Planescape Primalshard: other "echo" plane.

[LuisCarlos17f]

In Spain the word for supercool would be superguai. In the past this word was used to express pain, but in the 80 it started to be used like synonmy of cool, great or fabulous. The etimology of this isn't clear but my own theory is this new use is from "¡guau!", exclamation to express surprise or admiration ( Example: ¡Guau, qué chica tan bonita! = Wow, what a pretty girl!). Other words in Spain would be "estupendo", "genial", "excelente", "chachi", "chulo" or "chupi" (this is more childish or informal). In other zones of Hispanoamerica the words may be "chido" (Mexico) or "chevere"(Colombia).

"Unseensweep" is an evolution of the "invisible landscape" from the 2nd Ed Shaman Handbook. It is like the spirit realm from Kara Tur but it is morphed by the collective beliefs of the sentient creatures. Maybe this plane could be right if you want to add some touch of new-weird-fiction style creepypaste, Backrooms or Fundation SCP.

Barataria (Part 1)
A nice place if you like to suffer.

A lot of time ago there was a brave hero whose original name was lost. The people called "Mitraist" because he fought for the brotherhood of Mitra. He left his previous life when the brotherhood was betrayed in the middle of the fight by the noble houses for the power. His cousin was a cleric of Verethragna (a yazata or archangel from Persian pantheon) who was falsely accused and executed for treason as a scapegoat for those truly responsible. He was traveling during several years like an errant knight helping innocents when he could. One day he met a child who lived alone and crafted dolls and toys. This little boy asked help to the Mitraist and this accepted. The boy wasn't a child at all but a half-god "whose parents weren't married". The mitraist couldn't guess other deities would send monsters to kill the Toymaker-Child. When the Mitraist realises the level of menaces they faced he felt very sick, but the Toymaker-Child promised if he defended he would give magic talismans to protect innocent children. Then the Mitraist accepted the deal. He didn't worry for his own survival but he needed a reason to live and fight.
The Toymaker-Child kept his promise, albeit in his own style. At the New Year's celebrations the Toymaker-Child left gifts in little children's bedrooms, dolls, toys and books with tales of legendary tales who fought against the forces of the Darkness. The other deities realises thanks their prophetic gifts this little detail would change radically the "Unseensweep" or "Invisible Landscape", the world of the spirits (who are summoned by the shamans). Those toys were blessed with divine magic, and thanks lots of innocent children could be saved against supernatural predators. Urban Legends told about parents waking up to the terrified screams of their children, and when they got to their rooms there were the corpses of children-eater monsters before them, and on top of them the stuffed animals of their children wielding a blood-soaked weapon. The Mitraist was the first one of legendary heroes who protected children in the shape of a toy. The children who survived those monsters grew up, and they did not stop believing in the heroes who defeated the forces of evil. When they became adults and told to the next generations the feats of these legendary heroes then a light of faith and hope emerged.
The supernatural predators became increasingly weaker because the new generations believed these could be defeated by the legendary heroes. Thanks the Mitraist the Toymaker-Child earned a place among the rest of deities. But this doesn't here because the Toymaker-Child prohesied the arrival of the children from the star. This prophecy was fulfilled, although not in the way originally imagined.
A night a great ship who traveled among the stars throught the outer space was atacked by an enemy power and then crashed into the land. Its crew hasn't survived the impact on the land without the divine power by the Toymaker-Child, who has earned a higher rank and he had got ready for them. The crew of the crashed space ship were "aleerins", a specie of humanoids who had developed biotechnology and this to be fused for their bodies. Only the Toymaker-Child could understand that biotechnology and he offered his help, although then the aleerins or also named mechalus, didn't know yet he was a deity. After the Toymaker-Child became their protector deity.

More than a thousand years later a second space ship arrived to Bataria in a exploration mission and the aliens could verify the impact of the arrival of the "children of the stars". The space explorers, a group of mechalus with other ally people discovered two main empires. The first one was ruled by the religion colloquially known as "Paragrafians" or "seperated". These built citadels that were true utopic wonders, a most of zones are true ecological jewels, with a great respect for the Nature. The main religion of the second empire was named Pedisequian (from pedisequus, the slave or servant who escorted his master). The origin of this name was because an Ubermeschian* phylosopher said their merciful ethics were values of pedisequus). The Pedisequian empire wasn't so avanced technologically advance, and their populations had to fix and upgrave a lot of things but most of citizens enjoy a good life level.

