D&D General Kara Tur 5e

[Shades of Eternity]

Kara-Tur - Some Thoughts - Part 4 - the Level Gauge & Useful Links

Tier 1 Levels 1-4. Characters are effectively apprenticing adventurers and face minor threats to local farmsteads or villages. Thi...

breadthofpopsanity.blogspot.com

Finishing up my writings is confirming what sort of adventure for what tier, justifications for dungeons, other random thoughts, and a few links (no idea if they are active anymore).

 

[Corinnguard]

Jinyu from World of Warcraft

Like the Nishikin from Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms, the Jinyu also resemble anthropomorphic Koi. I wanted to give everyone an idea on what the Nishikin look like.

 

[Corinnguard]

Female Nishikin

Male Nishikin

 

[jdrakeh]

Hopping vampires and ghosts. I'd actually like to see more ghosts in D&D period. A horribly underutilized foe in D&D.

 

[Shades of Eternity]

I remember reading somewhere that Thailand and the Indochina area in general were the Transylvania from the east, but have been unable to confirm the source. How could we make a land like that?

 

[jian]

Well, if I get a wish list:

1) For it to make some historical/geographical/mythical/cultural sense and have some foundation in East and Southeast Asian culture and history, which the original version mostly didn’t. Kara Tur is basically a collective term for Faerun’s version of China (split into Shou Lung and Tu Lung), Japan (split into Wa and Kozakura), Korea (Koryo), Tibet (Tabot), Mongolia (the Horse Plains), Khmer (Malatra), and various other polities in the area (which mostly don’t get their own names). They were all written in the 1980s with fairly little input from sources or writers from those places and there’s a lot of room for improvement and much better writing.

2) So I’d like some input from writers and sources from those actual places. Radiant Citadel was a good start for this and so I’d like those writers to get a look in. There doesn’t have to be a lot of detail but it would be nice if it was authentic. And if you can’t get a Korean writer, don’t do Korea, and so on.

3) For my personal preferences I’d quite like references to modern fantasy media about those places, such as manga, manhua, and manhwa. So we’d see a lot of wuxia, xianxia, murim, hunter, etc influences. We don’t need to stick to centuries old fairytales.

 

[Shades of Eternity]

ok some brainstorming

Petan: The Transylvania of Kara-Tur (Framing Overview)

Petan is the borderland between the cursed jungles of the Old World and the windblown badlands of the Horseclans. It is whispered about in hushed tones by merchants, feared by spiritual guides, and studied obsessively by fringe occultists. Those who venture into its vine-choked temples and moonlit rice terraces do not always return—and those who do speak of shadow-stained relics, vengeful ghosts, and cursed dynasties that linger even beyond death.

Key Locations in Petan

The Cradle of Still Waters​

• A drowned city resembling a cross between Ayutthaya and Venice—spirits roam its flooded streets.
• The waters reflect false stars and mirror ghosts—those who gaze too long drown not in water, but in memory.

The Temple of 1,000 Vows

• A winding ruin crawling with naga-themed carvings.
• Once housed monks who channeled karma into physical talismans—now overrun by spectral oathbreakers.

Banthak Market​

• A frontier trade post on the road to Horseclan lands.
• Famous for selling cursed heirlooms, “authentic” Krasue repellents, and pickled spirit fruit.
• Half-tourist trap, half-black market for forbidden relics.

The Ghost Pagodas​

• Crumbling stupas where monks entombed evil spirits rather than exorcise them.
• Wards are decaying. Something is singing again inside the cracked reliquaries.

The Bloodstep Ziggurat​

• Pre-dates any known culture in the region.
• Believed to have been a sacrifice site to jungle gods long before written history.
• Now, it’s the meeting place for vampire cults, sorcerer-bloodlines, and dark dharma enforcers.

Themes and Tropes to Embrace

• Decay is beautiful: Lush rot, flowering mold, temples bursting with vines.
• Karma is honest: Bad deeds echo. Mercy might weaken you, but it saves your soul.
• The past won't stay buried: History isn’t just remembered here—it fights back.
• Spiritual corruption: Enlightenment and damnation often wear the same robes
• Horror is subtle and cosmic: The jungle doesn’t hate you—but it will not mourn you.

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does this work?

 

[humble minion]

I'd actually like to see more ghosts in D&D period. A horribly underutilized foe in D&D.

I’m hitting that wall in my current campaign. There’s basically zero incorporeal undead monsters in the MM of over CR5. If you want to run one once the PCs are even slightly levelled up, you need to delve into 3pp monsters or customise.

 

[Scribe]

Female Nishikin

Male Nishikin

I keep forgetting I backed that. Physical books when.

 

[Dragonhelm]

3pp Kara-Tur products on the DMsguild.

I've seen some. Kara-Tur is part of the Forgotten Realms, so I have seen a few things. Not many, though.