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[Let's Read] Midgard Worldbook
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 7578941" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/feIjXRX.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>The Rothenian Plain is a huge open grassland of the east whose size dwarfs all but the largest of empires. The nomadic way of life is the norm here, and the only standing proper nation is the poor but proud Kingdom of Vidim. The steppes are the favorite stomping grounds of Baba Yaga, who plays the various factions against one another from year to year. And beyond are the mysterious lands of the Utter East who have yet to be detailed in any sourcebooks.</p><p></p><p>Our first entry is not a nation or culture, but on <strong>Grandmother Baba Yaga</strong> herself. She's one of the major power players of Midgard, and although not a deity herself kings and gods alike treat her with a mixture of respect and fear. There is just as much fact known about her as folktales, and it's not uncommon for scholars compiling books about her to have the ink on their pages vanish or turn into paper-eating worms. But Baba Yaga's knowledge is boundless, from the last thoughts of the dying star Tovaya to the Words of Unfounding which can never be spoken lest they unseat the gods. She is willing to part with her unmatched knowledge for a high price, which usually takes the form of a fairy tale-style quest or sacrifice such one's own final breath. She lives in a mobile hut with enormous chicken legs capable of leaping in mile-long jaunts, and the interior is supernaturally large with all manner of rooms.</p><p></p><p>Baba Yaga has an unknown amount of daughters, all beautiful fey known as vila. They too are powerful in the magical arts and have their own (albeit smaller) chicken-legged huts. It's not uncommon to see them cavorting in the halls and palaces of Midgard's nobility where some have the lord's ear. The less witting servants of the great witch are mystics who went mad from the knowledge imparted by her and who look for her influence in signs and portents. In addition to lore, Baba Yaga has a secret garden with unique ingredients capable of healing any affliction, tended to by mindless slaves who angered or failed her along with earth elemental guardians. But her most famous minion is perhaps Koschei the Deathless, a wicked immortal whose soul is embedded within an egg hidden inside a duck, which is nestled within a hare that rests within a goat. The egg's destruction means Koschei's destruction, and so Baba Yaga keeps the goat's location hidden to make Koschei do what she wants.</p><p></p><p><strong>METAPLOT:</strong> The kingdom of Domovogrod was the only other sedentary culture besides Vidim upon the plains. It was founded by Sivinvoya Vellaraya, a silver dragon who cared not for the Mharoti Empire's political goals and instead journeyed north to settle near a World Tree known as the Winter Tree. He taught the surrounding humans advanced farming and healing techniques to found the kingdom of Domovogrod. Although the dragon is long-gone, his human descendants ruled in his example. But now the kingdom's overrun by ogres, trolls, and giants of the Northlands, its capital city claimed by a gluttonous warlord unable to rise from his very throne. The Winter Tree now sits unattended beyond a small band of winterfolk druids and rangers. The last human bastion is a small town of fur-traders seeking vengeance against the giants.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Khanate of the Khazzaki</strong></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/RfjKNoF.png?1" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>The Khazzaki are a band of human and centaur nomads who live as horse and ox herders, warriors, and occasionally farmers. Their settlements are tent-like yurts, their leader is a Khan who has a military-like hierarchy of generals and soldiers spread among the clans. Although they have traditional lands, they are a far-flung people who can show up anywhere from the Crossroads to the Utter East. They warred against the Mharoti Empire, and Khan Bodhan Zenody is prepping for an all-out assault on either them or one of the greater nations for loot and glory. After successful raids and campaigns it is customary for Khazzaki to travel to the Red Mounds of Rhos Khurgan, a set of 32 burial mounds created by a forgotten race. One of the mounds is cursed and thus avoided. The Khazzaki treat them as sacred sites and pour wine on their soil as offered drink. For unknown reasons divine magic is warped and stymied around the mounds. The Khanate's closest thing to a proper city is Misto Kolis, which is more akin to a traveling carnival and has a sizable Kariv population.