The Yol’Yangs

Index

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The Briefest Brief

The Yol’Yangs is a campaign setting for a West Marches game set in the homebrewed world of Aynhar. The Yol’Yangs themselves are a few tiny islands of the archipegalo kingdom of Jhea. It is above the smaller southern island, that a giant black disc in the sky appear and from which now a diamond shaped mountain is slowly descending out of. Crushing the already present southern mountains under is weight. Within this falling alien mountain, the ruins of a derelict metropolis harbors discoveries that have utterly changed the political and social landscape of Jhea. And indeed all the neighbouring Kingdoms throughtout the Jhean Strait. Within the derelict city lay vast amounts of strange artifacts and powerful magical items that are mystifying the greatest minds of the world.

Every empress, every king, every scholar and every poorper has heard of the falling city of the Yol’Yangs, and anyone with anything to gain or lose knows that possessing and understanding these mystifying items and artifacts is the key to powers that will irrevocably change the world forever. Every noble and faction of Jhea; every being of foreign stately power, and every self proclaimed despot has their eyes cast towards the tiny islands of the Yol’Yangs.

Miramoor; the once bustling craft city and largest port of the Yol’Yangs is now filled with foreign agents, sold out smugglers guilds, scheming entrepreneurs, obsessional scholars and hard luck sods all looking to capitalize on the fervent activity. The Order of the Vault is but one faction. A foreign power that ‘sponsored’ a local smugglers guild, vying for items, knowledge and power.

Players are Stalkers for a notorious thrill seeking faction, The Scarlet Coda. Running dangerous missions into the underbelly of the lost city, retrieving knowledge and artifacts in exchange for great wealth. But a good faction also competes with other factions, trains new recruits, gains favour with officials, sources useful resources and finds safe paths to travel in the dark. It keeps a good lid on the chatter of loose tongues and a very very close watch on the rivals.

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The Longer Brief

For world setting information see Aynhar.

The history of Jhea in progress here…

The Politics of Jhea

The rulers of Jhea are seven, one for each island of the Jhean archipelago. They are referred to as the ‘Jlar’. Of these seven the ultimate ruler is the ‘Jlar Jhea’.

The Jlar as rulers emerged out of a time when most of the inhabitant of the islands were at war with eachother. It was the discovery of the ‘Jlar Stones’ on the island of Jialo that changed this and brought the islands together under a set of seven individual rulers that all shared a common cause.

Plucked from the waters of a deep sinkhole near Shylha, these seven stones have a strange ability of chosing a host; grafting to the skin of the forehead, and inbue a person with powers of foresight and divination. It is said that a Jlar stones carries with it the knowledge, wisdom and even memories of all the previoius Jlar who have possessed it. Indeed any chosen Jlar is seen as a living reincarnation and amalgamation of all the Jlars in a give stones history. When a Jlar dies, the Jlar stone is taken and offered to all those that wish to see it, and if the stone will ‘chose’ them as the next Jlar. Hereditary rulership is seen as archaic in Jhea by most, and a social system that lead to unnecessary infighting. The rule of the Jlar is a semi-republic rule and Jhea has propsered because of it.

Jialo is the largest of the seven islands, and is the home of the capital city Shylha where the Jlar Jhea resides. It is on this island that the Jlar stones originate. In Shylha also reside the Collegium of Cirrus, a Univeristy attended by many Jheans and foriegners alike.

Jhea’s invovlment in two great wars has put strain on the rulership system that are still felt to the present day. The Sannician sea invasion from the South was largely fought off by the naval fleets of Ishkoa and Yokumol along the shoreline of Ayonia. Whilst the more recent Madawenese wars on the nieghbouring continent of Maluthia involved the soldiers and mages of Shylha and Kinkarti the most. This has lead to a somewhat uncomfortable grudge between the islands of the south east and those in the north west. After the Sannician sea wars, the Jlar of the island fort Yokumol openly denied the rulership of the Jlar Jhea as the ultimate Jlar and has effectively become independant. Whilst this has been tolerated for many an age, recently the Jlar of Ishkoa died and a new Jlar has not been found amongst the populace. It is however no secret that an ancient noble house has stepped in, ‘guarding’ the Jlar stone and disallowing people to see it.

Rumours of a potential coup have begun to circulate, yet these have been treated as a somewhat cold threat until only recently.

Three years past, a group of adventurers lead by an Imlayian warrior called Paric, emerged from their journey to the south island of the Yol’Yangs with a story of an immense city within the falling mountain and of artifact of unprecedented magical power that mystified the greatest mind of the Collegium of Cirrus. ‘Paric’s Golden Ball’ as it is known, is said to be able to reveal the inner most desires of the mind; so the rumour has it. As the news spread quickly, adventurers; or stalkers as they became to be known, traveled to the Yol’Yangs to brave the falling city and retrieve treasures. But only one year later the Jlar Jhea of Shylha broke an ancient promise of the Jlars and set sail to the south island of the Yol’Yangs with a score of mages and soldiers, declaring the rule of the south island under his own personal rule, severing the right of the Jlar Oppah of the Yol’Yangs from his own southern lands.

