Vulpae's page

I remember the Cowled Wizards of Amn, they made an absolutely terrifying force to face when you broke the law.
If you started stabbing the guards, and proved too much, they called for the cowls.

They convince the second game's main villain to surrender simply because they just kept coming, and the level 20-mythic wizard realized he can't fight an order of wizards that is thousands strong.

Wave after wave of level 13-15 wizards teleporting in at a large distance, and spamming high level spells, then teleporting away when out of spells, proved a very deadly group to enforce the law.

I usually have enemies just fight smarter, three level 1 orc fighters and five behind cover taking potshots with bows can create a pretty deadly crossfire, especially when they target the cleric.
Or more often, throw the weaker foes at players when they are weakened, low on spells, potions, ect.

Biawa: I think that would be a fantastic place to drop the players so they can get a feel for what the world itself is like. Probably have a lerge number of grumbling states in the "buffer zone" between the two massive states.

Geruth: I'll have planet tidal locked, a bit distant from their sun resulting in incredibly harsh winters, with rough settlements dotting the landscape. I think I'll remove the "nomads only" bit, in favor of a more primal and savage landscape. It's actually a smaller, older, but dense world with high mineral deposits. However the surface is largely desolate and in the grips of dust storms, freezing temperatures, akin to an ice age. Which makes settlement life hard and unpredictable.
I'm thinking closer to stone age britons, proto-celts, and horse nomads.
Iron and Bronze is rare, and hard to make, the technology just isn't well spread, and the facilities are hard to establish.

One of the big things is there's no material to make easy paper out of. There are trees, but no plant to make papyrus out of. The only written messages are in runic stone. There is the occasional paper made from pounded bark, but but like metal, it is rare because it requires an actual facility to do the lacquering and carving.

Probably give a few large enough tribes a "great hall" a religious site survives on pilgrimages and tribute from the surrounding tribes. Maybe have the priests as the only educated people on the surface, with them handing out "magical" items such as those made of metal.
That works actually, with most people seeing letters as a magic thing for priests & shaman. Anyone who's not a priest must therefore be playing with dark magic, and is going to get a club to the face.
Probably make druids a major tribal figure too, with wood and stone circles as meeting places.
The more I think on it the more such a world would favor it's underground residents, such as dwarves and drow. I'll make them the well educated residents of the planet. With the occasional odd ruin poking out of the mountains.

Quasslam: I'm not quite sure where to take it to be honest. I remember a book that had a future where american children were taught fashion, how to accessorize and shop, because you could look anything up on the internet faster than learning it in a class room. It was into it's third generation of that so even the "corporate overlords" were ignorant, so that when the internet crashed...

that's why I did what I did.

Time to flesh out their god.
"The Good Shepard" NG
The Shoary worship a single god, as opposed to a pantheon. It actually has no symbol, nor name, and the shoray resist any attempts to give it either. Shoray adopt the customs and habits of the surrounding races, dwarves, humans, elves, ect. When living in those cities. They adopt the trappings and rituals, but maintain a respectful distance from other gods.
Actual rituals are rare, there is a weekly service, and often a yearly festival that has to do with the community at large.
This is actually linked to the fact the deity that oversaw their creation is long since gone. Yet they were built as a pious race, and have filled the void.

In practice Shoray treat The Shepard as a good father and gentle guide who is all around them, in the trees, the rivers, the wind, the movement of a city crowd. At the moment a few phrases, tunes, and omens pop up often enough that it may develop from small chapels into a full blown religion.
"we are shaped by fate, and we shape fate itself." and refrences to "the music of creation" also pop up among the chapel priests from time to time.
This may actually be creating a new minor god, only time will tell.

Domains: Life (subdomain: mercy), Community, Healing, Fate, Music

The Village Chapel: One of the first buildings shoray explorers erect upon finding lands in which to settle is a chapel. The chapel remains wooden and largely unchanged unless damaged by natural events (or monster attacks) It also acts as a somber forum where important community decisions are made. As opposed to the town hall, which is largely a combination of rowdy tavern and meetinghouse. The mayor is closer to a barkeep who also keeps the paperwork and taxes straight. Usually a Silver.
The Chapel by contrast is a place for silent contemplation, albiet with a low musical hum from the priests that seems to aid meditation. There is no high priest position, but usually one rises to the front via natural talent and understanding. The priests are largely scribes and healers. Who maintain the written history of the community, and use both herbs and magic to heal.
It is an interisting note that wizards and sorcerers learn their magical trade at the chapel as well.

They started as "planet of silly hats" but quickly developed into an actual place as I fleshed out the setting, I like the idea of them becoming more, but I'm struggling with them. Part of why I asked for help.
I refrained from posting the sexual bits out of fear of forum lock.

I think I'll do somthing a bit reminicent of the Star Trek episode. Have men in a seriously deminished role. I'll say you don't see many men because they are far less numerious.
I'll say the gender ratio was skewed towards female, but men were not elminiated. To top it off in most places the men are servants and home makers, it's not cruel, but it is biased, and it's "known" they are inferior without any actual evidence.
With a more martial aspect to the world even after the magic, they have bread towards size and strengh with a warrior queen vibe. I'm sticking with various classical influences, greek, briton, persian, ect.

Durazzo popped into my head as a bit "courtly chivalry" gone steampunk, in contrast to the Greek style "harsh sexisim" of Ceraph, Durazzo had a "soft sexisim" aspect to it. Now that I think of it, that could play into the chivalric aspects of it.
They regard women so highly they are placed in gilded cages, often an entire city having one to five women of breeding age at any given time. Having various countries, from republics, kingdoms, to barbarian tribes, treat them with varying degress of freedom, respect, and control. But the cultural cage remains.
Probably have many nations all coming from the same gene pool, and trying to get more women out of the bloodline has resulted in a preference towards feminine features.

OOOOH thank you for kick starting my brain!

I have the core world for my fantasy setting, known as Aneraph. But the galaxy, and the nearby starsystems, are occupied by various worlds as well. I've got five other planets with fully developed life, as opposed to planets like Eox, that blasted off their own atmosphere during a mage war which I outright copied from Golarion's solar system. I would like help fleshing these worlds out with nations, civilizations, races, religions, and more.
It's used for Pathfinder and GURPS mostly.

