Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

Unread post by SolCannibal »

Decided to make a reference thread for book citations to areas of Rifts Earth with no worldbook of their own. A little bit of canon for people to toy with on their own homebrew countries/kingdoms - or maybe ambitious freelance writers to be jumpstart their own future worldbooks.

Who knows, an old fart can hope. :wink:

For a sample of what we know on places without Worldbooks of their own, let me start with a compilation originally for a thread i accidentally necro-posted upon (because someone else did it first and i didn't notice).


Turkey

CB1, pg. 98 wrote:The nimro have desired to build a kingdom of giants; a faction of dimension travelers have decided to try to establish such a kingdom in what was once pre-rifts Turkey. About 60 nimro, a dozen cyclops, two dozen gigantes and trolls, and 4000 orcs are the current members of the kingdom. Giants of all kind are welcome.
This one seems to be (AFAIK) the book blurb most people here remember when speaking of Turkey in Rifts, so there's the source for those who might want it.

WB4: Africa wrote: Pg.63: There are a few tribes of Ramen living in Africa, Turkey, Afghanistan and India.

Pg. 99: By far and away , necromancy is most common in Africa and southern Europe, particularly in France and the Mediterranean countries known in pre-Rifts times as Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, and Ethiopia. The reasons necromancy is so popular among these countries is due to the influence of Egypt and its insane Pharaoh Rama-set, the strength of the so-called Gods of Darkness, the existence of many death cults, and the dominance of monster races and evil supernatural beings in these areas.
Now we have two groups, a conquering/expansionist one and an usually "goody two shoes" one for some potential conflict.

Maybe i'm an optimist, but kind of starting to form a picture here. Expansionist Giant versus Ramen & necromancers that might just want to be left alone, have ambitions of their own and might or not make any kind of alliance between two communities against a third group. Supposing you can count the necromancers as one community and are not a bunch of competing cliques and cults themselves, that is.

WB5, pg. 216 wrote: Italy - When the ley lines erupted, Atlantis reappeared, the oceans rose, and human civilization was obliterated from Italy and most coastal communities along the Mediterranean, including Sicily, Greece, Crete, Turkey, Syria, Israel, and parts of Yugoslavia. Civilization has recently exploded in that region, with at least a half dozen different peoples , human and non-humans, making bids for power and land.
That one, i'll be the first to admit, is a very questionable reference, as while it could be argued the "Civilization has recently exploded in that region" might mean the Mediterranean as a whole, i myself find far more probable that it meant just the Italic Peninsula. Still cited for the sake of GMs and players feeling creative with the world-building.
edit: It just hit me that the fact at least two of these places - Turkey & Syria - are in the "hotbeds of necromancy list" from above could be seen as a point in favor of the region through a "explosion of civilization in the region" going beyond Italy.
But now on to somewhat more reliable fare.
WB17: Warlords of Russia wrote:
Pg.40-41: The Kolodenko Sphere of Influence lays claim to the Caucasus Mountains and surrounding lowlands that lay between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, and borders the countries once known as eastern Turkey and northern Iran. The Kolodenko Sphere also lays claim to southeastern lands including the Caspian Depression, Ustyurt Plateau and Kara-Kum desert.

There is a small, heavily guarded bionic plant in the southeastern foothills, but it has been rumored for years, that the Warlord has two secret manufacturing facilities in Turkey and/or Romania, as well as several plants in Poland and smugglers along the Russian Border to do out-sourcing and additional manufacturing.

Pg.165: a few hundred True Megahorses may have found their way to Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, Turkey, The Middle East, and India.
"Russian" warlord, cybernetic instalations and transnational black market interconnections, what's not to love? :twisted:
edit: you people know what the funny thing about borders? there being one implies an impediment to a territory's expansion, either physical - mountains, a lake or sea, a depression, jungle or anything else that might mess up with passable of explorers &/or troops - or political, as in, someone else took that area first and is not going to give you.

So i asked myself "what impediments are there to Kolodenko in what once was eastern Turkey and northern Iran"? So i checked the maps and lo & behold, these two regions are indeed quite montainious. But so is the territory of Kolodenko, so much so he happens to be called the Mountain King because of it, in fact.

So, the reason for borders should be political, what could be understood to imply the "countries once known as eastern Turkey and northern Iran" though unamed might indeed be countries of their own. A very interesting line of thought indeed.
Also, a little creature footnote before we go for a little canon expansion/update.
WB18, pg.83 wrote:By far and away, necromancy is most common in Africa and parts of southern Europe, most notably Southern France. It is also practiced to varying degrees in Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Iraq and Iran. The reason necromancy is so popular among these countries is the influence of forces in Rifts Africa, including the insane Pharaoh Rama-Set, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and the popularity of the so-called Egyptian Gods of Darkness where "death gods" play an important role. Except in Africa, the parts of the world where necromancy is comparatively common, it is generally regarded as one of the black arts to be avoided by god-fearing creatures and men of noble and good hearts. In many places, Death Magic is often relegated to small cults or practitioners among the monster races and evil supernatural beings.
Yeah, where it pertains to Turkey, things didn't change much, but thought it worth citing anyway for the rarity of such "worldwide" treatments of classes, races and organizations in the setting for quite some time. It does more definitely set up the idea of a connection/influence of the state cult in the Phoenix Empire behind the growth of similar groups in those other countries, instead of wholy independent or even rival death cults. It's a loose thing, so major separate groups are certainly possible, but it does create an image of Rama-Set's nation as not a mere regional cat's paw of Atlantis, but a regional power on its own right extending tendrils of corruption and dark power to many directions across the globe.
edit: It has crossed my mind how curiously chill Set and the others gods of Taut seem to be about Rama-Set - and his nation - having not one, but two groups of masters he works for and supports. I ask myself what kind of power/social dynamics might be at play behind this mutual tolerance if not outright alliance with the Horsemen, that we get little to no commentary on....
And that's it for now. Feel free to post on any other obscure country/region references you remember or might be looking for info about and let's see what comes up.
Planning on exploring other places in the future, depending on inspiration and time. Hope you have fun with the subject and content.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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I'm still waiting for something on Shaedo from the RMB.
Seems like there's some other stuff there that's been ignored too.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

Unread post by Warshield73 »

Thanks for the list SolCannibal, I had forgotten about a few of these and there were some I don't think I ever noticed.

Killer Cyborg wrote:I'm still waiting for something on Shaedo from the RMB.
Seems like there's some other stuff there that's been ignored too.

In Wisconsin, I had forgotten all about that. I was expecting it to be covered in the Tolkeen wars book but I guess it wasn't.

Yeah there are tons of things that are just thrown out there for GMs to use, the Republicans use to be a good example, that have never been described in a book.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

Unread post by SolCannibal »

Warshield73 wrote:Thanks for the list SolCannibal, I had forgotten about a few of these and there were some I don't think I ever noticed.

Killer Cyborg wrote:I'm still waiting for something on Shaedo from the RMB.
Seems like there's some other stuff there that's been ignored too.

In Wisconsin, I had forgotten all about that. I was expecting it to be covered in the Tolkeen wars book but I guess it wasn't.


Me too, to be honest. And in defense of the writers silence on Shaedo's fate, well, these guys wouldn't survive so close to the CS by making themselves seen. Sort of makes some sense, ironically. :wink:

Speaking of early and rough things, there's also the mention of a "Psi-World", a community of psychics also said to be located somewhere in the Ohio Valley, in page 145 of RMB.

Warshield73 wrote:Yeah there are tons of things that are just thrown out there for GMs to use, the Republicans use to be a good example, that have never been described in a book.


Well, the idea of this thread is to have one place where all "Rifts [insert country/region here]" questions and answers can be collected together for general use, instead of lost between dozens of threads that quickly pop up and then die out forgotten for years. Let's see if we can make it work.
Last edited by SolCannibal on Tue Nov 23, 2021 9:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

Unread post by Emerald MoonSilver »

SolCannibal wrote:
Warshield73 wrote:Thanks for the list SolCannibal, I had forgotten about a few of these and there were some I don't think I ever noticed.

Killer Cyborg wrote:I'm still waiting for something on Shaedo from the RMB.
Seems like there's some other stuff there that's been ignored too.

In Wisconsin, I had forgotten all about that. I was expecting it to be covered in the Tolkeen wars book but I guess it wasn't.


Me too, to be honest. And in defense of the writers silence on Shaedo's fate, well, these guys wouldn't survive so close to the CS by making themselves seen. Sort of makes some sense, ironically. :wink:

Speaking of early and rough things, there's also the mention of a "Psi-World", a community of psychics also said to be located somewhere
in the Ohio Valley, in page 145 of RMB.

Are you thinking of Psyscape from world book 12, or is this another group of psychics??
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

Unread post by SolCannibal »

Emerald MoonSilver wrote:
SolCannibal wrote:
Warshield73 wrote:Thanks for the list SolCannibal, I had forgotten about a few of these and there were some I don't think I ever noticed.

Killer Cyborg wrote:I'm still waiting for something on Shaedo from the RMB.
Seems like there's some other stuff there that's been ignored too.

In Wisconsin, I had forgotten all about that. I was expecting it to be covered in the Tolkeen wars book but I guess it wasn't.


Me too, to be honest. And in defense of the writers silence on Shaedo's fate, well, these guys wouldn't survive so close to the CS by making themselves seen. Sort of makes some sense, ironically. :wink:

Speaking of early and rough things, there's also the mention of a "Psi-World", a community of psychics also said to be located somewhere
in the Ohio Valley, in page 145 of RMB.


Are you thinking of Psyscape from world book 12, or is this another group of psychics??


Yeah, since it's RMB, our first contact ever with the Rifts setting, thinking very much "Psyscape, rough draft version" here.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

Unread post by SolCannibal »

And for second locale, a big one - in fact i suspect just compiling these bits together and connecting some dots with no new plots & such might make for a whole worldbook already.

India
RMB wrote:Pg.152: India is a jungle with little human life and even less technology. It is rumored to be inhabited by savage, cannibalistic D-Bees.

Pg.164: Presumably, there are super powerful nexus points in places such as the Himalaya Mountains, India, China, Easter Island, Australia, and others, but these are distant lands from the Americas.
Those are kind of more hearsay than anything, but hilariously, the first one would get some confirmation a little later on....
CB1 wrote:Pg.114: In Rifts Earth the creatures (chimera) inhabit the continent of Africa and are also said to roam what was once the Middle East, the island of Madagascar, India, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam. The minions of Splugorth are rumored to capture and tame chimera for use as watchdogs on the continent of Atlantis. The monsters prefer hot climates and love steamy jungles; however, they can survive in temperate zones and sometime stray far from their usual jungle environment.

Pg.190-191: Death Weavers prefer hot, steamy jungles over cooler climes. For this reason they are found in the Yucatan, South America, Africa, India, Asia, Malaysia, and parts of China. The incredible amount of ley line energy makes the Yucatan, India and China especially appealing.
Habitat: Jungle and tropical forests. Known to exist in the Yucatan, South America, Africa, India, Asia, Malaysia, and parts of China.

Pg.193: Although they can be found in any part of the world, the weretiger is most common in India, China, Asia, and Indonesia, and, to a far lesser degree, in Russia and eastern Europe.

Pg.195: Werepanthers are very similar to jaguar people except that they are a bit larger, jet black in color, and live exclusively in India. Like the werejaguar they are not man-eaters, preying mostly on animals and, in the rifts world, other supernatural creatures. Also like their jaguar cousins, vampires are natural enemies, as well as ghouls and spider demons.
Beside obviously the chapter in Pantheons, these and the fragments from Africa are usually the first things that come to mind when i think of India in Rifts and have been an itch i never took the time to scratch for years.

Just from these bits it's easy to imagine a local version of Manoa or the werejaguar city in Yucatan, one could have the werepanthers and tigers living together as one community/nation, forming separate but friendly groups or competing with varying degrees of rivalry/enmity. OR make a bunch of different bands/city-states, each with its own particular arrangement.

The Death Weavers are one early "demon" race i love but seems to get little to no attention from the writers - I like to imagine a web-citadel suspended between titanic trees and semi-ruined buildings in a metropolis half-taken by jungle of centuries.

Chimerae i honestly would like to do more with, but the fact their intelligence is mostly animal tends to put a kind of damper in my inspiration at times, i guess.
CB2: Pantheons of the Megaverse wrote: Pg.82: During his travels, Dionysus visited India, where he met the Hindu deity Soma, who also loves drinking and intoxicants. The two gods compared notes and became good friends. When they get together, wild parties break out that last for days. Sometimes they are held in normal dimensions and unwary mortals may join in the festivities. Human participants must be careful or be captured by faeries, be driven insane by the experience, or become alcoholics or drug addicts — it's unwise to crash the parties of the gods.

Pg.141: The ancient Nagas left Earth for a more magic rich environment when the P.P.E. levels began to decline. A handful stayed in forgotten jungle temples, forming small communities and attacking explorers and treasure-hunters who wandered into their domain. Some, in the deepest jungles of Asia may have survived into modern times and even through the Coming of the Rifts. With the eruption of the ley lines, the Nagas will begin to return to Rifts Earth; some have already returned to the jungles of India and Southeast Asia to start and build new cities and temples.

Pg.144-145 (146, if you really want the AIs physical description): The Evil Immortals. These would-be-gods are already operating in some regions of India, fooling desperate mortals into thinking that they are the old gods come to rescue them. A few human communities are now under the control of these exploiters. They plan to start conquering their neighbors and expanding their domain.
Unknown to all but Shiva the Annihilator, these Neuron Beasts are the pawns of an alien intelligence, a being called Devy'Orhal. This creature wishes to escape a dimensional prison and establish a foothold on Earth, to feed on the rich P.P.E. energy coursing through it.
Once the Evil Immortals have secured a large enough area for him, he will manifest himself on this plane, turning all of India into a transdimensional realm similar to the Yucatan peninsula in Central America — or so the plan goes.
This one, specially the Evil Immortals part, is at present essential to a Rifts game in India, as it is pretty much THE one and only locale/scenario/adventure set in that region one will find in the books (afaik). Ironically, it also indirectly informs us the Indian Gods are not back in Rifts Earth yet, as Shiva the Anihilator's project would come apart like a castle of cards the moment an actual deity (or even a mighty enough impostor) showed up. The fact they are spreading out can also provide hooks for this plot crossing in the path of adventurers in other parts of the world like Africa or Russia, among others.

The Naga D-bees are promising too, though their being identified with the same name as the demon from WB24 is bound to lead to confusion (not that it is a bad thing :twisted:). That said it's implied they are only D-bees and in fact some groups of their people worship deities from other pantheons too (*coff* *Cihuacoatl* *coff*), so the first thing that crosses my mind is that Naga is most probably not their name for themselves...
SB3: Mindwerks wrote: Pg.43: Flash Beetles, Petal Things, and the occasional giant dragonfly inhabit the Black Forest and other parts of Europe, India and Africa.

Pg.45: The lycanmorph is another strange creature from a different dimension that has found its way to Central Europe and India.

