Trivium: Worldbuilding

Mechanics | Design Goals | Worldbuilding | Skeleton | Draft Archetypes

Note: I am pretty bad at writing.

The Three Builders and the Tyrant

In the beginning, a leonin, a vedalken, a human, and a rodent, each from four great civilizations of old, met upon the banks of the Decimbrii River and pledged to found the first great city of Forvium. The leonin, whose golden mane enjoyed the blessings of the gods, built shrines and taught his followers to honor the gods properly, an act which brought divine favor to the budding city. The vedalken, whose great mind and way with words were unparalleled even today, brought order to the masses and arbitrated disputes among the people as the city flourished under the gods. The human, who was the hardiest of the lot, trained Forvium's people to defend the city from any hostility it garnered as the city drew the attention of its neighbors. Finally, the rodent, the ever-traveller, built the streets and roads and aqueducts of the new city to ensure its people lived in comfort compared to the harsh uncertainty of life outside the walls. Over the course of many years, they each worked tirelessly to build Forvium to be the finest city on the entire plane.

One day, Claussi himself, the father of the gods, descended from his heavenly throne atop the clouds to honor the builders of Forvium. To the leonin, he gifted him an ivory shield that would never break. To the vedalken, a bronze tome contained with the knowledge of all great civilizations past and present. To the human, a golden sword that gleamed brightly even in the darkest of nights. And, to the rodent, a single silver coin that could never be lost.

The rodent looked upon his gift with disappointment. "I have given my life to the people," he thought, "Yet Claussi rewards my tireless efforts with a single coin?" He grew resentful of his peers. As the days wore on, he his resentment festered into envy and hatred. In an act of sacrilege, he ordered that the silver coin he received by smelted down and fashioned into a dagger, gnarled and grizzly. Finally, when he could bear his hatred no longer, he stabbed his former colleagues in the back with the knife he made, and declared to the people that he was the sole ruler of Forvium.

The rodent ruled as a tyrant and a hedonist, committing sacrilege after sacrilege as he wrote and passed laws based on his whim. Those that followed him ran rampant across the city in a whole manner of debauchery, taking what they wanted from wealthy and poor alike. Gone were his younger days of working for the citizens of Forvium - it was the people's time to give back to him, now that he was nearing the end of his life.

It is at this point that a leonin, by the name of Pompius, led the resistance to the tyranny of the rodent. Pompius, a devout servant to the gods, convinced the remaining elites in Forvium to stage a coup on the rodent king, who had grown fat and decadent in the five years he had now reigned as tyrant. On the fifth day of Spring, Pompius led a spirited charge into the rodent's home, eventually capturing and killing the rodent with the same knife he used to kill his peers so long ago. The people cheered - Pompius had freed then from the cruelty they had endured, and they held a lavish celebration for him and their newfound freedom. Pompius then brought forth the rodent's twisted silver dagger and plunged it into the ground at the center of the city. "This," he declared, "shall stand as testament that no tyrant ever again oppress our great city under the yoke of tyranny." He then announced his retirement. When presented with the ability to obtain ultimate power of the city, Pompius did what few could - he rejected it. "If I were to take the rodent's place, I would be naught but another tyrant, no matter how benevolent." he said. And so he then asked the elites who had supported him in his efforts to liberate the city to form a regular council that would govern the city - the establishment of the first Senate.

In the aftermath of the liberation, the newly formed Senate then declared that this was the beginning of a new era for the people of Forvium. They renamed the city Trivium, as the rodent, in his greed and ambition, lost sight of the city's founding principles and therefore lost his place among the now Three Builders of Trivium. He would be forever remembered as a tyrant in the eyes of the people, and his name was forgotten to time. His followers either all fled the city of surrendered themselves subject to the punishment of the Senate. Those that remained were stripped of their rank and power, and many ended up working for various landowners or elite senators as servants. As for the silver dagger in the heart of the city, twelve iron tablets were erected around them detailing the laws governing the city, symbolizing the rejection of autocracy over traditional law.

And so the state of Trivium was founded.

The Three Superior Gods

The three main gods of Trivian religion are Chrollo, Altea, and Tarpeia. These three are the commonly accepted "progenitors" of the world; while they do not physically manifest on the world like the gods of Theros or Amonkhet, their presence is nevertheless felt through the shamans and clerics of each region. Respectively, the three gods rule over the skies, the earth, and the underworld.

