This page is one specifically for the campaign world I am crafting with my players, and will eventually have for a download.  But this page is a way to get started in Tir Avalon, find out how it came about, and some of the lands within it’s vast homelands.

TIR AVALON PREMISE

Tir Avalon is a multi input world,but it started with a single book that led to a question.  “The Mists of Avalon” by Marrion Zimmer Bradley.  One of the VERY interesting parts is that the Island of Avalon travels through the mists.  SO I said was thinking about his, and realised I never knew the answer to where it went when it left.  And such is how the world of Tir Avalon is from .  But while that was certainly the catalyst, and does in fact inspire a lot of world lore in TA, there are actually so many places in the world.  The way I thought about it, what was the REASON it traveled.  The how was less important, but the WHY…

There is loads of lore of the “Magic” of people like Merlin and such.  Where did that magic go?  If we had real practical magic at hand, we’d be using it right?  What if it was stolen then?  So Tir Avalon travels to all sorts of worlds, and steals the magic from their lands, then it takes it back to Tir Avalon, and sets the magic free into the world.  Magic as a result has periods of lessening in power due to less and less magic in the world, and periods of maximum power when the magic is freshly released into the lands.  This ALSO had the added surprise of bringing back cultures, lore and items from all manner of worlds, as well as peoples.  The upshot of this, is that if you can come up with a character, and a way with the GM for that character to exist in the world, then it’s a valid character.  Except Gnomes, no Gnomes.  Or as I will now call them…Gnopes!  I digress.  This also means spells, magic, classes and in one very powerful shift, and entire culture, living walking Gods and all!

Tir Avalon also has a slightly Celtic feel to everything.  The most powerful people in the world are Druids.  Each nation has one representative of the Druid Council there supporting the ruler(s) of said nation.

The lands of Tir Avalon are expansive.  3 Continents, 13 countries, 2/3 of the world explored and “civilised”.  And while both culture and mythology merged into Tir Avalon as it sits today, there are also some lands that while civilised in so far as they have a native population, but they are stand alone in their design.  Here are some quick rundowns on some of the main countries the world has:

  • We have an Empire similar to the design of Rome, and the Roman age, but the main population are Minotaurs.
  • We have an Egyptian style land based on the Gods of Egypt movie and more (see below).
  • We have a western European land which is a sort of English civilisation with French influence.
  • We have a small island where Halflings are native, and mix with the Fey

There are also a lot of cultures to explore and find yet.

The world has a lot of areas from popular films, TV and books incorporated into them.  Min Misr is briefly touched on as an example (below) of how I use the reference material(s).

Films

  • 13th Warrior
  • Willow
  • Gods of Egypt
  • Excalibur
  • Krull
  • Kull the Conquerer
  • Conan the Barbarian
  • The Princess Bride
  • Stargate
  • The Ranger’s Apprentice books.
  • loads, loads, LOADS more…

Where I am taking elements of a lot of books, movies and / or TV I like and are interesting, and mixing as much of it as I can into the world so that it works, and has some of the flavor of each to give the world a lot of options. I am also not excluding all but fantasy for this too, I like to mix it up a little, and you will see how below.  While concepts come from these sources, they are also found here with my interpretation of them as well, which is shown in rules, and what the world contains. Unique enough to be my work, but inspired clearly by the sources I use.

One of the first areas detailed was that of Min Misr.  This is an Egyptian style land, I will cite the example sources I am referencing for it first, and then break down a little of how I am applying the source material:

EXAMPLES OF DESIGN BASED ON SOURCES

Min Misr is an Egyptian campaign area, sources include:

  • Gods of Egypt (film)
  • The Mummy / Scorpion King series;
  • Stargate (Movie and TV Series’)
  • Old mummy horror movies.
  • John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice series (books)

HOW MIN MISR WAS DESIGNED

MOST of the inspiration comes from the movie “Gods of Egypt”.  I liked the theme of actually having the gods walking around with the people.  So Min Misr has at it’s heart that large city expanse of the movie, and the gods walking around.  But being gods; they are also targets of those who would hurt or harm them or the land.  As such Stargate inspires the guards of the gods. In the Stargate series, Teal’c was a Jaf’fa, and first prime of Apophis.  So the guards wear a special armor called Royal Guard Armor (see below).  Like the Stargate series the head pieces fold into the neck.  In this case it’s a magic “blending” property which forms the helmet around the head of the guard.  They wear a splint mail chest piece, with Primes having a golden trim to the splint pieces.  See the item description below.

The other item they have is a powerful staff weapon called an Ankh-Staff.  An Ankh-Staff in Stargate terms is similar to the Staff Weapon of the Goa’Uld from the movie and TV.  The Ankh-Staff resembles an ordinary metal bound quarterstaff, but the caps are small Ankhs in them etched into the ends.  Each staff can be fired only by a member of the guard, or under special circumstances, they act as a +1 Quarterstaff when wielded in melee by anyone, but can also fire magic missiles (10 charges / day) at level 1 – 3. User can vary for free when firing the number of bolts to use, one two or three, using the level wanted costs that many charges.  The Ankh-Staff requires a long rest to recharge 1d6 Charges.  Anyone other than a Royal guard would not be able to make the weapon fire, but they could still use it as a +1 Quarterstaff.

Royal Guard Armor (requires attuning)
Royal Guard Armor (requires attuning):
Breastplate +2 when worn in “Off” mode.
Splint Mail Adamantine +2 when in “On” mode. Includes a helm with the design of the god the guard is in service to, that grows up around the head, and includes the removal of critical damage (decapitation). The armor may be activated once per day per level of the guard, and can only stay active for 1 hour at a time.
When the armor is activated (bonus action) the wearer’s Breastplate expands down the legs and arms to form Splint Mail equivalent armor. So the user needs to meet the requirements to be able to wear the armor AND activate it.
Additionally there is a Guard Captains version, where the edges of the armor in both modes have a gold trim. Guard Captains can maintain their armor in “On” mode as long as they wish. Theirs is also +3 with all the other benefits.

So there we have an example, where i have taken the idea of the Ja’ffa weapon and armor and made it different, but still inspired from the Stargate universe. There will be more detail about this in each area as they come online and start to get fleshed out, and there certainly will be in the forum for each area.