Hi Everyone
I have some questions about Whitethrone and Irrisen that I would like some help with.
- Is the lifespan of the Jadwiga mentioned? As Queen Elvanna has been ruler for 100 years (and I am assuming was at least 15 or so when she came to power). This is well over usual lifespan
Additionally my PCs were debating trying to search out some Jadwiga from a previous queen. Would any from a prior reign be alive? Or only decedents?
- Whitethrone has spellcasting level 9th. However with regards to raising dead I assume there will not be high level cleric willing to do it (given the main deities are all Evil).
Would the PCs have to go to a White Witch? Or an high level evil cleric (I can imagine that going down very well with Paladin PCs)
- Does anyone have any tips on how a city with a neutral evil alignment would function. I am having difficulty getting my head around the concept of settlement alignments
Thanks for your help
The previous reigns' Queens and first-born children are snagged by Baba Yaga. The grandchildren and other generations are not taken and thus comprise the Jadwiga itself. As for their lifespans... Elvanna has the blood of Baba Yaga in her veins and thus has an extended lifespan from the sounds of it. I'm not sure about her children but they do have mythic potential... the blood becomes diffuse enough not to matter with the grandchildren and younger.
As for clerics... the worship of Pharsma (or however you spell that) is tolerated. The priesthood is Neutral. Thus they might be willing to help out. Alternatively you can just have a rebel be a level 9 Cleric or level 7 Druid (for Reincarnate).
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Is the lifespan of the Jadwiga mentioned? As Queen Elvanna has been ruler for 100 years (and I am assuming was at least 15 or so when she came to power). This is well over usual lifespan
Book 6 of Reign of Winter explains how the Queens of Irrisen maintains her youthful appearance. Elvanna's Jadwiga do not have an exceptional lifespan, I don't believe. The current Jadwiga are her granddaughters, I think.
Additionally my PCs were debating trying to search out some Jadwiga from a previous queen. Would any from a prior reign be alive? Or only decedents?
None are mentioned as surviving in Reign of Winter, I do not believe (canonically)there are any remaining from a previous reign.
Whitethrone has spellcasting level 9th. However with regards to raising dead I assume there will not be high level cleric willing to do it (given the main deities are all Evil).
Would the PCs have to go to a White Witch? Or an high level evil cleric (I can imagine that going down very well with Paladin PCs)
Whitethrone also has a considerable presence of rabble-rousers from the church of Milani present in it who are working to disrupt Elvanna's rule. If you want resurrection magic (non-evil) to be available to your PCs this is a good avenue. However, it may still bother the paladin as they are working against the lawful rulership of Irrisen (Queen Elvanna). Admittedly, she is also an evil tyrant, so there may be some room for compromise!
Does anyone have any tips on how a city with a neutral evil alignment would function. I am having difficulty getting my head around the concept of settlement alignments.
A neutral evil settlement would be functional but corrupt. Most everyone in the city is only looking out for their own interests. People in a position of authority propose laws and legislation that would benefit them, average citizens are selfish and unwilling to help others unless it can somehow help them.
However, this is the alignment as a whole and there are always exceptions to the norm.
Basically, Whitethrone is a frozen, insular city that does not accept outsiders and has a very "me first" attitude about it. The less fortunate are abandoned to fend for themselves, power is respected but only as much as necessary and everyone is looking out for themselves at the cost of others.
Tangent - where is Pharasma mentioned? What resource. Or are you basing this on the cleric in waldsby.
Robert - isn't the NPC is shackled hut mentioned as leader of resistance (and a level 6 cleric). Or have I missed something?
My paladins seem to be focusing more on the evil side of the regime than accepting that they are the lawful rulers. One has even claimed that because they are working for Baba Yaga against Elvanna they are justified to act against the regime. Not sure how I should deal with this.
In general, Irrisen and Whitethrone seem designed to engender both sympathy and rage from the PC's as a cruel, unforgiving environment where conditions are both harsh and often necessary. But short of rallying multiple forces from other nations, they are all but helpless to do anything that would enact permanent or large-scale change.
One of my players hopes to reclaim a border province and reinstate it into the Linnorm King lands. She hopes Baba will be generous after her rescue, but otherwise plans to become a Linnorm King so she can act on such ambitions.
If I'm getting the the way they feel about the 'regime,' you might play up the Heralds and their willingness to take more decisive and impactful actions now that the PC's are lending aid. Their role in the Iron Guard rebellion could be a more involved one, with plans to follow up on that.