</p><p></p><p><strong>METAPLOT:</strong> One of the greatest scourges of the Khanate recently is not war but a disease afflicting their horses known as the Black Strangles. It spreads fast and affects even centaurs, and the Khan is hoping that a mysterious group of allied druids known as the Grassweavers of Perun may discover a cure. There's also individual tents of great fame, such as the Yurt Monasteries home to sorcerer-priests of obscure gods, the Black Wagon whose doom-saying oracle is a bad omen to encounter on the plains, and the Krasni Yurta whose wizard occupant enchanted its silk to be as strong as steel along with a pocket dimension only he and his guests can access.</p><p></p><p>We finish this section with mention of the Khan's Three Great Treasures: Draugir the horse who only lets the true khan ride it and was won from Koschei over a riding contest; the An'Ducyr bow which was forged from the heartwood of a World Tree which grants magical sight to one who draws its bowstring; and the Dragoncoat, armor forged from the scales of a wind dragon which grants immunity to poison as well as enchantment and evocation spells of all kinds.</p><p></p><p>We have a brief sidebar on <strong>Demon Mountain,</strong> a sulfurous place of foul reputation ruled over by a tiefling archmage known only as the Master. He claims to be the noble scion of Vale Turog and lives in a palace of bones he can never leave, but sends all manner of mortal and demonic minions to scour the lands. <strong>Fun fact:</strong> as he fathered dozens of tiefling children he sent out into the world in order to discover a way to undo his imprisonment. As such he was presented as a possible backstory for tiefling PCs</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Centaur Hordes of the Plain</strong></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/VKubEtB.jpg?1" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>The centaur clans are individually small yet possessed of a mighty reputation. They are mercenaries of great skill whose services have been purchased with meager oats and cheese. They are fiercely independent and although willing to work for others almost never acquiesce to assimilating into sedentary cities. They believe that true freedom is found via a nomadic lifestyle. The centaurs believe that their creation was by the god Perun after his previous creations failed. Humans had the ability to craft great tools but whose bodies were too slow and weak, while horses were fast and strong but too dumb and herd-like to produce cunning hunters and great heroes. It was the mocking of his wife that convinced Perun to give it his all and create the centaurs, combining the best traits of his earlier creations.</p><p></p><p>We get a brief rundown of centaur culture: they herd goats and sheep and mark passage into adulthood when one can create and live in their own tent. They are nomadic but have favored locations to return to twice a year, and their mages are predominantly druids. Men are encouraged to be warriors and women are discouraged from journeying beyond the confines of their clan group. There is talk by the Chieftain of the Yendge Clan to unite the race under a single banner which the smaller tribes find amenable for strength in numbers. The Black Strangle disease is a growing plague among centaurs and known as the Long-Teeth among them. It causes their teeth to grow twice their normal size, makes the sensation of bright light painful, and causes excruciating pain to walk or stand. The final stage is the most dire, as it encourages the centaur to seek out others of their kind to bite and infect, now hardly better than a mindless cannibal.</p><p></p><p><strong>METAPLOT:</strong> The Grassweavers of Perun created a herbal poultice to prevent the disease from reaching this final stage, although centaur and Khazzaki both seek a true cure. There is rumor of a remedy in the city of Trombei.</p><p></p><p>We finish this entry with a talk on centaur clan structure. They tend to be either steppe nomads, mercenary companies, or bandits, and all of them elect their Chieftains and war leaders via majority vote. The six clans listed here are the Dargit who are famed archers; Morav, whose bards' stirring odes strike inspiration into their allies and fear into their enemies; Ogol, a clan governed by druids who serve Perun and are on the hunt for the legendary spear Zonbol believed to be wielded by their god; Rhoet, a sadistic mercenary band with ties to Demon Mountain and the realm of Misto Cherno; Sarras, expert wine-makers; and Yengde, mercenaries and bandits who are famed for dual-wielding spears.