Palladium Geopolitics

[Library Ogre]

So, the Wolfen Empire and the Eastern Territories are moving towards war over the disputed lands.

The Western Empire is slowly encroaching on Wolfen territories with its colonies, but they're not even at the spitting, much less shooting, stage.

What sort of geopolitical conflicts do you have going on in the Palladium World? Does the West's expansion into the fringes of Baalgor excite the giants of Nimro? Are Timiro and the Land of the South Winds in the midst of a cold war?

[Jerell]

West has it's hands full with barbarians coming from the Old Kingdom and Ophid's Grasslands in my Palladium world. I have Pirates raiding Timiro often. Land of the Southwinds was having a civil war last time I ran a Palladium campaign, but I haven't ran a Palladium Fantasy adventure in about a decade.

[kiralon]

Western Empire
Actively and covertly trying to destabilise all the Kingdoms, would love for eastern territories and wolfen to go to war.
Actively pushing the boundaries in the the yin, old kingdom and grasslands.
Trying to establish a naval base in the floenry isles.

Eastern Territories
Trying to not get into a war with the wolfen
Actively encroaching on old kingdom territory with frontier settler settling over the river.
Trying to get trade treaties with LotSW
Keep good relations with Lopan and Timiro

Timiro
Keep good relations with Eastern Terrtiories
Stop monster incursions from old kingdom (some of these have been funded by the Western empire)
Strengthen ties to floenry isles
ignore western empire
Wolfen - who are they ?

Wolfen Empire
Undecided about war with eastern territories
Worried about coyle movements
Suspicious of Western involvement in recent incidents
could care less about Lotsw, timiro and LotSW

Ophids Grasslands
Worried about Western Empire and Byzantium incursions
Worried about reports of monsters in the lower mountain areas.
Attracting dwarves to the gold deposits in the southern mountain lowlands.
Clansmen have been driving off coyle probes
each successive winter has been colder than the previous for the last 6 years so worried about fodder for the horses.

Byzantium
Suspicious of western involvement in radical and succession type talk from hinterland colonies
Trade everywhere to gather as much intel as they can on other nations navies.
investigate claims of black ship sightings.
Get trade agreement with LotSW for special silk sails to improve further Byzantium boats.

[auyl]

Western Empire and Byzantium both in an arms race of who can get into the Land of the Damned first. Both believe ancient secrets are in that land. More specifically it's believed the secret to rune weapons is in there. Western Empire wants the secret. Byzantium wants to get them first and lock them away.

[Reagren Wright]

Western Empire
Actively and covertly trying to destabilise all the Kingdoms, would love for eastern territories and wolfen to go to war.
Actively pushing the boundaries in the the yin, old kingdom and grasslands.
Trying to establish a naval base in the floenry isles.

Eastern Territories
Trying to not get into a war with the wolfen
Actively encroaching on old kingdom territory with frontier settler settling over the river.
Trying to get trade treaties with LotSW
Keep good relations with Lopan and Timiro

Timiro
Keep good relations with Eastern Terrtiories
Stop monster incursions from old kingdom (some of these have been funded by the Western empire)
Strengthen ties to floenry isles
ignore western empire
Wolfen - who are they ?

Wolfen Empire
Undecided about war with eastern territories
Worried about coyle movements
Suspicious of Western involvement in recent incidents
could care less about Lotsw, timiro and LotSW

Ophids Grasslands
Worried about Western Empire and Byzantium incursions
Worried about reports of monsters in the lower mountain areas.
Attracting dwarves to the gold deposits in the southern mountain lowlands.
Clansmen have been driving off coyle probes
each successive winter has been colder than the previous for the last 6 years so worried about fodder for the horses.

Byzantium
Suspicious of western involvement in radical and succession type talk from hinterland colonies
Trade everywhere to gather as much intel as they can on other nations navies.
investigate claims of black ship sightings.
Get trade agreement with LotSW for special silk sails to improve further Byzantium boats.

Bizantium and Timiro once supreme allies (as good as U.S. and Canada) now have a strained
relationship (U.S. and China).

Bizantium and Lopan working with each other for improved ship designs in an effort to bolster
the Lopan navy to remove the Western Blockade of the Inland Sea ( even though the
Western Empire is not responsible).

Timiro and Lopan working to improve trade relations with each other using caravans traveling along ancient trade routes in the Old Kingdom, which will needed to be defended and guarded using troops from both nations (Island at the Edge of the World reference).

[eliakon]

My PF tends to be fairly low key politically. But that is because based on the extremely long times that the empires have been around it doesn't really seem all that plausible that every one would suddenly be at everyone's throat now for the first time in centuries/millennia.
I have found this to be useful quite often as it allows for treaties, joint ventures, inter national dynastic marriages, extraditions, and all the other fun of a political game with out worrying about WW XXIV (or what ever they are on by now ) breaking out.


