Nightflier's Homebrew


Homebrew and House Rules

Dark Archive

I am opening a thread for all my homebrew stuff, for the purpose of using it as a reference in PbP games. Of course, comments and questions are welcome.

Dark Archive

Game World::
The game is set on the world of Gaia, the fourth planet of the 14-planet system, orbiting around the giant yellow star called Sol. Gaia is about 4 times as large as our Earth, with roughly equal ratio of land and sea. The gravity of Gaia is equal to the Earth's gravity for various reasons. Amongst them is that the core of Gaia is essentially filled with an energy matrix which contains a prison with the body of Mad God Chton, also called Shadow. Chton is a twin brother of the sun-god Sol and his body is in fact a black hole in the heart of the planet.

The Long War and Pentia::
The Long War ended 91 years ago. It was started when a mad inquisitor called the Judge managed to open a portal to Chton's nightmares. Via that portal, the trapped god could influence other mortals and give them a small measure of his power. His ultimate goal was to free himself from his prison and devour the celestial body of his brother Sol. This war lasted for 10000 years and it was ended when the Dark Portal on the North Pole of Gaia was closed. Although the main battlefield was the northern continent of Norgir, it was felt on most of Gaia.

The greatest enemy of Chtonspawned forces was the Holy Imperium - a Sun-worshiping center of humanity, located at the south of Norgir. Imperium existed for 2000 years before the Long War even started and the Chton's Scions considered it to be the greatest threat to their Father.

Scions:

Chton's power is and was limited by his prison. He could not grant spells to his priests, except at the height of the Long War, when Black Monoliths were built to channel his power from the prison at the planet's core. He could not create anything, so he was limited to corruption and destruction. But he could choose disciples to whom he would grant a miniscule portion of himself, which would in turn grant them abilities and powers beyond those of ordinary mortals. The amount of power they could embrace was limited by their own inborn strengths though, so not all of them were of equal power. The Shadowspawn called those bearers of Chton's powers his Scions. All but two of them perished during the war. Those that remained are Zul the Iron King and Unnamed.

Dragons:

The dragons of Gaia are not as on other world. Each of them is a unique creature, no matter the color of its scales. The oldest of them are equal to demigods in power.

The Raising of Pentia

The greatest and most powerful of Chton's Scions is the Unnamed - one of the oldest dragons in the world. Chton whispered to him while he slept and the Great Wyrm traded his name for the power of the Mad God. Unnamed fully realized that the Imperium presents the greatest threat to the planned invasion of the Shadospawn from the north, so he decided to devastate the Imperium before the Holy Imperator Alexander realized what is happening. So, he used his power to raise a huge land mass from the ocean ground. Resulting tidal wave devastated Imperium's coastline, including the Capitol, and the Chton's forces gained an entire subcontinent to stage more attacks from.
Unnamed quickly commanded the cultists to start with the breeding programs that led to the creation of orgar from orcs and goliaths, as well as other slave races to fulfill many functions in the ever-growing dark empire of Chton's Scions.
Breeding Pits:

At the order of the Unnamed, Pentia was transformed in the breeding ground for the armies of the Shadow. At the northernmost tip of the subcontinent a volcano was created, to serve as another portal to the mind of imprisoned god. From this volcano, named Black Gate, clouds of acrid black smoke rose, alongside giant insect-like monsters who swam and flew at the shores of Imperium, to wreck havoc alongside its coastline.

Many new races were created to further Shadow's interests. The most prominent were orgars, an amalgam of basic orc stock and many other strong and sturdy races, such as ogres and goliaths, but this warrior-race was soon replaced by more easily controlled Shadowspawn and their war camps on Norgir were left to be over-run by the forces of Grand Coalition (combined forces of Imperium, Dominion, High Kingdom of the Elves and two dwarven nations).

At that time, roughly 5000 years age, Catfolk were created to serve as the slave race for the Shadow's armies and generals. They were created to be sex slaves and sacrifices in the most depraved rituals of the Shadow's corrupt priesthood (by that time, the Dark Portal to Chton's mind became wide enough to channel great deal of his power, and many other smaller portals were opened, so he gained the ability to grant spells to his mortal servants). That proved to be the beginning of the Shadow's undoing.

Kelumarion the King Over the Mountain, a mighty Empyreal Lord of leonals, descended from the heavens on the wings made of lightning, leading a celestial host of agathions. They have scoured Pentia of Chton's forces, liberating the slave races and giving them rule over the continent. Kelumarion himself engaged the Unnamed in combat. Their titanic struggle shattered the southern part of the subcontinent, creating an archipelago of numerous islands, as well as the region of salt marshes on the shore of Pentia.

Modern Pentia:

All of this happened 5000 years ago. During the last five thousand years, the subcontinent that was once the breeding ground for various Shadowspawn became the place for various cultures to live side by side and to intermingle, creating rich and vibrant melting pot of technology, magic and nature. Slave races and arcane experiments created their own countries and became members of the Grand Coalition, fighting in the Long War until their final vindication - the closing of the Dark Portal. Unfortunately, about 80 years ago, a dark presence rose in the swamps and amongst the scattered islands of Pentia's southern shores, that were named Acheron soon after the liberation of the continent. That dark and malevolent entity had quickly united various tribes of monster and human renegades living in those desolate places, creating a mighty military state out of Acheron's ruins and poisonous swamps. Some said that it was the Unnamed, somehow returned from the dead into some sort of necromantic unlife. They were proven right four years ago, when the huge black dragon took wing against the fleet of Albion ships, burning them all to the sea level. Soon after that, the raids started almost everywhere along the Pentia's coastline.

