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Assassin City - DM Discussion Thread
- Thread starter Dire Lemming
- Start date
Blackrat
He Who Lurks Beyond The Veil
More worldbuilding. Info that is probably unrelevant to the life on Doringdel but if you ever decide to use NPC human wizards might come in handy. As you can see from the map both Tir Sigl and Tir Lanan sit on islands. They are magocratic citystates where ones skills in arcane arts dictate the social standing. Those who have no arcane power are serfs who do all the manual labor to keep the mighty fed. In these cities about 15% of the population are wizards or other less freguent arcane casters. Sorcerors are rare even here and their power is considered inferior to the real Wizards. (It's just a cultural thing 
) The cities are protectet by energydomes which prevent any sentient who can't cast arcane spells to enter or leave. (The spell required to pass this field is Knock. It makes a hole in the field that stays open for 10 minutes allowing the wizard to let in or out those who he deems worthy or necessary.) The "leaders", the highest archmages of these cities are Elendur Nightwalker of Tir Sigl (The mightiest mortal in the whole world and half-shadow elf by race. Also a member of Order of the Dragon) and Malazan the Black of Tir Lanan (A lich who spends most of his time on other planes keeping the denizens of Other Side from invading the material plane). Elendur is the favourite subject of songs and stories told by minstrels across the lands, and therefore even the lowliest peasants know his name.
) The cities are protectet by energydomes which prevent any sentient who can't cast arcane spells to enter or leave. (The spell required to pass this field is Knock. It makes a hole in the field that stays open for 10 minutes allowing the wizard to let in or out those who he deems worthy or necessary.) The "leaders", the highest archmages of these cities are Elendur Nightwalker of Tir Sigl (The mightiest mortal in the whole world and half-shadow elf by race. Also a member of Order of the Dragon) and Malazan the Black of Tir Lanan (A lich who spends most of his time on other planes keeping the denizens of Other Side from invading the material plane). Elendur is the favourite subject of songs and stories told by minstrels across the lands, and therefore even the lowliest peasants know his name.
Blackrat
He Who Lurks Beyond The Veil
Hey. During my move I happened to find my old campaign notes from the only time I had luck running this setting (I hope with 4e I can try again) and there was a section on religion I had completely forgotten eventhough it's pretty nice touch. I'll share with you.
The main religion which is the polytheistic pantheon (I think I should name this pantheon as a whole. maybe Arandonian Pantheon).
So anyway the religion consentrates more on the whole pantheon than on the individual gods. The laymen worship all the deities equally so for normal classes choosing a deity is forgone, unless they choose different faith altogether. Also most priests are priests of the whole pantheon but here there are few exceptions (I'll address that later). There are also no multitude of temples dedicated to different deities but instead there is only one temple in each city, which is dedicated for the whole pantheon. It depends on the time of the year and specific occasion, to which deity the rites are dedicated on any given time.
The assosiation of priests: The female priestesses of the faith are assosiated with Skaia and the male priests are associated with Aur, eventhough they are always adversaries of the whole faith. Also since the lesser portfolios of Skaia and Aur include winter and summer the rituals are performed by priestesses from mid-autumn to mid spring and priests during the summer half of year. On equinox's there is grand celebration which culminates in a ritual combat between High-priestess and High-priest. The combat ends in the victory of the priestess on autumn-equinox and of the priest on spring-equinox, and marks the change of the temple calendar.
There are few exceptions. A priest can choose to dedicate his/her service to a specific lesser deity and take care of a shrine of said deity. Most deities have small shrines scattered across the land. These are usually situated on some holy sites and consists of little more than an altar and a cabin nearby where the caretaker lives. The shrines are locations of pilgrimages and most deities don't have more than a few in the whole world.
The Grand Temples: The three major deities have also grand temples which are the center of worship of these deities (Actually they are for the three what the shrines are for the lesser deities.)
Skaia's Grand Temple, The Crystal Palace of Lake-End is a magnificant palace made of purest crystals. Skaia also has an oracle who resides here. She is considered the physical manifestation of the goddess of love and it is true her power is great. (One of the few true clerics of the world)
Aur's Grand Temple, The Sunhall is nothing more than a ring of columns on an island on Shrin. Here some mystical force keeps the weather always clear and the priests manning this temple live on the bare ground.
The Warrior's Grand temple is on a mountaintop near Doringdel. It is forbidding place and the way there is filled with danger. The temple itself is a great arena where the greatest warriors across the lands come to test their mettle against eachother and the priests of Warrior.
OK. That was quite long, hope you got the idea and like it.
The main religion which is the polytheistic pantheon (I think I should name this pantheon as a whole. maybe Arandonian Pantheon).
So anyway the religion consentrates more on the whole pantheon than on the individual gods. The laymen worship all the deities equally so for normal classes choosing a deity is forgone, unless they choose different faith altogether. Also most priests are priests of the whole pantheon but here there are few exceptions (I'll address that later). There are also no multitude of temples dedicated to different deities but instead there is only one temple in each city, which is dedicated for the whole pantheon. It depends on the time of the year and specific occasion, to which deity the rites are dedicated on any given time.
The assosiation of priests: The female priestesses of the faith are assosiated with Skaia and the male priests are associated with Aur, eventhough they are always adversaries of the whole faith. Also since the lesser portfolios of Skaia and Aur include winter and summer the rituals are performed by priestesses from mid-autumn to mid spring and priests during the summer half of year. On equinox's there is grand celebration which culminates in a ritual combat between High-priestess and High-priest. The combat ends in the victory of the priestess on autumn-equinox and of the priest on spring-equinox, and marks the change of the temple calendar.
