My ongoing work on this world is basically the reason I created this community. Feel free to give feedback, both positive and negative. I honestly have no clue if this is interesting to anyone but me.
I plan on creating a conlang for this world, following Jesse Peterson’s amazing guide but I’m not done by far, so most names in this post are placeholders in either English or the proto-version of the language.
Premise
The Immaruk are river valley civilization similar to real world ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. According to their legends, they descend from two tribes that were both led by their respective deity to the fertile lands along the great river. Shuramud is the god of the sun, daylight, sky and growth but also desert heat, merciless passage of time and eventual death of all living things. Iwaspat is Shuramud’s exact opposite, representing the night, darkness, nothingness (this world has no moon) but also soothing coldness, stability and the ground.
The Immaruk’s culture is centered around the duality of these two deities. All things in life are attributed to one of the two but there is an understanding that a balance between them is needed for life to prosper: for example, grain needs both Iwaspat’s fertile soil and Shuramud’s light to grow. Of course, this balance is not always perfect but over time, it evens out. Every morning Shuramud’s sun rises and gives life to the world and every evening Iwaspat banishes it behind the horizon, providing much needed refreshment and calming down the bustle of the day.
But now, after centuries of this constant meandering, the world has gotten out of balance. First, there was a long period of constant daylight and after Iwaspat’s priests managed to depose the leader Shuramud’s followers, it has in turn been cast into a seemingly eternal night. Nobody knows exactly how long it’s gone on as timekeeping mainly relies on the passage of the sun but it feels like months or even years now.
More to come
Translating all my notes from German and turning them into a post that makes sense takes a while so I’ll probably add comments for individual topics and link them here.
That’s pretty much the direction I have planned for the main campaign. What remains of the Shuramud cult is regrouping in the desert at the western border of the realm to figure out how to reawaken the sun. Their main plan is to build the “sunset tower” a new temple that mirrors the “sunrise tower” at the river delta in the east which used to be their most important religious building before the Iwaspat cult took over. The player characters will start out as enslaved workers ad the build site, work their way up to guards and will later lead recon and sabotage missions. Convincing both sides that they can’t eradicate each other will be a big part of the later acts. I don’t know yet how I’ll get there but I like the idea that the final scene will be the world’s first moonrise, representing a new deity that combines day and night. I’ll translate my story outline (as far as I have it) tomorrow if I find the time.
Running out of food is a big concern as well. Those loyal to Shuramud might have access to their god’s magic to provide some light to their fields. For Iwaspat, that would be somewhere between scandalous and impossible. One option I had in mind for them is to open portals to other planes (which I need anyway for another plot point) and sell pillaged relics for food.