The Runelords
In the first Pathfinder blog post I mentioned how we needed to build a new region to set Rise of the Runelords in. In fact, it's more complicated than that. We actually had to create TWO regions. The first of these is Varisia, the realm in which the new Adventure Path takes place. The other is Thassilon, the ancient empire that once sprawled across much of this corner of the world. An empire that was, at its height, ruled by seven powerful wizards known as Runelords.
Thassilon was a sprawling empire that covered an area about as large as the western half of the United States. The Runelords were maniacal arcanists who used magic to fuel their own decadent vices. They forged alliances with dragons and enslaved giants by using secrets of rune and glyph magic stolen from the aboleths. With their enslaved giant armies, the wizards of Thassilon built massive tombs, enormous magical constructs, and staggering monuments that survive today, mute testimonies of a mysterious age long past. Yet as all evil empires must, Thassilon fell. The reason for this fall remains a mystery, but as the end drew near, the seven Runelords retreated into the depths of their greatest monuments, entombing themselves with orders for their minions to release them later to reclaim their empire. Alas, Thassilon's minions were enslaved or slaughtered. No one was left to waken them, and so the wizard kings of Thassilon slumbered for countless ages. Virtues of Rule, Sins of Magic
At Thassilon's dawn, the Runelords held that wealth, fertility, honest pride, abundance, eager striving, righteous anger, and well-deserved rest were the seven virtues of rule—rewards that one could enjoy for being in a position of power. But the Runelords soon abandoned the positive aspects of these traits, instead embracing greed, lust, boastful pride, gluttony, envy, wrath, and sloth as the rewards of rule. Today, long after the fall of Thassilon, the original seven virtues are held as the great mortal sins, although only a few scholars who have studied ancient Thassilon know of their true sources.
The Runelords' magic was closely tied to these seven categories, to such an extent that they developed their own schools of magic. All of the Runelords were specialist wizards. They recognized seven schools of magic (lumping divination magic into the universal school), and each school was associated with one of the seven sins. A Thassilonian wizard selected one sin when he became a specialist, and that determined his prohibited schools, as detailed below.
Envy
Focused on the suppression of magic other than your own.
Specialty: abjuration
Prohibited Schools: evocation and necromancy
Sloth
Focused on calling agents and minions to perform your deeds for you, or used magic to create what you needed as you needed it.
Specialty: conjuration
Prohibited Schools: evocation and illusion
Lust
Focused on using magic to control and dominate others to force them to satisfy your desires, and in the control of other creatures' minds, emotions, and wills.
Specialty: enchantment
Prohibited Schools: necromancy and transmutation
Wrath
Focused on the destructive powers of magic, and the use of magic to channel destructive forces.
Specialty: evocation
Prohibited Schools: abjuration and conjuration
Pride
Focused on using magic to perfect your own appearance and your domain through trickery and illusions.
Specialty: illusion
Prohibited Schools: transmutation and conjuration
Gluttony
Focused on the use of magic to manipulate the physical body in order to maintain an unending thirst for continued life.
Specialty: necromancy
Prohibited Schools: enchantment and abjuration
Greed
Focused on the use of magic to transform things into objects of greater value or use, and for the enhancement of the physical self.
Specialty: transmutation
Prohibited Schools: enchantment and illusion