That said I did run a game where quite literally every single border between any two powers seemed to be a hostile mesh of incidents, provocations, and incursions.....
....which were latter traced to emotional miasma leaking from the Old Ones seals....

[ShadowHawk]

So, the Wolfen Empire and the Eastern Territories are moving towards war over the disputed lands.

The Western Empire is slowly encroaching on Wolfen territories with its colonies, but they're not even at the spitting, much less shooting, stage.

What sort of geopolitical conflicts do you have going on in the Palladium World? Does the West's expansion into the fringes of Baalgor excite the giants of Nimro? Are Timiro and the Land of the South Winds in the midst of a cold war?

after work, I usually gm on google hangouts a political intrigue game. In my version of one of PBlackCrow's gaming group worlds. Very intensive role-play. It's very Reign, meet Game of Thrones, meet the Bastard Executioner, meet Queen Sonja, meet Gromek mountain complete with enslaved dwarves.

[Boethermsbrukan]

Mark, good evening!

The Western Empire is slowly encroaching on Wolfen territories with its colonies, but they're not even at the spitting, much less shooting, stage.

I can hardly imagine the Imperium isn't keeping active tabs on the new colonies of the same old power that 'employed' generations of Wolfen slaves and assumes it's sneakier than it ends up being. However, I do agree that the Imperial Army (much less what exists of its 'navy') would have quite the challenge of warfare on its hands if they did begin 'tossing berks' at Western properties, even if one assumes things weren't tense enough with the Eastern Territory in the Disputed Lands. I suspect the Imperial Custos is attempting to avoid going muzzle-to-head with the Western Empire if it can, at least for the moment.

Kiralon, good evening!

Timiro:
Keep good relations with Eastern Terrtiories
Stop monster incursions from old kingdom (some of these have been funded by the Western empire)
Strengthen ties to floenry isles
ignore western empire
Wolfen - who are they ?

I'm a little confused by the first and last points. How could Timiro have any strong relations with the Eastern Territory and _not_ know about the Wolfen Empire and the Canine races? Even dispensing with that for a minute: suggesting that asking one major world power what it knows about another major world power and having it come up with 'Who are they?' is another way of saying 'We're too lazy to have seen it coming!' Timiro is a very old kingdom compared to the Wolfen Empire, and even if it wasn't fluent in the Imperium's ways and means I doubt they have or had no knowledge of the Wolfen pre-Empire.

I can understand that Timiro doesn't share any physical boundaries with the Northern Lands like the Eastern Territory does, but something's got to have drifted down that way. Are there no Priests of Light and Dark or clergy from Palladium's North who would have attended a Conclave of the Temple in the time of High Pontiff U'Selekma's days presiding over the Holy City (which I believe is located in or not too far from Timiro)? I know Wolfen aren't especially common that far south, but it can't've been unheard of.

-Boe.

[kiralon]

Kiralon, good evening!

Timiro:
Keep good relations with Eastern Terrtiories
Stop monster incursions from old kingdom (some of these have been funded by the Western empire)
Strengthen ties to floenry isles
ignore western empire
Wolfen - who are they ?

I'm a little confused by the first and last points. How could Timiro have any strong relations with the Eastern Territory and _not_ know about the Wolfen Empire and the Canine races? Even dispensing with that for a minute: suggesting that asking one major world power what it knows about another major world power and having it come up with 'Who are they?' is another way of saying 'We're too lazy to have seen it coming!' Timiro is a very old kingdom compared to the Wolfen Empire, and even if it wasn't fluent in the Imperium's ways and means I doubt they have or had no knowledge of the Wolfen pre-Empire.

I can understand that Timiro doesn't share any physical boundaries with the Northern Lands like the Eastern Territory does, but something's got to have drifted down that way. Are there no Priests of Light and Dark or clergy from Palladium's North who would have attended a Conclave of the Temple in the time of High Pontiff U'Selekma's days presiding over the Holy City (which I believe is located in or not too far from Timiro)? I know Wolfen aren't especially common that far south, but it can't've been unheard of.

-Boe.

Some people know about them but not common knowledge nor cared about, most of my Timorese would think wolfen were werewolves. This is back in a time when not travelling more than 15 miles from your home was common, so even those that know about them and take it seriously (rare, usually only those with strong trading ties with the eastern territory) know that the wolfen have to go through the eastern territories to get to them. There are much more important things for then nobility to worry about, like taxes and when the next door local lord is going to try to take something from them. They don't even worry about the orcs and goblins that are getting close to the verge of open insurrection, so I can't see them putting much or any thought into worrying about the wolfen unless it impacts them directly.

and I have small difference with my palladium, I did up the eastern territories before the book so the disputed lands are a stretch along the narrow point in the north with the easterners holding a mountain castle against invasion, so the wolfen are further away than normal.