The Galaxy of Anuld: Set on the prime materal plane Anuld is home to the last two surviving Primordials, Creation and Oblivion, aside from The Creator (benevolent overgod of fate) they are the oldest beings in existance. While the rest of the primordials killed each other off at the beginning of time, with the death of the Time primordial itself creating linear history within the prime materal plane, these two had a moment of stockhold syndrome, and unable to kill each other, fell in love. They reside at the center of the galaxy, and their "star forge" gives birth to new solar systems in addtion to those that form naturally. (Which is why there are many more habitable systems close to each other.)

Aneraph: is the prime planet belonging to the central solar system, of a cluster near the starforge. It is protected from the forge by a shield wall of dead planets, meteorites, and black holes on the "western side" of the cluster. It's already developed my me as a fantasy world with dead civilizations layered underneath the crust stretching back billions of years, so the Underdark is actually layers of ruins and caverns.

The Planes: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Positive, and Negitive, with their overlaping planes (ooze, magma, lightning, and so forth) are the inner planes. With various afterlives, odd realms, and the massive Asteral plane, as the outer plane. The etheral plane, and the Fae Realm, are out of phase with the materal world, but can be reached via magic, if the stars are right, ect. Anything summoned from the planes to a world is subject to the laws of the materal plane. (This is why you can kill elementals, demons, archons, ect.)

The five nearby system prime worlds: I want help developing ideas for various cultures, factions, nations, warlords, ect. I'm giving you premission to go crazy and create fluff.

Quasslam:A world where magic is used for everything. I got the idea from a player who continuiously created magical items to min-max himself and make money. Magic is everything, and it has created a rapid magic based economy where a Mage Guild is the equivilent of a cyberpunk Mega Corp in power. However many mages have become vapid, self-important, and shallow, and non-magical innivation has gone down the crapper. Why develop warm clothing when you can enchant endure elements on this weeks most popular dress?

Cereaph: At first a joke planet, and partly to taunt a player with a psycotic lesbian gnome, who went looking for an "amazon world" it became a real world. Cereaph is a world of tall amazonian women, all humanoids on seraph are female as the result of a million year breeding program of an elder civilization. It came to the conclusions that women were superior to men, just as real life greeks & romans believed in somthing simmilar5 for men. This civilization stumbled upon the concept of "eugenics" from studying noble bloodlines, and paired it with magic. Thus all of the major humanoids are "perfect" women. Dwarves were destroyed in the ensuing subtle conflicts. However the planetwide belief in prefection lives on after the civilization itself fell. They have mastered art, bronze, and magic, but their civilizations are extremely conservitive, and have a strong sense of Civic pride.

Duazzo: The Yang to Cereaph's Ying, and again, because I wanted to fustrate a lesbian gnome and her lewd player. Durazzo is an all male world. A demon lord of fertility & disease tried to destroy it by creating a pathogen that damaged the female cromozone. Thus rendering all humanoid women infertile or stillborn within a few generations. There's an elaborate return to nature idology behind it, but that's not important. Druids and other primal faiths did not survive the ensuing fallout. But the people of Durazzo survived via a simmilar magical proccess used on Cereaph. The planet is the only one of the five to have undergone an industrial revoloution due in large part to a lack of population for a long time, making it slightly steampunk in flavor. Religion and Knightly Chivalry still play a major roll on this world, due to their involvement in destroying the demonic hordes.

Bawia: a world ruled by two massive states, and their puppets, it originated from the idea "if China and Rome became superpowers and the parthians and persians weren't in the way." The Empire of Silver in the west and the Imperial Tribune States in the east are largely made up of fudal states and warlords that answer to powerful emperor. War is incessent, but neither side can triumph due to the sheer size of the other.

Geruth: a world where savagery triumphed, where life is short, hard, and stubborn. Humanoids live in tribes, small nomadic states, and occasionally city states. Geruth is trapped by it's own barbaric nature and lack of pack animals (no horses...). The worst aspects of primitive religions run free here, druids commit blood sacrifice to bless crops, priests tear hearts out on altars and commune with their gods using drugs. Wizards and sorcerers are almost unheard of, even written language is rare.

Additional note: Bonus points for creating and naming dead worlds.

Drama Avoidance Disclaimer: Some places this would cause a flame war and odd accusations with two mono-gender planets. especally with Ceraph having a bit of sexisim in it's past. Some of my players would start cracking heads if I used males. So by putting it on an amazonian style planet it is a way to explore, talk about, and confront with an uncomfortable topic. Without invoking the "it's evil, smash it in the face" reflex right away.
Please don't flame. It's not about politics, it's about telling a good story.

hmmmm... anyone else notice that teamwork feats only get taken when you can ignore or cercumvent the requirements somehow?
I think it's because two players have to invest in the same feat, when there are so many more useful feats they could both take.

Figured I'd give them a racial god, "the good shepard"

Let's start with:
Size: medium (Average Height: 4'5, barely inside the medium catagory)
Weight: 85Lbs

Ability Scores: +2 Con, +2 Cha, -2 Wis - Shoray are resilient and charming, but naive and innocent.

Musical Affinity: Shoray sorcerers with the Maestro bloodline cast bloodline spells at +1 caster level. Shoray also gain double the normal morale bonus from musical effects, including bardic performance.

Musical Aptitude: Shoray receive a +2 racial bonus to Perform checks related to music.

Team Players: Shoray are naturally cooperative people, and are particularly skilled at adapting to their allies' actions. Their allies receive the full benefit of their own teamwork feats as if the Shoray possessed any teamwork feats they do. The Shoray only receive the benefits of these feats themselves if they actually possess the feat in question.

Able Assistant: Whenever a Shoray successfully performs an aid another action, she grants her ally a +4 bonus instead of the normal +2.

Distractable: Shoray are fascinated by bright colors and visual effects, and suffer a -2 penalty on saving throws against pattern spells.

Militia trained: all shoray know how to use spears, pikes and halberds regardless of class.