For the moment the Jlar of the Yol’Yangs, Jlar Oppah, has taken heed of the Jlar Jhea’s reign over the south islands, but this move by the Jlar Jhea has upset some of the populace as well as the nieghbouring islands of Ja’lang and Hamaheera.

Although the idea of civil war has crossed the minds of many, all people of Jhea generally agree that the semi-republic rule of the Jlar has seen the Kingdom grow and prosper. Jhea has diplomats and embassies in many neighbouring empires. Trade and cross culture interaction has seen many foreigners now call themselves Jhean by birth. Thus if a civil war did actually occur, much of the populace are not intending to take part in it. Be it left to the houses of nobles, guilds and factions within Jhea to ‘decide’. Even if a coup were to happen the general assumption of all is that the structure of the republic would more or less remain intact.

There is however an emerging split in the opinions of many, that does not have a solid source but is a growing concern. This split is centered around the arguments for and against progressive innovation and the traditional ideals of the Jhea founded in the Temples. The temples of Jhea administer the councils of the Jlar, who’s priests are becoming more traditionalist in their views, hoping to retain the spirit of Jhea culture and religion. The guilds and merchant are however vastly progressive and have brought much wealth to the people of Jhea. This division has only been heightened with the discoveries made in the Yol’Yangs.

Miramoor

Miramoor is the capital city of the Yol’Yangs and houses the palace of the Jlar Oppah. The cities transition from a craft trading port into the central attention of all of Anyhar has had profound effects. Filled with emmissaries and courtiers from afar, the city has the air of being on the brink of a revolution in civilisation. A revolution that everyone wants to gain something from, be it wealth, fame, power or knowlegde.

Some two years past the Jlar Jhea sailed to the northern coast of the bay of Miramoor and it was as if overnight a new town and fort emerged. Along the northern coastline the town Pena was named and a stately house built for the Jlar Jhea. Upon the overhanging cliff, a wooden fort was constructed, housing many academics and dignitaries from the Collegium of Cirrus. The Jlar Jhea now employs a host of people in the construction of a stone castle wall.

Lower Mira, a large expanse of pontoons and fotillas in Miramoor bay; first built by the sea tribes of the Elves, has almost doubled in size with many a new foreign residence. Whilst within the cities walls residential homes have become filled to capacity. A new decree of the Miramoor council has prohibited the building of new homes inside the walls and upon the bay in Lower MIra, leaving new residents to join the slowly expanding tent city that has been established just beyond the western walls. The council itself has become inundanted with requests from emmisaries and dignitaries seeking residence within Miramoor, that there is little room left to house many of them.

What was once an ordinary Smugglers Guild

Ekamo was a good Jhean businessman, amongst other things, who made a lot of money when Jhean culture became obsessed with everything Imlayian. Exporting Jhean cermaics and importing Imlayian wine and spirits was more profitable that he ever imagined. Having good arrangementss with the Miramoor customs house and even favours with the city wardens, with a good sense of discretion he established a network of smugglers for those wishing to move ‘delicate’ goods. Even gaining audiences with the Chief Warden of Miramoor, if he didn’t overstep their tolerance, ‘trade’ was sure to continue.

Along the western edge of Miramoor bay, Ekamo funded the the tunneling of an enclave of sorts into the cliff face. A series of tunnels connecting Imlayian themed bars, dens for piping ‘nosk’, and redlight venues. An area that became simply known as ‘The Cliffs’. A certain ‘blind eye’ was cast upon ‘The Cliffs’ by those in authority, as long as good ‘trade ‘ continued and it did not interfer with the Yol’Yangs council.

One month before the arrival of the Jlar Jhea in the Yol’Yangs, everything changed. On a quiet evening late in the week without warning, word reached the many of Ekamo’s confidants and ’employees’ that the guild was formally disbanded. Ekamo and many of his closest confidants were not longer in Miramoor, having sailed away to some unknown location.

The next day, Miramoor wardens attempted to ‘visit’ the cliffs, but they found the power vacuum left by Ekamo had been very quickly replaced. The many Imlayian and Jhean’s the made their keep within the cliffs had banded together. Lead by the Marquess Newlyna Trevain of Lisk, a new ‘tolarance’ for the cliffs was ‘negotiated’. Their guild, ‘The Scarlet Coda” are a group of thrill seekers and risk takers that have become renown for their daring exploits.

