Back in July, I started this blog as an outlet for D&D ideas that I’d too long neglected and which now felt orphaned in the wake of 4th Edition. (I pause for a moment to mourn my poor barghest ecology, which received positive feedback from Dragon years ago, and which I never got around to revising…because I am an idiot.) It was a way to get myself writing again and carve out a little bit of fantasy pleasure during the workday. Never did I realize that I would actually be able to keep it up, essentially without interruption, every single weekday for seven straight weeks.
But I’m off for vacation to Mexico and then Ireland, so On Beyond Drow will be on vacation, too. In between the two trips, I’ll try to catch up on tweaking and revising the entries I haven’t had a chance to upload yet. And, having run across some interesting D&D blogs in the past few days, when I come back I’ll consider engaging some of those folks in conversation and perhaps promoting this blog in general a little more.
So I’ll see you soon—possibly in a few days; definitely in three weeks once my travels are over. If you’ve found this blog and are enjoying it, look for more come September 15th.
It’s been a fun seven weeks and I can’t wait to come back. Thanks for reading, and keep thinking of ways to imagine on beyond drow…
Friday, August 22, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Rethinking Wererats
In D&D, wererats don’t get a lot of respect. Perhaps this is appropriate—after all, neither do normal rats.
Still, it seems like they fall far too easily into clichéd tropes. When most werecreatures show up in adventures (at least published ones), it’s either as the main antagonist for low- to mid-level parties, or as the interesting secret identity of some NPC (often a minor noble the characters may or may not interact with).
But not wererats. They’re consigned to the sewer.
It’s such a typical setup that an editorial in Dungeon, talking about what made a successful submission, once went out of its way to discourage adventures with wererats in sewers. And yet even they (in the form of their offspring Pathfinder) can’t seem to get away from the habit: Greg A. Vaughan’s otherwise excellent “Shadow in the Sky” has a group of Riddleport beggars…who are also a criminal gang…who are also wererats…who live in a dump. It’s a lycanthropic cliché quadfecta!
I shouldn’t pick on Vaughan—he's a good author, and one man’s cliché is another’s useful shorthand. Sewers and dumps make sense as wererat habitats, and Ziphras and his gang are just side treks, so there's no reason to push them beyond price-of-entry.
But as we’re busy thinking of ways to reapproach iconic D&D races and subraces, wererats deserve our attention. Because a) it’s fun, and b) certainly no one else will give it to them.
The late, lamented “basic” D&D had one interesting twist. All kinds of oddities crept into the Known World/Mystara—after all, this was a setting that had Arabian-inspired countries bordering Scandinavian-inspired ones, and a monster (the thoul) that was inspired by a typo. Wererats are yet another example. For some odd reason, in the Known World most wererats weren’t people who turned into rats, but rather rats who turned into people(!).
I’ve always wondered at what point that decision was made, and by which designer, as well as what it might suggest about the exceptional nature of wererats versus other lycanthropes. And pity the poor rat who, having been bitten by his werecousin and infected, finds himself in an alleyway for the first time as a shivering, naked human man….
Still, it seems like they fall far too easily into clichéd tropes. When most werecreatures show up in adventures (at least published ones), it’s either as the main antagonist for low- to mid-level parties, or as the interesting secret identity of some NPC (often a minor noble the characters may or may not interact with).
But not wererats. They’re consigned to the sewer.
It’s such a typical setup that an editorial in Dungeon, talking about what made a successful submission, once went out of its way to discourage adventures with wererats in sewers. And yet even they (in the form of their offspring Pathfinder) can’t seem to get away from the habit: Greg A. Vaughan’s otherwise excellent “Shadow in the Sky” has a group of Riddleport beggars…who are also a criminal gang…who are also wererats…who live in a dump. It’s a lycanthropic cliché quadfecta!
I shouldn’t pick on Vaughan—he's a good author, and one man’s cliché is another’s useful shorthand. Sewers and dumps make sense as wererat habitats, and Ziphras and his gang are just side treks, so there's no reason to push them beyond price-of-entry.
But as we’re busy thinking of ways to reapproach iconic D&D races and subraces, wererats deserve our attention. Because a) it’s fun, and b) certainly no one else will give it to them.
The late, lamented “basic” D&D had one interesting twist. All kinds of oddities crept into the Known World/Mystara—after all, this was a setting that had Arabian-inspired countries bordering Scandinavian-inspired ones, and a monster (the thoul) that was inspired by a typo. Wererats are yet another example. For some odd reason, in the Known World most wererats weren’t people who turned into rats, but rather rats who turned into people(!).
I’ve always wondered at what point that decision was made, and by which designer, as well as what it might suggest about the exceptional nature of wererats versus other lycanthropes. And pity the poor rat who, having been bitten by his werecousin and infected, finds himself in an alleyway for the first time as a shivering, naked human man….
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Spoilers…of Genius!
As I mentioned yesterday, Pathfinder’s Second Darkness Adventure Path has arrived, with Greg A. Vaughan’s “Shadow in the Sky” kicking things off.
Since this blog tends to deal in issues of subraces and cultures, here’s what’s of interest to us. But if you’re a player, hold off reading, because this post has some spoilers.
The Good
The major elven subraces split as a result of a coming cataclysm. Some left the world of Golarian to escape it, some stayed sheltered from it in remote jungles and the polar regions, and some were caught up in it. Some of these latter would become drow after exposure to radiations from Rovagug, god of wrath and destruction.
