Campaign block...

1. Campaign block...

   #1

   Hello, back again from whatever realm of imagination I locked myself in a month ago! I'm writing a campaign (who doesn't?) and my friend who is excellent at pointing out the niggly bits in campaigns you hadn't really thought about has thoroughly nit-picked my ideas and given me a problem.
   The basic idea is half-knicked from Warcraft 3's original campaign in that some ancient evil is about to destroy the world and the PCs have to persuade the human leaders to run away to the legendary Homelands. However, the one problem is: why did the races leave the Homelands in the first place? *pauses for thought, scratches head, comes up with great idea - ask other people!* I'd like to give him a good shock with an uber idea he can't find a fault with - can anyone help, please? Begging will happen if so demanded.
   Two basic ideas I've had so far are
   1) The homelands have never yet been colonised but were built in anticipation of the cataclysm approaching, and
   2) Something went wrong in the Homelands and the guardians were forced to make the Races leave.

2. Campaign block...

   #2

   Since they are legendary, that makes their existance questionable. Perhaps they in truth do not exist, or if they do they are a far shadow from what is expected of the Legendary Homelands. The fact that people seemingly originated from them is entirely myth, a folklore propigated into the realm of semi-truth.

3. Campaign block...

   #3

   Perhaps you could combine Option A and Scras' idea- The Homelands do exist, but why wouldn't you leave, when they totally suck?
   Perhaps they're burning wastelands, or a vast poisonous swamp. Maybe they're just so full of monsters that nobody could live there.

4. Campaign block...

   #4

   Another mixture.
   
   The homelands are actually quite small, perhaps an island or an isolated part of land, and have scarce resources for a large race. They left them originally because the soil was abused and gave no more good crops, forrests were almost totally destroyed, hunting was almost nil and the people were starving. Trade wasn't enough to sustain them and they ran out of stuff to use as trade. They had to move and so abandoned their 'homeland.'
   
   It is well protected though and by now they can probably survive for quite awhile again and so it *is* pretty protected and could be a good place to retreat to.

5. Campaign block...

   #5

   There is a significant difference between an original homeland, and a promised land.
   
   An original homeland can be left because of overcrowding, limited (&/or dwindling) resources, internal pressures, and pressure from other cultures. War, disease, colonialism, famine, opportunism, and especially overcrowding, can cause cultures to expand or leave.
   
   Promised lands can be mythical, nearly impossible to locate or reach, over-romanticised, &/or occupied by another people.

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