Alternate Racial options:
Born in The Silver: through some quirk you were born with silver wool, marking you as a natural born leader. average Height now 5'7 Automaticly gain Leadership at level 5 in regards to shoray only. replaces distractible and team players. +4 diplomacy with other shoray.

Iron Wool: you were born amid the forges and workshops, this has hardened your body, and given you an appatude with mechanical things.
+2 natural armor, may take 10 on craft and Disable Device checks even in combat. Craft engineering is a class skill.
This replaces Musical Talent

Racial Background traits
Religious:
Shepard: Eliminate -2 wis penalty, replace with -2 str, you were raised amid one of the small village chapels. As such you have never engaged in manual labor, but a life of contemplation, prayer, and education makes you wiser.
Social: Standard, no traits thought of yet.

Magic:
Musical Magic: Raised around magic all your life, You are adept at countering magical music. May use countersong, still requires spellcasting abilities.

I was worried about making them overpowered morph.
but I'm going to go with your suggestions on that.

Craig: That was why I originally going to make it just Shoray to other shoray. But I'm rethinking, allowing it to come from anywhere.

I think that's a good idea Goat, "Silver Wool" I like that. I thin k I'll use that idea. Shoray don't invent but they innovate. For example they might pass around the same story, and it changes slowly story becomes myth, and myth becomes legend. I've been rereading Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring, and the information on tolken's hobbits, what the Shire and Bree, are like are inspiring me on how to do this.

An example I gave early for "innocent bigotry" such as a small village coming to the conclusion that elves have wings because an elven wizard used a fly spell to fly to their aid a century back. Now two generations later they've taken Occam's Razor to it.
Actually did this in the more recent game, they made the elf a hang glider as a gift because "he didn't have wings like the other elves"

Another thing I added, the game world is Chivalric age, with cannons, morters, and the occasional musket. The players made the mistake of giving guns to the first shoray village they encountered as trade goods.
At the same time the druid taught them about conservation, so the little guys didn't ravage the jungle they'd been plopped into.

Now a century later "The Commonwealth" is a loose confederation of towns and three small cities that trades exotic goods (coffee, peppers, and so forth) with the part of the world the game takes place in.

I've developed the Commonwealth, if it ever comes up. I've done a lot of work on their values, but not on Security & Law.

So here's the idea:
in most towns & villages the watch is mostly a volunteer group, known as either the "Constables" or "Bounders" they were originally firemen and engineers, but as the trade routes grew, and the world was more dangerous, they became a town watch. They still wear the red shirts and overalls with their mail, have unique helmets, and carry axes because of this. Most of the time constables deal with the occasional missing person, or sort out disputes and complaints. Occasionally they chase off goblins, gremlins, and kobolds.
Constables are always polite and calm, and willing to explain why you can't do this or that. They also have the power to punish, shoray believe in "constructive punishment" instead of incarcerating criminals, they are set to work the unpleasent jobs. Such as bucket man when a cesspit has to be cleaned.
In times of actual trouble such as dragons, orc hordes, ect. Shoray form a well disciplined "militia" which fight in close formation akin to a hoplite or roman legion, often backed up with muskets from behind heavy fortifications. It's in seigecraft that the little buggers show their worth.
Shoray do not innovate, they improve on old designs. Given cartridges, and muskets, they created "crank guns" and "crank-scorpions" which require seven crew to operate.
There is no unified system of government, it's mostly a democratic forum, but shoray do not war among themselves, political disputes are usually resolved with the two parties working together on a project, or a fistfight that does not involve the community as a whole. (Think if the king of england, and the king of france had fought like angry kids instead of involving armies...)

phew, more on other stuff later.

I know about them, but I decided to go for a brighter race.

I'd probably say Janus, the reason humans are mentioned as attacking half orcs, is because dwarves aren't as impulsive, and would probably give the cold shoulder. Make him pay double here and there, ans so forth.

Anyways, there is of course the "innocent bigot" trope I've used before. The character doesn't have any persional experience with X, so they think back on old stories, and make silly assumptions.
I do this for rural human villages all the time, usually with funny twists. Such as kids gathering around an elf fighter, and asking to see him fly "because grandpa said the elves flew into battle at Mel-Sunshar"

Or I use "understandable bigotry" a Neutral Good shop keeper being biased against half-orcs, and being unfriendly because he lost his father in an orc raid. It's still wrong, but the players can understand why he hates them. That being said he's NG, so he's distrusting, and slightly afraid, instead of outright hateful. "I'm keepin an eye on you greenskin" and the like.

Now that I have more time, I'll explain.
Silver Manes are "born to lead" and are sort of the teenagers amid a village of innocent children. That is where the concept came from. Shoray listen to them, and they carry great weight in a conversation. But overall the village is a semi-democratic system.

Back from running around and working.
Those are good ideas from both Morph and Count.

Shoray aren't the only builder race around, they reside somewhere between Dwarves and Halflings on the cultural stereotype list.
I'm going with some of Morph's changes, and thinking up a few racial options and types.

in keeping with the creepy innocent vibe, the players have encountered "Silver manes" the occasional odd silver shoray that the others all treat like a mayor, elder, and consul all in one.

5% of Shoray are born "in the silver" giving them a low level empathy with their own race. they tend to be more serious, and if the rest of the race is a choir. They are the conductors.

I've run them a few times, and think I should put up the race itself to the lashings, and odd thinking of the internet. Tell me what you think, and critique away.

Shoray are cute little sheep-like humanoids that are industrious, harmonious, and organized. They are somewhat childlike in nature and personality, but smart.

Size: Medium (Average around 5'1)

+2 Con +2 Chr

Trusting: -4 to sense motive

Team Players: If a shoray has a teamwork feat, all other shoary count as if they also possess that teamwork feat if they would gain a benefit at that time. (IE: even if he doesn't have the feat for it, a shoray fighter gives the shoary rouge his teamwork flanking bonus, and gets the bonus himself. But ONLY if he's in the right position.)
Shoray gain a +4 assistance bonus, instead of a +2, if given by another shoray.

Musical: Shoray gain a +1 to caster level if using the Maestro Bloodline. They also gain double bonus from musical morale effects, such as a bard.

