Psionics for Shayakand
Edited by Jonathan Jacobs
Shayakand is an upcoming Nevermet Press campaign setting that draws inspiration from the Vedic Age of India, the Funan and Chenla empires of southeast Asia, and the Meiji Period of Japan. The goal of the Shayakand project is to develop a setting for the Pathfinder RPG. When thinking about how magic works in light of the Pathfinder ruleset, one idea keeps asking to be addressed.
What about yogis?
Traditionally, yogis possess mystical abilities. The most notable of these include the ability to levitate and the ability to disappear. When thinking about these abilities for a type of Vedic spell caster, neither magic nor channeled energy from a deity fit very well. In other words, it’s not that a yogi eschews materials to cast a spells – the ability is more effortless than that. Then again, although a yogi draws from spiritual inspiration, enlightenment comes more from oneness with the universe rather than the will of a deity. At this point, the best fit in terms of game mechanics appears to be psionic ability.
To put it another way: In a typical stock fantasy setting (i.e D&D), clerics use divine power that comes from outside the physical world. Their power comes from a deity residing somewhere in the Outer Planes who sends it to each cleric directly. Wizards and Sorcerers use power drawn directly from the physical world. This could be nature, ley lines, even the Positive/Negative Energy planes. Psionics, on the other hand, draw power from an inner world. The power comes from the mind reaching out and manipulating the universe.
Aside from the metaphysics of it, an issue occurs when dealing with psionics in the Pathfinder system. Should a GM just bring over the d20 rules? Is it worth the time to work up a different kind of skill and feat system? Maybe the answer is something altogether different.
To start the discussion – here’s one sketch of an idea and some of my own background thoughts. Descartes explained that psionics come from the soul, through the pineal gland into the higher brain and then out of the body to affect the physical universe. As such, psionics have an outside power source and a biological function. In some forms of yoga, the Kecharimudra attunes a person’s spiritual enlightenment by pushing towards the pineal gland. Not only would this speak to a physical reason for psionic powers, but provide a means to channel energy from that power source.
In thinking about actual statistics and class features, psionicists share certain aspects of the other three spell casting classes.
- A psionicist could use something like the Channel Energy ability and the associated feats, but targets are not determined by alignment. The Selective Channeling feat would almost seem like an automatic feat for a psion.
- Borrowing from d20, psionicists could use something akin to the Wizards’ Arcane School ability. In this case, the ‘schools’ could be Mental Disciplines. The Disciplines would include Clairsentience, Metacreativity, Psychokinesis, Psychometabolism, Psychoportation and Telepathy.
- Thinking about the biology of psionics, there could be a genetic reason for this kind of power. In that way, a psionicists could have bloodline powers like Sorcerers.
Assuming that Psicrystals and Psionic item creation feats are gone, would some amalgam like this work at all? Does a psioncist need to have psicrystals?
What do you think? How would you handle psionics? In a broader sense, do you think psionics are necessary to convey the flavor of certain mystics?
Devdanchar – A Shayakand Villain
Edited by Jonathan Jacobs
Ethos
When creating Shayakand, a lot of thought went into how different the humans and other humanoid races are from traditionally European-based fantasy settings. Amongst those differences is a concept called Purusartha. According to Purusartha, the four essentials in life are:
- Kama – desire and sensual pleasure
- Artha – wealth and glory
- Dharma – doing the right thing
- Moksha – liberation from the cycle of reincarnation.
Note: Doing the right thingis a loaded phrase that will be explained in another post. For now, keep in mind that dharma in Shayakand is not exactly the same as dharma in Hinduism. The most notable difference is the lack of the non-violence principle traditionally found in Hinduism.
The average Shayakandi sees the first two principles as practical ways of life, essentially: make money and be happy. The last two are guidelines that govern how the practical ways of life are expressed. Doing the right thing clears the mind to receive divine knowledge. Receiving enough divine knowledge allows a person to be attuned to the divine and thus escape the cycle of reincarnation. As a result, many of the excesses that can come from pursuing money, power, and pleasure are tempered with the knowledge that there is a severe consequence for a person’s actions.
For a human to be a villain, they essentially have to believe that whatever they are doing will be worth the punishment they receive in the next life. A young human might make an effective villain for some time, but as he or she ages, thoughts will inevitably turn to the next life. In other words, human bad guys will not make good villains for a long-term campaign.
However, if a creature is already free from the cycle of reincarnation, there is no check against the potential excesses of Kama and Artha. It is for this reason that many of the ‘bad guys’ in Shayakand are believed to be demons or spirits. Even the humanoid gnolls, ogres and oni are believed to be evil spirits in a fleshy shell.
Enter our villain, a rakshasa named Devdanchar. In Pathfinder terms, he is an native outsider. What places him in Shayakand is the description of a rakshasa found in it’s ecology:
They embody what is taboo among most societies, and in the shape of those it seeks to defile, a rakshasa gorges itself on these hideous acts. Were they human, these acts of cannibalism, blasphemy, and worse would mark them as criminals condemned to the cruelest of hells.
In other words, rakshasa are the sickest and most depraved creatures in a given society. Give a creature like this immense power and wealth and you have the seeds for an arch villain.
Here’s a sketch so of Devdanchar. Some details are missing, but I hope that enough is provided to give you some ideas. Tommorrow you’ll get a chance to see some artwork on Devdanchar from Rob Torno.
Villain Sketch
Devdanchar is the name of one of the most powerful landowners in the entire Shayakand region. From his seat of power in Shayakand’s largest city, Ravandre, he controls the destinies of thousands . He owns dozens of mercantile businesses spanning almost every city, town, and watering hole in the area. With a word, he can control nearly any good or service coming in or leaving Shayakand.
For example, in Ravendre there was no rice for sale in the city for over a month. Hundreds starved while the city bureaucracy was unable to do anything to help its citizens. As great as the tragedy was inside the city, the greater tragedy occurred with the destruction of fifty merchant ships and the slaughter of hundreds of farmers. His reasons? Devdanchar’s motives were to have a show of force in reaction to a protest over a docking fee for one of his merchant vessels.
Despite his great power, Devdanchar is consumed with foul passions, the greatest of which is his desire to kill. He indulges his bloodlust monthly in his own personal gladiatorial arena. Fighting with only his trusted kukri, he reigns as the undefeated champion. He has fought lions, gnolls, ogres and all manner of creatures whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Occasionally, he will place some foul demon in the pits and systematically torture it to death to the howling cheers of the mob. All matches end in death, but death rarely comes quickly.
