A while ago, Hilander, briefly ran a campaign for Sylvanas, theisticgithoniel, PRIMEUMATON and me where we all contributed bits of lore before running. That setting has lived rent free in my head since then, and this post has bits and pieces of their writing throughout it mangled beyond recognition.
The food we eat is a reflection of land we live on. The soil, the climate, the plants and beasts that make their home in a place all inform the character of our cooking. Even when you bring crops and traditions from far away, a bit of local dirt will find its way between our teeth. Sorcery is much the same in this regard, even if sorcerers claim all powers come from the heavens.
In the Southern Deserts where the Sun is omnipresent and the shadows are sharp. All things define themselves in relation to that light. Thus there is no room for magic that is not either with him or against him. Solifugae priests breath in his blessings, fell wizards ensnare the vulnerable in their shadows and mystics shine at night, mirroring the stars in the sky.
In the Silvered City there are a thousand aqueducts and ten thousand mirrors. Water and light are channeled by sophisticated mechanisms. It is the home of mathematics, engineering and the rites of the lock and the key. It is also writhe with art, politics and commerce. Constant voices, countless eyes watching and watching those who watch back. Here the Moon holds at least as much sway as the Sun, appearances may be deceptive but touch a mirror and you will know where the boundaries are.
In Naz-Guradar they do not look to the sky, because it’s so often obscured. When you are surrounded by fog the stars may not guide you, then you must rely on your other senses. Therefore the witches of this land pay attention to what is underfoot. Spirits in the dirt beneath your fingernails, spirits that you can lick off rocks. Perhaps they are the magicians who best understand how magic is like cooking.
To learn a sorcery you must understand its land. To not get consumed by sorcery you must understand the people that live there. Naz-Guradar is warm in the summar, cold in the winter but always, always wet. Moss and lichen coat old statues and chew at the remnants of pigment left behind by the wizard-kings of ages past. Any witch worth her salt will tell you that history lies in the soil, and the soil is made of four things.
Crystal
Rigidity, Strength, Order
It was here first, and for long eons it was eternal. Long before Naz-Guradar, the crystals stood in straight hexagonal columns. Its lowest form is crumbling rock, followed by pliable metal and highest of all, immortal gemstone. On a clear day you might look up and see a shattered glass castle hanging in the sky. Some say the old elves lived there, that they were things of cold immortal beauty, and that this is what killed them.
Your Crystal score is added to Armor Class, Damage, and Saves against poison.
Resource: Pure Crystal
A spellcaster may channel a spell or raw MD through pure crystal to cause a special effect, bargained for with the Referee. (If multiple crystals are used, multiple effects can occur). On a mishap, pure crystals shatter, dealing 1 damage if they were held in your hand.
- Blue - Soften, Weaken, Dissolve
- Pink - Seek, Attach, Cling
- Crimson - Lift, Accelerate, Invigorate
- Salt - Deny, Seal, Reflect
People: Returned
Ancient true humans brought back to life by an unknowable curse. Immune to fatigue and non-spiritual poison. Skeletal.
Custom: Law of Blades (Duel Till Shattering, Sworn Swords)
- Purpose: To keep order.
- Practice: When a worthy someone declares a oath or law, the glaziers are called upon to make a glassblade. The specifics of the decree may still be negotiated while the blade is worked on, but must be settled by the time they finish. The only way to annul this decree is to shatter the glassblade, and the only honorable way to shatter it is in a duel, wielding a glassblade of your own.
Weapon: Glassblade
A fine weapon made of glass, pure crystal and oath. Will tell its law to those who can hear. When the blade is struck, or the wielder dealing a crit, it has a [Damage Dealt]-in-8 chance of shattering.
Stance: Unscratched
Add Crystal to Armour Class a second time when your opponent is targeting your weapon. You are not considered a duelist in Naz-Guradar until you learn it. (Shadow of Glory duelist to come, this Lesson will be available to all styles like Truth is in Carrion Gods, or it might be a general rule. Haven’t decided yet.)
Euphanism: Glass Cutter
Roughly analogous to king maker or grey eminence. Someone who doesn’t have direct power but decides important matters. Glaziers are often suspected to leave flaws in blades, either to further an agenda or because they were bribed.