Favored classes Bard & sorcerer

Background: Created on the world of Quassliam as a race of harmonious servants, Shoray were taken and put into a pocket plane for the "Unblananced things" of the multiverse by an old, now extinct pantheon. They were freed by a group of planes traveling adventurers, and have grown from a small minority, to a major race across the south-lands in recent years.
Shoray share many values with Halflings & Dwarves, food, hearth, family. But are a builder race that are constantly seeking new lands, and new things to do. They are incredibly social among themselves, friendly and warm around others. If this sounds like a race too nice to survive, you would've been right. But years in the "rejected world" have hardened them as a race of survivors. Shoray work in perfect harmony, and this is never more evident than when forced to defend themselves.
Shories love stories and song, there is nothing they like better.
Funfact: on their birthday shoray give little presents rather than receive them.
Psychology: "like being lobotomized with sugar packets" according to a wizard turned into one. On a subconscious level Shoray are naturally trusting, open with both themselves, and others. They have an almost childlike glee, and love life.

Creator note: I overheard some goths at Mc Donalds griping about how "the whole world is filled with sheeple" and the idea developed into a cute race of promiscuous, expansionist, genuinely compassionate conformists. Giving them a slightly creepy Disney cheery vibe, with musicals and everything. The players are tense and waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it never will.

I am playing one in a recent game, and after failing his spellcraft to identify and cure stat drain spell, Abel tried to "hug the stupids away" until the cleric regained his mental stats.

I created a race of Innocent I named Shoray. Little Sheep-like people that were based around teamwork. They disturb the players who are used to my hardboiled campaign settings.
I'm going to post some stuff in another thread about them. But, their childish mindset and musical harmony made them almost disneylike.

On a side note I am playing one recently, and when he ran into a member of the party that had been feeble minded, this 5'2 fluffy sheep sorcerer failed his spellcraft, didn't realize it was a feeble mind, and tried to "hug the stupids away"

The way I reconciled their constant childishness, with their place in the world, was to make their subconscious/Id childlike in nature, while they are just as varied as any other race in the conscious mind.

So an actual Lawful evil necromancer they encountered, was a shoray, and in the middle of the "I'mma destroy the village for throwing stones at me." speech he was distracted by the scent of candy that one player had on him.
It made it hilarious when they actually bribed him with chocolate, then talked him down from destroying the village with skeletons. The conversation included him telling them he didn't raze zombies because he "thought they were icky"
After they'd been mauled and fought their way trough various skeletal undead, and were low on spells and health.

I created Mindflayer Barbarians once, had the same look, but "they've devolved" was my excuse for not giving them all the superwonder powers when they wanted to play one.

I feel like Developing the Xeni and lovers both for a bit.

The Xeni: Illithid, but not the kind most scholars know. Long under pressure from slave revolts and drow expansion orc barbarians streaming into their home finally caused their citystate to collapse under it's own weight.
With the death of their elder brain at the gentle caress of Oblivion, it attempted to dominate the primordial, and burst under the strain, causing psychic feedback that killed the upper teir of leadership. The Illithid could not stem the tide of orcish force, they could no longer mass dominate or minuplate the number of minds necessary to keep things stable. Brute force triumphed, the city burned as the Illithid fell upon each other in an ill timed civil war.
In the end few were left, all were scarred, It was Xeni, before the fall he was a mere servant among his peers, a psion of average skill, that created the tribe as they are now known.
He found his way into the court of the new orcish "rulers" of the city. orcs respect physical strengh, and so Xeni threw himself into reshaping his body and bulking up.
A few years of single minded learning and training later The Chieftain's "adviser" was a proud "orcish" warrior in his own right. the orcs began to fear him, as weakling tribe members would dissapear. The long-tusks as a society did not care about a few lost weaklings, but they noticed when the guy the beat on and humiliated dissapeared in the night.
The surviving flayers at the edges of the city tok from xeni's example, and one night, gathered in the deep tunnels and set forth for the frozen reach of the surface.

When they emerged from long abandoned dwarven ruins, the Xeni-Flayers set upon the local barbarian tribes, taking the strongest for crebromorphisis, eating the smartest, and ignoring the rest.
It wasn't until they came up against the Walls of Diz'urah that they encountered a "worthy foe" who could stop their raids.

Xeni culture focuses on strengh of body and mind, and relies on ritual tattoos as a symbol of trophies and skill. Dominated by a shamanistic "Cult of Flesh" they give a spiritual meaning to their consumption of brains, believing in a concept similar to Maoi Mana in the real world.
They are largely male in population (due to favoring more muscular bodies, not sexisim), and no less prone to excess than their ancestors. However where the Illithid were once civilized and prefered their macabe arts, the Xeni are hard fighting, hard drinking, and revel in both base pleasures, and blood sport.
They are more apt to raid what they need than make it, but there are a few among them who devote their minds to crafts of iron and magic. These "Taskmasters" drive their thralls hard, but reward them with base pleasures for successes.
The original Xeni is dead, slain battling human commoners (20/20/20)

Thanks, they can't sue us for using fluff on a forum. Otherwise so many places would be sued.

Though the eclipse goes off after a group of adventures destened to stop[ it are killed in their formative years by an angry goblin tribe, and never get past level 5.
The drow "buying" slaves with poisonous assistance given to the orcs, sorely underestimate the sacrifices needed. They are able to hold the moon in position for three months before the constant need for mass life force taxes their priests to the breaking point.
This "problem" is compounded by the Black Sun Empire, who see the eclipse as a call to conquest and arms. the Sultan cannot hold his people back, nor does he want to.
When the empire pushes back against the orcs in a massive crusade, it has the effect of driving the survivors them deep into the underdark. this is good for a few days, but then the constant stream of slaves from the surface dries up, and the strain of finding enough bodies causes multiple civil wars as the priests turn to their own people.

This madness does not go unnoticed by the two surviving primordials, a deity controlling their moons, their homes. Untill this moment they had always made love and departed undisturbed, a happy pair.
Creation and Oblivion appear to a startled drow wizard in the form of two featureless humanoids one brilliant white, the other a complete void. the wizard is casing a normal summoning, they simply ride the magic down to the world below.

