[Let's Read] Midgard Worldbook

[Libertad]

The Shadow Realm is not on Midgard proper. Rather it's beneath it, nestled between the sides of the disc Veles circles. It is here the Shadow Fey live, but they are hardly the only people who call this dark and dreary place home. The terrain is closely tied to Midgard, with numerous shadow roads connecting the two realms. Much of the geography is a dark and distorted mirror: a metropolis on Midgard may be a town full of shadow fey or umbral vampires, or even the ruins of where a thriving city once stood. The Shadow Realm is not underground; it has its own sky, although the heavens appear like a charcoal smear with no sun or moon, only twinkling stars whose light is quickly obscured by dark clouds. Spells also react differently: magic with visual elements may writhe with black veins, glow with sickly green or purple hues, and summoned creatures from this realm often have dark colors and malevolent eyes. Two new schools of magic developed from this plane: Illumination magic, originating among the shadow fey which has a dualistic nature between light and its absence, and shadow magic which taps into the plane's raw energy...often at a dangerous price.

The natural world of the Shadow Realm is warped, overtly alien in some places yet deceptively similar in others. There are flora and fauna here who operate much like mundane animals in behavior, but just about each of them bear an unmistakable taint of shadow. An owl may have a human mouth, and predatory animals such as wolves and bears are far more common here. Rivers and lakes do not bequeath water, but instead are rushing torrents of dangerous pure shadow inhabited by hungry spirits seeking to draw unwary travelers to a watery grave. Doomsand, which is found in deserts and marshy bogs, can fill those trapped with depression as well as its more physical dangers. Some areas which intrude into Midgard manifest as darker shadows which can even impede darkvision known as hungry glooms. There are rules for all of these, and wilderness survival checks to find non-corrupted food sources suffer disadvantage (5e) or a suitable penalty to the roll (Pathfinder).

Denizens of Darkness

The shadow fey are perhaps the most numerous and well-known denizens here, but they are far from the only prominent nation. Beyond the innumerable monsters and warped animals, the major races possessing the means of civilization are umbral vampires, bearfolk immigrants, exiles from the Ghoul Imperium known as the Twilight Empire, a loose-knit organization of champions of hope and light known as the Lantern Bearers, and an enigmatic organization of astrologers known as the Court of One Million Stars. There's also glowing spherical constructs known as witchlights which often guide travelers to safe havens, although few managed to learn their origins or goals.

The Courts of the Shadow Fey are the main home of the namesake race, located on a high plateau in the heart of a dark forest. Their location corresponds to the Margreve Forest in Midgard, and the twin woods share many shadow roads between each other and exist in a symbiotic relationship. The shadow fey live in various towns and cities home to darkly beautiful glittering spires, impressive black stone bridges, marble colonnades, and beautiful gardens. Unless a traveler has the express permission of a high-ranking shadow fey, the communities appear seemingly abandoned. This is in fact the result of powerful illusion magic to confuse potential invaders, and only a true seeing or more powerful divination spell can detect the truth.

Shadow Fey society is a feudal model divided into the Lower Courts (goblins and servants), and the upper class among the Royal Halls and Winter Palace. There are two noble families, the Summer Court led by the goddess Sarastra Aestruum, Queen of Night and Magic, and the Winter Court led by the Moonlit King Ludomir Imbrium the XVI. As of now the Moonlit King has been banished and Sarastra Aestruum serves as the ultimate authority. She is a fickle tyrant, not known for patience and whose allies and enemies shift rapidly. The Courts have embassies with all of the other civilizations of the Shadow Realm save the umbral vampires who attack everyone else on sight. But the Courts are not the only power players: there's a secret society of shadow fey and allied creatures known as the Lords of Light, led by a blind angel Revich. They seek to oppose the influence of demons and other evils within their race's society and maintain contacts with Lantern Bearer enclaves. And there are cults lead by demons known as the heralds of darkness who seek worship and can turn willing supplicants into shadow fey.

The major locations of the Courts of the Shadow Fey include Corremel, City of Lanterns. The settlement's a trade haven favored by dishonorable professions such as smugglers, slavers, bounty hunters, and other occupations of varying scruples. Its holds one of the few bridges safely crossing the river Lethe and corresponds to Zobeck's location in Midgard, and also has a shadow road connecting to a Nurian city also by the name of Corremel. Dalliance is a town famed for catering to pleasure and vices of all kinds, no matter how taboo. Hunt's Retreat is a dangerous forest favored by shadow fey nobility as well as the Lord of the Wild Hunt. Nightbrook Court is home to a trio of hags who look for the souls of evil people to trap in the river Lethe and turn into enslaved shades. They create these monsters out of mortal memories of pain and anguish, and are not above creating such memories themselves to drive grief-stricken mortals into surrendering them to make the suffering stop. The Sable Court is overseen by some of the Courts' best hunters and assassins. The Tower of Horn and Gold is the Courts' Fort Knox, responsible for mining shadow-tainted gold which is rumored to make mortals who accept them slowly give up their will and soul to the faeries. Finally, Wormwood is a walled fortress city serving as a barrier against the umbral vampires of the City Fallen Into Shadow.

Oshragora, the City Fallen Into Shadow was once a grand realm of spellcasters who used their mastery of time magic to create grand works of art and architecture. But their excessive tampering with the river of time ripped their civilization from Midgard into a closed time loop to be devoured by Shadow, reborn and consumed countless times over. When the rogue magic finally abated, there was only Oshragora, a ruined and twisted landscape inhabited by creatures known as umbral vampires. Not the conventional blood-sucking kind, they drain life and vitality from the smokelike darkness emanating from their eyes, mouths, and noses. They are not ones to talk, but those few who manage to coax a conversation out of them find they make references to times and places that do not exist...or have yet to happen. Their leadership organization is unknown, but the Queen of Night and Magic promises an emperor's ransom for the first person to establish a reliable connection to the umbral vampires' leadership meetings. The darakhul of the Twilight Empire often make risky expeditions into the city on the hunt for a lost artifact known as the Eye of Veles.

Oshragora often extends its temporal reach to other times and places in sections known as "splinters," which can bring back inhabitants from the far past or distant future. A splinter can range in size from a small building to an entire neighborhood. The bearfolk of the Moonlit Glade are researching into how the splinters function so as to better guard against them, as they are Oshragora's most potent means of extraplanar invasion.

The Moonlit Glades are perhaps the least corrupted civilization among the Shadow Realm. It is inhabited by bearfolk from Björnrike, descended several generations down from warriors and druids who bravely ventured beyond Midgard to fight back the corruption infecting their kingdom. Their children's children still carry on the charge, and the fact that they (mostly) managed to avoid planar corruption is regarded as nothing less than a miracle. The Glade is unsurprisingly connected where the Nieder Straits would be in Midgard, and the terrain here is much closer to their northern homeland. Rivers are made of drinkable water and not shadowstuff, divine spellcasters of Freyr and Freyja (masks of the Green Gods) dedicate their lives to producing edible food free of shadow corruption, and a moonlit sky provides ample natural light. A network of rangers and druids maintain lines of communication between villages via a messenger service, and the place is home to immigrants of other races from the Kingdom of the Bear as well as renegade shadow fey.

The Glade's form of government is managed by two independent authorities: a war officer tasked with defense, and a hierophant who manages magical affairs. Gulfwyr Moonrage fills the role of the former, a werebear who has accomplished many legendary feats in battle. The latter is filled by Ernalda Berlasdottir, the most powerful druid in the Glades who seems to be out of touch with the world around her. Her seeming dream-like state is in fact due to her never-ending vigil in maintaining the magical barriers holding back the corrupting forces of Shadow.

