Lithos: City of Shared Reverie

Posted by admin on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Lithos City by Rob Torno

Written by Matthew Cicci
Edited by Kirk Duplessis
Illustrated by Rob Torno

Introduction

The elven settlement of Lithos has always valued peace and solitude, but few can stem time’s flow. Led by House Lithos, the settlement has engaged actively with neighbors while attempting to maintain elven traditions. Successes in trade, cooperative ventures and mutual defense actions have built the trust of the populace in House Lithos, so few objected to the plan for all residents to submit to a shared dreaming state known as Reverie.

Background

At times it seems like Lithos (and its ruling house) has stood forever, with elegant structures supported by trees older than some human civilizations. Over time Lithos has grown from an Elven hamlet into the sprawling woodland village it is today. The community’s founder, Turels Lithos, was an elven hunter who sought to escape the intrigues of urban life. Turels, aided by a handful of druids, turned a cedar grove and a small stream into a haven for like-minded elves.

Lithos grew quickly, attracting those seeking to reconnect with nature. When Turels died, his daughter Miselle took over, cementing the Lithos bloodline as the area’s ruling family. House Lithos has provided centuries of wise, popular rulers that have taken Turels’ lessons to heart; they have sought to remain largely aloof of the world’s concerns. The succeeded, for a while, but it came to pass…

Two-hundred and eleven years ago, the elven city of Helre found itself besieged by a militant order of a human church. Helre resisted, but the city’s leaders recognized the siege could not be lifted without outside help.

Messengers were snuck out of the city to organize a counterattack with the help of the surrounding Elven communities, including Lithos. Though they expected little from the reclusive community, they were disappointed when they were sent from Lithos empty-handed.

The ruler at the time, a very young Rykos Lithos, had been convinced by his Council that the best course of action was non-interference, with the hope this policy would keep Lithos free from political entanglements and the ravages of war. That night, they begged forgiveness of their gods for abandoning their kin to the humans, but remained adamant that it was the right thing to do.

When the Council members woke from reverie the following morning, they saw that some of the younger citizens disagreed. Dozens of young elves stood in the town’s center park, urging others to join and condemning the cowardice of House Lithos. The rabble-rousers were removed but the damage was done. People began to question their secluded lifestyle and withdrawal from the world at large.

Hoping to stem the tide, Rykos reached out to friendly neighboring settlements and opened the community to visitors, but it was too late; a previously unknown hunger for contact with the outside world began to eat at the community. In the wake of Helre’s fall, this spawned talk of how far behind Lithos had fallen, and that it might be time for the elves to actively adapt to the modern world.

In searching for solutions that might hold his community together, Rykos eventually hit upon the idea of a town-wide shared reverie. The reverie, an art long practiced by the community’s religious leaders, known as the Court of Seasons, allowed participants to share dreams, visions and the bonds of friendship. Rykos had little trouble convincing the traditionalist clerics to include all members of the settlement in their ritual; the Court was predisposed to agree that the crumbling of traditional community values could be reversed through the shared experience of the reverie.

The shared reverie was a spectacular success by any measure, due entirely to the Court’s centralized control of the process. Under the Court’s guidance, every elf in the settlement was inundated with an overwhelming sense of the importance of elven culture on a daily basis. Within a few years, the community had once again turned inward, rejecting the outside world.

In has been two hundred years since the beginning of the Reverie and Lithos has become a paragon of elven culture; natural and elf-made wonders abound within it’s borders. Credited with this unmitigated success, Rykos has begun to wonder if he might bring other elven communities under the sway of the Reverie.

Appearance

Lithos is not large enough to possess wards or districts within its boundaries. Instead of possessing different sections of its town, Lithos instead can be identified by its remarkable unity. Buildings made from living wood, elegant wooden and glass structures dominate the boughs of giant trees, the winds carry the soft strings of elven music being played in home and open room alike, and a general sense of natural wonderment fills the town.

House Lithos: This large glass structure rests upon the strong, auburn arms of three cedar trees. It is built almost like a cathedral, with a large stained glass windows offering both a measure of privacy and aesthetic. The most remarkable feature of the House is the Library of Lithos that dominates the eastern bough. This building is expansive and sharply decorated, and within its four wings rests a very thorough and exhaustive amount of literature running the gamut of elven thought from magic to animal husbandry.

Court of Seasons: This wooden structure is topped with a clear-glass dome and rests at the top of the highest tree in Lithos. It serves many functions in the community: a place of religious counsel, an infirmary, a school for general education, and of course as a home to the priests. Its most important function is, of course, acting as the center of the shared reverie.

Visha Arcanery: The Visha Arcanery is a school for the most gifted young minds in Lithos. This school of magic and combat, established shortly after the shared reverie, is dedicated to training elite squadrons of warriors, known as Visha, in the art of arcane swordplay. The Visha serve as bodyguards to House Lithos as well as emissaries and diplomats to places abroad. The training to become a Visha is intense, and occupies the life of a young elf for upwards of twenty-five years.

Using Lithos

Lithos should prove very portable to any number of fantasy RPG campaigns. The community operates very well as a secluded, or lost, village that the players stumble upon. In this guise the town his notably odd (everyone agrees with each other, very little talking, people excited for night so they can enter reverie, etc.), and is likely to prick the imagination and suspicion of many players. Lithos used in this vein also offers a bit of a horror aspect, as the players may feel like they’ve stumbled into a setting where the community actively knows things they are not sharing.

Lithos also makes a great setting piece for sessions of an RPG that are more roleplay intensive. The elves of Lithos are not actively violent, and instead of fighting their way to an answer, players may have to piece together clues and conversations to get to the bottom of Lithos’s odd aura.

Adventure Hooks

Some possible adventure hooks set in Lithos could include:

A Court of Seasons priest has come to the realization that Immeril, Rykos’s son, is and has been outside the affects of the shared reverie for some time. This priest however lacks the courage to confront the king, and may approach the players to ‘journal’ how Immeril acts.
The Furum entities that meddle with Immeril’s life are actively aware of Lithos’s secret. They demand he kill the king so they can assume control of Lithos and the shared reverie. The players could come into play as agents of a Immeril who demands they kill the king for his brainwashing techniques, or they could come to the king’s defense as agents of the Court of Seasons who assume Furum interference with Immeril.
The relatives of an elven player may have last been seen in Lithos. However, upon being found they seem to want nothing to do with their child aside from wishing that the elven player would stay with them. The player may find himself under assault from the coercive reverie, and from the Visha if he openly resists it.

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