[Boethermsbrukan]

I'm a little confused by the first and last points. How could Timiro have any strong relations with the Eastern Territory and _not_ know about the Wolfen Empire and the Canine races...

..I can understand that Timiro doesn't share any physical boundaries with the Northern Lands like the Eastern Territory does, but something's got to have drifted down that way. ... I know Wolfen aren't especially common that far south, but it can't've been unheard of.

Some people know about them but not common knowledge nor cared about, most of my Timorese would think wolfen were werewolves. This is back in a time when not travelling more than 15 miles from your home was common, so even those that know about them and take it seriously (rare, usually only those with strong trading ties with the eastern territory) know that the wolfen have to go through the eastern territories to get to them. There are much more important things for then nobility to worry about, like taxes and when the next door local lord is going to try to take something from them. They don't even worry about the orcs and goblins that are getting close to the verge of open insurrection, so I can't see them putting much or any thought into worrying about the wolfen unless it impacts them directly.

Kiralon, thank you for the prompt reply!

Fair enough; Wolfen and the canine races in general are few and far between in Timiro or other more southern (read: distant) lands, even though I like to assume the Palladium World has a social 'internet' like modern Earth does. <g> I can see where I wasn't filling in enough detail there; I meant along the lines of private or military intelligence on other considerable world powers undertaken by government organizations or what would equate to 'private contractors' in the Palladium World. Most rank-and-file and the everyday free-man and -woman in Timiro would have little or no detail of the Northern Kingdoms, with the only exception bits and pieces brought by wide-range merchants and merchant houses, and then (with the Wolfen, anyway) you'd have the issue of 'seeing is believing'; I expect telling someone half a continent away on the Palladium World that there was 'a nation of giant, erect wolf-people that cropped up in the last fifty years under unusual circumstances' would be met with a Tall Tale Epic Legend labels and perhaps a free round of drinks for a creative (if not particularly believable) story. Even if a farmer, baker, bowyer or freeperson in general was satisfied that such a people and Empire existed, I doubt it'd be worth their time to ponder what it meant to them in the short-term.

and I have small difference with my palladium, I did up the eastern territories before the book so the disputed lands are a stretch along the narrow point in the north with the easterners holding a mountain castle against invasion, so the wolfen are further away than normal.

I understand, having such 'edits' to my own rendition of the Palladium World at my end. My Northern Disputed Lands are more along the lines of the original 1991 Book IV (Adventures In The Northern Wilderness) and the general population distribution is _very_ much like the towns detailed in Book V ('Further' Adventures...); what skirmishes take place are limited in radius but have considerable 'bandwidth', with the main choke point being the Bruu-Ga-Belimar and the Algor Mountains, where the Eastern armies are having the most trouble, and not all with the Wolfen and Coyles. The Wolfen for their physical size are excellent foot soldiers, and find themselves surprising a lot of their opponents as to how stealthy- and sometimes sneaky- they can be in the frequent guerrilla combat that goes back and forth in the Disputed Lands. The Disputed Lands in my campaigns aren't anywhere near having a heavy-duty perpetual combat (read: entrenching) between the Eastern Armies and the Empire; you still have to take care if you're a Wolfen and 'passing through', though.

Thanks for posting me back as constructively as you did; it's a great encouragement to be able to have a few people with their ideas on the table without nitpicking at 'em, and I'm sorry if I came across at all that way in my initial reply.

-Boe.

[kiralon]

sounds like parts of our worlds are similar, and I didn't think you were nitpicking, just asking questions, and I like people asking questions as it makes me examine things more closely.
As to the government of Timiro they think the Wolfen don't have a credible navy so they don't think the wolfen can do much to them.

[zyanitevp]

Currently have full scale war on all of Palladium in my game.
Western Empire- Civil war with Middle Kingdoms.
Eastern Territory and Wolfen Empire war.
Bizantium- Civil war with Shadow Colonies.
Timiro- crushed an incursion from Old Kingdom.

[Razorwing]

Wars are brewing all over the Palladium World.

Bizantium is about to face a rebellion along the Shadow Coast.
The Western Empire is heading for civil war with the Middle Kingdom.
Timiro has a huge slave population ready to revolt.
The Wolfen Empire and Eastern Territories are marching to War.
The nascent Nimero Kingdom of Giants seeks to conquer new lands.
Hordes of monsters throughout the Old Kingdom seek to do battle with anyone weaker than them.
Evil and Darkness grow within the Lands of the Damned and threaten to spread to the rest of the world.
Even minor powers within the Yin Sloth Jungles seek to extend their grasp beyond their borders and become a bigger player in world events.

How long will it be until the entire world is at war... how long will these conflicts last and how long until they spread to other lands and drag them into the conflicts? When the dust finally settles... who will remain and who will have fallen... and who will be left to rebuild?