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Kingdom of Vidim</strong></p><p></p><p>Vidim's origins lie in a mutual defense pact between humans and huginn against dwarven and giant raiders. The kingdom makes the majority of its wealth through sea trade along the Nieder Straits, and most of its population are subsistence-based farmers known as serfs. Beyond the agricultural serfs are the boyars, nobles and vassals trusted with physical defense from foreign threats and local uprisings. Then there are the huggin, who act as a spy network who inhabit a rookery (impromptu ravenfolk neighborhood among a city's towers and multi-story structures) not far from the tsar's Scarlet Palace. The boyars and huginns do not trust each other, and the tsar is unable to quell the numerous duels and murders which crop up between both sides.</p><p></p><p>The Tsar's judgment is unraveling due to his madness, which is kept secret by his inner circle to avoid the loss of national morale. Although they do their best to guide him to wise actions, this is not always possible. There are those suggesting the eldest Princess ascend the throne, although she's devoted to her father and brooks no talk of deposing him. His palace's major feature is the skull of a Thursir giant slain by the current tsar's father and is considered a good luck charm by many.</p><p></p><p>We get brief descriptions of of three smaller cities of Vidim, as well as a natural feature of five pillars in the sea known as the Salt Fingers. The last one is so named because its foundations mysteriously bend and reform into new gestures on the eve of the winter solstice. Many astronomers, mages, and priests used to make pilgrimages here, but in recent times a group of violent merfolk sunk ships which get too close to the Fingers.</p><p></p><p>Our time in Vidim ends with a talk of the capital's temple of Wotan which is a labyrinthine palace, and those huginn who live inside it experience a strange molting of feathers: blue-black hues are replaced with silver and gold, quite often followed by dreams of the Storm Court. Nobody knows for sure whether this is a gift from Wotan, trickery by Loki, or some other god's scheme.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Wandering Realm of the Kariv</strong></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/A5BJ2xI.png?1" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>The Kariv are the other major nomadic ethnic group of the Rothenian Plains, although their travels take them to the Crossroads and other realms. They are more or less Hollywood Roma/Romani people: they dress in colorful clothes, are ruled by matriarchs who often have some form of magical talent, and are compelled to never put down stakes in a single location due to a curse afflicting their fertility if an individual stays in one place for more than several months at a time. The Kariv are divided into extended family units known as clans, although they have a king whose authority is weighed by every clan leader.</p><p></p><p><strong>METAPLOT:</strong>The current King Iqbal Lovari has recently gone missing for unknown reasons. Due to this many accusations are going about, particularly between the Lovari and Gallati families. There's also the King's would-be successor, Sanash, a young oracle who is skilled in divination and believed to be prophesied to unite the clans and redeem the Kalders. Ruling in Iqbal's place are Sanchari and Innessa, a pair of twins who are actually two souls sharing one body, but a third evil sister is currently asleep within and unknown to all.</p><p></p><p>As for the curse affecting the Kariv, the Wander Curse is of unknown origins yet whose ultimate effects render the settler-to-be infertile. It takes place in stages, from a loss of creative arts and energy to having all their clothing and personal possessions fade into dull grey and brown colors. There is no known cure, and infertile Kariv are known as the Arrid who often resort to desperate measures such as dark magic to restore what they lost.