I like this a lot, because it recalls the elves of Tolkien, who sundered into subraces because of their varying degrees of love for and engagement in the world, and whether or not they answered the call of the Valar. Hooray for giving a nod to the classics!
Drow have tapped aboleth magic capable of pulling asteroids out of orbit. Now that’s just cool.
Elves who turn to great evil spontaneously become drow. I guess great minds think alike, because last month I suggested a similar transformation. But my suggestion was to have it happen in a directed manner—as the result of a curse or as a punishment inflicted by elven society on outcasts as they were to be exiled.
But to have it just happen spontaneously? That’s simply awesome, and it takes my idea a step further than I'd been brave enough to take. (That’s why I’m a fan and the Pathfinder guys are professionals.) Imagine cornering an elven antagonist and have him suddenly morph into a drow right in front of you! Now that’s good adventuring.
Note that not all evil elves necessarily become drow, which adds a further layer of mystery and suspense—where is the line? What foul acts or vileness in spirit tip an elf over the edge into darkness? I'm eager to see how this plays out.
The Bad
Drow are purple. Yep. Dark purple. Dark blue or gray, too.
Yikes. But I guess I can’t blame Paizo. Truly black skin must be hard to paint—every artist who’s tackled the drow has had to wrestle with this one. (Downer was definitely gray. Jeff Easley made Drizzt so light in some pictures he was practically cream!)
Oh well. Dark purple it is. Bring on the evil eggplants!
Since this blog tends to deal in issues of subraces and cultures, here’s what’s of interest to us. But if you’re a player, hold off reading, because this post has some spoilers.
The Good
The major elven subraces split as a result of a coming cataclysm. Some left the world of Golarian to escape it, some stayed sheltered from it in remote jungles and the polar regions, and some were caught up in it. Some of these latter would become drow after exposure to radiations from Rovagug, god of wrath and destruction.
I like this a lot, because it recalls the elves of Tolkien, who sundered into subraces because of their varying degrees of love for and engagement in the world, and whether or not they answered the call of the Valar. Hooray for giving a nod to the classics!
Drow have tapped aboleth magic capable of pulling asteroids out of orbit. Now that’s just cool.
Elves who turn to great evil spontaneously become drow. I guess great minds think alike, because last month I suggested a similar transformation. But my suggestion was to have it happen in a directed manner—as the result of a curse or as a punishment inflicted by elven society on outcasts as they were to be exiled.
But to have it just happen spontaneously? That’s simply awesome, and it takes my idea a step further than I'd been brave enough to take. (That’s why I’m a fan and the Pathfinder guys are professionals.) Imagine cornering an elven antagonist and have him suddenly morph into a drow right in front of you! Now that’s good adventuring.
Note that not all evil elves necessarily become drow, which adds a further layer of mystery and suspense—where is the line? What foul acts or vileness in spirit tip an elf over the edge into darkness? I'm eager to see how this plays out.
The Bad
Drow are purple. Yep. Dark purple. Dark blue or gray, too.
Yikes. But I guess I can’t blame Paizo. Truly black skin must be hard to paint—every artist who’s tackled the drow has had to wrestle with this one. (Downer was definitely gray. Jeff Easley made Drizzt so light in some pictures he was practically cream!)
Oh well. Dark purple it is. Bring on the evil eggplants!
Monday, August 18, 2008
Second Darkness
The Second Darkness Adventure Path has come to Paizo’s Pathfinder. And as the series name portends, drow are the main antagonists.
You might assume I’d be down on this prospect—I do call my little blog here On Beyond Drow, after all—but you’d be wrong. I’m thrilled.
In the foreword to “Shadow in the Sky,” Editor-in-Chief James Jacobs does some talking about the history of drow in D&D and fantasy—from Hall of the Fire Giant King to The Crystal Shard and beyond—and their growing popularity over time. What he then goes on to write is revealing and heartening. I quote him here (without permission, but with much respect and interest):
Of course, with such sudden popularity came the to-be-expected backlash, and today you can hardly mention drow in the presence of gamers without sparking an argument. Some players love playing drow characters, while other players won’t play in a game that allows drow PCs. Some GMs love the concept of “renegade” drow who have turned against their sinful ways to become champions of good, while others gag and gnash teeth over the very concept. Even the name riles up gamers—there are at least two good ways to pronounce the word, and I wouldn’t put it past someone to come up with a third and a fourth. No matter how vocal people get about drow, the fact remains that everyone knows about them and everyone talks about them.
Sound familiar? It reads an awful lot like my long-winded editorial in the Comments section of my first OBD post. He goes on:
So they seem like a perfect choice for the villains of Pathfinder’s third Adventure Path. For those of you worried that the next several volumes are going to descend into angst-ridden, misunderstood dark-elf heroes, let me repeat myself.
The drow are villains.
During the course of Second Darkness, you’ll meet more drow NPCs than any other race, and I can pretty much guarantee you that they’re all going to be bad guys. The drow of Golarion are not to be trusted. They worship demons. They’re slavers and sadists. They perform hideous experiments on innocent victims. The drow are back to being evil, in other words.
As a result, you should encourage your players NOT to play drow characters in this campaign. I fully understand the attraction of playing a drow. Hell, two of my own favorite characters that I’ve played are drow (one of them even ended up in the Shackled City Adventure Path!). Playing a misunderstood hero who’s forced to live with the fact that her heritage brands her a villain can be quite fun and rewarding—but Second Darkness isn’t the place for drow PCs. If a player wants to play a misunderstood hero here, try to talk them into playing a half-orc. Or a goblin. Or a half-fiend. Or even one of the other Darklands-dwelling races, like a duergar or a troglodyte.
