GURPS Banestorm

This is about GURPS Banestorm, a Fourth Edition GURPS worldbook which covers the Banestorm (Yrth) campaign setting. For the phenomena see Banestorms.
==History Of The Book==
Banestorm is the current campaign name for the Yrth setting first presented in Man to Man as the world that Castle Defiant was located on. It was detailed in GURPS Fantasy (1st edition), expanded on in various adventure Supplements like Tredroy and Harkwood, then recompiled in the 1991 book Fantasy 2nd edition. With a couple of exceptions, no Yrth related materials were published after this until after the release of GURPS 4th Edition. The "Fantasy" book title was used in 4th edition as a tool kit source for GMs to build fantasy settings and the Yrth setting was released under the more marketable name of Banestorm.
Some additional materials can be found in GURPS Monsters
== Regions of Yrth ==
* Western Megalos
* Eastern Megalos
* Araterre and the Ring Islands
* Caithness
*Al-Haz
*Al-Wazif
* Cardiel
* Tredroy
* Sahud
* Zarak
* The Orclands
* The Nomad Lands
* The Great Desert
* The Djinn Lands
==History==
The world of Yrth was home to several sentient races and sub races. The main 4 races being Dragons, Elves, Dwarves and Orcs. The last three share a common religion and it is speculated that they are different branches from a common ancestor. This can be counter argued that the "Eternal" they all worship once was directly active on Yrth in it's ancient past and that the three always distinct races acquired their beliefs from that contact. Or any of a number of other speculations that fall between these two.
The notable sub races are Ogres for Orcs, Gnomes for Dwarves and Sea Elves for Elves. (It should be noted that prior to the publication of Banestorm, Sea Elves were simply Elves who lived on the coasts and worked the seas. Banestorm makes them a water and air breathing race which largely lives under water.)
The Dwarves moved underground and their surfaces dwelling cousins became Gnomes. Possession of the land surface was a constant war between Orc tribes and Elven communities. Over time a group of Elves dedicated themselves to the task of protecting Elves from Orcs. The 'Defender Cult' drifted from Mainstream Elves in three ways: They considered the other races to be inferior and beings not worth dealing with, took the attitude that traditional Elven ways were superior and thus unchangeable and they then changed a major one of those Elven traditional ways by altering plants and animals with magic to make them better protectors of Elven forests. 
===The Origin of Banestorms===
In the Yrth equivalent year of 1050 ce, the Defenders of the Shaded Woodlands took a step they'd been preparing for centuries and cast a spell designed to bring about the extinction of the Orcish race. To describe this casting as an epic failure is to be horrendously understating the event. The Elven lands in the west became the Great Desert. Similar but less potent disasters struck at other points where supplemental casting was being done. 
And peoples and animals from other worlds began appearing in vast numbers. Of the Sentients, Humans and Dolphins from an Earth that may not be our historical one - Sentient Dolphins is an indicator. From Lor'endil came Halflings, Giants, Centaurs and Minotaurs. From Gabrook came Goblins and Reptile Men and Kobolds. Had not more than half the Elven population on the continent of Ytarria been erased from existence by the appearance of the Great Desert, the newcomer problem might have been put under some sort of control earlier on. 
By the time things did settle down, Humans pretty much wound up running most of things. The Orcs are largely penned up in the North west, protected by the Desert. The Elves retain the Great Forest, the Dwarves, their northern mountain holdings, but not the southern ones. Goblins and Halflings have generally integrated within Human nations. Only a few regions are not under at least nominal human or humanoid control.
Two are significant: Djinn in the Southwest, ruled by Elven spirit beings fussed into human bodies, is the largest of such by area; and the Ring Islands, where magic is very unstable, and powerful mystical beasts rule the jungles, which lie to the southeast of Ytarria. 
Anything else lies beyond Ytrarria and that area is specifically reserved for individual GMs to detail.
