The world is shaped by truly legendary men, both in antiquity, and in modernity. From Caledor Dragontamer taming the untold infinity of the Great Catastrophe, to Malekith sundering his kingdom from the berth of Ulthuan itself. From Nagash dooming what was once the brightest star of humanity to rot and decay, to Sigmar binding together the tribes of the empire into an ironclad brotherhood.
Legendary men, some as terrible as they were great, that shaped the world. Changed it irrevocably in a way that those that came after would always stand in their shadow.
To even manage a fractions fraction of what those men had achieved would be the work of a great man. To conceive of equaling them in any true measure was solely in the realm of the mad. Those that came after would always, and forever contend with the fact that the pinnacle had been reached.
It was the truth of all races, that they faced an inevitable march towards decline. To the Dawi of the Karaz Ankor it was a starker truth than most, but every civilization felt the sinking rot of decay in their bones. Every year just a little bit more of influence of the Asur slips through their fingers, even as the bodies of elves that earned that influence stay rotting in the ground. Every moment just a little more of that great darkness encroaches on the realm of man, from Brentonia to Cathay, just that bit more forest encroached on the hamlet, and the endless rattle of horror in the night grew stronger. Even the mighty, inscrutable Lizardmen slowly broke apart, their Slaan sleep longer and longer, their temples looted and desecrated, their endless task slowly failing.
The legendary men of these people have been, and they have died. The great men they leave behind unable to live up to what once was.
It was the truth of the world, that no matter what you did, those that came before had done it better.
Which, was all very well and good but extremely depressing. Or perhaps more suitably, demotivating.
The very idea that no matter what you did, you would compare unfavorably to some figure of the distant past that just so happened to exist in the same area as you did?
Ludicrous.
You refused to accept that, and if you could not change that, you would simply go somewhere where you did not have to.
At least, that's what you try to tell yourself to rationalize why you ended up where you did end up.
You scratch at your ear, and glance around at where you ended up.
[] The Borderlands.
Far from any human civilization worth the name, the home to a thousand princes and at least twice that many pricks. The Border Principalities are ill-fit the title of polity, and hardly worth the bother of geography. Most Cartographers would rather cut a finger off than do more than chart out the roads to Barak Varr. The Borderlands rage in constant endless war, because to lose in the borderlands means to lose next to nothing, and to win means gaining slightly more than nothing.
Besides, the next time a WAARGH rolls through all everything will be basically reset anyway. A matter of zero stakes but human lives that are probably better off in the ground than living in the Borderlands. A system of finite worth to be accumulated in finite time before it's all set back to zero.
Near anyone with a slightly pointed rock could carve out some measure of sovereignty among the Borderlands, issue was making doing that worth it.
Benefits;
1. Alive: You are technically not dead.
2. Pre-Broken in: If there is any realm in the world with low expectations it is the people living in the Borderlands. It is a place where people would be pleasantly surprised if they only have to put up with light atrocities being committed upon them. Not only is incompetence tolerated, but actively celebrated, because it means that you are not malignant.
3. In the very close present, there is a lot of war: The number of veterans in the Borderlands is, to any rational land, insane. By the time most children reach ten and four, they'll have seen more blood than some Imperial Career Soldiers. A man with the right sort of words, and a keen enough mind could find an army in near enough every hamlet... unfortunately the Border Princes is in abundance of those sort of men, even if they often substitute the right words and keen mind with the klink of gold.
4. Land of Opportunity: If a man cared to search up opportunity, and they bought a dictionary off the worlds dodgiest librarian after wishing to do so from a monkey's paw, they would find a picture of the Borderlands. Every year kingdoms rise around new princes, who enjoy fabulous (for the borderlands) wealth and great power, before dying. Often resulting in some new prince taking their place.
5. Barak Var: As surprising as it is, there is actually a worthwhile polity in spitting distance. Barak Var is one of the Old Holds of the Dawi, it is from there that they project their might across the sea, and rake in unfathomable wealth in trade. Angering them is a quick, brutal death. Courting them, most likely an exercise in futility. Not getting on their bad side, maybe possible.
Detriments;
1. Alive: You are unfortunately forced to live in the Borderlands.
2. Broken Populace: Your people's low expectation also means they have no drive to hold onto what they have. It would take a truly utterly beloved ruler to see more than a cursory attempt at heroics. If your people have the choice between preserving your kingdom, and maybe possibly saving their life, they will save their life.