His human appearance hides a darker secret. In reality, Devdanchar is half Rakshasa demon, half shape-shifter. In his true form, he has the head of a tiger and the body of a powerful man. Envious of his father, the King of all Rakshasas, he builds wealth and armies to prove his worth as an heir to the throne. Unfortunately for Devdanchar, he is an illegitimate child and has no claim to the throne. His father is King, but his mother is not the queen. She was not even a rakshasa, but a doppleganger. She was indulging a desire to affect Rakshasa society and its most powerful member, the King. The King became aware of her existence and impregnated her as a lesson to her. Abandoned by his mother at birth, Devdanchar was ‘adopted’ by the royal court and raised as a servant of the royal household.
Rejected by rakshasas as a half-breed, Devdanchar has a particular fondness for destroying full-blooded rakshasas. His hatred of them runs deep. He has often travelled to the plane of his birth to systematically eliminate his half-brothers and half-sisters.
From his rakshasa father, Devdanchar embodies what is taboo. He gorges himself in hideous acts of murder, plunder, gluttony, avarice and wrath. From his doppleganger mother, Devdanchar has gained the ability to change shape and assume the likes and mannerisms of others.
Yet, Devdanchar is a paradox. He can often be found in scholarly pursuits. His libraries have no equal in terms of depth and breadth of knowledge. He has achieved, by Shayakandi standards, the necessary knowledge and skills to be a well-educated man. He strives to use the power of his mind to control his carnal nature. Always the manipulator, he has found ways to manipulate the world around him with his mind. In addition to being able to detect the thoughts of others, he can detect others with the power to shape the world around them with their thoughts.
When wrestling with his desires, he has been seen alternately assuming the shape of his father and mother in an argument with each other.
Questions
- Is such attention to the ethos of Shayakand worthwhile? Does it help to inform role-playing opportunities in a non-European based setting?
- What do you think dharma, or doing the right thingin a Vedic inspired setting should look like? What do you think would be taboo?
- Would providing more Shayakandi references in the villain’s description confuse or help?
For example, Devdanchar is known as a bashawithin his home city. A basha is a rich landowner as stated in his description, but the term also denotes something of a feudal lord, social superior and surrogate parent.
- Would providing separate encounter hooks for Shayakand natives and those born outside of Shayakand (elves for instance) be helpful?
As always, I look forward to any and all ideas and thoughts.
Devdanchar Art
click each image for a high resolution version
In the Time Before Time, in the Great Darkness (a couple of months ago, online) the Creator (John Payne) brought forth a world called Shayakand. It is a land shrouded in mystery. One inhabited by a great evil known as Devdanchar. As one of the content developers and artists here at Nevermet Press, I was asked to form a likeness of this evil (I get to make pictures!). A form was selected from the many that the Darkness birthed (the pencil version of a thumbnail sketch) and was given shape (the shaded image) and then life was breathed into it (the pixels were pushed around until it looked better).The Almighty Founders (Jonathan and Michael) spoke and proclaimed that this image should be made known to the world (they said to post it on the site). It is so.
I hope you like it. Check out the link to Devdanchar’s concept and backstory and compare to the image above. There’s an important detail missing – can you spot what it is? What explanation could be given for its absence in light of the backstory? (see the secrete upside down answer below)
Let us know what you think by posting comments (even nasty ones), but know that the Mighty Founders see all (and they’ll probably delete the nasty).
Design Philosophy Phase Zero
Edited by Jonathan Jacobs
Introductions and Building a City in Miniature
Hello O’Readers of Nevermet Press! The name’s Steven Schutt, and I have a few things up on the site already, two villains, a pseudo good undead cult leader and other things you may or may not have enjoyed. Regardless, I’m here to stay, and I hope that as my writing evolves so will your enjoyment of my work, and even more the work of the other great authors here at Nevermet. This first blog deals with my own ideas about building a city of adventure, not adventurers. As part of the Shayakand campaign setting spearheaded by John Payne, the City of Spires is the ruined city reclaimed by the vilest beings known to the Shayakand universe, all seeking a singular object of unimaginable power. Below are my musings and general design decisions that accompany the creation of this city in miniature.
Compression
The first thing I had to remember when I went about designing a city is that it isn’t a place I had the time, space or ability to expand it into a fully described and living place. I had to take all the ideas in my head about this city, teaming with hundreds of horrid monsters from across the mulitverse and spread them around in what was once the greatest city of an empire. Further, I could not describe every district in detail, or at least the detail that I myself want. Each of them has to have its own allotted space, but when I get down to the four main areas of interest, each has to have a relatively equal weight with the other three. Therefore, there is quite a bit that I had to cut. For example, when I talk about the aboleth lair, for aboleths are probably my favorite evil masterminds, I can’t describe the vast swathes of enslaved servitors used as fuel to maintain the sphere of water the aboleths use as a home. I can certainly mention them, as I did here, and I can give five or ten words about how they got there, but the complexes in which they are held remain outside of my ability to describe.
Instead, when I have to compress what could easily be 30,000-50,000 words into roughly 4,000-5,000, I will describe in general the locations and what they look like. It is the actions of those living in the various districts (or beneath them), their plots and their manipulations that interest me more. More than this, I want to focus on key individuals in each locale of influence. To that end, each main area has a few controlling leaders that maintain relative order in those under them. The actions of these few are effectively the actions of the many in the city.
Uniqueness with Unity
One of the things I want to create with the City of Spires is a sense of unity while still allowing each part of the city to be unique in its own way. The aboleth caves should, in some way, relate to the other, less alien yet equally evil palace district, and thence to the noble’s quarter and the spice (magic) district. Each should somehow connect to the other, perhaps in the form of similar spying techniques, double crosses, deals made, assassins dealt with, information traded and collected in like fashion.
To maintain a sense of uniqueness, though, each major controlled district has something strange that gives its rulers a leg up on their competition. For the aboleth, it is their mastery of the mind and incomparable knowledge of the cave systems beneath the city. For another group it is a strange connection to the psychic remnants of the dead and fled of the old empire.
Of course, there must be some sort of counterbalance for any advantage, but for the City of Spires, I thought that instead of having several different disadvantages, there should be one universal agent that acts against all the groups. That leads to:
Wild Cards
While there is only one well-known, if not well understood, wild card in the City of Spires, there may be more. I think that inter-faction conflict is a great way to keep any one group from reaching the ultimate goal; it should never be the only one. For this project, I thought that, since the city is filled with evil, something not evil should be the universal thorn in the side. This something is not good either, because that is cliché. This something, which you’ll discover when the City of Spires hits the Nevermet Press site, is almost without definition and unique in it own way. It accomplishes the unity, adding its own special touch to the entire setting.