Drow can be PCs in all the Adventure Paths after this one. For now, though, give them a chance to be the bad guys again.
The folks at Pathfinder and Paizo get it. They managed to avoid using drow as main antagonists throughout five full Adventure Paths in Dungeon and Pathfinder. And when they did decide to use drow, Jacobs’s foreword indicates that they’ve done their best to rethink them, reapproach them, and most importantly, make them evil—not dark, not Gothic or Romantic (note the capitals), and not cool—truly evil. Drow are a mystery in Golarion—even most sages don't even know they exist—and by nixing drow PCs, the writers are returning mystery to the race. If well executed, the revelation of drow in Golarion could be almost as shocking a moment as it was when Gygax created them decades ago.
All in all, it’s a great start, and I’m excited to see what comes of it.
You might assume I’d be down on this prospect—I do call my little blog here On Beyond Drow, after all—but you’d be wrong. I’m thrilled.
In the foreword to “Shadow in the Sky,” Editor-in-Chief James Jacobs does some talking about the history of drow in D&D and fantasy—from Hall of the Fire Giant King to The Crystal Shard and beyond—and their growing popularity over time. What he then goes on to write is revealing and heartening. I quote him here (without permission, but with much respect and interest):
Of course, with such sudden popularity came the to-be-expected backlash, and today you can hardly mention drow in the presence of gamers without sparking an argument. Some players love playing drow characters, while other players won’t play in a game that allows drow PCs. Some GMs love the concept of “renegade” drow who have turned against their sinful ways to become champions of good, while others gag and gnash teeth over the very concept. Even the name riles up gamers—there are at least two good ways to pronounce the word, and I wouldn’t put it past someone to come up with a third and a fourth. No matter how vocal people get about drow, the fact remains that everyone knows about them and everyone talks about them.
Sound familiar? It reads an awful lot like my long-winded editorial in the Comments section of my first OBD post. He goes on:
So they seem like a perfect choice for the villains of Pathfinder’s third Adventure Path. For those of you worried that the next several volumes are going to descend into angst-ridden, misunderstood dark-elf heroes, let me repeat myself.
The drow are villains.
During the course of Second Darkness, you’ll meet more drow NPCs than any other race, and I can pretty much guarantee you that they’re all going to be bad guys. The drow of Golarion are not to be trusted. They worship demons. They’re slavers and sadists. They perform hideous experiments on innocent victims. The drow are back to being evil, in other words.
As a result, you should encourage your players NOT to play drow characters in this campaign. I fully understand the attraction of playing a drow. Hell, two of my own favorite characters that I’ve played are drow (one of them even ended up in the Shackled City Adventure Path!). Playing a misunderstood hero who’s forced to live with the fact that her heritage brands her a villain can be quite fun and rewarding—but Second Darkness isn’t the place for drow PCs. If a player wants to play a misunderstood hero here, try to talk them into playing a half-orc. Or a goblin. Or a half-fiend. Or even one of the other Darklands-dwelling races, like a duergar or a troglodyte.
Drow can be PCs in all the Adventure Paths after this one. For now, though, give them a chance to be the bad guys again.
The folks at Pathfinder and Paizo get it. They managed to avoid using drow as main antagonists throughout five full Adventure Paths in Dungeon and Pathfinder. And when they did decide to use drow, Jacobs’s foreword indicates that they’ve done their best to rethink them, reapproach them, and most importantly, make them evil—not dark, not Gothic or Romantic (note the capitals), and not cool—truly evil. Drow are a mystery in Golarion—even most sages don't even know they exist—and by nixing drow PCs, the writers are returning mystery to the race. If well executed, the revelation of drow in Golarion could be almost as shocking a moment as it was when Gygax created them decades ago.
All in all, it’s a great start, and I’m excited to see what comes of it.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Sourcebook Mashup: Ghostwalk & Waterdeep Continued
Work has reared its ugly head. Content to come. Hang tight!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Sourcebook Mashup: Ghostwalk & Waterdeep
Over at Amazon, prices on used 3.0/3.5 supplements have dropped to fire-sale levels, so I’ve been snapping up a couple of books I missed the first time around. This past week was spent thumbing through City of Splendors: Waterdeep.
I have a confession to make: Waterdeep has never made a lot of sense to me.
To my mind, Waterdeep shouldn’t be such an important city, if one considers pure geography. As the entrance to the Heartlands, Baldur’s Gate should be the vastly more important site. Waterdeep simply sits too far from the rest of the action in the Realms to be the hub that it supposedly is. (The Silver Marches are a new confederacy, and I can’t believe there’s all that much trade pouring in from Icewind Dale and the Moonshaes.) And subsequent reasons we’ve been given for Waterdeep’s importance—proximity to the High Forest and several ruined elf kingdoms; ease of entry to Skullport, Undermountain and the Underdark; trade with Evermeet (um, do idyllic island paradises hidden from the world need to export...?)—have all felt like over-fantastic and too-late justifications.
Of course, I could be wrong. After all, Waterdeep is analogous in many ways to London, who certainly didn’t let being stuck on a cold, rainy island stop it from becoming a world power. Also, maybe Waterdeep’s isolation worked for it. When you’re the only city in the area worth talking about—take that, Luskan!—perhaps it’s a bit easier to become a world power.