The Twilight Empire is composed of the remnants of Vilmos Marquering's Iron Legion, a group of soldiers in the Ghoul Imperium who plotted a coup against the establishment. It did not work out well for them, and they were pushed out into the outlying caverns far beyond the nation. Marquering led his people into a region later found to possess strong connections to the Shadow Realm, and thus the Twilight Empire was born. As a result their previous losses as well as being in a hostile new realm, the Empire is a military junta where Vilmos' top five generals command a major city within their domain. Most of its environs are located in a series of dark rifts known as the Black Iron Depths, located where the Ironcrag Cantons would be on Midgard. Vilmos is a paranoid ruler, who ensured his generals' unwitting loyalty with mithral bracers recovered from a nearby strange ruin. The enchantment of the bracers is that any general who tries to turn against him will elicit a violent rage in the rest of the ghouls who will then seek to slay them. The Twilight Empire maintains a strict ration diet for its citizens, and they regularly raid the other civilizations for food and slaves (often the two go hand in hand).

The major cities include Zhurakh, which is the capital and filled with the Empire's most elite soldiers and secret police, the Blackmaw Legion; Blackstone, provider of the Ravenous Legion, the Empire's shock troops; Chaingard, a major focus for the Empire's save trade overseen by the Shackled Legion; Evernight, the center of faith with a grand cathedral to the ghoul god and warrior-priests among its Midnight Legion; Gallwheor, provider of the finest tactical minds among the Headsman Legion; and finally the city of Ossean, whose buildings are made of bones and is the center of necrophage arcanists who supply the Bone Legion with magical might.

The Empire has a deal of sorts with the Courts of the Shadow Fey: in order oto gain passage along their shadow roads, ghoul soldiers serve as security for the more dangerous/at-risk roads. Right now the Twilight Emperor's primary concern is researching the umbral vampires, and via sanity-rending divinations into the minds of these monsters Maquering discovered an artifact known as the Eye of Veles which can grant one mastery over time and space. The ghouls do not have the resources for a full-scale invasion, so instead they rely on scouting parties into Oshragora for now.

Witchlights manifest as white spheres which drift among the misty swamps and dark forests. Although bearing a resemblance to a will o'wisp, their intentions are mostly beneficial in the form of lighting the way to safety in the most dangerous places in the Shadow Realm. Witchlights can be created by powerful wizards, but this cannot account for the sheer number of them roaming the plane. They communicate by strobe pulses and can defend themselves with searing blasts of light. Although most are benevolent, some witchlights corrupted by ghouls are possessed of foul intent and intentionally lead people to danger, using their light attack to sever rope bridges and ladders at their most dangerous point.

As for their relations with the other groups, some ally themselves as familiars to shadow fey sorcerers, disguising themselves as gleaming jewelry. Umbral vampires find their presence odious, while the ghouls of the Twilight Empire seek to capture them and perfected a ritual to turn them evil. The witchlight's only area approaching a settlement is an island known as the Light of Knowledge. Here on this island is a structure much like a library, but instead of books among its shelves there are multicolored stacks of light arranged in an orderly fashion. Witchlights can transfer their own knowledge to these stacks by adding a bit of their own light to it, and brass and silver constructs serve as managerial duties. The liosalfar, or light elementals, serve as security against any who would damage or corrupt the Light of Knowledge to foul ends.

The Court of One Million Stars is our last location within the Shadow Realm, a beautiful airbone cluster of spherical, domed buildings flying in the sky. Pearly-white stone gates link clusters of buildings via walkways, with the more prestigious inhabitants living closer towards the center. The largest residential spires are known as the Spiral-Downs which connect to each other via staircases made of moonlight. Each ascending level is home to more beautiful features such as buildings made from starlight and dreams. The court is home to beautiful gardens containing plants from the Shadow Realm as well as Midgard, and fey of all kinds (not just shadow fey) are frequent visitors. The Court's primary function is for those seeking to study Illumination magic, the stars, and celestial movements. To this end many of its domes provide a perfect view of every star, celestial cloud or nebula, and even the farthest reaches of the utterdark and the Void. The Courts' more notable inhabitants include Prince Valendan, an oddly non-evil selang and accomplished wizard of Illumination magic; Cylentha the Silver Mistress, a star* who descended down to Veles' encircled realms for unknown reason and serves as the Prince's adviser; a friendly yet insane void dragon named Phaerliggath who's eager to teach supplicants about Void magic and who Lady Cylentha does not trust.

*We learn more about the stars of Midgard. When they land on Midgard or the Shadow Realm, they take the form of cloaked, hooded humanoid figures shrouded in an aura of starlight. They have their own language, and even those who communicate with them via magical aid find their manner of speech confusing. They often reuse terms, but with vastly different intended contexts and meanings even within the same statement. "The Void calls to the Void. It must not be allowed to answer" is one lf Lady Cylentha's few warnings about accepting Phaerliggath's tutelage.

Entry to the Court is not an easy task. Witchlights can form bridges of solid illumination provided it trusts a traveler. Warriors of the Court guard gate houses which can form star-bridges leading up to the spires at certain times of the year. The most famous (and well-guarded) house is known as Vigil, a hovering disc whose gates are nearly indestructible by either mundane or magical means.

One of the most powerful denizens of the Shadow Realm may not be the leaders of the aforementioned nations, but in fact a dragon known as the Endless Hunger. Vizorakh the Ravenous is the oldest cave dragon in existence who embraced lichdom via a ritual. His phylactary is an onyx gemstone the size of an elephant, and he prolongs his existence by hunting down other cave dragons in the depths of Midgard to add their souls to his phylactary. He frequently joins the Twilight Empire's expeditions into Oshragora as a disguised ghoul for unknown reasons. Beyond this his schemes are considered mysterious and spanning centuries, and he frequently meddles in the workings of the other factions of the Shadow Realm.

Thoughts so far: An interesting thing to note is that the Shadow Realm did not have its own chapter in the 2012 setting book. Thus the reason I did not include any METAPLOT mentions. But overall it's a grand addition to the updated Worldbook. In most campaign settings the Shadow Plane or its equivalent is a one-note "dark place of evil and undead" without much variety. Here the civilizations/factions are varied, full of adventure material and good writing, and interact with each other in interesting ways. I did like the thematics of duality between light and darkness present throughout the chapter, such as the Court of One Million Stars, witchlights, and illumination magic. This makes sense of a sort in that shadows cannot exist in complete darkness.

We're done with the realms of Midgard, but the party's not yet over! Join us next time as we meet and greet the divine Pantheons!

 

[Libertad]

The gods and goddesses of Midgard are not timeless, eternal entities. During the era when Veles created and encircled the world of mortals, there were no gods. It was a prehistoric time where the few races that did exist were just developing the spear and the secret of fire, and the only kinds of spellcasters were druidic pseudo-priests who could speak to the dead. This all changed when Wotan bathed in the blood of a slain dragon and learned the secrets of godhood. He climbed the World Tree, learned rune magic among its branches, and he uplifted his fellow priests to become what we know now as the Northlands pantheon. Although they took pains to guard their wellsprings of power, Loki betrayed his fellows by granting the secret to his lover Bastet in the southern realms. From there more gods and eventually pantheons arose, and it was a time of great war and chaos. The specifics of history are highly biased as the current gods and their followers accuse the others of all forms of misdeed.