Driving Goal
Of course, four different groups from across space and planes would not converge on a single city without a very good reason. To that end, I decided something nigh-world breaking was in order. The only problem with those kind of things is that they tend to grate on the nerves of some, because as soon as anyone gains the power to change the world in a big way, things get hairy real quick. To keep things simple, at least for a long time coming, I made this end goal something out of reach of everyone of any importance within the city walls. Further, the wild card has its own reasons for keeping this giant power source out of the hands of those controlling the city.
Bringing in the Party
At the end of the piece, there is a fairly sizable chunk of information on how GMs can bring in their own parties adventuring in Shayakand, from low to high level and on both sides of the morality coin. While the city certainly caters easily to the high levels in a world-shattering campaign end exploration, there are still parts of the place virtually untouched by its current occupants for the sheer sake of lack of interest of nothing of “any real value towards the cause.” What this entails will ultimately be up to the GM and his party’s wishes, but several prominent areas make their presence known.
And that, as they say, is that.
Steven Schutt, Nevermet Press Content Developer
Cosmology of Shayakand
One of the inspirations for Shayakand provides a very different cosmology. The source for this alien cosmology is not Vedic, Funan, or Asian at all. It comes from a Greek philosopher and astronomer named Anaxagoras. The changes appear subtle at first, but the effects can be quite dramatic. Before discussing Anaxagoras, let’s take a look at traditional rpg cosmologies.
Many fantasy settings are set in a world that is roughly based on Aristotle’s ideas. There are four fundamental elements, fire, earth, air and water. The fifth element, aether, exists as the building block of the stars and the heavens. These ideas express themselves in-game worlds with elemental planes of existence for each of the four fundamental elements. Based on the existence of these elemental planes, all kinds of creatures, civilizations and a myriad of other items enter the game world. Pathfinder has their own product that describes the Inner and Outer Planes that uses these concepts.
Now, imagine a place where no one believes in the elemental planes of existence. In other words, there is no plane of fire/water/air/earth, or elemental chaos. What would the world look like without these staples?
The implications may not be obvious at first. The most obvious change would be the lack of elementals. However, it goes deeper than that. If there are no elementals, then the traditional power source for golems and other constructs is not available. That’s just two of the many effects. What other effects do you see in a fantasy setting based on a lack of elemental planes? Feel free to provide thoughts in the comments.
One other consideration is this: If there are no elemental planes, what takes their place in the universe? To address this, let’s look at Anaxagoras‘ specific ideas. These ideas are in summary form, so some of his conclusions may not appear obvious at first.
He held that everything but the mind is infinitely divisible and that even the smallest portion of matter contains some amount of every element. Element in this case is an idea, not a real thing. Anaxagora believed there was no such thing as a pure element. Nothing was pure gold, pure water, pure fire, pure metal, etc. So when he talks about an element, he is usually talking about some aspect of an object.
For example, he said that snow contains the opposites of black and white and is called white only because white predominates in it. The composition of snow goes beyond white and black; snow also contains hot and cold, water and earth, and other things. In a sense, snow contains the whole of reality, each snowflake containing a specific share of all other things. The differences in form result from different portions of the elements. The variety of substances and forms we perceive is thus explained by the complexity of seemingly endless numbers of possible combinations
What this means in practical game terms is that since there is no such thing as pure fire, pure water, etc, no elemental planes can exist. Someone could object and say that there are planes that are predominantly fire, predominantly water and so on. However, the ethereal plane is also gone because there is no pure ether. There is no vast ethereal plane that holds countless numbers of demi-planes.
What exists instead is addressed by looking at the mind. Anaxagoras held that the universe was created when the mind gave shape to the vast mixture of matter that exists at the beginning. The mind is the only pure element, it is not a mixture of anything. The mind can shape matter into anything, but cannot separate one element from another.
All of that is a bit heady, so let’s put it in simple game terms.
The gods gave shape to the universe. The gods appear to be limited only in the fact that they cannot create a pure element. In order for some plane to exist that is predominantly fire, predominantly water, etc is that a god or other great mind must want to shape a plane in that way. In essence, the only thing outside the material plane is what used to be called the Outer Planes.
So then the question may be asked, “what happens to elementals when they travel to Shayakand?” That’s a question I have ideas for, but I’d be really interested in hearing what others have to say.
One last thing – for those that are Greek philosophy scholars, I’m aware that there are some misstatements and inaccuracies in how I presented Anaxagoras’ ideas. I welcome any advice in clarifying his ideas to further pursue these ideas.
City of Spires
Edited by Cassey Toi
The begining Treasures once filled even the beggar’s satchels, the towers of the least nobles reaching heights of a hundred feet or more, a red light district like none the world had ever seen, dens of vice filled with all sorts of vile and decadent pleasures, temples to gods long forgotten gilded in diamond plucked from trees of platinum, all this and more could be found in the City of Spires in central Shayakand. When the empire fell, and the endless hordes of raiders, pirates and poverty stricken from without the city came to the splendors, the saw for themselves an opportunity. Riches beyond imagining lay before them, and history thousands of years in the making lay at their fingertips. The rarest artifacts fell first. The royal seals, the genie king bottles, the diamond seeds of the platinum trees. In a matter of months the City of Spires was stripped bare, from its most secure vaults to its last drops of crystal clear water, everything disappeared, some ending up on the other side of the planet or on other planes entirely. For two hundred years, the Spires have stood, slowly crumbling beneath the weight of age.
However, one thing remains in the city, and draws power to it still. Unknown to even the most thorough of the looters, and even the last emperor himself, was that the gods always watched over the City of Spires. The instant it fell, an avatar of five gods manifested in the catacombs beneath the royal palace. They waited out the ransacking of the city and then walked its ruined streets, lay in its torn beds and searched the vaults for something to remember the glory by. Four gods found something that only they could connect to, took it into themselves, and departed back to the heavens. The fifth, who was not a full god merely a demideity, had no ability to create avatars, and so was there in all his power. When he found something to take with him, something from deep within the earth, the very essence of the city and the planet, struck out at him. It was as though the corruption wrought in those months finally found an outlet in this young god. Wracked with divine, horrid agony, this unfortunate entity fell into a state of eternal torpor, a gaping hole in his chest that oozed strange, indescribable liquid.
For two hundred years this god, caught between life and death, called the mad, cruel and sick to the City of Spires. Only the most depraved and twisted can hear the call, and so some of the first to come were rakshasas, aboleths and powerful demons, devils and aberrations without name. With the god’s body entombed behind walls of enchanted, indestructible adamantine doors, the new denizens of the City of Spires have found their own ways to harness the powers of the corruption of the land, city and god. Their efforts drew many, lesser evils to the ruins, and now a ecosystem exists, hidden from the outside world by the machinations of those in control. Until one of the denizens finds a way to the god, none plan to make a move. Of course, it’s just a matter of when.
