A Feast for Crows: Starting Area for the Campaign

One of the great questions a GM faces when contemplating a Totems of the Dead campaign is, “where to start?” Totems takes place on a continent called the Untamed Lands. It is a campaign world larger than North America, every part of which is filled with interesting cultures and sources of conflict.

The map for the Untamed Lands is no longer available on Gun Metal Game’s web site, though you can find it on the web. If you were to look at the map you would see that the geography of the Untamed Lands is roughly based on that of North America and part of South America. Its cultures, too, are roughly based on those found in our own earth’s past.

In the far south are the Matzlani and Yaurcoan Empires, which are the Totem equivalents to the Aztec and Inca empires respectively. The Matzlani Empire has recently completed a great road through the Anazi Badlands and is threatening to invade the northern lands.

To the west you have the native cultures of the rain soaked Eagle Coast and the towering Grandfather Mountains. These cultures are clashing with the city-state of Shen, an outpost established by a more technologically advanced empire from beyond the Western Ocean.

In the icy north, you have a culture reflecting that of the Inuit. Another foreign people, the Ruskar, have appeared in the northwest. They come from over the sea, riding strange war beasts, brandishing steel, and drinking vodka. The evil winter spirit of the Wendigo dwells in the arctic. It is growing stronger and expanding father southwards every year.

In the east, a great forest stretches from the coast to the heartland of the continent. The native cultures mimic those of the Algonquin tribes, with longhouses and strange burial mounds dotting the landscape. In the northeast, the Skadians have invaded and displaced the native tribes. The Skadians wear horned helms, favor great axes, and ply the oceans in dragonships. The Skadians continue to expand their lands, pushing to the west and south.

Somewhere off of the eastern coast of the Untamed Lands lies the mysterious and somewhat evil island of Atlantis, another civilization with knowledge of iron working and seagoing ships. The sorcerers and slavers of Atlantis have been raiding and scouting the coasts of the Untamed Lands. There are rumors that Atlantis is planning a large scale invasion.

So I had the Untamed Lands, and I needed a place to start. I initially thought of starting the campaign roughly where Indianapolis would be on the map. From the Players Guide, I knew that the area would be in the middle of several native tribal groupings: the League of the Longhouse, the Iniwek Confederacy, the League of Three Fires, and the Te-Rok Alliance. The area would provide easy plot hooks as these four groups jockeyed for position. However, I was lacking the foreign cultures that had recently made an appearance on the continent, and I wanted them to be prominent parts of the campaign. That meant that the party would have to be closer to the eastern coast.

The Players Guide mentioned a tribal group, the Wannua Confederacy, which lived on the east coast.  The Wannuans were being pushed closer and closer to the coast by the larger and stronger League of the Longhouse. To the south, the Tsenacomacah League was a new and aggressive tribal grouping. From the map, I could see that the Wannua Confederacy was also being threatened by the ever expanding Skadians to the northeast. I could bring Atlantis into play with the Wannua Confederacy being a coastal nation.

So I had a starting area ripe with intrigue and politics. The fundamental question is whether or not the Wannua Confederacy will survive. The League of the Longhouse and the Skadians both want the land occupied by the Wannuans. At some point the Tsenacomacah League will be drawn into whatever conflict arises, but on whose side? At the edge of the conflict lurks Atlantis, with sorcery that could tip the balance.

So, the first adventures of the party will take place in the lands of the Wannua Confederacy against the backdrop of the machinations of all these rival factions. Throw in a dark cult; a mad wizard or two; and you have the basis for some good adventures.

I decided that all of the PCs would call the League of the Longhouse home. This not only provides a common point of reference for all of the PCs, it also makes the fate of the Wannua Confederacy less important to them. If they want to become involved in the politics of the area, they have options. They might want to help the League of the Longhouse destroy the Confederacy or they might want to convince their chieftains to make peace. They might end up helping Atlantis or the Tsenacomacah League make the Confederacy a puppet state, or any number of other options.

Most likely, my players won’t care about what army is marching through which lands, or that the evil sorcerer they killed was allied with what nation. They’ll just want to throw dice and kill things. This is fine. I usually get players engaged with a setting through character backgrounds. I'll be discussing those next post.

Tim