The continent.

[Old timer]

So, after reading the background sections of this wonderful game, i find myself speculating on exactly what is or has happened on the continent. The first three stories seem to to indicate it is as expected by those from descended from the continentals, but the last story, the now aged man who i assume is meant to be the son of the family who went across the mountains to find a cure for their daughter, indicates something very different. This i like, as it opens up a whole host of possibilities, and i wonder what other GLs here think of this, do they like it, not like it, have their own ideas on this?
I particularly like the idea of the old man tale, that there is no great civilisations there, which leaves me to speculate on why. Is it because there were once the civilisations there, and they are gone, and how did that happen (the feondas maybe), and those who came over to Tri kazel may have been fleeing something. Or, is another possibility that the continentals are not actually from the continent but else where. What do you other GLs think?

[Clovis]

Glad you're interested about the Continent (and thank you for the "wonderful game", by the way). It's an aspect of the game's universe both remote and omnipresent, and a really interesting one to develop as a GL... not so much in the interest of knowing what could be there exactly, but rather to know how it could affect the life of the Tri-Kazelians.

Personally, I tend to keep things somewhat blurred in the sessions I run. After all, the Continent is almost literally on the other side of the world for Tri-Kazelians, so unless a Character has made extensive research on the subject, he is bound to only know about rumors and speculations.

More precisely, in my version of the universe, the Great Theocracy and the Magientist Nòds do exist, but for some reason, there has been virtually no contact with the Continent since the Continental Decades. It's as if something had happened there... what exactly, I haven't decided myself. I'll think more about it should my Players start getting interested in that precise subject!

[Dragoslav]

I've been fascinated by the Continent, as well -- when first going through Book 1, I had to hold myself back from skipping ahead to read that chapter.

I love the ambiguity. It leaves so many avenues for individual GLs to decide what they want to do. Maybe the civilizations of the Continent destroyed each other with powerful technology. Maybe Feondas destroyed the civilizations. Maybe the One God smashed the Confederation with His fist of fury and raptured the people of the Great Theocracy into Heaven. You could even have the Continent still exist and make contact with the peninsula -- maybe a massive wave of refugees come over the mountains fleeing a horde of Feondas, or the Continent has been united by one country which is now trying to take over Tri-Kazel.

[Clovis]

Yeah, you can easily make use of the Continent as a plot device if you want to have some kind of exterior intervention in Tri-Kazel, or if you simply need to add something mysterious and foreign in a scenario. Basically, the concept of the Continent can be made use of as a plot device, although there's much more to that, of course! You really can make it a pervading aspect of your scenarios: on the one hand, it's here and there (mainly through Magience and the Temple), but on the other hand, it's something strange and remote (it's beyond the Asgeamar after all).

So many fun times to be had!

[Tosheros]

I love the ambiguity. It leaves so many avenues for individual GLs to decide what they want to do. Maybe the civilizations of the Continent destroyed each other with powerful technology. Maybe Feondas destroyed the civilizations. Maybe the One God smashed the Confederation with His fist of fury and raptured the people of the Great Theocracy into Heaven.

Maybe the civilised continent never really existed, and all that lays beyond the Asgeamar never was anything but a desolated wasteland. But then where did the envoys of the Temple and of the Confederation came from, and why did they made up such stories?

[Deorman]

I personally think the civilisations on the continent did exist, but were wiped out by feondas.
Tri-kazel was saved during the Aergewin by the Demorthèns (or so they say) but the continent had not such a culture, at least not that we heard off.
That would explain why some continentals were so desperate to reach Tri-kazel.

I know there isn't any clue that may prove what I'm saying, it is merely what I believe.

[Dragoslav]

You'd have to do some rewriting to make that explanation consistent. Do you mean the civilizations were destroyed during the Aergewin or after it? If it was during, then you'd have to explain why the waves of migration didn't come to Tri-Kazel until hundreds of years later. Either way, all of the stories passed down about the Continent from the original Continental migrants indicate that the great civilizations still existed at the time. One could argue that the stories about the Continent's destruction became lost over time and only the stories of its thriving remained, but that seems like a big stretch.

I can definitely see the Continent being destroyed after the waves of Continental migration came to Tri-Kazel, though.

[Deorman]

I'd say the continent didn't known the Aergewin at the same time than tri-kazel or not the same way.
Continental's civilizations were advanced so they wouldn't fall easily.
But the gap between the last continentals arrival in Tri-kazel and the story of the old man is of several centuries.
Enough time for the feondas to slay any human beings.

Like I said there is nothing consistant to back up this theory, one could easily believe that theocratist and magientist battled to death , resulting in the same end.


The funny reason I believe in my theory is that it is not at all a logical but an ideological one.
If my theory were to be true it would answer the question
"Why do we play in Tri-kazel ? Why don't we play continentals ?"
And the answer would be
"Tri-kazel is special, see the continent ? their civilizations seemed almighty but eventually they fell. Instead in Tri-kazel, because of the mixology of different cultures, people got strong enough to hold their ground against the dark".
…
Told you it wasn't logical at all

[Clovis]

It may seem not to make much sense to you, but to me at least, it seems like a beautiful lesson!

And after all, why couldn't it be true, or at least be close to the truth? Sometimes, the most far-fetched theories make us able to envision things with greater clearity, and to approach the most abstruse mysteries with renewed perspicacity!

[Deorman]

What doesn't make sense is to believe this for kind of mass effect 3 idealistic reasons
and not objective concrete clues.
But it still can be the truth and I'd really enjoy it .