My friend Artifact has created his own version of Oramis. Here are the details he has posted:

Here are my personal notes for our new, hopefully ongoing campaign. I’m still immersing myself in the setting, fleshing things out “on the fly”, so what’s presented here is very sketchy, basically a rough draft.

Thanks to wizardofowls for introducing me to his Shattered World and allowing me to make it my own. I can’t possibly do justice to his wonderful work, but hopefully these ideas will add something useful to the thread

The Tone of Oramis: Imagine if Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote Farscape. I see the Shattered World as a planetary romance setting—with an edge. Dune (the novel by Frank Herbert) also seems appropriate inspiration. Such a genre can be loosely emulated by including such features as:

• Most of the locales in the world are very old, their glory days long gone. A few still-thriving cities still exist, but most are nothing more than wastelands, given over to bandits, barbarians, and ruins. RASAMA-TAS and the priesthood of Selene are steadily working towards change however.
• Many races and cultures: The world is inhabited by a large number of races, mostly humanoid, albeit with some distinctive feature—red skin, four arms or wings for example. There is no shortage of classic “bug eyed monsters” (BEMs). Most societies are feudal in nature.
• Romance: ‘Nuff said!

Note: If a planetary romance setting sounds interesting, you might also want to check out Iron Lords of Jupiter, written by “Lizard”, and presented in Dungeon Magazine #101 as a d20 Modern minigame.

Daughters of Selene: The Daughters of Selene are a neutral good organization and a cleric may be of lawful good, neutral good, or chaotic good alignment. A cleric may select her domains from among the following: Good, Healing, Protection, and Strength. The favored weapon of the church is the heavy mace.

Only women may become Daughters of Selene, although there is also an order known as the Sisters (Brothers) of the Moon who serve in a different but equal capacity. Daughters of Selene may be of any race.

A Random Idea: For now the reason for this remains unrevealed, but here’s a very, very rough idea for consideration: After the Shattering, the world was thrown into chaos and the races of Oramis came very close to extinction. Rather than let themselves die out entirely, a concerted effort was made to protect and educate women, who were far out-numbered by men. The goddess Selene, symbolized by the moon, had always been considered an ever-vigilant, ever-watchful protector; now however, her priorities .

Since I like dichotomies, here’s a follow-up idea: On Oramis, the moon is perceived as decidedly feminine. On the other hand, the sun, known as Solaris, is male. Just as there is an all-female order of priests dedicated to Selene, there is also an Order of Solaris. Composed entirely of men, they are known as solars, and most are straight-up fighters, albeit with a somewhat “holy” bent. The solars serve as the military branch of the Daughters of Selene. Just throwing out some wild ideas here, don’t know if any of it will actually see use in my game or not.

Sisterhood of the Moon: The moon has two faces, one bright, one dark. The Sisterhood of the Moon is the flip side of the coin to the Daughters of Selune. I sometimes see things in black and white, and here I see the Selenites divided into a dichotomy of good and evil.

The Sisterhood is based on the shard known as Crescent, where it has remained hidden from the Daughters for centuries. Up until very recently, the Daughters of Selene thought the Sisterhood completely destroyed after the Crusades led by the Children of Light nearly two hundred years ago. It should be noted that while the Daughters did not endorse this genocidal holy war, neither did they discourage it.

Note: The Sisterhood of the Moon (described here) should not be confused with the Sisters (Brothers) of the Moon, a branch of Selenites responsible for actually staffing and running the temples.

Crescent: A shard the size of real world Australia, Crescent sits beyond the atmospheric envelope of Oramis. It is actually a shard of the moon Selene, which was itself blown apart during the Shattering, and which now follows much the same orbit. Up until very recently, no one was even aware of its existence, due to its isolated location outside the atmosphere.

Crescent is the home base of the Sisterhood of Selene, who has remained here, in hiding far beyond the sight of the people of Oramis for centuries.

Like the shards inside the atmosphere of Oramis, Crescent has its own Shard-Key. Unlike a typical Key however, this sentient artifact is truly malevolent and willingly bonds with an evil owner.

Spindrift: Known to the Air Traffic Controllers Guild as AR-919, Spindrift is a humble shard located far off the main traffic routes, a frontier community inhabited mostly by rogue wizards, sky pirates, and other ‘fringe’ elements. [This is the “home base” for our heroes and will be fleshed out as the campaign progresses.]

The Campaign: In addition to the core rules, the following is allowed:

Expanded Psionics Handbook. I notice psionics were, at one point at least, a part of the setting, so let’s have some fun with it .

Magic of Incarnum. If psionics are in, why not incarnum, eh? . We’ve never used it before now, but this might be a good opportunity. Perhaps psionic and incarnum users don’t face the same stigma as wizards in the setting, so they have been able to flourish.

As is typical for our games, we begin the campaign at 3rd level, 28 point buy. We also use Action Points and Reserve Points (presented in Unearthed Arcana).

Races: In an effort to emulate the feel of a planetary romance setting (full of many races and cultures), the following races are all available:

Human: As PH.
Dwarf: As PH.
Elf: As PH.
Half-Elf: As PH.
Gnomes: As d20 Dragonlance setting.
Mul: As presented in Dragon Magazine #320 (a Dark Sun update)
Halfling (Twyll): As PH.
Avariels: As presented in Races of Faerun.
Kalashtar: As introduced in Eberron Campaign Setting (just ‘cause ).
Raptorians: As introduced in Races of the Wild.
Shifters: As introduced in Eberron Campaign Setting.

In addition, monster class rules (introduced in Savage Species) are appropriate; just remember, starting ECL is 3.

Classes: As per the PH.

Stuff I still need to think about: I need to refresh my memory on the rules for sailing ships and ship to ship combat. Any reason I can’t treat flying ships just like sailing ships? Anybody have any suggestions here—maybe wizardofowls?

Check out Stormwrack. It has rules for ship-to-ship combat. Lots of 'em. - Mr. Kite


A Rough Adventure Synopsis: For the first time in over a century, Crescent will come close enough to the atmosphere of Oramis for actual windrigger travel between shards. As Crescent draws ever closer however, several smaller shards are thrown into Darkfall. Rather than a brief period of semi-darkness however, the massive size of Crescent results in a Darkfall that has (so far) lasted nearly a month.

The adventure begins when the heroes travel to the mysterious shard in search of answers and possible loot. A few random encounters later, they draw nearer, and discover they cannot reach Topside. The massive shard bobs in the atmosphere like an iceberg in a vast ocean, with its top beyond the air envelope, and the heroes must instead enter at the Shard-Root (a risky proposition indeed).

As they enter the Shard-Root, the heroes must attempt to mountain climb into a vast cavern, the entrance to which lies hundreds of feet below their very feet. Once inside, exploring the deep underground world of the shard, they come across another group who arrived just before they did, in search of answers and loot of their own. Eventually, the heroes must confront a Sister of the Moon and her entourage, the first indication that the evil priestesses were not wiped out centuries ago as once believed.

Further adventures could follow of course. For example: The heroes continue their exploration of the immense shard, eventually emerging days or even weeks later from the underground onto the Topside. Right into the heart of “enemy territory”. Perhaps the Sisterhood solicits their help, under the guise of “reunification” with the Church of Selene.

A few more random ideas (before I leave ): Could the Sisterhood have instigated the Wizard War? Maybe it was a combination of both arcane and divine might that ultimately led to the Shattering?

Also, I need a more evocative name for the Sisterhood of the Moon and the massive shard Crescent. Both are merely "place-holder" for the time being. Any suggestions? Any specific ideas to flesh out the adventure? Its pretty bare bones at the moment, so any advice would be appreciated.