Pg.75: (Evil Millennium Tree, Known portals to other worlds) 3. One of the giant, tumorous knots resembles a demonic elephant with four spikes on its head. Entering through the right eye will teleport the character to the African Congo. Entering the left eye will send the character to the jungles of India near Nagpur. Entering the mouth under the trunk will send the character to the jungle and mountainous dimension inhabited by the Pantheon of Brahma, the Gods of India, and populated by the Asuras (demons).
Who would have expected the Mindwerks book to give us an expansion on the CB2 material on India? Definitely not me.
Incidentally, these portals might explain the presence of Evil Immortals' members in Africa.

Truth be told, the Tree of Darkness is an excuse for anything from SB3 - or the many places connected by its portals - to end up appearing in India and vice versa. And there are at least 8+ portals described (one is just a time hole/pocket space, but "elephant head" actually has 3 portals and the human face's mouth hoops two) and a dozen undeveloped ones, so lots of potential crossover.
SB8, pg. 153 wrote: Wereserpent - Legends told in the jungles of Central America, Brazil, India and Asia speak of men and women who can turn into giant snakes. The stories are true.
Habitat: Jungles of South America, India and sometimes Southeast Asia. Prefer hot, damp environments. Where one might find a python, one might also encounter a Wereserpent.
Not much to add on these guys. Maybe a little too primitive to make societies of their own but could maybe work as minions of smarter or more powerful individuals.
Depending on how their "hybrid" form looks (serpent-headed two-legged humanoid? human from the waist up, serpent from waist down? Yuan-Ti?) they might or not be able to mingle with the "Naga" D-bees. That said a GM could make different wereserpents, each with a different hybrid form or even a wereserpent race with some shapeshifting ability that lets then choose which parts they want human or serpentine. Damn, that could even be 4 different wereserpent races from just differing interpretations in a too vaguely described power.

Ok, looks like i actually had much more to add than even I expected on these guys in the end. :lol:
Mercenaries, pg. 160 wrote: The Conqueror Alien Intelligence can create an astral projection (S.D.C. 300) without a silver cord, and send it to other dimensions at P.P.E. rich locations (limited by other factors too). It can enter Earth at only three locations, (Benford Town/Hope City area), India and Iceland. It can also be reached via the Tree of Darkness in the Black Forest of Germany, but must be summoned by a practitioner of magic.
And here we have a possible nemesis/rival for Devy'Orhal, for those GMs who might want to up the ante of things a little.
Also, it could mean a party of explorers could use the mine in Casualties of Peace as a passage to either India or Iceland - if they are brave & foolhardy enough to cross through the Intelligence's realm/prison dimension for it, that is. :lol:

Plus, the Conqueror seems to have the weirdest luck with CB2, as Iceland is cited in passing as a (possible) hideout of Wothancrelyth in Rifts Earth.
WB3, pg. 146 wrote: Individual blood druids and small loyal groups of adventurers travel throughout all of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, Atlantis and, within the last 15 years, North America (mainly the east coast and Magic Zone).
There's some weird and darkly comical in the image of a blood druid missionary of sorts looking for a place to start a new community or converting some locals, puritan pilgrim style. Got to stop some day and try to develop this a little more...
WB4: Africa wrote:Pg.61: Small groups of firebirds (Phoenixi) are known to live in Africa, the Phoenix Empire, India and Asia.

Pg.63 (repeated): There are a few tribes of Ramen living in Africa, Turkey, Afghanistan and India.

Pg.67: Unlike most of the evil gods who see their minions as cannon fodder, Sebek has a genuine love and concern for these beings (crocodillians) and never risks their lives foolishly. Likewise, he will always try to avenge the deaths of his people, especially brutal or malicious acts of murder. He (Sebek) has brought thousands of crocodillians to live on Earth, distributing them mostly in the rivers of Africa and India.

Pg.93 (or WB12, pg.52 for more details): Mind bleeders can also be found, to a lesser degree (compared to the major human cities in the Mediterranean and much of Europe), in England and parts of Africa, India and Asia.

Pg.118: Although they can be found virtually anywhere on the continent, as well as the slave markets of Egypt, the Mediterranean, India, and Atlantis, the largest number of tree people are found in the Congo and to a lesser degree, Uganda and Kenya.

Pg.130: Demonic cannibals seem to most commonly inhabit Ethiopia, Sudan, the Congo and India. [Remember RMB!!!]

Pg.156: Pirate raiding party! Pirates can be humans, D-bees, demons, monster races or a combination of any or all. Their base of operation and transportation is from a ship. A secret base or port can be on an island or mainland - several pirate organizations are based on the Arabian peninsula, India and Indonesia.

Pg.160: A Great Returning Villain - Pharaoh Rama-Set can be a marvelous, continuing or recurring villain. He has his claws in many evil plots in Africa and places as far away from his empire as India, the New German Republic and Atlantis.
As i previously said, this and CB1 have been my main references in mind for India for many, many years. Pirate kingdoms ruled by man-eating demons that look eerily human, with at least some influence from Mola Ram and Temple of Doom's (quite unhistorical but fun) Thugge cult.
[Actual worship of Kali optional]

Mind Bleeders should fit in nicely amidst a number of kingdoms, piratical or not, as inquisitors/counterintelligence agents to neutralize other psychics for those who are paranoid about them.
WB7: Underseas wrote: Pg.20: Rumors tell of a vast Dead Pool where the dead (and undead) are said to have built a city of bones. This domain of the damned is said to exist in or near the Indian Ocean. (Dead Pools aka Deadman's Sea are described in pages 19-20 of WB7.)

Pg.163: The horune are most active in the North and South Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean, and Arabian Sea because these locations are comparatively close to Atlantis, the pirates' favorite trading port, and because they are near some of the fledgling nations that offer the best booty.
Yeah, adding references to the Indian Ocean was grasping at straws a little. Still valid and useful.

The city of bone gets a most welcome expansion & boost in WB32.

The Horune seem also to have served to support a slight increase/update of the influence/presence of Atlantis - or at least Splugorth trade and products - in India and the coasts of the Indian & Pacific oceans as a whole. so one might say the Horune are kind of the piratical version of the Age of Sail portuguese in Rifts Earth. :wink:
WB8: Japan wrote: Pg.9: Most of Russia, Mongolia, China India, and Asia are vast wildernesses dominated by monsters. The level of technology is archaic, in some cases only a notch above stone age. Most population centers are the domain of D-bees, oni or other supernatural creatures hostile toward humans. The few independent human civilizations that have managed to survive are suspicious of strangers and technology (which some may regard as magic), or are aggressive warriors, conquerors or freebooters who prey upon their fellow humans. Such is the situation for Japan. The handful of free humans around them, mainly Chinese and Koreans, are ancient rivals, new rivals, mercenaries, bandits and pirates who plunder the Japanese islands (and others) for their resources, slaves, and booty.

Pg.30: As far as westerners are concerned, there are no Millennium Trees in Asia or the Americas. Nor are there any known to exist in northeastern Europe, India, Australia, or New Zealand. However, their knowledge of the world has some rather large gaps so they do not know about the tree at Kyoto. Furthermore, most people living on the Islands of Japan don't know that a second Millennium tree exists in a mountain valley on the island of Hokkaido, the Domain of the Gods.

Pg.64: The typical demon queller travels alone or joins forces with other heroes and demon slayers, but rarely is more than two or three seen travelling together. How many of these fierce, determined warriors exist in the world is completely unknown. It is said that even the demon quellers themselves have no idea. Thus, they keep the demons they hunt guessing and on their toes. Some rumors suggest there are only a few hundred, but most say that there are tens of thousands scattered throughout demon-ridden China, India, Korea and Japan!

Pg.69: Habitat: Although the forested mountains of Japan considered their home, tengu are also found in the mountains of Korea, China, and India.
Enemies: The Chinese t'ien-kou (Celestial Dogs), the gods and minions of China and India, particularly the Garuda and most demons.

Pg.202: Habitat: Oni of the One Hundred (Lesser Oni) are found primarily on the islands of Japan, Taiwan, Korea, China and parts of India and Southeast Asia. They have also been known to visit surrounding islands, as far as the Philippines. The oni prefer to inhabit wilderness areas, mountains, slums, sewers and ruins.

Pgs.212-215: Japanese Dragons - Habitat: Indigenous to an alien dimension. Occasionally found anywhere in the world but seem to prefer Japan, Korea, China, India and Indonesia. They often have mountain retreats, but are known to rule entire villages, or sometimes cities where they'll lord over their subjects from a castle, surrounded by all the riches and luxuries of a king.
Well, the Millenium tree at Kyoto is a great canon example of a previous statement ("there are no Millennium Trees in Asia or the Americas") being revised/retconned by the books themselves, but still being seen as true from the previous book's perspective. A good "make your cake and eat it too" case, so to speak. Extra points in that they do it again, with the existence of a second one most natives of Japan themselves are unaware of.

As an aside, the fact the "habitat" text for all 3 "local" species of dragon is exactly the same makes me strongly tempted to consider they are all natives from one origin dimension/home world in common.
WB17: Warlords of Russia wrote: Pg.64: This all-around adventurer (Explorer O.C.C.) has grown in number in Europe and Russia for the last couple of generations. About 40% come from the New German Republic, but they can originate from almost anywhere, as being an explorer is more a state of mind than an exact profession. Russia and Asia are prime areas for exploration mainly because they are such exotic, unknown wildernesses. Africa and India are also becoming increasingly attractive to explorers, not to mention far off places like Australia and Southeast Asia.

Pg.165: a few hundred True Megahorses may have found their way to Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, Turkey, The Middle East, and India.

Pg.177: Weapons, Vehicles, Rune Weapons, Magic Items and Symbiotes common to the Splugorth and their minions (as well as their minions themselves) occasionally make their way to Eastern Europe, Russia and Asia (more common in Africa, the Middle East and India);

Pg.198: Language: Chinese (New): The Chinese language continues to flourish in that part of the world and in neighboring regions such as southern Russia, Mongolia, and parts of the Middle East and India. It is included in Rifts® Russia because of the large number of refugees fleeing demon infested China.
Well, it seems that Africa & India have become in vogue as places to explore/new frontier of sorts, according to WB17, what is curious.
That said, i still have to get a better look at this OCC to see what makes it so different from a rogue scholar or scientist. Subsuming a bunch of OCCs as "variant packages", kind of like those variations of the Headhunter, would be a nice bit of streamlining of the system.

The part about Splugorth products being more common in Africa, Middle East & India than Eastern Europe, Russia and Asia was the first moment it dawned on me the "India is utterly ignored by the Splugorth" statement from CB2 seemed to have changed while i wasn't looking.

And yeah, i know citing the text of a language as a source of info can be weird, but the "flourish in that part of the world and in neighboring regions such as southern Russia, Mongolia, and parts of the Middle East and India" gets quite interesting indeed in context of the following reference about large numbers of chinese refugees living in Russia (and consequently, in those other places too?)....
WB18: Mystic Russia wrote: Pg.17-18: Many Russian demons are also found in Mongolia and China, just as so-called Chinese and Indian demons are frequently encountered in Russia. At least one third to half of the demons and monsters that roam the Russian Frontier have migrated from the demon-plagued lands of China and Asia. Another 12% come from India, Afghanistan and Iran.

Pg.32: Habitat: The Midnight Demon shuns humanity and civilization during the day and most of the night, but between Midnight and three a.m. they seek out mortal victims to agitate and torment. This demon is most common in Rifts Russia, Mongolia and China, but can be found throughout Western Europe, India and Asia, and occasionally elsewhere.

Pg.35: (Stone Demons) Habitat: Wilderness throughout western Europe, India, Russia, Mongolia, China and Asia. Occasionally found in a village.

Pg.38: (Water Demons) Habitat: Wilderness throughout western Europe, India, Russia, Mongolia, China and Asia. Occasionally found in Rifts North America where it is considered a most foul and evil spirit.

Pg.41: (Demon Hound) Habitat: Can be found almost anywhere throughout western Europe, India, Russia, Mongolia, China and Asia, but tend to prefer forested and mountainous regions. As winged creatures, they can be found as lone individuals or small packs almost anywhere. In fact, approximately one thousand have rifted to North America and roam the northern Rockies and western Canada.

Pg.68: ("Russian" Firebird) Habitat: Approximately 100-200 are believed to live scattered throughout Rifts Russia, as well as another 100-200 scattered throughout India and Asia.

Pg.139: They (Gypsies) are especially strong and numerous in Eastern Europe, Russia, Iran and India — largely because the collapse of civilization has demolished political and national barriers (giving them the freedom and simple nomadic lifestyle that they so cherish) and made the region (a traditional roaming territory) a land of opportunity for those bold enough to exploit it.

Pg.143: Russia's Link to North America - Gypsies are the few people who know about the existence of dimensional gateways that link Russia to Africa, India, China and North America. The two most famous portals to North America are a constant dimensional rift located at the edge of the Moskva Crater, that is connected to the Calgary Rift (southwestern Canada), and a nexus junction located in the middle of the Ural Mountains that randomly opens to the Saint Louis Archway, better known as the Devil's Gate. The Coalition States have troops stationed at the Devil's Gate who constantly monitor this portal and capture or destroy any living thing that emerges from it.
A lesser known ley line nexus junction at the southeastern tip of the Altay Mountains opens randomly and connects to the haunted ruins of Old Detroit (Michigan, of course), as well as randomly to Atlantis (bad news) and the Ethiopia Rift in Africa. Gypsy sorcerers and elders know of these places.
This book, along with WBs 8 & 24 help to contribute a quite varied pallete of critters to add for variety and complications in games set in India, even if as secondary players, sometimes (but not always) seen as foreign/barbarian.

The Gypsy part was something of an outlier i feel, as the actual, fact-based info on known rifts gives nothing on India but focuses on places from previous worldbooks instead, but well, it does set up the Gypsies as a source of info into any such regular rifts a GM might feel like cooking up.
WB19, pg.186 wrote:(Wandjinas) Habitat: Unknown. Appear to only inhabit the northern mountain ranges of Australia, and always favor mountainous regions. However, they can be encountered, especially when hunting or exploring, anywhere in Australia. Whether they exist anywhere else in the world remains a mystery (if they do, the mountains of India are a likely candidate).
Yes, just a rumor. Pretty loose, but if true might imply some semi-regular rift exists connecting the two regions, what could lead to all kinds of exchanges and crossover.
WB24: China1, Yama Kings wrote:Pg.65: Ch'iang Shih may also be found, in smaller numbers, in Russia, Mongolia, Southeast Asia and India.

Pg.68: Kuei may also be found throughout Eastern Europe, India, and Asia though they are much less common in those places.

Pg.70: Preta are occasionally found in Mongolia, Europe, India and Africa, though they are much less common in those places. Enjoys places of sorrow and death like graveyards, battle. fields, abandoned buildings and spooky looking forests and places. Since the Hungry Ghost is always on the move, never staying at anyone place for more than 1D4 weeks. they are most often encountered along roads, paths, stairs, at crossroads and shabby inns.

Pg.76: Fox Spirits are sometimes found in Mongolia, Russia, Japan, India, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere in the world, though they are much, much less common in those places and are usually encountered as a lone traveling spirit or in pairs or threes.