The pair go exploring through the caverns of the underdark, spreading love and death in equal measure. In their wake they lay low the proud drow city of Yallarban.
Where Creation walks life mutates, creates, breeds out of control.
Where Oblivion walks there is only silence, nothing but stone remains.

A few drow survive, one of the Luminous priests is among them, having used blood magic and a few thousand thralls as fodder to escape.
Izzlt is is name, and he is shaken, maddened, and brings news of streets overrun with mutants and shadows, of a pair of lovers moving through the tunnels.
He is discredited by the Luminous Temple proper as a pervert, heretic, and madman for the stories he spreads, and his attempt to stop the sacrifices. He converts a small group of priests who form the Peacebringer sect. Devoted to stopping the decadence and darkness among drow socity that will draw The Lovers towards them.
The Aboloth stir in their dark hidden homes, and like in the age before time use every method at their disposal to avoid the primordials. Other younger abberations such as the neolithids try to fight them head on, and fail.

For their part The Lovers do not bare any malice towards the drow, nor any other mortal, or immortal. Creation loves them all in every way, and Oblivion could care less about their meaningless existence. It is their raw power and desire to try so many new sensations that brings destruction where they walk, for they do not think like mortals.

Many mongrelmen and Morlocks, as well as other horrors of the deep are a product of this time.

The Kingdoms are largely unaffected, the eclipse is during their winter, and therefore other than extreme cold, and a rise in giant and ogre activity, they do not starve, they do not decent into turmoil, adventurers actually have a much easier time finding work, so much so that it leads to the formation of a few Heroes Guilds.

The only horror to be visited upon the surface by the Months The Moon descended, is The Xeni a group of mindflayers whose devoloution into Barbarian savages allowed them to trek to the surface build the Black Iron Depths in the far north, and Iargraph the Unbreakable, an Abloth given humanoid form by Creation's touch. He establishes a small citystate in the same region. The two groups fight each other to this day, and have little interest in the lands of the Red Razor beyond a few minor raids.

Valash, the first empire of the east is formed by refugges fleeing from Astaurion. forced into bandetry at a young age, Numar, rises to unite the tribes under a ruthless, but even handed regime as Sultan of Black Sun.
Valash develops the first monotheistic faith, based around Sol, their god of the sun, who grows from head of their nature spirit pantheon, to a primary deity.

Unlike the former empires, the Black Sun offers an open hand to other races, but these progressive policies have a darker side, the growing nation needs people, needs population, men, women, children, lives. A few generations later the Empire grows strong and fat on the sweat and toil of people, the trade of it's exotic goods, and the intelligence of it's scholars.
The Sultans do not care what you believe, or who you are, so long as they bring order where there is chaos, peace where there is war. Eternal enemies of the orcs who raid their caravans, The Long War begins, and The Black Sun is cut off from the western kingdoms by the orc tribes. They expand south and north, but the bloodfeud continues.

I created a race of Good Aberrations called Aval, when my players released a creature geneticly engineered from Human/Elf/Akata DNA.

They have since replaced the flumph who are comedic but nearly helpless in the face of elder powers.
I'd like to see meepo's take on them.

Male Expert.
Female Warrior.

It was this war, and the powers created therein. Fleshwarped weapons, powerful magics, and created beasts on both sides that would ravage the country around The Razor. Some of those powerful beasts still exist in the lands around the Rusted Razor to this day.

That was what first brought Leng to the attention of The Firstborn. While other gods would come later, and beliefs had come before. In the boiling wound, what are now the ruins of Al-Emeria. It began with sightings of a human, one with no face, white lumious skin, feathered wings, and long hair (though they were actually tendrils they are remembered as hair) and eyes like the night sky. The image would be imprinted on the minds of all who met him, and on their children, and their grandchildren. Enough that every race would come to think of Angels and with similar traits, and so similar traits they would one day have.

The Firstborn was the first being to grant divine power to those who followed his teachings of peace, order, and compassion. It is adhering to these core ideals that empower paladins (his creative aspect) and Anti-paladins (his destructive aspect) though they do not know it, and none worship him.

It was against The Daemon Lord Gandohar that he first showed the face of the destoyer. The Sindaren had raided the shores for centuries for slaves, wealth, and plunder, at his behest. He and his children launched a true campaign of conquest onto land, allied with the growing abolithic and Illithid empires.
The Firstborn confronted him in the surf with the intent to speak knowing none could fail to be brought to reason, and Gandohar, who had never heard of this elder being, struck him before he could speak, impaling him through the chest. This was the Great Failure of Gandohar, for where the blood of The Firstborn was released came the first Archons, Azatas, Devils, and Demons which would one day destroy and supplant his children The Sindaren as masters of the abyss.
Gandohar dried up, in the brilliance of the wound he caused, and experiencing pain for the first time The Firstborn flew into a rage against the Aboloths, The Illithid, and the other allies of Gandohar.

While the "lesser races" were spared his fury, other empires and beings in the Dominion of The Black would be brought to their knees, never to recover.
But as always Destruction brought Creation, and from the prayers of the lesser races and the vast expenditure of divine energy were born the first pantheon of gods capable of granting power to their followers.

The Firstborn withdrew from contact with mortals and the multi-verse at large, for while most of his victims had been twisted monstrosities of alien mind. They had not deserved the sheer volume of punishment his rage had brought. To this day The Firstborn dwells in the ruins of the un-recorded civilizations he destroyed, on dead worlds, a towering being of light in the dark void between the stars. The most powerful being in the multiverse (with the exception of his parents) who will no longer lift a finger, for fear of snuffing out an entire world with a stray thought.

Mikaze wrote:

Or are they trying to make us ready to welcome them?

I love the Dark Tapestry/Dominion of the Black, like, a whole bunch. That said, I hope Numeria has nothing to do with it/them. The universe is a big place after all, with plenty of room for aliens who aren't HPL abominations. We'll be getting Dominion of the Black Love soon enough from a couple PF modules, after all.

Being the loremonkey (or fox) I am, I scrounged around. The Silver Mountian is again, (according to sages) a fragment of a massive "spelljammer" bigger than anything ever created, and is believed to have come "beyond the multiverse", crossed into the system loaded for bare, and slammed into golarion, breaking up on impact.