But what is agreed upon is that Veles issued an ultimatum for the gods to no longer war openly. Instead they would wear masks and act through mortal champions and divine servants. This created a near-universal tradition among the deities of Midgard: a "mask" is not so much a literal garment as a deity taking a different form, title, and even domains and moral codes for their followers. There are still some similarities, and gods with some overlap in themes (such as Thor and Mavros) are often believed to be masks of the other. Not only does the tradition of masks prevent an accurate estimate of the true number of deities, it also allows a god to extend their influence to other cultures without the stigma and restrictions of the host faith. In fact, it makes it easy for a deity to fake their own death, only to masquerade by another realm in another culture of Midgard.

Pantheons are generally grouped by geographic and racial territories: Northern Gods, Crossroads Gods, Dragon Gods, etc. This is not uniform, and various countries and city-states may swap out a certain deity or two in favor of one closer to their needs: an example is the worship of the Nurian god Thoth-Hermes in the Magocracy of Allain, whose emphasis on written lore makes him popular there. Sages claim that only 30 true gods can exist at a time, and only five within a great city, six within a great kingdom. More than this causes excess deities to fall into the ranks of demons and angels; still powerful, yet not true gods. The aforementioned realms of previous chapters hew to this format, with many countries and city-states with a listed regional pantheon of five deities (sometimes 4 or 6). They also mention the masks of a deity who goes by a different name in said place: for example, Wotan is honored in Ishadia by the name of Az, as is Perun who goes by the title Mavrash.

Pantheist Worship: Most lay worshipers and divine spellcasters do not serve a single deity; instead they pay homage to a cultural god who most closely meets their needs at a certain point in life. In fact, both the Pathfinder and 5th Edition system supplements provide mechanical options for a Pantheist Priest. They are basically clerics, but instead of a single patron deity they worship five gods of their kingdom/region/city-state as a whole. Once every one or two weeks (depending on system) they pledge themselves to a single deity, gaining the domains and code of conduct of said deity. After the weeks' duration they switch to a new god to repeat the process anew. As deities even within the same pantheon can be at odds, violations of dogma only count when a pantheist priest is pledged to that specific deity during the time frame.

The exceptions to pantheist worship are the Dark Gods and the Southern god Aten, who are too jealous to share their worshipers with any other gods.

Design Notes: The author Wolfgang Baur is not as much a fan of the classic good/evil divide, instead preferring Midgard's gods to be akin to amoral forces of nature concerned with their domains of influence rather than championing Law, Chaos, etc. However, he acquiesces to the "requirements of role-playing games" and has most gods with a partial alignment axis. Instead of being Lawful Good/Lawful Neutral/etc, Wotan of the Northern pantheon is merely Lawful and clerics may be of any Lawful alignment. There are a few deities who have a traditional alignment (Khors is Lawful Good). Baur also notes that alignment-specific domains are optional in Midgard.

I agree and disagree with the above. While it is true that the vast majority of deities in Midgard do not have alignment-specific domains, the exception are the Dark Gods, most of whom are quite clearly antagonistic and have the Evil domain in Pathfinder. It makes playing a Pantheist Priest impossible alignment-wise, as quite a few pantheons have deities of diametrically opposed alignments: Wotan/Loki, Baal/Azuran, and Horus/Bastet are Lawful/Chaotic, while Ceres/Hecate are Good and Evil. Finally, the stat blocks within this Worldbook show important NPC clerics who are two steps away from their patron deity in multiple places. This includes several Lawful Good Ironcrag and reaver dwarf priests of Voldun (Neutral). In Nuria Natal, the Reborn Queen-Goddess Meskhenit is a Neutral Evil cleric of Bastet (Chaotic). Meskhenit in particular had this same alignment in the 2012 sourcebook as well as the 2015 Southlands Campaign Setting expansion. The sheer repetition of such examples points to intention rather than accidental typos, and indicates that Baur desires for clerics to be unrestricted by alignment. If anything, choosing to keep partial alignments has only weakened internal consistency.

The entries for deities are grouped by pantheons of related figures with rather detailed entries. Just about every god has an illustration, cleric domains for both Pathfinder and 5th Edition (and subdomains in Pathfinder's case), mechanical elements such as alignment and favored weapons, and fluff background with entries for common worshipers, holy symbols, notable books, their faith's common temple locations and designs, their suspected masks, relationships with other deities, and what the god demands from followers. The last part is important, as it is the deity's code of conduct and failing to abide by it results in a loss of class features for divine spellcasters. Some deities have codes easier to follow than others. For example, Loki has no tenets beyond "do what you think would amuse me," while Anu-Akma forbids tomb-robbing and stealing from corpses which is a heavy burden for most D&D adventurers.

The Great Serpent

Veles is special enough to be an entry all his own. The great World Serpent defines the edges of Midgard as a coiling dragon-god biting his own tail. Veles is most well-known in the Northlands and the Mharoti Empire, although he is not worshiped elsewhere. The tides of the sea are due to his breath and storms originate from his great snorts and sneezes. A few sailors of the western seas claim to have seen his body in the form of a gigantic moss-green scaly wall in the ocean. Veles does not demand much from his worshipers and is unconcerned with rewards in the afterlife; instead he charges his few followers to take a nihilistic doomsday preparation outlook and ensure that the ley lines run smooth.

Northern Gods

The gods of the Northlands are the oldest known pantheon in Midgard. They are men and women of action, who fight hard, party hard, and demand the same of their followers. Being a priest is not considered a full-time occupation, and clerics/druids/etc often belong to a more mundane occupation in their day to day life. Besides the dwarven worshipers of Thor and Volund, temples do not really exist save in consecrated ground of a deity's portfolio: battlefields, thunder-strewn mountaintops, etc.

Freyr and Freyja are twin deities often worshiped together, who hold sway over fertility, magic, and farming. They gather fallen warriors to form an army for the Vanir. It is believed that the two are masks of Yarila and Porevit of the elven pantheon, or vice versa.

Loki the Trickster is a man of many tales, a confusing web of lies, half-truths, and truths which but create more questions. He is many things the Northlands pantheon is not: duplicitous, allied with giants and monsters, and prophesied to betray his kin Baldur and bring about the twilight of the gods. He is most known for his mastery of fire and supposed invention of the net, two aspects of life vital to the Northlands' cultures.

Sif is the wife of Thor and just as skilled in battle. The bow and arrow are her weapons of choice, and she is the leader of valkyries and shield maidens. She is worshiped in Perunalia and the patron goddess of Huldramose, and has a following in Krakovar due to the heroism of Saint Adelind against the undead occupiers.

Thor is the larger-than-life champion of human and dwarfkind. Not a god to sit and wait for adventure to come to him, he rides across the planes in a goat-driven chariot, striking down giants and other monsters with his signature hammer Mjölnir. Thor is a popular god in the North, worshiped by reaver dwarves, vikings, warriors, and those who seek to drive back the monsters of the night. It is widely believed that Thor, Perun, and Mavros are all masks of the same god, but there is a rivalry among cultures of which one is the "true face."

Wotan is the wise leader of the Northern pantheon and the one who started up all this godly business in the first place. He is a man associated with magic and wisdom, who gave his eye for wisdom and learned the mysteries of the universe from runes. He is also master of Valhalla, a gathering of the spirits of great warriors for the upcoming Ragnarok. He tends to be a god most Northlanders come to later in life, with the brash and young favoring other deities. But ravenfolk of all ages adore him, both for his wily nature and close association with ravens.