There are few exceptions. A priest can choose to dedicate his/her service to a specific lesser deity and take care of a shrine of said deity. Most deities have small shrines scattered across the land. These are usually situated on some holy sites and consists of little more than an altar and a cabin nearby where the caretaker lives. The shrines are locations of pilgrimages and most deities don't have more than a few in the whole world.
The Grand Temples: The three major deities have also grand temples which are the center of worship of these deities (Actually they are for the three what the shrines are for the lesser deities.)
Skaia's Grand Temple, The Crystal Palace of Lake-End is a magnificant palace made of purest crystals. Skaia also has an oracle who resides here. She is considered the physical manifestation of the goddess of love and it is true her power is great. (One of the few true clerics of the world)
Aur's Grand Temple, The Sunhall is nothing more than a ring of columns on an island on Shrin. Here some mystical force keeps the weather always clear and the priests manning this temple live on the bare ground.
The Warrior's Grand temple is on a mountaintop near Doringdel. It is forbidding place and the way there is filled with danger. The temple itself is a great arena where the greatest warriors across the lands come to test their mettle against eachother and the priests of Warrior.
OK. That was quite long, hope you got the idea and like it.
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Dire Lemming
First Post
It's all quite interesting. I'd like to know about the combat's though. I assume that the combat's between priestess and priest are just for show and not to the death? What about the warrior temple combats?
Blackrat
He Who Lurks Beyond The Veil
Yeah it's just for show. The weapons used are ofcourse real but the combat itself is heavily coreocraphied and strictly scripted.
The battles on the Grand Temple of the Warrior are always real combats with rules decided by the combatants. The most common view is that the Warrior doesn't take revel in bloodshed but rather in physical challenge and honour of fair fight so it is usually agreed on first blood or something similar. But he has some more fanatical followers too who take pride in berserker bloodbaths so one needs to take care of who to challenge.
The battles on the Grand Temple of the Warrior are always real combats with rules decided by the combatants. The most common view is that the Warrior doesn't take revel in bloodshed but rather in physical challenge and honour of fair fight so it is usually agreed on first blood or something similar. But he has some more fanatical followers too who take pride in berserker bloodbaths so one needs to take care of who to challenge.
Dire Lemming
First Post
Ok. That reminds me. Would it be terribly out of place for theater performances to use slaves to represent characters that are getting killed and actually kill them? I've heard that was sometimes done in Greek theater. Yes, it's quite disturbing, but that's what I'm going for. Presumably it would be rather rare since slaves are after all worth money.
Dire Lemming
First Post
Ok. Something to put into a disturbingly decadent section at some point.
Oh hey, that's right! What do you say to this? Laradin is ruled by a fifteen year old queen who is mostly just a figurehead! And another random idea! It's fairly common for men to take their wives' last names. Not really prevalent, but no one local will be all that surprised by it. Oh yeah, and the royal color, what's the royal color? If you don't have one let's make it purple. They apparently have allot of snails in Laradin.
Oh hey, that's right! What do you say to this? Laradin is ruled by a fifteen year old queen who is mostly just a figurehead! And another random idea! It's fairly common for men to take their wives' last names. Not really prevalent, but no one local will be all that surprised by it. Oh yeah, and the royal color, what's the royal color? If you don't have one let's make it purple. They apparently have allot of snails in Laradin.
Blackrat
He Who Lurks Beyond The Veil
Hey the priest class. I totally forgot to write you that and now I already have my computer moved to the new flat without a connection. Well it was anyways only modification to bard so I can go it through here.
First take the bard class and rename it to priest.
-Rename Bardic Music as Blessing Chant
-Replace Bardic Knowledge with Paladin's Turn Undead
-Remove all Dex-based skills from class-skills
-Change saves so that it has good fort instead of good ref
-Remove alignment restriction
-Change spells to be divine instead of arcane origin
I think that was it, except for some nixing of the spell-list.
Other priestly classes:
Paladins: All priests of The Warrior are paladins with the variants from UA, after first level they can multiclass freely. The Warrior is considered true neutral, and accepts worshipers of any alignment. So two priests of The Warrior might be very different from eachother. One respects honour and fair fight while other goes berserk and slaughters his enemies. Those paladins who are priests of The Warrior don't have the association restriction eventhough they shun those of opposing alignments.
Clerics: Clerics are direct chosen of gods and therefore rare. Most gods have a maximum of one cleric but some greater deities might have even as many as ten. So they are RARE!
Druids: Druids are as rare as clerics and are only found in the Everwoods. They are the protectors of the wilds of the Everwoods.
First take the bard class and rename it to priest.
-Rename Bardic Music as Blessing Chant
-Replace Bardic Knowledge with Paladin's Turn Undead
-Remove all Dex-based skills from class-skills
-Change saves so that it has good fort instead of good ref
-Remove alignment restriction
-Change spells to be divine instead of arcane origin
I think that was it, except for some nixing of the spell-list.
Other priestly classes:
Paladins: All priests of The Warrior are paladins with the variants from UA, after first level they can multiclass freely. The Warrior is considered true neutral, and accepts worshipers of any alignment. So two priests of The Warrior might be very different from eachother. One respects honour and fair fight while other goes berserk and slaughters his enemies. Those paladins who are priests of The Warrior don't have the association restriction eventhough they shun those of opposing alignments.
Clerics: Clerics are direct chosen of gods and therefore rare. Most gods have a maximum of one cleric but some greater deities might have even as many as ten. So they are RARE!
Druids: Druids are as rare as clerics and are only found in the Everwoods. They are the protectors of the wilds of the Everwoods.
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