That said, what if we supplement Waterdeep with one of my favorite books (as I’ve mentioned before): Ghostwalk?
Ghostwalk is centered around the city of Manifest, where the dead walk as ectoplasmic ghosts. Manifest sits on an interesting (and disappointingly unmapped) peninsula developed by Monte Cook and Sean K Reynolds, but can by adapted to other settings. Cook and Reynolds suggests placing Manifest in the Realms in Lantan, the Moonshaes, Tashalar, or Maztica. But there’s no reason Manifest couldn’t be Waterdeep—and a lot of reasons why it should be.
Ghostwalk also solves the problem of Undermountain. There’s always been this sense that, if you missed the original the original The Ruins of Undermountain box set, you missed out big. (I was in middle school and still playing “basic” D&D at the time.) In 3rd Edition, Wizards of the Coast’s website barely scratched the surface and Expedition to Undermountain has been lambasted as being mere CliffsNotes. If you’re trying to create Undermountain for devoted Realms fans, you have a lot of work and a lot of catching up to do.
At the same time, Undermountain is also kind of silly. “Mad wizard creates super-dungeon? Could you be any more 1st Edition?”
Ghostwalk alternately frees DMs from the psychic burden of Undermountain—“Sorry, the Deathwarden dwarves have the place locked down”—or gives it a proper reason to exist. A path to the Land of the Dead is totally worth a super-dungeon…worth dozens of factions fighting….and worth countless adventures.
More on Thursday about specific ways to turn Waterdeep into Manifest (and vice versa).
I have a confession to make: Waterdeep has never made a lot of sense to me.
To my mind, Waterdeep shouldn’t be such an important city, if one considers pure geography. As the entrance to the Heartlands, Baldur’s Gate should be the vastly more important site. Waterdeep simply sits too far from the rest of the action in the Realms to be the hub that it supposedly is. (The Silver Marches are a new confederacy, and I can’t believe there’s all that much trade pouring in from Icewind Dale and the Moonshaes.) And subsequent reasons we’ve been given for Waterdeep’s importance—proximity to the High Forest and several ruined elf kingdoms; ease of entry to Skullport, Undermountain and the Underdark; trade with Evermeet (um, do idyllic island paradises hidden from the world need to export...?)—have all felt like over-fantastic and too-late justifications.
Of course, I could be wrong. After all, Waterdeep is analogous in many ways to London, who certainly didn’t let being stuck on a cold, rainy island stop it from becoming a world power. Also, maybe Waterdeep’s isolation worked for it. When you’re the only city in the area worth talking about—take that, Luskan!—perhaps it’s a bit easier to become a world power.
That said, what if we supplement Waterdeep with one of my favorite books (as I’ve mentioned before): Ghostwalk?
Ghostwalk is centered around the city of Manifest, where the dead walk as ectoplasmic ghosts. Manifest sits on an interesting (and disappointingly unmapped) peninsula developed by Monte Cook and Sean K Reynolds, but can by adapted to other settings. Cook and Reynolds suggests placing Manifest in the Realms in Lantan, the Moonshaes, Tashalar, or Maztica. But there’s no reason Manifest couldn’t be Waterdeep—and a lot of reasons why it should be.
Ghostwalk also solves the problem of Undermountain. There’s always been this sense that, if you missed the original the original The Ruins of Undermountain box set, you missed out big. (I was in middle school and still playing “basic” D&D at the time.) In 3rd Edition, Wizards of the Coast’s website barely scratched the surface and Expedition to Undermountain has been lambasted as being mere CliffsNotes. If you’re trying to create Undermountain for devoted Realms fans, you have a lot of work and a lot of catching up to do.
At the same time, Undermountain is also kind of silly. “Mad wizard creates super-dungeon? Could you be any more 1st Edition?”
Ghostwalk alternately frees DMs from the psychic burden of Undermountain—“Sorry, the Deathwarden dwarves have the place locked down”—or gives it a proper reason to exist. A path to the Land of the Dead is totally worth a super-dungeon…worth dozens of factions fighting….and worth countless adventures.
More on Thursday about specific ways to turn Waterdeep into Manifest (and vice versa).
Monday, August 11, 2008
The Dark Seldarine: Erevan Ilesere
Every royal court needs a jester, and Erevan Ilesere is the Dark Seldarine’s. Perched from a tree branch, lounging in a grassy glade, or peering down from a nearby balcony, Erevan fires volleys of jokes, puns, and pointed observations to keep the elven deities alternately rolling with laughter or seething with anger. Which is just the way Erevan likes it.
No wise power turns his back on Erevan, however; nor should any mortal. He is a thief to his core and a backstabber by nature. Elven thieves worship him and elf assassins consign their blades to his care.
Erevan is also a gambler. He has a devil’s eye for knowing just what a mortal wants and what that mortal will wager to get it. But at least the Hells’ own are lawful. Chaotic Erevan, on the other hand, will cheat, lie, and invoke all the godly power he can muster to win, even against the most naïve child. Only with the other Dark Seldarine does the Dark Jester play fair (after one too many stern—and scarring—reprimands from Corellon Larethian).
