Aamsk
Setting Overview: Frostgrave+Mythic GME 2e Homebrew
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ICYMI
Last post was a primer for the new Year!
Happy new Year!
This week
A bit of a lore primer if you will, we will dive into the setting fleshing out the sands of Aamsk. A clearly defined setting will help me stay on narrative. Restriction is the mother of innovation is it not.
What do we call the world?
Before we dive into the knitty gritty, you may notice me refer to our world as Aamsk. This is not a typo. Wyze is the entire world, the Aamsk is akin to a continent(there is only the one landmass), there are a total of Four regions that will be slowly built via my Realmcraft'24 projects on Notes. Don't worry we won't flesh everything out before play. Regions are like a country, Province or State. They are as follows
Ivory Reach
Ambar Sanctum
Ihst Kuru
Ghost Flats
We are currently working on the Ivory Reach and will move on to another region next quarter. While I use the words state or country I do not want you to mistake the world for having a highly organized global governmental structure. This is a world of petty warlords and people grasping at what little scraps of power and influence they can attain. But of course you can check things out over on Notes!
Felstad no more, Baaskqir the Last
The thing that drew me to Frostgrave so heavily is the breifly described city of Felstad. A once bustling bastion of magical innovation encased in ice and locked away in a cataclysm of its own device. Now slowly great riches, treasures and evils alike are thawing out. The idea of ancient things resurfacing is something I wanted to emulate, my personal had canon sees Felstad as both ruin and a new settlement, as the city is uncovered and thawed out more residents move in and, with them more, history resurfaces. This is where the city of Baaskqir1 comes into play, it is our Felstad equivalent.
The last Bastion of civilization as it is called. A title held only in memoriam, the city of Baaskqir houses the remnants of the world before the sands. A long forgotten city state at the bottom of the Ash sea, rose from the depths as the oceans of the world boiled away in the Timescale's shattering. A beacon of hope and an enigma of a time reawakened. The city of Baaskiqir is an ever growing city,the harsh winds of the changed landscape periodically uncovering new city sectors and ruins. The people of the world sought refuge and rebuilt their lives upon the very foundation of this nebulous bedrock.
Baaskqir unlike Felstad is not the central location of our narrative however it is one of the core locations. If you want a peek at the other locations we may explore keep up to date with me on Notes! But that said, All roads lead to Baask if you will. While the city is ever expanding, and new things are being discovered continually there is one thing that forces the people of Baaskqir to venture from the safety of its borders.
Ys and Water
The oceans, rivers, lakes and streams have long since dried in our setting, this has led to a water shortage, or more accurately water is one of if not the most precious thing in our world. Water as currency if you will. But due to the magical changes and ecological disruptions caused by the Timescale's shattering the remaining aquifers lay frozen.
Ys
Ys is not ice not in the traditional since, ice melts in a matter of minutes when exposed to the heat of the Aamsk. Ys is more akin to a crystal or jewel and keeps for weeks in the scorching rays. One stones worth of Ys produces nearly four barrels worth of water. It is these veins and Underground rivers that are the life Blood of trade. However, not everyone can simply go looking for these veins. Ys is a Snarl phenomena as such it takes one either keen or touched by the Snarl to harvest Ys.
Delfers
While Frostgrave is comprised of Wizards of differing motivations braving Felstad with their Apprentice and Warband. Baaskqir and the Aamsk is braved by Delfers and their lodge. Originally, I envisioned Delfers as burgeoning tradesmen of our world. Which I rather like the idea of however I want to dial it back some and lean more into the motifs of Frostgraves Wizards. Which is more akin to a magical gold rush. This will allow me to showcase the differing motivations for people scouring the sands. It will also give me the nudge to kill my darlings more readily.
Which hopefully is only reinforced by the water Scarcity and the fact that it takes someone touched or keen of snarl to harvest Ys. It also leaves the narrative setup open enough to position Lodges at opposite ends of a conflict. Our Delfers and their Lodges more Closely resemble that of the Wizard-Captain relationship in Frostgrave or that of the Heritor-Warden Dynamic in Ghost Archipelago. Each lodge will be comprised of three core Characters, The Dry, our Scild and our Rinnel, which will take the places of our Wizard, Apprentice and Captain respectively. Don't worry I'll be going over what this all means in detail when we recreate our Lodge.
I decided on borrowing the fictional positioning2 of the Warden from Ghost Archipelago as well as Behest background to come up with the Rinnel. A go between the Ysdelfers and the many Nomads that wander the Aamsk. Many Rinnel are often born of the nomads and sent ought to provide their services to a delfer. Some even have long standing relationships with lodges and send successors due to retirement or untimely demise. Unlike the warden the Rinnel is more in line with the Captain in its abilities.
The Dry and Scild are essentially the wizard and Apprentice with the major change to magic in Wyze as opposed to Frostgrave. We will be borrowing Mystic Brands and Pact Forging, but we will touch on that a bit later.
If you liked reading this, feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏 Thank you.
Towers and Labs - Landsails and Silos
Delfers much like the Wizards of Frostgrave have central bases of operation they continually return to. For our purposes that will be our Landsail, as well as our Silo. You could think of The landsail as our mobile base, we can only store so much before having to return to the Silo to drop our goods. The Silo is not only a storage facility but also a place of rest, and commerce. Gives us a homebase while the Landsail is an extension of said homebase. I enjoy a bit of base building from time to time and getting to know a few set environments rather intimately. Both the Landsail and Silo will become characters in their own rights. Frostgrave touches briefly on base upgrades and ships in Ghost Archipelago, we will apply the rules of base building to our Silo and Landsail.
