The Final Goal of a Five Shires Campaign The Five Shires are, in a sense, doomed to repeat themselves in an endless cycle of growth, prosperity, overcrowding, and slaughter, unless they break out of this cycle. It is of course in the nature of things that all three cycles are now starting to peak simultaneously in the year 1000 AC, when the player characters step onto the scene. While the monsters outstripping their resources follows a cycle similar to that of the Halflings, their cycle is timed differently, and thus has different results, depending on its intersection with the Halfling psychological and agricultural cycles. Manipulated by the Deep Glaurants, the humanoids and other creatures which dwell below the land periodically erupt upwards, seeking to seize the Crucibles of Blackflame and to rule the land for themselves. This interlocks with a third cycle, the cycle of growth and shrinkage of the population of the region of the Shadowdeep located under the Five Shires. The population pressure must be relieved either by expansion or by civil war which cuts the population down to size.
#Vaults of pandius mystara full
Thus, as the Five Shires periodically becomes full of too many people for everyone to have six meals a day, the inhabitants become progressively more suspicious, protective of their relatives over strangers, quarrelsome, sneaky, and even violent. Halfling adventurers tend to be a lot sneakier and dangerous and theftinclined than normal halflings in part because they don't have time for meals six times a day. However, when starvation sets in, they become increasingly sneaky, cranky, and quarrelsome, as their survival instincts begin to override their good natures. They become a peaceful folk, able to fight if survival is necessary, but inclined to strongly lawful and good behaviours. When food is readily available, halflings eat like pigs and are happy and content and good natured. Secondly, this interlocks with the nature of halflings (postulated for this supplement). This can lead either to bursts of colonization and expansion or else to bloody war as everyone begins killing each other to take control of the best land. Eventually, all the land is taken, and further population growth is only possible if you either conquer more land. As the population grows, they spread out to begin farming more marginal lands. It begins with a small population farming only the best lands. The Twin Driving Dynamics of the Alternate Five Shires The history of the Alternate Five Shires is driven by several interlocking cycles.įirstly, agricultural countries undergo a boom/bust cycle which is driven by population growth and the limits of the ability of the land to sustain such growth. Thus, this edition seeks to make the Five Shires a place to have adventurers, as well as a place for bored adventurers to take their leave of to make trouble elsewhere. Even the magical paradise of Alfheim has some conflicts, problems, and dangerous places to form a basis for adventures. In other words, it's a great place to live, but not a place for adventurers. Its inhabitants live quiet, happy fulfilled lives unless something invades, and even that doesn't happen all that often. The folk of the Five Shires are largely happy and content with little internal conflict and not even much external conflict. Welcome to the Five Shires, Alternate Edition Why an Alternate Edition? The standard version of the Five Shires is a fine enough place to come from, but it suffers the problem of not giving adventurers much to do. Table of Contents DM's Guide to the Five Shires - 2 Welcome to the Five Shires, Alternate Edition - 2 History as the Immortals Know It - 4 A DM's Shires Almanac - 9 The Sacred Mysteries - 15 Halflings, Heroes, and Highwayhin - 16 A DM's Guide to the Five Shires - 29 Highshire - 29 Eastshire - 32 Seashire - 34 Heartshire - 38 Southshire - 40 Shireton - 42 Shire-Related Locations Outside the Shires - 43 Adventures - 43 Player's Guide to the Five Shires - 56 What Everyone Knows About the Shires - 56 History as the Hin Know it - 59 Peoples of the Shires - 64 Clan Life - 65 Shire Government, Law, and Justice - 67 Rules and Miscellanea - 69 Hin Master Prestige Class - 74 Five Shires Gazetteer Alternate Edition Editor: John Biles Primary Author: John Biles Vaults of Pandius and Wizard's Community Mystara Materials and Concepts Used in this Gazetteer Creators: 's Community-Mystara (Write-ups on the High Heroes) Marco Dalmonte (Suggested list of Shires Immortals) Håvard (Shadowdeep name and Races of the Shadowdeep) Thorfinn Tait (Map of the Five Shires as of 1000 AC, which I then added to) Andrew Theisen (Various ideas involving Halflings, Blackflame, and Glaurants, Regions of the Shadowdeep) Beau Yarbrough (Hin Master Prestige Class)
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