Editing Planegea (section)

==Setting Conceits==
===No Tech, High Magic===
Planegea isn't  "Historical Fantasy, Hard Mode", it's "Primeval D&D" and "Caveman Pulp". This is a world of Primordial Fantasy, and the corebook actually suggests that DMs contemplate the term "stonepunk", in the vein of [[steampunk]], when it comes to designing terrain features and factions. Planegea is a world where you might find floating islands, cities built on the backs of mammoths, temples hanging from the boughs of giant trees, a tribe that flies using gliders of skin and wood giving lift by strange glowing crystals. Don't be "realistic" to the point of just making it all about the mud, the blood, the hunger and the thirst. In other words it's D&D if instead of Reading lord of the rings, Gygax had been reading Conan the Barbarian.

===The Black Taboos===
Planegea isn't just a primordial fantasy world, there are forces actively keeping it in that state. All know that there are certain acts which a person MUST NOT DO, lest they bring the wrath of the dread Hounds of the Blind Heaven down on their heads. These forbidden behaviors, which will summon one of these eldritch entities to hunt and slay the transgressor, are collectively known as the Black Taboos, and consist of four commandments:

Writing is Death: Whilst pictures and patterns are permitted, the use of abstract symbology to communicate draws the Hounds raging from the Blind Heaven to devour whoever attempted to write.

No number higher than 9: Planegeans are only allowed to count individual numbers as high as 9; anything after that is "many". Attempting to use higher numbers will draw the Hounds. (we wish to also quickly note that chimps can count higher then 9)

Do not use wheels: Attempting to stick a wheel on an axle will draw the Hounds. (pottery wheels seem to be ok though)

Do not use money: Planegea runs on the barter economy, ''period''. Attempting to create or use abstract fiscal currency will draw the Hounds.

On a meta level these exist to keep your player's firmly in the right technology level and mind set. Even without meta gaming a player would find it hard to not just invent things. Take the Money Taboo for example, it's natural a player get annoyed with the idea of bartering everything and start hunting down some thing they know is culturally valued and so can be used as a barter item but is easy to carry, such as cowrie shells (bet you thought I was going to say gold? Nope Cowrie shells were among the first and longest lasting form of money even more then gold) since there pretty, can be used as decoration, and so have intrinsic worth and thus can be traded for other items without running into the taboo. . .Except as soon as you say 'this sword is worth <s>200 </s> enough cowrie shells to be equal the number of legs on two  <s>centipedes </s> many legs', (we can't say 'centipede since 'centi' means 100 which is a number we can't use, meaning we have to call it a 'Many Legs')<ref>This whole extended bit is it self another way to cheese the 'no number bigger then 9' taboo. You don't say '14" you say "as many as there are legs as on a crab atop a wolf" or something, which depending on your GM this sort of neanderthal math might actually be acceptable.</ref> congrats you actually have invented money and the hounds are coming for you. That thought process is how money was invented and it can be extremely hard to not even accidentally go through the steps to reinvent that or any of the other items. Hence why the GM needs a metaphorical stick to swing at players to remind them to not meta game even more then in standard fantasy settings.

===Nascent Pantheons===
Planegea is an age of proto-gods, when the first spirits are forming and beginning to take command over aspects of reality. There are no great universal gods with dominion over entire aspects of reality - Planegean gods are animals, plants, or elemental beings that have learned to tap into the primordial energies of the world and begin exerting their authority. They are physically bound to a sacred place, a Hallow, and attempt to lure mortals into providing them with worship, offerings, and act as their agents as part of their ongoing struggles to survive, grow, and conquer.

===Clanfires and Hallows===
The traditional D&D mainstay of the Tavern is replaced by the Clanfire; the central ever-burning fire that is the heart of clan life. All but the wickedest maintain a tradition: if you leave your weapons in the gloom before the firelight circle, you may approach the Clanfire and be welcome. Here is where you can rest, find information, and trade.

But if you need magic? Then you need to seek a god's Hallow, and offer worship or services in exchange for what you desire.

===The Three Themes===
In the corebook's own words, these are the three themes that define Planegea:

'''Kinetic Action.''' In Planegea, you don’t stand still and hit things. Battles are fought on the backs of mammoths, on racing ice floes, on trees bent before a magical gale. The battlefield is never constant here—fires fill the air with smoke, hungry scavengers gather at the edge of combat, and enemies leap through the air, bodies and blades twisting as they throw themselves at you without regard for life and limb. Planegea is built for over-the-top action, where combat is never just a combat, but a story in itself and an explosion of dangerous, chaotic energy.

'''Primordial Horror.''' Sometimes there isn’t a name for the thing that slithers by your skin in the shadows. Sometimes you can’t control the voice you hear whispering your name at night, scratching at your tent flap, begging to be let in. In Planegea, mortals have barely any control over the world around them. You are surrounded on all sides by the unknowable, the unstoppable, and that which means you harm. The fundamental horror of Something Out There in the Dark is ever-present here, requiring great courage—or a little darkness of your own—to confront it.

'''Mystic Awe.''' Wonder isn’t about what you see… it’s about what you feel. It’s about coming to the edge of the infinite and discovering how small you have always been. It’s about the beauty of losing yourself in something greater. Planegea is a world of countless gods, of immaculate natural wonders, and of stars that spin above and whisper stories to the mortals below. In Planegea, you can fall into astonishment, seeing the world with fresh eyes, beholding everything as if for the very first time. And as you do so, all is made new again, and stories you thought you knew become strange and wonderful once more, like painted deer on a cave wall in flickering firelight.