</p><p></p><p><strong>METAPLOT:</strong> Oddly, the description of the Kariv has changed over publications. In the 2009 <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/63589/Dwarves-of-the-Ironcrags" target="_blank">Dwarves of the Ironcrags sourcebook,</a> the curse of the Kariv more or less forced them into a nomadic lifestyle, which in turn caused them to be heavily distrusted and vilified by more sedentary and dominant cultures. They suffered extreme systemic discrimination, which in turn caused the Kariv to be resentful of outsiders and thus feel less moral compulsion in cheating them for money or hurting them for slights:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Contrasted with the 2012/2018 description, the Kariv's anti-social relations are less due to institutional bigotry and more due to personal bitterness at their curse which causes them to lash out:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Both examples play upon the "thieving gypsy" stereotype, although the 2009 had a much more plausible cycle of distrust and prejudice between oppressor and oppressed. It gives ample fodder for both sides to play off of each other's resentments and keep the status quo, while also making the Kariv's resentment understandable for what has been heaped upon them. The current Kariv primarily steal out of misplaced anger, and I don't feel that this is an improvement.</p><p></p><p>We get a run-down of the eight largest Kariv clans: the Dakat, who are are horse traders rising up politically due to various shady dealings; the Galati, the closest the Kariv have to royalty and possess the best diviners; the Heph, who are patriarchal diabolists shunned by the other Karvis and allied with the Master of Demon Mountain; the Leanti, entertainers and bards who have a knack for thievery and castrate their prisoners...this last part is just thrown in their description with no context; the Lovari are the expert artisans and tinkers who are also prized as mercenaries; the Merceri, who are expert healers and worship angels, trusted for their hospitable demeanor and diplomatic skills; the Sergin, archers and trackers respected by others for their keen eyes and reflexes; and finally the Kalder, a mysterious clan who has many stories circling around them: some claim they were created in Baba Yaga's cauldron, others claim they are child-stealers and maiden-snatchers for Niemheim's gnomes, some say they are ruled by undead, etc. What is known is that they cannot produce diviners among their ranks, and their leader is a heartless man who exercises his power with violence and blackmail.</p><p></p><p>The final pages of this chapter detail three locations: the Thin Trail which is the least traveled place in the Rothenian Plain and known to grant visions of monstrous leviathans moving upon charred wastelands. In order to find it you must follow mundane directions but must burn something precious between four trees on a specific hilltop to continue the search. The Cloud-soaked Cliff is in the northern reaches of the Plains, home to the sacred forge of the Lovari clan. It is said that the god Svarog himself blesses their work, woken up by the hammering smithies. The finest creations are sacrificed to the god by being thrown over the nearby cliffs, while the rest of the tools are either kept by the clan or sold to other people. Finally, the Wandering Bazaar is a mobile Kariv marketplace which stops by Ingot Lake. Anyone with enough gold may open a stall and sell anything which will not bring trouble to the community. The Bazaar often hosts an annually fishing competition with a healthy sum of gold as the grand prize.</p><p></p><p><strong>METAPLOT:</strong> The 2012 edition detailed the Windrunner elves, one of the three elven ethnic groups still present in Midgard. They are a nomadic people who broke off from the Arbonnese and organized into eight clans. They were known for the construction of windrunner kites, aerial gliders capable of lifting a human-sized rider into the air with a strong gust along with a trailing horse or oxen. Although not inherently magical, they are frequently blessed by priests of Ellel (one of Wotan's mask) for his association with the sky. The 2018 Worldbook mentions them here and there, but there's no in-depth write-up.</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> Baba Yaga could have very easily ended up as a Faerun-style mega NPC in that she's ultra-powerful and has her hands in all manner of affairs. But given that her motives are unpredictable and it's mostly her minions who intervene, I think that this keeps her as a more Lady of Pain style character who isn't likely to steal the PC's thunder. My favorite parts of this chapter were the write-ups of the Khazzaki clans and the specific locations. It's not often you have a Mongol-style fantasy culture in a game unless it's explicitly East Asian. The specific locations such as the Thin Trail and Wandering Bazaar are good adventure fodder, and the missing Kariv king and a proposed centaur nation make for good political conflict. I feel that the Kariv are racially problematic, and the centaurs do not have much to individualize themselves from the Khazzaki beyond being a monstrous race (there are even Khazzaki centaurs). I am a bit sad that the entry for Demon Mountain was excised to a sidebar in this book.