What is more nothing alive has come out, and nobody has found anything alive inside the ruins save the occasional abberation, most of it is tech. The Silver Mount is a massive thing, and it's probably the tail end of the ship, so the ship may have been bigger than an entire country, or larger, and entirely built out of adamantine.
The mechanical menaces are enough to indicate the power of these former creatures.

I ran an adventure inside the Silver mount about a year and a half ago, without all the new stuff printed for numeria. The gearmen intentionally let their guard down during a sandstorm and "slipped up" so the players could get inside where they faced a zoo of abberations and nasty stuff, robotic attack dogs, assault robots, a few wierd alien ghosts (just ghosts with templates and some beefed up stats), unique tech haunts, and at the end a mad Glados like Med-Computer that was trying to recreate the dead alien crew from kidnapped locals, abberations, and summoned outsiders.

The Gearmen appeared at the end, shining cold eyes in the dark sandstorm, thanking the players for "removing another obsticle" before fading away into the sand and night.
I WANNA REPLAY IT AND CONTINUE THE STORY *flails in excitement and rage at collage having gone into full swing and killed his unfinished game.*

i don't think so sorry Thisle X.X

Let's Start at the beginning, with a new person adding to the world's lore with each post, no matter how small.
I do however request that nobody "Wreck" the world on a nightly basis, or smash other people's ideas outright. (IE: someone writes up a greatly detailed republic and another guy jumps in and says it all exploded because a goblin picked his nose and accidently used the wish ring he got off a dead adventurer.)

I will start it off:

At the beginning there were The Primordials, Elder beings of immense power, their origins and the reason for their conflict are lost to history. But in the formless void the Primordials fought each other in a savage contest of wills and physical strengh. Life fought Death, Sky fought Land, and all fought all in a massive battle royal. Their true names are lost to time, and so they are referenced by what they created.

It was in this conflict that the multiverse was created.

From the broken bones of Land came mountians, from blood of water came the seas, from the howls of lightning came thunder, and so on.
In the shadow of these primordals were the old ones, created from the carnage, born of malice and cold rage. Scurrying insects crushed by the battles of the Primordials often before they could build hovels to hide.

In the end, few remained, and the matter and energy of the dead gave form to existance. This is why the world is so violent, and the idea of slaughtering fifty orc warriors does not traumatize the party fighter, though killing their kids will.

Only two Primordials survived, Creation and Oblivion. During that long brutal war, the two of them fought for long enough to realize the futility of their struggle, and instead fell head over heels in love with each other over the billions of years spent togeather.

It was they who gave birth the first deity, who, like them, was inscrutable and incomprehensible, yet also a being of benovlence who answered the prayers of the first mortals.
Some say he is dead, replaced by more modern faiths, others that The Firstborn is still there in the twilight wind, and motions of the heavens, still weaving fate, and ensuring those who rise in time of crisis do.

The two lovers continue to make love in the center of the materal world. Our world lies closest to where the two exist, always hidden behind the light of the great celestrial objects, the sun, and at night, they part from their shared bed, and hide behind the moons.

(this was inspired by greek & egyptian creation mythology, with a bit of baha'i and Lovecraft thrown in there for good measure)

investigate!

I built a large cavlier, and it turns out there are no creatures he can ride.
Is there ANY mount he can ride.

2nd session
In extant for information, we agree to break into the 2nd village, steal their unholy symbol.
what they found was a village full of varied races, lead by a minotaur, however the paladin demanded though they would attack, that they spare "civilians" (Children, women, noncombatants, not popular with the beholder)
Using stealth they infiltrated the village, and discovered that they were not as bad as made out, dispite worshiping a demon lord, nobody here dies for good, (riverworld style rebirth) even their blood "sacrifices" were voluntary and non-permanent.

The paladin was thrown for a moral loop, when he rushed to the rescue of a small voice crying "help me" it turned out to be a small goblin who was being bled out. the entire thing was "Help meeee... My wound scabbed over"
Null was forced to reconcile this. the goblin had volunteered to do this, and could not die, the village was well run, happy for where they were, ect.

They eventually brought the questions of who "Pale Night" was to the local high priest, who answered their questions, and he and the paladin actually talked with a form of mutual respect.

Eventually unable to stand the crazy, the paladin decides to head outside.

It turns out a goblin gang leader the paladin smote, was a tribal leader of another village. His self-chosen name was Sorcer-war. After a bracing, slightly silly, and guilt ridden talk, he was here to forge an alliance.

It was only one world, of billions.

I want to ammend my statements, Matthew is actually named George, mattew was another of his characters, with a similar personality.

the other guy is named Dreedrix

Null Picture

Maybor, Harrason, I shall fix the link.
and no, they were turned back to normal so that they could be judged as they died, demons are a#%~~##s like that...

Alright, going on with the story, Judge Slall, who presided over their "trial" in which they were advised by a Contract Devil captured in the fighting of the brood war, his punishment was to be a defense layer in a court that made Wonderland look logical. Was also the one determining where in the abyss they would be dropped into in the abyss.
The Paladin and the Contract Devil actually got along rather well, due in large part to both being the only lawful people in the roil of chaos and madness that was the Abyssal Court.
"I'm not going to sugar coat it... your pretty much screwed. I've been trying to argue for lenancy because you did destroy your world, if unintentionally. at least this week we all get to sit at the desk." The Null did not plead before the judge, but showed respect to the bezzare court nontheless.

Slall's Verdicts:
Mattew, Shae, Sorcerer/monk, LG, Innocent due to arriving late on the scene during the battle with the demon cult of Vukrik. Reincarnated as a demon
Balph'hiek, Beholder, beholder mage/sorcerer, CE, Guilty/w leanancy. Fried the Council of 8 during the summoning ritual, other charges were dropped due to wantonly distructive methods.
Glimmer, Fairy, Oracle/sorcerer, CG Guilty Good outsider... inevitible.
Krall, Custom Race (related to gargoyles), Fighter/Magus, CN, Guilty unable to get more than 3 of 7 charges dropped.
Null, Adv.Fawn, Paladan/Ranger, LG, Guilty as Virtue on all charges With the exception of disrespecting the court.

