Your home country of Aswela and its neighbour states have just been conquered by the brutal and extremely cunning Orc warlord Oruk and her barbaric hordes. Surprisingly, this has actually improved the quality of life for the average peasant. Despite her exceptional brutality and deviousness during the war, her goals are not to pillage and burn, but to conquer and hold the land as her own. Most of the horde is as barbaric as you would expect, but Oruk systematically dueled and killed every single other warlord who challenged her, until there was nobody left to dispute her leadership. She keeps tight discipline over her hordes. Apparently, she used to be a powerful world-travelling adventurer, until she decided that all existing societies were too terrible to live in, and so she would just have to build a civilization of her own (humility is not one of her strengths). After conquering Aswela and its neighbours, she freed the slaves and established basic laws. She even claims she wants to provide free education for all, which is completely unheard of. Old, established institutions are being razed and replaced on a daily basis. Many people both within and without the country feel threatened by these changes, and so adventurers are hired to put out fires all over the place. You are adventurers in the country formerly known as Aswela. Maybe you always wanted to be an adventurer, or maybe you were forced into the role because this societal upheaval leaves you no other choice. You have to find a way to make a living, in this highly unusual political climate. Maybe you can even take advantage of the confusion and end up powerful and rich? How you do that is up to you and will depend on your own skills, and those of your party. --- The setting is Homebrew and has a very detailed history. The mechanics are largely unchanged, it's mostly just flavor changes about the way gods, spirits and magic work. The biggest mechanical difference is that the alignment system is less strict. Background: low-tier magic is common, but high-tier magic is very rare. An average squad of soldiers will often have a support mage, but almost nobody has the power to cast a meteor swarm. Weaker magic items are similarly common. The culture is mostly medieval, with the obvious exception of whatever queen Oruk is doing. The tech level is medieval, although the first signs of industrial revolution are showing up in distant lands, so you can have low-quality guns if you want. To be clear: Oruk herself will not really appear in the story unless you seek her out. She is a plot device that explains why your country is going through a massive number of changes in a very short time. She frequently introduces new laws that she personally believes are a good idea, and never mind if it pisses off half the aristocracy. Sometimes that works out well, sometimes it does not. You are not meant to fight or to follow her, but you are free to do either if you want. --- I have experience as a DM, but not with roll20. I prefer an even split between roleplay and combat. I like to generate plot by creating a detailed setting and letting the players choose how they want to interact with it, rather than by giving you clear instructions to follow and railroading you. This means that you must show initiative and make your own decisions. You are free to suggest any character you want, so long as they can fit in with the rest of the group. The populous races in the local area are humans, orcs, dwarves and elves. You can also play other races, but you will be noticeably foreign if you do. Magic of all types is seen as acceptable in the local culture. This includes necromancy so long as you follow an acceptable god (gods are homebrewed, you may also suggest your own if you want). The game will start with level 1 characters, but I want to go through the first couple of levels very quickly. The games will take place on the weekends, european time. I am otherwise flexible timewise and will go with group consensus here. --- Please indicate the following for yourself and your character concept: * time: the day (Saturday or Sunday or either), times of day, and game duration you would prefer. * history with TTRPGs * preferred style of play * name * race * class * bio
