Tome of World Building Session 4 - Foreign Powers
Previously
We left off after getting an idea of the number and size of the other continents - or planetoids in our setting. Earlier posts document building a setting using Mythmere Games books Tome of World Building and The Nomicon.
- Session 1: Genre & Theme - The first post defined the setting's tone: heavy metal gonzo sword & planet in an asteroid field. What would normally be the world's continents will be planetoids and dwarf planets in the field. Fact-based science like breathable atmosphere and gravity specifics are hand-waved unless it brings something to the fiction. Vibes over realism but still gritty and deadly.
- Session 2: The Cosmic Machine - Here, the universe is established a self-replicating machine intelligence composed of the forces of Law, Neutrality, and Chaos. Each of these Primordial forces vie for dominance over the other two in an endless, but necessary, cycle.
- Session 3: Broken Worlds - At the end of the War of Harmony the final battle ("Harugawa's Wrath") was waged for control of the Graviton Hammer. The aftermath left most worlds in ruin, the shattered remnants scattered in what seems like an infinite field of asteroids and dwarf worlds. Among these planetoids, is the Nutiri region (sector? zone?) containing the starting dwarf planet and supporting asteroids that this exercise will develop.
- The Codex - A post about using Obsidian to keep records of what comes out of these world building procedures. Currently, this is only accessible to myself for now.
The Other Planetoids
Rerolling Names
At this point, the Tome recommends naming the non-primary continents, or planetoids in our case. This was already done back in Tome of World Building Session 3: Broken Worlds. It gave us something to hang onto while working through the tables. Now that a few weeks have passed, some of these names don't quite sound right. This is a good excuse to roll up some alternatives.
All planetoids will get a chance for a new name, including the primary starting dwarf planet of Nutiri. This will be two sets of d100s - one for the first syllable and a second set for the second syllables.
| Original | Rolls | Result | Comments | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nutiri | 41, 8 | Mbo, boria | Combines for "M'boboria" or "Moboria". "bob" and "bore" stick out too much. | Nutiri |
| Choachiri | 35, 41 | Jho, mor | Neither the original or "Jhomor" stand out but since we already have an -iri planetoid, "Jhomor" wins. Might remove the "h" later. | Jhomor |
| Nuavria | 70, 61 | Thol, siri | "Tholsiri". Besides having a strange rythm, a well-known digital assistant's name is right there. Dropping that suffix leaves a short, primal, and weighty name. | Thol |
| Ucia | 17, 14 | Ezo, cea | The combined result of "Ezocea" is not that far from the original. Has a random feel to it. | Ucia |
| Yvea | 96, 95 | Yu, zol | After letting "Yuzol" stew for several days, the original name actually feels right. | Yvea |
With only two changes, the final planetoid names are:
- Nutiri
- Jhomor
- Thol
- Ucia
- Yvea
About Those Other Rocks
Each of the non-starting planetoids now gets a number of named political powers along with two other interesting features. These details are all colored from the point-of-view of those living on Nutiri.
There's a built-in bias with expected inaccuracies - practically this just means we aren't strictly bound by what's rolled up here. These are from a quick look at what's going on in these other planetoids and not a deep dive.
I see how easy it would be to get bogged down with details on specific planetoids. Lingering too long on these is a roadblock to getting on with the rest of the setting, so we'll roll up the upper limit of recommended features for each one. Two rolled features is plenty to spark imagination and a foundation to build on later, if needed.
Of Empires and City-States
Each planetoid gets a d6 roll to determine how many major powers are on it. These results are the first facts we're learning about any of these places.
| Planetoid | Roll | Result | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jhomor | 5 | Dominated by two great empires. Both empires are capable of travel to Nutiri. | These two civilizations could be major factions in this region of the asteroid field. |
| Thol | 6 | Dominated by two great empires. Only one empire is capable of travel to Nutiri. | What is know of the second Tholian empire is only through the lens of the first space-faring empire. |
| Ucia | 4 | Dominated by warring powers. One or more has the ability to travel to Nutiri. | Powers implied to be city-states. Note that these wars are based on politics or other grievances but explicitly not on religion. A 1d4 gives us 2 city states with each having a 50% chance of having space flight (47 and 29, both do). We'll still have room for other non-state factions to be in this fight later. |
| Yvea | Dominated by the empire of a god-king or queen. | Re-rolled repeat result. "God-queen" seems to have more potential and flavor than a king. The lore-keepers of this setting believe her to be either the avatar of a god, a god's representative, or secretly an alien/eldritch horror from beyond., Giving her a name from Table 2-4: Eldritch God NamesTN, we get Ambhesangu from a 5 (Ambhe-) and 56 (-sangu). |
Naming the Distant Empires
Now, the book points out, is a good time to name these distant empires and powers. The Nomicon has just the table we need for political entities that works for smaller ones, like city-states, as well. Re-rolled one result due to being a real ancient city that's one of the "New 7 Wonders of the World".
| Planetoid | Polity | Roll | Rolled Result | Final Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jhomor | Empire 1: Space-faring | 76, 47 | Suol-Morai | Sulorai |
| Empire 2: Space-faring | 53, 71 | Nua-Sutrapa | Nasutra | |
| Thol | Empire 1: Space-faring | 71, 80 | Shu-Tcho | Shutcho |
| Empire 2 | 91, 53 | Yol-Pai | Yolpai | |
| Ucia | City-State | 27, 82 | Iul-Thara | Ulthara |
| City-State | 7, 83 | Bual-Thatra | Bulthatra | |
| Yvea | Empire | 100, | Zul- | Zul-Paraj |
The Powers That Be
To summarize this session we now have:
Jhomor
Dominated by two empires: Suol-Morai and Nasutra. Both are at peace and capable of space travel to Nutiri and beyond.
Thol
Dominated by two empires: Shutcho and Yolpai. The empires are currently at peace. Only Shutcho is capable of space travel to Nutiri and beyond.
Ucia
Dominated by two warring city-states: Ulthara and Bulthatra.
Yvea
Ruled by the Zul-Paraj Empire and their God-Queen Ambhesangu.
Next
The next worldbuilding session will be a look at just what exists on the other asteroids in this region of the Field before we move on to our starting dwarf planet of Nutiri.