Travel Thursday: The Seven Wonders of My World

Hexes, exploration, pointcrawls, maps, terrain, far flung cities, there is just something about travel that just ignites my creative spirit. It makes me want to get up and explore. To see not just the natural wonders of a place, but also to study the history of a place, the people who live and lived there, and the things they have created old and new. This applies to the real world and also the fantasy places that inhabit that ephemeral place between my and everyone else's minds.

The idea of seven great wonders is one we have had throughout our recent history. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World are derived from lists that early Greek historians made of man made wonders. Later lists expanded on this idea with modern wonders, natural wonders, etc. The popular video game series Civilization uses wonders as a way to give your civilization powerful benefits.

These are my RPG setting's Seven Wonders. Some are more ancient than others but all are pretty old; they are all at least outside of the span of recent memory and have entered into the realm of legend.

1. The Langvall- an ancient grey wall of waist-high height that stretches some 360 miles in a perfectly straight line. It marked the northern border of the empire of Old Ostia (basically my world's ancient Romans). It has a profound magical effect on the world in that beyond the wall lies the gonzo, chaotic, and strange, while on the side controlled by New Ostia there is order, law, and the relative normalcy of state sponsored necromancy and reformation tinged religious turmoil.

2. The Palace of the Griffin- a colossal palace of many domes, gardens, and towers that completely covers an island in the center of a strategic strait. The palace is the seat of the Ostian Empress who, while technically chosen by the Electors, has been from the same dynasty for 200 years.

3. The Great Lodge of the Muscovy- a large fortress of wood and stone built high in the mountains of one of the cantons of the Grand Principality of Muscovy. The fortress is said to be made from a type of wood that can not burn and its walls are supposed to have never been defeated.

4. The Imperial Necromancers' College- the great college of the necromancers lies north of the Langvall and almost in complete isolation from the Ostian Empire that gives them patronage. It rises up as a towering white spire out of the surrounding blasted wastes. The Imperial Necromancers are a powerful asset to the Ostian Empire in providing the feudal lords with cheap undead labor. All Imperial Wizards, necromancers included, undergo a secretive ceremony that marks them as state magic users and allows any magic they perform to be able to be traced to that specific mage. Wizards who learn and practice magic independent of the Imperial system are inherently outlaws and often hunted down by Ostian officials.

5. The Island Dolmens- a sprawling ancient burial ground for some giant race of the mythic past. The archaeological landscape encompasses the entire island. Dolmens, or portal tombs, are eroded burial and/or ceremonial sites and these ones are two to three times the size of the type found on the mainland made by normal sized humans. Trees have been completely stripped from the island and the stones that form the dolmens are all of a type not found there or anywhere nearby that explorers have been able to find.

6. The Six Ziggurats of Bilad Al-Uruk- a temple site in Bilad Al-Uruk, or as the Ostians call it Iruk Araby. The nearby Uruki city of Jubaal is also a sight to behold with impressive infrastructure of well regulated plumbing, a form of magical electricity that lights the city, and a series of concentric canals. The Six Ziggurats however are a very ancient temple site. The ziggurats form a star shape with each one at a point with crisscrossing metallic lines that run between and connect them in beautiful and hypnotic patterns. Antiquarians and explorers have always been chased off the site by locals from Jubaal.

7. The Closed City of Kirata- this city, forbidden to most foreigners, is found in the Mountains of the Moon. It is built like a giant cube with its gates at the bottom and its arched windows climbing ever higher and becoming more and more intricate until you reach the top level where the Library of Kirata is located. Much magic and learning is stored in Kirata but very few from the west have explored its labyrinthine interior. A number have done so by earning the favor of a neighboring Rajah or Fakir with political clout in the city and some have sneaked in by disguise and deception.

What are the Seven Wonders of Your World?

If you enjoyed this I would recommend check out my system: A Crucible For Silver. It is currently free in its alpha form but I may eventually create a paid for form of it.