</p><p></p><p><strong>Next time our travels leave the windswept plains for the grand cities of the Mharoti Empire, the most powerful nation in Midgard! </strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 7578941, member: 6750502"] [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/feIjXRX.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER] The Rothenian Plain is a huge open grassland of the east whose size dwarfs all but the largest of empires. The nomadic way of life is the norm here, and the only standing proper nation is the poor but proud Kingdom of Vidim. The steppes are the favorite stomping grounds of Baba Yaga, who plays the various factions against one another from year to year. And beyond are the mysterious lands of the Utter East who have yet to be detailed in any sourcebooks. Our first entry is not a nation or culture, but on [B]Grandmother Baba Yaga[/B] herself. She's one of the major power players of Midgard, and although not a deity herself kings and gods alike treat her with a mixture of respect and fear. There is just as much fact known about her as folktales, and it's not uncommon for scholars compiling books about her to have the ink on their pages vanish or turn into paper-eating worms. But Baba Yaga's knowledge is boundless, from the last thoughts of the dying star Tovaya to the Words of Unfounding which can never be spoken lest they unseat the gods. She is willing to part with her unmatched knowledge for a high price, which usually takes the form of a fairy tale-style quest or sacrifice such one's own final breath. She lives in a mobile hut with enormous chicken legs capable of leaping in mile-long jaunts, and the interior is supernaturally large with all manner of rooms. Baba Yaga has an unknown amount of daughters, all beautiful fey known as vila. They too are powerful in the magical arts and have their own (albeit smaller) chicken-legged huts. It's not uncommon to see them cavorting in the halls and palaces of Midgard's nobility where some have the lord's ear. The less witting servants of the great witch are mystics who went mad from the knowledge imparted by her and who look for her influence in signs and portents. In addition to lore, Baba Yaga has a secret garden with unique ingredients capable of healing any affliction, tended to by mindless slaves who angered or failed her along with earth elemental guardians. But her most famous minion is perhaps Koschei the Deathless, a wicked immortal whose soul is embedded within an egg hidden inside a duck, which is nestled within a hare that rests within a goat. The egg's destruction means Koschei's destruction, and so Baba Yaga keeps the goat's location hidden to make Koschei do what she wants. [B]METAPLOT:[/B] The kingdom of Domovogrod was the only other sedentary culture besides Vidim upon the plains. It was founded by Sivinvoya Vellaraya, a silver dragon who cared not for the Mharoti Empire's political goals and instead journeyed north to settle near a World Tree known as the Winter Tree. He taught the surrounding humans advanced farming and healing techniques to found the kingdom of Domovogrod. Although the dragon is long-gone, his human descendants ruled in his example. But now the kingdom's overrun by ogres, trolls, and giants of the Northlands, its capital city claimed by a gluttonous warlord unable to rise from his very throne. The Winter Tree now sits unattended beyond a small band of winterfolk druids and rangers. The last human bastion is a small town of fur-traders seeking vengeance against the giants. [CENTER][B]Khanate of the Khazzaki[/B] [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/RfjKNoF.png?1[/IMG][/CENTER] The Khazzaki are a band of human and centaur nomads who live as horse and ox herders, warriors, and occasionally farmers. Their settlements are tent-like yurts, their leader is a Khan who has a military-like hierarchy of generals and soldiers spread among the clans. Although they have traditional lands, they are a far-flung people who can show up anywhere from the Crossroads to the Utter East. They warred against the Mharoti Empire, and Khan Bodhan Zenody is prepping for an all-out assault on either them or one of the greater nations for loot and glory. After successful raids and campaigns it is customary for Khazzaki to travel to the Red Mounds of Rhos Khurgan, a set of 32 burial mounds created by a forgotten race. One of the