Mythosa Design Notes II: The Overall Theme

The primary theme of Mythosa is that the world is a dangerous, chaotic place, with small bastions of civilization scattered here and there. Travel is perilous and humanity clings to a handful of city-states and walled towns that dot the countryside. This, again, sounds like it was taken from 4E with its assumption of "points of light" campaigns. It is essentially the same concept, but I had the idea for this long before we learned about that part of 4E. Inspiration came from a variety of sources, including but not limited to:

• Robert E. Howard's Hyboria (the world of Conan)
• Fritz Leiber's Nehwon (Lankhmar, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser)
• Jack Vance's Dying Earth books
• Michael Moorcock's Young Kingdoms (Elric)
• Edgar Rice Burroughs's Mars books (John Carter)
• Bob Bledsaw's Wilderlands of High Fantasy (D&D campaign setting from Judges Guild)
• Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique stories
• Ancient Greece (Sparta, Athens, etc.)
• Renaissance Italy (Venice, Florence, Genoa, etc.)

In another sense, Mythosa is meant to be post-apocalyptic, in a fantasy sense. That doesn't mean that the world was once technological and has "reverted" to medieval fantasy after a global nuclear war, or even something along those lines (like Shannara or the world of Wheel of Time). Rather, it's more like Europe during the Dark Ages, after the collapse of the Roman Empire - if the collapse of the empire occurred over the course of five years or so.

In any case, the above settings and the overall theme that emerges from them make for a world that reasonably justifies the degree of violence in a typical D&D campaign. Not that there's not room for other elements (politics, trade, etc.), but it's nice to have a milieu where all the killing and looting are at least somwhat rationalized.