Chrollo is the main god paid tribute to in Trivium itself, the father of the lesser gods and brother to Altea and Tarpeia. He oversees all actions from the skies and is the main adjudicator of justice in Trivium. His authority solely pertains those in higher orders of society - politics and religion. He is the subject of many of the grand temples in Trivium, and travellers often pay tribute to him for good weather during their journeys. His primary worshipers are {w} {u} {g} .

Altea is the mother of the land and seas, who is said to have birthed many of the lesser gods and the progenitors of each race. Each race has their own way of depicting her, and it is commonly accepted that she can change her appearance at will. Her authority pertains to earthly habits and desires - she is the protector of the family, the supplier of wine, and the nurturer of wildlife. While she is primarily worshiped in Xanthium, many Trivians also pay tribute to her in their homes and small temples, for health and good luck in childbearing and love affairs. Her primary worshipers are {w} {g} {r} .

Tarpeia is the keeper of the underworld and nurturer of the dead. In addition to the underworld, she is often associated with cleanliness and fashion. Her reach extends as far as the back alleys of Trivium, which are often cleaned by her worshippers in order to appease her. Similarly, funeral rites often involve a full bath and scrub-down for the deceased, in order to purify the dead so that they may present themselves fashionably before her. She is often described as fickle or whimsical; if she favors a person, she will poison or kill them in order to bring them into her domain. One of the primary myths surrounding her is that she loves the spoken word and song. The Sisters of Tarpeia, one of her primary sects, stand watch over the many mausoleums and catacombs of Trivium, keeping them clean, never ceasing in song or prayer. Her primary worshipers are {b} {g} {w} .

The Magic of Speech

On this plane, the spoken word carries much magical energy. Trivium's mastery over the spoken word is the primary reason for the unprecedented growth of the city into a flourishing empire. The Senate is made up a body of elites, who pride themselves on their excellent oratory and military skills. A single sentence from a master orator hurled at their enemy can leave the enemy crippled. Duels may often break out as shouting matches between two influential senators, with the effects of the feuding senators being felt across the city. In the legions, military commands issued by a charismatic officer can turn the tide of a battle and inspire Trivian soldiers to fight with the strength of ten of their enemies. Their laws, which bind people to the city and society, are codified words in which, through law magic, bind its citizens to the residual power of the laws' enactors.

Trivium does not hold a monopoly on this magic; however, the uses for the spoken magic differ in the surrounding states. In the state of Klebios, to the East of Trivium, aven and vedalken use their excellent oratory skills for science and philosophy, infusing their magical power into the machinery of their creations. These creations, many of which involve weapons of war, provide the states with their primary defenses while the soldiers of Klebios often make directly for the enemy bases. The mages who do not have a knack for designing weapons of war often preach to their soldiers or rulers, infusing them with knowledge of tactics and governance passed down through the centuries of Klebian history.

In Xanthium, the region to the north of Trivium, leonin orators beckon the gods of the plane to bestow favor upon their warriors. The Xanthians are deeply religious and superstitious, and are often said to have a one-way line of communication to even Claussi himself. Through these divine favors, a young Xanthian orator can find himself made king of his tribe if he can secure bountious harvests and major victories in battle.

The Kurlites to the west of Trivium, being a loose confederation of hill tribes, generally do not have much use for magic over might, but still employ similar methods to the military magic used in Trivium. Their warcries are gutteral and barbaric, and are said to grow louder the more soldiers are around to hear it. The fiercest of these loud-mouthed warriors can shatter eardrums and cause cranial hemorrhaging with a loud enough shout, though that may just the due to sheer force of will of the warrior rather than any inherent magical power. Because of their rejection of spoken magic, the Kurlites are often labelled as uncivilized savages.

The merchant empire to the south of Trivium, Morcassa, uses persuasion as its primary form of spoken magic. Primarily traders by nature, Morcassa relies on persuading its neighbors and vassals to wage their wars for them, and can often make an army turn on their commander with just a few suggestive words. In their recent wars against Trivium, all direct assaults on Morcassa failed because no Trivian general would dare to go near it, fearing that their own soldiers would turn on them at the suggestion of the Morcassans.