Baldur is a popular god of the North, although he is a mask of Lada who is detailed in the Crossroads entry.

Crossroads Gods

The gods of the Crossroads are a diverse bunch, given the regions' geographical centrality. The common conception of a "united" pantheon is a recent one, and gods and goddesses came and went in popularity, some given up once mortals found more suitable patrons or suffering death, enslavement, or adopting a new mask. The elven gods were once popular, and Khors was once considered the king of the pantheon but finds his worship fading outside of Grisal and the Magdar Kingdom. Rava's dominion over the gearforged and advanced technology marks her as the rising star of the region. More than any other realm, the faiths of the Crossroads are fluid.

Khors is your stereotypical Lawful Good deity of knights, light, and justice. His priests number among many knightly orders, and his main focus is on safeguarding people from mundane and supernatural evils.

Lada is the goddess of dawn, love, and healing. Her pacifistic teachings are standards most cannot live up to, but she and her faithful are held in high regard. Her priests operate public works projects such as hospitals and shelters for the poor and at-risk children and mothers. Lada's followers believe in voluntary euthanasia for those whose suffering is beyond the ability of divine magic to cure, which is the most controversial aspect of her faith.

Perun is the god of war and thunder, who also governs the cycle of birth and cleansing of the soul. He is closely associated with Mavros who is believed one of his masks (they even share the same code of conduct), and as such his worship extends far beyond the Crossroads. His priesthood is 80% male, save in Perunalia where women warriors predominate.

Rava (Ariadne) is the patron goddess of Zobeck and oversees knowledge, industry, and technological innovation. She is closely associated with spiders, often portrayed as a six-armed weaving woman. Although credited with the creation of the gearforged and closely associated with clockwork artifices, she is worshiped by alchemists, scribes, weavers, and other artisans. In Zobeck and the Crossroads she is known as Rava, but in the Seven Cities and southern realms she goes by the mask-title Ariadne.

Volund (Svarog) is the god of earth and fire, one of the patrons of the reaver dwarves. He is closely associated with smithwork but also governs family, hospitality, and marriage. Among the Rothenian Plains the Kariv and Khazzaki hold him as a patron of horses, and the former have a creation myth of how the god stole the first horses from Boreas and taught mortals how to tame them. Volund is one of the most widely-worshiped gods and thus has many masks.

Dragon Gods

The gods of the dragons are closely tied to the four elements and considered to be the literal children of Veles. They are not widely-worshiped outside the Mharoti Empire, but thanks to said empire's sheer size and number they are powerful and popular religions. Astronomy is a common practice among worshipers.

Azuran is the four-fold god of the winds, closely associated with life, for it is said among the faithful that "all who breathe" are of his creation and every last breath is Azuran taking his due. The god's sects are divided into four directional winds. The East is associated with fate and fortune, the West with battle, the South knowledge and wisdom, and the North travel and wandering.

Baal is a fire god considered the patron of the entire Mharoti Empire. All nobles of this realm worship him, and in turn he protects their divine right to rule. Many martial orders pay him homage, and his priesthood is heavily entrenched in the empire's bureaucratic institutions. His teachings are in no holy books, and instead his teachings are learned from a special order of priests known as the Baal-Shek. They recite his 444 sacred stories daily in order to maintain clear memory.

Khespotan is a primordial deity of the earth and originally not a dragon at all. A dragon once swallowed him, and the god fought back from inside its belly. Khespotan absorbed his would-be devourer from within and emerged as one of the race's own. He stores millions of souls in flawless gems, all located within a great vault deep beneath the earth. Although not as active as Azuran and Baal in the mortal world, his faithful serve a vital function in funerary rites and burials: their temples provide free gravesites to the poor, dragonkin and non-dragonkin alike.

Seggotan is the dragon god of the sea, rumored to have existed since reality's creation and will continue to do so until the end of time. He is a keeper of oaths, and his word is spread to the faithful via sea drakes known as Kyree. His holy verses take the form of songs written on sheets of silver foil, although there is no grand collection and many groups fight for control over the records. The reality is that the Song Pearls the sheets are transcribed from are dangerous to all of creation if combined together, thus the need for their scattering.

Elven Gods

The gods of the elves were until very recently nearly forgotten among the peoples of Midgard. Their temples fell into ruin or where converted to other faiths. The only exceptions are Sarastra, the goddess-queen of the Shadow Fey who seek to make their move in Midgard, and the Church of Yarila and Porevit in the Grand Duchy of Dornig. The knowledge of other major gods of the elves are now returning with immigrants from the Summer Lands.

Baccho is a whimsical god of poetry, wine, and madness. The Great Retreat hit him the hardest, and many of his faithful left behind in Midgard fell into a deep despair. His sacred teachings are many and self-contradictory, leading to factionalism and divergent faiths among his followers. What's ironic is his code of conduct is both short in comparison to others and quite hippy-ish: "Make art, and celebrate life to the fullest. Leave no stone unturned and unpainted. Rage, love, and make your mark on all things. Embrace the dragon and the lamb; both are your children."

Holda is the mother goddess of all elves and oversees the seasons, hearth, and harvest times. She taught her children ways to create magical clothes (cloak/boots of elvenkind), and although much of this lore has been forgotten they still have a reputation as expert tailors. Her teachings are a mix of good living and natural conservation, with some holy book's containing farmer's almanacs and diagrams of ley lines.

Sarastra is the patron of the Shadow Fey and the elven goddess of night and magic. She has no grand ideology or plan, instead driven by petty vendettas and fleeting whims. Her holy book is a tome of confusing puzzle-like riddles for her worshipers to figure out her desires. She encourages followers to master magic and the tools of deceit and for the latter her faith is outlawed in many regions. She counts many enemies among the other deities, but oddly enough she and Hecate are on neutral terms in spite of both faiths having deadly rivalries. This leads some to suspect one is a mask of the other.

Valeresh is the honorable elven god of battle, his order famed for the creation of great and powerful magical weapons. A handful of them still exist in protected vaults of the former Empire of Thorn in Midgard, but otherwise the legacies of his teachings, holy books, and temples no longer remain.

Yarila and Porevit are the most popularly-worshiped elven deities in Midgard. They are twin faces of the same deity: Poreveit is the god of harvest, wine, and greenery, and turns into the goddess Yarila during the next spring planting. They govern the harvest, are patrons of the forests, and dispense seemingly-indecipherable teachings to their druidic followers. It is in fact unknown which deity should be venerated at what times: this mystery is known only to the dual-deity's priests and peasants who rely on their blessings. Their code of conduct has a peculiar rule based on the gender of worshipers: male followers honor Porevit by participating in the harvest, while women followers honor Yarila by participating in spring planting.

Southern Gods

The deties of Nuria Natal are ancient faiths who persevered in a grand human kingdom when other realms fell into chaos. They saw the rise and fall of hundreds of smaller gods within their realm, and as such seem impervious to time. Save for Aten, they all have animal heads and are fond of visiting their worshipers in physical form.

Anu-Akma (Anubis, Hades, Hel) is the god of death, guardian of graveyards and tombs. His priests know anointing rituals for the nobility to help them rise as mummies and liches to defend their lands when the time is right. His worship takes a much darker aspect in the Ghoul Imperium, who revere him as a provider of new dead flesh for feasting. Anu-Akma is one of the most popular deities of Nuria Natal, and is the husband of Bastet; both faiths are known to have worshipers enter into marriages in emulation of their patrons.

