I've run two sessions of this game, and after seeing who the PCs have gotten interested in, I wrote up the following, to help guide them through the town and the world. Thanks a ton for the ideas and help, guys.
Edit: I finished the first arc of the campaign, and now I'm using this thread to let folks know how the village stands. Characters with asterisks in front of their names are dead. Those with two asterisks are missing.
Kinras
To help you keep track of a town full of people that your characters would see on a daily basis, but who you only encounter for a few hours per week while gaming, I thought you might like this overview of who lives in Kinras, the town your characters live in. Each character includes a parenthetical entry, which is how many years older or younger than you they are. (At the current time, Hamid and Neil's characters Tochipel and Adeo are 17.)
Kinras is a town of about 350 people, 400 at its height. It was founded in the year the elders call 32, which was 17 years before you all were ‘born.’ You have learned that the elders left a city called No-Ostalin and came here. They do not know how to get back.
The previous PCs were:
Adeo (Neil). Disliked most people in the town except for Pedimmu. From his initial education in unarmed fighting, he taught himself how to see people's souls, harm them, and occasionally even unshackle himself from his physical form.
Atreya (Homera). A strong, quiet woman, Atreya's childhood violence was reigned in by Pedimmu's discipline. Though the same age as the others, a few years ago she apparently aged ten years, which she never much talked about. Aside from Pedimmu, she might be the most skilled warrior in the village.
**Braden (Leena). A charming boy who always won the adults' approval, he eventually was chosen by the 'god' Vona to be his messenger. For nearly seven years he was Vona's priest, until the truth was revealed: that Vona was just a powerful mortal mage posing as a god through deception. Before the night, Vona and his two beautiful angels took Braden away.
Gorlub (Jeremy). Born as a being of earth, he grew up eating rocks and carrying things, and eventually became a stone-skinned warrior, wise, considerate, and trusted by all. Soon before the invasion by the ogre armies of Ferruus, Gorlub learned how to transform his form into different elemental natures. With Ferruus's death he achieved something like godhood, which he is taking his time to figure out.
**Myre (Julian). Skulking blood-drinker who covered all of his body, even his eyes (with amber lenses). Myre distrusted Vona from early on, because the shining god's light burned his skin. Disappeared during the Night.
Tochipel (Hamid). Curious about the nature of life, death, and the universe, Tochipel dabbled in taboo magic, but never seeks to harm anyone.
Plus,
Merkal (Randy). Not part of the original 6, but an integral later addition. Where Braden was Vona's priest, Merkal was his spokesperson, and even when he realized he'd been duped he tried to maintain friendly relations. That did not work out.
The elders were:
*Lajeca (+66). Mage, full of secrets, mother of Esha. Died in the ogre attack.
[sblock]Female from the nation of Otharil. Slender, of medium build with dark grey skin, black hair, and red eyes. Despite her age, she looked no more than thirty years old. She was the leader of the town, generally viewed as wise, curious, and slow to show emotion. She practiced two magical arts, called Nos’triell (the Elemental Humours) and Sha’a (the Unspoken Way), though there were hints that she knew much more than just these. She lived with her daughter Esha in a large, dark house atop one of the two main hills of the town, near the town’s field of grave markers.[/sblock]
**Artep (+39). Storyteller, handy-man, father of Esha. Left 4 years ago through a portal to try to find his wife's lost soul.
[sblock]Male from the distant land of Saeria. Once stout and strong, Artep grew weak with age, his face wrinkled with laugh lines and his hair gray, though he kept it shorn short. He let his beard grow freely, though.
Artep kept an assortment of maps and records of strange tales from his life before coming to Kinras, and he had no greater pleasures than to tell stories to the children. Aside from being one of the main teachers, Artep helped with building new houses, and he used to be quite a hand at wrangling herd animals. He taught himself a few minor types of magic from old texts, including stoneshaping and a few basic illusions to aid with his storytelling. He lived in a house he built himself, with a strange field of dirt behind it.
When the PCs were 10, he vanished through a portal, which eventually they discovered led to a place called Limbo.[/sblock]
Pedimmu (+33). Male from No-Ostalin. Still lean and agile for his age, Pedimmu has dark hair, narrow eyes, and a terse posture even when relaxing. He shaves himself closely across his face and chest, using a polished stone razor, and likewise the spear with which he fights has a keen stone blade.
