My homebrew world of Edhel -- Updated with psionics !

[Gez]

I had a more complete thread on the old boards, but well, it was lost.

So, here's a new one. I'll post here the updates.



Edhel is a land of clash between species, of shade of greys, of old secrets, lies, and delusions. It is a place of high elven noble living decadently in palace, of greedy gold dwarven merchants, of bestial orcs and frigtheningly cunning orcs, of ubiquitous halflings, of mysterious gnomes, of goblin pirates, of fabled serpentfolk. It is a place where the dragons, sphinxes and other wondrous beasts live in crowded cities, and have other agendas than being a mere wandering monster seeking death at the PC's blade. It is a place where nothing is as simple as it seems.

Edhel is a place torn in two, where the moon has blue seas, green lands and white clouds, and where one can see the light of cities during eclipses. The moon is verdant, and populated by the gods and the reincarnation of the dead, and sometimes terrifying events happen on the moon so large in their scale that they can be seen from the earth. Long ago, Edhel was one, but one day the mortals committed a crime that made the gods cut the world in two, one for the mortals, one for them and the spirits.

On Edhel lies unique magics, strange customs, weird creatures and unforgiven treacheries. Despite the small size of the known land, and the seemingly unity of the nations, struggle and old hatred abounds.

Edhel is a generic campaign setting. Or rather, can be. Its particularities can be hidden quite well on a local scale, so as to import scenarii from other setting; but when seen in its entirety it has enough specificities that makes it really unique. One of my aim for designing Edhel was to have a careful balance between genericity, so as to not disturb players and let me finetune it as we game, and personality, so as I don't receive comments like "but why don't you use the Realms, you would have less work to do ?". Yeah, I could have ran a Realms campaign rather, but their was too much concept that I couldn't have put into the Realms without making it too much hodgepodge for my taste, and their was lots of things in the Realms that I didn't wanted to have.

What do you have in Edhel ? Some bits of steampunk (gold dwarves, grey elves, deep gnomes), evils that bask in the sunlight rather than hiding in the darkness, mysterious races, fantastic creatures playing a real role, magic really taken into account, unique twist on some old critters so as they're not boring cannon fodder. So, you have a tragic creation myth for kobolds, a frightening subrace of orcs leaded by an alien intelligence, and the harsh but joyous life of the golden goblin pirates ! But standard races and subrace are present as well (except drows, I don't wanted 'em to be native from this world).

What do you don't have ? Manicheism, mainly. Sure, it's D&D so we have alignments, but I'm wanting a setting where these alignments are less set in stone than in other D&D settings. 2e leftover: something that really annoy me in the Realms is that the 2e stereotypes are engraved in the setting. So, for example, powerful relics from a fallen highly magical civilization are always elven or human in the Realms (well, sometimes they're from a monstrous civilization such as illithids). The most powerful wizards are all humans in the Realms -- no way you can found, say, a gnome archidruid or a dwarf archimage in the FR. Finally, the Realms have some things that are just overdone: drows, for example. On the WotC boards, "NiTessine" was gathering lists of the highest level wizards, clerics, etc. in the Realms. It turned out that the majority of the level 18+ clerics where drow priestess of Lolth. I would have thought that the highest level clerics would have been those of a greater deity (more clerics, more probability of having a high-level one) that would not advocate promotion through assassination of those above you (making the majority of your clergy die before they can acheive a position where they become too hard to kill).


A longer description can be found on my draft at http://gez117.free.fr/dnd/edhel.html.

Here you'll find some new feats, races, and prestige classes.

 

[Gez]

Update: I have added a rough description of two other strange cities, Edelonne and Kaztengarken.

I would enjoy any feedback, comments, or question.

By the way, since English is not my native language, if I'm unclear somewhere, tell me. I'll try to correct that.

 

[FullTinCan]

What I have read so far is intriguing. I really like the imagery of cities seen on the moon.

One strong recommendation is to break down the document into digestable chunks. One chunk for history. One chunk for the races. One chunk for the gods. But that is more of a layout issue.

A legend to the map would be excellent as well.

I will print out the material and read through it. You have definitely captivated my interest.

 

[Gez]

Thanks for the interest.

For the layout... Well, it's a draft. I sometimes re-organize trhe data in a way that I think better. Once I will be satisfied with my table of content, I will separate into several files. And I will had some eye-candy as well.

The map is also a bit crude. I think it is mainly self-explanatory, but blue is water, white is snow and ice, ochre is for steppes, yellow is for desert, light brown for hills, dark brown for mountains, dark green for forest and light green for plains.

 

[Kamard]

Hi,

Your map is kind of neat.

 

[Gez]

A little update. I've added a description of the Night Gnomes. As always, feel free to comment.