3. Land of Opportunity: If a man cared to search up opportunity, and they bought a dictionary off the worlds dodgiest librarian after wishing to do so from a monkey's paw, they would find a picture of the Borderlands. Every year kingdoms rise around new princes, who enjoy fabulous (for the borderlands) wealth and great power, before dying. Often resulting in some new prince taking their place.
[] Lustria.
Technically speak, you were on a sanctioned colonization effort endorsed jointly by Bordeleaux, Wissenland, and Marienburg. A eclectic mix of potent patrons that most would be overjoyed to leverage into a foot hold in the jungles of Lustria. Practically you were so hated that three polities decided they hated you more than each other and literally paid thousands of people to drag you to Lustria.
Brightside, you have a lot of horses, a lot of guns, and a lot of gold.
Downside, you're trapped in Lustria further from the cozily named "Swamptown" than the even cozilier named "Vampire Coast".
Benefits:
1. Guns and Ships: Before you were all but strapped to a boat and told to "Never think about abandoning your new duties", your 'patrons' at least did you the service of acting like patrons. You have ships enough to control at least a little coast. Guns enough to give a small (and you do mean small) dragon pause. Gold enough to cheat a trade route or two, and for some gods forsaken reason enough War chargers, horses that apparently decided that they would just survive a months long boat journey, to outfit a small army.
2. Enthusiastic Populace: Sure you were here because you managed to make three terribly powerful nations hate you, but could not just kill you, but the rest of them were here because they genuinely thought this was going to be a good opportunity. Thousands of colonists looking to make a new home for humanity among the dangerous shores of Lustria, and very willing to work for it.
3. The Lustrian Experiment: This little colony has all the chance in the world of failing in months. But if it say, doesn't for some godly reason, the number of eyes on it are many. Not just for trade... but for more esoteric reasons that could see you managing to keep your head more than any number of merchant would.
4. The vacuum of power: It has been slightly arrogant of you to say you were the sole reason for this little foray into colonization, and while you have some legitimate power, you were not the supreme leader of all life and death of this endeavor. That being said, there was no supreme leader, and so the stage finds itself set for someone to figure out how to make that position.
5. The bounty of Lustria: Lustria is rich. Some of that is temples that only idiots touch, most of that however is unexploited by any hands. Why, you could also probably find some of that unexploited stuff that won't result in scaled beasts coming around to slaughter you if you touch it!
Detriments;
1. Hated. There is many, many, many... many many reasons why enough people decided they hated you enough to force you on this endeavor. Some of those, you'd even admit, were as bad as they say. However! Most of them were slightly exaggerated, and you were distinctly offended by the remainder blown wildly out of proportion. Regardless it does leave you in a situation where the people funding this campaign hate your guts.
2. Vampire Coast. You do not know who decided where you would be landing. If you did, you wanted to know his psychedelics provider, because you can think of no sane reason why you were only three days of good wind from the blighted Vampire Coast. The entire colony was going to be picking undead out of their socks before the month was up.
3. The bounty of Lustria: Lustria is rich. Some of that is in temples that idiots will touch, and bring down the wrath of the scaled ones onto you.
[] A great caravan east.
In theory, losing all your money, accruing enough debt that you technically owed more money than the town you lived in had GDP, and crashing that same towns economy due to the incredible amount of debt straining it was a bad thing.
In practice it was… er a bad thing. You may have been overly ambitious in what you had the ability to do. Luckily the people you swindled out of disgusting amounts of loans were the forgiving type. So threw you at a Great Caravan heading east and told you to never return unless you had enough money to pay off your insane debts.
All that you had to do was survive your way through the terrible Dark lands, teeming with Orks, not-dawi, Ogres and other horrors beyond mention. Then negotiate a trade deal with whoever was in the east valuable enough to make amends for the insane crippling debt that hung around your neck like a millstone…
Maybe… maybe they weren't the forgiving type.
Benefits:
1. Wealth: Now, it might seem strange for someone with such a deep and all-consuming amount of debt to in fact, still live a wealthy life beyond the means of some minor nobility. But technically it was your companies with legally distinct finances with the debt, which meant you could buy all the unsalted Caviar and swordarms you wanted.
2. Just move along: Now what you were about to embark on was known by most great merchant scholars as dumb. Then they might call it the merchants gambit, and recommend anyone stupid enough to try it just abandon all morals and ignore all problems that weren't directly their own. Luckily, you could do that when you're a caravan
3. Ind and Cathay: More of a theoretical bonus, but if you tell yourself things are better than they are then you… feel less hopeless. In the future you'll hopefully find yourself suckling on the teat of the incredible wealth of Ind and Cathay.