Chattel District
The largest and dirtiest district of the City, made up of what was once the market, residential and beggar districts, the area is home to the various lesser aberrations, demons and devils that swear fealty, are slave to, or are bound to, the powerful leaders of the four factions. From chokers and assassin vines, bearded devils and dretches, lemures and quasits, imps and doppelgangers, the inhabitants live in squalor, the streets and buildings covered in two inch thick slime from the years of waste and torture and murder. The actual living quarters of the city vary in look and furnishing, catering to the various temperaments and desires of those residing in them.
For the devils, almost all of the various houses, shacks and lean-tos have their walls covered in paper, shackles and various implements of torture. Of the aboleths, their servitors in the pit of the Chattel District do not walk its streets or crawl beneath them. Instead, their servants are, in fact, their larvae, maturing slowly on the waste, blood and entrails of outsiders, other aberrations and the lingering despair of the lost people of the city.
The demons, on the other hand, have no real reason to make anything of their homes, and so fill them with whatever they wish. Among the demons and unknown to them is the shadow demon called Xirix. A being of extreme conflictions; his body is made of pure darkness but, contains a single mote of the first star to light the sky above Shayakand, Xirix serves the will of both the Abyss and Heaven at the same time. Thoroughly insane, Xirix currently works to subtly and constantly shift the balance of power from one faction to another, keeping the entire city in a state of constant chaos, but safeguarding the god’s corpse from desecration and exploitation. The only beings who know of its existence are the aboleth masters, but even with their supreme intellect, they can neither predict nor impede Xirix’s movements, and this fact infuriates them to no end.
Lastly, the rakshasa pashas, who reside in the spires of the royal palace where the Emperor lived his last days, hear reports from the various aberrations that infest the sewer system and the dark streets not even the demons or devils enter. These hordes chafe at their pride, however, and so the pashas count the whispers of the wickedest members of the former city populace as their allies. Not ghosts in any sense of the word, the whispers are more impressions, emotional runoff and secret wishes left behind not by death, but by the empire’s fall itself. Tapping into these reservoirs of strange energy through a means provided by their allies in the unknown planes, the rakshasa understand the city and its energy better than any save perhaps the whispers themselves. Because of this, they are the closest to finding the god’s corpse, yet progress has slowed. Something stands in their way, a thing of light and shadow, the very same being that stymies the aboleth and pits the demons and devils against not only each other but the rest of the city. Xirix does its work well.
Center of Conflict
Perhaps the most dangerous place in all of Shayakand, it is in this once glorious courtyard of the Grand Palace, that the open battles for territory, power, status, magic and souls take place. Demon blood, devil’s bile, the nameless fluids of the aberration all co-mingle here and are funneled, via the city’s complex sewer system as modified by the aboleth, into the Chattel District. For twenty years, the fighting has continued at all hours. The entire area is deemed the only place where fighting can occur by all of the major factions. In a rare show of co-operation, the nalfeshnee and ice devil lords agreed to forbid conflict anywhere else in the city. The rakshasas were not at all fond of the idea, but with fewer numbers and plots both groups could easily undo with force, they acquiesced and quietly await the day they find the corpse.
For the aboleth’s part, the whole mess is merely a tool for the advancement of their children’s growth. They have noticed, however, that the force hampering their progress does not deign to enter the Center, or the area within a thousand feet of it. Therefore, they are slowly shifting the centers of their plans to that area. To that end, several double agents among the ranks of the demons and devils that oversee the ongoing battle work for the aboleth and their own faction. On the demon side, several crystals of Abyssal ice are placed at key points in the courtyard, collecting energy the demons do not understand and the aboleth wish to keep secret. The devils draft contracts in concentrated aboleth blood and circulate them throughout the ranks of devils that both live in the area and have stakes in the fighting.
The rakshasas look down from their spires in the palace in disgust at the constant bloodshed while sipping cups of finely distilled Sanguine Ecstacy. They have knowledge of the double agents and know the general location of roughly one third of the strange crystals. They have copies of several dozen aboleth blooded contracts which they’ve tried, unsuccessfully so far, to decode and exploit. They too have noticed Xirix’s, for they know its name, lack of motion in this place. While they find it curious, their plans take place on a much subtler, more subterranean scale. The catacombs beneath the city swarm with the whispers, and as the rakshasas learn more of the deep vaults, the closer they come to their, goal.
Xirix is, of course, not inactive in the Center. Far from it. This is perhaps its favorite place to “play” as it calls it. It was Xirix who provided the rakshasa with their intel, not the whispers, though it would thank that strange phenomenon if it could or felt a need to. Traversing the line between law and chaos and blending in “more than perfectly,” as the aboleth would call it if they knew, Xirix gathers little trinkets from each of the factions and scatters them around the entirety of the Old Empire, from one side of the peninsula to the other. More importantly, Xirix has, hidden and locked away the collected knowledge, or the majority of it, of every faction combined. If any of the warring parties found Xirix and somehow extracted that information, that group would find the god within months, rather than decades. Flitting between loyalties, moralities and motivations by the day, sometimes the hour, Xirix remains, and shall remain, at large for a long while yet.
Hell’s Bastion
Dominated by a river of molten steel tempered with the blood of the damned, what was once administrative district now resesmbles nothing of the kind. The gates of the noble’s quarter, masked by impossible illusion, show Asmodeus himself spewing forth the river of crimson slag. All around this horrid testament to the power and will of Hell dance the mindless hordes of lemures that feed on the infernal metal, growing slowly into whatever their Lord wishes of them.
Where the river ends, a spire of supercooled lead rises, transformed from mithril while retaining the toughness. At the peak of the spire the eyes of the gelugon master of Hell’s hordes gaze out over the city, directing the movements of its lieutenants through telepathy and carefully worded trigger phrases. A cleric of Hell itself rather than any of the archdukes, the ice devil wants for nothing in its chilly demense, but can feel the power of the god-corpse surging through the ground and into the metal. A crystal culled from the Mines of Mammon acts as an indirect connection to the divine energies emanated from the corpse, but can divulge neither the keys to its prison nor the exact location of the vault.
Infesting the tower and spilling onto the fields of tempered steel that were once homes of the wealthy merchants not quite rich enough to live in the noble’s quarter. Barabzus and erinyes patrol the ground and the sky. Hell’s archers collect the wrath that still hangs in the air around the failed nobles’ former homes. Hamatulas prowl the rifts in the earth carved by the reshaping of the spire, searching for and secreting away the hidden clues to and of the god-corpse.
