The "New" Chimera Legion

Although I'm considering a change to the setting, the Chimera Legion will remain. But instead of Byzantine, it will be part of the army of the unnamed Empire based in Olympia.

The Legion will be a motley array of recruits from across the various cultures of the world. Robb likened it to the French Foreign Legion. An apt comparison in my mind.

I think this makes the Chimera Legion sigil even more apropos.

The Legion's sigil

The Legion is made of a motley array of different parts. When combined, however, they become very lethal!

The Chimera Legion's Empire?

Since I discovered Empire LARP, I've been toying with the idea of changing the setting for the Chimera Legion. I did a little sketching and came up with this.

Note that the names are not final. This is just a first draft.

The Cultures

The main human cultures are listed, along with their historical inspiration. The human cultures are:

• The Isles (Scottish / Gaelic)
• Chevalia (western knights)
• Norsia (Viking)
• Nevora (Renaissance / Tudor)
• Aridia (Arab / Moor)
• Sirilia (Slavic)
• Olympia (Greek / Roman)
• Palmyra (Egyptian)
• Taiyotochi (Japanese)

For the most part, I chose the cultures from the Themes section on the Dark Knight Armory website. I added Arab / Moor and Egyptian to fill in the southern continent.

In general, you can see that the culture locations are historically inspired. The exception is Taiyotochi (Japan). Japanese culture seems popular so I wanted a relatively nearby homeland where it made sense that such characters appear in the main setting.

The Empire

My initial thought was that the Empire would consist of Olympia, Palmyra, and perhaps Nevora. The other cultures would be allies or enemies, depending on the flow of the campaign.

I am now thinking of expanding the Empire to encompass more of the human cultures, de-emphasizing conflict between the cultures and focusing more on the inhuman enemies.

Enemies

The map also shows four major groups of enemies that plague the human cultures. In the north, we have the Unseelie (dark elves) and Orks. In the south are the hyena men. And in the east are the Dark Magi (necromancers and their ghul minions).

Other Non-Humans

The setting includes two major fantasy races aside from humans.

Dwarves live in the mountains, especially my version of the Alps. This gave rise to Robb calling them the yodeling dwarves.

Elves are not shown but they do exist. The come from the Otherworld, however, so they have no territory in this world. Some elves will travel into the human world and stay for a bit.

I don't have halflings. I prefer to leave them in Middle Earth, but if someone really wants to play a halfling I can be persuaded to accommodate them.

What's Next?

 I have no definitive plans for changing our setting. I'm just jotting down ideas right now.

Inspirations

I've been inspired by a couple of other LARPs.

First up is this video from Empire LARP.

I'm addicted to this. The garb and armor is excellent, the weapons look like real weapons, and the combat is intense.

I found Empire's home page and have been poking around a bit. Aside from the points I mention above, there is a lot I like about it, such as

• It's a simple hit point system, with 2 points to start going to 6 for heavy armor.
• Each hit is 1 point. No complicated math.
• The setting is cool. Nine distinct "nations" form an empire that is beset by internal intrigue and external enemies.

Another inspiration is Reckoning LARP.

Photo from the Reckoning home page

Like Empire, Reckoning features top-notch garb and realistic looking weapons. They also have diverse and distinct cultures (four in their world).

I especially like their character class system. It seems pretty simple. There are only 3 classes - warriors, sages (i.e., spellcasters), and artisans.

The artisan class is really cool. Artisans are non-combatants, but they play a crucial role. They provide healing, repairs, and spell recharges. What a great way to get non-combatants involved!

I would love to visit these LARPs, but they are far away (Empire is in the UK and Reckoning is in Indiana).

Still, I'm pondering ways to incorporate some of their ideas into the Chimera Legion.