic beings spread across the Fertile Lands. 

Violence and death had become very common place around the Twin Serpents. And while the otherworldly vanguard of Chaos was pushed back, Law is still weak. This is where the campaign begins - The city-states, kingdoms, tribes and others all feeling the pressure of this conflict impressed upon their once relatively peaceful lands. Sides are picked, one way or the other, with consequences that mortal minds can only barely comprehend. 

People of the Fertile Lands

Being the territory of a former Empire the Fertile Lands has a fairly wide variety in human appearances. However some trends are still noticed - most people tend to have dark hair, ranging from dark brown to glossy black, skin ranging from dark olive to very deep brown, and eyes ranging in all human ranges, and some not found in Earthly humans, such as red, orange, yellow and so on. 

Material Culture

Being, as stated earlier, a riff on Mesopotamia written by Robert E. Howard the material culture of the Fertile Lands broadly maps to a confused mix of various ancient Mesopotamian cultures, except with way more iron and steel than existed on Earth in that time period. 

Think this kind of stuff, but with way more iron and steel mixed in there.

There are certain things one might expect in a typical D&D fare that are not present - there are no double handed swords, no European Renaissance style plate armor, no lanterns, and so on. Chain armor exists, but is quite rare. Most heavy armor tends to be made of iron or steel scales. 

Due to the dangers from wild animals, bandits, warlords, nomads, demons and other things lurking in the wilds, most humans have retreated to the safety of heavily fortified cities. Most farming is done either close to the city itself, or in the few remaining smaller towns and fortified villages. What is left of the empire's population has become highly urbanized by necessity. 

Culture and Religion

Generally quite rigid, though less so since the fall of the empire. The nobility and priesthood are often one and the same in most cities, though not always. Slavery is common, but also not as widespread as it was during the height of the empire - a lot of slaves got themselves freed during the turmoil and are, understandably, very unwilling to go back to servitude. 

The gods of the cities are distant, if not dead. Magic often comes from either people like sorcerers, or people who gain their magic through pacts with powerful entities like the kings of the Elementals, the Lords of Chaos and Law, or other entities of that caliber. A lot of the common people still maintain the old rituals, mostly out of habit, but it seems the god rarely do much to answer them. 

With law being now fragmented and highly decentralized, those who are daring and willing to risk their life for it can go out and make a name for themselves, where otherwise the system would have shoved them back into their spot. Petty warlords, tyrants, cult leaders, "benevolent" dictators and others spring up everywhere on a daily basis. Maybe with some luck and coin, your character might also be one of them. 

One of the biggest mortal forces to occupy the power vacuum left by the break up of the empire has been The Golden Fraternity. A combination of descendants (and in some cases, actual members using life-extending magics) of the old noble caste of the empire, now turned into ruthless merchant-lords. They control virtually all major traffic up and down the Twin Serpents rivers and they can be found almost everywhere, save for the smallest and most wretched villages. 

The next post is going to give a bit more detail on the Undying City, the starting location for the campaign. 

And to close this off, some more visual inspiration! 

Art credits go to whoever drew all of this amazing stuff. Unfortunately I found most of it through Pinterest, so no way in hell I could figure out the artist for most of these.