Pg.77: Goat Goblins are Sometimes found in Japan, Mongolia, Russia and India, usually as a lone traveler or a pair.

Pg.79: Shadow Goblins are sometimes found in Japan, Russia and India, usually as a lone traveler or a pair.

Pg.81: Mountain Goblins are sometimes found in Japan, Russia and India, usually as a lone traveler or a pair.

Pg.86: The Earth Hound is ccasionally encountered in Mongolia, Russia, Japan and India, particularly in the forests and mountains.

Pg.88: The Falcon Demon is found throughout China and to a lesser degree, the forests and mountains of Russia, Japan and India.

Pg.93: Headless Ones are found throughout China and to a lesser degree, Russia, Japan and India.

Pg.96: The Horse Demon is found throughout China and to a lesser degree, Russia, Mongolia, and India.

Pg.98: Monkey-Wolves may also be encountered in the wilds of Mongolia and Russia, and occasionally in other parts of Asia, India, and Africa.

Pg.100: Ox-Heads are found throughout China and to a lesser degree, Russia, India and Southeast Asia.

Pg.102: Pig Demons are found throughout China and to a much lesser degree, Southeast Asia and India.

Pg.103: Were-Beasts common to China and most of India and Southeast Asia are listed in alphabetical order. See (Rifts Dark Conversions, pages 99-105, for complete Rifts stats and details.)
- Were-Panther/Leopard
- Were-Snake (typically a giant cobra or boa constrictor)
- Were-Tiger
- Were-Wolf (Were-Dogs too, basically the same as the Were-Wolf).

Pg.112: At least half of all snake cults and one-third of all death cults in China and India have been started (and often led in secret) by a Mahoragas.

Pg.116: Monkey Spirits are found throughout China and Southeast Asia, particularly in the forests and moonlains. Occasionally encountered in Mongolia, Russia, Japan and India.

Pg.121: Naga (in addition to its Water Goblins and Water Devils underlings) are found throughout China, India and Southeast Asia, mostly the seas, rivers, and lakes, seldom found anywhere else.
(NOT the same as CB2's Naga, that is simply a D-Bee race. Confusion incoming anyone?)

Pg.123: Found throughout China and Korea. and sometimes found in Russia and India, but may be sent anywhere on Earth or in the Megaverse by its master when on a mission of revenge, murder, or assassination.

Pg.126: Shen Wu are found primarily in China and Korea, sometimes found in Russia and India, but may be sent anywhere in the Megaverse by its master.

Pg.128: Cousins of the Raksasha originating in the myths of India, the Yakshas are cunning, demonic shape shifters who all share a disdain for humans (and all humanoids).

Pg.132: The Ying Hsuan Shang inhabit China and to a lesser degree, Southeast Asia and India, but may be found anywhere in the world and across the Megaverse on a mission for its master.

Pg.141: Shih-Ju Shen are found in China and sometimes in Korea, Japan, Russia and India. but may go anywhere on Earth or in the
Megaverse.
Lots of critters to mine here, as previously mentioned. But don't let them overpower the ones in CB2, people. At least not too much.

One thing that crossed my mind is that all "chinese Naga demons" seem to be female, if so, just calling them Nagini would be a quick & simple way to avoid confusion with the D-bee race.
WB25, pg.71 wrote:(Spirit Host) Tiger: The king of beasts (to the Chinese), symbol of vital energy, power, ferocity and hunting (white tiger is symbol of Yin, the traditional tiger symbolizes Yang, war and valor). Understands and speaks all Asian languages (88%; including Indian).
Must be said, between Rakshasas, Yakshas, Tiger Hosts and weretigers & panthers, there's lots of potential for confusion and mix-ups.
WB27 wrote:Pg.108: Throughout the next decade, Neenok traveled not only throughout large portions of North America, but also parts of Africa and into the dark heart of India and a bit of Indochina.
He was surprised to learn that his unearthly and grotesque appearance enabled him to travel unmolested through many of the lands dominated by humans and D-Bees, who often regarded him as the child or avatar or spirit manifestation of their spider gods. Even those who feared him as a demon or dark god, gave him wide berth and left him unharmed for fear of invoking the wrath of dark and inhuman forces upon themselves.
In Africa and India, people found him to be such a curiosity that they were willing to spend a great deal of time with Neenok, and he even shared many a dinner table with some of the ruling Raksasha Lords of India (These travels of Deearn Neenok occured sometime between 70-80 PA).

Pg.111: In South America, Africa, India and Asia where spider gods have been worshiped or venerated in past ages or during various times in history, the A'rac are often (not always) regarded as "divine children" of ancient nature spirits or even the avatar of a spider god, even if the D-Bee denies any such thing.

Pg.146 (orWB30, pg.100): The Horune have strong business ties to the Splugorth of Atlantis, who represent 85% of their slave business, but the pirates also deal with other inhuman clients, including the Phoenix Empire (Africa), the Gargoy le Empire (their agents in France) and numerous other pirates and kingdoms of monsters in Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, India and the South Pacific.
Actually, the seafaring Horune Pirates are found along the coasts of almost every part of the world, but most of their business is with Atlantis or places around Atlantis. Their most favorite client is the Splugorth, followed by other inhuman and monstrous clientele. However, they have no qualms dealing with anyone, including humans, if the reward is great and the opportunity plentiful. Though Horune are often perceived as the henchmen of other powerful forces, they are not mercenaries and never take work as soldiers; they are thieves, plunderers and merchants in the decadent and distasteful.
I love the whole thing about Neenok's travels and the nice heap of fluff it adds to India. That said, i don't remember the nation having any monsters or great folkloric bits related to spiders that might help with his "cover". BUT we are speaking of post-apocalyptic Rifts India, so that could be explained by centuries of Death Weaver Spiders' presence/influence in the region as mystic/malicious/guiding spirits...

What in itself could lead Neenok or other A'rac travellers in all kinds of trouble, if one such a monster gets interested or finds them "cute", for example.
WB28, pg.57 wrote:(The Merc Market) 52. Exotic Arms. A dimension-hopping trader set up shop a year ago dealing exclusively in rare and foreign weapons. Hameel Luca is supposedly a human from another dimension or time; how or why he ended up in Arzno is a mystery to everyone. What is known is that he offers exotic weapons he claims come from other parts of the world, including Eco-Wizard weapons from Dinosaur Swamp, Millennium Tree wands, staves and leaf arm or from England, Xiticix guns and weapons, a selection of Kittani weapons, Horune Pirate weapons, Triax guns and ammo (but no armor or vehicles), and a selection of magic items he claims come from India, Russia, and even China and Japan.
Not much, just a walking hook of a NPC (or not) in a seeming improbable place.
WB29: Madhaven wrote: Pg.122: Habitat: Thankfully rare, the Contagion Entity can be found anywhere in the world, but is most common to Madhaven, Jersey Side, the ruins of Detroit and Windsor, Africa, China and India. The carrier usually tries to lose himself among humanity and likes to hang out in poor, dirty slums where he can cause the greatest mayhem and disease.

Pg.124: Habitat (Rotting Entity): May be encountered anywhere, especially places where there are many victims to be had, like Madhaven, Jersey Side, the ruins of old Chicago, Detroit, Windsor, st. Louis and Calgary, as well as Africa, India and China. The signs of a Rotting Entity in the area are obvious, as it will decay any animals or people it comes across, including woodland creatures and livestock.
Again, extra stuff from the most unexpected places. Goes to show no book should be ignored when it comes for juicy info. Incidentally, the presence of these entities in these places might point out not only to all of them connecting to these entities' home dimension(s), but to the possibility of random rifts between each of them also existing.
WB30, pg.51 wrote:Habitat: Crab Warriors prefer to live on sandy or gravel-covered beaches and river banks. They prefer to live in warm, tropical and sub-tropical climates, but are known to migrate to temperate regions in the summer, returning south in the winter months. Found all along the Gulf Coast and Carribean islands. Populations of Crab Warriors also exist along the coast of Atlantis and in the sea and rivers of Africa and the Indian subcontinent.
Crab Warriors were mentioned first - citation of India and all - in SB4, but i only remembered that much later, after seeing & anotating the D-Bees of North America reference. Sorry.

I ask myself how would they interact with the also crustacean-looking Milu from WB32.
WB32: Lemuria wrote: Pg.42: Habitat: Ichthyleans travel the waters of the world, but prefer the Pacific Ocean and other warm waters. Some have even made it into the waterways of the Americas, Africa, India and Southeast Asia.

Pg.51: Range (Lemurian Ring-Tailed Lemur): Used to be found only in and around Madagascar and the African Coast, but can now be found throughout parts of Africa and India, and, of course, all Lemurian cities and outposts.

Pg.54: Habitat: Merans are found throughout the oceans of the world, though they tend to avoid the Mid-Atlantic due to the presence of the Minions of Splugorth, particularly Conservators, Slavers and Metztla. These days, they are found mainly in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and among Lemurians.

Pg.55: Language: Lemurian. This is an ancient form of Polynesian (which later expanded into the seven main Polynesian cultures of Aotearoa, Hawai'i, Rapa Nui, Marquesas, Samoa, Tahiti and Tonga) with a few root words that have been carried over into Chinese, Indian/Hindi and some African tribal dialects.

Pg.138: Habitat (Breathers): Typically in and around Lemurian cities and outposts, coral reefs and wherever other jellyfish are found, particularly in and around the Pacific Rim and Indian Ocean.

Pg.157: Habitat: Individuals on the prowl, pairs and small groups of 1D4+2 Milu or Mahiki Milu can be encountered anywhere, as can any number of their or Davey Jones's "zombies" (5D6 is typical). However, the Milu community/stronghold is found at Davey Jones's Locker and the City of Bones located in the depths of the Indian Ocean, along the African coast and in and around Madagascar, as well as the many Dead Pools in that ocean.

Pg.171: Enemies (Giant Sea Slug): Almost none, but large animals, sea monsters and other monsters sometimes feed on the slug. The undead of the Milu in and around the Dead Pools of the Indian Ocean also feed upon the slugs as they are slow and provide a wonderful source of nourishment (live flesh).

Pg.205: Habitat: Thrall Sea Serpents coexist with Lemurians and fight alongside them. They are wherever Lemurians are found, especially among their cities, gardens and outposts. Home is in the ocean, and they can be found in any of Earth's oceans and occasionally, on land along coastal regions and deep lakes. A number have gone wild and inhabit remote parts of the Pacific Rim and Indian Ocean.
Tiger Serpent - These magnificent sea serpents are presumed to be creatures from another dimension, though there are some ancient Indian and Chinese myths that suggest they could originate on Earth.
Coalition Wars 6: Final Siege, pg.73 wrote:Chatterlings are a rare and mysterious breed of serpent who have appeared, off and on, throughout Rifts Earth. If they can be said to be relatively plentiful anywhere in the world, it would be India and parts of Southeast Asia. Why, is unknown. The creatures claim they like the jungle environment, yet they seem most at home among humanoids and love civilization where they can engage in politics, crime, and skullduggery.
And it's done, whew! Work in progress this one.

Edit: added the Ramen reference, since they are present in Turkey AND India both.

Edit2: Just noticed i had previously skipped the War on Tolkeen series in my search for country citations. :oops:
Going to backtrack through previously visited countries a little before advancing with Albania & Bulgaria, my bad.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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that is a lot of stuff on India. Rakshasha controleld kingdoms, were serpents, naga, tons of crazy supernatural critters, an evil god, an evil intelligence, and a bunch of deific pretenders.. you aren't kidding that you could practically do a whole book already.

my own inclination would be to take them down the "lots of small kingdoms, heavily magic focused" route.. little tech (mostly brought in by trade) but lots of magic and psionics being used, lots of small and medium sized kingdoms with complex alliances and politics, and a lot of those kingdoms ruled by non-humans of one sort of another.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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glitterboy2098 wrote:that is a lot of stuff on India. Rakshasha controleld kingdoms, were serpents, naga, tons of crazy supernatural critters, an evil god, an evil intelligence, and a bunch of deific pretenders.. you aren't kidding that you could practically do a whole book already.


Won't deny, even though i already knew a good chunk of this stuff was there it got me by surprise when i managed to put all of the parts together.
The half-forgotten bit from the Tree of Darkness makes for a great connection/entry and gives us a definite place (Nagpur) to look out for and expand, what goes pretty well with the Evil Immortals' outline of a developing situation in the region.

The Dionysus bit is kind of vague i'll admit. The encounter with Soma could have been anywhere between the greek invasion with Alexander (probable) and the 100+ PA - and the fact they are party buddies doesn't say anything of where they party at present, that could be anywhere in the Megaverse, it can literally mean nothing in terms of relevance to the region per se.
Bonus for irony in that Soma is the one god in his pantheon i can see not paying attention to how things are going in the part of the world he was once worshipped, so unlike with the other indian gods his presence in Rifts Earth doesn't have to mean a major upheaval for India.

And yet, the whole set up is this monumentally convenient hook, as a GM can just decide to make any one random congregation of faeries, any time, anywhere, into that one party with the two gods and a group of players literally bump into them, what could them lead pretty much anywhere (India or not) depending on GM's and players' ideas.

The parts coming from Dinossaur Swamp of all places, through the backstory of Nenon, were a most welcome addition too. And the fact they occurred 30+ years in the past (in relation to Aftermath) gives a GM lots of leeway on how one adapts, changes or revises that.

glitterboy2098 wrote:my own inclination would be to take them down the "lots of small kingdoms, heavily magic focused" route.. little tech (mostly brought in by trade) but lots of magic and psionics being used, lots of small and medium sized kingdoms with complex alliances and politics, and a lot of those kingdoms ruled by non-humans of one sort of another.


I can see it going like that, though i would definitely add one or two "major" tech or tech & magic kingdoms for contrast and well, it's Rifts, someone has to bring the post-apoc part to the mix. Would also definitely play fast & loose with definition of "India" by bringing up parts of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan and other locales of the subcontinent into the mix. Might also add some aliens with vimana/UFOs for a little extra complication too.

Also, i swear the next place i tackle will be a much shorter one - for my own peace & wellbeing, if anything. :eek: :D
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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Hello people. Sorry for the long hiatus. Still alive here and fully intending to continue with this project soon. Stay tuned.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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so what location is next?
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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glitterboy2098 wrote:so what location is next?
Going for a - hopefully - short one this time around, so my targets of the moment are Yugoslavia (yes, the name crops up a few times in the books), Greenland or Iceland.

Might go a little slow at first because i also intend to dedicate some time to the utter insanity of the "Apocalypse 103 PA" war campaign i've been doing with friends as we utterly ruin and at the same time develop Africa while playing through the Gathering of Heroes and far, far beyond (to Wormwood & Back, among other things).


So here we go:
Yugoslavia
SB3: Mindwerks, pg. 43 wrote:The following section describes some of the non-humans found in and around Northern France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Romania. Many can also be found throughout Europe and Russia, but in smaller numbers.