The known population of the continent is 44.3 millionpg 84
Using the map in GURPS Banestorm, pixel measurements (500 miles = 135 pixels) and rounding down to two significant figures Ytrarria is ~3,300 miles (~900 pixels) east to west and 1,800 miles ((580+400)/2)) pixels north to south for an area of ~5,940,000 mi^2 — smaller than Russia (6.6 million mi^2) but bigger than United States/Canada (3.8 million mi^2).
== Spell Casting Without Magery ==
Thanks to various quirks in the rules Yrth has had a weird relationship with non-mages casting spells in areas below High mana. 
In the correction note for the first printing of information on Yrth it is stated: "P. 51. Since Caithness is a low-mana area, the example given for the number of people to know spells is wrong. 1 in 50 might know a spell or two in a high-mana area, 1 in 100 in a normal-mana area, 1 in 500 in a low-mana area. Perhaps half these people possess Magical Aptitude. Of course, some people with Magical Aptitude, especially in low-mana areas, will never learn magic or even become aware of their talent."
The way the errata is worded the "Perhaps half these people possess Magical Aptitude" clearly applies to all mana levels. Yes, Classic Fantasy: The Magical World of Yrth did fix the wording but Classic: Magic still had its "allow non-mage clerics to use spells of one (or a few) colleges as though they were mages. So, even in normal and low-mana areas, a cleric of (for instance) a healing-oriented power can cast Healing spells."Classic: Magic p. 95 The cost of this 'Blessed (can cast spells as if mage)' was determined by the number of colleges the cleric could use10 points for one college, 12 for two, 15 for three. Spells of other colleges could be learned but were castable only in high mana and above areas. This was effectively replaced by the Limited Colleges Limitation in 4e but was still mana dependent.
While Ebhla and Gormgrimm Runehammer from Classic: Wizards expressly used Rune magic they only showed other forms of magery based magic exists on Yrth.Classic: Wizards pg 100, 103
In 4e it is expressly stated that Power Investiture is unknown on Yrth but elsewhere it is stated that Ritual Magic does exist on Yrth, with the Closer To Heaven talent providing a bonus to the skill.pp.184 Maxed out to +4 this puts non mage Ritual Magic wizards at only a -1 compared to their mage counterparts. 
The only thing is “Fractional” Magery 0 is far cheaper in terms of points (ie time) then Closer To Heaven (+1/level vs 5 or 6/level) but allowing that would run headlong into the whole only half the people who know spells have Magery (of any type) issue seen with 1-2e Yrth.. 
Another after the fact solution is Magic: The Least of Spells. By Occam's Razor one of these three options must exist on Yrth.
==Infinite Worlds==
Yrth exists as a parallel world to Earth, and is known to Infinity as a Fantasy parallel in Q5 , with a divergence point that probably occurred when the Pangean supercontinent existed. It is also a 'Sargasso' parallel that will let Conveyors enter, but not exit and the escape by the first team of explorers was achieved by Yrthian Magic.
==Spells at -25 to Skill==
"Yrth is a “Sargasso” when it comes to planar travel; getting here is much easier than leaving."
The following spells are at -25 to skill
*Banish (when used on travelers from normal alternate realities), Create Gate (still can be used for long distance travel), Hide Object, Phase, Phase Other, Planar Visit, Plane Shift, Plane Shift Other, Sanctuary, and Scry Gate (if the gate leads to another time or plane). Planar Summons (when used to bring something from Yrth, if not specified it fails outright)
These spells not only have the -25 but supposedly no one on Yrth has even conceived of them:
*Accelerate Time, Rapid Journey (when used to travel through time), Slow Time, Suspend Time, Time Out, Timeport, Timeport Other, Timeslip, and Timeslip Other.
===Comment===
There are some issue with these spells. What constitutes a "normal" alternate reality? Does it include realities as magically rich as Yrth such as Merlin-1 or Roma Arcana? Also if one can banish demons back to the plane they came from why can't one visit their home plane? 
As for the time realted spells, that makes no sense. Certainly the tales of people going to the realm of Faerie where years or even centuries past on Earth while only a day passes in Faerieland should have inspired somebody somewhere to see if they could duplicate the effects via a spell. Similarly the Bible itself mentioning a day to God is akin to a 1,000 years on Earth.Psalm 90:4 So the idea that no one has even conceived of these spells doesn't even pass the giggle test.
