Let's Make A Setting

This haze follows the 'miasma' theory of disease, so plague doctors bearing torches/ other forms of fire (lanterns?) become a common sight among humans.

Perhaps there's a guild that practically controls human society, dedicated to driving back both the haze and the undead.

Lamplighters, while considered unimportant before the Haze descended, are now considered a vital part of survival. They are many, and hold a lot of power; everyone from the smallest trader to the wealthiest merchant-king must pay their crippling tolls if they wish to transport their wares through the deadly fog.

During the month of Twilight the haze falls upon the earth, strangling those unhappy few who have survived the legions of the dead.

These survivors group up into walled sanctuaries, well stocked with fire, food, and weapons from the rest of the year and allow the undead and the haze free reign over the land. Only the most suicidal travel during these times, and those that do and actually manage to survive are both very valuable, and heavily mistrusted.

That sort of contradicts the finality of "The Haze has descended", don't you think? Like, it seems implied that the Haze came not that long ago and is here to stay.

one of the other posts basically said that there are three moons, and they affect gravity. And another one posited that the haze was affected by lunar cycles, like a tide.

Basically I'm fleshing that out further by giving a 'year-round' type of fluff.

I still would think that the Haze wouldn't go away entirely for large sections of the year. I mean, this is supposed to be the foundation of the setting after all.

Agreed, takes a lot of the oomf from the setting if its not always present.

The Haze is confined mainly to Jeffsylvania in the north. But it's spreading...

Setting over, than?

The question becomes how people survived at all if there is no reprieve, since basically the haze would diffuse light too much for farming to be viable.

I don't see the need to have no reprieve at all, in fact I agree that one is required for life to continue with any semblance of realism. Maybe the lamplighters mentioned in or even just a time of year when the Haze is sufficiently light would allow for the break that would be needed?

The Blight has two stages

>First Exposure
Those affected experience tiredness, chills, nausea and muscular pain as cell growth slows. During this stage The Blight is treatable by keeping the patient warm away from The Haze and administering doses of warm willow sap. The Blight usually rights itself within 2-3 hours if treated.

During this stage the patient must not fall asleep, as unconciousness triggers stage two.

>Stage Two
Should the afflicted fall asleep, most higher brain functions cease to function, and the body enters a coma, cell growth ceases, and cell death begins to set in.

The lamplighters alone wouldn't be sufficient for the reprieve needed for actual agriculture. An alternative though is something like fungus, maybe?

Just spitballing on that one, though. The lamplighters would be necessary to one degree or another though, since the sentient undead would seek to crack open the sanctuaries of the living and extinguish their fires.

Okay, so fungus and other light-independent foods would be staples of the average person's diet. A lot of meat and dairy. What about scientific advancements in agriculture? Elaborate setups of mirrors and glass bringing sunlight down from the surface (yes, I'm directly ripping that from the Bioshock book) might work for small yields.

The problem now is
who has brought wild flora into a prominent part of the setting. (Willow trees being common enough that willow sap was actually seen as a viable medical treatment.)

>The most powerful amongst the Unliving have become titanic.......*things*, that gleefully move forth to devour the living, occasionally gathering hordes of their fellows to partake in the "feast".

I don't see that being a problem, seeing as it's only willow trees (and they might not be that common, making the sap valuable?).

From OP's pic it looks like a very damp dreery place, like enhland, so I'd imagine willows are native

Willow trees would need a good degree of sunlight to have actually come into existence in the first place. Basically if the haze was a permanent 'entity' in the setting (someone has suggested that it is sentient in some way) then flora as we know it on earth wouldn't exist.

(Not trying to be difficult, just a sucker for setting realism.)

compound that with the fact that the haze itself is actually in some way deadly to living things.

I see where you're coming from, and I genuinely appreciate the need for things to be as realistic as possible, but at the same times that realism may need to be smoothed a bit for the sake of convenience and the rule of cool.

With that said, is correct, so maybe the Haze has had some effect of certain plants? Unnaturally keeping them "alive" through some currently unknown method?

We don't know that it applies to plants.

What about instead of willow, it's the sap of trees that grow high upon mountains and hills, where it's adapted to survive with only small amounts of light.

As an alternative, I'm perfectly happy having some form of druid cults also roaming the lands... perhaps they have some way of avoiding the detection of the undead, and magic that protects them from the mist?

Why mix 3 ideas? The willows up in the mountains have some natural immunity to the Haze, and druid cults routinely visit them to harvest their sap and keep them in good health?

Yup, I'm down with this. So are the druids aligned with the lamplighters, cooperative with, or separate entirely?