Erevan loves evil pixies for their sharp wits, sharp blades, and natural invisibility. (The fact that they are handy with poison never hurts either.) His friendship with dragons—and their deities—is more complicated. He will partner with one from time to time when there is a mighty hoard or priceless artifact to gain, and more than one demon lord or stuffy deva has found herself the poorer after such a collaboration. These elf/dragon pairings are epic capers involving much wordplay, side bets, and very, very careful negotiation ahead of time of how the take will be split.
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Cleric Alignment: CE, CN, NE
Domains: Chaos, Elf, Evil, Luck, Trickery
Favored Weapon: Short sword
No wise power turns his back on Erevan, however; nor should any mortal. He is a thief to his core and a backstabber by nature. Elven thieves worship him and elf assassins consign their blades to his care.
Erevan is also a gambler. He has a devil’s eye for knowing just what a mortal wants and what that mortal will wager to get it. But at least the Hells’ own are lawful. Chaotic Erevan, on the other hand, will cheat, lie, and invoke all the godly power he can muster to win, even against the most naïve child. Only with the other Dark Seldarine does the Dark Jester play fair (after one too many stern—and scarring—reprimands from Corellon Larethian).
Erevan loves evil pixies for their sharp wits, sharp blades, and natural invisibility. (The fact that they are handy with poison never hurts either.) His friendship with dragons—and their deities—is more complicated. He will partner with one from time to time when there is a mighty hoard or priceless artifact to gain, and more than one demon lord or stuffy deva has found herself the poorer after such a collaboration. These elf/dragon pairings are epic capers involving much wordplay, side bets, and very, very careful negotiation ahead of time of how the take will be split.
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Cleric Alignment: CE, CN, NE
Domains: Chaos, Elf, Evil, Luck, Trickery
Favored Weapon: Short sword
Friday, August 8, 2008
The Dark Seldarine: Hanali Celanil
Of all the Dark Seldarine, Hanali Celanil is perhaps the most beautiful, the most radiant…and the most terrifying. Her passion knows no restraints and her vengeance knows no limits. Hanali is the lover who lures servants into her bed and then calls for their master, the sadist who flays the skin of a bound slave, and the cat who toys with her prey before discarding their broken bodies.
At the dawn of time Hanali was a simple fertility goddess. But she watched avidly as the elves civilized themselves, trading their tree-bole shelters for canopy palisades, illusion-wrapped hill forts, and crystalline cities. Entranced, she abandoned the portfolio of fertility to become a deity of love, romance, beauty, and art. But like a spoiled child, she quickly became bored of each new discovery. Her quest for novelty took her down darker and darker roads, till even the fleshpots of the Abyss drew a multiverse-weary yawn. Now she hungers after new sensations, however vile.
Hanali’s worshippers are the pampered, the spoiled, the cruel lovers, the sadists. She inflames elven passions and delights in instigating trouble so she can watch the resulting ruination play out.
While rarely fruitful, careless Hanali’s liaisons do occasionally result in divine-touched elves, fey’ri (Monsters of Faerûn), and succubi. She bears all these beings with alarming speed and in total secrecy. It is whispered that more than one atropal (Epic Level Handbook or Libris Mortis) is her responsibility as well.
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Cleric Alignment: CE, CN, NE
Domains: Chaos, Charm, Elf, Evil, Magic
Favored Weapon: Dagger
At the dawn of time Hanali was a simple fertility goddess. But she watched avidly as the elves civilized themselves, trading their tree-bole shelters for canopy palisades, illusion-wrapped hill forts, and crystalline cities. Entranced, she abandoned the portfolio of fertility to become a deity of love, romance, beauty, and art. But like a spoiled child, she quickly became bored of each new discovery. Her quest for novelty took her down darker and darker roads, till even the fleshpots of the Abyss drew a multiverse-weary yawn. Now she hungers after new sensations, however vile.
Hanali’s worshippers are the pampered, the spoiled, the cruel lovers, the sadists. She inflames elven passions and delights in instigating trouble so she can watch the resulting ruination play out.
While rarely fruitful, careless Hanali’s liaisons do occasionally result in divine-touched elves, fey’ri (Monsters of Faerûn), and succubi. She bears all these beings with alarming speed and in total secrecy. It is whispered that more than one atropal (Epic Level Handbook or Libris Mortis) is her responsibility as well.
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Cleric Alignment: CE, CN, NE
Domains: Chaos, Charm, Elf, Evil, Magic
Favored Weapon: Dagger
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Bonemortar Dwarves Continued
Bonemortar dwarves have well-kept black hair and beards streaked with silver. Their skin tends to be quite pale—sometimes to the point of white—but will vary; dark tan and jaundice-yellow coloring is sometimes seen. Given their cultural history, a tendency toward dark clothing with silver, white, or yellow accents and bone or skull motifs is unsurprising. They exhibit a reticence beyond even the “dour and taciturn” dwarven stereotype. Seeing themselves as a nation under siege, too much laughing and joking is consider unseemly and occurs only in the privacy of their own apartments.
Bonemortar dwarves do not shy from horses. The height and speed horseback allows is invaluable for keeping order over their human thralls. Breeding warhorses with draft horses (similar to Clydesdales), they have created a steed with both a martial temper and the strength to carry even the most over-plated rider. Often these horses’ feathery-haired legs are incongruously augmented with steel shoes, vicious spikes, and other wicked innovations in barding. Bonemortar dwarves’ favored weapons—halberds, urgroshes, Lucerne hammers, horseman’s picks, and Lochaber axes—are all ideal for combining dwarven weapon familiarity with the realities of mounted combat.