However, perhaps the most important task the devils undertake as they take part in their dual role of power acquisition and divine energy collection is the simplest. They want to continue the expansion of a virtually undetectable sphere of infernal energy, to cover the entire city, and, should all go well, the whole of Shayakand. Unfortunately, every other faction besides the demons know about the sphere. The rakshasa, through the whispers, knew of it first. The aboleth know the most, but either do not understand the intention or care enough to do anything. If the demons know, it is only their nalfeshnee leader who has any idea what it may or may not portend. Regardless, they seem little concerned, and the eternal bloodbath that occurs in their part of the city continues unabated. Xirix haunts them in the shadows of the lead tower and the darkest corners of the ice devil’s living quarters, smiling inwardly as the infernal pawn struggles against a chain it can never break.
Chaos Uncontrolled
At the center of the sluice, which feeds and dilutes into the Chattel District, is a simple mound, several dozen feet high, made of bones, disappointing demon servants and whatever else she feels like: the throne of Izirales, nalfeshnee vassal to the Lord of the Unknown. She makes few decrees to her servants, talking instead to groups divided by general ability and power. To them is a single task, to be carried out in whatever way they feel fit. Izir, as she calls herself, is in perfect tune with the pure chaos of the demon and knows that despite what her underlings do, ultimately, serve her purposes. Her agreement with the ice devil (whose name she wishes he would say, only so that she could defame it), is a direct order from the Lord and it chafes at her pride with every second that passes. The strict limitations the devil set down were approved before she read them, and her only solace is her master’s portfolio: the unknown.
The slums and waste pits of the City were the least of its splendors, yet there were beautiful things here to. Sinkholes for sewage blocked by obsidian stoppers and material waste incinerated into a fine violet mist. Now, those places spew forth untold repulsiveness. The sewers serve up both failed aboleth experiments for the demons to feast on and the worst the city has to offer. The demons use it as “bathwater.” The material waste is now just that: “wasted” pieces of the material, plucked away by demons, toyed with and cast aside. It molders and stinks, bending the air around it just enough to be revolting.
Because the demons do as they “wish,” they do not seem to have any overarching goals to drive their activities. Izir knows otherwise, as she wants nothing more than to spread the indescribable chaos of the Abyss across the entire world and into the space beyond it. That she cannot accomplish this alone or with the help of “her” servants she doesn’t know, but the aboleth are keenly aware of it and the contract with the ice devil clearly states as such. Xirix still feels the faintest attachment to the demons and so dances with his shadow demon cousins until they just begin to see him. Then he vanishes, seemingly without having done anything.
Caverns of the Unknowable
When they named their current base of operations, the aboleth were unaware their future neighbors would a) be demons and b) be servants to the Lord of the Unknown. Despite this, their pride and innate knowledge of “we were here first” keeps them from changing the name of the cave system. Besides its name, no one has any good idea of what the inner workings of their home looks like. Ostensibly, it simply is a large cave system with a huge central chamber, wherein a gigantic sphere of water, opaque enough to be almost a solid mass surrounded by strange apparatus that modern scientific and magical knowledge cannot begin to fathom. Whether this is actually what the caves look like, or indeed if they are even caves, is unknown to the demons, devils and rakshasa equally. None of them have the means to decode the infinitely complex equations that make up whatever it is that is happening down beneath the city streets. Yet the aboleth have the ability to connect to each and every section of the city through the sewers, and, barring their own connection to the whispers, they have ways of gathering information from anywhere and everywhere within the walls of the City of Spires.
Most importantly of all, not even Xirix can penetrate their barriers. He doesn’t have to. They move just slow enough for him to do everything he needs to do.
Palace of Masters
If anywhere is fit for the rulers of a city to reside, it is in the Palace of Masters. Every creature that resides in the city, even without bowing to them, gives credit to the rakshasa clan of fifteen members, all female. Their fortress of pleasures and splendor encompasses the nobles quarter and the once ruined former royal palace. After they arrived, only a year and a half after the aboleth, the fifteen, each more powerful than an average pit fiend, balor or aboleth master, set to work expanding the palace walls to the walls of the nobles quarter, making the palace the size of an entire district. Once completed, they populated their home with a variety of creatures from strange planes between the larger spheres. Jungle worlds with octopus plants, ocean worlds of freezing steam and fiery worlds of constant stellar wind are but three of the exotic locales from which the palace inhabitants come. The wonders that make up the inside of the castle defy description, as they are as varied as the creatures that dwell within.
The tallest spire in the City of Spires is the seat of power for the rakshasa and also the housing for the strange material that allows them contact with the whispers and their connections among the spaces between. It is from here that they guide the aberrations that serve them towards two goals: the god-corpse and a secret that only the rakshasa could keep. The fifteen rule as an oligarchy and make no decisions as individuals. Should any of them do so, the agreement set down on their creation as rakshasa is null and void, and the entire group would cease to exist. This natural connection lets them hear the whispers as though one were hearing it, and so they have full command of the information at all times. To their chagrin, the whispers knows next to nothing about the god-corpse, and what information it gathers is spotty and inconsistent. The wards on the vault of Shayakand are strong.
Xirix has no dealings within the palace. It’s reasoning is that there is simply nothing there for it.
Adventures Amongst the Spires
For low level adventurers:
The abundance of low power monsters that inhabit the City and their predations in the surrounding lands could lead to rescue missions to the Chattel District, retrieval of an imp’s binding contract for a friend or important NPC, the slaughter of a dretch horde massing near one of the gates. Stealth missions are truly the order of the day here, as the creatures in control may not have time to check everything that comes into their territory. However, escaping the City of Spires is just as much an adventure, for any overt action will draw the attention of the powerful in the city. Outsiders are not tolerated and exiting will be a danger beyond anything before it.
For mid-level adventurers:
Things become much more active once characters reach mid level. They have a name for themselves, their entry, or, if they’ve done something really exemplary, proximity to the city is almost immediately noticed. However, few in the city would directly oppose them at first. Curiosity is more prevalent than open hostility. Missions into the city could be minor assassination, bartering, trading, even. There could be diplomatic missions if they are not with demons, or with demons if the characters are good enough. The PCs are still too weak for an all out assault on the city.
For high-level adventurers:
If they are so inclined, the PCs could, go on a quest to undermine the power structure of the entire city. They could raise an army to topple it. They could make “peace” among the leaders of the four factions or call a complete cease-fire. At the ultimate level, the PCs could delve into the vault of the god-corpse and do as they wished with it. The possibilities are endless.
