Ever since I started the Grey Guard campaign, Kodiak wanted to play a mischievous halfling rogue. Mara wasn't what you'd necessarily call amoral or freewheeling, so she was looking forward to robbing and tricking with great curious glee.
Sooo, turns out we already have two rogues in the group.
That's okay from my perspective, of course, but everyone should have a chance to shine. Since we have no leader in the group, she started getting interested in the shaman. The original plan was for a halfling shaman; problem is, the halfling isn't even close to optimal for the class. That still wasn't a deal-breaker, but we considered options. Fajitas had great success when he completely decoupled stats from race, allowing anyone to appear human while using stats and powers from other races. I didn't want to go quite that far.
Then WotC published the wilden,
discussed here. I didn't like the name or the fluff as written -- a brand new race of plant fey who arise to fight aberrations from the Far Realm -- but Kodiak liked the concept and the favored ability scores are just right for shaman.
Sagiro did some analysis and concluded that the
voyage of the ancients aspect of the wilden isn't ideal for a shaman, since they don't have many attacks it applies to, but that was okay. And character sheets would have to be done by hand for another few months until the PHB3 came out. No big deal. Bramble, a wilden shaman, was a go!
Kodiak's goals (which she can elaborate on if she likes) were to have a character that was fun for her to play: knowledgeable in the world, curious and adventurous, not intensely naive, and good at things that no one else was. My goals were to expose the players to other important aspects of my campaign world, make what should by all rights be a "freakish and unknown" race fit seamlessly into my fiction, and use this opportunity to make the campaign more interesting than it was. I didn't want the wilden to be aberration-related if I hadn't planned a huge aberration plot arc, and I wanted a PC who had been to the heart of the empire and who knew what that level of wealth and elegance was like. I also wanted someone who had a reason to join the Grey Guard, which could potentially be tricky as Kodiak wanted to play a heroic character.
So, how to do it?
Okay, let's start with "fey." Why is there a fey in the Grey Guard? Why is there even one of these plant fey anywhere in the empire? I have an established war going on in the Feywild, but I didn't want to necessarily make her a refugee.
I hadn't defined Capria's armies other than "there's a Foreign Legion made up of psychotic misfits" and "the Empire has conquered the continent because their armies are second to none." What if fey served in one of the legions? What if an entire legion - 5000 soldiers or so - were entirely made out of fey? I'd need a reason.. aha! Legends in our own world tell of humans tithing babies or youths to faerie. I'd do it the other way, have faerie tithe fey troops to the Emperor of Capria every ten years. They'd all serve in one terrifying legion that was used predominantly to quell rebellions and pacify insurgents.
Cool, Bramble was a member of this mixed-faerie legion. That lets the number of wilden (renamed "Quith" by Sagiro and Kodiak, after the al'quith, a holy tree in my last campaign) be quite small, maybe 5-10% of the total fey soldiers. I wanted her to have been on the mortal world for nine years (the last tithing), but she was only 4th level. She probably spent a lot of time on non-combat display in the various provinces as the empire used its terrifying fey legion as a intimidation tool.
By now I had a good feel for how the Quith fit into my world. But what are they actually like? Kodiak wrote that for me, describing their purpose in the Feywild and their nature, and giving me several plot hooks in the process. I tweaked it a little, made sure we agreed that Bramble didn't have to be heartless and cruel just because other members of her Legion were, and we had a new race.
Enjoy the following drafts, and feel free to comment on the thought process or the result. Bramble's personal details aren't in here, nor is her reason for joining the Guard, even though it's cool; I don't want to inappropriately give away private PC history.
[sblock=The nature of the Quith]
The Quith are an ancient race that live in symbiotic relationship with the Heartwood trees of the Feywild and in harmony with all life there. The trees are descended from the ancient trees of Faerie and are central to the life and magic of the Feywild. The Quith protect them. When a Quith dies, their life energy leaves their body and joins with the eternal flow of consciousness that permeates the air of the Feywild. The Heartwood trees absorb this energy and become repositories of ancestral wisdom. They also bring some of this energy into the earth (kind of like some plants fix nitrogen into the soil that they get from the air), and so imbue everything that grows in the Feywild with spirit, and by extension (though to a lesser degree) the animals that live there, too. Occasionally (say every 25 years?), the Heartwood trees bloom, and the gentle breezes fill the air with their pollen. This is a time of very potent spirit consciousness, and is the time when the Quith gather to sing and dance and mate under the crown of trees. It is in this way that a Quith spirit is reincarnated.