* (The Ubermenschian phylosophy defends the homo superior or Übermensch don't obey more rules than his own conscence. Detractors claim that this is simply a sophisticated way of describing a psychopath, and they are right)

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Barataria (Part 2).

The relation between the Paragrafians and the Pedisequians is very complicated, like frienemies, because the Pedisequian faith derives from the Paragrafians, a radical evolution to be only a schim.

The origin of the Paragrafian faith comes from a group of slaves, mainly gnomes, who were forced to work for the Fomorian lords in the Feywild. The ancestors of the Paragrafians not only could rebel to recover their freedom but also after this in the next centures they declared a saint war against the fomorians. The fomorian giants who survived are only a pale shadow of their past glory, but the world is better without them. But only a little number knows a second group of lord Fomorians survived the anathemas, the springans, criptopagan mutants created by the lord Formorians to work like spies and infiltrates among the gnomes. The springans funded a secret cult, the lodge of the ivory shrine.

The elm is the sacred tree of the Paragrfian faith because ancient prophets told on the planted elm tree a vine will grow and bear good fruit.

Centuries after the missionaries of Pedisequians appeared preaching the faith of the same Divine Providence than Paragrafian religion, but with a radical change of the old laws "because the believers now were ready for the new teachings and commandents". The sacred tree of the Pedisequians is the vine that grows on a sacred planted elm.

In the last century there is more tolerance and respect between both faiths, boths pray the same Divine Providence, but there is a complete mutual trust, and the story of Susan Silverhand may reopen old injuries but this explains better the reason of previous conflicts.

Susan belonged to an important and rich Paragrafian kapeloi (retail merchants) family, the Bronzefist house, who was promised in marriage against her will with Damian Goldfinder, a prestigous and powerful empori (international merchant, mainly by ship). Not only she didn't love him but because she didn't want to fight against other wives in the harem intriges for the inheritance of the children but he was a neopagan Ubermenschian who allegedly killed his first wife.
Damian Goldfinder was not a good husband, and he was with other women. His first wife, a member of the Coperfield family, thought she could do the same, but she was wrong. To save the costs of the divorce and "to clean his honor" she was murderer. Everybody suspected him but there weren't proofs.
How could our dear Susan to avoid so horrible fate? thanks mainly two people, one was Peter Silverhand, a Pedisequian knight and his childhood friend, (and later her future husband and father of her children, starting a dinasty of brave heroes and erudites) and Damian's sister (because without children then his inherance for her and her children).

A couple of years later Damian Goldfilder was killed, supposedly a revenge of his in-laws. Really the killer was a third party (maybe a rival agent sent by the Ivory Shrine) to cause the war between both families. This would be know in the History books like the Ubermenschian scandal.

...

The crew of the second space ship had to choose what empire to support with their advance technology, Paragrafians or Pedisequians, and the space explorer chose the latter. (To be continue in part 3).

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The space explorers investigated both supowers and they decided to share some of their superadvanced technology with the Pedisequians, instead the Paragrafians. This choice was an offense for the last ones of historical proportions. Why when Paragrafians citadels seemed true utopies? There were several reasons. The Pedisequians wanted to be "a hospital for sinners, not a museum of saints", they wanted to help the largest number of people without regardless of origin. The Pedisequian empire had got a higher crime and corruption rates, but also more charities and the level of well-being of the average citizen was higher. The Paragrafian citadels were more advanced scientifically and technologically but thanks unethical experiments with unvoluntary humans. And the rest of the towns were pure misery, almost post-apocaliptic levels, like if the prosperity was only for a small and too elitist group of chosen ones. The Paragrafian confederation wasn't a true democracy because the high-spheres were monopolized by the members of the Ivory Shrine. And the leaders of the Ivory Shrine are springgans or other followers of the lord Fomorians, plotting wicked and dark conspirances against the worshippers of the Divine Providence.