Neither of these are inherently magical in their construction. But rather pulled from real world examples. Sometimes the real world is just as wondrous as fantasy. We have used the power of the wind to travel not just our oceans but our deserts as well. We have devised ways to store water as ice in aid climates, known as a yakhchāl. A bit about where I pull ideas from sometimes. Emulating the wonder of our own world is the goal with Snarl.
Snarl, Oathevones and Etches
I've talked about our narrative positioning and the changes to the setting in terms of environment. The name of the newsletter is Wyze and Snarl. Effectively like saying Earth and Magic, so it's about time we touch on the magic side of things.
Snarl vs Formulaic Magic
Frostgrave has what Mythic considers Fomula spells. Spells that have practiced outcomes or results. Snarl, on the other hand is far more nebulous and unpredictable. As I wrote when creating the Arcane tradition in our last game,
Interacting with the alien energy of Wyze is a delicate dance. The Snarl is alive,responsive and unpredictable. Practitioners must be adaptable as they walk a fine line between Order and Bedlam.
Pretty open ended which is in line with how I envision magic, but an inherently magical world does not a magic system make. It is the limits and how it's practitioners interact with it that make the magic system. Which was touched on briefly when we designed our magical tradition.
Oathevone- Pact Forging
Frostgraves Forgotten Pacts touches on the Summoning of demons and Devils. I appreciate that there is a note saying that all extra-planar beings are called demons in Frostgrave. It leaves the idea of Pact Forging more open ended and ties into an aspect of our Arcane tradition nicely.
Primordial Oaths or Oathevones. Magically binding contracts, the Snarl hears you so be careful of that which you speak. Even those unkeen folk can declare an Oathevone.
Think on Mercutios last word's “A curse on both your houses.” If said here in the Sands of the Aamsk is an omen none dare overlook.
However, only the touched may strike a vone with the Scucka of the Aamask. Scucka, djinn, wisp,spirits, all one in the same. These Oathevones will Mechanically work similarly to Pact Forging except True names are not a thing. Instead to form an Oathevone with one of the Scucka of Aamsk a specific Ritual will need to be done. I am purposely leaving the ritual specifics out as I want to discover them during game play. We will follow the example of Sacrifice and Boon that is given in Frostgrave to showcase the connecation and bond our players have with the Scucka and by proxy Snarl.
It also sets us up to have a specific type of adventure that dives more into the mastery of Snarl. As well as mechanically opening the doors for Formula spells to find their way into our world. Oathevones will be particular for the many Scucka of the Aamsk, unlike Etches.
Etches- Mystic Brands
Mystic Brands in Frostgrave are temporary boons a wizard with a Pact can offer the members of his warband. The two types of Brands offer Differing benefits similarly Etches do the same.
Etches unlike Brands are not temporary, nor are they simply magical. The creation of etches is a secret snarlcraft passed from one Dry to his succesor. You might consider them a Ysdelfers Badge or Patch, a way for Delfers to recognize each other as well as separate themselves from the normal populace. As such, these aren't freely handed out even if someone has worked with a delfer for years they may never receive an Etch.
Etches will act as charged items for the purposes of any active abilities that a normal Mystic Brand would impart. The chosen passive of an Etch is created at the moment of creation which offers us a bit more breadth in terms of abilities we give our Lodge members.
Gameloop
Normally Frostgrave is a miniatures skirmish game. Each campaign having two major stages of play, the Scenario and what games like Pathfinder would consider Downtime. Both of which are broken into further phases.
Scenario
Initiative- who goes first
Wizard Phase- The Wizard and up to 3 soldiers can be activated.
Apprentice Phase- The Apprentice and up to 3 soldiers can be activated.
Soldier Phase- Any remaining soldiers are Activated
Creature Phase- all uncontrolled creatures are activated
Downtime
Injury and Death- check the health of warband members reduced to 0 check wizard for permanent injury
Out of Game Spells- you may cast or organized spells
Experience and Level- total up exp, every 100 experience earned may be converted to a level. When leveling you may improve a spell, a stat or learn a new spell.
Counting/Spending Treasure- count your spoils to sell to your contacts, buy new gear, hire new soldiers, or a new Apprentice.
I want to keep this version of the game and story theater of the mind. Which I will dive more into once we get to creating characters and our Lodge. So the rules for Downtime will largerly go unchanged beyond turning them into Mythic Fate questions/checks. The largest changes will be to how we run scenarios. We will be utilizing a much smaller warband size and the Mythic Mass Combat rules to stream line our theater of the mind play. I just wanted to give you an overview of what you can expect moving forward.
Next installment
We will actually get into building our Dry and his lodge as well as addressing reader participation. I think you all will get a kick out of what I have in store. This also means we will be diving more into rules clarifications and mechanics. Session zeroes may seem like they are unnecessary for a solo game but I hope this type of insight into my games and story are fun. As always thanks for reading and being part of this experiment of ours in this corner of the internet.
If you liked reading this, feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏 Thank you.
Care to join the world of Wyze and brave the dangers of the Aamsk? Then make your character, HERE! Drop the results in the comments below.
Fellowship
Don't forget to check out my fellow compatriots on the Stack!
writer of is currently getting ready for his Proper Villians game do yourself a favor and read all the Pilots!If you enjoy the world of Stonetop,
the writer of has begun his own story and I must say it is such a captivating tale!If you are in need of some levity in your fantasy
the writer of will have you rolling!This description of the city will be modified and changed as we play in conjunction with the results of our crafting of the Amber Sanctum Region where Baaskqir resides.
major shout to
over at Positionsi love this phrasing find my self using it so much more lol
Happy New Year! Really enjoying following along here. Proud to be on your compatriots list, thanks for the shoutout!