I was wondering if anyone know of any rules or examples - or own experiences - with untraditional layering of regiones?
It seems to me that the traditional regio design is one of a single house or structure with multiple floors. This could also be described akin to an onion or a singular hill, where you can basically only move up or down in 'one' direction, so that there is only one layer of level x. But what if it was possible to have seperate pockets within the regio?
In this case the regio might share one or more lower levels (for instance a level 1 and a level 3) but have several higher pockets (of for instance level 5) each seperate from each other and each with their own entrances from the lower tiers that they are all connected to. This would make it more like towers jutting above a shared foundation or wall, which seperates it from the more traditional 'mono-structure' described in the core book. I've added a picture below - purely an arbitrary example - to try to illustrate the two models of regiones.
I don't know, however, whether this is within RAW, in a grey zone, or well beyond. Let me know what you think.
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Bonus info: this is relevant for a covenant about to be established in a regio covering an ancient temple ground. I imagined the mundane level to be nothing but an overgrown ruin, the first level or two of the regio would look as the temple ground looked in antiquity, and stepping into a number of the individual temples would then lead into seperate higher-levelled pockets of the regio.
We have used both. We have also used regio levels with varying levels. One had a zero level regio as a mid level between a level 3 and level 4, and regios with varying realm affiliatins are also fairly common in our sagas. Whatever brings the story forward, really
I think they are just ways of showing Regio boundaries. You could have a regio that is easily crossed with the same boundaries with one that requires that you click your shoes together 3 times and spin in a circle. The entries just go to different levels of the house ( to use your example).
In my opinion - any arrangement will do. Just have fun with it.
One more model to consider is having several entrances into the same high level. So you could, for example, have a few temples at Level 3 leading to the Forum, a Level 5 regio with exits to all these temples at Level 3.
More generally, regios can be arranged in all manner of crazy ways. A variant that's rare is non-monotonic progression - a Level 3 followed by Level 1 followed by Level 5, for example. Another I've seen is mixing different Realms - a Level 1 Infernal followed by Level 3 Divine, say. Another is huge size - Level 3 on the hill leads to a huge Level 5 plain. Another I've used is adjoining identical levels - an infinite series of Level 6 Regios, in fact, where you could move from one to any other.
Regios are, for me, the place where all rules of geography break down. They can be in any order or structure.
And in fact I think I'll toss in a faerie regio or two hiding in there, as I'm sure some of the shrines at the Temple of the Ancient Gods worshipped the Olympians rather than the Titans and other older entities. If you didn't already see these linked in another thread: samothrace.emory.edu/visuali ... lkthroughs
I've come across these quotes that definately settles regio layers as a monotone / singular construction, "A regio can never achieve more levels than the aura score plus one, however. Each level must have a different aura strength [...](RoP:M p. 13)" and "If the aura score decreases, then the aura strength of the top regio level will usually decrease. The exception is if there is already a regio level whose strength is equal to the new, lower aura score; in this case, the strength of the levels do not change, but the top regio level vanishes (RoP:M p. 14)."
This clearly settles the RAW side to my question, but I'm gently going to house rule this one out (though I certainly like, and might use, the general idea of having regio levels disappear).
Make them not disappear, just contract in size. The level 2,3,4 and 5 might be located around the perimeter of a single (quite innocuous looking) trees. To you it looks like you must jump between level 1 and 6 in a single stride unless you have been told the tree-hopping method. In a forest regio. Now,where is the next tree? You might have them (the regios, or the trees) move around for extra fun :mrgreen:
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