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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 2824149" data-attributes="member: 9626">Mesion Campaign Details #2Moving Right along in the restoration of Mesion information, this update will include information about Mesion's unusual theology and physical design.Geology, Cosmology and the Planes  Mesion is a flat world with some very unusual physical conditions even beyond this.  For one thing, only two of the world’s sides apparently have a physical ending.  The east and west sides of Mesion end in jagged cliffs that drop for at least miles and possibly forever.  The exact distance of the drop-off is unknown, because while there is a limited atmosphere on the sides of the world, breathable air ends several miles down to be replaced with an opaque and toxic mist.  Few who enter the mist ever return, and even those that did return claimed to never get out of the mist or find the bottom of the Mesion land-mass, if such a thing exists.  The north and south sides of Mesion, meanwhile, are bordered by mountains and other inhospitable conditions.  Beyond the southern mountains is a seemingly endless cloud of shifting colors and appearance.  The cloud has an alien and sickly look to it, and those who live near the cloud report that it often rains unnatural things, ranging from acid and fire to live animals!  The northern border, meanwhile, is filled with a shifting light field similar to the Aurora Borealis.  The lights are beautiful but very dangerous to anything they touch, and their extreme complex shifting patterns prevented anyone from exploring very far in this direction either.  As a result, once again nobody knows what is at the end of the world in these directions, if there even is an end.  Because of Mesion’s unusual geology, its relation to the cosmos has some unusual properties.  It has a day/night cycle like Earth and a similar week and month cycle, but the sun doesn’t follow a normal cyclical pattern around the world or visa versa.  Instead, a sun passes from the northern sky to the southern every day.  Its location creates an equator-like climate in a line in the middle of Mesion from north to south, with the far eastern and western sides of Mesion having colder climates.  However, both temperature extremes tend to be more mild on Mesion than on Earth.  Similarly, while “the” sun (though there’s no way to know if it’s the same sun every day or if Mesion gets a new sun every day,) often tilts slightly in its path to create the seasons, summers and winters are less drastic on Mesion than on Earth.  Despite being on the eastern and western sides of the world and being even farther away from the sun, the cliffs on the sides of the world have relatively temperate climates.  This appears to be based on excessive head rising from the mist, suggesting that either the mist absorbs heat or that it hides an incredible heat source far below Mesion’s surface.  Mesion has the standard connections to the planes.  It connects to the Astral, Ethereal, and Shadow Planes as normal and travel to the various Inner and Outer Planes is unhindered.  What is noteworthy is that there are multiple Material Planes that can be accessed like any other plane.  These include Eberron, the Forgotten Realms, and other standard D&D locations, but exploring them is generally beyond the scope of this campaign.  Sigil and Union are both well-known and popular destination for high-level adventurers, and both planar metropolises are likely to be useful when buying and selling treasure if the campaign nears or surpasses epic level.Theology  Inhabitants of Mesion can choose between two pantheons for which god or gods to worship.  The default gods are the standard core rule gods of the Players Handbooks, but many Mesion residents prefer the Sisters.  The Sisters are believed to be a set of twelve goddesses that created or were created by the Primal Outsiders.  The Primal Outsiders, according to ancient myths, taught the people about the Sisters and encouraged their worship.  As the Core gods took an interest in Mesion, they tried to force the worship of the Sisters away, but the religion proved too popular to the natives, so the Core Gods grudgingly agreed to co-existence.  Even so, numerous holy wars throughout the history of Mesion erupted as a result of the dual pantheons.  The Sisters are, as their name suggests, supposedly a family of related goddesses.  The head of the pantheon is a goddess known as Bha-Ael, who supposedly created Mesion and then created the other eleven Sisters to bless it with the gifts of living.  They were allegedly responsible for the creation of many human emotions, the arts, and even the afterlife.  Many of the goddesses and their worshippers frequently find each other at odds, but the most controversial of the goddesses is Bas, the only overtly evil Sister.  Some theologians believe that Bas doesn’t deserve her place in the Sisters, as she supposedly betrayed them and was cast out of the pantheon.  Bas apologists, however, claim that even the Primal Outsiders insisted that Bas was an equally valid part of the pantheon and that attempts to exclude her were blasphemy.  All goddesses have their alignment aspects and all within one step of that alignment as domains.  For example, Nowne, who is neutral good, normally has clerics that can select the Good domain.  Lawful good or chaotic good members of the church could also select Law or Chaos as a domain, respectively.Bha-Ael  Bha-Ael is a Lawful Good goddess who is considered the origin of the entire pantheon.  