Optional R.C.C.s
- Azverkan
- Lycanmorph
- Seeker R.C.C.
- Ugakwa Explorer
- Simvan Monster Rider
- Srrynn Cannibal

Monsters (NPCs)
C'ro Demon Mage NPC
Eurotorpid
Mega-Foot Mastica
Stone Claw
White Slayer Demon

In addition to those described here, many of the creatures and optional R.C.C.s found in Atlantis (Rifts World Book 2), England (Rifts World Book 3) and Rifts Conversion Book (One) are also encountered in Europe.
(slightly reformatted from the original, to emphasize the specific region cited instead of the bits that are supposed to apply to Europe as a whole)

And here we got that delicious anachronistic geographic reference i remembered. To be fair, i think anachronic citations of Czechoslovakia are much more egregious. Still in the proccess of checking. :wink:

And lo and behold, i seem to have found some more.
WB5: Triax & the NGR wrote: pg.15-16: Around 20 P.A., the NGR began to hear rumors about a Gargoyle Empire, but as long as the beasts kept their activities restricted to the distant south (Italy, Yugoslavia and the Mediterranean regions), the NGR ignored them.
Intelligence data suggested that this Empire was nothing more than a collection of mangy tribes and clans that constantly bickered amongst themselves. As usual, the monster hordes were said to be unorganized, undisciplined, and completely reliant on brute strength and superior numbers. The only areas of concern dealt with users of magic, dragons and the other powerful supernatural beings who occasionally associated with the lesser denizens of evil. The NGR smugly sat back, confident that the monsters would remember the Bloody Campaign and give the nation a wide berth. They were only partially correct.

One sleepy February morning in 38 P.A., the shrieking battle cry, "Remember the Bloody Campaign!" shook the snow from the rooftops. In an exercise of retribution, the gargoyles and their minions swept down upon the unsuspecting humans. The giant gargoyles filled the skies. Some reports insist that they were so numerous that the flocks of demons blocked out the sun. On the ground, the wingless gurgoyles and other demonic minions washed over the land. Creatures of magic summoned terrible storms, brought mega-damage lightning crashing from the heavens, and conjured forth the fires of hell. Forests burned, cities toppled and people of evil joined the frenzied combat. Everywhere the battle cries of "For those who died before us", "Remember the Bloody Campaign" and "Death to all humans", echoed in the air like thunder.

The Gargoyle Empire trampled over the countries once known as Belgium, Switzerland, and Austria. Millions fled. Millions more perished. Over the next decade they would invade portions of Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Poland, where the bloodiest battles of the NGR occurred 30 years earlier, would again be party to the worst bloodshed; only this time it would be human and D-bee blood that washed over the countryside.
Eventually, the brodkil would claim Poland as their domain and hold sway over it till this day (103 P.A.). Much of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia would become a dangerous wilderness dominated by scattered tribes, kingdoms of monsters and men of evil nature.

pg.216: When the ley lines erupted, Atlantis reappeared, the oceans rose, and human civilization was obliterated from Italy and most coastal communities along the Mediterranean, including Sicily, Greece, Crete, Turkey, Syria, Israel, and parts of Yugoslavia.

pg.217: The Gargoyle Empire also reported to their Splugorth friends a few encounters with small gangs of vampires and one tiny community around the time of the NGR's Bloody Campaign, 3 P.A. These encounters were in the Transylvanian Alps near the Yugoslavian border, but the gargoyles also believe they had destroyed them all.

pg.219: The Gargoyle Empire - The Gargoyle Empire claims the countries once known as Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Northern Italy, Northern Yugoslavia and the series of mountains known as the Alps. However, their main forces are in the mountains of Switzerland, Austria, northern Italy and parts of Yugoslavia. They are strongest and most numerous in the mountains; specifically the French, Swiss, Italian and Bavarian Alps.
So, those little or not so little bits seen to establish the idea of Yugoslavia as monster-infested land, one that might have been a gargoyle enclave/hideout from the earliest times.

Also, based on that sentence about the return of Atlantis and ensuing rise of sea levels, whatever Yugoslavia is supposed to mean in Rifts Earth, it has "coastal communities along the Mediterranean", meaning that either Slovenia, Croatia, Boznia & Herzegovina, Montenegro (or all of the above, since, well, anachronistic book reference) is part of its composition.

Transylvanian Alps or, as us people from the late 90's of 20th century to early 20's of the 21st know them, the Southern Carpathians, near the serbian border (Serbia being the only part of what was once Yugoslavia that has borders with Romania, afaik).

The sentence in page 219 i think is probably the most straightforward citation to Yugoslavia so far. Based on the reference to the Alps and the Gargoyle forces being "strongest and most numerous in the mountains", i'd peg their strongholds as being in this area, implying that meaning "Northern Yugoslavia" here means Slovenia and maybe some parts of northern Serbia, based on that previous Transylvanian Alps & gargoyles x vampires bit.

Now let me backtrack a bit on the Worldbooks i skipped going straight from Mindwerks to NGR and...
WB3: England, pg.146 wrote:The blood druids are especially powerful in the wastelands of Europe, particularly Belgium, Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia and Romania.
Well, that's one little nice morsel to go with the rest, i guess.
WB4: Africa, pg.99 wrote:By far and away, necromancy is most common in Africa and southern Europe, particularly in France and the Mediterranean countries known in pre-Rifts times as Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, and Ethiopia. The reasons necromancy is so popular among these countries is due to the influence of Egypt and its insane Pharaoh Rama-set, the strength of the so-called Gods of Darkness, the existence of many death cults, and the dominance of monster races and evil supernatural beings in these areas.
And this one is even better. Not only necromancers, but they probably gather in cults in the vein of the Grim Reapers, that might be allied to or be outright tendrils of the influence of Pharaoh Rama-Set and the Pantheon of Taut (with possible emphasis from Anubis). Incidentally, such a cultural influence from the Phoenix Empire would imply an also quite considerable degree of commerce between it and Yugoslavia, most problably through ports in Slovenia, Croatia, Boznia & Herzegovina, Montenegro or all of these.

Now that i think about it, this implies Northern Yugoslavia/Slovenia is of major strategic importance to the Gargoyles, since it is one of two areas (along with the French Riviera) where the Alps touches the Mediterranean - read, if they lose either, almost half their trade with the Phoenix Empire (that only loses in importance to Atlantis when it comes to monster kingdoms dealing with forces of evil in the Americas, Europe, Africa & parts of Asia) goes with it. That's an almost ready-to-play scenario out of a blurb. Very interesting indeed and a most welcome surprise.
WB12, pg.52 wrote:The Mind Bleeders gained entry to Earth from dimensional rifts located around the Mediterranean, making their first appearance about 100-120 years ago. Since their initial arrival the race has spread across Europe and Africa. They are most frequently found in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia), and countries once known as Spain, Sardinia, Italy, Sicily, Greece and Yugoslavia. An estimated 500,000 to one million are believed to inhabit these regions. Mind bleeders can also be found, to a much lesser degree, in England, Germany, southern parts of Africa, India and Asia.
Here we have an update/expansion of the info on the appearance and presence of Mind-Bleeders in Rifts Earth (originally from WB4 i think) and Yugoslavia gets cited as one of the places where they have something of a presence. Even more important imho is the statement they are more frequent in the first two groups of places than in England or Germany, in that it paints a picture of association with groups in the edge of those nations, if not outright inimical.

And now back to an "eurocentric" worldbook...
WB17: Warlords of Russia wrote: Pg.165: A few hundred True Megahorses may have found their way to Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, Turkey, The Middle East, and India.

Pg.178: G-Clips: The G-Clip is the Russian style Long Energy-Clip with double the standard E-Clip capacity and is common for most weapons manufactured in Russia, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Mongolia and parts of China. These Energy-Clips are a bit wider than the NGR and American CS types. The "G" stand for "gdye." An example of Russian pragmatism and humor in action, because Gdye means "where" in Russian. Most Russian energy weapons may take a standard type of E-Clip with an adaptor, as well as the G-Clip, but "where" the clip is loaded into the weapon can be dramatically different from weapon to weapon. Approximately 55% of all Russian energy rifles and handguns load on one side or the other, but some load from the top, others the bottom, others in the handle or in the back, or are connected to an E-pack or other power source.
Cost: G-Clips sell for 4,500 credits for short clips (up to 20 shots), and 4,500 credits for long clips (50 shots). Excellent availability.

Pg.203: Brodkil and Gargoyle Invaders: Brodkil and gargoyles are exterminated wherever they are found. The savage wars in Germany and Poland have enticed growing numbers to emigrates eastward into the new Russian Frontier (as well as Sweden, Finland, Lapland, Norway, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia).
The True Megahorses is a repeat appearance from the Turkey & India lists, not much else to add on that.
Meanwhile the G-Clips bit, much like the necromancy blurb, points out to transnational connections that can have far wide implications to one's Rifts games, what's always pretty nice. We have an excuse for russian weapons to appear in those other places, or GMs to come up with homebrew weapons from those places that are compatible with the G-clips too. The part about the migratory waves produced by the wars with the Brodkil and gargoyles is another good one in this international vein too. The image it paints can also be seen as a prelude to the events presented in the Sovietski book i guess.

WB18: Mystic Russia, pg.83 wrote:By far and away, necromancy is most common in Africa and parts of southern Europe, most notably Southern France. It is also practiced to varying degrees in Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Iraq and Iran. The reason necromancy is so popular among these countries is the influence of forces in Rifts Africa, including the insane Pharaoh Rama-Set, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and the popularity of the so-called Egyptian Gods of Darkness where "death gods" play an important role. Except in Africa, the parts of the world where necromancy is comparatively common, it is generally regarded as one of the black arts to be avoided by god-fearing creatures and men of noble and good hearts. In many places, Death Magic is often relegated to small cults or practitioners among the monster races and evil supernatural beings.
While mostly a repeat from the paragraph from WB4, there is a noteworthy addition or two, imho. In the case, the reference to cults of the Four Horsemen and the parts of the world where necromancy is comparatively common sentence, that might be understood to mean the continent of Africa, the other countries listed, or more probably both, as places where necromancy is not regarded as "one of the black arts to be avoided by god-fearing creatures and men of noble and good hearts". Just a little bit of extra fluff can go a long way.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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Since Duty's Edge is now an official, published book, it might be considered canon. A few passages I used when I wrote the story:

"The Phoenix Empire also has growing influence and control over several small kingdoms and groups in Saudi Arabia and surrounding areas ." -Africa, p131

"The Phoenix Empire has excellent trade relationships with monster kingdoms in Arabia, the Middle East , the blood druids of France (even though they are predominately humanoids) , Atlantis, and even supply weapons and equipment to the monsters in Europe against the New German Republic." -Africa, p132

"The Mind Bleeders gained entry to Earth from dimensional rifts located around the Mediterranean, making their first appearance about 1 00- 1 20 years ago. Since their initial arrival the race has spread across Europe and Africa. They are most frequently found in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia), and countries once known as Spain, Sardinia, Italy, Sicily, Greece and Yugoslavia. An estimated 500,000 to one million are believed to inhabit these regions. Mind bleeders can also be found, to a much lesser degree, in England, Germany, southern parts of Africa, India and Asia." -Psyscape, p52

Overall, there's not much I could find in the published books when I wrote Duty' Edge, but from these passages, I gleaned some information that I worked into the novel.

I may try writing a regional sourcebook to stat out what I wrote in Duty's Edge at some point if there's interest.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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Hotrod wrote:Since Duty's Edge is now an official, published book, it might be considered canon. A few passages I used when I wrote the story:

"The Phoenix Empire also has growing influence and control over several small kingdoms and groups in Saudi Arabia and surrounding areas ." -Africa, p131

"The Phoenix Empire has excellent trade relationships with monster kingdoms in Arabia, the Middle East , the blood druids of France (even though they are predominately humanoids) , Atlantis, and even supply weapons and equipment to the monsters in Europe against the New German Republic." -Africa, p132

"The Mind Bleeders gained entry to Earth from dimensional rifts located around the Mediterranean, making their first appearance about 100-120 years ago. Since their initial arrival the race has spread across Europe and Africa. They are most frequently found in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia), and countries once known as Spain, Sardinia, Italy, Sicily, Greece and Yugoslavia. An estimated 500,000 to one million are believed to inhabit these regions. Mind bleeders can also be found, to a much lesser degree, in England, Germany, southern parts of Africa, India and Asia." -Psyscape, p52

Overall, there's not much I could find in the published books when I wrote Duty' Edge, but from these passages, I gleaned some information that I worked into the novel.

I may try writing a regional sourcebook to stat out what I wrote in Duty's Edge at some point if there's interest.


Well, first i would appreciate an opportunity to read it myself. Where do i get it? :wink:
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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SolCannibal wrote:
Hotrod wrote:Since Duty's Edge is now an official, published book, it might be considered canon. A few passages I used when I wrote the story:

"The Phoenix Empire also has growing influence and control over several small kingdoms and groups in Saudi Arabia and surrounding areas ." -Africa, p131

"The Phoenix Empire has excellent trade relationships with monster kingdoms in Arabia, the Middle East , the blood druids of France (even though they are predominately humanoids) , Atlantis, and even supply weapons and equipment to the monsters in Europe against the New German Republic." -Africa, p132

"The Mind Bleeders gained entry to Earth from dimensional rifts located around the Mediterranean, making their first appearance about 100-120 years ago. Since their initial arrival the race has spread across Europe and Africa. They are most frequently found in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia), and countries once known as Spain, Sardinia, Italy, Sicily, Greece and Yugoslavia. An estimated 500,000 to one million are believed to inhabit these regions. Mind bleeders can also be found, to a much lesser degree, in England, Germany, southern parts of Africa, India and Asia." -Psyscape, p52

Overall, there's not much I could find in the published books when I wrote Duty' Edge, but from these passages, I gleaned some information that I worked into the novel.

I may try writing a regional sourcebook to stat out what I wrote in Duty's Edge at some point if there's interest.


Well, first i would appreciate an opportunity to read it myself. Where do i get it? :wink:


You can buy a hard copy on Palladium's online store. PDFs are also available through DriveThruRPG.

Rex Barkdoll and I have also put together an ebook version in epub and mobi formats that hasn't been released yet.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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the yugoslavia stuff makes it sound like you could draw a lot of good ideas from the Castlevania Netflix series, which is set in nearby Romania and while set in the 15th century (albeit with a lot of anachronistic elements) many of the supernatural elements would fit well into Rifts.. i mean you have vampires, necromancers, demons, magic, etc.. all you really need to do is add robots and guns.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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glitterboy2098 wrote:the yugoslavia stuff makes it sound like you could draw a lot of good ideas from the Castlevania Netflix series, which is set in nearby Romania and while set in the 15th century (albeit with a lot of anachronistic elements) many of the supernatural elements would fit well into Rifts.. i mean you have vampires, necromancers, demons, magic, etc.. all you really need to do is add robots and guns.


The vampires is kind of a "if it interests the GM, here's a precedent/wink" case, as the encounters reported were around the time of the Bloody Campaign or earlier (3 P.A.) and supposedly destroyed back then, but the rest is definitely there. That said CB1 has references to huge werewolf (hundreds to thousands strong) warbands worshipped by locals, what could be pretty interesting too.


