here’s a sketch map that i made tonight of important systems in (at least my current revision

here’s a sketch map that i made tonight of important systems in (at least my current revision of) the Manarian. i spent a lot of fruitless time trying to work out character classes or archetypes for the game, until it hit me that the best way to integrate characters into the setting was by giving them specific places to come from.right now instead of a character class you pick a point of origin, which constrains your species choice and gives you certain background options (were you a veteran in the Triwars, for which side, and so on). then you just pick your character abilities and go with it.the names are probably not of that much interest, but i thought ppl might like to see it in comparison the following map, which i made more than nine years ago:(if you’re going to ask me why the new map is a sketch and the old one looks so much nicer i say to you: hush)the datestamp on the file says 2009, but based on my own sense of how i would have done things at that time, i think the map was probably made much earlier and copied around then.a few things i’ll say about the consistencies/changes:first, there are lots of similarities. Auden is still at the center of everything, and the systems associated with the Tripowers (Rhinox for Norph, Havine for Havok, Canog for Canog) are all there and distributed ~similarly.i changed many of their names, but i did like that -sulio naming convention, so i kept that for a belt of systems that were once colonies of a single power but have since been carved up by other powers.an omission: the region i used to call “Trisector Beta” of Scet/Squirk, Geo and Henobia is gone. they were always a fairly poorly integrated part of the Manarian. i rendered down their species concepts and used the parts i liked of it to flesh out the Aoru backstory. related to that: Yuki and Curu have been relocated.i cut back the Curite empire significantly, which was never as big of a deal as the 2009 map seems to suggest?Proz and Necra were also a very poorly conceived part of the setting. i have cut most of that out and left the workable parts for backstory lore, not relevant to the present-day setting.emotionally i have to say: i love doing this. this project makes me quite happy just to keep playing with. all of these species and systems and concepts are my old friends and messing around with them again is a delight. this map, for example, is more than ten years in the making! -- source link

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