Purvaga and Ghosting
Speaking of community driven content, the folks at tenletter built upon the ghosting idea published by Cassey and produced some crunchiness for use the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Considering that Shayakand is being developed with Pathfinder in mind, I hope to build upon their solid idea. One of the unique aspects under development in the Shayakand setting is psionics. When considering the ghosting ability, how would it interact, if at all, with psionics?
Looking specifically at Jerall’s post, I like the idea of the Thought Sense skill. I imagine this skill to be something akin to the Use Magic Device skill. The Thought Sense skill operates under the assumption that every individual has a unique mental signature. Like fingerprints, no two signatures are alike. (With Shayakand in mind, I would just like the throw out the notion that a person’s past lives would generate the same signature and their present and future lives.)
The other part of this skill operates like the Detect Psionics power. The main difference between the Thought Sense skill and the power is that continued use of the skill will yield no new information. All the individual with this skill can determine is conductor, ghost traveller, psionic, or none of the above.
In addition to Thought Step, Conducting, and Nightmare Step, there should either be a feat to link two individuals together so that the range of the ability can go beyond a few hundred feet, or a feat to imbue a physical item with this same link. Maybe both can happen.
Looking at trashcondor’s post, there are more feats that can be used by ghost travelers and conductors. Ghost Sense is a particularly compelling feat in that the conductor can do more than just facilitate travel. The conductor can provide sensory information to the ghost traveler.
I also like the Open Soul ability. I imagine that there are some individuals that a ghost traveler could use in a jam to get away. It’s kind of like the Nightmare Step feat, but this would not necessarily have to be evil.Just like a bloodline imbues a person with sorcerer abilities, a person’s genetic history makes them predisposed to conduct ghost travelers, although they may never know it.
Questions
Is the addition of a skill a hindrance? Could it be used by other races without the ability to ghost? Are there other feats that compliment this ability? Will humans, seeing this ability in action, attempt to create a spell that duplicates it effects? There are pros and cons when comparing this ability with teleportation, would the potential negatives be worth it?
Purvaga
Per Cassey’s article, these abilities should belong to a specific race. Originally, I was thinking about using a reptilian race in the vast southern swamps. However, that idea is too similar to one being developed in Loaerth & Feywyrd. Instead, here’s a homemade race called the Purvaga.
No elementals exist in Shayakand. What happens when an elemental is summoned to Shayakand? It appears, but at a very quick rate, it morphs into a new creature altogether. The rationale has to do with the inability of ‘pure’ elements to exist in Shayakand as detailed in the cosmology.
For instance; a fire elemental is summoned in Pal Avandi. Over the course of a minute, it is morphed into a very human looking creature. It will be sentient, but have no memory of where it is from or how it arrived. Internally their body of pure fire is losing its purity. All the other ‘elements’ of the universe are taking up residence and appearing at appropriate amounts consistent with everything else in Shayakand. At the end of the process, the elemental appears very human with some marking characteristic such as red hair, pointed ears, webbed hands or some other effect. A residual effect of being an outsider is an ability to ghost or conduct.
The major motivation for the members of this race is to quickly assimilate into the culture of Shayakand, yet there is always a tension making that assimilation difficult. The part of the mind that has some latent sense of being from somewhere else is looking for a way to reverse the effect. Sensing others of their kind, they are fiercely loyal to each other while remaining somewhat detached from every other race. I imagine they find it easier to get along with psionics, perhaps especially those that can teleport.
Questions
How would this tension play itself out culturally? Would they be mentally like children when the conversion is complete? Do they somehow get a sense of identity from the creature that summoned them to Shayakand? (something like stealing a small piece of their memories and linguistic ability). How much/how little would they assimilate into Shayakand culture?
This article contains content for Shayakand, Nevermet Press’ fantasy setting inspired by sources from southeast Asia. Feel free to comment here, write about it on your site, or contact the Lead Designer, John Payne, at sycarion [at] gmail {dot} com. Nevermet Press is all about community driven content, so don’t be shy!
Written by John Payne
Edited by Cassey Toi
Road to Daayata
Kuvaja began preparations to travel south. The journey would require two or three weeks, even though the road leads directly to Daayata. Kuvaja has originally planned to travel alone with one or two swordsman. The basha [1], however, is quite generous and provided sixty men for his protection. Kuvaja would never complain, not even in secret. However, preparations for all the soldiers and equipment take much longer than preparations for a handful of men.
Working diligently to prepare, yet still fulfilling his duties, the time finally arrived for the trip to Daayata. Kuvaja was eager reach the city and speak to Rohana. The mystic sees very few travellers outside his human disciples. Many seek an audience, but very few are granted one. He had so many questions for the priest that he feared he would embarrass himself and bring dishonor to his basha [2].
As the caravan made their way to the southern gate, the basha himself came to wish them a safe journey.
“You have served me well these many years,” he said. “It is only fitting that you make a pilgrimage to Daayata.”
The basha smiled broadly and presented Kuvaja with a sword.
“May the gods protect you my faithful servant.”
Kuvaja bowed and accepted the gift. The blade was inscribed with the ancient script bearing the message, the Destroyer of Gnolls [3].
**********
The first few days of travel were uneventful. Kuvaja’s rhino kept a brisk pace just ahead of the caravan. In the quiet of the countryside, Kuvaja thought more and more about the curious scroll that made this trip necessary. The man requesting a copy had no distinguishing characteristics. He was not on a ban list. In fact, he requested copies of religious texts every three weeks. He was a steady customer that seemed to have quite an appetite for the Vedic hymns [4].
Yet on this day almost four months ago, he came in with a thin leather-bound book to copy. He paid his silver and requested a copy of the book’s first few pages. The raghu-veda [5] quickly produced the roll of rice paper for the patron and created a complete copy of the book in the librarian’s secret compartment. After the man left, Kuvaja eagerly retrieved the large roll of paper and read the first few lines.
It was the Hymn of Creation. This hymn, however, was not the traditional one that spoke of the Sun god bestowing light on the void. It did not speak of Khalu the destroyer creating the night. Instead it spoke of the Mpura, the great mind of the universe. The librarian was giddy with the discovery of this text. The ancient emperors banned the cult of Mpura centuries ago. Any scrolls associated with the cult were destroyed. Kuvaja mused to himself about how this unassuming man with a taste for Vedic hymns could have possibly acquired an ancient heretical text. As far as Kuvaja knew, the songs of Mpura had not been sung since the days before the empire. This book was a rare treasure indeed.
