My campaign in Thera, a few suggestions to FASA and help required about the Marac province

Discussion on game mastering Earthdawn. May contain spoilers; caution is recommended!
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windling74
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My campaign in Thera, a few suggestions to FASA and help required about the Marac province

Post by windling74 » Mon Dec 23, 2019 11:14 am

Hi all, I'm an Italian Earthdawn player since the 1st edition ("Earthdawn forever, baby!") and I recently started a Theran campaign as game master, most of my players are not so fond of the Theran yoke, but we are visiting Thera and its provinces ...

I suggest to FASA to revisit Marac too: it is an interesting province where Theran vision of the world strangely adapted to local mysticism. Several topics were left out of "The Theran Empire" sourcebook, for instance Maracan Passions, while Creana revolves around hundreds of them and Vagothia lost its own in a titanic struggle agains Horrors: do you have any suggestion about what Maracan Passions should look like? Other things left out are Dragons and Jinari origins. Earthswallower, a Vasgothian Great Dragon, mentions Jinarimaker: I think it is a Great Dragon and Jinari creator, an Elementalist and Nethermantic genius, given Jinari overpowered abilities. He wanted to create self-perpetuating servants through Elementals and partially succeeded, since Jubruqs are infertile and short-lived. Drakes, on the other hand, cannot sire offsprings, a part for a half-drake half-Human hybrid girl maybe (I hope FASA will speak more of the lab in Creana where Aardelea was studied by Therans ...)

About my campaign: two Vasgothians, a House Zanjan Troll Weaponsmith, aligned to the Empire and a Human Warrior, interested in recovering lore about their Lost Passions (maybe in the Creanan Horror-infested tomb of a former High Initiate, turned Malek follower and now Wormskull ...). The last two characters are apparently a Wizard and a Nethermancer Human Adepts but Jubruq half-brothers in truth, searching for their Jinari father, trapped and smuggled out of Marac. Maybe to a Talean fabrika if I am able to bear the laughable Talean Names (should you go back to Talea too, PLEASE ask an Italian about Names that do not only sound right to non-Italians, I am at your disposal ...).

Bonhumm
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Re: My campaign in Thera, a few suggestions to FASA and help required about the Marac province

Post by Bonhumm » Mon Dec 23, 2019 1:00 pm

Hello.

I recently become a big fan of Marac too.

I had not noticed this 'jinarimaker thing in the Vasgothian section; its interesting but completely open to interpretation; which is probably what the writer intended. Despite the name, I doubt jinari were 'made' as one of the very few details we know about them is that they are spirits; maybe its more someone/thing that is more proficient in summoning them.

As for Marac's Passions, there could be several possibilities:
1- They 'worship' the same as Barsaive through influence from Thera.
2- They worship' a mix of Barsaive/Theran passions and other nearby ones (like perhaps the Creaneans).
3- They just don't have any, the nearest similar thing for them being the jinari themselves.

As for Dragons/Great-Dragons; they might just don't have any either.

My current character is an jaraleh from Marac. I had found, somewhere in the 90s or early '00s, a document on geocities(!) about them; some French guy had wrote a whole 'adept ways-like' file on jaraleh (although they are not actual adepts, more like a Path without an 'adept-only requirement') that I had found very interesting, including things like their origin (jinari!) and their trainings. With the authorization from my GM I used it as a base to create my character and its background. I had to translate the whole thing in English, which sure took some time and I'm thinking of maybe commissioning an artist to illustrate it a bit and find somewhere to release it as fan content.

As for Talean names, lets not forget that we are literally thousands of years from the modern Italy, long, LONG before Lombars, Ostrogoths or Byzantines 'conquered/colonized' the area so the names would be utterly different than the modern or even roman-era names found in Italy. After all, I am yet to find any Ukranian-sounding names in the many NPCs found in Barsaive. :mrgreen:

windling74
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Re: My campaign in Thera, a few suggestions to FASA and help required about the Marac province

Post by windling74 » Sun Jan 05, 2020 9:20 am

Hi Bonhumm, thank you for your very interesting comments.
I reply in order.

About Jinarimaker, I really think it is a Dragon, I feel it!
Dragons are able to create spirits, the Dance of the Blue Spirits ritual is a clear example, and in other places they speak about life creation, I remember Vasdenjas speaking with Tjabdin the Learned about hell hounds or, maybe, gate hounds and the arrogance of Namegivers in trying to create life. We have to extend a bit the definition of what a spirit is, since a drake is not an ally or elemental spirit but I think a Dragon would be able to create an Elemental or Elemental-like spirit.

About Marac's Passions, I think they could worship' a mix of Barsaive/Theran and local ones, because there are many people of theran descent. The Jinari can fill the role of Passions for the sufiks but not for the aalhars. I will have to create a few local Passion for the city dwellers, probably something tied to magic/intellectual abilities. A possibility would definitely be to use some Creanan Passions with different Names: my player met the great Aten-a-par, Court Scribe of Creana and he speculated, speaking with himself, that Marac could possibly be related with the Lands of the West, the creanan afterlife. Gez and similar Passions could be a good starting point.

Unless there is a magical explanation, like in Creana, I doubt there is a place without a Dragon, unless a very dull and uninteresting one: Marac is clearly not such a place, it is a place of magic, philosophy and intellectual debates, a place where dragons would fit very well. The Jinari Mountains seem to be a wonderfully isolated place for a Dragon's lair, protected by many unaware sufik tribes lead by Jinaris.

An interesting idea a jaraleh character! I found many interesting things in geocities too in the past. I could have helped you with French, I currently translate FR in EN/IT :-)

I was joking about Talean Names but they sound reaaally strange, for instance Uomonza, thinking there is Monza (Formula 1 aficionados may know this Name ...), is very strange for me.

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