Aten is a jealous sun god who forbids the worship of all others by his followers. He is a foe of the dark gods and defends the faithful with his blinding light. However, he is intolerant to the point of violence, encouraging his followers to violently expel non-believers from villages, to pillage and desecrate temples of other gods, and to convert unbelievers or slaughter them as circumstances dictate. They reserve an exception for Khors and Lada who are viewed as Aten's semi-divine offspring: worshipers of these deities are considered to be in error and in need of being shown the proper path. His center of worship is in Per-Xor, and his greatest prophet Ra-Amon-Ra was turned into a martyr when he was slain by Mharoti dragonfire. This "messiah cult" is growing in popularity in both Nuria Natal and the Dragon Empire. The devotees of Ra offer hope and forgiveness, almsgiving to the poor, and dwarves and women comprise a majority of their followers (half of Ra's disciples were female). Both countries banned the cult's worship, which has turned the messianics dangerously violent as a result.

And the kicker of this is that Aten is a Lawful Good god! This may sound downright insane, but keep in mind that Dungeons & Dragons settings have a rich, storied tradition of portraying Lawful Good gods of light as oppressive tyrants in savior's clothing. From the Istaran Kingpriests of Dragonlance to Pholtus' anti-magic sentiment in Greyhawk, Aten is just the latest in a long line of Lawful Stupid idiots.

There's also a Chaotic Evil heretical cult who worships "the True Aten" as a lord of fire, and is believed to be the mask for Loki or one of the Dark Gods.

Bastet (Ailuros) is a chaotic goddess of desire and wild abandon. She is revered among perfumers and alchemists, but also venerated as a huntress for her lioness aspect. She draws a diverse array of worshipers, from farmers who prize a cat's ability to kill mice, alchemists and perfumers honing their craft, temple prostitutes and dancers who heed her guidance for beauty and invoking passion, and gnolls and hunters seeking a fortunate hunt. She is popular in the Duchy of Bourgund due to their perfume industry, where she wears the mask of Ailuros. Bastet's center of worship is the metropolitan city of Per-Bastet, and while men may worship her the goddess only grants the right of priesthood and spells to women.

Horus is the kingly lord of the Nurian pantheon. Although weakened from his battles with Aten and once engulfed by the fires of the desert, like a phoenix he rose from the ashes. He seeks to establish a lost Nurian golden age, and does this by both personally and encouraging followers to slay demons, push back the Mharoti invaders, and bring order out of chaos by putting down usurpers. Horus is popular in the eastern city-states of the Free Cities of the Desert as well as the Tamasheq nomads, and his teachings known as the Code of Horus serve as a legal foundation for Nuria Natal's governance.

Ninkash did not originate among the dwarves, but is so closely associated with them that she is most often depicted as one. The Kariv brought her faith to the dwarves of the Crossroads, and she adopted the brewing rituals of Wotan's priests into a more joyful celebration. The goddess is closely associated with alcohol, beer particularly, and emphasizes its use as a form of social bonding in taverns and festivals. The priesthood is completely egalitarian, sporting both men and women with unrestricted access to hierarchies and training. They are well known for brewing Holy Ales, beverages laced with beneficial magical effects akin to potions.

Thoth-Hermes is a god admired by scholars, thieves, merchants, and wizards alike. He is the patron deity of the Magocracy of Allain, and when those mighty mages found themselves stumped with a supernatural conundrum they often turn to Thoth-Hermes' priests. The deity has books containing his teachings, but all tomes are "holy books" to him: although knowledge may be safeguarded from prying eyes, the destruction book is an abominable act no matter the context or subject material. His temples are libraries, and many markets have small shrines with scales and a locked box for offerings (whose theft is sure to invite deadly retribution from his followers).

City Gods

The elven pantheon was once the religion of the Valeran Empire, a vassal of Thorn. But after the Great Retreat the rising war culture saw the development of a different pantheon. Mavros is by far the most popular and considered the head of the Seven Cities pantheon, but every deity encourages their followers to war against each other and the forces of foreign gods. Religious debates are heavily discouraged in public forums, as one faith's is quite often tied to more earthly political alliances.

Ceres the Provider is the goddess of harvest and civilization. She also oversees trade and the roads connecting communities, also vital features of society. Her holy days take place during harvest times and the changing of seasons. Although not pacifists, her followers' emphasis on "reasonable peace" makes her not as popular as other gods in the region. Darker cults worshiper her as Ceres the Reaper, using humanoid sacrifices and slaughter of enemies to ensure a good harvest. Ceres has no long-standing temples, with any such structures demolished via fire on their 50th anniversary to reflect the seasonal winds of change. We also get 5th Edition stats for the scythe: it's a simple melee weapon costing 3 gp. It deals 1d6+1 slashing damage, is 4 pounds, and has the heavy and two-handed properties. A pretty good deal at an affordable price!

Charun is a death god tasked with overseeing the passage of souls from birth to death and to the afterlife byond. He protects planar travelers and his boat sails the rivers of realms beyond Midgard. He is an enemy of many fey and outsiders who visit the world of mortals: such beings often traffic in souls and thus disrupt the natural order. He is not respected in the Ghoul Imperium, and slaves secretly venerate him by pretending to offer rites to Anu-Akma. They hope the gods' protection will offer escape from a terrible existence.

Hecate is an evil goddess of magic and the moon. Her motives are inscrutable even to other gods, and she takes one of three forms depending on the lunar phases: during the new moon she is the vengeful Lady of Darkness; during half moon she is the Lady of Sighs who whispers arcane secrets to the faithful; and during the full moon she's the Lady of Tears, a more benevolent aspect who reveals the future of the world as she grieves for its pain.

Her enslavement of and marriage to the sea god Nethus resulted in the two churches uniting, although some priests of the latter think there's more to the story and suspect the worst. Her priesthood is strong and organized in Khammae Straboli, but beyond that city she has a diverse following of various sizes and among many races.

Mavros the War God and His Order is the patron deity of the Seven Cities, whose entire culture revolves around fulfilling his tenets of holy war. His church is extensive, and the formal order of the House of Swords is both large and whose grounds are considered politically autonomous in the Seven Cities. Most citizens of the Seven Cities plus warriors of all kinds venerate him, but among women and children his aspect as a chivalrous protector is considered just as important as his military aspects. Mavros has two holy books, one of which is the rare Annals of Mavros whose text is impervious to copying and often moved or stolen by various divine heralds.

Mavros used to be married to Hecate, but after her infidelity with Nethus he spurned her in favor of a marriage with Marena the Red. We have a sizable entry on the Order of Mavros, which trains martial orders as their own private army. Due to their politically autonomous nature, their grounds are often havens for criminals fleeing the law. Much like the French Foreign Legion IRL, said criminals can gain legal immunity and a new start by joining the order. In order to discourage opportunists, the Order sends such criminal-converts out as the first wave into high-risk wars. Deserters are hunted down by both the church and whatever authorities they first sought to flee.

All worshipers of Mavros are expected to make a pilgrimage to the Seat of Mavros at least once in their lives, which starts at the House of Swords in Valera. The 900 mile journey through the Western Wastes is dangerous, but those who make it through alive take pride in their survival as testament to their faith and warrior skills.