Dark Archive

Pentia Today::
Subcontinent of Pentia is roughly circular in shape, with a diameter of 5000 miles. The center of the continent is mostly devastated by the war, but the Wastes are still battleground for the Pentia's countries, because of the wealth of both mundane and arcane minerals that can be found there.

Numidia:

At the northern tip of Pentia lies the country of Numidia. Holy Kingdom of Numidia was founded after Agathion Crusade, to be safe heaven for the Shadow's slaves. About half of its population consists of various Catfolk races, such as ordinary Catfolk, Tabaxy, Litorians, but also Asimar with Agathion bloodlines and Tieflings with Rakshasa bloodlines.

One of the founding laws of Numidia is that no member of a slave race can ever be turned away from its borders, if not proven guilty of some crime, so the rest of Numidia's population consists of various "furry" races, from Gnolls to Ratlings. Slavery is illegal in Numida and worshiping of Mitra is the state religion. The society is divided in castes, with the Warrior Caste at the top. Most members of the Warrior Caste are Catfolk, with unusually high number of paladins among them. Interesting fact is that there is also large number of Kercpa in the Warrior Caste. Most of them are rangers and scouts, patrolling the Waste border, constantly on the watch for the incursions of savage Ratling tribes and Mongrelfolk.

Numidia keeps two holy legions in the Vigil fortress, on the border of Wastes and Acheron, to help the fight against the undead abominations.

West Coast

West Coast of Pentia is home to 3 large countries. Starting from the top of the continent, bordering with Numidia, the first of those is Maltheren.

Maltheren:

Maltheren is a country mostly covered by oak forests. Its coastline is defended by huge and mostly unexplored White Mountains, so that pirate and air ship attacks from the sea are rare. Maltheren is mostly described as the land of dualities by the foreign travelers. The lowlands are covered by oak forests and are home to lithe people of medium height, dark hair and eyes and olive skin. They mostly tend to pigs, feeding them with acorns, and grow tobacco and hemp for trade. They train in archery and staff-fighting from childhood, and those deadly archers are the main reason why the gun-wielding forces of Albion couldn't manage to conquer Maltheren in 3 wars in the last 20 years.

The Highlands of Malhteren are home to a different breed of people. They are taller and broader than Lowlanders, of fair complexion and hair. They are mostly sheepherders and miners, and they tend to favor long spears and broad axes as their weapons. When Maltheren calls for a mobilization, they provide heavy infantry to guard Lowland archers.

Maltheren is ruled by the King and Queen, which are chosen in the Conclave. They do not have to be married and they have different duties.

Most men in Maltheren worship Gaia and Aron (goddess of nature and god of storms and thunder, respectively) and most women Gaia and Luna (Gaia in her role as the Great Mother and Luna in her role as the goddess of Magic).

Albion

Albion is the country very near to the industrial revolution. It has large cities and huge army, that relies heavily on the country's artificers to provide it with weapons to use against the unholy scourge of Acheron and beastlings from Numeria on one hand, and Albion's human neighbors on the other.

Albion is the place where magic meets technology and worshiping of gods is considered to be a superstition and is forbidden. The country is ruled by the Lord Protector and its Iron Guard, and the College of Magisters supports the Iron Rule heavily. Albion is always looking for resources, since the country is not so rich in iron and timber, which it desperately needs. This is a reason why it tried to conquer timber-rich Maltheren and why it waged a war against mineral-rich Numidia. Both of those wars were lost and Albion now builds an Iron Road to the Waste - a railroad leading to several mining colonies in the devastated center of the continent.

Haven

Haven is an antithesis of Albion in more ways than one. Populated by the refugees from the anti-religion purges in Albion, this is a dry and arid country of hills and mountains, swept by the harshest winds on the continent. It is ruled by the Prophet of the Saints, a religious figure that combines the spiritual and secular absolute power. With time, Havenites developed their own religious system. They reject the worship of gods, instead believing in large pantheon of saints, whom they consider to be ascendent humans, not beholden to any god. There are more than 300 shrines to these saints all over Haven. The first ones were discovered by the original Prophet, who led his people in exodus from Albion. Priests, oracles and inquisitors gain their powers by going on a pilgrimage to the shrine of desired saint. Some shrines are the centers of huge monastic or military orders, such as the Order of the Knights of the Temple of Holy Savaoth, more commonly known as Templars.

In Haven, magic is punishable by burning or stoning, and non-human races are considered impure.

East Coast

Eeast Coast of the continent of Pentia is home to non-human lands, mostly. The coast is full of rocks, extinguished and active volcano peaks along its entire length, so there are not many natural harbors. Also, because of the volcanoes and hot springs both on the sea floor and the land, heavy mists cover the coast and the sea in league-wide strip that runs from one end of the continent to the other.

Elven Principalities

Bordering with Numidia, near the northern tip of the continent are Elven Principalities. Little is known about them, except that the elves that inhabit them are the descendants of the large vessel that came from the stars and crashed there about 3000 years ago. With the vessel came life forms not seen anywhere on Pentia, or even Norgir, the continent north of Pentia. Principalities are now covered by a forest of strange growths, not unlike fungi, and inhabited by strange six-legged creatures and giant varieties of common insects. It is known that elves are somehow bonded with those giant insects, so that they have gained some of their traits. Very few of these insect-kin elves are known to the lands outside Principalities. Only four families trade or have diplomatic relationships with an outside wordl: Dragonfly, Mantis, Spider and Wasp. It is known that first among the families are Butterfly and that their Monarch is considered the ruler of all Principalities, although those who have any contact with the four families that trade with the outside world consider the idea of the central government of the Principalities simply impossible.