The text also described the Mpura as the one that created order and substance in the universe. Kuvaja had little success with translating large sections of the text. It was written in a very old and unfamiliar dialect. For many days, the librarian struggled to grasp it’s message. Kuvaja found that his need to understand the text grew to be insatiable. He mustered the courage to ask his basha for the time necessary to investigate this prize. The basha was happy to grant his request despite his lack of interest in a “mad religious poem”. He asked only that the librarian seek more magic treatises in Daayata. The basha implied that there would be a healthy reward for anything written by Rohana, himself. Kuvaja understood all too well that this was not a ‘request’ but a demand for something to justify the expense of parting with so many soldiers.
After the caravan traveled for two more days, it began to rain. Without the rain, the caravan would have reached Daayata by the next morning. The rain would make progress slower and invite bandits to attack the caravan. Kuvaja and the captain of the soldiers ordered the caravan to stay close together. The men drew their weapons. Kuvaja gave the sword to the captain of the soldiers. He had no real training with this type broad-bladed sword. The captain offered other weapons, but Kuvaja reassured him that there was no need. Presuming the librarian to be some kind of sorcerer, the captain did not question further.
The rain continued throughout the afternoon. As dusk approached, it became more difficult to see. The rain interfered with the soldiers’ magical devices that allowed them to see in the dark. Despite their numbers, the soldiers grew restless. The caravan painfully inched forward. The only sounds were the heavy fall of the rain and the rhinos feet sloshing through the water on the concrete road.
As the caravan came out of a turn in the road, Kuvaja heard a disembodied voice whisper “NOW.”
In one motion, he unwrapped the urumi from his waist and swung its three blades to full extension. He struck the lead gnoll while it was still in the air. It was dead before it hit the ground. As the other gnolls rushed in on his rhino, Kuvaja continued to whirl the blades to keep them at a distance. Some of the soldiers rushed to the front to help Kuvaja. Others soldiers desperately scanned the land on both sides of the road hoping to intercept any other marauders.
Kuvaja heard the shout “KA-HEE!” and tried to warn the captain of the soldiers. A huge ball of fire obliterated a cart near the front of the caravan. Five of the soldiers nearby were thrown from the road by the force of the blast. “ONI attack!” shouted the captain of the soldiers. As practiced, the soldiers shot a wave of arrows into the darkness hoping to hit the oni and prevent another attack.
Kuvaja dispatched two more gnolls before jumping back to the charred remains of the cart. “Why would the oni attack us? This doesn’t make sense,” he thought to himself. From the cart, he could see the soldiers were engaged with other gnolls or launching a volley of arrows. Peering into the darkness, Kuvaja heard the shout of “KA-HEE!” again and concentrated on the source of the sound. The oni managed to shout half the incantation but was unable to complete the spell. A ball of fire erupted near the end of the caravan not far from the road. “Attack the fire!” shouted Kuvaja and the oni was soon felled by a wave of arrows. The gnolls were growling about ogres and grunting to each other that they would arrive soon. Kuvaja peered again into the darkness and knew that the ogres would not fight. Once the oni was killed, they retreated back into the darkness to regroup.
Realizing that the ogres and oni were no longer fighting, the remaining gnolls leaped back into the darkness. Five of their comrades had fallen. One of the soldiers, a foreigner, had a sword to the throat of an injured gnoll on the ground. She was barking at it asking about the location of the others. The captain of the soldiers shoved her off the gnoll and ran the gnoll through.
“Gnolls recover from their wounds while they touch the ground. The only way to kill them is if they are in the air,” the captain shifted his gaze to look at Kuvaja, “or with this,” he said brandishing the sword. Looking back to the foreigner, he shouted to the rest of the soldiers, “Do not question a gnoll!” He took a breath and exhaled slowly into the cold rain. Looking to the soldiers, he spat, “Destroy them or let them flee.”
Eight of the soldiers were injured from the attack. Two of them died from their wounds shortly after the fighting stopped. The captain of the soldiers took cold consolation that his men would be buried in a city of priests. Kuvaja remounted his rhino and tried to regain a sense of calm. Listening to the sound of the falling rain, he took a deep breath and thought about meeting Rohana late tomorrow.
********************
The rain stopped later that night, so the caravan made camp. Kuvaja gave the soldiers a double portion of meat and asked the cook to make an Ekagra sauce with coconut milk. The spicy stew warmed the members of the caravan as the moon shone its eye from behind the clouds.
When the sun rose the next day, the caravan began again. The rest of the journey was uneventful and they arrived in Daayata late in the afternoon. The gates of the town were a welcome sight to the travellers. To Kuvaja’s surprise, Rohana stood atop the main gate talking with the guards. Already more than head-and-shoulders taller than the guards, Rohana appeared all the more impressive atop the high walls. He waved his trunk from side to side as he spoke. His hands rested on a war hammer that appeared larger than the guards. The hammer’s head was a thick as a man and ornately decorated with a scene from one of the later Vedic hymns. Kuvaja smiled in anticipation and led the caravan into Daayata.
Footnotes
- A basha is a wealthy landowner that serves as a patron for hundreds (even thousands) or individuals in Shayakandi society. He or she is a feudal lord that receives goods and services from those that use his land. This would include merchants and librarians, not just farmers.
- As a member of the Librarian social class, it would be considered childish and rude to pester someone with too many questions.
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- Vedic hymns are popular texts because of their value in mental discipline and raising consciousness.
- The raghu-veda is a magical device that produces a copy of any written material. It can produce copies of the entire text or selected portions of the text. Many librarians make secret copies of every new document visitors bring to have copied. All copies, regardless of the original, are produced on one long scroll of rice paper.
This article contains content for Shayakand, Nevermet Press’ fantasy setting inspired by sources from southeast Asia. Feel free to comment here, write about it on your site, or contact the Lead Designer, John Payne, at sycarion [at] gmail {dot} com. Nevermet Press is all about community driven content, so don’t be shy!
Written by John Payne
Edited by Cassey Toi
Lion Men of the Steppes
In Shayakand’s stratified society, many races find their place either inside or outside the system. Two notable sentient species place themselves in conflict with society; the Purvaga and the Atrasuli. The Purvaga rebel against the constraints; forming tight-knit communities of their own kind as a haven from a place they both loathe and fail to understand. In contrast to the Purvaga are the Atrasuli see themselves as defenders of the weak. They do not actively seek to overturn Shayakand society, but often find themselves acting on behalf of the poor and disadvantaged.
The Atrasuli, or lion men, are known only in stories told by those that live in rural areas of Shayakand. Most stories describe a half man-half lion beast coming to the aid of travelers. Usually, the travelers are families taking produce to their lord in payment for the protection the Bashaa provides. The stories say that the Bashaa’s meager escort is quickly overcome by a band of marauding gnolls. When gnolls are about to plunder and kill the family a huge beast with the vague appearance of a lion appears from nowhere to attack the gnolls. Sometimes armed with an ax, other times with a sword, but always with its huge maw, the beast quickly dispatches the bandits. Before the family can get a good look at their rescuer, the beast disappears as quickly as it came.