Nethus is the god of the sea. He was once a powerful deity worshiped all across Midgard, but ever since his imprisonment by the worshipers of Hecate he is but a shadow of his former self. Although freed, he is little more than a pawn of Kammae Straboli's oracles. It seems that he's forgotten his first wife entirely, although some believe that Nethus made a vow of service in exchange for his freedom. He was the patron deity of the island nation of Ankeshel before it sank, and his most devoted followers are all those who rely upon the sea for their livelihood. He is now a sworn enemy of the Mharoti Dragon Gods and wrought great devastation against the priesthood of Seggotan.

Dark Gods

The wicked and forbidden entities known as the Dark Gods are not a single pantheon per se. Rather they are gods who fell from the ranks of true divinity into the realms of demons and devils. Desperate to regain their former power, they demand terrible deeds from their followers. Like Aten, they permit no diversity of faiths and demand that they and they alone be worshiped by priests.

Addrikah is the insane derro goddess who is an oracle and interpreter to even more alien gods. She has little approaching an organized dogma beyond driving others into insanity and the sacrifice of sapient races. Most of her worship takes place among the deep caves of the earth by derro and other inhuman entities.

Boreas is the son of Marena, tasked with one day plunging the world into a deathly, eternal winter. He lairs in the far North, brewing storms and sending minions of cold throughout the world. He is also fond of shapeshifting into the forms of animals and impregnating female members of the species whose forms he takes. Some of the best horses of Midgard are his spawn, and he claims to be the father of all winter wolves for similar reasons.

Chernobog is the embodiment of mortal fears, known for his rapacious hunger and whose presence causes entire graveyards to rise in answer to his call. He is served by all manner of scum and monsters, and his greatest temple is in the gnomish kingdom of Niemheim. His teachings promote Social Darwinism of might makes right, to take what you want from the weak and never show mercy or weakness. As a mortal you are lesser than Chernobog and thus expected to serve him.

The Goat of the Woods is one of the only two non-evil Dark Gods (Chaotic). During the time of the old human magocracies of the west, the Goat of the Woods was known as Bacchana, a deity of night, wealth, and fertility. She encouraged her followers to pursue all manner of lusts and excess, and was one of the most hawkish deities in the arms races of the Great Mage Wars. The atrocities of war, as well as her gazing into the alien realms, irreversibly changed her body and soul. Now both male and female, the Goat of the Woods is a hideous morass of monstrous appendages, worshiped in isolated groves. The Goat of the Woods encourages satiation of sexual desires and to expand one's mind beyond the bounds of sanity while flaunting mortal laws and traditions. The deity's followers consider cross-dressing as an act of devotion as well as a means of breaking laws and taboos.

Conversely, the priests of the Goat are defenders of social outcasts, who seek to defend these people from the society that failed them. One of the most popular gestures among the faithful is the totally metal Sign of the Horns.

The Hunter goes by many names and walks in countless forms. He represents the universal aspect of the predator, the one who pursues the thrill of the chase and the "eat or be eaten" cycle of life and death. He is worshiped by the most violent centaurs and bandits, and among the fey he is famed for his Wild Hunts which can enrapture even gods into riding a bloody path alongside him. In civilized societies his gatherings of faithful take the form of hunting lodges and assassin's guilds. The Hunter's priests claim that their god wears no masks, but others attribute like-minded gods to him.

Mammon is the archdevil of greed, his claws capable of holding entire treasuries. He seeks to claim everything as his property, and to that end he will never be satisfied. He attracts many who lust for wealth and do not care about the ethics of how it's gained. He encourages wealth accumulation through means both fair and foul.

Marena is the goddess of lust, death, and plague. She is the patron deity of vampires, ghouls, and female prostitutes. She is the state religion of the Greater Duchy of Morgau, but encourages evangelism among the poor in other lands. Her priesthood is one of the few means of social advancement for living citizens of the Blood Kingdom. Flagellations, branding, and executions by beheading are her most favored means of punishment. Orgies are a common form of worship and social gatherings in her temples.

Vardesain is the other non-evil Dark God (Neutral) and holds dominion over hunger. He encourages gluttony, cannibalism, and wasteful excess. His followers are frequently power-hungry mortals and predatory monsters who care only for satiating their base needs. Vardesain's temples contain purple worms to devour sacrifices. He is the patron deity of the Ghoul Imperium, and encourages priests to devour the hearts of their enemies.

The White Goddess was born beneath the skin of the world. The first entity she saw after clawing her way to the surface was Khors' divine radiance. It is said that she chased him across the horizon, devouring the surface-dwelling races along the way and forming armor out of their bones. The faithful point to the continual cycle of day and night as their patron's eternal struggle against the sun god. Her primary worshipers are orcs, a near-extinct race which was once numerous but now confined to the underground and most isolated reaches of Midgard. Her holiest days are the solar eclipse, believed to be a hole made in Khors' head when the White Goddess tore a portion of flesh and bone from his skull. During this time the orcs mass in great hordes to raid and kill.

We get 5th Edition stats for a temple sword (one of the White Goddess' favored weapons). It is a martial melee weapon costing 25 gp. It deals 1d8 slashing damage, weighs 2 pounds, and has the Versatile (1d10) and Finesse properties. Besides the Core rapier and other possible 3rd party books, this is the only other 1d8 finesse weapon in 5th Edition D&D. Its 1d10 Versatile property can push this damage even further.

Thoughts So Far: I really like Midgard's pantheons. The mask aspect is a cool and innovative concept for a divine origin, and I like how there's cross-cultural adoption of deities rather than having them be consigned to geographic areas. I liked the idea of de-emphasizing alignment, although I feel that the Worldbook did not go far enough in this regard. But besides the Dark Gods, it should not be too hard to let clerics be of any alignment given how most of the deities aren't innately tied to moral systems or demand atrocities. There is a bit of gender stereotypes among deities called out as being favored by women or have male-focused orders (Bastet, Lada, Mavros, etc) and associating cross-dressers and female prostitutes with the "evil pantheon" is more than a little problematic*. But overall I felt this to be a good chapter.

*unless we count Bastet as a non-evil alternative for the latter.

We're entering the home stretch now! All we have left to cover are the 5th Edition and Pathfinder Rules Appendices!

 

[Libertad]

Although the Midgard Heroes' Handbook and the Midgard Player's Guide each cover nearly 200 pages worth of material for 5th Edition and Pathfinder respectively, that hasn't prevented the Worldbook from providing new mechanics. Ordinarily the two appendices are split into their own entries, but to avoid repeating myself I figured to cover them both in one sitting. In some cases there are mechanics found only in one version (usually 5th Edition). I assume that this is because existing material is in the other system already, such as the Lust domain which already exists in Pathfinder. For ease of use, (5e) stands for 5th Edition D&D, while (PF) stands for Pathfinder.

Character Options

Gnoll Caravan Raider is a background (5e) and is exactly what it says on the tin: it provides proficiency in Acrobatics, Intimidation, Alchemist's tools, and nomadic gear along with the Feature where you have advantage on sifting through and appraising trade goods. In Pathfinder gnolls get two new archetypes: Havoc Runner for Fighters, and Caravan Raider for Rogues. The Havoc Runner has some mobility-based features where you gain increased speed when you move, and you can impose penalty on attack rolls and movement speed to people you hit while running. The Caravan Raider has some bonus feats, but its signature feature is a Shock Bag which is a limited-use-per-day item generator which can replicate an alchemical weapon. We also have a pair of new Rogue Talents (PF) which increase the damage values and save DCs of alchemical weapons, which work great with multiclass Alchemist builds.