The Quith know that they are part of this eternal cycle (though have no specific memories of past lives), and so hold on to their present life fairly lightly, knowing this is just a temporary embodiment of life energy and that death is just transformation and not an end. They feel a strong connection to each other (seeing each other as current manifestations of the greater consciousness), and to the life of the trees, to the life of the Feywild, and (to a lesser extent) to all life everywhere. Because they hold themselves lightly, their personalities can be changeable from day to day as they choose to call forth different aspects of their spirit. They also tend to not take the troubles of life too heavily, and like to enjoy themselves in the moment.
There are two things of great importance in the life of a Quith. One is to keep the Heartwood trees safe and thriving and free of corruption. Their very survival depends on it, and anything that taints the life enery of the trees, particularly around the time of blooming, will have very dire consequences for the Quith (as well as for the rest of the Feywild). The other is to use their lifetime to grow in understanding and wisdom, since that is all that carries forth when their current life ends, and so when they return to the larger spirit consciousness they will increase its potency and ambient wisdom (in turn helping the trees and future generations of Quith, as well as the Feywild in general). And of course they all look forward to being in the Feywild for the blooming of the Heartwood trees and ensuing activities.
The Quith have an ancient pact with the Caprian empire, tithing troops every ten years in exchange for Capria keeping safe a secret treasure, just in case catastrophe ever visits the Feywild. A small grove of Heartwood trees grow there in Capria. They are small and pale in comparison to the ones growing in the Feywild due to the less potent ambient spirit consciousness, but which none-the-less can become a starting point for a new forest should anything ever happen to the Feywild (so then as Quith died, their life energy/spirit consciousness would still have a place to go and the cycle could be reestablished. Seeds from this grove could be used to begin another forest somewhere safe, though it would take many lifetimes to grow and regain the spirit power that was lost). They also find it useful to have some exposure to the "civilized" world, to understand their ways so they are not completely at a loss when they are forced to interact with them under other circumstances.
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[sblock=The Thirteenth Caprian Legion]
The 13th Caprian Legion is known as the Spear of Unity. They are also known colloquially as “those tricky fey bastards that’ll murder you in your bed, if they don’t play tricks on you first.” That’s because the Thirteenth is comprised almost entirely of Fey of every size and shape. No one is talking about the reason, but every ten years for centuries the Emperor has received a tithe of soldiers from some archfey in the Feywild. Those soldiers might live for nine or ten human generations if they aren’t killed in battle, and the Thirteenth works very hard to make sure that it’s their enemies who die instead of them. The 5,200 soldier legion is organized into smaller groups (650 soldiers in a cohort, 130 soldiers in a unit, thirteen soldiers in a squad) who are often bonded to one another through long association or family ties.
Time can move wonkily in parts of the Feywild, and the land usually carries with it the feeling that you're in a waking dream or in an important story: colors are brighter, smells more vivid, emotions far more intense. Leaving the Feywild to come to the mortal lands feels a little like walking into a world cloaked by drab muslin. Fey get used to it, but the memory of the feywild often sets their hearts to pounding. Eladrin are lucky because they actually get to pass through it every time they teleport. Most Fey who are part of the Caprian tithe never return, although whenever possible their bodies are brought back after their death.
It's worth mentioning that the Feywild is supposedly under attack by an adversary, although no one can agree on who or what it is. Some fey head off to fight it, some flee to the mortal world, and many figure that it will never actually come to bother them so it's not worth getting upset about. Most fey don't have what humans would think of as a conscience; they're more like a cat stalking a particularly tasty mouse. Does the cat ever care about the mouse's feelings? In the same way, not all fey feel a responsibility to their land unless it affects them directly. The Empire, and the commanders of the Thirteenth, have utilized this amoral temperament to great success.
The Thirteenth are amongst the most feared troops in the empire. They are trained to be tricky, unconventional, vicious and thorough. They are used to pacify rebellions, quell uprisings, and bring cruel war into regions where it is feared that human troops would lose morale. Their symbol is a bloody leaf shaped like a dagger, and their loyalty is unquestioned.
One of the duties of the Thirteenth Legion is to be highly visible during celebrations, and certain units unit spend substantial time as the public face of the Thirteenth, either parading in Capria or intimidating provinces who needed a visible sign of the empire's exotic might. As such, Bramble has spent quite a bit of time in the city of Capria and its various provinces, and has learned a fair amount about mortals as a result.
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