Questionable Questing

Andy333

I liked the threat the drow represent and their interactions with the dothraki, I also liked how magic has been spreading and changing how people approach different power plays, as well as just the attitude Essos has for Westeros. It's a funny quick from the book that's carried over here, where they both think their savages for completely different things lol.

Bob is bob

It is very funny that Essos thinks that Westros has become the land of decedant depravity. We have plans for Naven to be a harem protag for interludes who goes to Westros and thinks they are fucking insane. Bro has a harem of monster girl djin spirits and he discovers more and more Westros is fucking bonkers

Andy333

And Westeros thinks Essos are prudes. The lands of slave owners and flesh changers. lol

Bob is bob

Enchantment is being used by nobles more in Westores post time skip. Wait is Westros slave owners and flesh changers or Esosos?

Andy333

I'm talking about Essos, in the book throughout Dany's journey she constantly runs into weird and groutest looking slaves, some with two heads, some that are hermaphrodites, and others that are seven or even nine feet tall and its revealed that most of these come from Valyrian Flesh Changers that use to do a lot of experiments around the islands near Sothoryos.

Andy333

It was a pretty nice and surprisingly subtle little detail that kind of helps show the scars of the Valyrian Empire left without directly saying it, which ties in with Dany's arc, and helps give an excuse for some weird looking people. Which reminds me, you planning on doing anything with Sothoryos?

Bob is bob

Ah. Martin does his weirdest shit in Essos.

Bob is bob

That the giant ape islands?

Andy333

It's a giant ape continent. lol. And they're not actually apes, more like prehistoric humans or potentially even Valyrian experiments. They can use tools, have their own language, and build primitive villages with huts made of wood. Plus it's possible for a woman to get pregnant and have kids with them, as several particularly cruel slaves owners discovered.

Bob is bob

Ah what. I want cites for that and nope. While giant ape monster sex is right up my jamb of liking power fantasy, I don't know what to do culture wise for them. Its outside my wheelhouse of tropes and knowledge I have. Or why the players would interact with the islands

Andy333

Their kind of like Neanderthals or Homo Erectus. Basically a branch or snag during the evolution process in-between or around when humans happened. But Sothoryos has other stuff going on. Huge jungles with skyscraper sized trees. Ancient obelisks and pyramids made of the same strange black stone the castles over on the Iron Islands and High Tower are made of.

Andy333

There have been many attempts to colonize the land, but every single time has failed as at night any camp or person just mysteriously vanishes and is never seen again. Lots of spooky lovecraftian stuff you could do it with, but like you said it's pretty far from the North and perfectly understandable why the players would never interact with it.

Bob is bob

And hard to work with in terms of cultural touchstones for inspiration to feed into the worldbuilding

Andy333

If I was going to do something with it, I would either go a heart of darkness theme for it where the MC's takes a harrowing a horrific journey to escape it, or I would go for a more Indiana Jones theme of exploring ancient and forgotten cities for riches and power, but discovering ancient evils or greedy rivals to fight in the process.

Bob is bob

I'd want research on Aztech and other stuff to not be a ass with the themes and do a orinteliasm

Andy333

I don't think you have to worry about that. This is a totally fictional society with only vaguely real world examples, and more importantly as long as you treat them as people and try to be realistic about their motivations and emotions, then you've got nothing to worry about.

Andy333

And to be brutally honest the Aztecs were so horrific to their subjects and people that if you wrote a genuinely accurate story about some of the shit they were doing, people would call you racist or inaccurate because they wouldn't be able to fathom just how fucked they were.

Andy333

This is the group of people that during a marriage, where a Aztech prince was marrying the daughter of this chief who was recently defeated in a war and this was supposed to be not only a peace treaty but an opportunity for these two people to bury the hatchet, the groom came dressed in a outfit that was made of the peeled skin from the recently killed chief.

Andy333

The daughter had to marry a man who was wearing her dad's skin to their wedding, and if she didn't the Aztecs would butcher and rape all of her people. I mean there are fucking Saturday morning villains and fictional serial killers, who aren't even half as fucking as evil as that. Again you put that in a story and people think you were being insane.

Bob is bob

You could do plenty of fucked up shit with Aztechs and include other parts that were cool or humanzing. A civlization is rarely only the worst parts. Unless Sparta. Fuck Sparta