Of course they want revengue against their rival power but this arrived in a way nobody could guess. During the next decades multinational companies owned by the Ivory Shrine built the "Obelisk", a cluster of archologies ( = super skrycrappers) linked by skyways. This was the age of the rebelion of the cleruchs(settlers who lived in the colonial towns) because these want a more independient economy, with more industry, without dependence of trade with the main citadels or capital cities. These were the times when the kaijus, giant monsters, appeared (some times summoned by eco-terrorist cults), and among these the smartest creatures the vernim-dragons. There were years where monster-hunters, inquisitors, police and secret agencies were too busy.. and this is because the conspirancy by the ivory shrine wasn't discovered until it was too late.
The first sign of the upcoming menace was when the Paragrafian citadels ordered complete quarentene and all the accesses were blocked. The citadels had got their own urban farms, and the supply of food and other necessities was not a problem. The next step was those citadels stopped to send messages, the comunication seemed totally cutted. The agents sent to investigate found their streets were totally empty, almost without population. In the best case it seemed a secret evacuation, but where toward?
Then the hidden cards were showed. The rebellion of the cleruchs, the appearance of the kaijus or some failed biologic attacks to create zombie outbreaks were just a diversionary maneuver to hide the true conspirancy by the Ivory Shrine. The "obelisks", the archologies that were built in the main megacities were to summon terror-eater fiends and to give these reality-wrapping powers.

Their wicked plot worked as planned but their success wasn't complete. The churchs and sacred places couldn't be affected by the reality-wrap powers by those terror-fiends. This power only could work near the obelisks, and outskirts of the city would be a relatively safe place, if we forget the kaijus, or the "rotten roots", a type of alien vegetation that spread everywhere. At least some zones were safe thanks alliances and pacts with some vernim-dragons. For example the bee-dragons wellcome crop plantations if these plants have got flowers. There are also some alliances with buttlerfly-dragons or some ant-dragons.

The second reason, and most imortant because the conspirancy didn't work completetly is because the goal to summon the terror-eater fiends (while the members of the ivory shrine were safe within of space-time bubles or demiplanes) were to terminate the worshippers of the Divine Providence. This "odium fidei" changed all, because the victims became martyrs, the zone of their murders became sacred or blessed, and unholy creatures, undead or fiends, can't eat flesh by martyrs. They can but they shouldn't because it is like a vampire drinking holy water.

The cities with obelisks could be evacuated, but some people would rather to live near. Why? To enjoy the inmortatily. The terror-eater fiends enjoy feeding of fear feeling but permanent death is not necessary. Thanks secret laboratories with transhuman technology (mind-downloading, memory dowloaded and digital inmortality) the sentient creatures who die near obelisks can enjoy a free reincarnation effect awaking within those clandestine laboratories. You are alive again, but remembering your traumatic experiences and the terror-fiends are very happy you suffering those bad memories.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Tarbaria part 4.

Are there firearms? Yes but usually they aren't so effectives. The damage against enemies caused by the firearms depends of the level of the gun and the shooter. How to explain it better? Let's imagine for example a gun produced in a factory and in the hands of a rookie police officer on his first day of work, or a criminal on his first crime. In the battlefield against special enemies it's little better than a hand crossbow. It can shoot more times but also more shots are necessary. But if the gun was handcrafted, or it is very old (an inherance by your grandfather) or it is more expensive thanks gold plating or a relic from a past war then the gun has a "higher level" and it can cause more damage. The same weapon also can cause more damage if the shooter "has got a higher level", for example a war veteran or the bodyguard of the president.

The firearms in Tarbarian are still dangerous but they aren't so effective like in other places. A martial artist or a berseker would be a serius menace for a cowboy with a revolver even when there is some distance among both.

The vernim-dragons are sentients, can speak several languanges and even there are alliances with someones. Their body morphology is close in most part like the rest of parts, but their rib cage has got the shape of thorax of insects and arthropods and their abdomen is in a separate chitine shell like invertebrates. The breath attack of some vernim-dragons are spitting swarms of flying vernims.

With the arrival of the vernim-dragons the vernim-dragonborn also come. Usually the vernim-dragonborn aren't hostile but they can wear "mascot costumes" to infiltrate among "mammal humanoids" with hidden goals. Batarians have learnt to get used to bee, buttlefly and ant dragonborns.