mounds is cursed and thus avoided. The Khazzaki treat them as sacred sites and pour wine on their soil as offered drink. For unknown reasons divine magic is warped and stymied around the mounds. The Khanate's closest thing to a proper city is Misto Kolis, which is more akin to a traveling carnival and has a sizable Kariv population. [B]METAPLOT:[/B] One of the greatest scourges of the Khanate recently is not war but a disease afflicting their horses known as the Black Strangles. It spreads fast and affects even centaurs, and the Khan is hoping that a mysterious group of allied druids known as the Grassweavers of Perun may discover a cure. There's also individual tents of great fame, such as the Yurt Monasteries home to sorcerer-priests of obscure gods, the Black Wagon whose doom-saying oracle is a bad omen to encounter on the plains, and the Krasni Yurta whose wizard occupant enchanted its silk to be as strong as steel along with a pocket dimension only he and his guests can access. We finish this section with mention of the Khan's Three Great Treasures: Draugir the horse who only lets the true khan ride it and was won from Koschei over a riding contest; the An'Ducyr bow which was forged from the heartwood of a World Tree which grants magical sight to one who draws its bowstring; and the Dragoncoat, armor forged from the scales of a wind dragon which grants immunity to poison as well as enchantment and evocation spells of all kinds. We have a brief sidebar on [B]Demon Mountain,[/B] a sulfurous place of foul reputation ruled over by a tiefling archmage known only as the Master. He claims to be the noble scion of Vale Turog and lives in a palace of bones he can never leave, but sends all manner of mortal and demonic minions to scour the lands. [B]Fun fact:[/B] as he fathered dozens of tiefling children he sent out into the world in order to discover a way to undo his imprisonment. As such he was presented as a possible backstory for tiefling PCs [CENTER][B]Centaur Hordes of the Plain[/B] [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/VKubEtB.jpg?1[/IMG][/CENTER] The centaur clans are individually small yet possessed of a mighty reputation. They are mercenaries of great skill whose services have been purchased with meager oats and cheese. They are fiercely independent and although willing to work for others almost never acquiesce to assimilating into sedentary cities. They believe that true freedom is found via a nomadic lifestyle. The centaurs believe that their creation was by the god Perun after his previous creations failed. Humans had the ability to craft great tools but whose bodies were too slow and weak, while horses were fast and strong but too dumb and herd-like to produce cunning hunters and great heroes. It was the mocking of his wife that convinced Perun to give it his all and create the centaurs, combining the best traits of his earlier creations. We get a brief rundown of centaur culture: they herd goats and sheep and mark passage into adulthood when one can create and live in their own tent. They are nomadic but have favored locations to return to twice a year, and their mages are predominantly druids. Men are encouraged to be warriors and women are discouraged from journeying beyond the confines of their clan group. There is talk by the Chieftain of the Yendge Clan to unite the race under a single banner which the smaller tribes find amenable for strength in numbers. The Black Strangle disease is a growing plague among centaurs and known as the Long-Teeth among them. It causes their teeth to grow twice their normal size, makes the sensation of bright light painful, and causes excruciating pain to walk or stand. The final stage is the most dire, as it encourages the centaur to seek out others of their kind to bite and infect, now hardly better than a mindless cannibal. [B]METAPLOT:[/B] The Grassweavers of Perun created a herbal poultice to prevent the disease from reaching this final stage, although centaur and Khazzaki both seek a true cure. There is rumor of a remedy in the city of Trombei. We finish this entry with a talk on centaur clan structure. They tend to be either steppe nomads, mercenary companies, or bandits, and all of them elect their Chieftains and war leaders via majority vote. The six clans listed here are the Dargit who are famed archers; Morav, whose bards' stirring odes strike inspiration into their allies and fear into their enemies; Ogol, a clan governed by druids who serve Perun and are on the hunt for the legendary spear Zonbol believed to be wielded by their god; Rhoet, a sadistic mercenary band with ties to Demon Mountain and the realm