Bonemortar Dwarf Characters
[Stats TBD]
Favored Classes: Fighter or wizard (specialists only, in the schools of abjuration or necromancy)
Dwarven defenders are highly valued by the Bonemortar clan. They also often take levels in the runecaster (Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting), true necromancer (Libris Mortis), and geometer (Complete Arcane) prestige classes.
In the later two cases, it should be noted that though the Bonemortar clerics still invoke the names of the dwarven deities, their people’s turn to dark magic has divorced them from Moradin and the Morndinsamman. Any divine favors they receive thus come from other sources—in some cases, human gods of death and undeath, but mostly from a dedication to clan and a determination to survive that transcends all wordly concerns.
Bonemortar dwarves do not shy from horses. The height and speed horseback allows is invaluable for keeping order over their human thralls. Breeding warhorses with draft horses (similar to Clydesdales), they have created a steed with both a martial temper and the strength to carry even the most over-plated rider. Often these horses’ feathery-haired legs are incongruously augmented with steel shoes, vicious spikes, and other wicked innovations in barding. Bonemortar dwarves’ favored weapons—halberds, urgroshes, Lucerne hammers, horseman’s picks, and Lochaber axes—are all ideal for combining dwarven weapon familiarity with the realities of mounted combat.
Bonemortar Dwarf Characters
[Stats TBD]
Favored Classes: Fighter or wizard (specialists only, in the schools of abjuration or necromancy)
Dwarven defenders are highly valued by the Bonemortar clan. They also often take levels in the runecaster (Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting), true necromancer (Libris Mortis), and geometer (Complete Arcane) prestige classes.
In the later two cases, it should be noted that though the Bonemortar clerics still invoke the names of the dwarven deities, their people’s turn to dark magic has divorced them from Moradin and the Morndinsamman. Any divine favors they receive thus come from other sources—in some cases, human gods of death and undeath, but mostly from a dedication to clan and a determination to survive that transcends all wordly concerns.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
The Dark Seldarine: Solonor Thelandira
If Corellon Larethian is the noble who loves a merry (or baleful) hunt, Solonor Thelandira is his master hunter, tracker, and game warden. Eschewing the life of the trouping court, Solonor hunts alone if it all possible, stalking prey with divine patience and cunning. That his quarry occasionally includes creatures that most folk would never consider game—including men, unicorns, blink dogs, metallic dragons, and the odd insufferable archon—is of no consequence to this solitary hunter.
Solonor is a good steward of the land; he never kills pregnant females or the young. But he has little patience for those who see hunting as a proxy for honor or a statement about the nature of elfhood. He brings home meat and hides, not trophies, and in a pinch he is as happy to kill with a snare, a knife, or his own bloody jaws as he is with his beloved bow.
A remote deity, Solonor does little more than provide spells to his clerics. Worshipping rangers model their behavior after him (always choosing the bow over double weapons) but rarely ask his assistance, calling on him only for the most impossible shots. Aside from Corellon, Solonor avoids communicating with other beings. The lone exception is Rillifane Rallathil, whose woods he frequents. By exterminating those who have angered the Green Regent, Solonor ensures unrestricted access to his favorite hunting grounds.
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Cleric Alignment: CE, CG, CN
Domains: Animal, Chaos, Elf, Plant, War
Favored Weapon: Longbow
Solonor is a good steward of the land; he never kills pregnant females or the young. But he has little patience for those who see hunting as a proxy for honor or a statement about the nature of elfhood. He brings home meat and hides, not trophies, and in a pinch he is as happy to kill with a snare, a knife, or his own bloody jaws as he is with his beloved bow.
A remote deity, Solonor does little more than provide spells to his clerics. Worshipping rangers model their behavior after him (always choosing the bow over double weapons) but rarely ask his assistance, calling on him only for the most impossible shots. Aside from Corellon, Solonor avoids communicating with other beings. The lone exception is Rillifane Rallathil, whose woods he frequents. By exterminating those who have angered the Green Regent, Solonor ensures unrestricted access to his favorite hunting grounds.
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Cleric Alignment: CE, CG, CN
Domains: Animal, Chaos, Elf, Plant, War
Favored Weapon: Longbow
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Bonemortar Dwarves
So my original plan was to post new subraces, tribes, cities, gods, etc. Monday/Wednesday/Friday, with the occasional commentary on Tuesdays or Thursdays when inspiration struck. Miraculously, I’ve managed to post every weekday for over four weeks. I’m going to try to keep that streak going, but in the process I may play a little bit with which content shows up on which days.
Since presenting the Dark Seldarine pantheon for your evil and neutral elves to worship is monopolizing the MWF posts, we’ll take today to look at a new clan of dwarves…
Some nations, when confronted with an undead menace at their borders, become beacons of light for the world. In these proud bastions, embattled paladins and clerics stand against all that is blasphemous and vile. The very threat that hangs over them throws their nobility into sharp relief.
Other nations do not. Lacking the fire of faith or reason or charity, these nations decide—consciously or not—that the only way to survive great evil is to become it. They stare into the face of their nemesis until they become its mirror.
The Bonemortar dwarves are a terrifying clan who make their homes on the slopes of the Kartacian Mountains. For centuries, the Bonemortar dwarves toiled under the pallid thumbs of a line of necromancers, who were themselves locked in a never-ending struggle against a triumvirate of lich-kings who claimed the Kartacians as their own.
