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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8942647" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/70JbLfN.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Chapter 3: the Kingdom of AllemanceThere are some commonalities scattered across the country chapters. Many realms are explicitly modeled off of real-world groups, with sidebars explaining some cultural peculiarities and inspirations. The Delver’s Guide has cultural consultants for such realms, so it’s not entirely written from an outsider’s perspective. With a few exceptions, most regions are multi-species, even if some lands and cultures are more strongly associated with certain kinds of Beasts. Additionally, every land has a brief section on how people worship Pirhoua, who has Three Divine Charges emphasizing what that culture views as her greatest tenets, and also a section on relationships with Delvers. Finally, there’s a list of “What to See in X” that covers a variety of interesting locations for adventure fodder.Of the various lands of the Beast World, Allemance is the one closest to Western European fantasy cultures. It is a large feudal realm with verdant fields, and its inhabitants are known as Allemagnians, or Alleys for short. Their culture is polychronic, meaning that they often switch between various labors throughout the day in lieu of specific schedules and appointments, and their society is polyamorous in that marriages still happen but people can still have other romantic partners. Children are often raised by an extended family as well as friends in their parent’s social circles. The nobility serves as an exception, for explicit claims of lineage is vital to the aristocracy. Allemance’s government is ruled over by a family of wolves whose eldest daughter traditionally inherits the throne. Queen Sophia Andolesia VI is the current ruler, and while popular she is beginning to come to blows with some unscrupulous lords and ladies taking advantage of serfs. The forest of Glasrún is Fantasy Counterpart Ireland and technically part of the kingdom, although its inhabitants have a bit of a hands-off-relationship with the rest of Allemance. This is due to a Pact made nearly a thousand years ago where a ruler sought to rid himself of having to govern “useless land” north of the Queensriver to anyone brave enough to settle within.In Allemance, the religion of Pirhoua’s bethels (the faith’s term for a temple) often serve as schooling centers for children, emergency shelter, and other community service functions. Their divine charges include raising large families, encouraging all forms of love and goodwill to others, and to indulge in life’s simple pleasures which is a good excuse for parties and holidays. As for Delvers and the Dungeon, Allemagnians romanticize the adventuring lifestyle and view them as wandering heroes, and ruins from the long-ago Mantle War (a conflict with the northern land of Oria) often serve as common access points to the Dungeon. Vampires are fond of appropriating Dungeon entrances to their own ends, finding value in a sprawling lightless realm.What to See in Allemance includes 27 locations of note. Some of the more interesting ones include the Crystal Plinth, an abandoned ligonine city whose Dungeon incursion is teeming with invading monsters and forgotten treasures; the realm of Dole which has a beautiful spotless capital but a cruel Baroness; Fort Kingsfang which is located on the Alley-Oric border used to train the Crown Guard; the Isle of Brass and Bronze, a neutral meeting ground for good-aligned dragons and their allies; Lake Reineblest whose soil is being warped by the Dungeon and the various villages along its shores are fiercely debating whether or not to evacuate; Molemill Well, a massive well that connects to the Loamlink, a continental subterranean network used by ligonines to travel through the Beast World’s dark depths; and Uriah’s Wood, a forest home to a sorcerer of the same name who possesses magic that can temporarily return a Beast to their quiet-minded self. For this last entry, many people seek Uriah out in hopes of coming to terms with some troubling memory.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/U5Pri5E.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Louvain is the capital of Allemance, a cosmopolitan metropolis at the metaphorical center of the Beast World. The Palace of the Lupine Throne has a garden of fruit trees open to the public every summer, and the Queen holds court on an island in the center of a pond known as the Moonpool Sanctum to hear petitions. Alchemical innovations known as Soda Lamps have created neon lights that are beloved assets for shops advertising their wares. The Night District is the seedy section of town, and the Thieves’ Army (organized crime syndicate made up of outlaws and veterans of the Invader War) operates openly as a barely-legitimate Veteran Union. There’s a growing and thriving industry catering to Delvers, and the latest fashion crazes are either clothes inspired by former civilizations of the Broken World or Delver-inspired “adventurer chic.” We get several detailed vendors here, ranging from Silas the rabbit clothing designer who earned a rivalry from a family of tailor squirrels; a trio of wolves making a living at a tea house who have a Dungeon lead for delvers in the form of a weird door in a house in the city; and a tavern and stagehall known as Twisted Whiskers which is owned by a dragon.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/055TjNl.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Patrie is the last surviving city of the Brethren, pulled from the Broken World by the goddess Pirhoua herself into Bluebell Valley of Allemance. It is ruled over by Diana, an officer who defected to Allemance’s side during the Invader War, and was granted the title of Baroness. The city is circular, its major districts forming spoke-like divisions, and the architecture is a mixture of old Broken World materials with newer construction from native resources. There is still a lot of empty space, and about a third of the city is still in ruins and being restored (or exploited) by Shamans, scavengers, and adventurers. The Jackals, a species of fey beings, were vital in Patrie’s growth, granting two gifts in the form of a seed (a coffee plant to give Patrie a cash crop) and a ziggurat structure known as the Junction. The Junction is lined with glassy surfaces serving as scrying and teleportation portals to areas all across the Beast World.  Reception buildings in major cities link back to the Junction, and most facets link to minor places and are too narrow for a Delver’s wagon to fit through.Patrie has several major factions attending to its smooth operation: the Dungeon Brigade is a governmental agency that coordinates efforts with Delvers to monitor and defend against Dungeon incursions; the Light of Self is a sect of Aubade (one of the Beast World gods) formed by Brethren who are trying to find a new life in the wake of the Broken World’s abandonment; the Stargazers work at an observatory which they use to record stars in the sky and make celestial maps; the Demitassian Revelers are a club of coffee enthusiasts seeking to pay delvers well for coffee beans brewed in unconventional ways, such as being flash-frozen by a winter wolf’s breath or retrieved partially-digested from the stomach or a mimic; and the Shamans, a majority-Brethren organization of historians dedicated to studying the Broken World and making expeditions into that plane of existence to retrieve objects of cultural significance.The Light of Self has a large number of transgender and nonbinary members. The writer who came up with the organization is a transgender woman who has a sidebar explaining the creative process and inspiration:<img src="https://i.imgur.com/X0s3vqG.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Our section ends with some in-character fiction where a fox child and Brethren child begin an unlikely friendship in the aftermath of the Invader War. Thoughts So Far: Allemance isn’t exactly doing anything novel when it comes to fantasy settings. It’s your typical feudal realm of rustic idyllic countryside, two big Cities of Adventure, and some interesting dungeon crawls and a wicked aristocrat or two for PCs to thwart or overthrow. But it’s still a strong entry, for it has just a little bit of everything for a DM to develop into something further, and much like Littfeld I like the personalized touch of named NPCs as faces for organizations or vendors for shops and important services. The Brethren city of Patrie is surprisingly cool, showing that even the non-furry race in Beast World still has a unique niche to separate them from the boring, bland humanity of other settings.Join us next time as we venture into the frozen hinterlands of the Lodge Houses of Oria!</blockquote>

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