Other forms of magic are mostly observed through the various creatures that inhabit the plane. To the Trivians and the Xanthians, this is thought to be evidence of the gods' existence. The word for 'animal', in the native Trivian tongue, for example, literally translates to 'gods' work'. Throughout the centuries, many have attempted to tame the beasts, though only a few of the magical animals have been successfully tamed by the Xanthians, who are feared for their massive boars and beasts that can tear through the battlefield.

Status Quo

In the last fifty years of the city, the Senate has grown more and more distant from the people they serve. After winning a number of minor wars against their neighboring powers early on (almost completely wiping them out), Trivium stood at the height of its power; it could now easily rival the four great civilizations of old - Klebios, Xanthium, Kurl, and Morcassa. And so, when the ruling powers in Morcassa decided that Trivium had grown too powerful and needed to be checked, they began a prolonged trade war with Trivium, hoping to goad them into a battle in which the whole of the plane would stand united against them. The Trivians, ever proud, took the challenge - first declaring war on Morcassa, and then, when the other civilizations declared war against Trivium, declaring war on them. Now beset upon all sides, Trivium quickly enacted wartime measures and declared a single person, Agrian, the consul ad pax - consul until peace. He would manage and oversee the war against the four powers until each power was completely subdued.

Agrian, who had made a name for himself as a devotee of the state, asked of his friend Noblius to oversee the war in Klebios. Noblius happily obliged, eager to prove himself as the plane's greatest general, and marched his legions to the city-states of Klebios to quickly eliminate the eastern threat. He marched from city-state to city-state, utilizing the greatest tactics seen in history to quickly breach the fortified cities. The Klebians, who had prepared themselves for a long siege while the Trivians slowly starved due to their ongoing trade wars, were quickly overwhelmed and surrendered to less-than-fair terms set by Noblius.

Their eastern side secured, Agrian quickly reestablished trade with Klebios, promising them that their sovereignty will be kept as long as they continued to aid them against the other three powers. The next target on their hit list were the marauding Xanthians to the north, in order to prevent the city being beset upon by two opposite sides. While Noblius was busy discussing terms of surrender with the Klebians, Agrian sent Erthus, a vedalken senator-general known for his stoicism, to the north to treat with Xanthium. Xanthium was a special case for the Trivians, who had long claimed their ancestral roots in the area, so Agrian wanted to avoid total war with them if possible. Erthus, however, had mixed results. While he did manage to convince some of the tribes of an alliance, his cold demeanor and apparent disdain for the uncivilized regions in the North left a poor taste in many Xanthian tribes. Erthus, dismayed at the lack of capitulation displayed by the Xanthians, concluded that the Xanthian question was to be answered with steel and fire rather than pen and paper.

Because of Erthus's failure in Xanthium, many senators, who already resented their loss of power against the ever-shakier Morcassan triple alliance, began calling for Agrian to cede his position to a more capable leader who could treat with the Xanthians and put a swift end to the Morcassan menace. However, what Agrian had done was win himself over with the people. During his tenure, in order to ease civil unrest at home, he implemented a number of populist reforms which made life a little easier to the lower class and gave them more political power. He also mentored and publicly supported many non-Senate families in Trivium, which earned him a number of sycophants with enough political clout so that any strong opposition could be dealt with on the senate floor.

In addition, Noblius, who had recently returned to the city after securing peace in Klebios, immediately set upon calling for another crusade - this time to Morcassa. Morcassa was the heart of the alliance, and therefore must be dealt with first, he argued. Any further resistance that continued after Morcassa was defeated would be shaky at best, as the Kurls and the Xanthians did not care much for each other's presence. The Senate, however, wanted to secure an alliance with Xanthian first and saw Noblius's plan as reckless and foolhardy. Their concerns were largely due to self-interest. They feared what another successful campaign of Noblius would do to Agrian and Noblius's popular support. If the public supported them, they could, theoretically, overthrow the Senate and declare themselves king of Trivium - a fate anathema to Trivium's beliefs and, therefore, its continued survival. So, by any means necessary, they opposed any plan that Noblius would carry out.

Updated on 20 Jul 2017 by Mal