Dragon Age: The Still Song of the Silent Choir
Though the voluminous records of the Orlesian Chantry purport to inform us that the most ancient and terrible power of Dumat, Dragon of Silence, Greatest of the Old Gods of the spell-ruled Empire of Tevinter and the first of the Archdemons of the Blight, was forever ended at the apocalyptic Battle of the Silent Plain in -203 Ancient (992 TE)... the truth of the matter has long been thrown into shadow by the imagination and inquiry of minds un-disposed to accept the self-assured pronouncements of the Chantry's scholar-priests. Although it is known that the blight-tainted remains of the so-called Dragon of Silence were transported with great care to the isolated Greywarden Fortress of Weisshaupt, the famed fortress of the Greywardens whose lofty spires are set high upon the jagged promontory of the Broken Tooth in the Southern Anderfels, the subsequent disposition of the Old God's remains continues to be a subject of persistent whispered speculation among those not beholden to the rigid constraints of the accounts issued by the indoctrinated scribes of the Orlesian Chantry. To be sure, it is set down by the Chantry's chroniclers that the year -189 Ancient (1006 TE) witnessed the Senior Warden Sashamiri draw upon the malign power of Dumat's blood to entomb his former high-priest Corypheus in a magical prison concealed deep within the depths of the Vimmark Mountains. According to the official accounts of the year, the valiant Greywarden then destroyed the Old God's remains... according to the official accounts...
Know, then, that it is the year 9:32 Dragon -- dark days and darker nights together cast their shadows upon the lands of Thedas in the troubled aftermath of the Fifth Blight. The free peoples of the lands pray earnestly to the Maker for a respite from the terrors of the Blight, clinging desperately to the hope that the hard-won defeat of the Archdemon Urthemiel will usher in a new age of peace and renewed life for the peoples of the Dragon Age. But less hopeful whispers have already begun to gather in the shadows... the dark power of Dumat was not extinguished, only contained, by the power of the Grey Warden, and now the sinister machinations of a hidden cabal descended from the Blood Mages of ancient Tevinter, the Silent Choir, seek to restore the ancient power of the Dragon of Silence. It is said they seek out the remains and regalia of the Old God in order to accomplish their dread intention, and that they have been driven mad by the alien siren melody of the Old God's wordless symphony... only time will tell the truth of the matter...
Hey there, this is an interest check for a potential game set in the Dragon Age universe. I'm honestly gathering a sense of interest before I spend hours putting together the specifics of the build rules for potential applicants.
First, system. There are a few options I've considered. The issue with the Green Ronin Dragon Age RPG is there's no SRD, which restricts the potential players to those who own or are willing to purchase the books, and it's also fairly limited in terms of homebrewing -- it'd require a lot of it to do anything besides the base options in the game, and I'm intending to deepen/expand the lore in some respects, so that's going to be a difficult fit for what I have in mind. Consequently, I had in mind to use some kind d20/3.5/Pathfinder conversion. There have been a few fan attempts at this, if you want to look at these for inspiration for the kinds of rules I'd probably end up using:
https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2liws?Dragon-AgeConversion
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...on-Help-wanted
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...n-Age-Homebrew
In this case, I think I'd probably just outline some build rules and acceptable sources and have to largely trust the players to be informed enough about the setting to make mechanical choices that make sense for the campaign rather than try to outline every possible fluff-acceptable build option. I could see the advantage of this approach being that it would be possible to have more sophisticated and detailed mechanics for setting-specific elements like Blight taint. The additional bonus here would be that probably you could make a game with free materials from some combination of the Archives of Nethys, pfsrd20, the Spheres of Power wiki, and The Library of Metzofitz. I don't necessarily have specific options in mind from these sources, just a general sense that, with some imagination, you could probably create something setting-appropriate out of these various iterations of the Pathfinder ruleset.
Nevertheless, I had to list a system to post this, and that's my immediate thought, but I'd be willing to discuss other possibilities like Savage Worlds if there's a viable group but they'd prefer different mechanics.
Secondly, setting fluff. This campaign would be set right after the first game -- Origins. I don't want to get into a big debate, but I'm not 100% wedded to and satisfied with some of the cosmological and deep lore reveals just made in Veilguard, or some of the other setting changes from Inquisition.
Aesthetically, this would be more Horror-Fantasy/Dark-Fantasy, and thus more similar to the Origins aesthetic, and I might have some alternative explanations for some of the setting mysteries, or leave some of them unresolved (i.e., the existence or nature of the Maker, the exact identity of the Old Gods and the Forgotten Ones, etc.).
I have also developed some of my own fan-fic lore that expands the setting such as a hugely expanded map with new lands to the north and east just as large as the expanded map revealed in Tevinter Nights. My thought here is that the powers of Thedas start to expand in reaction to Qunari incursions and end up founding colonies and establishing trade contacts in the lands which lie to the east of Thedas. There is also a powerful splinter/successor state of the ancient Tevinter Imperium that continues to worship the Old Gods and which split off after the foundation of the Imperial Chantry that lies beyond the vast jungles to the north.
The games have extensive but not complete lore -- I've also made up more details of the hierarchy of the Orlesian and Imperial Chantries and added to the bestiary -- for instance, there is a domesticated subspecies of wyverns known as tharkót, whose eggs were treated with red lyrium, and that are employed by some garrisons of the Orlesian Chantry. These sorts of details are, to my mind, not retcons but instead reasonable extensions of existing lore to make the setting more complex and complete.