Slall dropped the characters into an unknown layer of the abyss, where they were attacked by hunting parties belonging to a city known as "The Black Gates" which was made of flensed humans (who had their skin torn off calling the process "being honored") and encountered storms of Razor Snow, two dementional metalic snow that carved through nearly everything.

They survived by eventually taking shelter in a cave they carved themselves, and sought out food, and supplies to keep them safe from the storms. They didn't have to go far as they discovered the gnarled withered, but thick, trees were not filled with wood. Much to Null's suprise when he tried to chop one down for firewood and crafting materals.
"if the trees can survive the razors, the bark can probably protect us..."
The trees bled green, much to the chargrin of the paladan who was the only one able to chop them down. (adamantine hatchet and a 26 str) and they turned out to be filled with green, sour smelling, sour tasting, meat.
However dispite it's disturbing texture, it had a sweet taste once cooked. Starvation and razor blade problems solved, they set out to simply get as far away from The City of Black Gate as possible.

The Beholder and Paladin bickering the entire way, Beholder's arrogance, meeting the paladin's inability to be cowed, and now only mutual needs of survival keeping the two of them from attacking each other.
(the players are great friends in real life, the characters were NOT)

In a narrow pass they came across a few loggers who ran in terror as they approached. Discovering a cave with tattered flags ourside. the signs matched the same Oberith who marked them.
Inside they discovered a small town named Village, who worshiped a deity known as Lady Pale Night who none of them recognized, thouch terrified of the Beholder (think peasents cowering in invincible stone shacks) the commoners and priests were not evil, simply parinoid, primitive, and isolated, and the group were eventually able to find a way to see their high priestess.

Interistingly the priests were suprised that "the two of them bicker too much to be raiders." due to the near fight between the beholder and paladin over the treatment of the villagers.

that is where it ends for now, more on it next week.

A recent game being run in our game shop is "Down" which is an adventure in the abyss by a GM who has been playing since 1st edition, and is using planescape as a base.
We are using a form of gestalt class rules that is working very well.

We only discovered this AFTER the first chapter was done.
I am playing a paladin/ranger named Null, who is an advanced Fawn and comes from a drudic culture. I won't bore you with the details of the complicated mother son relationship in his backstory, but suffice to say he's a damn cool hero. especally against boss monsters where he can smite evil and use his dual weapons to inflict multi-smites in a single round.

We were called upon to save our world, as wierd apocolptic stuff was starting to happen, fields of grain turning into quasits, buildings imploding, ect. The guy who had the knowlage of how to do so was shot before he could reveal the plan (arrows of human slaying X.X ) and we were forced to try and figure things out.
We succedded in stopping a horde of demons from being unleashed and conquering our world, suprisingly some nasty creatures called oberiths were going to destroy it anyway. The demons planned to save the world, and enslave it...
We had no idea because the seer who fortold how to save the world had the curse babble, opposate of tounges, and nobody but a Chaositic can understand babble. (the loon assassinated was the chaositic translator, without him, nobody could understand her.)

The Oberiths marked the party for their "help" and because they did so, they wound up going to the abyss, and spending 250 years as magoty things....
*wince*
A group of demons decided it'd be fun to fish them out, and try them for "crimes against the abyss" Null accepted the accusations, "guilty as virtue" was tossed around, then the group was kicked into the abyssal landscape. because Null was "gulty" they took his stuff.

Dispite all this he remained innocent, never broke the paladin's code, and remained a bastion Honesty, Chivalry, and Good. So he's the only unfallen paladin to ever wash up in the abyss.
As the DM kinda hinted at "Null is now an anaomly in the multiversal system, weather that's a good or bad thing remains to be seen."

So whadda ya'all think?
I'll post updates as they happen.

My party took a jaunt through galt once, had to get info on a dragon from a professor who was beheaded by the final blade. Can't speak with him while he's trapped in the blade, it was a fun foray into the bezzare world of Galtian politics for a paladin.
Damn xenophopic nationalists tried to lynch him because he looked all noble in shiny armor, trying to talk them down didn't do any good.

"good people, I've taken care of the anheg infestation of your fields, you can grow food again"
*rabble noises* "it's a trick!" "he's a nobleman" "they want to make us slaves again"
"wait, no, I just wanted to help you so you didn't starve"
"get em"

Thank god a steed is faster than an angry mob.

as for Set, that sounds near freudian good work.

what about doing roman themed mythic age stuff, as in allowing magic? I've been thinking of doing a setting like that sometime myself

good work meepo.

I've been playing Dark souls, and the undead from that game gave me some ideas. I'll ask when I get them organized

Ah, you say that because your experience of goodness is limited to real-life humans. But, even the nicest most pleasent human is not made of good. An angel is not only not burdened by good, it literally cannot conceive of doing evil. For an angel to fall, you would need the intervention of a powerful evil being.

Btw, where is that quote on angels still falling from? I didn't see it on the SRD.

-------------

The only thing that bothers me from a metaphysical point of view is that there are more fallen angels than risen devils. This means there is an asymmetry in how the metaphysics of Good and Evil works.

Also, the reason that we don't see a "risen devil" creature in the bestiary could be the same reason we see more different types of evil outsiders than good outsiders: Most characters are good, so there are naturally more evil stat-blocks. Paizo / WotC just havent gotten around to stating up the redeemed devils :)

You have a point, there is a lot more evil in the beastary because Evil Player characters, let alone adventuring parties are a rare occurance. many players range from LG to CN evil is rarely played with evil goals as opposed to selfish ones, because evil Pc's are usually jerks.

that said my offical stance is that angels falling and demons rising is the ratio is about 1/1 and being rare overall.
if my players asked "why haven't we run into any risen demons?" it goes a bit like this
Q: "what is the first reaction to a demon? even one who looks corrupted by good"
A: "it's a trick, stab him, stab him now"
Q: "why would you wind up fighting one?"
A: "um..."

the better way to work one in is that he/she/it is after The Macguffen too, and while his intentions are good, they aren't yours, and thus you are competing against it.

my oddest redeemed evil character, which there are a few, was a creature players saved in a forum Rp (which players at the table later met)
when a psion named Yuri began searching for answers to cosmic questions (as ultra powerful wizards and psions do.) he turned to victorian style frankenstienian methods.
being LN when Yuri's mansion was also attacked by adventurers thinking it was just another ruined keep (to be fair he never kept the place fixed) he used them as lab rats.
only the paldin survived.
Yuri became obsessed with foguring out cosmic balance between good/evil and law/chaos, and what parts of the mind were good and evil etc.

being a good mad scientist Yuri snatched outsiders and experimented on them.