Hotrod wrote:You can buy a hard copy on Palladium's online store. PDFs are also available through DriveThruRPG.

Rex Barkdoll and I have also put together an ebook version in epub and mobi formats that hasn't been released yet.


Thanks alot.


And now for something from another place i've been searching in tandem through the books....


Greenland


RMB, pg. 137 wrote:1. The Northern Wastelands: Alaska, Yukon Territory, Northwest Territories, Victoria Island, Newfoundland, and Greenland. Although I have never travelled that far North, I have it on good authority that it is a frozen and desolate land of ice and forest. I am told that few humans, D-Bees, and demons wander these vast expanses. Probably true, but I must question the term wastelands. Too much of the unpopulated wilderness is disregarded as "wastelands," yet these very places once flourished with human life. The old provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec are considered to be wastelands by most, but we know that life, both human and alien, abounds in these lands. So who can truly say what may or may not await the bold in these so-called Northern Wastelands.


(Missed the RMB reference - from Professor Tarn's notes, no less - nothing much, here is the due correction)

WB15, pg.19 wrote:The American arctic tribes inhabit some of the harshest and least populated wilderness regions of North America. The frozen arctic ranges from pre-Rifts Alaska, across the Canadian Empire's Northwest Territories and Victoria Island to the land once known as Greenland.


Yugoslavia kind of surprised me, so let's see how much more i can find on this one - outside of Rifts: Canada, that is.... :wink:

WB27: Adventures in Dinossaur Swamp, pg.113 wrote:Alexander Washington Lee - Alexander was born into a barbarian tribe that lives in the foothills of the Virginian Appalachian Mountains. While not raised exactly within the boundaries of Dinosaur Swamp, he is familiar enough with the region. He has spent a large part of his youth traveling the Atlantic Coast, experiencing everything from the summer rains of the River of Grass to the icy winters of Newfoundland and traveling as far north as Greenland. Despite being a barbarian, he shows none of the expected outward signs of mutation that are prevalent in many of the eastern tribes.


No real info, just a guy that went there. But well, it's an excuse for a GM to bring up tales - truthful, made up or anything in between - about the area, i guess.

WB30: D-bees of North America wrote:pg.35: Most Blucies are found in the colder regions of North America, with the majority being in Canada and the northeastern American States. They once inhabited the Great Lakes area in large numbers, but were slaughtered or forced out by human supremacists who would later become the Coalition States of Chi-Town and Iron Heart. Today, small clans and lone wanderers are still found wandering the woodlands and ruins of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan and Ontario, but they are more common to Pennsylvania, Upstate New York, Maine and other northeastern States, as well as much of northern Canada and as far north as Greenland.
That includes major cities like Lazlo, New Lazlo, Old Bones and the various 'Burbs and communities in the North.
Many even fight alongside the Tundra Rangers, while others lived and fought alongside those in Tolkeen before it fell.

pg.100: Horune Pirates regularly ravage the towns and people up and down the Atlantic Coast from Dinosaur Swamp to Greenland.

pg.135: Habitat: The average Mastadonoid keeps to the arctic and northern wildernesses, and are found from Alaska to Greenland.


I'm kind of uncertain if i should add the Mastadonoid bit, as they already are in Rifts: Canada, but so be it, not the first time i bring repeat references.
At least two races of large D-bees that prefer the cold, open spaces & nature. Guessing druids or warlocks/elemental fusionists might go well with them.

As an aside, i'm quite curious about what is there in Greenland for the Horune to take the time to raid up there.
Supposing they don't do it just for git and shiggles that is. Might seem as too much effort, but not impossible with them.

Whew! After almost 12 hours of internet issues, finally could edit this post right.
All worldbooks covered, now the Dimension Books, some Sourcebooks and then Rifts: Canada to wrap it up.
Onward we go! :mrgreen:

And now to wrap it up.

WB20: Canada wrote:Pg 17 - As most anybody living outside the megalopolises' of the Coalition States know, Northern Gun (and to a lesser degree, the Manistique Imperium) products are found everywhere throughout North America. I go on about Northern Gun because they have succeeded in amazing even me. I have seen Northern Gun products, from camping gear, compasses and fishing poles to power armor, hovercycles, 'bots and guns from coast to coast
and as far south as vampire ridden Mexico and as far north as the arctic circle and Greenland!

Pg 137 - Habitat: The average Mastadonoid keeps to the Arctic and northern wildernesses, and they are found from Alaska to Greenland. They sometimes come down from the north to explore other parts of the world, but dislike technology and "civilization" so they avoid cities and large towns. It is estimated that there are only 10,000-20,000 members of this race, with the majority living in the Arctic.

Pg 145 - Range (Polar bears): They are found throughout the Arctic from Siberia and Alaska to Newfoundland and Greenland, and down along the Pacific coastline into The Yukon, British Columbia and occasionally down into Alberta and Saskatchewan, but only in the winter.

Pg 147 - Range (Sled Dogs): Siberia, Alaska, and northern Canada from the Yukon to Greenland.

Pg 155 - Habitat (Giant Squid): Oceans and seas around the world, but most commonly found in the ocean depths and cold waters. Canada Note: Giant Squids are a common problem for fishermen and seamen all around Canada, but particularly those along the North Atlantic and Arctic waters. Giant Squids are especially common and troublesome around Greenland, Queen Elizabeth Islands, Victoria Island, The Baffin Islands, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, and along the coast of Newfoundland.

Pg 169 - Eskimo-Aleut: Inuit/Inukitut people (mainly the tundra and farthest north lands, including Greenland).

Pg 170 - Demon Bear - This is an evil, killing-possessing entity that links itself to our realm of existence by possessing a bear. This phenomenon only occurs in Siberia, Alaska, the Canadian Arctic (upper Northwest Territories) and Greenland.

Pg 174 - Sedna is the Inuit mistress of the sea. She is a fickle, cantankerous, anarchist spirit who can be spiteful and cruel. She lives under the sea and considers the Arctic Ocean and the neighboring waters along the northern coast of Siberia, Alaska and Canada all the way to Greenland as her domain.

Pg 181 - Most Inuit are hunters and fishermen who live in the northernmost parts of Canada, Alaska and Greenland (as well as the eastern tip of Siberia). They prefer this simple life and sense of being close to nature, thus most (80%) Inuit in Rifts Canada are Traditionalists who follow the old ways and live as they had lived for hundreds of years before the Coming of the Rifts. Only around 20% are "Renegades" who acknowledge their native heritage but who embrace the ways and technology of the White Man. It is the Renegades who ride snowmobiles or hovercycles and hunt with bolt-action rifles and carry energy weapons, language translators and other trappings of civilization. Both general types of Native Americans can be created as NPCs and player characters using rules in Wayne Breaux's epic Rifts® Spirit West™. In the alternative, players can use the Trapper-Woodsman for Traditionalists (minus tech gear) and the Wilderness Scout, Trapper-Woodsman and even the Headhunter for the Renegade. There is one O.C.C. that shouts for special attention, and that's the Inuit Shaman, known as the Angakoq.


As i said previously, Rifts: Canada is where we get most references to Greenland - and even then, the actual image they paint is kind of minimalist and sparse.
No ice empires or such among the Inuit people, Blucies or Mastanoids mostly living off nature there - at least until some extradimensional intruder (or GM) decides to tap the potential of a mostly untouched landmass nearly the size of Atlantis, that is. :wink:
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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It needs to be said, after years sticking to their anachronistic guns in the worldbooks no matter what (Warlords & Mystic Russia being from mid- & late '98 respectively, when most of the conflict had already played out), i feel a little betrayed by the complete lack of references to Yugoslavia to mine in Triax2 and the Sovietski books. :-P

Anyway, i decided it was time to adress the issue of this post-apoc elephant in the room, what does one do of these anachronistic references to Yugoslavia in Rifts Earth? At present moment i have two ideas I'm divided between. They are:

- Same name, different country: Sometime between the time of Rifts and 103-109PA, a group of slavic people formed a nation of the same name.
Those people might be descended from the Yugoslavia we know, or a completely unrelated group of slavic-descended immigrant/refugees, adopting the name "South Slavic Land" simply to say "we are slavs but independent from the russians or poles", no more, no less. Eventually the place was overtaken by monsters, Gargoyles in the north, the rest a no-man's land or minor independent kingdoms - but the place-name stuck in the texts and file reports of surviving nations like the NGR, Tarnow, the Warlords & others. Or anything in between, small or not so small upheavals of regional politics to adress the fact post-apocalyptic centuries are exactly not some sort of history vacuum where nothing happened beside monster attacks.

- Divergent History: Tito's changes were solid enough to deal with the ethnic conflict harkening to the two world wars and would lead to the breakup in the final decade of the 20th century. Considering Beyond the Supernatural is from the '88, saw no major world update in 2nd ed afaik and - more importantly imho - that Tito is still seen as very much of a national hero by many people of the former constituents of Yugoslavia even 20-30 years after the breakup depending on how you count, not exactly far-fetched.

So, any ideas, suggestions of your own on how to deal with it? That is, not sweeping them under a rug and forgetting anything was ever said, that is. :twisted: :P
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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Re: Yugoslavia and other anachronistic references

The two simplest methods would be to:
-just treat it as Divergent History. This explains outdated geographical references found in Eastern Europe that developed in the 90s and probably other oddities that could be brought up that relate to Pre-Rifts geography or even technology (GAW's 20th Century US Military inventory).
-the use of these references is for the benefit of the reader when it was written (thinking country references would be easier than geographic ones like mountain ranges or rivers). Then again a detailed-ish map could also have been used with World Building References in its place.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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glitterboy2098 wrote:that is a lot of stuff on India. Rakshasha controleld kingdoms, were serpents, naga, tons of crazy supernatural critters, an evil god, an evil intelligence, and a bunch of deific pretenders.. you aren't kidding that you could practically do a whole book already.


That may, or may not, have been the plan at the time...

Hashtag: unrealized books
Insert 400 character limit here.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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Todd Yoho wrote:
glitterboy2098 wrote:that is a lot of stuff on India. Rakshasha controleld kingdoms, were serpents, naga, tons of crazy supernatural critters, an evil god, an evil intelligence, and a bunch of deific pretenders.. you aren't kidding that you could practically do a whole book already.


That may, or may not, have been the plan at the time...

Hashtag: unrealized books


Taking in account the considerable gaps of time between any of the books involved and no sign of an announcement/pitch for such a Worldbook in decades, definitely never ever something planned beforehand....
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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Now a very short, quick addition to our ongoing "Atlas" of sorts

Iceland


CB2: Pantheons of the Megaverse, pg. 170 wrote:Wothan (Wothancrellyth) has remained in a small, dark dimension, recovering from dreadful wounds (towards the end, he fought on the front lines against the invaders, and was gravely injured). He relied on his last minions and fragments of his essence to secure a place to build again (That place could be Earth, perhaps a secret base on an inhospitable mountain in Iceland). He has assumed the name of an ancient, human god to conceal his identity and whereabouts in case his rival seeks his complete destruction. Meanwhile, he plots his revenge. Note: Assassins and menaces sent by his rival may plague Wothan and his fellow impostors. Asgardians will not take kindly to the misuse of their reputation.


Mercenaries, pg. 160 wrote:The Conqueror Alien Intelligence can create an astral projection (S.D.C. 300) without a silver cord, and send it to other dimensions at P.P.E. rich locations (limited by other factors too). It can enter Earth at only three locations, (Benford Town/Hope City area), India and Iceland. It can also be reached via the Tree of Darkness in the Black Forest of Germany, but must be summoned by a practitioner of magic.


Two references across all Rifts books, both more in the realm of hypothetical/temporary than absolutes, is probably as minimalist as it gets i think - but then "a rogue Splugorth and an Alien Intelligence meet in the middle of nowhere/Iceland" is pretty much a plot hook/punchline on its own, i'd say.

Specially with ultimate backstabber Loki-G, the Goqua, "allied" to one of the sides in conflict.
Maybe that Nightlord "Loki" betrayed could involve itself too, for extra trouble. :twisted:
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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Now going to re-explore some blurbs already cited, to see where else they might take GMs mining their worldbuilding bits.

Afghanistan


WB4: Africa wrote:Pg.63: There are a few tribes of Ramen living in Africa, Turkey, Afghanistan and India.


A few tribes might not be much on itself, but who knows what might come out of it? Maybe a lone egyptian deity, or random group of Tauton might come across them and start something.

WB08: Japan, pg.09 wrote:For travelers from more distant lands to reach Japan, they must travel through the wilds of Europe and then monster ridden Russia or the Middle East (old Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan) and then through China. Harsh wilderness, deserts, and mountains bar every step of the way. The only alternative is the equally dangerous trek through Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam and then along the coast of China or through Indonesia.


This paragraph gives us more of a "definition of middle east as used on Rifts Earth" - pretty close to the original 1800s definition, might be said - than details one might jump from straight into action, but one might say a comparison/correlation to Russia is something on itself, specially coming from a book on Japan at that. :lol:

Ah, the use of old Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan to refer to this region might be taken to mean these countries as such are pretty much gone in Rifts Earth, either hinterlands where no nation stands, or societies quite different from the nations that once occupied that part of Central Asia.


WB17: Warlords of Russia wrote:Pg 13-14 - The Eighty Years of Winter
For nearly a century after the Great Cataclysm, Russia remained a frozen, snow covered, no-man's land. The trigger that caused the eruption of the ley lines occurred around Christmas time, and winters are always harsh in Russia. When the first spring of the new ice age came, the snow continued to fall. Summer never came and autumn brought more snow. Many of the animals were among the first to flee or perish, so hunting was poor, and livestock were the first casualties of the winter blight. Without the ability to grow crops, and with no respite from the cold, people could not survive. Those who chose to wait for the return of the seasons either eventually fled or perished by the third year. Millions died before they realized that winter would not end any time soon.
Millions more perished en route to more hospitable climes in the south or west. Those who made it to Mongolia found unseasonably cold and harsh weather there too, although not as bad as Russia.
Those who pressed on to China or Afghanistan would fall prey to hardships of travel or the clutches of monsters, for demons and supernatural horrors were already invading these lands. Half never made it out of Russia.

Pg. 198 - Language: Mongolian (New): Modern day Mongolian is a bastardized form of Chinese, Pakistani and Himalayan sub-dialects, mixed with various Russian words for certain items, people, weather and so on. It is spoken in eastern Kazakh, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, as well as Mongolia and parts of Siberia and northern China. Base Skill: 40% +5% per level of experience.
Note: Characters who speak Russian or Chinese can pick out words and phrases at about a 35% level of understanding; those who speak Euro can only understand at a 10% level.


Warlords of Russia seems to reinforce the idea of Afghanistan and its environs as a monster-riddled expanse with a few groups of hardy survivors wandering here and there, a number of them speaking what the book calls "mongolian" - quite a misnomer on itself, as it apparently has as much relation to actual mongolian language as Euro has to french, english or german (possibly less)...