4. Big Ole Caravan: Now, it does have to be said, that the caravan you were going to be apart of was… big. Big enough to absorb some pretty significant losses before the potential profit starts to look a bit… not big. If you're clever enough, you can probably manage to make sure it's not your stuff that ends up the acceptable losses.
Detriments:
The Darklands: Er… not much to say about this beyond the fact you will have to travel through lands called with all consequential sobriety, the Dark Lands. In a world with Sylvania and Nehkara and the Bad Lands and Norsca and Naggaroth. This land is called the Dark Lands.
Debt: If you return with enough money to pay off a… small countries debt, then your debtors are likely to gut you because a small countries debt is not enough debt to pay off your debt. Compound interest is only going to make that disgusting.
Of course, one does not end up where you ended up on motivation to be a name carved into history alone. But what you did in support of that endless drive, that pushed you in all sorts of directions.
[] You honed yourself into a brutal engine of War:
Okay it was a bit trite, but most legendary figures were so legendary because when there was things that needed pointy things buried in them, they had the skill the bury the sharp thing pointy end first. Or they were smart enough to know where to put other people with sharp pointy things so they could best stab things that needed pointy things buried in them. It was a skill you keenly cultivated, becoming a swordsman of some renown, and a tactician of significant cunning. (Martial is your primary skill. All stats will be rolled, and Martial will take the highest roll and then add another dice)
[] Turned your tongue into silver:
In your early youth you realized most people seemed to dislike you. Just had a natural enmity that built up and up until it boiled over and they broke your nose and threw your teddy Sir Floofyton out the window and no you were not still caught up on that. Which is an unfortunate trait when your the sort of person who wants to be remembered. Or maybe not, Malekith and Nagash managed well enough. Either way, ever since brave Floofyton's sacrifice, you've slowly learned how to make people not hate you... Sometimes it even works! (Diplomacy is your primary skill. All stats will be rolled, and Diplomacy will take the highest roll and then add another dice)
[]Turned your hands into... gold turning hands?:
Money talked. Much better than you did, and could even talk well enough that it engraved people into history. So long ago you figured out the trick to make money talk to you. Which was mostly figuring out that money is just an extension of the psychology of living creatures, a figment of shared delusion that functioned because of key psychological similarities which drove money into an ironclad existence, and then learning tricks to exploit that thinking to wring value out of whatever you cared to. Or something like that, you don't know you just know the best ways to make gold. Or you suppose supply things. Shame you couldn't supply your way out of where you were now! (Stewardship is your primary skill. All stats will be rolled, and Stewardship will take the highest roll and then add another dice)
[] Turned your ears on, and learned to listen real close in shadowy corners:
Okay, this might seem like it's straying from the whole be a legendary figure so significant that history is incapable of forgetting your deeds, but you had long since realized that to be the man that made it happen, you needed to be in the room where it happened. The best way you figured how to do that, is to be in rooms where things are happening, and blackmailing your way into that room. It... could have gone better for you. (Intrigue is your primary skill. All stats will be rolled, and Intrigue will take the highest roll and then add another dice)
[ ] Became a god botherer:
To be entirely honest, it mostly started because you remember that Sigmar was really faithful to Ulric when he was alive. You naturally assumed that being faithful to a god would give you a leg up. You scratch their back, they scratch yours. But somewhere along the line you uh... accidentally started to be faithful. Which was a bit awkward considering where like, your inspiration ended up. But on the bright side, you really like your god, they're pretty cool. (Piety is your primary skill. All stats will be rolled, and Learning will take the highest roll and then add another dice)
[] Became the Nerd:
The only thing that seemed to be more common than being really good at sticking pointy things into other people, was having a big brain to think big things. Caledor had the big brain to do that vortex thing. Nagash... invented some stuff. Malekith is probably smart if he's still alive, and Sigmar was smart enough to realize that he should leave the thinking to other people and save the Dawi. So assuming that one day you needed to have a really big brain to think of a really cool idea that will save history and everyone. You hit the books, and sometimes hit people with books to take their books it was a confusing weekend. (Learning is your primary skill. All stats will be rolled, and Learning will take the highest roll and then add another dice)
A/N I've been curious about running a forum quest for a while, and having Mathilde quest recommended to me pushed me over the edge. Please forgive me if habits from other quests forms bleed through, and forgive me if it takes a moment to figure out the tricks. I would also like to kindly request that people vote in plans, for neatness sake.
It should also be noted that you will not start "in charge" of any of the options. The only start where you won't have "superiors" in some measure would be the border prince start, but there you would have many a peer.