The Bashaa insist that the Atrasuli are a myth. The rich landowners dismiss any claim that the protection they offer is inadequate. They point to their business interests in the cities as proof that they invest quite a bit of money in the protection they offer. Talking about the Atrasuli in a Bashaa’s presence is forbidden. Atrasuli are secretly revered by those living in rural areas. As part of the spring harvest festival they receive gifts of food collected by villages; most consider it a well-deserved reward.
Traveling Merchant Families
There are traveling merchant families that show up near major cities throughout the year. These merchants usually carry goods that are rare, out of season, or otherwise locally unavailable. They usually carry a fair amount of iron, silver, and copper along with small amounts of gold. They always have dried spices available regardless of the season. Although trade with them is heavily discouraged by the Bashe, many city residents will travel outside city walls to purchase goods from them.
Most people describe the merchants as quite friendly and outgoing. Unlike the shops in the city run by a wealthy Bashaa that often fix prices, the traveling merchants will make deals, haggle, and accept barter items. It’s not unusual for a poor family to discover a chicken or small amount of spiced lamb when they unpack their purchases. Although poor those receiving the gift can read – all Shayakand citizens are literate – the accompanying note that only says, “Compliments of the Atrasuli”.
The Real Atrasuli
The Atrasuli prefer to keep their identity hidden. They aren’t afraid of the Bashaa or the laws that prohibit any discussion about them. Many see themselves as noble protectors that are willing to do what the greedy Bashaa will not. They prefer to keep their bestial forms a secret as they can easily be mistaken as Rakshasas or other demons.
Most Atrasuli can appear in one of three forms: human, lion and a hybrid form that combines human and lion. Atrasuli prefer their human form and spend as much of their time in human form as they can. In human form they do not appear to have any obvious characteristics of a lion. Some secondary characteristics appear, but are not distinctive as compared to ordinary humans. For example, they may have large hands or have very thick hair. Atrasuli may have any skin tone or hair color normally found in humans. There eye color also varies, but not blue. Blue-eyed Atrasuli are Amra, a subspecies.
Socially, the Atrasuli organize themselves into prides with one male, one female and extended family. Above the pride are tribes made up of four to six prides. The highest level of organization is the clan. A clan represents many families and usually represents a geographical area. It is rare that a tribe or clan will set down any kind of set policy. Yet, if such a policy is set, the Atrasuli are very devoted to it.
Amra
Amra means blue-eyed. These rare blue-eyed lion men have two main differences from their brothers; the use of magic and the lack of a hybrid form. Amra have two forms, human and a larger then normal lion. The Amra are also the only Atrasuli that can use magic or shaping abilities.
Written by John Payne
Edited by Cassey Toi
Cursed Areas and Undead in Shayakand
To explain necromancy and the undead in Shayakand, I’ve given a brief recap of the cosmology. Following the explanation I’ve given an example of a merchant that began as a dabbler of sorcery and ended up as a sorcerer steeped in necromancy.
Shayakand cosmology is based on the real-life ideas of Anaxagoras. In essence, every object contains a snapshot of the entire universe. This snapshot of the universe is made up of seeds and aspects. Seeds are similar to what we think of as elements i.e. gold, lead, silver, earth, fire, water, etc. Seeds are also the fundamental essence of an object. Aspects are opposing attributes that exist in varying amounts. For example, wet/dry, cold/hot, heavy/light, clear/opaque, large/small, etc.
The exception to all of this is the Mind. It is not comprised of any seed or aspect. The Mind is what gives shape and form to the universe. As such it can manipulate an object by exerting force on seeds and aspects. The basis of magic and ‘shaping’ (the psionics variant) is the ability to access the Mind to affect the world around them. Sorcerers have an innate connection with the Mind, Wizards study various mantras and incantations to ‘speak’ to the Mind, Shapers have the tiniest piece of the Mind in their bodies and see the world in a radically different way.
Rta, the fundamental concept of ‘the natural order of things’, is a dimension of the Mind that enables notions of good, evil, order, chaos, etc. The Mind establishes rta and is maintained by all creatures devotion to dharma, or right actions. Those that act against dharma empower nirrti, the fundamental force of disorder. Great breeches of dharma can generate points of nirrti that physically manifest themselves in Shayakand.
This has occurred in the City of Spires with the a demigod that is permanently trapped in a state between life and death somewhere deep in the bowels of the city. The existence of this undying entity is a tremendous breech of ‘the natural order of the universe’ so much that the entire Chattel district is haunted by all kinds of undead, demons, destruction and fantastic decay.
Very few spellcasters become a necromancer intentionally. Usually, an individual spellcaster has done something horrible or something that goes against the natural order of the universe. Once this act is committed, he or she generates a cursed area that serves as a place for incorporeal undead to gather. Being in this cursed state, it becomes easier to commit more atrocious acts thereby generating a larger area of nritti.
For example, take a greedy merchant that finds a spell that turns bone into gems. He discovers that the fresher the corpse, the more valuable the gems the spell creates. At first, he tries to live off a few bones from those that die naturally. Making use of bone, even human bone is not considered a horrible deed, though it is a breech of good social graces. However, once the merchant begins to murder for gems, a vicious cycle starts. The murder victim is able to give him one or two very valuable gemstones. Fighting off thoughts of mass murder, it becomes more and more difficult to avoid the lure of relatively easy money.
Once his greed begins to dictate his actions, a cursed area is generated with the merchant at the center. A ghost or two may appear to him, a neighbor’s business may begin to suffer from bad luck, etc. As the merchant continues to murder for money the field grows in intensity. After some time, the merchant may discover that he can animate the boneless corpses of his victims to do his bidding. The ghost may begin to haunt his town, not just his home. He may even decide to gain control over them as well.
As the field intensifies, he may discover that he is able to summon the foulest creatures from other mad worlds. He may decide to unleash these horrors just to see what they would do to an unsuspecting village. After some time being the center of a nritti, the original spell to convert bone to gems may be discarded. In its place, true madness reigns. Once true madness sets in, there is no limit to what chaos and destruction can be wrought.
This merchant (whom I refer to as the Hadhimani) is just one of many possible sources of cursed areas in Shayakand. Other possible ways this idea can appear include the traditional necromancer or a priest of the god of discord, Katu. In future articles, more examples will be provided with greater detail.
Written by John Payne
Edited by Cassey Toi
