Creative Exercise: The Sovereign Dominion of Eyros

Keyzha Zhal

Rystil Arden said:

...remember that we should probably fix Keyzha Zhal's last name.

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Well, Keyzha's name was modelled off of the name Felra Raj-Tinar. Since Keyzha harkens only from the highly inbred House Zhal, it would be somewhat repetitive to give her formal name as Keyzha dal-Zhal ty-Zhal. Or am I missing something about naming conventions?

Now on to my next contribution (yay!):

Halfling sea raiders are fond of a variety of interesting weapons, including short bows, sling-blades, and their signature weapon: a four-bladed hand axe made by securing four light axes together with iron bands. Often, one or more axe blades are replaced with hooks, awls, hammer heads, and other tools, to maximise the usefulness of the weapon. The wielder often carves notches or runes into each handle so that he/she can quickly identify which head to strike with, without looking. (A badly drawn sample weapon is attached.)

ironregime

Oops! I double-posted. So...um...hope everyone's enjoying this thread. Move along now to my real post.

ironregime said:

Well, Keyzha's name was modelled off of the name Felra Raj-Tinar. Since Keyzha harkens only from the highly inbred House Zhal, it would be somewhat repetitive to give her formal name as Keyzha dal-Zhal ty-Zhal. Or am I missing something about naming conventions?

Now on to my next contribution (yay!):

Halfling sea raiders are fond of a variety of interesting weapons, including short bows, sling-blades, and their signature weapon: a four-bladed hand axe made by securing four light axes together with iron bands. Often, one or more axe blades are replaced with hooks, awls, hammer heads, and other tools, to maximise the usefulness of the weapon. The wielder often carves notches or runes into each handle so that he/she can quickly identify which head to strike with, without looking. (A badly drawn sample weapon is attached.)

Also attached is the latest low-res topo map.

ironregime

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Ironregime- You are correct that she won't have a Ty because she is a pure orc of House Zhal, but she should be something like Keyzha Name1-Name2 Dal-Zhal.

Contribution:

Midnight's Cruor, a secret coven of three corrupted Eyrian Dark Druids (see the other thread for corruption rules) is hiding under the noses of polite Eyrian society by using the "A Thousand Faces" class ability. The three "sisters" use their alternate forms to encourage the continued practise of human sacrifice among the rural Eyrians, so that they may revel in the death and gore, and their utter corruption from the fell spirit of the land is so great that they have all become violet-crimson-skinned Vampires. The three members of Midnight's Cruor are Urdarza, a quiet, intense, and amoral dwarf, Verdania a lustful elf who craves seduction followed by a bloody betrayal (particularly fond of preying on humans, orcs, and half-orcs), and Skuldira, a greedy and murderous gnome who accepts payment as a hired assassin under a false identity. These three are always careful to hide their tracks, and have thus survived for centuries, but they ultimately seek to perform a hidden goal, one known only to an alien entity that guides them known as The Emerald Nexus.

Oh, and you can consider the descriptions of the stages of Taint to be part of my contribution:

No effect
The character feels unclean; he suffers a -1 penalty to diplomacy checks
The character's appearance changes in an indiscernable, but unsettling fashion
The character's skin starts turning purple, and her hair takes on the color of the Eyros zombies, a reddish color. Her appearance is likely to frighten most people, who will likely call for the guard.
The character's skin turns a deep reddish-purple, and her hair looks like reddish-brown grass. She looks like a character out of a bedtime story parents tell children to keep them in line. People appearing like this will certainly be arrested and probably be put to death.

hero4hire said:

Due to the corrupt influence that the blood in the soil has on the environment, Druids of a darker nature congregate to the lands of Eyros and are often used as unaffiliated assassins by those with means.
Even Druids of Good have trouble resisting the dark powers the land's blood offers.

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There is a general consensus among the lizard folk druids that the bleeding into the ground is a blasphemy and a corruption of the land, so they often attempt to sneak onto bordering bloodlands, and purify them. It takes time, but with effort they are slowly able to undo some of the damage to certain areas. Unfortunately, they can only reliably do so near the borders, and the heart of Eyros remains unreachable for their goals.

Is it decided how much Thanatos knows about the primal oath and what he wants? Rystil stated an opinion but not sure if it is his contribution.

