Being the Official Discussion Forum for HYPERBOREA®, a role-playing game of swords, sorcery, and weird science-fantasy
Visit us at the HYPERBOREA web site!
1 of 1- Druvas
- Adventurer
Offline 
- Registered: 3/09/2014
- Posts: 227
Yithorium
My players are close to finishing up Xaambala and it seems they have some interest in seeking employment from the Witch Queen. In light of that, I am planning to flesh out Yithorium and give it the Xaambala treatment. I think Anthrophagie is a fantastic setting/adventure and want to emulate its style.
I am happy to hear from those that may have already fleshed out that city or have some thoughts on how it might be developed.
In chatting with ghul he confirmed that the Witch Queen is generally based on the evil twin in the Howard Conan story ‘A Witch Shall Be Born’. The city itself is based around a 100’ tower of alien origin. There are springs/oasis’s there as well. I’m leaning heavily towards a city design resembling Angkor Thom/ Angkor Wat. Namely, a city with spring-fed canals and something resembling a moat, but otherwise unwalled.
Howard’s Witch Queen is thoroughly despotic, and a fairly insatiable evil, well... witch. Debauchery rules the city. Anyone that catches her or her advisors eyes are snatched from the streets regardless of station. Is that a sustainable element in Hyperboria? Obviously Conan overthrows the Witch Queen in a relatively short time where as in Hyperboria she is ageless and has been in power for a very long time. That sort of behavior doesn’t lend itself to long-term rule.
Anyway, I’m straying a bit but feel free to chime in with ideas for Yithorium. If you are one of my players, get the@$?! out of here. :-)
- Brock Savage
- Swordsman
Offline
- From: Plateau of Leng
- Registered: 10/16/2016
- Posts: 357
Re: Yithorium
Druvas wrote:
The city itself is based around a 100’ tower of alien origin.
The alien black towers are a big part of the Hyperborean mythology and yet were wisely left vague so DMs could make the setting their own. We can speculate based on the facts, however. Back in the day she was a common adventurer. Something happened when she claimed the black tower; it is undoubtedly related to the cyclopean skyscrapers of black gneiss in Khromarium. I imagine that within the tower she acquired the means to extend life. Perhaps the lovers she takes every so often are part of a ritual which must be performed every so often to ensure immortality.
That sort of behavior doesn’t lend itself to long-term rule.
I agree and imagine that the Witch Queen was inspired by Salome and is not a mere copy. The Witch Queen has ruled Yithorium for nearly 700 years and encourages mining so long as she gets her cut. This implies that society under her is bearable and stable enough for regular life to go on. She may be cruel and capricious but people still live fairly normal lives going to work, raising children, celebrating festivals, and running businesses. Living in fear, most commoners either try to avoid her notice or give her cringing fawning worshipful submission. Long story short, run the Witch Queen like Uday Hussein, not Pol Pot.
Anyway, I’m straying a bit but feel free to chime in with ideas for Yithorium. If you are one of my players, get the@$?! out of here. :-)
I am using the Witch Queen as a hook to the marvelous Operation Unfathomable. One of her lovers ran off to Underborea with an artifact of hers. Perhaps the very artifact crucial to her immortality (obviously the players won't know this). .
My players are close to finishing up Xaambala and it seems they have some interest in seeking employment from the Witch Queen.
The Witch Queen makes a good hook for adventures. If your party wants to work for her it is helpful to start with what she wants and work from there.
To live forever.
To stay in power.
Pleasure
Make money.
Get rid of those desert nomads
How can the party help her with those five things? Why isn't she using her own people? She almost certainly has her own coterie of adventurers on call. Plot twist: perhaps the same adventurers who accompanied her into the black tower 7 centuries ago.
Last edited by Brock Savage (5/07/2019 4:57 pm)
© 2009-2024 North Wind Adventures, LLC. “HYPERBOREA” is a registered trademark of North Wind Adventures, LLC. “Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea,” “AS&SH,” and all other North Wind Adventures product names and their respective logos are trademarks of North Wind Adventures, LLC in the USA and other countries. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.