Thread: Information about the Northern Young Kingdoms ?

I am currently planning to move my Asornok setting to another background universe
with a geography that fits the setting concept of a remote culture of arctic hunters.
Looking at a map of the Young Kingdoms, the Stormbringer universe could be a good
choice, and by converting the available material into a description of a slightly diffe-
rent plane of existence I could eliminate the original plotline and some elements I dis-
like and replace them with what I need for my setting.

However, before I start any serious work on this I would like to collect the already
available informations about the northern parts of the Stormbringer world, especially
the region of the northern Pale Sea: Tarkesh, Ilmiora and whatever is north of them.
I already have MRQII Elric of Melnibone, MRQII/Legend Secrets of the Steppes and
the Atlas of the Young Kingdoms I, and I would love to hear about other material
which describes the lands and societies along the coasts of the northern Pale Sea
in more detail.

Thank you very much for any comment or information.

I'm not entirely sure what was published in the MRQ Elric line. I've read parts of it, but haven't really internalized it.

I think you want to expand your search to include Pikarayd and Dorel on the Sourthern Continent. Probably more Dorel than Pikarayd. Remember that the Young Kingdoms, despite it's ancient history, is a changing land that is very much hewn from the stuff of Chaos. It doesn't necessarily make geographic sense. There's also room for you to add if it suits your purposes.

As far as arctic climes, there's not much currently written that I know about. Just brainstorming here, but you could borrow from Arflane and Ice Schooner and drop in a place that's icy wasteland, with monstrous migrating landwhales and ships on huge iron iceblade and then mash it with teh Middlemarch from the Von Bek stories. It's a plane with porous boarders to areas of the Young Kingdoms. If you wanted more of a knightly setting with heavy overtones of the presence of Pan Tang sorcery, deadly Clackars and the silent Myrrhyn, you could drop it in northern Tarkesh. If you want a more tribal feel with the Elemental Lords playing a larger role and the civilization of the old Lormyrian Republic on one side and the very boarders of Chaos on the other you could drop it into Dorel.

I really like the Young Kingdoms because it's evocative but sketchily defined and it's reality is in a state of flux. The world can change depending upon teh influence of the lords of entropy.

I think I will use the east coast of the Pale Sea. Secrets of the Steppes describes the
region south of where I intend to locate Asornok quite well, and Talons of Winter with
even more informations about this region will probably be published in the near future.

My main reason to move the Asor to the Young Kingdoms is that the cultures there are
not just stereotypes of historical real world cultures. It is a bit too much work for me
to design a complete world around the small part I am really interested in, so I tend to
adapt published worlds for my games. Unfortunately in most such published worlds the
North is inevitably the home region of some kind of "vikings", and the other cultures are
also just versions of already too well known cultures - it tends to become a little boring.
The Young Kingdoms are a more original creation, which makes it possible to give my
Asor setting a new, different "feel".

My main problem with the Young Kingdoms is that they are a rather High Fantasy world,
while I prefer a more Low Fantasy, pseudo-realistic approach with more distant deities,
fewer demons and similar powerful entities and also less powerful magic. Fortunately the
Young Kingdoms seem flexible enough for a modification to "tone down" their feel some-
what, especially when the focus of the setting is on a remote region which is of little in-
terest to the "superpowers".

Absolutely. Pan Tang become a bunch of dirty mabden worshipping chaos cults. They're into mutilation and sacrifices that occasionally call something from beyond up. It's more for favor of the DUkes of Hell and to keep them at bay.

Melnibone is the heart of a fallen empire, drug addled and ruling by the false threat of dragon attack. Sack the place or keep it as an amorphous distant threat.

Take a knife to the setting. I fully endorse it.

If you are looking for other places to set Asornok you should consider Nehwon. Questbird is a poster here that has a long running BRP campaign in the setting and could steer you right. It's also an easy one to cut some of the extraneous magic out of.

Of course, you may find players who are more familiar with Lankhmar than they are of Melnibone.