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Game System – Worlds Without Number

As a fantasy role-playing system, Worlds Without Number sits adjacent with many other Old School Renaissance games in its design and inspiration. It is a gritty system with a focus on exploration, problem solving and role-playing immersion. The Sandbox approach to worldbuilding allows for greater freedom in game narration and player motivation. The Latter Earth theme, that is somewhat inversed within the setting of Aynhar, presents a world in which humankind is surrounded by mystical entities and dangers that are little understood.

The FREE version of the rulebook can be downloaded from DriveThruRPG, linked below. It is a lightweight rules system that encourages ‘rulings, not rules’ as a gameplay style. Players only need to concern themselves with the three first main chapters on ‘Character Creation’, ‘The Rules of the Game’ and ‘Magic and the Arcane Traditions’.

Extra character classes and Foci are available to players and can be found in the deluxe version of the rules as well as ‘The Atlas of Latter Earth’.

For those extra curious on the differences in play style between modern RPGs and OSR style games, linked below is the PDF of A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming by Matthew J. Finch. But if you’re not the reading type, the one-man OSR advocate Ben Milton has a good video ‘What is the DnD Old School Renaissance?’

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What is a West Marches Game?

So why try and explain West Marches when one video from the inspiring Matt Colville explains it much better. That said please watch his video, but the sort of it is that West Marches is a style of roleplaying where instead of a small group of committed players attends every game session, players are drawn from a large player pool and play small one-shot missions, playing with different players each time. Attendance at every session is not required, and indeed not possible thus allowing for new players to drop into the game as much or as little as they please.

Albeit I am not following the West Marches tradition succinctly, as the town of Miramoor will also be a location of adventure in the form of faction missions, the unmapped wilderness is replaced with a megadungeon within a falling a mountain and the safe neutral space for player characters is confined to a smugglers guild hideout.

I love Matt but if you want a shorter version of an explanation of the West Marches, Baron de Ropp has a shorter video aimed at players more than Dungeon Masters.

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The Scarlet Coda

Welcome Stalker to the Scarlet Coda. Bit of an improvement on the title front if you ask me, but it is a name that our benefactors insisted on. Well new recruit, let me fill you in on the gist of things. As a Stalker you are all probably itching to be off on a dungeon dive to retrieve some curiosity or trinket, but you’ll need to be patient Stalker. Dungeon runs are the most deadly and dangerous missions and without good ‘preparation’ you’ll all be dead or worse by the end to the month. Heed me, there is so much more to being part of the Scarlet Coda and a good smugglers guild has a lot to keep in order! So let me enlighten you all on the many tasks involved in running with a good guild.

Stalker Runs

Tunneling. Get ready for some seriously tight squeezes! Finding safe passage into the under mountain ain’t that simple and every faction we know of is getting their hands dirty is some tunnel somewhere.

Scoping out the job. Every reliable stalker run needs a map, but who makes those maps? Well, you do of course!

Relaying the goods to a vault. When a job is done that ain’t the end of it you know! Smart people use teams to pass goods around and move those good between hiding spots if there is any heat on.

Running the Dungeon. Ok ok, this is the real deal. Get in, get the goods, get out. Dangerous stuff. It sounds quick and easy but it isn’t. So don’t be surprised when you end up spending a night clinging to the sides of a ditch in hell you don’t understand.

Faction Jobs

From the Fence to the Bootlegger. Selling off that good stuff for that sweet moolah. But many a buyer is a swindler with a notorious reputation.

Information gathering. We ain’t the only ones making maps and moving goods and sometimes good information means we can take ‘short cuts’ if you know what I mean!

Sabotage. My personal favorite. Speaks for itself really doesn’t it.

Off loading the extra stuff. Sometimes we get a little to much than we can take or need. Finding a reliable fence to make an extra buck is a wise move.

Misinformation. We all have a reputation to keep and that sometimes means spreading a little rumour here and there. We want to get the best stalkers in town working for us don’t we?

Errands

Its the little things that matter sometimes and they all ensure the wealth of the faction and keep things finely tuned.

Guard duty or should I call it vault duty. Can be boring and its never good news when it isn’t.

Training new recruits. Got to skill up those wanna be sods if they are going to be useful.

Cutting the chatter on a loose tongue, because we need to be careful of our own sometimes.

Gaining favours, because its very very useful to have a ‘friend’ in places of authority.

Communications, we all got to keep up to speed with the business and some of us ain’t all in the same place at time.

Making market buddies, because those potion dealers are in high demand I tell you and sometimes we need to add a bit of incentive to get the good stuff.

Holidays

Not very often but there can be times when it’s going to be a long wait until the next run, so you may as well keep yourselves entertained. As adventurers, well there’s still stuff to be had in other dark places abroad. Its still a strange place beyond these shores!

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