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From Channel Cities
Channel Cities and World of Ærnth wiki
Welcome to the Channel Cities and World of Ærnth web site (note that the Shadows of Humanity setting also shares this same database). Accessing any part of this web site beyond the first time reading this Introduction page indicates that you understand and agree to our User Agreement.
This site presents a Role Playing Game (RPG) setting with most of the setting information presented in a wiki format. It is intended as a medieval fantasy setting with a low-power to mid-power magic feel to it, but with some parts of the setting having a dark and gritty feel to them. As such this site may not be appropriate for children below the age of 13. This setting has been used with a wide array of Role Playing Game (RPG) systems so far, and we are hoping that we can build a database of publicly available NPC’s that are detailed in as many RPG systems as is possible without causing copyright issues with the RPG publishers behind the systems in question. However at this time, we are focusing on things from a descriptive standpoint (while I try to sort out the legal issues around what systems we can actually display NPC's in, thus stats for NPC's as well as critters won't be available until some point in the future).
I will input as much of the setting details developed over the years as I can as quickly as I can. Once a fair portion of the maps and details that I have compiled are on the site, we plan to encourage others to contribute and fill in where there are gaps. Areas that have already been heavily detailed include the Channel Cities, Ærnth World Map, a listing and some basic details of many Nations that exist within the setting, a fairly realistic coinage system (as that is one of the biggest drawbacks of many RPG’s is not having a reasonable economic and coinage value system in place), a comprehensive and fairly realistic price list, Ærnth history, Ærnth calendar, as well as some of the religions (and in this setting I encourage the existence of not one religion that everyone follows like most RPG settings use, but prefer there to be many (as is the case in our real world, each with their own creation story, structure, and beliefs). Also check out Stories that have been written or that are in the process of being developed (as games that are or have occured within this setting, such as A Tale of Dark Deeds or A Travelers Question an intro that appeared over the first several issues of the http://www.GuildCompanion.com e-zine back in 1998 and 1999, or the soon to start Keys to the Martelain Rebellion .
With the setting being an entire globe, even with all the details developed so far, there is still a whole lot of room for more. Contributors can provide stats for existing NPC’s in other RPG systems (that stats don’t already exist for) that we can legally use on this site, as well as contribute additional NPC’s to the setting wiki/database. And of course, we also encourage people to submit details on businesses, Guilds, People (cultures, races, etc.), languages, building floor plans, maps, adventure sites and details, campaign hooks, creatures, monsters, plants, herbs, as well as any other useful information that you don’t mind others using (as long as they originated with you and you are willing to allow their public (non-commercial) use for perpetuity).
If anyone wants to take on an area of the world as their primary focus for developing content, please contact us and present your ideas as we are hoping to create a truly detailed and living world in which GM’s can run games for their players (Player Character or Protagonist). In which those players can actually help to shape the World of Ærnth into something we can all be proud of. While most of this site is set up as a wiki with most of its info open to the public, you must be approved by the sites administrators to become a registered user, which will allow you to contribute to the content of the Channel Cities and World of Ærnth setting wiki (see our User Agreement regarding contributors being able to retain their Copyright). Of course we would also appreciate GM’s or Players providing a log (preferably in a story format) of their campaigns that operate within the Channel Cities and World of Ærnth setting for others to read and see first hand how this web site helps to create meaningful games and campaigns (please provide us with a link to your log or blog for such games and we will prominently display them for you).
I would like to dedicate this work to RPG’ers (Role-Playing Gamers) throughout the world. This project was undertaken after having purchased several commercially available city settings for fantasy role-playing games that were incredibly disappointing in their poor coverage of the day-to-day workings and statistics of a fantasy city for use in Role-Playing Games. Problems that I saw included the lack of thought that was put into population density, layout of the city. As well as lack of detailed background covering the politics and economics of its operations. Another common problem was a lack of good and detailed floor plans for buildings, or the use of the same floor plan for several different buildings that should not have been the same. The Channel Cities started out as a smaller city setting back in 1985, with a group of High School gamers (most of which appear in the list below). Then it grew into a bigger metropolitan area during my early college years, as the need for more political and social intrigue surfaced (especially for the exploits of the now infamous “Hairpin Assassin”). Then in my later college years, as the world in which it was set started to take on a life of its own (the World of Ærnth), it became the multi-city metropolis and economic/political capital of the world that it has existed as since the mid 1990’s.
Special thanks are in order to all the people that have helped to make this setting as close to reality as a fantasy world can be. They include (but are not limited to): Patrick* ("Plans? We don't need no stinkin’ plans!") F., Tim* (“Rasyr”) D., Fabio P., Pedro (“The Flying Madman”) M., Dale* (MadMax) M., Hohn, Aran* M., Elliot, Ebony, David* (“Alignment? Sociopath!!!”) S., Dave M., Josh ("Dwarf!!! What else is there?") W., Jeremy J., John B. ("the Ginsu Elf"), Jon L. ("the Hairpin Assassin"), John C., John N., "Little" John, John L., Mark M., Marc S., Eric S., Mike C. Jr. ("The Naked Flying Dwarf" (don’t ask, it’s a disturbing story)), Mike C. Sr. (“Dr. DM”), Mike R., Sean S., Darrin M., Adrian M. (the human calculator), Tracy M., Harry ("I WILL conquer the world!!!"), David W., Mellisa W., Carolyn S., “Lizard”, Jim, Mark, Jake, Stan A., Stan O., Olin P., Stephen W., Dan B., Eric B., Lance D., Monte ("Reverend") I., Anders O., Eric S., Josh W., Bjorn A., and many others. Note: those marked with asteriks above were also contributors in some special way (usually at helping work out details, contributing idea, and text to this document) and as such deserve a special Thank You! I would also like to offer special thanks to Patrick F. for being a big supporter of bringing the Channel Cities and World of Ærnth setting to the web and for playing a major role in supporting this effort. There are also several people that I can picture in my mind, but cannot remember the names of since it has been ten years or more since I last saw them. Then there are the many sources of inspiration that have influenced me over the years, including J.R.R. Tolkien, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Lynn Asprin, Fritz Leiber, and many other authors.
Please see our Naming Conventions prior to doing any editing or making any contributions.
Consult the User's Guide for information on using the wiki software.