People: Solifugae
Foreigners from the Southern Deserts, but clearly a kin with Crystal in their blood. Fang-mawed, beady-eyed arachnid people subject to many unsavory rumors. Rather frightening to look at and prone to sudden movements. Their terrible jaws are D6 Melee weapons with Bind (1).
Moss
Life, Chaos, Adaptation
Plentiful rain and gentle winds have turned the land green with it, and the people have adapted. Moss covers anything exposed to the sky and porous enough to hold to. It breaks weak Crystal and makes soil, giving space for new growth. Understanding of this power has reached even the Silver City, where they name it Rot.
Your Moss score is added to Maximum Hit Points, To-Hit and Saves against paralysis.
Resource: Herbs and Lichen.
Many folk, especially gnomes, have discovered useful varieties. Some say that if you find the right herbs one might live forever.
- Bulb-Moss - Grows bulb-ended edible fruit that taste lightly sweet and crunchy.
- Fire Carpet - Causes unbearable itching and stinging. Thin yellow spines.
- Fairy’s Beard - Causes fanciful hallucinations for d6*10 minutes if the spores are breathed in. Long, white, hangs from dead trees.
People: Gnomes
Startlingly diverse, rather populous, genderless on account of being born from soup, all rather short and herptile. Social, +2 to reactions in villages.
People: Tallfolk
Mostly humanoid with pointing ears and smooth skin of almost any hue. Carry +3 Bulk.
People: Shadows
Short humanoids with skin in impossibly dark hues and shining white eyes. Can smell gold and blood.
Custom: Humility (Generosity)
- Purpose: To keep score.
- Practice: To accept food and drink from another means that you acknowledge them as a provider and thus must show them due deference. If you want to be equal to someone who fed you, they must accept food from you in turn. It is considered virtuous for one’s standing among their peers to fluctuate with the seasons.
Title: Chief/Chef
In the local language, these are the same word. A leader is expected to know how to know their way around a kitchen, and a cook generally has some authority.
Cautionary Tale: The Proud Fisherman.
There once was a fisherman who was beloved by the river, and thus never went hungry. He was generous, always providing food to those who the river did not love. In his vanity he forced absurd demands on his peers and insulted them by never accepting offered food. He lived like this until one day the other fisherman forced hemlock down his throat and the river drowned the village.
Craft: Booze
Fine wines and bizarre liquors are treated as equivalent to a meal. Mostly so chiefs can have dinner with their lessers without shaking the balance of power.
Legend: The Sacred Wellesprings
They are found in deep dungeons, and are tended by semi-immortal Moss-Eaters. This name is somewhat ironic, since most people eat moss.
Paint
Passion, Creation, Revelry
Growing and crumbling materials can come together to give rise to things greater than the sum of their parts. It goes beyond images, and includes music, spice, dance and fluttering silks. Laughter, weeping, fury, all the things that bring color to your face. Art was not first wrought in the Silvered City, but here, it’s remembered in the ivy covered murals, and songs passed down through generations. When the paint flakes off or wine is spilled, it gets mixed into the soil. Be wary not to get lost in the feeling, drunk on love and hate.
Your Paint score is added to Reaction rolls of 7 or higher and subtracted on rolls lower than 7, also being normally added to Initiative and Saves against Sleep.
Legend: The Grand Opus
There were seven wizard-kings once, who set aside their differences to make a great piece of art. Each one responsible for a color.
People: Elflings
The atavistic curse of the old Elves, outsiders to both the worlds of spirits and people. Each one’s soul is a spell, but their body is of another race. They can cast their soul as a cantrip if not touching salt.
People: Foxes
Cunning and fiery, these little beasts can transform into something like a Tallfolk, but they always have a Tell.
Custom: Painted Face (Persona, Visage, or simply Face)
- Purpose: To communicate identity.
- Practice: Adults participating in society are expected to put on face paint each morning, and act in accordance with the face they chose. When you paint your face you can communicate three of these five facets. Not wearing a visage is seen as antisocial.
- Primary Emotion - Anger, Joy, Sorrow, Serenity.
- Animal, Mineral or Vegetable - Bear, Sturgeon, Onyx, Flint, Oak, Lotus.
- Social Role - Musician, Wife, Chef, Robber, Prankster.