Despite her importance, she is worshipped fairly rarely, as she doesn’t show much interest in her worshippers or people in general.  The common belief is that she is responsible for maintaining the universe itself and generally leaves the details to the other Sisters.  Nonetheless, she is known to have a very strong love of life itself and the needs, at least of the biological quality, of people.  Surprisingly, the Bha-Ael church also has a strong martial bent which is generally dedicated to opposing any overtly destructive force, with many undead and evil outsiders as their primary target.  Bha-Ael is normally portrayed as a female humanoid (usually a human or elf, with drow being a surprisingly frequent choice for unknown reasons,) with skin as black as space and riddled with stars.  Her facial and other features are often vague or nonexistent.  Her domains include Air, Knowledge, Protection, Sun, and War, and her favored weapon is a greatsword.  Her holy symbol is a map of the Mesion plane cradled in a pair of hands.Krista  Krista is believed to be the oldest goddess after Bha-Ael, and she is credited for creating the sense of physical pleasure.  This includes amusements like games (she’s also a goddess of luck and chance,) food, and physical contact.  Krista is often worshipped by bards, gamblers, courtesans, and hedonists in general.  She is chaotic neutral, and she normally is pictured as a human or halfling woman dressed in the formal attire of a casino dealer if her chance/luck aspect is emphasized or in far more revealing or simply no clothes if her more pleasure aspects are the focus.  Her domains are Earth, Trickery, Luck, and Travel, and her favored weapons are darts.  Her holy symbol is a die with the face of a woman on at least one side of the dice.  Krista’s church often finds itself idealogically opposed to that of Ordhari and Jolia.Ordhari  According to the mythology of the Sisters, while Bha-Ael created the universe itself, Ordhari, the third Sister, gave it a sense of order.  She created the logical equations that would later be used to create science and technology.  This makes her a popular goddess for rulers, scientists, explorers, and a surprising number of wizards despite the presence of Lore as a goddess of magic.  In fact, Ordhari and Lore tend to fight on many issues, leading to some epic battles between spell-casters.  Ordhari is lawful neutral and portrayed as a human or gnome woman with glasses.  She’s usually pictured carrying a book or some exotic device.  Her domains are Fire, Air, Knowledge, and Destruction, and her favored weapon is a crossbow.  She uses a scroll extending off into infinity as a holy symbol.Lore  As the fourth goddess, Lore theoretically was created right after Ordhari, and her gift to the world was supposedly in reaction to Ordhari’s.  Disgusted at Ordhari’s need for order, Lore created a system specifically designed to be impossible to perfectly explain, understand, or control.  In other words, she created magic (and theoretically psionics as well.)  Lore is often the goddess worshipped by arcane spell casters, though many wizards (especially lawful ones,) and artificers don’t believe that Lore created all magic and tend to side with Ordhari.  The position of psionics is more difficult; many believe Lore created it as an alternate form of magic, but others believe Ordhari created it as a logical and ordered version of magic that would one day be perfect understood.  Lore is chaotic neutral and usually as an elf wielding incredible magical power and dressed in clothing adorned in runes and other symbols of magical energy.  Her domains are Magic, Water, Earth, and Destruction, and her favored weapon is a quarterstaff.  Her holy symbol is a magical circle of incredible complexity.  More advanced worshippers often intentionally make their circle more complicated to demonstrate their devotion and status.Nellkiss  According to the Sister’s mythology, before Nellkiss, the fifth Sister, existed, creatures who died were simply permanently obliterated.  Nellkiss, who was horrified at the destruction caused by the fighting between Ordhari and Lore, created the first afterlife and placed herself in a position to judge the worth of those who died.  Unsurprisingly, as a goddess of death who has no interest in causing death or dealing with the undead, she has few worshippers except for doctors, morticians, and others who often deal with the undead.  She is lawful neutral and is usually pictured as a half-elf with pale white skin but black hair and dressed in black clothing.  Her domains are Death, War, Earth, and Destruction, and her favored weapon is the warhammer (to indicate her role as a judge.)  Her holy symbol is a black hammer on a white field bordered by more black lines.Tregfillia  Tregfillia’s role in Mesion is simple compared to many of her sisters.  She is the goddess of nature and thus is responsible for guiding it and protecting it from excessive encroachment by civilization.  As a result, she’s very popular among druids, rangers, and many barbarians, but she and Nowne consider each other to be enemies, and their worshippers battle constantly.  Tregfillia is a chaotic good goddess who by default emphasizes the healing and nourishing properties of nature.  She is usually pictured as an elf wearing nothing but natural materials or sometimes just the plants themselves.  Her domains are Animal, Plant, Healing, Earth, and Sun, and her favored weapon is the short spear.  