WB18: Mystic Russia, Pg.17-18 wrote:Many Russian demons are also found in Mongolia and China, just as so-called Chinese and Indian demons are frequently encountered in Russia. At least one third to half of the demons and monsters that roam the Russian Frontier have migrated from the demon-plagued lands of China and Asia. Another 12% come from India, Afghanistan and Iran.


Due the association with China in the sentence - and because citing India, Afghanistan and Iran separatedly would make no sense otherwise (imho) - i'm guessing that by "Asia" the blurb from WB18 meant southeast Asia, to be more precise.

Anyway, a respectable chunk of the demons found in Russia seem to be wanderers coming from Iran, India and Afghanistan, what could be interpreted as demons from the persian and indian sections of Pantheons of the Megaverse for the first two, and a more hodge-podge (Sourcebook 1 & Conversion Book 1) mix of demons from the rifts, depending on one's preferences.

Incidentally, persian demons also make something of a cover/excuse for Angrar Robotics and/or Armageddon Unlimited (both from Mercenaries) to make cameos on any remaining/new countries with indo-aryan & iranian roots or areas close to or within the Warlords sphere of influence.


And that wraps the area, afaik.

Next i'm going to explore two other mentioned in passing in previous references, Albania & Bulgaria.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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So, as promised in my last post, here we go....


Albania & Bulgaria


Let me recap what has already been said about both places in already given citations.

WB4, pg.99 wrote:By far and away, necromancy is most common in Africa and southern Europe, particularly in France and the Mediterranean countries known in pre-Rifts times as Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, and Ethiopia. The reasons necromancy is so popular among these countries is due to the influence of Egypt and its insane Pharaoh Rama-set, the strength of the so-called Gods of Darkness, the existence of many death cults, and the dominance of monster races and evil supernatural beings in these areas.


Nothing exactly new so far.

WB18, pg.83 wrote:By far and away, necromancy is most common in Africa and parts of southern Europe, most notably Southern France. It is also practiced to varying degrees in Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Iraq and Iran. The reason necromancy is so popular among these countries is the influence of forces in Rifts Africa, including the insane Pharaoh Rama-Set, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and the popularity of the so-called Egyptian Gods of Darkness where "death gods" play an important role. Except in Africa, the parts of the world where necromancy is comparatively common, it is generally regarded as one of the black arts to be avoided by god-fearing creatures and men of noble and good hearts. In many places, Death Magic is often relegated to small cults or practitioners among the monster races and evil supernatural beings.


So, much like with Yugoslavia, areas where those two countries were located are presently rife with death cults influenced, indirectly or even directly, by Pharaoh Rama-Set, the Four Horsemen (Death mainly, i guess) and the pantheon of Taut (Anubis & Set majorly, imho).


As an aside, someone making a "Phoenix Empire cultural influence map" out of this short list of death cult-infested places could be a great addition indeed as a tool to inspire ideas and hooks for GMs, imho.


For a quick example, Bulgaria does not touch on the Mediterranean at present, meaning that either P.A. Bulgaria grew its border a little to the south gobbling up some land formerly from Greece &/or Turkey - or that contact/colonization by the death cults happened through immigrants/missionaries coming from Yugoslavia &/or Turkey.

Meanwhile Bulgaria - along with Turkey - is one of two "death cult-infested lands" touching on the Black Sea and a possible factor contributing to the considerable presence of practicioners of this dark art in the territories of some of the "Warlords of Russia".

Possibly Bulgaria more than Turkey, since a number of its "death sphere neighbors" - Syria, Iraq and Iran - touch on southeastern Turkey, a possible indicator of what part of the country turkish death cults might have more of a presence on, i guess.

Now i'm imagining two major related but autonomous death cult cells in Turkey, one in the northwest touching on Bulgaria, the Sea of Marmara & Black Sea (maybe centered in an Istambul unearthed from the ruins by its dead) and another on southeastern Turkey more in touch with their cohorts in Syria, Iraq & Iran (and through the last two with the Arabian Peninsula), and the giant kingdom and other possible local powers in the middle of the country proper.


Yeah, yeah, the dots seem to be connecting themselves in a pretty entertaning manner so far, at least in my head that is.... but enough of wild guessing and fanwank on my part before i start confusing people on what actually is or is not in the books! Time to search for more references!

WB1, pg.44 wrote:There have only been a few times in Earth's past that vampires have come close to establishing a domain for the undead. One such time occurred during the pre-rifts Middle Ages of Europe. A period when hundreds of thousands of people perished from "the pestilence." Pre-rifts historians incorrectly attributed this period of death exclusively to the "Black Plague," also known as the "Bubonic Plague," "the Pestilence," and the "Wasting Disease." Death swept Europe. In many instances, entire villages and towns were obliterated. The Bubonic Plague was real, but it is interesting to note that during this exact same period vampire hysteria reached unprecedented heights. At no other time in human history (pre-rifts) was the belief in vampires more prevalent.
The majority of peasants, particularly those of Eastern Europe (Hungary, Poland, Romania, Transylvania, Bulgaria, Russia, etc.), steadfastly believed that "the pestilence" was spread by the undead. Indeed, the vampire's power to summon and control rats and mice (rats and poor sanitation are considered the major causes in the spreading of the Bubonic Plague) may have contributed to the perpetuation of the plague.


Definitely playing it loosely with this one since it's more about guesswork related to pre-rifts supernatural events, won't deny, but it's something.
If vampire infestations occured in the ancient past, larger rifts allowing for new attempts coming from the same Intelligences is a clear possibility.

WB17, Pg.203 wrote: Brodkil and Gargoyle Invaders: Brodkil and gargoyles are exterminated wherever they are found. The savage wars in Germany and Poland have enticed growing numbers to emigrates eastward into the new Russian Frontier (as well as Sweden, Finland, Lapland, Norway, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia).


ANOTHER recycled reference, but still a new-ish bit of trivia for players and GMs to leverage in making a picture of the region. Also, first real addition after far too much time of hiatus - and my PDFs still are crap, but between new readers and practice i've learned to deal with it (hopefully).
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

Unread post by DD The Shmey »

SolCannibal its funny you should ask. I made such an influence map a year ago.
See link https://imgur.com/a/jepF7BK

For that image I had only consulted reference material in World Book 4 and Aftermath and may have taken a liberty here and there to determine the exact borders. As you alluded to in your cited quotations, the book paints Phoenix Empire as having a tremendous amount of influence over both the African Continent and the Mediterranean. It's a shame there isn't more than 13 pages spent describing them found in WB 4 Africa since the Phoenix Empire is the largest, most populous nation in the world of Rifts.

On a side note, three years ago in the I following post on these forums I gave an outline for what I thought a good World Book for the Phoenix Empire could be.
https://palladiumbooks.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=155140&start=150 <-- the last post at the bottom

Then last year I spent a bunch of time doing writing and world building to fill out that outline and I got to 101 page count in MS word. It's very rough drafty with bits and scraps of notes and half completed ideas. I always intended on sharing it here on the boards, but never got around to cleaning it up enough to show it off.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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-Istanbul Death Cult-
The more that I think about it, I really can't think of a better location for a death cult than Istanbul. I mean talk about ideal spooky locations rife with history. Istanbul has an incredibly long history, with cities being built right on top of each other since 650 BC. It has the largest and most extensive series of catacombs and ancient sewer systems of any city in the world. The Wikipedia article "Basilica Cistern" describes them better than I can. I think you hit the nail right on the head with that idea SolCannibal.

You know the term death cults has a broader meaning than just groups of necromancers, it can also be a cult that worships different aspects of the dead and death in general. A death cult could be anything from ancestor worship, worshiping vampires or other forms of undead, or a cult that performs human sacrifices.

- Vampires in Bulgaria -
There have been major vampire infestations in Romania and Hungary in the past, and there is a current infestation right now lead by the Vladapar Vampiric Intelligence (see WB5 Triax & NGR pg 217). Although most of it was stomped out years ago by Gargoyles from the Carpathian mountains, the book says he's got less than one thousand vampires spread across Romania and another few hundred across Europe. Bulgaria is right next door to Romania, so I wouldn't be surprised if there was some spill over. Considering that the big Vampire kingdoms in Mexico only have a vampire population of 3 to 6 thousand, if Vladapar has almost got a thousand of them, that's nothing to sneeze at.

- Death Cults involving Sacred Bull's -
On the other side of the black sea has anyone heard of the ancient Greek colony of Colchis in modern day Georgia? Specifically the stories around the giant fire breathing Colchis Bronze Bulls, called Khalkotauroi (also on wikipedia)? I think these monsters would really fit in well in the Rifts world. More generally Sacred Bull's are found all over the mythology of the ancient eastern Mediterranean, and more than one of them are related to human sacrifices. Minotaur's of Crete, Moloch of the Canaanites/Phoenicians and later Carthaginians, and the Brazen Bull torture device.

I stumbled onto this when I was doing research for that Phoenix Empire world book, and trying to come up with some back story for the large number of Gallu Demon Bulls present within the population statistics for the PE. My idea was to roll all of these sacred bull ideas together and make a faction in the Phoenix Empire around the Gallu Demon Bulls, Minotaur's, human sacrifice to an evil Bull God, and a collection of colonies and death cults around the eastern Mediterranean loosely based on the ancient Phoenicians Sea Empire. I mean like, why is the Phoenix Empire called the Phoenix Empire anyways?
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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DD The Shmey wrote:SolCannibal its funny you should ask. I made such an influence map a year ago.
See link https://imgur.com/a/jepF7BK


I might have gone with some transparence philter, to still show cities, landmarks and borders, but then i'm the kind of guy who likes their maps to be as informative as physically possible for their functions. Good initiative anyway, guess i'll have to hit the books - again - to do my own version some day.

DD The Shmey wrote:For that image I had only consulted reference material in World Book 4 and Aftermath and may have taken a liberty here and there to determine the exact borders. As you alluded to in your cited quotations, the book paints Phoenix Empire as having a tremendous amount of influence over both the African Continent and the Mediterranean. It's a shame there isn't more than 13 pages spent describing them found in WB 4 Africa since the Phoenix Empire is the largest, most populous nation in the world of Rifts.


Well, if the writers had those 13 more pages they might as well have written a Phoenix Empire Worldbook on its own instead of taking space in Rifts: Africa. :wink:

DD The Shmey wrote:On a side note, three years ago in the I following post on these forums I gave an outline for what I thought a good World Book for the Phoenix Empire could be.
https://palladiumbooks.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=155140&start=150 <-- the last post at the bottom

Then last year I spent a bunch of time doing writing and world building to fill out that outline and I got to 101 page count in MS word. It's very rough drafty with bits and scraps of notes and half completed ideas. I always intended on sharing it here on the boards, but never got around to cleaning it up enough to show it off.


Oh, i remember that topic. And yeah, i can understand that feeling. Of late i've been playing - and taking turns at the GM chair with 2 other players - in a version of our own of the "Apocalypse War" aka Gathering of Heroes in Africa, with lots of crazy plots and fun bits of world-building partially related to some of the references and commentary like those thrown in this topic.

For example, the list of "hives of necromancy in Rifts Earth" includes Egypt, Libya and Sudan, all three of which are pre-Rifts countries subsumed as parts of the Phoenix Empire. But not the country of Chad, its fourth constituent part. From that curious absence we developed in our campaign the idea of Chad as a region conquered and subsumed into the Empire but with local magical traditions of its own whose elites have something of a love-hate relationship with the death cultists, governors & administrative personnel coming from Rama, not to mention the Kanem-Bornu Witches (our version of the OCC in the book) as leaders of a local guerilla movement along with a number of native priests & medicine folk among others (rain making rituals we decided to subsume into the former two OCCs).

In Ethiopia, also in the list, we set the Kingdom of Yang-Xenarthra and its necromancer ogre queens descended from emigrants of Yin-Sloth, at a century-long war with the forces from Wormwood established in Lalibella. This one came up from us wanting a place in Africa connected with that part of Palladium due to the Chimaera entry citing both the region & Africa and a "typical sex and racial division among known Necromancers" table in page 100 of WB4, where Ogre necromancers are cited as 70% female (in contrast with being a majoritarily masculine class among humans, d-bees and monster races). There's an ogre kingdom in Yin-Sloth and everything else just clicked together from these bits. :D
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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Ok, after almost 5 months of hiatus with corrupted Acrobat Reader & other issues, i'm getting this boat running once more i guess.

After reading a PM - that i somehow missed for even longer than that :oops: - decided to confer on Greenland & Iceland, with no new finds, unfortunately.
What i posted above is pretty much all there is in the books at present, afaik, unless there's something in WB 37 (is it out?) or the Rifters on either.


(Have used no Rifter material in this topic since a good chunk of its articles are optional or non-canon, but a bit of "Rifter cartography" as an extra - or a separate topic of its own, could be a fun extra reference resource, imho.
Wouldn't hurt, though i digress and this thread has more than enough to occupy me as is)


Going to recheck Albania & Bulgaria next, then see what other places hidden in the books can i filch.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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Just noticed a little curiosity while perusing previous references. Because the devil is in the details, as the saying goes.

WB12, pg.52 wrote:The Mind Bleeders gained entry to Earth from dimensional rifts located around the Mediterranean, making their first appearance about 100-120 years ago. Since their initial arrival the race has spread across Europe and Africa. They are most frequently found in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia), and countries once known as Spain, Sardinia, Italy, Sicily, Greece and Yugoslavia. An estimated 500,000 to one million are believed to inhabit these regions. Mind bleeders can also be found, to a much lesser degree, in England, Germany, southern parts of Africa, India and Asia.


So, those isles are to be understood as separate countries from whatever is Italy in the eyes of Rifts Earth? That bring some questions to mind indeed.
Indeed, the citation of Saudi Arabia - while grouped with North Africa, to boot - too, i'd say.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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Damn, i never imagined dealing with my Acrobat Reader could turn into such an insane headache. It has been so long since i did one of my "cartographic" posts this is bordering thread necromancy. Bummer.

But i'm around and i will get back to it soon. With actual book references & content to boot.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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looking forward to finding out what part of the map we'll be diving into next.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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glitterboy2098 wrote:looking forward to finding out what part of the map we'll be diving into next.


Possibly rechecking on Albania & Bulgaria, partly to see what i missed, partly to find out where i stopped at. :lol: :oops:

After that, who knows, a bunch of places to seek out notes and already existing fragmentary book info about.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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Indonesia and Madasgaser malta cuba hawaii

Sweden/Norway. Ireland

Korea proper

The moon
Rifts World Book 50: Bloodly Cascadia
Rifts World Book 53: Stumptown, The Sound and Vanc aka Cascadia2
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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OregonMan9000 wrote:Indonesia and Madasgaser malta cuba hawaii

Sweden/Norway. Ireland

Korea proper

The moon


All definite possiblities, though knowing myself i will probably go for places already cited in the previous entries first before searching for new ones - unless it's one i suspect of being a quick "one-hit wonder" like Iceland or Greenland, that is.

But on a quick aside since you asked.