Funilly enough there is a species of willow that grow upon mountains.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salix_scouleriana

A parasitic relationship might work. The lamplighters make a shitload of money off the trade of the sap, and the druids need the lamplighters for when the for gets too dense.

Second idea/question related to lamplighters, should they be armed and dangerous?

Well there you go, perfect.

>Should they be armed and dangerous?

Certainly. It's been stated throughout this that the undead specifically seek to kill the living (and some of them eat the living) so they'd need to be badass warriors.

Nominally, only the best in the land.

Maybe with gimmicky lamp-based magic?

Straight pyromancy would be the most effective magic at that point... perhaps use the lanterns as a sort of focus? (Maybe they can't spontaneously generate fire, so they need to carry it with them for their magic to work?)

Perhaps once they are undead the sap becomes caustic to them?

Maybe a common tactic is to mix a the with flamable oil, making a sort of napalm.

Due to the value of the sap, it's not often made, even when using small amounts.

Willow sap grenades. Now isn't that a strange thought? Still, I could get behind this. Every noble carries at least one willow sap grenade at all times, and they're often seen as something of a status symbol.

(What do you guys think?)

So semi-firebenders and sorta-alchemists? I can dig it.

I like it, valuable both monetarily and protection wise.

Such things would certainly be necessary to combat the larger undead a la
that guy.

Wonder if different 'sanctuary cities' have different techniques, or if there's some sort of centralized school.

Why not both? One centralized school that teaches the basics, and then a bunch of smaller more specialized schools that teach entirely different combat styles?

Once, a selfless man even lit himself on fire durring a Haze.

Where did the gaze come from?

Likely no one knows for sure, but scholars likely have theories.

*Haze

XBurial is likely uncommon, if not suicidally dangerous

Given fire is worshipped, cremation would likely be tradition.

One of the more popular theories is that it was caused by a cult that worshiped a dead god and succeeded in some dark ritual. There is very little evidence to support this, save for unreliable claims that mysterious grey-robed individuals have been seen stalking the fog among large groupings of the undead.

>they are many, and they charge crippling rates
Are they all unionized or something? How would they not try to compete with each other's prices to gain more customers, which would eventually drive the price down.

Well, frankly I kind of see it something like

The first undead, rose because of its hatred for all the living that had scorned it during its life. Wherever it went, it generated an impenetrable haze that would sap the vitality of all within and raise them to become like it.

So basically, undead create mist- mist creates undead.

But totally open to denial on that one.

Essentially yes, they are unionized. One big happy organization.

Though that does bring up something to be considered, and that is rogue-lamplighters operating alone. Dangerous work it is, but they charge less for their services. Unfortunately, most end up paying for this decision with far much more than they had intended.

A cult of plague doctors were once able to witness the birth of one of these titans, managing to imprison it with a binding circle made with willow sap and torches. They study the creature while a group of druids and lamplighters defend the keep against the ebb and flow of the Unliving horde summoned by the monstrosity's plaintive calls.

Likely an already high base cost due to having to procure sap from the druids, oil for the lanterns and weapons the fight off the undead. People feel safer when they're escorted by a more well armed lamplighter, so are willing to pay the costs for more safety.

Things change in the Haze, basements and doorways (that certainly weren't there before) tend to appear and disappear with the descent of the miasma. People who get lost in the unearthly geometry either find themselves in the thick of the Haze, outside of their safe havens, or are never seen again.

What if certain plants are somehow immune? Willow sap curing the afflicted and all.

How are animals affected by the haze? Do the corpses fuse together or what?

All of these problems would be solved if lamplighters would be cheap and could be hired en masse. Then they could just use the lamps to grow crops and remain alive during an enduring haze.

And the best lamplighters, of course, belong to the Lamplighters Guild. Equipment costs covered, high-class lodgings for a fair-but-modest fee, and don't forget the connections one can make. What sane man would choose to go rogue, risking their lives without support? And on their own dime, no less!

...

A common theory is that Pyromancy and the haze originate from the same source.

The school of pyromancy originated from writings within the tombs of ancient sun warriors.

Some believe that the sun warriors created the haze using twisted pyromancy, as a trap to protect their tombs.

What other sort of weapons would they use besides torches as Willowsap Grenades?

Perhaps modified bullets, containing volatile alchemic mixtures?

Maybe some type of pole-arm with an inner-chamber that contains lamp oil (or spears coated in willow sap?)

Guns being controversial might be an interesting way to take it. The Haze may be fairly light in most places, but in especially dense areas guns would be a nightmare to use. No meaningful sightlines would play Hell with even the most experienced gunfighter. Especially if you factor in the difficulties that come with reloading in the middle of a fight in the Haze.

Cool, thanks for the big spoon to feed myself with.

