Ailric’s Gurps Pages

I have been running a bi-weekly Gurps fantasy campaign for about two years now. I hope to include many of the links to information for my homegrown world on these pages shortly.

Introduction

My campaign is set in the kingdom of Ryath (pr, Ree-oth). It is a fairly typical high middle-ages ere kingdom, with a strong dash of late renaissance flavor added in for good measure. Of course being a fantasy kingdom I have many of the fantasy staples, including magic, dwarves (known as Thard), orcs (a more intelligent and organized variety), Halflings, and dragons.

I have purposefully left out Elves however. They do exist in my world, but in most civilized cultures there is strong hatred for them. I feel that they are a great race, but I have deliberately put them on the sidelines and forbid players from running elven characters. Elves are far to frequently overplayed, so this was my original campaign consideration to give them a more mysterious feel. After all, the cultures in my world may hate the elves, but the elves are not necessarily evil.

Dragons too are far less common. These creatures are meant to be godlike in my world and in fact their supposed accociation with the elves has influence the attitude toward elves. My players have never yet come across a dragon. They have encounted Wyverns (and intelligently avoided them), and there is a fairy dragon that has associated with them at times, but overall dragons are meant to be legendary creatures of mythic proportions, and my players aren’t quite their yet.

My Dwarves do not live underground. They live in towns and villages above ground in swiss-like Nordic settlements. They are of course for most intents typical fantasy dwarves. I’ve played them with Scottish accents, but dressed in Leiderhosen.

As you may have noticed so far, I try to avoid too many of the standard fantasy clichés. Sure it’s a medieval kingdom, but half the nobles share attitudes directly out of pre-revolutionary France. Most of the mages of the realm spend their time frivolously making small magical gadgets to entertain the nobility, or to simplify the harder tasks in life, not traveling on quests to fight demons and retrieve hordes of treasure. They are typically seen as decadent.

The dominant religion is a pantheon of gods led by the god of the sun, and justice, Oreleck, yet there is a certain level of animism in the dominant worship by the people, not to mention the very Roman semi-worship of departed family members. The Church champions the people. Not totally unlike the medieval Church of Rome, yet they are far less corrupt. They educate and heal the people, act as lawyers, clerks, and judges (along with the nobility), and keep detailed records. The are different gods, and they have different roles, yet know one worships one god to the exclusion of others as I have seen in to many D&D campaigns. When aid is needed you call upon the god who best suits the situation. Yet Oreleck, like Zeus, Osirus, or Ra, is seen as the head, while the others are almost saints. For Oreleck is the God who protects the culture itself.

Recent Events

Recently a Ryathan army led by the Kingdom Marshal Duke Xyleth (zee-leth) closed a gateway that had been letting possessing demons into the world. These Bloat Demons- Men who had been possessed by evil spirits and transformed into bear-sized beasts with the power to animate any formerly living matter- had been rampaging through the countryside destroying villages and laying waste to the woodlands. Their animated legions, though unorganized proved impossible to defeat without destroying the source within the Ruins of Cray Keep.

Now that the Great Cloud has vanished from the sky, true daylight returns to the northern lands, yet bloat demons and wights still exist here and there, threatening any who pass their way…

Okay so much for an intro to my world…

Ailric