Generally, I'm looking for players that are already somewhat familiar with the setting or are willing to spend a good bit of time reading the relevant wikis to get up to speed (that's sort of the whole point of using a published setting to begin with, and it won't be much fun on my end if no one is familiar with the setting and I have to re-re-explain basic aspects of the world over and over again), but who are comfortable with some expansions/adumbrations to the setting that may not 100% line up with the video game canon.
Finally, in terms of format, I've made hundreds of AI images for this campaign -- if that really bothers you, I'd rather not play together, as I find it a very helpful world-building tool that helps to illustrate things I can sort of imagine but don't have the skill to draw. I'm not going to debate it, I just don't want to play if you're inclined to argue about it.
Justivius Arrend-al-Thoth, Justicar of the Order of the Piercing Siren of the Divine Chantry of the Maker of the Blessed Kingdom of Antiva. He bears the sacred altrescepter of Divine Joyous, a portable reliquary of red lyrium by means of which the Justicar inextricably detects and then forcibly extirpates the corruption of the cursed blood magic of ancient Tevinter. He bears emblazoned upon his body the sacred red tattoos, made of ink laced with red lyrium, that signify the flames that consumed the divine Andraste. His armor is laced also with red lyrium. He has been dispatched by the dolorous executor-sybils of the Choir of the Canticle of Final Judgement to root out the rumor of a cabal of the Silent Choir in the hinterland settlement of Tarwin's Rest, a sleepy town whose environs are rumored to encompass a deep rock tomb constructed in the days of the Tevinter Imperium to house the remains of one of the Old God Dumat's seneschal-priests. His recent appearance at the Chapel of the Unrestrained Symphony of the Maker of the Worlds has caused some degree of unrest among the local clergy, one Vicar Clytamestra Salonimyca the Bright-eyed, as well as the members of her congregation. Is the Justicar's arrival to be taken as a condemnation of their inability to stave off the corruption of the Old Gods, whose worshippers were responsible for the First Sin which caused the Maker to turn from the mortal peoples of Thedas?
The Sacred Mausoleum of Vicar Assariel of the Choir of the Canticle of the Restored Creation. The sleepy town of Tarwin's Rest receives an usual influx of Andrastian pilgrims eager to visit the tomb-shrine of the venerated Vicar Assariel, the revered superintendent of the predecessor shrine of the Chapel of the Unrestrained Symphony of the Maker of the Worlds. This holy site, the Blessed Shrine of the Maker's Swift-Winged Song, was destroyed by a large force of Darkspawn during the dark days of the Fourth Blight. The vicar in whose memory the Mausoleum was erected was martyred striking down the Genlock cabalist who led the Darkspawn.
The bustling hitherwinds highway enters Tarwin's Rest over the crowded expanse of the Cammerwin Bridge, which fords a wide river from which it derives its name. The bridge is the host of many merchants and a seasonal market. The White Phoenix and the Golden Griffin are competing inns which face one another across the expanse of Provender's Square.
A local variety of beast of burden known as a drelvar or drelevar to the serf-castes or 'shidrig' of Tarwin's Rest. The drelvar are bred in a variety of subspecies for different agricultural and industrial functions. Several wild subspecies have also evolved gradually from escaped specimens or accidental cross-breedings with local fauna.
Tarwin's Rest lies on the border of the Empire of Orlais and the Kingdom of Nevarra, along the coastlands of the Shinning Sea. The town was established in the wake of the Third Blight on the ruins of an older settlement whose origins lie in the predecessors of the Kingdom of Nevarra. The elaborate cemetery and crematoria of this older settlement still present an impressive landmark on the Henslemarch Hills that overlook the bustling streets of the town, especially the large mausoleums located on the so-called 'Three Kings' of the Henlsemarch's -- Hancher's Bluff, the Kardhorn, and the Scarlet Hill. The Sacred Mausoleum of Vicar Assariel of the Choir of the Canticle of the Restored Creation was erected on the outskirts of this older mortuary grounds. The deep waters of the Cammerwin River are an aquatic avenue for trade, and the Valere Road, the Highesway, the Goldemarche, and the Hitherwinds overland routes likewise provide ready access to the township for traders and travelers from throughout the inhabited midlands of Thedas. The deep waters of the Cammerwin and the fortifications of the Cammerwin Bridge protect the town's northern approach, while a deep moat, dug from the shores of the Cammerwin, as well as a high earthworks surmounted by hundreds of thousands of sharpened stakes surround the settlement on the south. The Andrastian Chapel of the Unrestrained Symphony of the Maker of the Worlds stands on a low hill overlooking the Highemarkte, also known as the Wyvern Square because of the large ornamental statue which stands atop the fountain at the heart of the town center. The north side of the Cammerwin is made up of slums and the 'traveler' or 'roamer' caravans of the semi nomadic navannani and basclanseuskaldunak peoples of the Orlesian hinterlands. The southern shores of the Cammerwin host the estates of the local gentry and the most successful merchants, the former lying to the west of the docks and town center, and the latter to the east.
The Valdus Region of the Orlais-Nevarra borderlands. To the South is the Shinning Sea. An eastern extension of the Vinmarks known as the Varnkrags or the Vornhoorns dominates the midsection of this temperate coastal region. The heights of the mountains contain ancient ruins which are believed to have been established by refugees from the ancient Neromenian temple city of Barindur. Signs of the worship of Dumat and Razikale have been purportedly discovered by spleunkers and archaeolgists from the towns and cities of the lowlands. Two wide strips of desolated territory, known as the Blightways, are desiccated remnants of the Third Blight, and are stalked by twisted flora and fauna tainted by the foul touch of the Old God's corruption. Tarwin's Rest lies south of the Varnkrags within the waterfed coastal regions known as the Glittering Coast, the Bright Delta, and the Sunwise Rivervales.
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