Loth'Tiranor

Loth'Tiranor (by humans bastardized to "Little Tiranor") is the port city and trading colony of Norgir's elven High Kingdom. Loth'Tiranor was built on a small piece of land around Mandible Bay, that formally belongs to the Principalities, but was given to the Norgir elves as a sign of good will to the High Queen. About 30% of inhabitants are Eldar elves, and the rest are Silvar. There are even a handful of dark-skinned Shadar, although they hate the warm climate of Pentia, so they tend to transfer back to Norgir after ten-year stretch. Most of the workers, shopkeepers and similar are members of other races, though. Since Loth'Tiranor is separated by the enormous Fungi Forest from the rest of the continent, most non-elven inhabitants came by airships from the Waste and Numidia. Elves of Loth'Tiranor have the excellent relationship with the other Norgir colony on the subcontinent - the Orinor dwarves colony of Bimburgh, located in the Wastes. From there, dwarves transport precious cargo, such as ioun shards, raw ioun stones and ioun dust, via airships to Loth'Tiranor, and elves transport it by their sea rakers to Norgir.

Luminaria

Luminaria, the Land of Light, shares its northern border with the Principalities and its southern border with Orgar tribe lands. The Land of Light is the smallest of the so-called Great Countries, with only four million inhabitants, not including Servitors.

Primary inhabitants of Luminaria are samsarans. Unlike the samsarans on other worlds, these have a deep spiritual connection with their deity, the Light of Divine Mind. The Light has earthly manifestation in the Golden Temple, located in La, the capital city of Luminaria - its only major city, in fact. That manifestation is the pillar of pure white light, blazing from the skies into the temple. When they die, samsarans join with the light. Sometimes they are reincarnated, sometimes not.

Most samsasrans live in monastic communities, and they spend their time in contemplation, prayer or self-perfection. Most monasteries follow a Way. Those that follow the Way of the Will are devoted to the perfection of psionic abilities; those that follow the Way of the Blade are devoted to marshal arts etc. Samsarans are unique in their use of ioun blades. If they are not already soulknives, they use ioun stones implanted in their bodies or in highly decorative hilts to project what they call ioun blades. These blades are very light, almost without weight, although they generate something like magnetic field that makes them not easy to use. They are exotic weapons for non-samsarans.

All samsarans shave their head and use ioun stones as jewelry. The stones are implanted into their bodies and they often serve as foci for the powerful psionic abilities. In fact, samsarans were the first who discovered ioun stones and various uses for them. Dwarven artificers only improved on their ideas, although dwarven invention of power cores was crucial in the creation of Servitors.

Servitors are a race of construct-like beings, similar to the warforged of Eberron, that was created by physically week samsarans to serve as laborers, warriors and in various different roles. There are about 20 million of them in Luminaria.

Orgar Tribe Lands

Orgar tribe lands stretch from Luminaria to the Acheron Swamplands. They are home to many tribes of Orgar, some of whom have permanent settlements and others are nomads. Orgar are matriarchal. Children are considered to be the property of the tribe until they reach adulthood. For males, that is the first time when they kill an enemy in combat; for females, when they give birth to the first litter. Orgar are savage warriors and the orc, ogre and troll blood in their veins makes them physically superior to most other races. They are very savage, though, and divided into warring tribes. Orgar most commonly worship Gaia, but the worship of Dark Gods is not a rare thing. Some of the tribes long for the time when they were the favored soldiers of the Shadow. Combined with their fecundity, this means that tribe wars are frequent.

Bimburgh

Bimburgh is the colony of Orinor dwarves, located in the middle of the Waste. 65 years ago, a huge rift in the sky opened, and grey mists poured from it, followed by the huge round object, which fell to the ground and made a giant hole, many miles deep. First explorers found a variety of minerals, plants and animal life with strange properties. Very soon after that, Orinor dwarves came from Norgir in search for trading opportunities and discovered that some of those minerals have innate magic properties. The colony was born soon after that.

Bimburgh is a place with huge walls and many air ship docking towers. It is home to some sixty thousand dwarves and many members of other races, who are workers, artisans, miners or just born there. Bimburgh is the biggest city for 2500 miles in any direction, so it is considered to be a capitol of the Waste. Dwarves trade with all the nations of Pentia, except Acheron.

Dark Archive

Creation of the Multiverse and the Bloodwar::
In short, the multiverse was a mass of swirling Chaos in the beginning. In time, some beings coalesced from that Chaos. Some of those beings reveled in Chaos and others abhorred it. The conflict between those two groups of primordials defined the planes and the laws of the multiverse.

The mightiest of the champions of law were the Twin Serpents: Jazirian, winged and feathered, who dedicated herself to the cause of Good; and Asmodeus, scaled and forked of tongue, who became the embodiment of evil. When Asmodeus took Jazirian's tail in his mouth and she did the same with his, they formed a circle and demarcated the planes from the original Chaos, that will eventually become known as the Far Realm.

After uncounted aeons, the Twin Serpens started to struggle for the supremacy of the Good or Evil. Eventually, they tore themselves apart.

Jazirian flew to the heavens and Asmodeus fell to hell. That fall was so deep that he fractured the plane of hell into nine parts.