- Gender - Man, Woman, Neuter, Mage.
- Relationship Status - Married, Celibate, Single and looking, Single and not looking, Single and looking for a fight.
Danger: Possession
Spirits are everywhere in this land, they are faces without heads, breath without lungs. The risk of possession is greater for those whose face is bare, because spirits see it as an empty canvas, and those whose visage matches the spirit’s persona, because of the resemblance. Thankfully, the latter is much rarer.
Tradition: Family Faces
The designs of visages are passed down through generations. Unless someone wishes to distance themselves from their roots, their face will likely contain at least one facet of the clan persona. Both because it’s an important part of one’s identity and because it’s much preferable to be possessed by an ancestor then some forest devil. These are the visages of some of the most storied clans.
- Bright - Glazier, Diamond, Married. When people think of a glass cutter they think of Master Bright. Bright was said to be the first mortal to craft glassblades and thus the Bright clan is tremendously wealthy and influential. Originally a family of shadows, but they have adopted many promising craftsmen over the years.
- Meadsong - Bear, Chef, Drunk[emotion]. Their founding ancestor was said to be a tallfolk of such size that she could eat 30-50 boars and drink 70-80 barrels of mead in one sitting. Nobody went hungry at her table, and nothing happens in Port Ashara without the Meadsongs hearing of it.
- Bellman - Fear, Oak, Warrior. Among the tallfolk there was a man who felled a war god with a resonating hammer throw. From that day he was known as Bellman, and his descendants wear faces with exaggerated eyes and practice their hammer throws to this day. If you ask a Bellman why they wear the marking of fear, they laugh dryly and ask what bravery is.
- Atiok - Excitement, Sword Lily, Woman. The first Atiok was a kindly gnome who loved stories and had a gender which is quite unusual for a gnome. If not for her murals then many tales would be lost in the fog of history. Her descendants are said to have a particularly close connection to Paint to this day.
- Crimson - Rage, Mage[gender], Single and looking for a fight. There is no one alive who carries the blood of this ancient wizard-king in their veins. However their face is still remembered, and it is worn by the bold as a statement and invitation.
- Mist Stalkers - Fox, Grief, Celibate. They do not speak, they are rarely seen, and it might even be right to call them a family. The one thing we know is that they have the secret to traversing the Deep Fog.
Fog
Dullness, Inevitability, Emptiness
Yes it is in the soil here, if that seems nonsensical to you then you have not experienced true Fog. It is something with weight, pressing you down like a heavy blanket. One wades through it like through water, air thick enough that you're forced to take slow steady breaths. Some say that it is older than Crystal, that all things came from it and all things will return to it. It’s not all bad, there is a sort of comfort in having to slow down and consider.
Your Fog score is the amount of Fatigue you recover during a rest, it’s also added to Sneak and Saves against Possession.
Craft: Cloud Bedding
Fog can be captured. People make rather soft pillows and bedding from fog. There’s an elaborate feng shui to keep it from negatively affecting you, but if set up just right, sleep becomes heavenly, restful and dreamless. (+2 to recovery, gotta pay the fog catcher and feng shui specialist. Sabotage-able.)
Danger: Deep Fog
There are places where the fog is especially thick. Stay too long in it unprotected and you will lose memories, fall asleep and never wake up. Fog catchers tend to develop grey hairs and bleached skin on their fingers.
Custom: Sauna Speech
- Purpose: To communicate openly.
- Practice: Around once a week, people go to the sauna to cleanse their bodies and spirit. It is one of the few public places where one is expected not to wear a face, and thus speak freely. In a proper sauna where the steam contains Fog, forms are blurry and indistinct. This gives everything spoken a degree of anonymity and plausible deniability. What is shared in the sauna, stays in the sauna.
Apparel: Sauna Mask.
A light cloth veil worn when going in and out of the sauna. In Naz-Guradar nobody is worried if you see their bare body, but it’s very embarrassing to show a bare face. On nights when spirits are particularly lively, parents will put them onto their children.
Paradox: The Silent Song
How can something be so light and so heavy? Overflowing yet empty? Do you feel there is something you can’t quite remember?
You may have noticed discrepancies in geography, this is because what I know as the Southern Deserts exists under two different skies. This too can be thought of as a form of Fog.
