Setting the Setting - OD&D (3LBB) & AD&D2e - Part 11 - Cultures: Soltari Humans

It's finally time to detail the final culture in my OD&D setting, the Eldorian Isles! So far, in the Cultures subseries of these Setting the Setting posts, I've detailed the dominant culture of the area - Eldorian Humans - our three major cultures - the mercantile Thunderan Dwarves, the Egyptian-like Sunari Elves, and the militaristic, Roman Empire inspired Tauren Minotaurs - and four of our minor cultures - the Vindhyaksha Goblins, the Hearthwarden Halflings, the Drak'Thul Lizard Men, and last week, the Drogathi Stormcleaver Orcs. Now comes our final minor culture - well, minor while currently being dominant - and this is our second Human culture.

For the Cultural Archetype for this culture, I rolled on the World Builder's Guide Cultural Characteristics Table on page 43.  The result was Arabic, particularly fun for me having lived for one year in the Middle East.

Arabic: The campaign has a fantastic Arabian feel, modelled after A Thousand and One Nights or the stories of Sinbad. The AL-QADIM game setting is an excellent resource for campaigns of this type.

For the tech level, I made a selection from the Table on Page 47 with particular goals in mind. As I rolled up the various cultures, and considered them in the context of the World Hooks I had rolled up before that, an idea formed for using this Culture (in general and not necessarily every member) as the setting's primary antagonist. For that to work, they would have to meet or exceed the Tech Level of any of the other cultures. Well, we already have one culture at the highest level on the table, and two at the level just below that, so there was really only one choice - Renaissance.

Renaissance: With the appearance of firearms, heavy armor becomes less and less prominent, and weapons grow lighter again. The feudal system is badly broken by this point, and a new class of nobility whose wealth is derived from trade and mercantile interests becomes prominent. In some lands, rights of serfs and the peasantry are recognized, and the influx of people into towns and cities continues. Excellent sailing vessels permit ocean crossings and long-range trade and exploration. Devices such as the printing press and waterwheel drastically increase craftsman productivity as the first steps towards pre-steam industrialization take place. Advanced firearms may be available at your discretion.

Next up is Social Alignment. As I've mentioned in each Cultures post, I have 9 cultures and there are 9 options on the table, and I have been setting things up for each culture to have a different Social Alignment. If you've been following along, you already know which alignment alignment remains, and the interesting implications that holds as the alignment for the 'antagonist' culture...

Lawful Good: The citizens are generally honest, law-abiding, and helpful. The laws favor society over the individual, and broad social programs to address specific ills or situations are common. Strong monarchies, autocracies, or republics guided by a benevolent and compassionate central authority are lawful good lands.

Yes, that's right, our antagonist culture is Lawful Good - or rather, Lawful Good with an asterisk. I'll get into that asterisk more at the end of the post, but first, let's cover the form of government, which has been brought up in most of the previous Setting the Setting posts:

Hierarchy: A feudal or bureaucratic system which proceeds through different levels of a religious institution.

Satrapy: Conquerors and representatives of another government wield power over the region, ruling it as part of a larger empire. The satraps themselves might be bureaucrats and military officers, or they may be unusual characters or monsters of some kind, such as dragons, beholders, or vampires.

Yes, this is the culture which has been ruling over the others detailed in a form of religious satrapy. Now to just cover the last few details of generation before I dive into my plan here.

The Local Campaign Area Chapter goes on to Subsistence Systems, culture/race relations, and Population Level, but I feel like these are best addressed when we get to detailing and mapping the land itself and plotting the settlements. 

Putting Renaissance Arabic Religious Imperialists into the Culture Name Generator at Vondy.com, I picked 'The Soltari Dominion,' with 'Soltari' as their demonym and the name of their language. 

I've also been looking at migratory patterns, and through some rolls and choices, I decided on settlement waves for our 9 cultures. The Soltari arrived in the most recent wave of migration, the same wave as our only other Renaissance level culture, the Thunderan Dwarves, but from the Northeast rather than the Dwarves' Northwest.

Now, to get into why I'm setting the Soltari up as an antagonist, it's worth going back to the World Hooks generated in my first Setting the Setting post, specifically three of them and my thoughts when they were generated.

Shrines: Lonely sites scattered across the land concentrate some kind of unusual power or quality. By visiting the shrines, the PCs prevent some horrible event from occurring, or gather the power necessary to unseat a despotic tyrant or warlord.

Religious: An unusual religious situation exists. Perhaps priests venerate the elements instead of anthropomorphic deities (Athas, the world of the DARK SUN setting, is a good example of this), or there may be a faith or religion that is so powerful that it dominates a region or the entire world.

Insurrection: The heroes stand against an oppressive government or conqueror, seeking the overthrow of the offensive person or persons. This can be a light-hearted Robin Hood campaign, or a deadly serious and grim battle for survival against overwhelmingly powerful opposition.

We have situation in which a single religion has forced itself on the Local Campaign Area, surrounding territories, and possibly the world. Temples to other religions have been destroyed, and no other religious practice is tolerated in civilized lands. Should they survive their initial adventures, the characters may find themselves caught up in a movement to break the yoke of this forced religion, perhaps by seeking out the long lost and most ancient shrines of the old gods to rekindle mortal connections to these faiths.

So, yes, the Soltari are the culture which have swept out of the Northeast, forcing the Eldorian Islands (and likely other regions as well) to their religion, then leaving token delegations behind to prevent any rediscovery or resurgence of the pre-existing religion. Yet, as we discussed, they are a Lawful Good culture. This may seem odd on the surface, but consider real world history, and the numerous times cultures of our own have sought to convert others to their religion by force, all while many of the individuals involved may have truly believed they were doing a right and good thing. This is the case with the ordinary Soltari citizen.  My thinking is that a sun god quickly become the preeminent religion in the Soltari homeland long ago in their history.  However, some time before they engaged in their religious conquest, this religion was infiltrated at the highest echelons by the insidious cult of an evil god, or possibly a demon or devil.  These cultists knew that the open worship of their patron would quickly be stamped out by the basically good and righteous Soltari culture. However, they realized that a very slow and subtle twisting of that religion, all while maintaining the surface appearance of good, could divert the flow of worship, even unintentional, to their dark master or mistress. Those first infiltrators spent their careers in the Soltari church solidifying their position and taking steps to ensure the highest positions in the church would continue to be held by initiates in the secret cult.  Over succeeding generations, they have with infinite patience and subtlety, slowly guided both the church and they nation along their chosen path - twisting righteousness into self-righteous superiority and intolerance. When their actions have sufficiently weakened the other gods and strengthened their own, only then will they reveal themselves.