But the multiverse functions by the Law of Three. It is not known why. At the time that Jazirian and Asmodeus formed ouroboros there were other entities who watched from the swirling mas of Chaos. One of those was their unnamed sister, who took the shape of serpent with what would later be known as humanoid upper body. She was filled with envy and hatred because Asmodeus rejected her, favoring their winged sister. That entity remained in the Chaos, birthing other beings and positioning herself as the ultimate enemy of Asmodeus and his offspring, born from his blood as he fell to the depths of hell. She became known as the Empress of Chaos and that was the real cause of the Blood War...

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Empress of Chaos::
The third sibling that has risen from the primordial chaos later became known as Tiamat. As Asmodeus became the lord of Hell, so she became the goddess of evil dragons, but Asmodeus' rejection stings her still, so her malevolent mind is the driving force behind the Blood War. She would love nothing more than to tear down all of Creation are return it to the chaos that spawned her and her siblings.

Cults of Dark Gods:
The greatest enemy of all that live on Gaia is Chton, the Shadow in the Heart of the World - but there are other evils, free to walk the world and corrupt and despoil. Out of the Demon Lords of the Abyss, the eight of them have the organized presence on at least two of Gaia's continents - Norgir and Pentia. Those Dark Gods are:

Graz'zt - Chaos God of lust, pleasure, excess and intrigue.
Dagon - Chaos God of change, fate and mutation.
Zuggtmoy - Chaos Goddess of plague, despair and disease.
Baphomet - Chaos God of magic, secrets, secret societies, wealth and influence.
Lamashtu - Chaos Goddess of monsters
Orcus - Chaos God of undeath
Demogorgon - Chaos God of beasts
Kharnag - Chaos God of bloodlust, war and death

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Gods of Humanity and Major Races:
There are five major deities, primarily worshiped by humans:

Sol - LN God of Sun, Law, Justice, Wealth, State etc.
Luna - NG Goddess of Moon, Dreams, Sailors, Magic, Merchants, Thieves etc.
Gaia - N Goddess of Earth, Fertility, Women, Motherhood etc.
Aron - N God of Wilderness, Storms, Rain, Thunder, Winds etc.
Mitra - LG God of Humanity, Justified War, Noble Deeds etc.

This is Pentheon of Humanity.

Other Gods

The Light of Divine Mind - LN God of Iluminati/Samsarans
DEM (Deus Ex Machina) - LN God of Servitors (homebrew replacement for warforged)
Allfather - The Patriarch of the Dwarven Pantheon of Gods
Lord and Lady of the Elves

Ultimate Bad Guy: Chton - The Shadow, Evil Twin, Black Sun (intelligent black hole trapped in the center of the planet) - NE God of nothing in particular

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Saints::
Saints are equal to the lesser deities or demigods, and mostly do not have organized churches or cults. Some of them have individual followers, or even monasteries, but most of them do not have enough power or interest for anything larger than that.

Some of saints are:

Caine, the patron saint of assassins and killers
Vecna, the patron saint of Secrets and Intrigue
Lilith, the patron saint of Bad Luck and Evil Magic


dotting. will transfer character later tonight later tonight.


Dotting.

Dark Archive

Guys, this is not a recruitment thread. This is where I post info on my homebrew and answer any world-specific questions. Recruitment thread will be open in the appropriate place.


I know that. I'm just dotting so I can find it easily again if I need to look something up!


That's what I get for trying to read the forums when I just off work and am somewhat tired. Still, the dot for the information will be useful enough, I suppose, even if I don't end up playing. It's always fun to read what other people come up with for worlds.

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Servitors::
Servitors are a race of intelligent constructs that combine organic and inorganic features. They were created in Luminaria by the Enlightened caste of samsarans, for both defense of Luminaria and as workforce. During the Long War, millions of them were created in Ioun Forges and sent to both battlefields and enormous construction projects.

In time, Servitor schematics became available to other countries and races, via espionage, autopsy of defeated or captured Servitors, or other sources. Today, Luminaria remains the most advanced creator of new Servitors, but other countries are making inroads as well - especially Albion, whose Servitors are crude and of limited intelligence, but they prefer them that way, and Bimburgh Colony, where dwarf-owned Ironworks Consortium and human-centric Brotherhood of Steel work together to create more and more simple but effective Servitors for various tasks.

Necroservitors of Acheron stand apart from others, since they are created using radically different processes.

Servitor build:

All Servitors builds are based on very few original schematics, so there are certain elements that all Servitors share: chassis, core, cortex, docent dock and plating slots.

Chassis is the Servitors framework, on which all other elements are placed and connected via artificial organic matter, whose growth is stimulated using ioun light. The chassis can be of any size and it determines the ultimate Servitor size.

Core is the source of power for the Servitor. Cores are built independently and can be replaced, as is the case with most Servitor components and elements.

Cortex is the essentially an artificial brain. A Servitor's personality can be transferred from one cortex to another, stored in certain devices and docents, or erased.

Docent dock is a round slot in Servitor's body, about two inches in diameter. This build element is essential to the Servitor creation and all attempts to create Servitors without have failed. Even Necroservitors have them.

Plating slots are places where armor plating is attached. They provide connection to other elements of the Servitor, so that armor plating becomes a part of the Servitor's body. Armor plating can not be attached or removed without special equipment and the process lasts for at least eight hours.