- Indonesia: there's some mentions of it in Rifts: Japan and Underseas i think. Ah, just remembered CB1: Pg.193, mentions Indonesia (alongside China & India) as one of the places where weretigers are most common - what might be a lot, considering Asia as a whole is cited as being the part of the world where they are most common, implying their population in these three countries is even larger than the asian average, so to speak.
- Madasgascar: WB4 definitely cites it as mostly wildland. In the "Apocalypse War" campaign i've been playing, it becomes a major redoubt of Splugorth operations scrambling out of Africa and end up opening a new trade circuit for Splynn with a number of previously unknown monster nations in the Indian Ocean (with the Naruni very close behind).
- Ireland: Rifts: England, is the go-to book. Same for Scotland. But to sum it up, Ireland is populated, some might say cluttered, with fae to such a large degree that almost everyone beside the occasional Splugorth raiding force avoids the place. Meanwhile Scotland has basically turned into an extension of whatever divine realm the Tuatha De Danaan and the Fomorians come from.
- Cuba: I think it has become a secret Deevyl outpost looking out on Atlantis, according to Megaverse in Flames.
- Sweden/Norway: Triax 1 & 2, Warlords of Russia & Sovietski have some bits on these peppered here and there.
- Korea: again, Rifts: Japan i think.
- Moon: Mutants in Orbit is the book to go, depending on how canon one considers its contents.
- Malta, Hawaii: honestly, no idea.

Going mostly from my admitedly unreliable memory, definitely worth checking out better in the future.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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It would be cool to see a re-emergence of extinct fauna like Elephant Birds and giant Lemurs on Madagascar. I find it hard to believe Malta would still be around due to the rising sea levels.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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FrankSerpico wrote:It would be cool to see a re-emergence of extinct fauna like Elephant Birds and giant Lemurs on Madagascar. I find it hard to believe Malta would still be around due to the rising sea levels.


As i have pointed out in a number of other threads, the matter of rising sea levels in Rifts is complicated and loosely defined overall - but volcanism and tectonic plates can muddle matters, separating landmasses as much as approaching them and same goes for sinking or rising places. Add to that the possiblity of oceans rising then receding to some degree, as the circunstances that led to their rise in the first place and to what degree are not really certain or precise and GMs or writers have a lot of freedom/excuses in what they keep or scratch out of the map.

To sum it up with a nudge at canon, what goes for Malta goes for ManhattanMadhaven might be said.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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SolCannibal wrote:
FrankSerpico wrote:It would be cool to see a re-emergence of extinct fauna like Elephant Birds and giant Lemurs on Madagascar. I find it hard to believe Malta would still be around due to the rising sea levels.


As i have pointed out in a number of other threads, the matter of rising sea levels in Rifts is complicated and loosely defined overall - but volcanism and techtonic plates can muddle matters separating landmasses as much as approaching and same goes for sinking or rising places. Add to that the possiblity of oceans rising then receding to some degree, as the circunstances that led to their rise in the first place and to what degree are not really certain or precise and GMs writers have a lot of freedom/excuses in what they keep or scratch out of the map.

To sum it up with a nudge at canon, what goes for Malta goes for ManhattanMadhaven might be said.

Something else to consider vs real world is how the various dimensional portals/related phenomena could have an impact in reshaping Rifts Earth.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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ShadowLogan wrote:
SolCannibal wrote:
FrankSerpico wrote:It would be cool to see a re-emergence of extinct fauna like Elephant Birds and giant Lemurs on Madagascar. I find it hard to believe Malta would still be around due to the rising sea levels.


As i have pointed out in a number of other threads, the matter of rising sea levels in Rifts is complicated and loosely defined overall - but volcanism and techtonic plates can muddle matters separating landmasses as much as approaching and same goes for sinking or rising places. Add to that the possiblity of oceans rising then receding to some degree, as the circunstances that led to their rise in the first place and to what degree are not really certain or precise and GMs writers have a lot of freedom/excuses in what they keep or scratch out of the map.

To sum it up with a nudge at canon, what goes for Malta goes for ManhattanMadhaven might be said.

Something else to consider vs real world is how the various dimensional portals/related phenomena could have an impact in reshaping Rifts Earth.


Indeed. Though it's not the subject of this thread per se (that is about obscure geographic bits from the books), there are examples peppered across several books of places where geographic landmarks have disappeared or new ones appeared due to peculiar one-time rift activity, when not cases of locales that come and go depending on celestial movements and ley line activity much like the Fadetowns in the Magic Zone, for example.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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And now, after a hiatus far too long for my liking, our first new entry, to hopefully get things back into gear.

(Also our second delve into delicious geographic anachronism-land, because i know some of you have probably waited for this since the entry on Yugoslavia. :wink:)

Czechoslovakia
Speaking of which....
WB17: Warlords of Russia, pg.11 wrote: The Russian Empire ran east, starting from the borders of former Poland, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine and Romania, west to the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Pacific Ocean. And from points above the Arctic Circle to the southern borders of former Turkey, Iran and China.
A little excerpt from Erin Tarn, to help with framing things. Yes, it's technically about the "Russian Empire", but in talking about its borders we get some sort of perspective, that may help contextualize things.

For starters in the little detail that, while it is indeed the case for Ukraine - for good and for ill - contemporary Russia has no borders whatsoever with either Poland, Slovakia or Romania. What could imply that, somewhere along the way to 2098 the "Russian Empire" would flex its muscles and gobble up Belarus (to touch on Poland) and some parts of northeastern &/or southeastern Ukraine to reach Slovakia and Romania.

I'm guessing mostly sourtheastern, due to relative closeness to Crimea - and the fact, Ukraine is cited as "outside Russia", meaning it still existed in some form as a sovereign state up to 2098.

Also, since i remember no references to Moldova in any Rifts books, i suspect it might have disappeared sometime between 2060s (when the neo-soviet state came to be, if memory tricks me not) and 2090s - it if was absorbed by the Russian/Soviet empire or merged with Romania for cultural &/or self-defense reasons, i'd say that's for DMs to decide in their games if they ever have reason to.

So, my guess from all of this is that the reason Czechoslovakia gets referenced a number of times in the books would be they merged back into one country as one of many measures to resist the expansionism of the new Russian Empire in the last decades before the time of Rifts.

What put together can make for not only a decent sidestepping of anachronism stew, but for a decent bit on incidental alternate history, imho.

With that kind of covered, let's try to deal with the region proper.

WB5: Triax & the NGR wrote: Pg.11: Munich is a bright, pretty, lively city and has become a center for communications and the arts. There are over a hundred libraries (books and disks), three hundred art galleries, five hundred theaters (movie, live, and virtual reality), scores of dance halls, nightclubs, beer gardens, spacious inner city parks, skating rinks, museums and shops of every kind.
Of course, since the Coming of the Rifts, the city is physically larger, much more modern, and has tripled its population (currently about 3.9 million people), many of whom are refugees from Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia.


Pg.13: Victor Lazlo's organization is also based in Munich. The chief reason for this is mainly geographical. Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and even Poland are all relatively close. From Munich they can coordinate relief programs to help the D-bees and wilderness humans who live in these territories. Victor and his diverse group of people are not out to undermine the NGR, but to help the innocent D-bees and wilderness people along its borders and in the Monster Zones. Of course this humanitarian effort makes Victor and his associates dangerous enemies in the eyes of the government and the military. I dare not say more at this time. I don't want to jeopardize Victor's operations or endanger his people.


pg.15-16: Around 20 P.A., the NGR began to hear rumors about a Gargoyle Empire, but as long as the beasts kept their activities restricted to the distant south (Italy, Yugoslavia and the Mediterranean regions), the NGR ignored them. Intelligence data suggested that this Empire was nothing more than a collection of mangy tribes and clans that constantly bickered amongst themselves. As usual, the monster hordes were said to be unorganized, undisciplined, and completely reliant on brute strength and superior numbers. The only areas of concern dealt with users of magic, dragons and the other powerful supernatural beings who occasionally associated with the lesser denizens of evil. The NGR smugly sat back, confident that the monsters would remember the Bloody Campaign and give the nation a wide berth. They were only partially correct.

One sleepy February morning in 38 P.A., the shrieking battle cry, "Remember the Bloody Campaign!" shook the snow from the rooftops. In an exercise of retribution, the gargoyles and their minions swept down upon the unsuspecting humans. The giant gargoyles filled the skies. Some reports insist that they were so numerous that the flocks of demons blocked out the sun. On the ground, the wingless gurgoyles and other demonic minions washed over the land. Creatures of magic summoned terrible storms, brought mega-damage lightning crashing from the heavens, and conjured forth the fires of hell. Forests burned, cities toppled and people of evil joined the frenzied combat. Everywhere the battle cries of "For those who died before us", "Remember the Bloody Campaign" and "Death to all humans", echoed in the air like thunder.

The Gargoyle Empire trampled over the countries once known as Belgium, Switzerland, and Austria. Millions fled. Millions more perished. Over the next decade they would invade portions of Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Poland, where the bloodiest battles of the NGR occurred 30 years earlier, would again be party to the worst bloodshed; only this time it would be human and D-bee blood that washed over the countryside.
Eventually, the brodkil would claim Poland as their domain and hold sway over it till this day (103 P.A.). Much of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia would become a dangerous wilderness dominated by scattered tribes, kingdoms of monsters and men of evil nature.


Pg.197: Although considered to be demons, they are creatures from another dimension. Gargoyles have a pack mentality and travel in vast flocks. In days past, one rarely encountered more than a pair on Earth, but since the coming of the rifts, they are all too common, especially in Europe and China. Vast legions of gargoyles have joined forces with other supernatural and/or alien beings to create scattered kingdoms throughout parts of Spain, France, Italy , Austria, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Russia, and perhaps elsewhere as well. They are constantly warring against the New German Republic.


Pg.215: A Quick Overview of Europe - The New German Republic has laid claim to the countries once know as East and West Germany and the Netherlands/Amsterdam. However, it is also a force in Poland and has waged military and humanitarian campaigns in Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Scandinavia. These are the last (and often fading) bastions of humankind in Europe. If the Republic should ever decide to expand its borders, these are the countries most likely to be claimed or rebuilt, pretty much in the order they are listed. As it is, the NGR is having a difficult enough time preserving its own country and helping other human cities and kingdoms whenever they can. Along the southern and eastern borders of the NGR are what they call Monsters Zones - territories dominated by inhuman D-bees, monsters and supernatural beings. The immediate neighboring countries of Belgium, Switzerland, Northern France, Northern Italy, and Austria are under the direct control of the Gargoyle Empire. Much of Poland and most of Czechoslovakia has fallen to the Brodkil Empire.


Pg.219: The Gargoyle Empire - The Gargoyle Empire claims the countries once known as Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Northern Italy, Northern Yugoslavia and the series of mountains known as the Alps. However, their main forces are in the mountains of Switzerland, Austria, northern Italy and parts of Yugoslavia. They are strongest and most numerous in the mountains; specifically the French, Swiss, Italian and Bavarian Alps.

The Brodkil Empire [Poland & Czechoslovakia] - The Brodkil Empire lays claim to all of the countries once known as Poland and Czechoslovakia, but really only dominates the northern half of Czechoslovakia and the southwestern corner of Poland. Historically, the giant warriors have always participated in military campaigns with their gargoyle allies, and have seldom launched any major campaigns on their own. In fact, most humans and D-bees believe that without the gargoyles' help, the brodkil would never have conquered the territories they now occupy. The brodkil continue to be quiet and recluse, limiting their activities to small areas of Poland and Czechoslovakia and away from the NGR. Their numbers, compared to the gargoyles, are small. The NGR estimates not more than five million are scattered in seemingly disjointed tribes and communities. One NGR general has been so bold as to claim that he could destroy the Brodkil Empire in six months. Thus, the leaders of the NGR continue to focus on the Gargoyle Empire and ignore the brodkil. A potentially fatal mistake.
What the NGR doesn't realize is that the brodkil are more organized, aggressive and militarily oriented than the gargoyles. They have been reclusive and non-threatening for a reason. They've been plotting and preparing for years. Brodkil love technology. They have mastered the basic understanding and use of technology more completely than the gargoyles or any other supernatural monsters that plague the region. This is especially true in regard to weapons and cybernetics!
The brodkil have always had a natural affinity for weapons and have adapted to high-tech gizmos with amazing intuition. They may not know how to tum on a television set or drive a car, but they know how to operate, clean and maintain energy weapons. At least half are armed with energy weapons and rail guns, and all fight with ferocity. In addition, brodkil have always gotten along with members of other monster races and have had a formidable number of lesser demons , simvan and other monstrous D-bees join their armies.
Furthermore, the brodkils' true numbers are nearly twice what NGR intelligence believes they are, with over a million hiding in the Czech and Carpathian mountains. Tens of thousands have submitted to bionic augmentation - mainly a bionic limb or two, three or four bionic weapons and a half dozen implants or other mechanical improvements. Hundreds of thousands have undergone Mind Over Matter (M.O.M.) experiments, conversions and augmentation.

Pg.221: Gene-Splicers - Gene-splicers are mysterious aliens who have appeared in Europe in the last ten years. They are ugly, tall humanoids of mysterious origin and intent. They seem to be explorers and scientists who are experimenting on the many different life forms found on Earth (including brodkil). They seem to wield an alien technology superior to Triax and are masters of genetic engineering. At least for the last year, there seems to be less than a few hundred, usually sequestered away in secluded areas. So far they seem to have limited their range of operation and genetic experiments to the countries once known as Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. Like alien Doctor Frankensteins, they create genetic mutations and monsters that make the Coalition States' dog boys look like child' s play.

So, for starters a slightly out of date glimpse of things as they stood at the year of 103 P.A.

And well, what we get is definitely not a nice place to live in peace and confort - Czechoslovakia is very much a part of the territories dominated by inhuman D-bees, monsters and supernatural beings that the NGR calls Monsters Zones.
In fact the Gargoyle and Brodkil Empires both lay claim to the area, though only the Brodkil - whom though calling themselves allies, were back then very much seen as little more than upjumped Gargoyle vassals/tributaries - actually have a solid presence, dominating the northern half of Czechoslovakia, with much of the rest a dangerous wilderness dominated by scattered tribes, kingdoms of monsters and men of evil nature. Among whom one might probably count both the Gene-Splicers, who freely range this region among others in their experiments, and some of the most vicious and self-serving among their test subjects.

All of this said, it's not all about woe, direness and desperation - Czechoslovakia is also counted alongside a few other countries, among the last (and often fading) bastions of humankind in Europe, whom the New German Republic has waged military and humanitarian campaigns to support. That about half of the country was NOT under Brodkil control already - even though we know of no Poznan, Wroclaw or Kingdom of Tarnow to hold the brunt of that burden - specially considering the region was invaded back in the 40s P.A., as a second phase of sorts of the Gargoyle Empire's first big push/revenge campaign against humanity and the NGR - is quite respectable and telling of the sheer hardiness and persistence of the natives, both human, D-bee and monster. Not bad at all in fact.