Off-topic, I was a bit surprised to not find the good old Whereabout forum. I dunno if merging with the Plot forum was the most logical choice. Oh well.

 

[Gez]

It made a long time I was wanting to have purely spiritual gods in D&D -- without incarnation nor aspect -- and that I was trying to integrate psionic powers in the rest of the world in an original yet consistant way. Something that would give more unique flavor to my little homebrew. Well, these ideas have matured and developed themselves.

I'm so proudly presenting my own twist on the theme of psionic powers, with morcels of dead gods and sentient regions inside. I'm thinking they are cool ideas, that may be find a home in other worlds and break the belief that psionic powers always feel like sci-fi.

BACKGROUND (longish, but probably necessary to understand the rest)

The creation myth of my homebrew took several steps, separated by metamorphoses of the gods. Initially, there was some Powers, whose creative might was limitless, but who were clumsy at wielding it and who were not really smart. For an unknowable time, they were merely creating the stars and planets that the PCs and NPCs can admire at night in the sky. One Power, more creative than the other, tried to refine its art; and instead of boasting over creating the biggest planet, it decided to boast over creating the most beautiful planet. It had the idea of life, of beings that would change their world in an autonomous fashion. That should be a fascinating sight.

This Power was successful in its attempt, but it asked it lots of works as it had to forget what it knew to start on new bases. Exchanging brute creative might for a subtler, more delicate capacity, it succeeded in crafting the first and most primitive form of life, moss and lichen. The other Powers were quick to imitate it, and the planet became a workshop for them. But, with each creation, the Powers lose a bit of their might, as it became autonomous simultaneously as the new specie. So were created the Totems and the Powers disappear, slowly dissolving themselves into their "children". There was Totems for everything: tree, bush, scorpion, dolphin, vulture, cat, wolf, ape, snake, woodlouse...

But competition continued. Totems seeked to improve their models, creating numerous variation on their favorite theme. Finally some Totems ended up creating sentient races. Other, however, didn't have enough power left for this. And it is with the creation of sentient races that arrived the second metamorphoses of deities. Sentient creatures began to have religious practices and to worship their creators, albeit in an incomplete, flawed way.Each believed in a deity that would have created them specifically and from who they would be the chosen; the other creatures being only forsaken drafts, failed clones created by envious lesser deities, or even grotesque and evil caricatures created by a god jealous of their own Most-Munificient-Creator-Whom-They-Are-The-Chosen. This behavior created a sort of schizophrenia in the Totems. They divided themselves, following the belief of their worshippers, in distinct entities with their own, special powers and personalities. So, some Totems, those that have created sentient beings, disappear and were replaced by the Gods.

Because the religious worship of mortals toward gods has a strong power, and can chanel mystical energy through faith. Not only this energy give birth to the Gods from the Totems, but it was also what gave them their power back. The Gods realized that, and promoted this behavior among their "chosen", urging them to proliferate and dominate. Soo, the mortal were so numerous that they began to fight for land.

Then came another event. The Gods decided to cheat to favorise their followers. They used the magical energy they were hoarding to cast spells. First directly, then, for more efficiency and to take care of other matters, by imbuing mortals with more and more power. Thus appeared divine magic.

The Gods gave so much power to the mortals that one day a mortal killed a god.

Scared by the event, the Gods decided to settle peace among them, to stop giving powers to mortals, and to live from now on far from them. Uniting their powers, they pushed all mortals in the same place, and sundered the world in two halves: one that become this world's Earth, the other that become this world's Moon. After some fixing, they abandonned the Earth and settled the Moon. Only the Gods and simple plants and animals were living on the Moon, and the Gods decided to live quietly, without expending the magic they still had so as to not need believers and start the war again. Guess what, they failed at that. They gradually reintroduced divine magic as they found it was hard tyo stop expending their magical energy.

However, and here we comes to the point, the sundering of the world had a devastating effect on the remaining Totems. Because of the distortions in the Astral created by the dramatic event, the astral "bodies" of the Totems were destroyed, and only their spirit remained, stranded with the mortals on Earth. These Totem spirits didn't stand the trauma; and, totally wracked, fall into madness or catatonia. It is a cruel fate, for a pure spirit, to lose its mind, intellect and will.

Integrating the very matter of the Earth to compensate for the loss of their body, the Totems became Spirits, sentient or not. It is on these Spirits that psionic powers are based.

PSIONIC EXPLANATION

Each place on the Earth of my homebrew campaign world is "haunted" by a Spirit. Everywhere lies the wracked essence of a fallen divine being. Some are diminutive, and inhabit merely a mountain, a grotto, a river, even a building or a simple room. Other wraps entire regions. Some have keeped their own will and mind, but they usually have become mad and evil. Others are reduced to an unconscious, mindless activity.