Servitor traits:

+ 2 to any two, or +4, -2, -2
Any size
Speed: 30 feet, but never modified for armor or encumbrance
+2 natural armor bonus
Bonus feat
+2 racial bonus on saving throws against disease,mind-affecting effects, poison, and effects that cause either exhaustion or fatigue
Cannot be raised or resurrected
Servitors do not eat, breathe or sleep, unless they wish to achieve something, such as speech or powering down to regain ability to manipulate arcane energies

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Sellsword Syndicate:
Sellsword Syndicate is a mercenary band with a home base in an abandoned military fort five miles from the Mournland border. The fort and the village-barracks beneath it were heavily damaged on the Day of Mourning, but the Sellsword Syndicate has made much progress in repairing the damaged structures and castle they received from the Karrnathi crown in payment for unspecified services.

The leader of Syndicate is Vanya d'Karr, called the White Wolf oc Karrnath. Some say that he is even a bastard child of Kaius III, although he does not tolerate such rumors.

Sellsword Syndicate consists of 13 companies. 1st Company numbers 300 warriors, including several squads of drow scouts and other specialists, and all other companies number 100 combatants. The 2nd Company consists exclusively of warforged, and is commanded by a warforged fighter called Paragon. The 13th Company is company of wizards and other spellcasters, commanded by Erunthalion d'Lyr - a disgraced son of House Lyrandar.


I'm interested in how you're handling saints. You say they don't have their own churches; so unlike modern world you wouldn't go to The Church of St Caine like I went to St. Luke's as a boy?

What naming convention do you use for them and how do they factor into the gameworld rules/thematic wise?


I ask b/c I have a homebrew world; Karnoss. There were 3 crusades across 2 centuries; knights both mundane and holy scattered across the land in the name of overking Thane as well as multiple gods (Iomadae, Abadar and Pharasma) to take down an empire whose nobles were all lycanthropes in league with evil fey and witches/hags/monstrous humanoids/goblinoids.

Long story boring a few of the holy knights and other adventurers exemplified themselves during said crusades and were knighted. 1 example is St Erd, the patron saint of the town named for him (Erdanstadt).

He was a contemplative sort, despite his violent vocation, and after the second crusade this Abadaran devotee retired to rebuild the town he'd helped to save. He built a modest manor overlooking the town; this eventually became a monastery (in the european sense) while his bones were hallowed and interred in the cathedral in town.

The town's clerics and the church itself are of Abadar. However the church is known as the Cathedral of St Erd and the monks lead a pilgrimage at the foot of the sepulcher each year, then sponsor a week of festival in the saint's name. Nobody directly worships Erd or gains any power from him like a deity. Instead they worship Abadar, venerate St Erd and the monks follow his example and ideals (they have a set of books laying all this down penned by the saint the year before he died).

Does this hit the same chords as your world?

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When I say "church", I am talking about a religious organization, not a specific building. In this, the tradition varies. For instance, Sol Invictus, the God of Sun (etc.) has many angels and petitioners serving in his divine court - so there are shrines and temples dedicated to some of those. For instance, the Temple of Davor - the first paladin who served both Sol and his wife Luna - is one of the most famous in Imperium, but those who pray in that temple receive spells and boons not from Davor, although they call him saint, but from either Sol or Luna. So, Davor's sainthood is a sign of respect by the religions that venerate Sol and Luna. He sometimes shows himself to the faithful, but he died in the service of his gods (long ago) so he never acts in his own volition, but solely as a vessel of their will.

On the other hand, Cain is Patron Saint of Assassins. He didn't die before he ascended, but gained a measure of divine power in another way. Something like a Test of Starstone, perhaps. Anyway, in Caine's case, "saint" is just another word for "demigod". Caine is divine being that doesn't have enough power, or perhaps interest, to support an organized religion. So he sometimes responds to the prayers of particular assassins - rarely more than once in their lives - or he blesses certain person with a boon in a form of spell-like ability, unique feat or item, but he never grants spells to clerics or inquisitors. Caine despises other gods and still considers himself a human being, so he very rarely works with other "saints" or gods.

A different example would be Holy Savaoth - a religious figure who died and was buried in a place which later become a fortified monastery dedicated to him. The thing is, his mortal remains and his tomb became a powerful focus for the faith and religious fervor of worshipers, so that they've became a powerful artifact in game terms. That "artifact" pools the strength of worshiper's faith and channels it to divine casters who bonded themselves to it via prolonged fasting, prayers and rituals. In my world, those divine caster may only be non-clerics, since they do not have anything conscious to communicate with - just the collected faith of the worshipers and pilgrims.

So, in my world there are very different meanings for the word "saint", all depending on the current needs of the campaign.

In the case of St Erd, he is very similar to my Davor - I think.

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Midian - Crossroads of Worlds:
Midian