One more thing worth pointing out is something of a connection between the german city of Munich, among whose population of 3.9 million people (more than double, not too far from triple, its 2022 population), many are refugees from Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia or their descendants, if one considers a mostly steady exodus of people toward the NGR. That Munich happens to be the base from where Victor Lazlo's organization coordinates relief programs to help the D-bees and wilderness humans who live in territories on Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland speaks of a population all too sympathetic to the plight of (and maybe personally related to) those living in the Monster Zones. If there's a place in the NGR to set up austrian, polish, czech &/or slovak enclaves, ghettos, governments-in-exile or any other such "communities away from home", possibly all together, rubing shoulders and occasionally riffing on each others projects, ideas and so on, i'd say Bavaria in general and Munich in particular would be your place.

SB3: Mindwerks wrote: Pg.10: Note: Mindwerks is a pre-Rifts, underground bionic and robotics factory that specializes in M.O.M. technology. It is located in southwest Poland near the Czechoslovakia border. Even among the brodkil, only a tiny handful know its exact location.

The Angel of Death
Among the inhabitants of Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania, The Angel of Death is known by many names, including Death's Angel, The Dark Angel, and Death Witch. Most peasants and gypsies believe the legends and see her and her daughter as supernatural forces of evil come to Earth to torment all lesser beings. Most common folk will flee in terror if forced to face either one of these monsters! Most local inhabitants and gypsies know a wealth of stories and superstitions about The Dark Angel, the Angel of Vengeance and Mindwerks (only half have any bearing in reality).


Pg. 43:
The following section describes some of the non-humans found in and around Northern France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Romania. Many can also be found throughout Europe and Russia, but in smaller numbers.

Optional R.C.C.s
- Azverkan
- Lycanmorph
- Seeker R.C.C.
- Ugakwa Explorer
- Simvan Monster Rider
- Srrynn Cannibal

Monsters (NPCs)
C'ro Demon Mage NPC
Eurotorpid
Mega-Foot Mastica
Stone Claw
White Slayer Demon

In addition to those described here, many of the creatures and optional R.C.C.s found in Atlantis (Rifts World Book 2), England (Rifts World Book 3) and Rifts Conversion Book (One) are also encountered in Europe.

Pg.54: The Simvan - The Monster Riders of Europe
The inhabitants of the American and Canadian west know the simvan monster riders well. A race of intelligent humanoid cannibals who can control wild animals and monsters from the Rifts. In the Americas the simvan arrived through the infamous Calgary rift. In Europe they have arrived through one of the portals in the evil millennium tree located in the Black Forest. These nomads travel in tribes that number as few as 1D4 x 100 to 4D6 x 100 members. Thousands have joined the Gargoyle and Brodkil Empires, particularly the latter. The simvan are far more numerous in Europe than any other continent, with the greatest concentration (the NGR estimates 3 to 5 million) inhabiting the countries once known as Germany, Austria, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.

Pg.64: There are only a dozen gene-splicers on Rifts Earth and perhaps not many more throughout the Megaverse. Presently, those dozen aliens are limiting their research to the countries once known as Germany, Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia. They are not found anywhere else in the world!
The largest group of gene-splicers arrived about ten years ago. Their base of operation is in the Black Forest, nestled in the comparative safety of the Tree of Darkness. They also have access to one spaceship (mobile laboratory). A pair of gene-splicers have been working from their spaceship mainly in Poland and Czechoslavokia for almost 200 years. They were the first gene-splicers to arrive on Rifts Earth and their experiments are likely to have contributed to some of the legends about Mindwerks.

Pg.93: The Vistula River
King Peter has used the blending of magic and technology to seize control of the Vistula River. The kingdom completely dominates the river for a hundred miles in both directions. Its speed boats, ships and underwater power armor troops, salvage teams and fishermen keep the riverway safe and profitable. The river runs south ending just before the border of old Czechoslovakia and to the north and into the Baltic Sea. From the sea, oceangoing vessels can reach Germany, Scandinavia, up around Denmark and into the Atlantic Ocean and sail to any place in the world (barring trouble from pirates, monsters, and violent storms).
Meanwhile, the Mindwerks book gives us tidbits that are useful and informative, but at the same time mildly frustrating in that for the most part they apply to not just Czechoslavokia but most of central Europe and a bit beyond.

What is definitely specific and noteworthy is the fact that Czechoslovakia as a whole, alongside parts of Poland and Romania (that has no borders with either, so i'd guess we should count some bits of the eastern Carpathians that are in Ukraine too), make up the playing fields and hunting range of the Mindwerks ilk. The Angel of Death and Angel of Vengeance are all too real figures that have spread chaos, destruction, terror or given strange technological wonders that bring can power and madness with them for more than 2 centuries, spawning all kinds of legends and rumors, plausible or far-fetched in the process - and that when their actions and whims do not get mixed or confused with those of lieutenants fallen in the present or past (why would Marsalis be the only one in all this time?), more ephemeral human, D-Bee or monster overlords of all possible origins (vampire infestations, Splugorth cats-paws, forgotten minions of Mrrlyn, a random dragon, Goqua or greater demon trying to carve, etc) and so on.

To what one might add the pair of gene-splicers NOT living in the Tree of Darkness - while the larger group of a dozen has been nestled there since their arrival on Rifts Earth about ten years before (93 P.A.), the independent pair working from their spaceship mainly in Poland and Czechoslavokia has been around for much longer indeed, almost 200 years, what might put the scale and range of their atrocities in a quite close footing to the agents of the "Angels", i guess.

Beside that we have being and things that make "Czechoslovakia" into very much of a window to the landscape of Europe outside the NGR's long shadow - Srrynn cannibals & Simvan Monster Riders hunting, killing and plundering willy-nilly under the shadow of Gargoyles, Brodkil, blood druids or on their own, with the Simvan in particular being so numerous they might be only one or two cunning overlords away of turning into the next "monster empire" of the continent alongside the previous two, with Eurotorpid, Mega-Foot Masticas, Stone Claws & White Slayer Demon for pets, beast of mounting, burden or attack animals & "meat tanks" to cover up for the tech difference and not being MDC on their own.

Lycanmorph, Seeker giants & Ugakwa Explorers meanwhile are beings that one might sort of compare to fae in their elusiveness, somewhat mysterious nature & motivations and how they might go from allies to pests or outright enemies depending on circunstances and adventurers' decisions in dealing with them.

As an aside, the mention of the fact many Seekers are slave chattel of the Naruni, that dominate the market of selling their particular race, had me scratching my head for the "early instalment weirdness" that comes up from trying to make sense of these slave-selling Naruni in Europe in context of how Naruni Enterprises as a whole evolved from Mercenaries onwards, not to mention the Phaseworld books. Oh, boy.

Well, let's say it was a separate group not answering in any way to the american cell OR the Center-based branch management, for that matter. Different branches and bosses, different markets, products & business styles. Should deal with most continuity hiccups nicely and even offer opportunity for some transdimensional corporate drama shenanigans, i hope.

Not to mention freed Seekers that come out and about as gentle giant companions of Undead Slayers and other types of True Atlantean adventurers seem to be a thing too, not to mention any other wandering heroes like roving Azverkan and their "Knights of True Vision" filling in much of Europe much of the same role as Cyberknights in North America or Bogatyri in the lands of russian warlords, not to mention the occasional good-hearted adventuring band.

Oh wait, decided to re-check SB3 for more Naruni references, just to see if any other juicy forgotten bit cropped up and lo & behold: Marsalis, the alien mind melter turned psynetic crazy & lieutenant of the Angels is familiar with - and deeply hates them. So much so that hatred, distrust and paranoia over True Atlanteans, Temporal raiders (plus mages & warriors), zembahk, shaydorians, naruni, and vampires figures among his Insanities. We are talking voices in the head level schyzo-paranoia here. And what would be someone in a major villain hit list having no presence in its stomping grounds? 'Guess that a rivalry/obsession from parts in Mindwerks does consolidate that "Naruni in Europe" forgotten story seed quite a bit. And well, being about as "numerous" as True Atlanteans in Europe is not exactly a ginormous, setting-shaking change, specially if they have to worry about Marsalis, the Angels or Brodkil (not to mention any Splugorth agents that notice them) breathing down their necks half the time.

That could also mean that anyone wandering with a Seeker alongside their group could turn into a target for Marsalis or associates of his tracking the whereabouts of True Atlanteans or Naruni slave-masters/bounty hunters. Those are some little bits that can go very far indeed depending on a GM's ideas and players' actions.

WB17: Warlords of Russia wrote: Pg.15: Almost laughably, Western Russia is the most densely populated by humans, with approximately 32.7 million humans scattered throughout the expansive region, compared to nearly a billion before the Great Cataclysm. Another 13.2 million people of Russian descent are believed to have made new lives in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania — 3.6 million are found in the New German Republic.

Pg.18: For all intents and purposes, one can think of all of Western Russia, from the borders of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Barents Sea to the Ural Mountains, as heavy, mixed forests, turning into mostly coniferous forests (pine, fir trees, etc.) in the northern half, and mixed light forests, broken by grassy plains, and pastoral lands in the southern half. The southernmost part turns into steppe/grasslands, and steppe turns into mountains and deserts.

Pg.203: Brodkil and Gargoyle Invaders: Brodkil and gargoyles are exterminated wherever they are found. The savage wars in Germany and Poland have enticed growing numbers to emigrate eastward into the new Russian Frontier (as well as Sweden, Finland, Lapland, Norway, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia).
This one plays a bit with migratory waves and so on, in speaking of populations of russian descent moving and starting new lives on it and the land once part of neighboring countries. How much do these people, who might be a melange of exiles of warlord camps, remnants of the forces of defeated past warlords, individuals or groups with little to no ties with the warcamps among other possibilities, actually perceive themselves as "russians" vs slavs or anything else for that matter, who can say for sure. That said, groups who kept strong ties to their past and dream of making a comeback to the Sovietski, warcamps or who knows what, are certainly within the field of possibility.

And on a contrary note, an exodus of people moving away from all the heated fighting in the sphere of influence of the NGR, Tarnow and less known kingdoms in the area toward the east and the territory of the Warlords in search of a semblance of peace and order, what can seen somewhat bizarre but makes sense when you are one of countless poor sods with little to no luck in getting accepted into either nation, making life under even Orloff and his ilk a damn sight better than amidst the battlezone or under the dominion of monsters like the Gargoyles and Brodkil.

Plus the talk about the forested vastness of Western Russia somewhat indirectly implying by description that the lands bordering it do not quite share those same characteristics. Or maybe it's my over-active imagination drawing too much meaning of too little words. You decide.

CB3, pg.84 wrote: Vast legions of Gargoyles have joined forces with other supernatural and/or alien beings to create scattered kingdoms throughout parts of Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Russia, perhaps elsewhere as well.
This one, while something of a partial repeat of excerpts in older books, is far from a verbatim cut & paste and "have joined forces with other supernatural and/or alien beings to create scattered kingdoms" does seem to imply the gargoyles being spoken of are NOT those of the Gargoyles Empire, but some of the countless minor warlords, domains and kingdoms or what have you of different levels of autonomy, contact or association.


And now i've wrapped things up, at least for those old references. Have yet to give my books a last once-over to see if there are any forgotten morsels worth adding to the bag. It has been so long i have no idea how many, if any, books after Warlords of Russia i checked. Let's hope i finish this soon to finally strike at some new places.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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Fort Yukon mentioned in one of the West Books (I think Spirit West). It was on the last few pages of the book and I found out at one of the POH's that it is actually missing from some versions. The Submersible base is in AK.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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Zer0 Kay wrote:Fort Yukon mentioned in one of the West Books (I think Spirit West). It was on the last few pages of the book and I found out at one of the POH's that it is actually missing from some versions. The Submersible base is in AK.


What about Fort Yukon?
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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SolCannibal wrote:
Zer0 Kay wrote:Fort Yukon mentioned in one of the West Books (I think Spirit West). It was on the last few pages of the book and I found out at one of the POH's that it is actually missing from some versions. The Submersible base is in AK.


What about Fort Yukon?


What about what about it?

Mentioning it as a place less traveled. It is mentioned, one of few major li KS in AK and there is no AK book.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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Zer0 Kay wrote:Fort Yukon mentioned in one of the West Books (I think Spirit West). It was on the last few pages of the book and I found out at one of the POH's that it is actually missing from some versions. The Submersible base is in AK.


Apparently, both of my West books included, it seems. :eek: :roll: :oops:
Also checked Rifts Canada just in case and no luck either.

Also, AK is abreviation for what?

Zer0 Kay wrote:
SolCannibal wrote:What about Fort Yukon?


What about what about it?

Mentioning it as a place less traveled. It is mentioned, one of few major li KS in AK and there is no AK book.


You do have a point there, but being one city - instead of a country, such as in the examples i have listed so far - makes the chances of a place getting repeat references across the books considerably smaller overall, unless it pops up as a fully fleshed out city-state in one of the North America-focused Worldbooks, that is.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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AK = abbreviation for Alaska
all the US states have official two letter abbreviation codes for use in paperwork, postal addresses, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U ... reviations
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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glitterboy2098 wrote:AK = abbreviation for Alaska
all the US states have official two letter abbreviation codes for use in paperwork, postal addresses, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U ... reviations
Thanks, didn't think of checking US state codes, even though we do the same thing here in Brasil.

Anyway, looks like i'll have to leave canon info on Fort Yukon to someone else - honestly, the fact not every edition of Spirit (?) West cites it makes things quite complicated....
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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SolCannibal wrote:
glitterboy2098 wrote:AK = abbreviation for Alaska
all the US states have official two letter abbreviation codes for use in paperwork, postal addresses, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U ... reviations


Thanks, didn't think of checking US state codes, even though we do the same thing here in Brasil.

Anyway, looks like i'll have to leave canon info on Fort Yukon to someone else - honestly, the fact not every edition of Spirit (?) West cites makes things complicated....


Super weird too right? It was ridiculous at the POH I was arguing with Chuck and Greg about something and started shuffling through the books on the stands to point it out and it wasn't there.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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Hello! New board member here. I found this thread by way of a google search and I just registered mainly so I could thank SolCannibal for his hard work!

One of my Players (I am the GM) made a character from India and everyone else has gotten origin stories and plots tied to their past except for this guy. I had no idea what to refer to for initial source material.

I don't mind creating stuff from scratch but having all these references collected here is a HUGE help. So thank you very much, SolCannibal! 8)
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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Tom wrote:Hello! New board member here. I found this thread by way of a google search and I just registered mainly so I could thank SolCannibal for his hard work!

One of my Players (I am the GM) made a character from India and everyone else has gotten origin stories and plots tied to their past except for this guy. I had no idea what to refer to for initial source material.

I don't mind creating stuff from scratch but having all these references collected here is a HUGE help. So thank you very much, SolCannibal! 8)


Welcome to the Megaverse forums and i'm glad this thread could be of interest and help to your game.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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As this year nears its end, hopefully we'll have a better time getting this thread back on its threads in the near future.

Wish a happy new year of post-apocalyptic exploration and transdimensional adventures for everybody.
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Re: Where the Weird Things Are - about places less traveled

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I commend your effort and compliment your results.
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