of Misto Cherno; Sarras, expert wine-makers; and Yengde, mercenaries and bandits who are famed for dual-wielding spears. [CENTER][B]Kingdom of Vidim[/B][/CENTER] Vidim's origins lie in a mutual defense pact between humans and huginn against dwarven and giant raiders. The kingdom makes the majority of its wealth through sea trade along the Nieder Straits, and most of its population are subsistence-based farmers known as serfs. Beyond the agricultural serfs are the boyars, nobles and vassals trusted with physical defense from foreign threats and local uprisings. Then there are the huggin, who act as a spy network who inhabit a rookery (impromptu ravenfolk neighborhood among a city's towers and multi-story structures) not far from the tsar's Scarlet Palace. The boyars and huginns do not trust each other, and the tsar is unable to quell the numerous duels and murders which crop up between both sides. The Tsar's judgment is unraveling due to his madness, which is kept secret by his inner circle to avoid the loss of national morale. Although they do their best to guide him to wise actions, this is not always possible. There are those suggesting the eldest Princess ascend the throne, although she's devoted to her father and brooks no talk of deposing him. His palace's major feature is the skull of a Thursir giant slain by the current tsar's father and is considered a good luck charm by many. We get brief descriptions of of three smaller cities of Vidim, as well as a natural feature of five pillars in the sea known as the Salt Fingers. The last one is so named because its foundations mysteriously bend and reform into new gestures on the eve of the winter solstice. Many astronomers, mages, and priests used to make pilgrimages here, but in recent times a group of violent merfolk sunk ships which get too close to the Fingers. Our time in Vidim ends with a talk of the capital's temple of Wotan which is a labyrinthine palace, and those huginn who live inside it experience a strange molting of feathers: blue-black hues are replaced with silver and gold, quite often followed by dreams of the Storm Court. Nobody knows for sure whether this is a gift from Wotan, trickery by Loki, or some other god's scheme. [CENTER][B]Wandering Realm of the Kariv[/B] [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/A5BJ2xI.png?1[/IMG][/CENTER] The Kariv are the other major nomadic ethnic group of the Rothenian Plains, although their travels take them to the Crossroads and other realms. They are more or less Hollywood Roma/Romani people: they dress in colorful clothes, are ruled by matriarchs who often have some form of magical talent, and are compelled to never put down stakes in a single location due to a curse afflicting their fertility if an individual stays in one place for more than several months at a time. The Kariv are divided into extended family units known as clans, although they have a king whose authority is weighed by every clan leader. [B]METAPLOT:[/B]The current King Iqbal Lovari has recently gone missing for unknown reasons. Due to this many accusations are going about, particularly between the Lovari and Gallati families. There's also the King's would-be successor, Sanash, a young oracle who is skilled in divination and believed to be prophesied to unite the clans and redeem the Kalders. Ruling in Iqbal's place are Sanchari and Innessa, a pair of twins who are actually two souls sharing one body, but a third evil sister is currently asleep within and unknown to all. As for the curse affecting the Kariv, the Wander Curse is of unknown origins yet whose ultimate effects render the settler-to-be infertile. It takes place in stages, from a loss of creative arts and energy to having all their clothing and personal possessions fade into dull grey and brown colors. There is no known cure, and infertile Kariv are known as the Arrid who often resort to desperate measures such as dark magic to restore what they lost. [B]METAPLOT:[/B] Oddly, the description of the Kariv has changed over publications. In the 2009 [URL="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/63589/Dwarves-of-the-Ironcrags"]Dwarves of the Ironcrags sourcebook,[/URL] the curse of the Kariv more or less forced them into a nomadic lifestyle, which in turn caused them to be heavily distrusted and vilified by more sedentary and dominant cultures. They suffered extreme systemic discrimination, which in turn caused the Kariv to be resentful of outsiders and thus feel less moral compulsion in cheating them for money or hurting them for slights: Contrasted with the 2012/2018 description, the Kariv's anti-social relations are less due