There are populations in the zones far of the obelisks but they are not permanent settlements because some times all the zones can suffer the reality-wrap of the terror-eater fiends at least for a short time. Of course the easiest solution is the evacuation toward a safer zone before this happen. The energy centrals are necesary but the maintenance staff have to choose a different strategy, to remain in hibernation capsules until the danger passes. This means altought more once time the sleepers remember some horrible nightmares.

Some groups are enoughly brave to live relatively near the obelisks. How? Traveling by the "nomad cities". These are clusters of megavehicles that travel throught special hillways. The trick is within these megavehicules there are "planar portals" towar pocket universe or demiplanes where the true towns are. The risk is these megavehicles can be attacked by "highway pirates".

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Barataria part 5.

Plot twist.

The conspirancy by the ivory shrine was using time-travel to rewrite History from their safe continium-vault (demiplanes or pocket universes where they aren't affected by time paradoxes or alterations of the past). The mission of the time-travelers was a success, but it didn't. Here in this part of the story the toymaker-child has got a more important role. The time-travel could be sabotage thanks a special trick. The chronomancers or time-travelers didn't went to the true past but to a "decoy plane", other demiplane or pocket universe to trick time-travelers with bad intentions. This is a virtual simulation created and controlled by the Toymaker-child, who enjoys omnipotence within his creation. The lodge of the ivory shrine hasn't could notice the trick because they receive signals from the decoy timeline. But the prize of this trick is the original timeline has been saved, but not it is too isolated and it can't be found easily.

Other secondary effect is the arrival of two enemy religious cults, the followers of two false prophets, Musalym Alkahab (nicknamed "the great lier by his enemies), lord of the scorpion-dragons cult and Alaswad Ansi "the veiled", lord of cobra-dragons brotherhood. A teory suggest this decoy-timeline is being used by some external power like a "cosmic wastepaper basket" to send there those to tried to use the time-travel with dark intentions.

Some unproved testimonies tell the Toymarker-Child also created and controls a second virtual simulation that is closer to a simulation, with a very low crime rate, like a videogame more focused into life-sim or dating-sim. Only visitors without bad intentions are allowed to enter this demiplane. Maybe here there is the key to find the way toward the original timeline.

The ivory shrine also suffers the attacks by a rival faction, the ivory crypt (what is also a cult controlled by the lord formorians, they are killing each other when both obey the same bosses).

Other "unexpected guests" are the "hellbred", fiends who try to defend the goodhood and the innocents against the evil. In the past they were ordinary mortal humanoids whose lifes were radically altered by the time-travelers. These caused in one timeline they were pious souls who earned their salvation but in other they lived like true sinners earning the punishment in the other life. Their saying "infernal fire to fight infernal fire" is famous because more one is willing to use her own version of "dark arts". At least their help has saved lots of innocent lifes in monster-outbreaks.

There are "secret societies" who promise the path toward a celestial plane where survivors can find a safe place, but the suspects of scam are justified.

Some times there are expeditions to the cursed urban zones but there is a trick, using remote-control androids, and even like this it is not totally safe.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Tensei-henshin
"Brave new world" meets "the rebelion of the machines...... possesed by ghosts".

Let's imagine an innocent TV high-school comedy with romance... and some piece of magitech and fantasy humanoids. Transhuman magitek is possible but very expensive. The medicine is also very advance but too expensive the most of times.