Founding and Gatehouses

Midian is a crumbling metropolis, a vast decadent and corrupt city, with history that stretches thousands of years - a city that outlived several empires which ruled it, and continues to exist in some kind of urban unlife.
One of the city's nicknames is "Crossroads of Worlds". That is true both literally and metaphorically. The city was founded at the height of Long War, as a staging ground for the invasion of Shadowlands, that once stretched beyond what is now known as Cursed Crags mountain range. First building ever built in Midian is Sunhome Gatehouse, which once led to the main square of Heliopolis, the City of Light, before it sunk beneath the tidal waves caused by the raising of Acheron Isles from the depths of the ocean. During the time of Gathering of the Armies other gatehouses were built, in order to hold huge gates that would serve as portals for instantenous transport of armies and provision from the various countries and regions of Norgir and even beyond.
The second gatehouse built is Deadhouse, which held a portal leading to the underground metropolis of Golgotha, the capital of an uderground realm of undead and demi-undead beings, ruled by the mysterious Necrarch. It is said that this realm was destroyed by the raising of Cursed Crags by Mitra's hand and rare are the artefacts of this civilization that survived to the present day, but the necromantic clashes between Necrarch and the undead great wyrm that even now rules the Scourge of Acheron are well documented.
After Deadhouse, many other gatehouses were built, and the city was born around them. With time and everchanging tides of war, some nations disappeared or were vanquished, new nations were founded, and even their memory turned to ash before the Long War was finally over. But the gatehouses remained, even when not fulfilling their designated function. Some time before the Long War ended, arcane roads that connected the gatehouses of Midian with their counterparts on the other parts of continent, or even on other worlds, became entwined and tangled. The gates became dangerous to those who used them, and the gatehouses became interconnected in strange ways, so that a person entering Sunhome Gatehouse in Midian could very well exit through the Deadhouse in Golgotha or Jailgate in Drenorlor the Prison City.
Thus were Roads created. Some scholars speculate that the Roads are essentially a demiplane that is anchored by the gatehouses and that they can lead to other worlds or even planes of existence. Others remark on the fact that soon after the Roads came to being, a mysterious person called the Gatekeeper appeared, gifted with significant arcane power and will to use it for the protection of the gatehouses and the Roads. That gave raise to the speculation that he is one of Ascended – mortals who achieved some measure of divine power – who are considered Saints by Mitra's church. If so, Gatekeeper is very much unaligned – even more so than Caine, the Patron Saint of Assassins – and he never answers prayers or tolerates cults gathered to worship him.
There are 42 gatehouses in Midian. Nowadays, almost 2000 years after the end of the Long War and the making of Godpact, only 13 of them are in use, although not as originaly intended. Those gatehouses are now centers of power for various groups that vie with each other for the control of the city.
The creation of the Roads led to the currious effect – the appearance of lesser gates. By conservative estiments, there are now about 100 lesser gates in Midian, leading to other locales or planes. Those gates are sometimes as simple as chalk drawings on back alley walls and sometimes elaborate self-standing empty door frames, but they have been in existence in Midian for almost 4000 years, which is the reason why the city has so many planetouched among its inhabitants.

History of Rule

That which will become the City of Midian came to be as a military camp dominated by Hegemony soldiers (which later became Holy Imperium). Hegemony was a driving force against the armies of Shadow, and it devoted the greatest resources to the Long War. That was the main reason why the Hegemony dominated the Midian Military Camp and District and why the Camp was ruled by Hegemony Consul. Strong dominance of the Hegemony over Midian’s affairs continued during the Long War, although it was disputed by the other countries that have had Gatehouses in Midian – at least until the destruction of Hegemony’s capital of Heliopolis, that happened at the beginning of the sixth milenium of the Long War and led to the submerging of the Sunhome Gatehouse in Heliopolis and the closing of its sister-house in Midian. The cultural and economic influence of the Hegemony remained, although Hegemony itself changed after the raising of Pentia and Acheron Isles from the depths of the ocean. The efforts of waging war on two fronts led to the transformation of the Hegemony into Holy Imperium and the appointment of a Despot to rule Midian as semi-independent city-state. After the Long War ended, the city has become a prize for the warring kingdoms that have risen from the ashes of war. The city changed hands 39 times in total, before it gained complete independence 200 years ago, and became the titular capital of a small country called the Despotate of Morea, which gained much importance acting as a buffer between larger kingdoms surrounding it, as well as a trading hub.
The ruler of the city is still called a Despot. The position is not hereditary, although it is usually for life. The Despot is chosen by the Chamber of Magnates and he is in theory responsible to them. Despot’s powers vary depending on his power and influence in the Chamber and the assassinations of Despots who got to be too ambitious, popular or independent are not uncommon.
Magnates are rulers of the Gateguilds. Working Gatehouses and lesser gates are the source of great power and wealth. Indeed, the city’s lifeblood is commerce, and great deal of commerce is controled by those who control the gates of Midian. By custom, a person or a representative of persons who control a Gatehouse or other important gate has a right to sit and vote in the Chamber of Magnates. Frequent is the case that the Despot is someone popular with the people of the city and Magnates have no choice but to elect him to rule, but they always seek to manipulate him or control him. Chamber is not united, though. Many Gateguilds are in open or not so open competition against each other, so it is not uncommon for the Despots to manipulate Gateguilds instead of other way around. The number of Gateguilds is not constant. Sometimes Gateguilds loose the control of their Gatehouses, or Gatehouses shut their gates for no apparent reason. Currently, there are 10 Gateguilds in the Chamber.
City of Midian is currently in a state of political turmoil. The former Despot was assassinated almost a year ago, but the Gateguilds could not agree on a successor. There is no candidate popular enough among the citizenry, so the solution of the crisis is not forseable. In the mean time, great powers of the Midland region are casting their eyes towards weakened Midian and preparing for war.

The Lay of the City

Midian is defined by its rivers. The river Morea, a tributary of mighty river Grath, divides the city in 2 parts – The Old Town and the New Midian, while the much smaller underground river Stiga runs through the Undercity, coming from the depths beneath Old Mountains to the east, and joins Morea from below.
Morea runs from north to the south, dividing the city to eastern and western parts, with the Arx Draconem – The Citadel of the Dragon – in the middle. The eastern part of the city, called the Old Town, is a place where all the Gatehouses are located. Some even say that the New Midian is not realy a part of Midian at all, but a cancerous and deformed twin, that has grown on its own on the other side of the river. Of course, those who live in New Midian are not very fond of that opinion.
On the eastern shore of the city, across Arx Draconem, the Slave Port is located. This is a destination for slaves and spices comming from Many-colored Land, furs, timber and amber from Varingia, and many other products from all across the continent.

