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