Oficially the economy is good and it is an age of peace, without troubles, isn't it? Beyond the facade the things are more complicated. The society is too elitist and supremacist. If you aren't rich then you are a loser, but if you are on the top don't If you are at the top, don't expect to be respected because others will want to push you aside and take your place. The taxes are too high and each day there are innecesary laws to try to control everything. In the cover it seems a complete utopy but beyond the facade the social-darwinism rules and the respect for the human dignity is forgotten by the main media.
Has there not been a rise in rebellions and social uprisings against the abuse of the oligarchs? yes, there were, the old aristocracy was overthrown by the forces of the popular rebelion and now the economy is controlled mainly by the state. And this is precisely what the oligarchies wanted, because the members of the government are their puppets through a network of bribes and blackmail. The true elites don't need the crowns and thrones to enjoy the power. The most powerful secret societies are the children of the serpent-king (secretly controlled by yuan-ti) and the followers of the cobra-queen(secretly controlled by cobra dragonborns). Both secret societies are archienemies and fight each other, but the irony is both obey the same masters (who want this confrontation to control them).
Almost always the childhood should be the happiest age of the life, but not everybody could say the same. Some children suffer bulling, but not by their classmates but the antithesis of the imaginary friend. Psychologists cannot find an explanation for the origin of these "invisible bullys". Somebody suggest the origin of these bullys is a secondary effect of the magitek and some children can sense certain hostile feys. Is there any hope? A possible solution has been a special ritual where the children summons the help of a lung (dragon who serves for the Celestial Bourecracy). In theory, the ritual works thanks to a placebo effect, or at least that is the official version. But the "invisible bullys" are really hostile feys, and the ritual for the pact with a lung will have got serious consequences.
The official religion is the cult of the sukkals (= viziers), celestial "public workers" who obey the orders and instructions of the ascended lictors. In the past there was a war in the celestialplanes between the sukkals commanded by the lictors and the lungs. The lungs were defeated and disappeared. Officialy the lictors aren't with us because they "ascended". Some old pictures of lictors show these like very fat humanoids within a metalic armour covering totally their skin, and some metalic tentacles.

A new religion has appeared in the last years, the Kyrians or disciples of the Kyrios(= master, lord). The main media is very hostile againt the Kyrians but these helped a lot of people thanks their charity clinics, concerted education centers or orphanages. Pharmaceutical megacorporations hate the Kyrians because these are selling cheaper medicines and they are discovering definitive cures of usual diseases, and even discovering the damage against health caused by the food industry. (They are losing customers because Kyrians' "fault").

There are reports of attacks by spirit-like beings, the Ikiryos(living ghosts). Acording certain paranormal theories these are caused by living humanoids whose aura was tainted. They may be very dangerous but some times their intentions aren't really evil but only to defend loved beings or take just revenge against criminals.

(to be continued..)

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The magitek also has allowed the creation of a new kind of personal assistant, a sentient hologram working like your personal assistant, the etiäinen. They are completely loyal to their masters (they would rather the term "godfather") but they are urban legends about etiäinens with free will who can controll machines or no-sentient constructs, but usually they don't attack people but to defend innocents or their godfather.

Other urban legend tells about the qareens, somebody like your personal genie, or like your twin brother was a genie. These were geniekin created artifically to be the döppelganger or "twin" of some important person. They share some mystic simbiontic link with the "original" or "mould". Usually the kareen "lives" within of the mould like a second spirit sharing thoughts and memories thanks a telepatic link. If it was necesary the kareen could be summoned to help other in an emergency. Usually the urban legend tells the kareen-host lives a double-life like a street-vigilante or sentai hero. How could the cop arrest that who fought against the bank robbers when all the classmates could swear she was in the classroom during the quartely exam?

Other threat is some people can see ghosts... and someones are special because... they are yourself from the future, or a younger generation. Let's imagine you are a teen boy who hasn't kissed yet your first girl but the ghost of your future grandaughter can tell the end of your mother's favorite soap-opera. And how can those ghosts from the future can travel to the past? Here it is where the treat begins to become really complicated. The demiplane is a time-loop, some times a couple of decades, a century or even two-thousands years, but in the end of the cycle a cataclysm occurs and the civilitation disappears. The luckiest survivors can be evacuated to a better place. Then the ghosts can travel toward the next cycle.

And there is any way living humanoids from a post cycle to visit and explore a previous cycle? yes, it is possible, at least one megacorporation discoverd a planar portal for this. And the investigations discovered an increible truth. The cataclysm didn't happen always in the same date. This is strange even when we talk about alleged natural disasters. The catalcysm usually happens after the secret societies lost their power, like it was some reprisal against the rebel forces.

Usually these "chrono-ghosts" aren't hostiles, and they can be the best spies but the cooperation with them isn't too easy because they may have got their own agendas. Some times there is some potential conflict, for example a ghost wants Archie (her grandfather) to date Betty but other ghost from an alternate timeline wants Archie to date Veronica.

The ghosts warned some children will be "spellcales" (a humanoid specie with some draconic traits) because their parents did a magic ritual to summon a lung, and the next generation will be lung dragonborns.