Below is a brief excerpt from my current Twin Empires article on the god Xemen.

XEMEN
Xemen (Zem-In) is the god of Trade and Merchants. Often depicted as a boisterous man always trying to arrange a sale or trade, Xemen finds followers in all lands of the world. Nascent communities often worship Xemen in hopes of prospering, while established cities maintain lavish citadels to the god of trade in hopes that their good fortune will continue. In such communities it is often the priests of Xemen who preside over rituals involving divine healing; as Xemen is one of three gods who has been granted specialization in healing.

History

Following the end of the war against the Protoviles, the great heroes of the conflict ascended into the realm of Godhood. Often considered the last of the mortals to ascend, Xemen had been a trader during the Protovile Wars. History records that Xemen brokered the first trade arrangements between Elves and Dwarves, and later arranged the required naval assets for the final days of the War when the surviving Protoviles were hunted down as they fled to lost continents. Though his actions are now revered by most people for achieving victory in the war, many servants of other gods do not forgive Xemen for his one great failing; he traded with both sides in the war.

When the slave woman (now goddess) Nevis, lead her uprising against the Protoviles and secured a free land for those who followed her, the Protoviles sued for peace. Realizing that Nevis’ rebellion could upset their rule, the Protoviles sent an envoy to discuss terms for a peaceful solution before their enslaved followers rose against them. A young Xemen presided over the discussions, which Nevis used only as a stall tactic to gather her forces. When the discussions were revealed to be a farce, Xemen was disgraced; a failure to the Protoviles who thought he was a master negotiator, and a traitor to the uprising forces.

Seeking to leave his former life behind, Xemen traveled across the seas to uncharted lands where he arranged new trade deals, and secured new allies. When the war crossed the seas, both the Protoviles and the forces of Nevis were once again forced into negotiations with Xemen. Though loathed to admit it, Nevis required the social network that Xemen had created in these new lands, and thus she entered into the terse trade discussions with him. Xemen was more than willing to supply Nevis with the supplies her forces needed, and when confronted about what he wanted in return, Xemen simply stated; “We can discuss that at another time.” When the forces of the Protoviles came ashore, Xemen made similar arrangements with their ambassadors, also citing his desire to be paid back at a later date.

As the war grew in intensity, Xemen continued brokering deals and ensuring his coffers were kept full. Many regarded him as a savior, while others thought of him as a war profiteer, but in Xemen’s eyes it was ‘just business’. When Vadis the Protovile was sealed deep beneath the earth, Xemen could see which way the war was swinging. Placing more and more emphasis on assisting the anti-Protovile forces, Xemen soon became a hero to all as he assisted in arranging many victories against the Protoviles.

Soon the only bastion of Protovile forces remained in the cold north on the continent of Celemus, led by the final Protovile; Fhazu. As forces massed for their final assault on the northern stronghold, a meeting of great military leaders was convened. During this meeting, Berethos; the general who had been fighting Fhazu since the beginning of the war demanded an immediate strike against the cowering Protovile. When Xemen suggested the possibility of negotiation, the general went mad with rage and slashed at Xemen with his bastard sword; putting a deep wound in Xemen’s left arm.

Eventually Fhazu was defeated, and following the final defeat of their enemies, several prominent figures of the war were ascended to godhood. As the first convocation of gods occurred, the newly deified beings bade their followers come to speak with them before they departed the mortal plane. Midway through the great meeting, Xemen appeared before the gathered gods dressed in the finest apparel and with his trademark smile beaming before them. Nevis, who had always despised Xemen for his near treacherous trading with the Protoviles attempted to dismiss the merchant immediately. Xemen retorted to this by calling in his old debts to the goddess, stating that she now owed him a debt that even she could not repay. Before the goddess could speak, the hall was bathed in a wash of light, and by whatever power had made the others deities; Xemen was admitted into the divine host.

Rugult

If there’s one thing I despise about getting involved in a new campaign setting, it’s learning an entirely new pantheon. There’s something about how pretentious players can get off their own knowledge of deities in a given campaign setting. I used to play in a Forgotten Realms game, emphasis on the word ‘USED’. The reason for my cessation of Realms campaigns stemmed from two major issues:

1) Because of sheer scope of the line/novels, the players will undoubtedly know more then me in some way and later use it against me.