Paladins get a new Sacred Oath (5e) of the Giving Grave which is all about transcending the mortal coil. It grants some new blood-themed spells as well as more familiar necromancy spells such as animate dead. Its Channel Divinity can compel undead to attack who you want or stun a target for one minute until it takes damage. Its other class features include granting turn immunity to yourself and allies, gain regeneration when below half your hit points, and as a 20th level capstone you resurrect as a death knight if slain.

The new Lust Domain (5e/PF) in 5th Edition is possessed by Bastet, Freyr and Freyja, Marena, and Bacchos. It focuses on enchantment spells, grants proficiency in one of Deception/Performance/Persuasion, and its Lustful Gaze channel divinity is a single-target debuff which impacts perception related abilities and at 17th level can obey your verbal commands. In (PF) the already-existing domain has replacement powers akin to a bard's fascination or enthrall abilities.

The Hunger Domain (PF) is exclusive to Vardesain and grants the cleric a rounds-per-day bite attack along with feast of ashes as a spell-like ability (which can starve people). Its domain spells are predictably related to food and water creation, buffs usually in the form of bite attacks, and debuffs like energy drain and a new spell Ravenous Hunger (which forces an affected creature to drop what it's doing and eat something nearby).

The Serophage Sorcerous Origin (5e) is all about the dark powers of the blood. It includes reduced damage from bludgeoning weapons, the ability to regain sorcery points or add +1/+2 to save DCs (based on level) if you deal 1d4 slashing damage to yourself, and the ability to form a ring of blood from a recently killed creature to absorb incoming attacks or be launched at foes as a weapon. Its greatest feature at 18th level forcefully exsanguinates blood from nearby creatures to restore your own HP or sorcery points.

Wizards get a lot of fun here. They have a School of Blood Magic (5e) where they gain learn the memories of a creature whose blood they drink, and absorb poisons and diseases from other creatures into their own body...and can launch it at others as a ranged spit attack! The School of Void Magic (5e) revolves around the alien nature of the Void, where speaking the dread language as part of a verbal component can impose disadvantage to an affected target's next roll, and other features the ability to impose necrotic damage as a per-long-rest ability, and at 14th level can manifest a 20 cubic feet of darkness which imposes necrotic damage and disadvantage on Wisdom checks. Finally, the Void Savant (PF) is virtually the same as the School of Void Magic, save that they gain free Extend Spell metamgic feat a limited number of uses per day.

Occultists (PF) can play around with void magic in the form of new Implements, focus powers, etc. As I never got into Occult Adventures, I cannot really comment on this in an educated way on the base class' powers. Their implements can impose madness debuffs, create a warped major image as a Base Focus Power, and various dark magic related Focus Powers like turning into an aberrant alien form, summoning creepy creatures, devouring spells and souls, and free divinations from violent sacrifice.

We have a pair of new feats (PF): the first is the metamagic feat Strengthen Caster where you restore HP equal to twice the level of a cast spell, while Rush of Magic grants a free bull rush using your caster level and spellcasting score on all those affected by an elemental damage spell (acid/cold/fire/electricity). Yes, this applies to area of effect spells for multiple targets, the feat states as such.

Nonmagical Items (5e) presents five new pieces of gear, most focused on the cultures of the Rothenian Plains. The Centaur Lance is a super-spear which does double the normal damage as a regular spear and provides advantage against mounted enemies. The Kariv Wheel Shield can be used as both a shield and wagon wheel which act as a +3 AC shield (but needs STR 16 or disadvantage on DEX checks due to bulkiness) or if used on a vehicle grants it bonus AC and HP. The Khazzaki Trick-Bow is meant to be used to show off in archery competitions, with half the range of a shortbow yet grants advantage on Charisma (Performance) checks for archery-based endeavors. The Rothenian Spice Kit can be used to brew food during rests to regain one additional hit die with a DC 5 Intelligence check by the cook. Finally the whip-sash is an unassuming Kariv weapon disguised as a normal piece of clothing but can be turned into a whip with a bonus action.

Drugs & Poisons (5e/PF) details Requiem, a drug which allows you the ability to cast the speak with dead spell, but with risk of poison damage (5e) or suffering nonlethal damage and penalties on d20 rolls (PF). It can be imbibed as clay to smoke, or smoked in a more powerful form known as bliss which grants contact other plane or speak with dead, save the spirit cannot lie to you. We get a 5th Edition-exclusive poison known as ghoul saliva paste which can cause paralysis on a failed Constitution save, but is very smelly and as such it's hard to sneak up on creatures with Keen Smell trait while carrying it.

We have a new vehicle in the form of a Siwali Dune Ship. In 5th Edition you merely add +25% to the base cost of a ship so it can travel on desert sands; it is not in the Appendix proper but in the Southlands chapter. In Pathfinder it's listed as a vehicle in the Appendix, and provides a full stat block for a Colossal multi-purpose desert and water vehicle: it's 12,500 GP to buy and requires longstrider and pass without trace spells for its creation. A rather reasonable price for a magic item of that kind; nonmagical fortresses are 50,000 GP.

Magical Items​

There's quite a bit of magic items here, 23 typical ones and 2 artifacts to be precise. But only half of them are dual-statted for both Pathfinder. I'm not going to repeat them all, just the more interesting ones.

The Black Phial (5e) can provide the effect of a Potion of Greater Healing if filled with fresh blood, but this is limited use item. Blood Mark (5e) is an appropriately creepy coin, as a person can fuel its charges with their own blood, and another person can "fulfill the pledge" to restore their HP at the expense of dealing damage to the original donor. The Keffiyeh of Serendipitous Escape (5e/PF) can be worn as a head garment but also laid out into a flying carpet. The Key of Veles (5e/PF) can be used to locate a ley line or shadow road and open the latter by expending a charge. Memory Philters (5e/PF) are favorites of the shadow fey: they impose various emotion-related buffs and debuffs to the drinker, but their creation requires a mortal to sacrifice knowledge of an appropriate memory (memory of failure or embarassment for shame potion, a nice childhood memory for a joy potion, etc). A Nullifier's Lexicon (5e) allows you to communicate in Void Speech and grants the ability to cast certain spells from its pages, but successive castings deal a cumulative 1d6 necrotic damage whose damage value only resets during long rests. The tome can also rearrange reality to your will once a week. The Staff of the First Labyrinth (5e/PF) is a creation from the days of the Moon Kingdom and can banish stricken opponents to an extradimensional maze for a limited time.

Our two artifacts are And'Ducyr (5e), the Khazzaki Khan's legendary longbow which generates its own ammunition, grants truesight to one who draws its string (but deals damage if you don't fire it at a creature within your turn), can fire blinding arrows, and grants advantage and proficiency on Charisma and Intimidation/Persuasion/Performance skills respectively. The Spark of Kjord (5e/PF) is a formless power of divinity which was last possessed by a priest of Mavros before his death at the hands of vampires. It grants advantage/bonuses on Charisma checks to rally people to your cause and deals bonus/radiant damage to undead creatures along with the effects of the bless spell. The spark leaves you to inhabit another creature if you die or waver in your convictions against fighting vampiric tyranny.

Fun Fact: the Spark of Kjord is a reference to the divine sparks in the Southlands Campaign Setting. Such things were stored ephemeral energy of the mighty titans of Glorious Umbuso. They were meant to be found as rare treasure, usually in a king's vault or well-guarded dungeon, and in game purposes granted the powers of Mythic Tiers.

Alternate Magic​

This details new magic sub-systems. The first we have is Blood Magic (5e) which was created by the evil wizard Taergash the Bloodpurger. His spells are highly sought after by wicked mages of all kinds, and the book cautions against granting these spells to PCs on account that they are "evil options" not suitable for most parties.

