Volmar!

General ACKS Forums Dwimmermount
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Has anyone embellished Volmar for their games?  Volmar is the Byzantium-like empire in the south of Telluria that continued the tradtion of the Thulian Empire, while the north devolved into fragmented City-States.  The Volmarians are in the dungeon on level 3A (room 59).

Last night, my players surprised me by proposing an alliance with the Volmarians, and asked if they could travel to the city of Volmar via portal to regroup (and make a formal report on the death of Varazes, a Volmarian rogue magic user on level 2A).

This is all well and good, a fine curveball, but now I need to do some work on Volmar!

Is Volmar...
    A paranoid police state that fears all outsiders?
    A military empire like Rome where Mavors (Mars) is the favored god?
    A decadent, sultry city like Carthage on the edge of a great desert?
    A bastion of culture, it's formidable walls (like Constaninople) holding back a hostile horde?

Or maybe all of the above?  I don't know, but I need to get moving on it in time for next game.  (If you've been reading my game reports, we just finished game 12 in the real world, although I've only posted through game 7 on the blog.  The players are a mix of 3rd and 4th level, just entered the Hall of Portals, and they've gone to Volmar!)

Beedo's Dwimmermount Game Reports

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Ah, I follow your Dwimmermount Game reports but I fear I am late to the party here!  For what it is worth Volmar comes across as very Byzantine / Eastern Roman Empire to me (with the Thulian Empire being like the later Western Roman Empire), and I would have suggested a combination of decadent, sultry Carthage with cultured Constantinople.  I can't remember where, but there is a reference in Dwimmermount to Volmar which suggested to me that they are proud but have a sense of desperation about them.  I guess I will see what you finally went with when you catch up on that game report!

Personally, I am thinking of setting Dwimmermount in an antideluvian age in the remnants of Hyperborea, a once dominant empire at the North Pole (based on Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea).  For me then, Volmar becomes Atlantis, one of two current superpowers and successors to Hyperborea, and trying to get their hands on Dwimmermount's secrets for their desperate struggle with their Lemurian rivals.