Her holy symbol is called the “loop of life,” and is a circlet made of a flexible material carved to resemble plant images that slowly morph into animals and then back again.Nowne  Nowne is another case of a goddess who seemingly exists just to counter the previous one.  In Nowne’s case, she’s the goddess of progress, civilization, labor in general, and warfare when needed.  This emphasis on the needs of the people above all put her at odds with both the nature-centric Tregfillia’s worshippers and with more powerful legal bodies, but Nowne worship is so popular among farmers, laborers, and the lower classes that she has remained very powerful.  She also has a martial subset of the church with its own paladins that support the virtues of bravery and valor when in battle for a greater purpose.  Nowne is neutral good and usually portrayed as a very strong female dwarf that wears armor or simple clothes.  Her domains are Strength, Protection, War, and Earth, and her favored weapon is a battleaxe.  She uses a holy symbol of an anvil with a hammer and an axe resting on top of or in front of it.Bas  Bas’s origins are vague and mysterious.  The most commonly supported theory according to the myths is that Bas was the eight sister, but for some reason she didn’t choose a gift in time before the later sisters appeared.  Having lost her chance to affect the world, she grew bitter and later “gifted” the world with war and strife.  According to some theories, she was kicked out of the pantheon as a punishment, but other beliefs suggest that she added a much needed sense of balance to the world and was grudgingly accepted by the Sisters.  Regardless of her origins, she now is clearly an active goddess who grants her worshippers powers like any other god.  Most of her worshippers are villains of some kind, though her church has very few dealings with undead for some reason, but some druids and other believers in balance worship her as a counter to the other Sisters despite not being evil themselves.  Bas is neutral evil and normally portrayed as a beautiful but cruel human woman with weapons and wearing a dark blue dress.  Her domains include Death, Destruction, Trickery, and War.  Her favored weapon is the scimitar, and in fact she encourages her followers to learn how to wield two scimitars at the same time and uses a pair of crossed scimitars as a holy symbol.Merida/Tepedin  Though the ninth and tenth Sisters are separate goddesses with their own churches, the two have very similar portfolios and ideals, making their churches allies and the sisters themselves are often considered twins.  However, the one thing that almost universally makes worshippers of the twins goddesses angry is if someone, especially a Core pantheon worshipper, gets their specific ideals mixed up!  Merida is the goddess of music and is a favorite among bards and musicians in general, while Tepedin is the goddess of art in general and in terms of painting, sculpture, and literature in particular.  Almost all artists worship one or both of the twin goddesses.  Both are true neutral and tend to be portrayed as gnomes or elves that are dressed in popular artists garbs and respectively wielding a lute or other instrument and a paintbrush or quill pen.  Merida’ domains are Knowledge, Air, Travel, and Luck, and her favored weapon is the longsword.  Tepedin’s domains are Knowledge, Water, Sun, and Travel, and her favored weapon is the rapier.  Merida’s holy symbol is a lyre or other stringed instrument with scenes from popular operas or sonnets between the strings, and Tepedin’s is an open book with a painting on one page and writing on the other.Jolia  Though Jolia claims to be the creator and the goddess of love, she often is accused of being a devotee of only a very specific, idealized form of chivalrous love.  As a result, many of the worshippers who normally are attracted to “love” gods prefer the more open-minded Krista, leading to a very bitter rivalry between the churches that often spills over into civil rights versus state-enforced morality issues.  Jolia tends to be worshipped by the nobility and by romance-centered bards and poets.  She is neutral good largely due to her stance on non-violence, and she is usually pictured as a human or dwarf woman dressed in the finest and most fashionable clothes.  Her domains are healing, strength, protection, and travel, and her favored weapon is the sap, which Krista worshippers never stop laughing about.  Her holy symbol is a perfectly shaped woman’s face with an emotional and loving look.Tsykie  Tsykie is the last of the Sisters, and she took that youngest aspect to heart in creating her gift.  She became eternally linked to the state of childhood, and in fact she never has appeared as an adult.  She gifted the world with the joy and innocence that should theoretically be the essential aspect of childhood.  She is usually worshipped by teachers, nannies, and other caretakers of children, and while normally a non-violent religion, they are extremely vicious against anyone who would hurt a child.  Tsykie is chaotic good and is often pictured as a halfling woman, but almost never by actual halflings, who consider this comparison to a child goddess insulting.  Just to be annoying, they often portray her as a dwarf of half-orc girl.  Her domains are Animal, Plant, Healing, Sun, and Trickery, and her favored weapon is a sling.  Her holy symbol is intentionally simple, so even a child could draw an accurate one, and resembles a flower.</blockquote>

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