Mortals with psionic powers are people able to attune their mind with the defenseless, ruined one of these divine wrack. This way, they succeed in taking control of a little bit of that Spirit's capacity. It is this way they can manifest psionic powers. On this subject, one should note that the ectoplasm used for metacreativity power comes from the dissolved remains of the Totem's bodies. Once a psionic-using creature succeed in phasing with the Spirit, it is possible for it to manifest powers without much dangers.

When a psionist leave the zone haunted by a Spirit (and enter into another one), he feels that and lose his powers (and his psicrystal, if he has one, is temporarily "off"); until he attune himself to the Spirit of his new location. If he comes back to the first, he'll have to attune again.

However, if the psionist try to attune with a sentient Spirit... Then, bad thing happens. The psionist is controlled by the Spirit. It is not possible to break that influence as long as the psionist is in the Spirit's zone. However, it is easy to recognize if a Spirit is mindless or not.

Some Spirits don't hesitate to use their powers to create psionic creatures that will act as their servants. For example, the dread orcish City of Kaztengarken has created two powerful orc subraces who are smarter, more cunning, more disciplined, more deceiptive -- thus, more dangerous -- than normal orcs; and who have the task of contributing to the City's project of growing forever until it recovers the whole world. Kaztengarken had this way already absorbed some other Spirits, although it hadn't met other sentient Spirits that could resist it.

Even mindless, will-less Spirit keep an unconscious activity, something somewhat akin to reflexes. It is what would explain the dreadful phenomenon of the fiery storms in the Fire Desert, when the sand lifted by the wind became incandescent and bubbles of overheated boiling air kill instantly everyone on its path.

It is also what explain the numerous peculiarity found in some regions. For example, in the Ghilwenn forest, the water from source become awfully bitter in the waterskin if, after having filled these, one don't give a thankful prayer to the source. Or also why in the city of Massand, it is taboo to kill a cat; because ill fortune is on who commit such a crime. As massans love fishes, nap, and hunting; it is thought that the local Spirit was a Cat Totem. In the same way, in the city of Ralarka, it is snakes who are sacred animals; and the city is rife with intrigues and plots, a place where elegance and hypocrisy are virtues. Every people who rest at the Lonely Tower Inn while traveling in the Kerchezel steppes dream quiet and pleasing dreams where they fly. And every highlander from the Rostferg mountains knows to not look at the sky when they walk, lest the ground slip under their feet.

Several customs and superstitions of this kind have born out of the Spirit's unconscious activity. The stranger is well advised to imitate these customs without asking much questions. Although sometimes, some people love to make fun of travelers by making them believe silly tales that force them to behave in a ridiculous or painful way to avoid a supposed awful death. On the other hand, it is true that sometimes you have to behave in a ridiculous or painful way. The infamous Chasm's Ark, a natural bridge above a gap in the Espan hills, is known to be crossable only by crawling on the knees; as feet always glide on its ground, whatever the boots or the walker's dexterity. And all those who've tried to build safety fence died after falling, only to have their corpse crushed by the fall of the material they used.

RULES

Each region with an unconscious Spirit has a Psychic Strength (PS) )rating, going usually from 5 to 35. A psion or psychic warrior must, to attune to the zone, obtain a result greater than this rating by rolling 1d20 + their manifester level. Feats and abilities that increase manifester level for purpose of bypassing SR also apply to this roll. Only one single successfull roll is required each day (after rest, at the same moment the psi regain lost power points) as long as the psionic-user don't leave the region.

On a failure, the psionic-user suffer the effect of a successful random psionic attack mode.

On the other hand, on a success, he can get some benefits. If the PS rating is between 15 and 24, he get a +1 caster level to his power's effects, as well as a +1 bonus on his power's saving throw DC. If the PS is between 25 and 34, the bonus is +2. If the PS is between 35 and 44, the bonus is +3. And so on. (To the contrary, in the rare case the PS is of 4 or below, he get a -1 penalty.)

As, despite this little bonus, psions and psychic warriors are globally weakened by this house rule (there are place they can't use their powers, and they face everyday a risk of getting temporary ability damage), to compensate; they have been a bit buffed. They know more psionic powers. A psion know two more powers by power levels, one needing to be from his primary discipline, the other not having that requirement. The psychic warrior knows one more power per power level.

So, a 6th level psion, instead of knowing 4+1 0-level power, 2+1 1st level, 1+1 2nd level, and 0+1 third level (the second number each time being the power that must be from his primary discipline); he will know 5+2 0-level powers, 3+2 1st level, 2+2 2nd level and 1+2 third level. This of course don't allow him to know powers earlier than under normal rules, just to know more power.




That's it. I'll be happy to get feedback on this.

Eh ! Just got another idea about this... What about relics that could be called "spiritshards" and that would allow a psionic creature to use its power without needing an unconscious Spirit ?