Markets and Shops

Old Town is the center of government and commerce. In addition to the Gatehouses and numerous lesser gates, there are five permanent markets in different parts of Old Town and many temporary markets that spring from time to time, with the permission of city authorities. The permanent markets are: Peasant Market, located near the eastern entrance to the city; Slave Market, next to the port; Khazar Market, in the Khazari Mahala; Black Market, located at the base of Warlock Hill and the Goblin Market in the Undercity.
The Peasant Market is the main market for food, cattle, horses, salt, silk and similar. It is divided in two parts – the Great Market, where most of the Midian’s citizens get their food and other goods for their homes and households, and Tradehouse, where traders and merchants conduct their business, buying and selling large quantities of spices, silk, silver, rare woods or herds of cattle, sheep or pigs.
Black Market is open only after the night falls. That is the place where you go to haggle with Hags and deal with the devils. If you want to buy a broken dream, discarded wish, magic sword or slightly-used soul, Black Market is the place for you. Most of the merchants there are Hags, but not all of them. There are angels down on their luck, selling their feathers one by one and looking for a quick fix, dwarfs from both Orinor and Mountain Kingdoms selling and buying weapons, members of Golem Syndicate looking for work and even traders from other worlds or planes. Black Market is also the place where the oldest citizens of Midian do their buying and selling, when not buying slaves. The vampire lords of the Old Court frequent the Black Market, sometimes for amusement’s sake, sometimes looking to do serious business. Black Market is almost a cultural center of Warlock Hill comunity, where most of the vampires, Hags and other creatures of the night that are citizens of Midian live.
There is a prominent Hag in the community, sort of unofficial leader of Black Market, called Baba Svetlana. She's 900 years old and rather uninterested in good or evil. She trades equally with heaven and hell and nobility often buys from her. She sells, among other things, used wishes, one night stand frog princes, slightly rotten pumpkin coaches and awakened mice bodyguards. These days Svetlana mostly trades in information, but she's always interested in some new magic item (or old and powerful), piece of property in the city or on some plane - and her not so secret passion is collecting (and reading) love novels.
Some of other notable merchants of Black Market are: Grandfather Erebus, the eldest vampire in the city and quite possible one of the oldest in the world, who runs a bookshop; Skalios the Necromancer, who runs a successful necrotech store, but also deals in ioun stones and shards, arcanotech and other such items, and finally alu-fiend twins, Mayala and Nayala. These sorceresses mostly deal in poisons and potions.
Across the river, in New Midian, there are no markets as such. New Midian, only 2000 years old, was built completely differently than Old Town. New Midian was inteded to be a place of progress and non-gate commerce, so the roads are wide and straight, and most buildings are taller and bigger than those in Old Town. Communal living is also more common in NM, since there are many families of the manufactory workers who live there. Sky Port is also located in NM, which is perhaps unfortunate, since the Orinor skyships have to circumvent the city wall almost completely in order to get there. The most imposing building in New Midian is located on the west shore, dirrectly acros Arx Draconem and Slave Port beyond it. This is the Watchtower – the tallest building in Midian and home of several lesser guilds, such as alchemists, clockmakers and Chapterhouse of Watchmen. Watchmen of Midian are something between peacekeepers and mercenaries. Their contract is with the City and not with the Gateguild, so they can be trusted to be impartial, but they are not sworn to the Despot, so they can be trusted by the Gateguilds not to become a blindly obedient part of Despot’s armed forces. They are mostly used to solve serious crimes, such as murder, rape, serious theft and similar. They also chase fugitives and act as agents of the city’s magisters in foreign countries. Current Commander of Watchmen is Trevor Pinkelton Kerrington, originaly from Albion.
The top of the Watchtower is dominated by huge four-sided clock that counts the hours in a day and the sound of its bells can be heard throughout the city. Above the clock is a mooring post, used by the Watchmen airships.
Besides Watchtower, there are two more sites of great interest in New Midian. One is Nicolau’s Iounworks – a place where the Great Inventor tirelessly works on finding new and improved uses for ioun stones, shards and dust brought from Orinor mines by skyships – and the other one is Miskaton Foundation.
Miskaton Foundation for Better Learning was recently founded in order to promote better educational standards for the newly rich merchant class of the city. The old nobility mostly relies on private tutors, but the new gentry is eager to have its scions learn the new skills of alchemy, iountech and contacting new realms and planes without the need for gates, that are under the dominance of old Gateguilds and noble houses.

Dark Archive

Hi everyone. I'm getting back to reworking my old CS. Here is my take on the Elves of the setting.

Nightflier's Elves.


Do you have a name for your setting?

Dark Archive

The world itself is called Locknar, and the continent where the game will be played is called Norgir. The planet is about 4-5 times larger than Earth with roughly 55% oceans and 45% landmass. Gravity, length of the day and year are same as Earth.

The game that I plan will be set in 4th Age of the World. First Age was an Age before the Long War, which lasted 10000 years and brought about climate changes, among other things. 2nd Age is the Long War itself. 3rd Age started after the Long War and lasted for roughly 2000 years, until Godpact. Current Age, the 4th Age, is in the year 999 after the Godpact.