I go on with this part of the story if Rystil doesn´t object.
Thanatos knows about the primal oath and was the maker of the magical part of it. The oath works differently than the others, so the enchantments are different, too. As he later found out, one of his apprentices was able to twist the magic a little bit. After Thanatos got some idea what happened, he wanted to confront the apprentice but the young enchanter had already dissappeared.
He is unsure about the wording of the oath as the oath was sworn without him being present.

It seems that Thanatos today doesn´t care about Tellas much. In reality he is still upset about the affair but chooses to pretends even to himself that it was his idea all along and everything is proceeding according to his wishes and desires.
At the moment Thanatos is leaving most of the day to day affairs at the responsibilty of the Patriae Sicarii as he is more concerned about delving into the last secrets of necromancy.

The Patriae Sicarii thought about assuming control of the empire but realised that being the power behind the throne and being an invaluable tool for empire is far safer than being the ruling class themselves. Thanatos himself didn´t cast a vote on the matter but he isn´t interested in ruling the empire as it would only distract him from his studies.

domino said:

There is a general consensus among the lizard folk druids that the bleeding into the ground is a blasphemy and a corruption of the land, so they often attempt to sneak onto bordering bloodlands, and purify them. It takes time, but with effort they are slowly able to undo some of the damage to certain areas. Unfortunately, they can only reliably do so near the borders, and the heart of Eyros remains unreachable for their goals.

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Aren´t the lizardfolk druids seen as some kind of semi divine beings or at least sacred? I would think if they said something about the matter the empire would consider to drop the custom.

Sarellion said:

Aren´t the lizardfolk druids seen as some kind of semi divine beings or at least sacred? I would think if they said something about the matter the empire would consider to drop the custom.

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They're also very rare, and most citizens of the empire never actually see one in their life. (is the impression, I'm getting) and also, the bloodletting is an integral part of the Eyros belief system. A polite please don't do that by outsiders probably isn't going to do much good.

The Mediterranean climate of Eyros seems perfect for this, so ...

Winerys and wine production are a sizeable portion of the Eyrosian economy, with the finest vintages being stockpiled by the Pillars for their private family cellars.
Recently, a vinter named Fischr produced his first bottling from grapes grown in blood-soaked fields. The wine is a bitter and acidic draught, that leaves the drinker as thirsty as before he drank it. Fischr believes the wine has no commercial value, and has consigned every bottle to his private celler in hopes that age will improve it.
Should this enough of this wine ever be drunk consistently by one person however, a condition similar to vampirism will result, as the tainted grapes produce bloodthirst in the wine drinker over time.

Sarellion said:

Is it decided how much Thanatos knows about the primal oath and what he wants? Rystil stated an opinion but not sure if it is his contribution.

I go on with this part of the story if Rystil doesn´t object.
Thanatos knows about the primal oath and was the maker of the magical part of it. The oath works differently than the others, so the enchantments are different, too. As he later found out, one of his apprentices was able to twist the magic a little bit. After Thanatos got some idea what happened, he wanted to confront the apprentice but the young enchanter had already dissappeared.
He is unsure about the wording of the oath as the oath was sworn without him being present.

It seems that Thanatos today doesn´t care about Tellas much. In reality he is still upset about the affair but chooses to pretends even to himself that it was his idea all along and everything is proceeding according to his wishes and desires.
At the moment Thanatos is leaving most of the day to day affairs at the responsibilty of the Patriae Sicarii as he is more concerned about delving into the last secrets of necromancy.

The Patriae Sicarii thought about assuming control of the empire but realised that being the power behind the throne and being an invaluable tool for empire is far safer than being the ruling class themselves. Thanatos himself didn´t cast a vote on the matter but he isn´t interested in ruling the empire as it would only distract him from his studies.

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I like it! Makes perfect sense to me.

Hey, guys.

I'm going to be largely away from the computer for a day or two. I'm not saying that to slow down the thread--by all means, keep it up! This is great stuff!

I may even pop back in long enough to make a quick contribution. But it'll be a while before I can do another compiled update. If someone else wants to tackle it, they're welcome to give it a try. If not, I'll get to it as soon as I can.