Naturally, these necromancers relied on their dwarven serfs for the skill of their stonework. But the Bonemortar dwarves were powerful in magic as well. Like most dwarves, they were masters of the ancient art of runes. But they lacked their race’s usual prejudice against arcane casting, lacing their glyphs with abjurations to create fortifications of unearthly strength.
Even so, the lich armies hammered at the dwarves and their overseers. Skeletal hordes, bone wyverns, and siege engines of nightmarish proportions broke through their walls and tore down their gates. And so the Bonemortar dwarves tapped the might of their masters and learned the necromantic arts as well. To their rune-carved stones they added mortar made from the bones of countless creatures, including their own dead. In doing so, they earned a new name.
And the walls held.
The tide turned, and soon one of the lich-kings was crushed into powder by the combined might of the dwarves and the spell-slinging of their human liege, Velshard II. The dwarves then turned on the weakened wizard and reclaimed their freedom. Now they exercise dominion over all his lands and beyond, while still weathering the onslaughts of the remaining two undead armies.
Obsessed with protecting their borders, the Bonemortar dwarves are driven to find more bones with which to anchor their magicks. And so they enact a terrible tithe on all those who dwell in the windward side of the Kartacians. When the clattering of their iron-shod horses is heard on the cobbles, townsfolk know the dwarves have come to collect the old, the infirm, the weak, the lame, and the barren.
The dwarves ride into the lands of men and harvest them for their skeletons.
More to come in two days…
Since presenting the Dark Seldarine pantheon for your evil and neutral elves to worship is monopolizing the MWF posts, we’ll take today to look at a new clan of dwarves…
Some nations, when confronted with an undead menace at their borders, become beacons of light for the world. In these proud bastions, embattled paladins and clerics stand against all that is blasphemous and vile. The very threat that hangs over them throws their nobility into sharp relief.
Other nations do not. Lacking the fire of faith or reason or charity, these nations decide—consciously or not—that the only way to survive great evil is to become it. They stare into the face of their nemesis until they become its mirror.
The Bonemortar dwarves are a terrifying clan who make their homes on the slopes of the Kartacian Mountains. For centuries, the Bonemortar dwarves toiled under the pallid thumbs of a line of necromancers, who were themselves locked in a never-ending struggle against a triumvirate of lich-kings who claimed the Kartacians as their own.
Naturally, these necromancers relied on their dwarven serfs for the skill of their stonework. But the Bonemortar dwarves were powerful in magic as well. Like most dwarves, they were masters of the ancient art of runes. But they lacked their race’s usual prejudice against arcane casting, lacing their glyphs with abjurations to create fortifications of unearthly strength.
Even so, the lich armies hammered at the dwarves and their overseers. Skeletal hordes, bone wyverns, and siege engines of nightmarish proportions broke through their walls and tore down their gates. And so the Bonemortar dwarves tapped the might of their masters and learned the necromantic arts as well. To their rune-carved stones they added mortar made from the bones of countless creatures, including their own dead. In doing so, they earned a new name.
And the walls held.
The tide turned, and soon one of the lich-kings was crushed into powder by the combined might of the dwarves and the spell-slinging of their human liege, Velshard II. The dwarves then turned on the weakened wizard and reclaimed their freedom. Now they exercise dominion over all his lands and beyond, while still weathering the onslaughts of the remaining two undead armies.
Obsessed with protecting their borders, the Bonemortar dwarves are driven to find more bones with which to anchor their magicks. And so they enact a terrible tithe on all those who dwell in the windward side of the Kartacians. When the clattering of their iron-shod horses is heard on the cobbles, townsfolk know the dwarves have come to collect the old, the infirm, the weak, the lame, and the barren.
The dwarves ride into the lands of men and harvest them for their skeletons.
More to come in two days…
Monday, August 4, 2008
The Dark Seldarine: Deep Sashelas
The pounding surf that brings down a cliffside. The coming storm that turns sails to tatters. The raging whale sperm maddened by the harpoons of seamen. All these things are the province of Deep Sashelas, the Wave Lord.
The patron of the sea elves sits at a remove from the rest of the Dark Seldarine. He keeps an ambassador in Corellon Larethian’s court in the form of a male nixie called Rivertooth (who is actually an aspect of Sashelas, and into whom he has poured the entirety of what little humor he possesses). But he is a king in his own right of the world’s oceans. Any elf crossing a great body of water pays homage to him, as does the entire race of sea elves.
Like the oceans, Sashelas is ever-changing and often contradictory. He is the patron of rangers who go out to hunt alone with just a trident. He revels in the destruction of crushing waves, casually erasing coastal villages. But he also calls sea elves to create huge undersea empires, and he blesses their coral cities with strength so that they defy even his own destructive urges.
Sea elf clerics thus have to be careful readers of signs and portents, divining Sashelas’s mood and adjusting their rites accordingly. One spring they might call for all seal pups to be protected; the next they might order the blood sacrifice of a halfling every night of the full moon. Often sea elf communities become theocracies, as that is the simplest way to ensure their lord's demands are met.
Deep Sashelas’s great secret may be that these whims are actually part of a careful balancing act. Despite the harsh rituals he calls for, he is not naturally as chaotic nor as prone to evil as his kin in the Dark Seldarine. He finds grace in the inherent order of the coral spires constructed by his worshippers. And he recognizes that it takes discipline and teamwork to survive in the ocean depths—and even moreso to build an empire.