Lukas was a LG incubus who eventually became a paladin, basicly Yuri did the equivilent of tearing the good/evil/law/chaos out of outsiders to see what happened.
players who raided Castle Maur found the incubus staggering around the halls after having been labotomized, and took a shine to him. Eventually causing him to go from N to LG which endured even after his mind was restored.
His quote when meeting the next party was "for all their big talk, deemons are slaves to themselves. I do what is right, and nobody tells me to. THAT is true freedom. The damsels are a nice perk too."

The players convinced him to act on their behalf too, he used his charm spells to incapacate enemies and talk to them. trying to redeem instead of kill.

He's kinda graduated to PC for next time we play a high level game.

then there's always deathless from 3.5, they are positive energy undead, who are free willed and choose to come back and serve the caster instead of being dragged back and shackled with unholy energy, basicly an open invite "hey wanna come back from the dead and kill some monsters?"
the retain basic feats and knowlages, but are not slaves to the caster, though the caster can dismiss them at will as you would a summon.

yep ya'all beat me to it, a good example of abadar's take would be looking at the nation of molthune a LN nation who has slavery but slaves have a far better life there than in other slaveholding nations, it is within well defined legal bounds, and a slave with knowlage of the legal system, a strong back, and enough time, can ebcome a full citizan even a member of the ruling class in molthune.

also adding to the list of interisting slave castes were the ottoman Jannisary Corps. The Sultan's elite troops and bodyguards. they were actually christian children (bought from slavers, captured in war, etc.) raised from birth as professional soldiers who did nothing but learn and fight. because they were not muslim they were no threat to the sultan (compared to famliy who often went after the throne.)The Jannisary Corps actually stood outside the ottoman caste system which had diffrent laws for diffrent faiths & castes (though they were tolerant by middle age and even rennasance standards) thus they were actually the most feared men in the Empire for their military skill and immunity to all law save punishments decreeed by their master the ottoman sultan himself.

55=Gargoyle
76=Shae
98=Rogue Modron
81=Gearman/warforged/living construct thinigmachu
24=Ratfolk

I gotta build a cityworld now

Marking this for later use!

ghosts are one of the many nasty respawning undead, unless they are laid to rest, stabbing them to re-death only dissolves them forcing them to wait X amount of time before returning to their haunt. some form of hybrid undead might work well.

Mines placed in underground tunnels, but never exploded might make a nasty collapse trap.
Juju zombies might work well as another undead.

taking what Son and Tiny said into account, a bombed out city in the center of the maze of trenches sounds grand, placing the artifacts in the town gives you a place to do boss fights and the like. it also gives a chance for some house to house fighting which can be a nasty dungeon in it's own right.

somehow I have the image of a bombed out chapel as the one safe place for the living, huddled masses, hiding in the fortified temple with ample supplies surrounded by war every day and night.

Better hope there are ogre maidens or lads in need of saving, as a horse would have numerous "difficulties" getting laid with normal sized humanoids, and from the sounds of it there were no other sapient horses.

well THAT never actually came up. Jokes were occasionally made. including comparing him to a soda bottle, and at one point he was ambushed while washing up (infitrating through sewers in 3.5 before prestiditation: Clean was at will, was a nasty affair) and beating the mugger senseless with a chunk of armor that it was later joked was his codpeice.

Aubert had better things to do than visit houses of ill-repute, he never took a vow of chastity or anything like that, he just had a world to save, orphans to rescue, evil wizards to smite, etc.

holy fluffles... this is convoluted, kinda in a good way. being a 40k buff myself, and having poured over the lore.
in the 40k universe the emperor used many diffrent disguises throught the history to try and guide man to betterment, it is implied that before coming to the front, he was a few major figures in history.
he played pharoah in egypt, cesar in rome, Christ, Moses, and Mohammid in the middle east, and played ben franklen in america, a lot you can do with shape shifting and divinely psionic powers.
but that's the warhammer universe.

Also a corrupted ben franklen is a bad idea, franklen wasn't the kind of man to fall to corruption of the flesh (dispite his indulgences in europe) he seems more the mad scientist/james bond Q type for your campain.

Chaos Space Marines are a disorganized lot, usually rallying around a successful and ruthless champion, and bringing their veteran knowlage and well used weapons with them. if the champ dies, they tend to break and run.

British Troops would be on the side of law and order, the Revoloution was brother VS brother, they'd feel better to fight alongside american rebels than psychopathic space marines.
Mainly the brits would want to get back to the war, and estabish a formal outpost, then try and draw local support to help them.
they'd probably be an expeditionary force sent by english branch of secret socities, sent to claim land for king and country, since they lost america. making them a third faction.
British regulars would be likely level 5 gunslingers, they are professional soldiers, fighting in well diciplined groups, supported by cannon, grenaders (hand to hand fighters with bags of bombs) and Hessian Jeagers (level 5 rangers)

on the issue of christ you might wanna leave that outta this, it is a sensitive topic, if you must, he was the epotomy of Nuteral Good and was in fact appaled by the corruption within the temple at the time, he advocated reform, forgiveness, and love towards one's fellow man. due to his growing following and redical calls to charity and peace, he was crusified.

Space Marines are geneticly altered supersoldiers in amazing power armor, wielding what for a normal human would be heavy weapons.

I will go on if they topic isn't dead

half elf oracle, fits my persionality well, though my actual faith in christ would create a few odd moments in golarion, and locals would think either that I was a prophet or try and burn me as a heritic, depending on what nation I wound up in.