I just want to know if we are going to use factions?

I had an idea of having a ruling class of people born with magical skills who deny anyone of being able to study it. Their philosphy is that the art of magic is for those that are deemed worthy to wield and hence are born with it. A group of people who have been studying it secretly and there fore have aquired certain skills through training and research rise up against this.

It's an alternative twist and mix to what happened somewhere after the middle-ages where people began to reject the absolute power impossed on them through the Catholic Church and resulted in various break-offs such as protestantism and with a bit of Enlighting (research and trainin vs dogmatism) mixed in with it.

The ruling class could be called the Magistratrum (Magi...you get it *winks*) and factions of the "rebels" could be named af their leaders (for example The Midragarians) or their newly invented name for their philosophy ( for example The Codexists, who mostly promote studying of books and reject the simple teachings through experience).

Classes that aren't magic wielders or just down right not interested in it can either join one of the factions or create their own anti-magic movement (like those who reject religion in all it forms on the basis that it can't be proven through science).

It's just a rough idea that might work with the DnD setting but feels somewhat close to the real world roughly around the middle-ages.

Concept description: The Saga of Vinland

This is a variation of the New World concept. It's about the Vikings, who around year 1000 visited the shores of North America. The campaign is about exploring the lush new world, building settlements and encountering the natives. (The real Vikings didn't really get a foothold in the new land, but who knows, maybe the stories and history books are wrong. Maybe they, in fact, had a settlement that lasted for decades forgotten in the mists of history.)

Pros of this concept:

1) Unlike the Great Voyages era and colonisation of Australia, the Viking technology was medieval (they didn't need a compass because they were foolhardy madmen - very often their ships got forever lost at the sea, but some got real lucky). Thus, no modification to real history would be needed simply because of the medieval models and items.

2) New characters would logically be settlers from Greenland, Norway etc. Characters whose players quit could simply be assumed to have been killed by wilderbeasts, Indians etc.

3) Ability to start small and expand the world as the story progresses.

4) Logical source of conflict between Vikings and Indians, as well as possible other Viking colonies.

Cons:
1) The traffic between the old and new world wasn't too common, so if new characters keep popping up one at a time, now and then, the "I came with the latest ship" explanation becomes stretchy.

2) The land contained nothing much more than woods and Indians (or "skrälings" as the Vikings called them), so it might be difficult to come up with interesting findings for the explorers.

3) Female characters. Even though Viking women were somewhat more free than those in Central Europe, warfare and adventuring as well as most of the exciting things, was considered men's job. But this is a problem with any alternate history setting.

4 -> N) You tell me.