==Yrth-2==
Unlike 4e Yrth, Classic Yrth knew and used Plane Shift (Merlin-1) and Plane Shift (Shikaku-mon). Furthermore, "Parachronic travel to Yrth by conveyor or world-jumping ability is possible but leaving Yrth by those non-magical methods is not."Banestorming Infinity Unlimited . These an other factors indicate a Yrth-2 that in all other aspects an echo of this Yrth.
== Fanon Theories ==
As mentioned in A Suspicious Unanimity (p.89), it may be possible that the worldwide ban on TL4 firearms (or magical equivalents) may be a preventative measure by dragons. Though in the light of the power dragons wield in worlds like Wyvern, Merlin-3 and Merlin-1 this doesn't really make that much sense. In fact, if they have learned of other high magic more technological advanced worlds such as Azoth-7, Merlin-3, and Merlin-1 this policy will be cast to the four winds. Another issue is it is known that historical alchemy was able to make Mercury fulminate, a high explosive (gunpower is a low explosive); so Mercury fulminate comes pouring out of alchemy labs and you have an even worse problem than with gunpowder.
The Caravan to Ein Arris adventure is only slightly younger than the first appearance of Yrth and since it is expressly stated there are other continents on Yrth other than YtarriaGURPS Banestorm p 4 it makes perfect sense to assume that the adventure takes place on one of these unknown continents.
Ubantu: a non canonial Africa like continent from wiki.rpg.net
==See Also==
*Plants of Yrth
**Bread Oak
*Bestiary, Banestorm
===Maps===
Yrth_Map.jpg|Yrth Map
Al-Haz Map.jpg|Al-Haz Map
Al-Wazif Map.jpg|Al-Wazif Map
Aratarre Map.jpg|Aratarre Map
Caithness Map.jpg|Caithness Map
Cardiel Map.jpg|Cardiel Map
Djinn Lands Map.jpg|Djinn Lands Map
Great Desert Map.jpg|Great Desert Map
Megalos East Map.jpg|Megalos East Map
Megalos West Map.jpg|Megalos West Map
Nomad Lands Map.jpg|Nomad Lands Map
Orclands Map.jpg|Orclands Map
Sahud Map.jpg|Sahud Map
Zarak Map.jpg|Zarak Map
Ytarria_Mana_Levels.jpg|Ytarria Mana Levels
===Adventures===
* Orcslayer - a Man to ManThe precursor to GURPS combat adventure set on Yrth
* GURPS Banestorm: Abydos
* Classic: Fantasy Adventures (PDFs are individual adventures): Fighters of the Purple Rage, Lost Inheritance, Sahudese Fire Drill, Mordag's Little Finger
*Classic Fantasy: Harkwood - combination setting book and adventure entwined as one; Origins Nominee for Best Adventure of 1988
*Classic Fantasy: Tredroy - mostly a setting book, but it does include an eight page adventure
===Campaign===
*Chronicles of Ytarria: a gritty fantasy GURPS campaign based on the Banestorm setting. The style and tone of the campaign is a blend of Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, and The Name of the Rose.
===Related Material===
*Megus Imperius: Mages of Megalos (12/03/1998)
*Inquisitio Ytarria: The Congregation of the Holy Inquisition of Yrth (3/1/2002)
* Designers' Notes: GURPS Banestorm (9/2/2005)
* Classic: Fantasy (Classic version of Yrth) - Origins Nominee for Best Roleplaying Supplement of 1986
* Banestorming Infinity Unlimited (June 19, 1998)
* A Naval Base in a (Landlocked) Sea of Fëar [Kancolle ISOT + The Hobbit] - imagine the chaos if something like this happened on Yrth.
* GURPS Banestorm ideas (T Bone)
* obsidian portal
==Reference==
Category:Fictional Settings
Category:Supernatural
Category:4th Edition
Category:Infinite Worlds
Category:Quantum 5
Category:GURPS Books
Category:Phil Masters