Dungeon Mastering – Telia Worldbuilding – Almun (first look)

For the Extra Life D&D game, I took my players to a Necropolis called Headmaster’s Rest, home to the remains of many a dead wizard, cleric and other practitioners of magic. During the adventure, the Necropolis came under attack by the forces of the Firstborn, a group of near-immortal elves with delusions of godhood, a cult to back them, and plans to purge the entire planet of anything that isn’t elven (and subservient to them of course), and their Onyx Knights, Paladins devoted to their grim masters. Onyx Knights are infamous on Telia for conducting raids across the world, kidnapping innocents from every race so their masters can study and vivisect them.

They’re not nice people.

Though the Necropolis and its interior are better suited for a high level adventure, where players can contend with the full power of its defences, interact with the different caretakers and guardians stationed and created in the Necropolis, and slowly piece together the secrets of how to run the place, how to use its power for their own gain, perhaps even plunder its treasures. Risking, of course, the anger of some really dead wizards. Not all who sleep in the Headmaster’s Rest are meant to stay quiet. Some wander and keep things working.

But Headmaster’s Rest and its many layers (built as wall-separated concentric circles) is just a part of Almun, a region on the south of the Mithras continent. The region shares its name with its largest city, which is also known as the City of Magic. Almun is an academy city, with academies for every level of experiences and branch of magic, even divine. It’s not uncommon for priests and Paladins of different orders to train in the ways of turning their faith and prayers into spells. Some orders train their own priests, taking them as initiates through the first connection with their deity and how to access their divine powers. Others just send them to Almun where professionals can handle it. Necromancy has its place in the city, as there are branches of this magic that aren’t thoroughly evil, though anyone even remotely attempting reanimation will be lucky if harsh words is the only thing they get.

Though there are relationships between governments, religious orders and magical families with the city, Almun’s Headmaster and their council have the last word on who becomes a student and who gets a nice rejection letter.

Almun’s may be the City of Magic, but unlike the capital of the isolationist Elven kingdom of Mael’Kareen in the southernmost part of the continent, it’s not a city of magical decadence. In Almun, respect for magic is everything and so it’s used sparingly by the population. There are people cleaning the streets, public transport between the different districts and many other things that people might consider mundane.

With the region of Almun having such a large concentration of magical practitioners and with Wizards and Sorcerers infamous for magical experimentation part of the Almun’s past, it’s not surprising that there are so many magical anomalies across the region. From the Weatherlight Plains, where gravity has a part-time job and flying rocks are common, to the Nethergale Swamps, where it’s always the dead of night and arcane horrors abound, travel around the region is interesting to say the least. Hell, there’s a reason the Necropolis and its powerful magical seals are so far away from the city.

Fortunately, locals and experienced merchants know how to traverse even the most dangerous of terrains. It’s a badge of pride for most of them and the reason they can charge exorbitant prices to take people across the Fetesh plains to Almun or down from Castina. The only direct route to the city is from Starfall Bay and you still have to deal with the Weatherlight Plains, so as I said, travel around Almun is pretty interesting!

Almun holds many mysteries, and every dot on the map is a town or minor city with troubles and some really strange dangers, particularly those near the woods (there’s a reason Nymphreach Forest has the word “reach” in it). And with a Vault in the region, there are always those trying to plunder them, though as it stands no one’s even figured out how to open the damn thing. And the less we speak of the mountain behind Almun city and its Savage Gate, the better for all those involved!

So when it comes to adventure seeds, Almun has plenty of them and the little low level adventure we had in the Necropolis is just a small sample of what the Telia Campaign Setting will have to offer once it’s complete.

For now, I’ll continue working on this world (not every city and town has a name in the map), my artists will continue creating maps and characters and soon with my players we will start exploring it and since we’ll record all games, you’ll be able to join us. And when things are ready to go and properly formatted, the Telia Campaign Guide will be available to everyone!