Though he used to let the other elders handle the rest of the town’s affairs and tries to stay detached from most of the younger townsfolk, he was always passionate about defending them all whenever danger arose. Only a few of the townsfolk know him well, but those who become close to him say that he still holds to the beliefs of No-Ostalin as best he can. These boil down to four tenets:
1. Do not lie. Only with the truth can you thrive.
2. Earn your living. Do not take without the owner's permission.
3. Serve your station. In life you go through different stages - student, servant, master, teacher. Embrace these changes, and do not try to be anything else.
4. Defend the many. Your life is not more important than any other's, though your role may be.
Pedimmu has a small group of devoted hunters and trackers, many of whom also participate in regular No-Ostalin religious observances. He teaches these devoted the Utan language, older even than the law of No-Ostalin. He also teaches, to anyone who has the devotion, the fierce and swift fighting style Shalvann. Though the town has only had a handful of legitimate threats since its founding, Pedimmu continues practicing and teaching.
Damati (+40). Female from No-Ostalin. Damati looks like she’s in her twenties, and though not particularly beautiful, on the rare occasions she takes a break from her bronzesmithing to spend time with the villagers she is fun to spend time with, renowned for doing reckless things like picking fights with Pedimmu or getting horses drunk and riding them through town. She has taken several different lovers over the years, though she usually grows disinterested quickly and goes back to the work that interests her – crafting with metal, and investigating the mysteries of the sky.
Of all the elders, she was the most scornful of No-Ostalin, and actively opposed Pedimmu’s attempts to teach the old ways to the children. She likes to tell stories of people being punished for reasons that seem irrational to the townsfolk, forcing Pedimmu to explain the context of why such punishment was deemed necessary.
Only a handful of townsfolk really seem to consider Damati a friend, and those are usually interested in learning from her. She doesn’t make many public appearances, and when she does she usually seems uncomfortable if she has not yet caused a scene.
Note that now the only two remaining elders are Damati and Pedimmu.
Time:
In a world where there is no sun or moon, no seasons, and no passage of stars in the heavens, how do people tell time?
The heavens are not uniform. The same pattern of gold and violet streaks and billows circle overhead at a constant rate. The most apparent measure of this time is the Chase, a pair of glowing disks about as big in the sky as a woman’s pinky when stretched out at arm’s length. The prey, named Avilona, is white and somewhat blurry like a cloud. The predator, named Jiese, is red and trails jagged lines like fire. They chase each other across the heaven for fourteen sleep cycles, then vanish beyond the horizon for fourteen more. Each complete circuit is known as a Chase.
A Chase consists of twenty-eight sleep cycles. In a given sleep cycle, a person usually spends about a third of it asleep, though people choose which third they want to sleep during, and a few keep to an odd schedule, sleeping halfway in two different sections. Each third of a cycle is called a Shift, and each total cycle is called a Day.
In a region of the heavens that is only visible when the Chase cannot be seen, one can spot a distant dark speck that seems to slowly dance from side to side in front of a strangely-colored patch in the sky. The patch is vaguely oval, vivid blue on the outer edges, fading to gold then red, then back to gold and finally to a brilliant purple in the center. It is barely as big in the sky as the size of a man’s thumb held at arm’s length. People do not speak of what exactly it might be, but they are generally reverent toward it.
Over a period of thirteen chases, the dark speck, which is called Nem, moves from one side of the colored patch, to the other, and then back. This thirteen-chase period is called a year, which is 364 days long. You were born in year 49.
Every 10 years, a night descends upon the world, its approach heralded by the approach of Nem and the colors in the heavens. They grow ever closer in the sky over the course of a year, until, a half-chase before the night arrives, Nem fills half the sky, spinning overhead, its strange face peering down out of shadows. During this time, the sky grows steadily darker, and after a half-chase when Nem vanishes under the western horizon, only a few days remain before the sky is replaced with a black void. In the span of less than a shift, the sky is devoured, leaving only tiny flickering white lights.
Fourteen days pass in near total darkness, and a murderous cold fills the sky. Snow falls, and the elders have heard stories of massive mountains of ice or stone crashing down from the shadowed sky. But then Nem begins to emerge from the eastern horizon, visible at first only because it blocks out even the white lights. Slowly over another fourteen days, Nem’s invisible form moves to cover nearly the entire sky, until it seems all light is about to be taken from the world. Then, miraculously, the sky begins to return, and in less than a shift the heavens are back to normal. It still takes a few days for the sky to reach its full normal brightness, but the danger has passed.