The plain truth is that he cannot afford the selfishness and self-indulgence of the Chaotic Evil mindset. Besides his ancient enemy Sekolah, the sahaugin deity, the Wave Lord and the sea elves share the watery depths with beings the likes of Yeathan, the deity of death by drowning (Book of Vile Darkness), and the alien intelligences of the aboleth powers (Lords of Madness). By alternating bloodletting and beneficence, he keeps his followers close, protecting them from the other sea deities—both their predations and their proselytizing. He knows full well that there is madness in the depths, waiting to drag him under like an unwary swimmer should he let down his guard.
Alignment: Neutral (Evil tendencies)
Cleric Alignment: CN, LN, N, NE
Domains: Elf, Knowledge, Ocean, Water, Watery Death (Underdark)
Favored Weapon: Trident
The patron of the sea elves sits at a remove from the rest of the Dark Seldarine. He keeps an ambassador in Corellon Larethian’s court in the form of a male nixie called Rivertooth (who is actually an aspect of Sashelas, and into whom he has poured the entirety of what little humor he possesses). But he is a king in his own right of the world’s oceans. Any elf crossing a great body of water pays homage to him, as does the entire race of sea elves.
Like the oceans, Sashelas is ever-changing and often contradictory. He is the patron of rangers who go out to hunt alone with just a trident. He revels in the destruction of crushing waves, casually erasing coastal villages. But he also calls sea elves to create huge undersea empires, and he blesses their coral cities with strength so that they defy even his own destructive urges.
Sea elf clerics thus have to be careful readers of signs and portents, divining Sashelas’s mood and adjusting their rites accordingly. One spring they might call for all seal pups to be protected; the next they might order the blood sacrifice of a halfling every night of the full moon. Often sea elf communities become theocracies, as that is the simplest way to ensure their lord's demands are met.
Deep Sashelas’s great secret may be that these whims are actually part of a careful balancing act. Despite the harsh rituals he calls for, he is not naturally as chaotic nor as prone to evil as his kin in the Dark Seldarine. He finds grace in the inherent order of the coral spires constructed by his worshippers. And he recognizes that it takes discipline and teamwork to survive in the ocean depths—and even moreso to build an empire.
The plain truth is that he cannot afford the selfishness and self-indulgence of the Chaotic Evil mindset. Besides his ancient enemy Sekolah, the sahaugin deity, the Wave Lord and the sea elves share the watery depths with beings the likes of Yeathan, the deity of death by drowning (Book of Vile Darkness), and the alien intelligences of the aboleth powers (Lords of Madness). By alternating bloodletting and beneficence, he keeps his followers close, protecting them from the other sea deities—both their predations and their proselytizing. He knows full well that there is madness in the depths, waiting to drag him under like an unwary swimmer should he let down his guard.
Alignment: Neutral (Evil tendencies)
Cleric Alignment: CN, LN, N, NE
Domains: Elf, Knowledge, Ocean, Water, Watery Death (Underdark)
Favored Weapon: Trident
Friday, August 1, 2008
The Dark Seldarine: Rillifane Rallathil
If Corellon Larethian is both king and prince of the Dark Seldarine, Rillifane Rallathil is the Green Regent. After Corellon, he is the most venerated of the elven deities, both lord of and at one with the ancient forests and his special charges, the wood elves.
Like an oak that has had a spike driven into it, Dark Rillifane is an old, gnarled, and bitter deity. At his best, he was Nature—cold, remote, and wild. But the assaults on his forests by men and humanoids have quite literally poisoned him, and his character has become actively malicious and evil in turn. Even wood elves are not immune from his hatred, should they grow careless. Rillifane is the natural world turned xenophobic and reactive: the root that bores through your walls, the wolf that terrorizes your penned sheep, the deadfall that crushes the unwary lumberjack. If you have ever stared into a thorny thicket with the uneasy certainty that some…thing…was staring back...you were right.
While Rillifane is enthusiastically worshipped by wood elves (and elves in general), their prayers resemble that of unwanted guests asking their host for yet another favor; they know Rillifane too well to expect more than grudging guidance and protection. The Green Regent prefers instead the company of treants, plant creatures, and the most ancient animals.
Alignment: Chaotic Evil (formerly Chaotic Neutral)
Cleric Alignment: CE, CN, NE
Domains: Chaos, Elf, Evil, Plant, Protection
Favored Weapon: Quarterstaff
Like an oak that has had a spike driven into it, Dark Rillifane is an old, gnarled, and bitter deity. At his best, he was Nature—cold, remote, and wild. But the assaults on his forests by men and humanoids have quite literally poisoned him, and his character has become actively malicious and evil in turn. Even wood elves are not immune from his hatred, should they grow careless. Rillifane is the natural world turned xenophobic and reactive: the root that bores through your walls, the wolf that terrorizes your penned sheep, the deadfall that crushes the unwary lumberjack. If you have ever stared into a thorny thicket with the uneasy certainty that some…thing…was staring back...you were right.
While Rillifane is enthusiastically worshipped by wood elves (and elves in general), their prayers resemble that of unwanted guests asking their host for yet another favor; they know Rillifane too well to expect more than grudging guidance and protection. The Green Regent prefers instead the company of treants, plant creatures, and the most ancient animals.
Alignment: Chaotic Evil (formerly Chaotic Neutral)
Cleric Alignment: CE, CN, NE
Domains: Chaos, Elf, Evil, Plant, Protection
Favored Weapon: Quarterstaff
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