2) The over involvement of deities in almost every story arc. Take for example the entire series of FR books relating to Cyric, and then to Bane dying, and so on and so forth.

What grinds my gears is pantheons that change more often than I change clothes in a day. I freely admit that one of my favorite 2e books would be the old Forgotten Realms Faiths & Avatars; a fine display on how to layout and describe individual deities within a pantheon. The book was so perfectly written that you could pick any random power therein and be able to make up a character with several quirks that made him related to said power. Now thanks to the God shuffle, unless I decided to play in that specific timeline (or royally change the Realms), a good chunk of the information held within is no longer relevant. Boo-Urns.

Several years ago I ran a Ravenloft campaign based on the premise of the dead Realms god Moander building his strength from within the Mists. It was a very fun campaign, and I got to put a lot of deity facts to use, while not having to fudge a lot of other setting material. The point I am making, is that if you have a well written article (in this case Moander’s entry), even if some future event invalidates it, you should be able to get some use out of the original material.

Cut forward to my Twin Empires campaign design. Aside from a few basic notes from my last campaign, I am primarily going into Pantheon design blind. In the Player’s Guide, I’ve inserted a list of the various gods of the setting. Aside from a few of these Gods (mainly Xemen), most of these gods have not been fully fleshed out, and it is my goal to describe them through future adventure releases as separate attached articles.

I’ve already decided for the Twin Empires campaign, that unless the player’s mess up VERY badly, there is no need for divine intervention. Gods in my eye should remain aloof of mortal affairs, and in the case of the Phantasm gods that were once mortal, I think this makes a lot of sense.

In advance of the Pilot adventure for Twin Empires, I hope to release an article describing the major god of the starting region; Xemen the merchant god. In the meantime, feel free to tell me your thoughts on gaming pantheons!

Rugult

Let’s go with stream of thought on this post, that should be fun...

Right now I’m in the middle of design work on my latest planned campaign; a Pathfinder RPG game that is taking place in a homebrew world. Currently the ‘codename’ for the world is Phantasm, though if anything else jumps to my mind I may rename it.

The basic premise for Phantasm is that roughly a thousand years ago there were four terrible beings known as Protoviles. These elder evils had enslaved the world, though their reign was ended by a rebellion of the slave races. The great heroes of this war ended up ascending into godhood at the end of the war, giving rise to the first gods of the world. So basically gods/goddesses are fairly recent (last thousand years), and the world is still recovering from the great war to this very day. As a friend of mine put it; “This world had its apocalypse, and the people lived.”

Phantasm was derived from an old one-shot campaign I ran a while back, with several elements being ported over and other elements being dropped because they didn’t work. One such examples of this was a player who built his character based on the concept that the elven god who kept them thin and fit died… so all elves were fat.

With some of my players craving a return to the homebrew setting I’ve started work well in advance. Right now I am running two games off and on; one an Iron Kingdoms all Dwarf party, because Dwarves are superior. The second campaign is ironically enough, the Second Darkness adventure path from Paizo. Both of these campaigns are running under the Pathfinder RPG with little to no problems, so with this in mind I’ve been writing out material for my new campaign.

As of this moment I have a 17 page Player’s Guide and a 10 page Game Master’s guide. Both these books are highly inspired from the Pathfinder RPG and ENworld’s own War of the Burning Sky campaign setting. Essentially, these books layout information useful for the players and GMs in separate guides. The goal is to give my player’s a booklet that they can read through in advance to get a good solid footing before we actually start the campaign, instead of the sometimes awkward ‘character creation session’ that sometimes occurs when doing a homebrew game. If anyone is interested in seeing a copy of these two booklets, I have attached them below.

With the Player’s Guide/Game Master’s Guide both *done* I’ve moved onto work for the first adventure. I’ve been drawing a lot on some of the more memorable campaigns I’ve been involved in, and am taking layout/design ideas from items like the Pathfinder adventure paths, the War of the Burning Sky, and several older books I have kicking around like the 2e Faiths & Avatars. All in all, I should at least walk away from this experience with some well organized notes.

Now… back to the grind.


*Files Removed from Blog. Please see post in Plots & Places*

Rugult