to institutional bigotry and more due to personal bitterness at their curse which causes them to lash out: Both examples play upon the "thieving gypsy" stereotype, although the 2009 had a much more plausible cycle of distrust and prejudice between oppressor and oppressed. It gives ample fodder for both sides to play off of each other's resentments and keep the status quo, while also making the Kariv's resentment understandable for what has been heaped upon them. The current Kariv primarily steal out of misplaced anger, and I don't feel that this is an improvement. We get a run-down of the eight largest Kariv clans: the Dakat, who are are horse traders rising up politically due to various shady dealings; the Galati, the closest the Kariv have to royalty and possess the best diviners; the Heph, who are patriarchal diabolists shunned by the other Karvis and allied with the Master of Demon Mountain; the Leanti, entertainers and bards who have a knack for thievery and castrate their prisoners...this last part is just thrown in their description with no context; the Lovari are the expert artisans and tinkers who are also prized as mercenaries; the Merceri, who are expert healers and worship angels, trusted for their hospitable demeanor and diplomatic skills; the Sergin, archers and trackers respected by others for their keen eyes and reflexes; and finally the Kalder, a mysterious clan who has many stories circling around them: some claim they were created in Baba Yaga's cauldron, others claim they are child-stealers and maiden-snatchers for Niemheim's gnomes, some say they are ruled by undead, etc. What is known is that they cannot produce diviners among their ranks, and their leader is a heartless man who exercises his power with violence and blackmail. The final pages of this chapter detail three locations: the Thin Trail which is the least traveled place in the Rothenian Plain and known to grant visions of monstrous leviathans moving upon charred wastelands. In order to find it you must follow mundane directions but must burn something precious between four trees on a specific hilltop to continue the search. The Cloud-soaked Cliff is in the northern reaches of the Plains, home to the sacred forge of the Lovari clan. It is said that the god Svarog himself blesses their work, woken up by the hammering smithies. The finest creations are sacrificed to the god by being thrown over the nearby cliffs, while the rest of the tools are either kept by the clan or sold to other people. Finally, the Wandering Bazaar is a mobile Kariv marketplace which stops by Ingot Lake. Anyone with enough gold may open a stall and sell anything which will not bring trouble to the community. The Bazaar often hosts an annually fishing competition with a healthy sum of gold as the grand prize. [B]METAPLOT:[/B] The 2012 edition detailed the Windrunner elves, one of the three elven ethnic groups still present in Midgard. They are a nomadic people who broke off from the Arbonnese and organized into eight clans. They were known for the construction of windrunner kites, aerial gliders capable of lifting a human-sized rider into the air with a strong gust along with a trailing horse or oxen. Although not inherently magical, they are frequently blessed by priests of Ellel (one of Wotan's mask) for his association with the sky. The 2018 Worldbook mentions them here and there, but there's no in-depth write-up. [B]Thoughts So Far:[/B] Baba Yaga could have very easily ended up as a Faerun-style mega NPC in that she's ultra-powerful and has her hands in all manner of affairs. But given that her motives are unpredictable and it's mostly her minions who intervene, I think that this keeps her as a more Lady of Pain style character who isn't likely to steal the PC's thunder. My favorite parts of this chapter were the write-ups of the Khazzaki clans and the specific locations. It's not often you have a Mongol-style fantasy culture in a game unless it's explicitly East Asian. The specific locations such as the Thin Trail and Wandering Bazaar are good adventure fodder, and the missing Kariv king and a proposed centaur nation make for good political conflict. I feel that the Kariv are racially problematic, and the centaurs do not have much to individualize themselves from the Khazzaki beyond being a monstrous race (there are even Khazzaki centaurs). I am a bit sad that the entry for Demon Mountain was excised to a sidebar in this book. [B]Next time our travels leave the windswept plains for the grand cities of the Mharoti Empire, the most powerful nation in Midgard! [/B] [/QUOTE]
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