Red Portal Magic (5e/PF) meanwhile is is a unique form of extradimensional transportation which connects not only to shadow roads but other planes, times, and alternate realities which the book calls out as being possibly other published campaign settings. It has no game mechanics beyond suggestions on their use and the most well-known red portal locations in Midgard.

Shadow Magic (5e/PF) is fully detailed in the Midgard Heroes' Handbook/Player's Guide, but for now we get notes on Shadow Corruption: it's basically a debilitative condition gained from spending a long time in the Shadow Realm, pacts with dark beings, etc and is represented in six stages. Lower stages involve minor debuffs in bright light and social penalties, but later stages make you blind/sickened/etc in light until you eventually become a Shadow Thrall. Those unfortunate souls are maddened people obsessed with the Shadow Realm and can be commanded by creatures of shadow.

Void Magic (5e/PF) gets a pretty lengthy entry here. Long story short, it's Lovecraftian magic gleaned from aboleth glyphs, but can also come from the howling denizens in the dark spaces between the stars. For 5th Edition we get a pair of feats for Void Magic: Void Channeler which ups the DC for speaking the language to 8 + proficiency bonus + Charisma modifier for its frightened effect and is no longer limited to just hearing it for the first time. The limiting factor is that you take necrotic damage if you use it too often between rests. Void Scribe lets you inscribe a glyph on an object to make it vulnerable to and take necrotic damage the round after. As far as the feats go, Void Channeler's quite good for the debuff effect of frighten, whereas Void Scribe is rather weak.

We get discussion of Void Taint, which usually comes from exposure to related magic, monsters, and terrain poisoned by the powers of the Void. It is resisted with a save appropriate to the method of taint, and people with void-related archetypes and feats have advantage on the saving throws. Failure causes affliction with a short-term madness. Further Void-related maladies can make madness effects last longer or gain physical deformities based on a numeric threshold known as Void Taint. The madness effects are generally role-play focused obsessions, but the deformities have mechanical effects: they are generally a double-edged sword, such as constantly producing slime on your skin which grants advantage on checks to slip out of bonds, but advantage on checks for other people to track you.

Spells

The final section of the twin appendices do not disappoint. We have 77 new spells for 5th Edition, and about half that amount for Pathfinder. For new magical types, we also have [blood] and [void] descriptors for both 5th Edition and Pathfinder entries.

While you'd think that 5th Edition would get most of the exclusive spells, interestingly there are are several Pathfinder-specific options. Two of them are incantations handled as rituals: Incantation of Fealty Given Form (geas/quest to the Duchy), and Incantation of Walking the Shadow Roads (go through a shadow road). Other Pathfinder specific spells include Essence of Instability (radiate an invisible damaging aura), Grasping Water (water sprouts attacking pseudopods), and Halt Vessel (prevents seacraft from moving).

Like the magic item section, I will not cover them all. Instead I'll focus on the most interesting ones.

Alone (5e/PF) is an enchantment spell which fools the target into thinking its allies vanished to another realm; this prevents them from interacting and gaining teamwork-related abilities and treats them as if they were invisible and silent. Blood & Steel (5e) allows you to charm a construct by pressing your own blood into a handprint on it. Conjure Undead (5e) lets you summon a shadow to do your bidding, but higher spell slots let you summon stronger undead such as wights or ghosts. Conjure/Summon Minor Voidborn (PF/5e) and Conjure/Summon Voidborn (PF/5e) summon an aberration or outsider of a relative power level, and in 5th Edition expending higher level slots lets you summon them in greater numbers. Doom of the Slippery Rogue (5e) covers a 20 by 20 foot section of wall or floor with bacon fat and can cause people to slip or fail on a failed Dexterity save or Strength (Athletics) depending on circumstances. Find Kin (5e) is a low-level ritual which allows you to learn the identity and general location of a random living blood relative of the target. Hobble Mount (5e) deals 2d6 bludgeoning damage (plus 2d6 per slot over 1st level) to a mounted creature which moves more than half its normal movement speed in a round. Ice Soldiers (5e/PF) creates one or more humanoid constructs made from freezing water poured out of a vial, which has respectable statistics for a melee-focused creature. Mammon's Due (5e) summons a burning figure of ash to grab and deal fire damage to creatures in its space to pull them underneath the ground. Open Red Portal (5e/PF) can create a two-way portal on a nearby Shadow Road to take you anywhere in Midgard in the present day, up to 1,000 years in the past, or another plane of existence. Void Rift (5e/PF) opens up a rift into absolute nothingness akin to a black hole, forcefully dragging creatures within the area of effect, deals damage, and either treats them as blind and deaf (5e) or begin to suffocate from lack of air (PF).

Also the Lust Domain for 5th Edition has 3 new spells specific to that ruleset. Throes of Ecstasy causes a target to be overcome with sexual euphoria, is incapacitated, auto-fails Wisdom saves for the duration, and suffers 1 to 3 levels of exhaustion based on how long the spell lasted. Lovesick is akin to confusion in that you roll a 1d10 for random behavior: do nothing and sulk like a lovelorn teenager, burst into tears and take the Dash action in a random direction, fly into a jealous rage and attack a random creature, etc. Finally, Kiss of the Succubus can only be used on a charmed creature or one affected by your Lustful Gaze Channel Divinity: it deals 5d10 psychic damage on a failed Constitution save and reduces the victim's HP maximum by that amount until a long rest (or kills them instantly if their HP max is reduced to 0).

Thoughts So Far: There's quite a wealth of material in both appendices, especially for spellcasters. I have to wonder how many of the 5th Edition specific material already exists in a Pathfinder book, on account that most Midgard books have been published for that ruleset. If most of them don't exist in earlier products, I can't help but feel that Pathfinder players are getting the short end of the stick here. Some of the abilities seemed to have questionable balance: the Kariv Wheel shield when combined with heavy armor and magical enhancements can push one's AC beyond bounded accuracy thresholds, the Serophage's boost to spell DC is a great deal for just a little bit of damage, and the Throes of Ecstasy is a great setup for a followup Wisdom-save effect...presuming your gaming group would be comfortable with having you cast that spell, as it's technically sexual assault if done against an unwilling creature.

As for what I liked: I found that the Oath of the Grave paladin makes for a pretty good martial necromancer archetype. The Rothenian Spice Kit brings back fuzzy memories of Final Fantasy XV's camping mechanic. The memory philters and the methods of their creation were thematically awesome. The Red Portals have great potential for multi-campaign crossovers or "guy sucked from modern world into fantasy realm" adventure ideas. Requiem's dead-speaking properties make it both a useful resource for players, as well as creating an insidious effect for addicts desperate to speak to loved ones as a social scourge.

Concluding Thoughts​

My feelings for Midgard remain just as strong as they were when I first picked the book up six years ago, albeit perhaps with a more critical eye on its problematic elements. Still, the 2018 Worldbook is a worthy successor for fans and newcomers alike. There are very few settings out there like it: it calls upon fairy tale and folkloric elements without taking a stereotypical "kid-friendly" route, it has a diverse kitchen-sink world which feels naturally connected and not disparately crammed together, and its relative rules-neutrality but with system-specific booklets makes it accessible to gamers of various fantasy RPGs.

I hope that I demonstrated to readers the strengths of Wolfgang Baur's long-running passion project, and hope that you all enjoyed reading this review as much as I enjoyed writing it!