There has been a night every 10 years throughout remembered history. The game began just before the night in the year 56. The first story arc climaxed during the night in the year 66, when the PCs were 17.
There are other motions in the heavens – the stone worm, the lost ocean, the mouth of eyes – but they have their own stories and mysteries.
History of Kinras:
For seventeen years, every few days the elders would find an infant in a particular field, and while at first many of the children died because they could not feed them, eventually they wrangled a small herd of local animals, drove off the slender native wolves, and were able to support nearly every child that was found, as well as some of the second generation children. Some still died to disease or hunger or predation by wild animals, but eventually the town reached nearly 400 people.
Then one day in the year 49, six children were found in the field at the same time. They were named Gorub, Adeo, Braden, Myre, Atreya, and Tochipel. (Jeremy, Neil, Leena, Julian, Homera, and Hamid) After that, no other children were found in the field.
There are many other townsfolk. Listed here are the ones you have had at least moderate interactions with in the preceeding game sessions.
*Gale (+16). She was the 'mom' of the PCs, and died in a flood when they were 13, which led to the group being less attached to the village.[sblock]Female. Voluptuous, dark brown skin, caretaker of your group of six youngsters. Answers any questions you have about the town and its history, and all in all a good, readily-available source of information.[/sblock]
Eshaduel (-1). Daughter of Lajeca, slender and cute, with light gray skin, hair a brown-blonde caramel color, and eyes that shift from bright red to vivid blue. When she was younger she was shy, and only ever really hung out with Tochipel, who also studied magic under her mom, but after the flood she started going along with the PCs' gallivanting. She’s grown more adventurous, though she still has a cautious streak.
Her magical talents include charms, illusions, and disrupting other's spells.
Najess (+4). Female snake with the head of a woman. Najess is about twelve feet long with purple scales that fade to white on her underbelly. She’s very friendly and well-spoken, though people are a bit weirded out by how she used to leave molted skin casings every few months. She has a narrow face, black hair, and a very tactile disposition. Since she has no hands, she likes to get very close to people she talks to and occasionally coil around a leg or arm to brace herself while they have conversations. Najess is the town’s main messenger, since she cannot carry anything else, and she also hunts vermin.
Etymos (+1). Male with dark hair and tusks. He used to bully the PCs, but after being stabbed by Atreya and then healed by Braden, he felt a loyalty to his savior. He's one of the few people still holding out hope that Vona will return.
Delica (+1). Female red-head, tall, with wide green eyes that seldom blink. She was one of Lajeca’s apprentices, and she possessed some unusual mind magic. Delica lost interest in her studies, but pursued them again in preparation of the invasion by the ogres, to help the defenders coordinate telepathically.
Durvin (+15). Male farmer. Medium height, strong, and dark-haired with a small beard. He is in charge of all the town’s agriculture, though each farmer officially owns his own share of work and can decide how they want to barter it.
Kaka (+15). Male goblin brawler, his arms and legs covered in shaggy red-brown fur, his eyes wide like a pair of gold saucers. He has sharp teeth, a wide grin, and a tendency to chatter and spin in circles while standing on all fours. Lives in woods and beats up anyone who disturbs him, but roams furthest in search of nuts, berries, and bird eggs. Never can be found if he doesn’t want to be.
*Jeima (+8). She died when the PCs were seven, killed in the woods, then carried and gnawed on by an ogre that Pedimmu killed.
Bennagos (+10). Sandy-haired miller, once Jeima's boyfriend, now married.
Navarra (+17). Female, vaguely-Asian looking, tall, athletic, with long black hair she keeps tied into a bun when she fights. She is the wife of Pedimmu, though he is 16 years older than her. She is as much a warrior as him, though she prefers thrown weapons.
Itana (+16). Female, also loyal to Pedimmu. She looked like Navarra’s younger sister and acted like such. She was the town’s main horse trainer, and when she strayed in the fey woods to the south, she returned having been bizarrely fused with her horse as a centaur.
Yjtfub (+12). Female, 4-ft. tall, adorable, and endearing with bouncy blond hair and blue eyes. She’s strong for her size, and rides horses excellently, so primarily acts as a rancher. A woman of diverse interests, she spends as much time training in exotic weapons like nets, whips, and bolas as she does practicing hair-cutting, dancing, and medicine. She likes trying new things, and somehow finds time to do more than seemingly anyone else in the town. It was her who motivated an initial group of older villagers to try to explore the surroundings, which led to the discovery of a few nearby cultures - the fey, the ogres, and a river 30 miles to the north.