Like a gunlance? (If you've ever played a Monster Hunter game)

Not exactly... basically use some physics and what you get is a weapon that you can (potentially) swing around and hit things with, that's pretty much on fire for as long as you need it. (Basically design it to protect from the wind, and the internal reservoir should keep it going.)

Something with multiple tines, like a trident or a ranseur, to hold the undead back in case they try to use sheer numbers. Staff slings are criminally underrated, too, those could be used to hurl the grenades!

Defnitley. Maybe they'd be using pikes more than straight spears. (Perhaps pikes with some prongs at the end?) since those were designed specifically to deal with charging enemies.

As a bit of an aside, I wonder if most of humanity would basically move underground? I mean, it'd be a lot safer to construct an underground fortress, what with that whole mist business.

Cremation doesn't really handle bones all that well.... corpse mills anyone? (grind corpses into literal corpse-paste, then cremate it.)

Humanity could either go underground or up onto stilts. Buildings could be raised up above the Haze upon ashlar/concrete columns in some areas where digging wasn't feasible.

How do the undead behave when they encounter the living? Do they run headlong screaming for living flesh, or do they shamble along and leap out of hiding?

Maybe old breweries and storagehouses got exapanded and connected to form warrens.

Reminder that fire makes the Haze go away ()

I can imagine alchemists setting up networks of pipes beneath the city that move fuel around to street lamps.

Due to a higher dependance on meat, rendered fat could be used to create oils and fuels

Makes the _haze_ go away, but not the undead that the haze spawns. The undead hate fire and will seek to destroy it at every opportunity, meaning that heavily fortified positions will be an absolute necessity.

So have different cities taking up different philosophies to stay out of the fog. You've got Misthold the last true surface city, Deep Canyon the self-explanatory, and New Kingsland home of the king and built above the ruins of the old capital.

>Amongst the number of the larger Unliving, there are creatures only known as "Gibberers", terrible horrors whose forms are not known as they cloak themselves within the shadows of the Haze, but can be identified by the maddening screech they emit that distorts the very air around them.

Could nomadic cities be a thing?

>Sometimes a horse dies deep in the Haze, exhausted after running in a blind panic. When it shudders into unlife, it becomes a Nightmare, bloated with corrosive fumes that it bellows forth upon its victims as it charges in for the kill.
>In some places, cats act as wards against the undead, warning their living friends whenever those claimed by the Haze have returned. Undead, regardless of their mental capacity, show nothing but unease around cats - especially since the Haze seems to have a weaker hold over felines.

Nomadic cities? Seems like too much of a risk for most people. It'd wouldn't be unlikely for a large group of people with such an inclination to band together though, so a town-sized caravan wouldn't be totally ludicrous. The danger-level would be high, though.

>Could nomadic cities be a thing?

Maybe the druids? But ultimately it's a very ineffective survival method in the proposed setting simply because the more you move the less time you have to set up defenses and acquire resources.

The Sun Warriors of Pyromancy's origins worshiped lions as the avatar of a sun god, and often depicted cats as their messengers.

>cats protect against the undead

>need new and innovative weapons

>starts tying cat to a stick

/thread

>Cats defend against monstrous abominations.
I have been waiting for this.

I wonder if cryptids are a thing? Clearly this is something of a mid-magic setting, so maybe things like gryphons or pegasi could be utilized by the people? I dunno, does that sound too 'out there' for this setting?

>I dunno, does that sound too 'out there' for this setting?
Robo-Beasts might be possible. Or perhaps they could be some manner of spirit, or heavily mutated wildlife.

...

bump

I too shall provide the "Bump".

Have you seen those conglomerate monstrosities? They shamble out of the haze, belching that foul mist. I've heard they can rip whole men in half.

This whole cat aside is dumb as fuck and isn't in line with the tone of the setting at all. It should be considered horrible and removed from the setting as a whole.

>Some alchemists have tried to study the haze before..... All attempts have ended in failure, in fact they usually make things worst for the surrounding area intensifying the haze or creating new forms of corrupted 'life' to wander the world: One such example would be the skin eaters, flayed corpses with a intense desire to devour skin, they leave corpses intact besides the skin.

I agree. It doesn't fit the grittiness of the setting from any of the other posts in the thread.

If anything, it should be superstition and that's it.

>Usually the new creatures are the result of the focus of the research being twisted into the opposite.
>The skin eaters were the result of alchemists trying to make a elixir to protect ones flesh against the more intense effects of the haze, of course the first test resulted in the skin eaters.
>another alchemist group was trying to figure out how to ward away the creatures resulted in the swarm stations, corpses with the limbs hacked off that attract hordes to them from hundreds of miles around.