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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9442375" data-attributes="member: 6750502">Location: The Circle of Paljehu the Builder <img src="https://i.imgur.com/hP9IUCR.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nEbqR6" target="_blank">The City of Elantris by Robin COSTET on ArtStation</a>The dragons of the Ancestral Homeland are akin to minor gods, whose respective circles are cosmic clay to be reshaped to their whims. When the Homeland became a solved world and the dragons lost the ability to naturally procreate or influence each other’s circles, some among their number came to view this as a mistake.Paljehu the Builder is a gold dragon craftsperson par excellence, an engineer of eldritch artifacts and self-sustaining spells that can fabricate the most complicated of structures and concepts. He studied conjuration to the near exclusion of other schools, and reached out to the bats of the Astral Sea to learn of their works. If one were to ask which dragon first came up with the rituals that created the kobolds, Paljehu would loudly boast it was his idea all along, although many of his peers would just as loudly contest this claim. But where some dragons saw kobolds as but tools, the Builder saw the blueprints for another idea. When Paljehu heard reports of kobolds becoming willful upon visiting the Beast World, hatched a plan. If the Ancestral Homeland’s solved state is limiting the power of the dragons, and solved worlds are due to the loss of divinity, then to unsolve the Homelands one would have to bring in a reason for divinity to flourish.Paljehu the Builder’s plan is to override his plane’s limitations via constructing a “new civilization” with the aid of people from other worlds, using summoning spells to reach out to the Beast World and beyond in encouraging willful creatures to visit the Circle of the Builder. From the delvers of Littfeld to the archmages of Broadgate University, kobold messengers carried runic items of amazing power and promises of a “glorious world where all is clay to reshape.” Paljehu seeks to draw the best and brightest, to test the limits of radical magecraft unseen before in the Beast World.By supplementing his forces beyond unwillful kobolds and constructs, Paljehu hopes to gain an advantage over the other dragons and undo the plane’s restrictions. It will not be easy, may not even be possible within the strictures of the cosmos, and surely other dragons will seek to undo his plots. But at the very least, he can build something great!The WordrunesOne prominent aspect of artisanship in Paljehu’s realm are wordrunes, concentric runic circles of rings found in strategic locations from the walls of buildings to the surfaces of tools and objects. Between each ring are letters in the script of magic, and the circles can be turned so that the letters spell out a complete word from the outermost ring down to inner circles, with “blank” spaces to allow for shorter words. Words created this way are known as an “assembled word.” In the wordrune’s center is a tiny circle with three words inside: make, unmake, and change. These three are known as “activating words.” When assembled and activated words are combined together, the wordrunes’ inherent magic creates an effect in line with whatever surface or object with which it is inscribed. For instance, a pipe whose activating and assembled words are “make water” may have a continuous stream of water emerge, while spelling “destroy life” on the floor of a room may cause any creatures or organic matter put inside it to wither away from necrotic energies. The wordrunes are such that one does not have to be a spellcaster to use them, and the variation in their possible uses has been put to great effect by some recent immigrants. But in the limitations of a solved world, the wordrunes cannot be used to create life, willful or otherwise. Any such creatures created are obviously artificial and unintelligent, obvious golems who need instructions from willful creatures. Wordrunes can only affect existing material things within the specific boundaries of the surface it’s written on and cannot interact with metaphysical ideas. For instance, one cannot use it to enhance the intelligence of all bovines across the cosmos. While it can be used to change the mind of a creature’s moral outlook, it cannot alter a paladin’s state to the point that they can ignore the tenets of their oath.  Additionally, it takes great time and effort on Paljehu’s part to create wordrunes, so they aren’t yet fully ubiquitous in the circle.Paljehu’s wordrunes serve several purposes: the first is to extend the powers of creation in his circle beyond himself, yet his mastery over the domain still gives him a privileged position to step in and override orders if necessary. The second is to make any societies built in his circle effectively post-scarcity without the need for constant maintenance on his part nor for the citizenry to be accomplished mages in their own right. When one can raise castles from nothing or transmute lead into gold with but a few spins of a wheel, the complicated processes of building a new civilization can be jump started. Whereas other dragons have but kobolds and constructs aping the motions of a supposed civilization, Paljehu will have the genuine article!The Ultimate GoalPaljehu’s planned great society has an underlying motivation: to build a god, rendering the Ancestral Homeland a Material World. In linking the gods to the presence of willful creatures, Paljehu theorizes that the isolated nature of the plane’s dragons was what brought about the solved state due to the loss of fundamental change. Therefore, rapid, grand, and wondrous changes by outside settlers is needed to undo this.Whatever society springs from such works will create rules, regulations, social contracts, and even conflict, which in turn should give rise to the personifications of concepts required for the creation of deities. As to why Paljehu the Builder isn’t taking the long direction, he fears that the Ancestral Homelands don’t have enough time. Even in taking into account the ancient nature of dragonkind, a slow development will allow rival dragons time to react and counter his ideas, and the wordrunes can partially delegate the powers of creation reserved to a circle’s dragon ruler. In so doing, he’s been rather lax in managing who is allowed into his realm, allowing more than a few bad actors in. Paljehu is just as fine with a society in turmoil as a glorious utopia, or a god of suffering to spring from his project as a god of mercy. What matters is changing the planar fabric first and foremost.Adventure Ideas: The wordrunes in a research lab malfunction, flooding a small region with harmful elemental energy. PCs will need to wear special suits or use environmental protection spells to go in and repair the runes in a race against time. An agent of the Thieves’ Army is using a wordrune to create gemstones and precious metals, exporting them into a city in the Beast World that’s been cracking down on the Army in order to wreck their economy. The Ecclesiasts, Ferals, or another villainous group are planning to steal a wordrune in order to build a superweapon. A rival dragon is hiring mercenaries to infiltrate the circle to destroy Paljehu’s planned society and sabotage the wordrunes. A powerful entity appears seemingly out of nowhere, proclaiming themselves to be a god and demanding that Paljehu and all within his circle bow to their divine might. Did the dragon succeed, or is this an opportunistic pretender?PS: I'd like to give credit where it's due. The wordrune's activating words are inspired by the magic system from Capharnaum: the Tales of the Dragon-Marked RPG. It's a pretty novel fantasy setting strongly inspired by various Middle Eastern and Mediterranean legends.</blockquote>

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