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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tristissima" data-source="post: 7894431" data-attributes="member: 6162">After the caligni and the kayal, the last of the races singled out for attention barely counts, in my mind.  After all, as far as I know, there’s never been a racial write-up for the velstracs.  Especially since there are so many different types with such different statblocks.  Here's a list of the twenty types of velstrac (along with the origins of their names):<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Almoners [an official distributor of alms, or charity], who forge the iconic chains of the velstracs</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Anchorites [something like a hermit, only restricted to sometimes a single room and considered dead to the world], converted mortals</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Apocrisiarii [representative of bishops to the secular authorities], who cannot lie and use torture to reduce others to a single truth</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Apostles [carrier of the Word], also converted mortals</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Augurs [Roman diviner by the motion of birds in the sky], the tiny spirits who can be familiars</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cantors [singer of liturgical music], the scouts and guides</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ephialtes [early advocate of democracy in 5th c. BCE Athens OR one of the Aloadae or Giants in Greek mythology OR the one who betrayed the Greeks to the Persians at Thermopylae], among the leaders of the velstracs</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Eremites [fancy word for a hermit], the big bads</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Evangelists [one who tries to convert others], the baseline kyton from D&D 3.x ~ also the most commonly found velstrac in their old Hellish home</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Interlocutors [explainer of the government’s views and can also tell the government things from the people], surgeon-sculptors</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lampadarii [the one who carries the lamp or torch into the church], half-shadow Kuthite fanatics (to my mind, this separates them a bit from the Nine Truths-focused other velstracs)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Libitinarii [Roman undertaker], the frozen velstracs</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Oitoi [I have no idea], the skeletal velstracs</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ostiarii [doorman, the first order a seminarian is admitted to after declaring they wanted to be a priest], gatekeepers and emissaries</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Phylacators [I have no idea again], the jailers and executioners</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Precentors [person who leads a congregation in singing of prayers], the storytellers and historians of pain</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sacristans [protector of the room for keeping vestments and the church], unintelligent slaves</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sextons [person who looks after church and churchyard, sometimes as bell-ringer and gravedigger], who are extra fanatical about their pursuit of pain</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Suffragans [a bishop subordinate to another bishop], former Joyful Things who join the lampadarii as Kuthite fanatics rather than Nine Truths true believers</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Termagants [ummm...a violent and turbulent pseudo-deity believed by Medieval Christians to be worshiped by Muslims...], who are always pregnant and give birth to abominations</li> </ul>Anyway, it seems that they are uncommon, but easily recognized by the population.  Well, I would imagine so!  As Zon-Kuthon’s primary agents, their image is no doubt emblazoned across the friezes and mosaics of their temples.  I’m imagining, in fact, chains embedded in the actual concrete walls of the temple, hanging between sculpted images above the heads of the congregants.  Velstracs likely cavort in the margins of Nidalese illustrated manuscripts, and crude velstrac costumes almost certainly adorn the performers in their morality plays.This section doubles down on the kayal entry in terms of presenting a division between the upper classes (defined here largely politically, as “the Umbral Court and their agents” rather than by religious devotion) and the majority of the population.  The latter, it seems, sees the velstracs as nothing but immensely fearful, while the former mostly see them as an opportunity or a threat.  I might be invested in the idea of Nidalese culture being something good characters can reasonably come from and interact with, but this feels like it swings too far.  If nothing else, the realm has served the Midnight Lord for twice the length of Earth’s recorded history in objective years and about as long as our recorded history when adjusted for multiracial differences in lifespan.  The idea that the general population just cowers beneath an imposed tradition simply doesn’t seem to stand to reason.Of course, rebels always see the arrival of velstracs as a deep “Oh, naughty word” moment.Anyway, there's really not much to be said about this little bit.  It honestly feels more like fluff added in, mebbe in formatting, to fill out the space.</blockquote>

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