A is for Allons-y!

It’s been a while since I last posted as I’ve been busy with real life stuff. I missed a couple months of the RPG Blog Carnival, which I had not intended. Then along comes Codex Anathema with this month’s theme, Celebrating Your Favorite Campaign Setting, which they are doing in conjunction with April A to Z Blogging Challenge. So I thought this might be a good way to get back to the blog, and continue working on the campaign I am currently designing (although not yet playing, since several players had to back out just before we started T.T).

Of course, I’m a few days late in starting the A to Z challenge, and even if I post once a day, I won’t get to Z by the end of April. Also, daily challenges are often very challenging for me, so we’ll see how long this goes. On the other hand, I’ve already worked out what goes with each letter, so it might be easier than I thought.

This first post is an intro to the city of Rusheniya, which is my favorite setting as it’s the one I’m currently working on. I was reading what I already wrote about the city again last night, and getting excited about it once more. So let’s go!

The City of Rusheniya (roosh en’ ya) is the southern-most city of the kingdom of Korolevsto, and is home to over 100,000 people.  It was built on the ruins of a more ancient city, about which little is known.  Not all of that city was ruined, however, as the main fortress, along with numerous smaller buildings, foundations, and features, are constructed of some sort of magical stone, currently dubbed fellstone.  Wizards have studied fellstone since the discovery of the ruins 800 years ago, but have not been able to duplicate the stone or its properties.

Rusheniya is the only city located on the south shore of a large inland sea; the rest of the kingdom resides far to the north. With only long shipping lanes to connect it to the capital city, Rusheniya has enjoyed some amount of independence, as well as neglect. Many nobles come here to get away from the court intrigues of the capital; others come because the king has deemed them too difficult or embarrassing to keep close, but too valuable to exile completely. As a result, the nobles of Rusheniya fall into two general categories: those who are willing to curry favor with and do anything for the royal family in order to return from the outskirts of the kingdom, and those who consider the rest of the kingdom to be irrelevant to and uncaring about their needs and desires. One of the factions working in Rusheniya is a group of separatists who believe the city could become independent from the rest of the kingdom.

The citizens already enjoy some level of independence, as the city guard rotates in from the capital city, and the guards see their duty here as merely performative. As a rule, the guard is more loyal to the nobles who are willing to pay them a little extra than they are to the Rusheniya government and the local Captain of the Guard. Additionally, the city’s food supply comes from local farmers and fisherfolk; local quarries supply the clay needed for making ceramic ware; wood is harvested from the nearby forests; and other goods such as metalwork and livestock can be gained by trading with the non-human societies on this side of the inland sea. Aside from luxury goods, such as spices, silks, and some entertainments, Rusheniya is self-sufficient.

The city’s remote location, competing factions, and ancient buried history provide lots of room for interesting city-based adventures involving exploration and intrigue. I’m looking forward to getting a campaign going in the city at some point!