Kuras (+8). Male ogre, eight feet tall with a jutting lower jaw, scraggy dark hair in patches across his body, and massive clawed forearms and feet. He is loyal to Pedimmu, and runs nearly as fast as a horse. Does heavy labor like logging.
Other townsfolk you probably deal with occasionally include:
Near your age
Ankush (+1), Mittani (+2), and *Kor-natheon (+1), all former members of Etymos’s gang. Ankush used to set fire to anthills, now is a simple farmer. Mittani claimed people in the woods took him away occasionally to have sex, but now he avoids the woods, and is also a farmer.
Kor-Natheon's best friend died when he fell off a cliff, and then Kor-Natheon started learning magic instead of being as violent. However, he apparently began consorting with some disembodied demon spirit named Ferruus, which led him to commit many atrocities in secret before the PCs discovered him and killed him.
Raven (-2), a talking black bird that was being taken care of by Jeima before she died. Now Raven acts like a wild kid, performing pranks and stealing trinkets.
Ubara-Leon (+0), a smelly short guy who used to get picked on by all the older kids. He's a carpenter, and clingy to people who are nice to him.
Cara (+2), a confused but gorgeous woman who often contradicts herself in the space of two sentences. She studied with Artep’s protégé Voil, creating interesting stories that are funny and unpredictable. She slept around a lot, mistakenly believing she could stave off pregnancy with some herbal concoction. Her first child was murdered by Kor-natheon. She still hasn't quite recovered.
Borovu (+2), disgraced former leader of a gang of kids. Borovu has the most impressive beard in the town – curly and blonde, nearly six inches long even back when he was only 12. He builds furniture now, is strong and makes fun of people, and rather hates Tochipel.
*Tiberius (+2), a charming boy, brown-haired and tanned, athletic and fond of walking around with no shirt to impress girls. He was Borovu’s second in command in the gang, but also was a shepherd. He often took girls out to the sheep field and vanished for a while. He was murdered by a demoness working for Ferruus.
Tennang (+2), a scarred boy, dark-haired with light brown skin. He was mauled by a bear when he was five, but was saved by Kaka. Afterward he became interested in the healing arts, and now he knows how to make various balms and salves.
Adult townsfolk
Most of the adults in the town work as farmers or basic craftsmen, and a few of them have started families.
Voil (+15), a black-skinned man with black braids, dark brown eyes, and a deep voice. He was Artep’s favorite student, and took over duties teaching after Artep vanished.
Tammitha (+9), a frumpy woman with a bulbous nose. She’s the closest thing the town has to a crazy person (after Kaka), but she has learned how to use magic to shape wood.
Greya (+6), an energetic woman with bright blue eyes, whose hands are very warm. She is one of the town’s best bakers. Also makes beer, and has a keen understanding of flavor and spices.
Baracus (+10), the sheep-boy.
Blackhammer (+14), a short, somewhat fat man with blond hair and a thick, singed beard. Squat and stocky, standing less than 5 feet tall. He works with Damati, making metal objects, as well as crafting bows.
Dioo (+12), a strange person who the town honestly isn’t sure is actually a person. He’s a floating head, about the size of a person’s torso, with only one golden eye and no hair. He never talks, doesn’t seem intelligent, but he seems to understand commands, and often helps building projects by carrying materials in his mouth, since he can float up to roofs.
Shelza (+14), a statuesque woman with dark wavy hair, she works as the town’s main tanner. She’s missing her left thumb, lost when a wild dog bit it off when she was an infant.
*Narhrem (+13), a white-haired man, he learned some basic magic from Lajeca, then taught himself, learning to create gusts of wind and direct objects through the air. He played a card game Pedimmu taught him, but cheated. Eventually he started having visions that he was being visited by an angel, who told him to strike down the wicked. He resisted for as long as he could, but eventually went mad, killed Tiberius, then once discovered helped the PCs find his 'angel,' who actually was a demoness sent by Ferruus.
Pallan (+17), the oldest of the town’s children, Pallan was the first one discovered in the field. He’s a slender, pale man with curly dark hair. He’s quiet, and writes a lot, trying to figure out why this town is the way it is, and where he came from.
Sahar (+14), a multi-talented horticulturalist, she oversees the crops to make sure they are well tended and varied.