The game will be based on my Midnight rules, with the possible removal of Defender from the game, or merging it Fighter or Rogue classes. Magic will be similar. There will be 3 subraces of Elves; 3 subraces of Humans, similar to those of Midnight; 2 subraces of Dwarves, one more traditional, similar to Dvergr from Midnight rules and quite similar to Dwarves from Dragon Age, and other more technologically advanced and less traditional, with some similarities to Warcraft Dwarves - and those 3 major races will form the Core races. I plan introducing several others, including Morgral (from my MN rules) and Golgral (which will be similar to Taemon), Ravenfolk and Foxfolk, Tieflings and Asimars - and probably a small-sized race that will combine Gnomes, Halflings and perhaps some other race into one.


This is different to setting of the posts above 25 Dec 2013?

Dark Archive

Same setting, later time.

Dark Archive

OK, so I'm posting here a set of my house rules that I plan to use for my games. Right now, the rules are set for low fantasy, but with a lot of options for all characters. I've included only a limited number of races and classes, but I plan to more with them. These rules are not solely my own creation. I was inspired by Talented Classes by Rogue Genius Games (although I used a talent system before them) and by Kirthfinder set of rules.

The most significant difference in comparison to standard PF is that all spellcasters are rolled into one class - the Channeler. Channeler uses spell or mana points, but it has only limited amount - only 1 per level. There are no clerics in the game, so the channeler fulfills the role of primary healer as well. It all depends on the build.

Bladedancer class was created by SmiloDan, but it was done on my request and I thank him for that.

Nightflier's Homebrew v. 1.1.5

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Future plans: Adding an option for high magic play. This will be done by simply increasing a number of mana points available to channelers. Also, new races: Servitors, my replacement for Warforged, Kreen (working title), an insectoid mantis-like four-armed race :), and probalby some rules for tieflings and asimar.

Dark Archive

nightflier wrote:

OK, so I'm posting here a set of my house rules that I plan to use for my games. Right now, the rules are set for low fantasy, but with a lot of options for all characters. I've included only a limited number of races and classes, but I plan to more with them. These rules are not solely my own creation. I was inspired by Talented Classes by Rogue Genius Games (although I used a talent system before them) and by Kirthfinder set of rules.

The most significant difference in comparison to standard PF is that all spellcasters are rolled into one class - the Channeler. Channeler uses spell or mana points, but it has only limited amount - only 1 per level. There are no clerics in the game, so the channeler fulfills the role of primary healer as well. It all depends on the build.

Bladedancer class was created by SmiloDan, but it was done on my request and I thank him for that.

Nightflier's Homebrew v. 1.1.5

Looked over your rules and I think they are great a lot I can use for my home game. I do have a question though, the Mageblade feat states

The mageblade gains mental attribute scores, as well as an Ego score and various other abilities, as described below. The blade changes its color to reflect its masters personality and/or arcane affinity. This info is not listed anywhere however, at least on this document. Is it pulled from a specific book I could look up or is this straight homebrew. Just trying to get an Idea on how this works. Thank you for your time.

Dark Archive

Malhavocblackthorne wrote:
nightflier wrote:

OK, so I'm posting here a set of my house rules that I plan to use for my games. Right now, the rules are set for low fantasy, but with a lot of options for all characters. I've included only a limited number of races and classes, but I plan to more with them. These rules are not solely my own creation. I was inspired by Talented Classes by Rogue Genius Games (although I used a talent system before them) and by Kirthfinder set of rules.

The most significant difference in comparison to standard PF is that all spellcasters are rolled into one class - the Channeler. Channeler uses spell or mana points, but it has only limited amount - only 1 per level. There are no clerics in the game, so the channeler fulfills the role of primary healer as well. It all depends on the build.

Bladedancer class was created by SmiloDan, but it was done on my request and I thank him for that.

Nightflier's Homebrew v. 1.1.5

Looked over your rules and I think they are great a lot I can use for my home game. I do have a question though, the Mageblade feat states

The mageblade gains mental attribute scores, as well as an Ego score and various other abilities, as described below. The blade changes its color to reflect its masters personality and/or arcane affinity. This info is not listed anywhere however, at least on this document. Is it pulled from a specific book I could look up or is this straight homebrew. Just trying to get an Idea on how this works. Thank you for your time.

Sorry for not replying sooner; I had some internet issues.

Anyway, Mageblade is essentially the Black Blade from the Bladebound Magus archetype. Only difference is that the player may choose to have a blade of different color (such as red, gold, green, whatever) to reflect his/her personality or principles. I will add the blade progression to the feat, though. :)

Dark Archive

Here's the latest version of my houserules.

Nightflier's Houserules v. 1.2.

Some of the changes I've made:

Canny Defense (Combat), Canny Strike [General] feats changed

Blood Mana, Cunning Plan (General), Cutting Reminder (General), Face of Death (General), Final Blow (Fighter) feats added

Battle Touch feat removed

Mana points for high magic games added

Dual Casting, Dual Overchanneling channeler talent added

Headhunter, Coming for You, Totem Head wildlander talent added

Bunch of other feats and talents added, mostly for Wildlander.

Channeler spellist by schools added at the beginning of the new chapter (5: Spells and Magic).

Dark Archive

Currently working on two new feats: Situational Awareness (gives Wis-based bonus to Initiative) and Perceptive Aim (replaces Dex with Wis for determining attack bonus for ranged weapons).

Dark Archive

I did some work on consolidating skills and changing the concept of class skills. For one, I've removed class skills from my home games and introduced the concept of Background Skills. Each character can take 4 skills, chosen from the table Common Skills and gain +3 bonus to those 4 skills. That way we can have for instance a Rogue who is trained in Spellcraft because his parents were magic-users or a Fighter who can influence people because he is of noble class.

Some of this stuff is based on Unchained, but some is based on previous work.

Nightflier's Skills..

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