One of my plot hooks involved the Heralds' alchemists creating a counterfeit soul focus stone that would explode some time after one tried to bind a soul to it. Sneaking these into Porcelain Street would cripple the contemptible industry of making soulbound dolls. The practices of the Bone Mill would also be pretty likely to draw a Paladin's ire.
I also introduced a rebel Jadwiga NPC in book 1. There are some 'black sheep' Jadwiga who for one reason or another may disagree with the way things are run. Mainly, either harboring deeper feelings towards standard humans or in my case remaining loyal to Baba Yaga and hoping to avoid the fallout of Elvanna's schemes by going rogue.
Of course, anything they do to change things for the better may be temporary at best, as when the Witch Queen returns she will still take liberties to restore things to the way she sees fit.
Letting them leave in the Hut with the idea that they have helped to spark a revolution is probably a good way to ease them out of Whitethrone. If they become persistent, you may need to allow them to try things their way, perhaps as an exercise to help drill in the futility of Irrisen's situation as it stands. The White Witches are plentiful and powerful, and they live on the backs of the slave class. Uprooting them will come at the significant cost of innocent lives.
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I'm baffled that paladins are having issues with opposing Queen Elvanna.
Sure, she's the ruler of a nation, but so's the freaking Gorilla King. The only reason she isn't technically a criminal is because in Irrisen she gets to write the laws. Terrible, terrible laws.
While paladins must respect legitimate authority, they're under no obligation to respect tyrants who use their power to harm and abuse their subjects.
A paladin who finds out about Childthief Island (which is a dedicated market for selling abducted children to evil fey) and says "since the Queen Elvanna approves of it, it must be okay" is doing it wrong.
Now, if the PCs have the Hut but are still chilling in Whitethrone, raising the specter of Princess Cassisoche (witch 8/winter witch 10), perhaps by having her destroy an entire contingent of rebels with a wave of her hand, should be more than enough to convince the PCs to that they need to GO, and go quickly.
The reigning winter witches are powerful enough that the Whitethrone rebellion that starts at the end of book 2 is doomed. Horribly, horribly doomed. The PCs going forth and rescuing Dear Grandmother (and in the process, finally becoming strong enough to fight the reigning witches) is the only hope the rebellion has.
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Now, if the PCs have the Hut but are still chilling in Whitethrone,
Cute.
The reigning winter witches are powerful enough that the Whitethrone rebellion that starts at the end of book 2 is doomed. Horribly, horribly doomed. The PCs going forth and rescuing Dear Grandmother (and in the process, finally becoming strong enough to fight the reigning witches) is the only hope the rebellion has.
The way I read The Shackled Hut, I'm pretty sure Solveig and the Heralds know this. That's why she's pushing the Iron Guard remnants to attempt a putsch instead of risking the Heralds. Even if some Heralds are caught up in the enthusiasm, the organization will survive while the legitimists of the Iron Guard destroy themselves. When the PCs succeed, she imagines, Irrisen will be purged of the disloyal as well, and a new queen will take the throne. That will leave Irrisen divided, with the old ruling caste decapitated but - and this is the crucial difference from previous regime changes - nowhere for the new Queen to draw support from. That's not much of an opportunity, but it is an opportunity.
Of course, how the PCs choose to handle things in The Witch Queen's revenge will impact the viability of this plan. Baba Yaga may not crown anyone, and she may not remove Elvanna's daughters either...but then again she might not intervene in a PC-backed revolt if that's the case.
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Others have done a good job of addressing your other questions, but I wanted to speak specifically to the lifespan of Jadwiga. Jadwiga are a human ethnicity, the same way Varisians or Chelaxians or Keleshites are. A normal Jadwiga is a standard human in every way, including lifespan. Certain powerful Jadwiga, such as Elvanna, have extended their lifespans magically, but this does not change the normal Jadwiga/human lifespan.
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As Queen Elvanna has been ruler for 100 years (and I am assuming was at least 15 or so when she came to power). This is well over usual lifespanI would say she must be at least 150 years old, as her adult children replaced the duchesses and countesses of Irissen's towns when she became queen.
Her mother is an immortal witch though and a ruler of a realm in the First World, so some of that magical longevity is probably passed on to her children and grandchildren. They are certainly not normal humans.