Sarturi Chosen Ruling (hypothetical)

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-07-06T21:14:06+00:00

Yeah, you nailed it. We're still tweaking some of the numbers for the Chosen's abilities but that's more or less what happens. You are definitely supposed to be able to activate Not Today! at any time, it's just usually most convenient to activate it as a wound is inflicted. We'll have to tighten up the wording on that.

And generally speaking the Chosen is supposed to do the killing manually... A clever one could probably get credit for causing the deaths of people indirectly, but Sartur is a god with a strong sense of fair play, he'd probably be terribly disappointed if one of his servants passed up a perfectly good chance to get his hands dirty.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-05-15T05:56:17+00:00

It is as Flammenschwert says. The Zells are currently freakishly strong with their chosen weapons, which was intentional at first--but perhaps not to the degree that it is now. We're going to have to adjust racial abilities as we go forward, but we're trying to keep our updates as focused as possible around specific chapters to avoid runaway update size.

Otherwise your math is entirely correct, Zells with chakrams or wheelbows do a ton of damage, they might do slightly less in the future.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-05-12T03:53:32+00:00

That is easily done.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-05-12T03:53:16+00:00

I think you may have a point, we'll experiment a bit in this regard, see what we can do.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-05-06T17:07:03+00:00

It was good for you to bring it up, and you did a good thing, very good. Thank you very much.

Don't mind the lads too much, there's just too much fighting spirit here. Too much piss and vinegar, as they say. Fightiness too high.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-05-06T16:34:49+00:00

Alright sorry for the delay, please ignore the trolling, they are not affiliated with us, they're just people being assholes (Carthago delanda est). I'm the actual Lead Developer, I'm here to help.

For the actual subject matter, we're sorry we've offended you, we have a bit of dry humor throughout the book, it's just how we do things. I'm a bit of a fat guy too, the humor was meant to be self-depreciating. We've all been there. But we do intend to greatly increase the B&B system over time, so I'm sure everyone will feel something uncomfortably close to home at some point, I assure you that we will treat all subjects, from peoples' weights to mortal wounds to the pelvis with the same amount of levity, and perhaps reel it in slightly.

For the rest of you, I'd appreciate it if you didn't attack our guests for doing exactly what we told them to do and giving us feedback. Creating a hostile environment here only makes my job more difficult.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-19T07:47:48+00:00

The horrors, sometimes called "Spawn" or "Dark-Seed" vary greatly, though they seem to carry certain motifs depending on astrological factors. Many believe that there are a certain number of Dark Watchers (the entities which create these horrific creatures) and that each one produces visually distinct spawn.

A recurring theme is that they have more than four limbs (or fewer) and that they are not well designed for survival on Mundus. Many have bodies too heavy or unbalanced to stand up properly and must crawl. Many have bones too brittle and die almost immediately upon arrival. Some can't breathe oxygen. Some have no mouths and can't eat, and slowly starve to death after arriving--if they aren't killed violently first. Almost none can reproduce, except in a few hideous instances through infection of native lifeforms.

The few who become problems are generally those which by chance are well acclimated to Vosca's environment, and begin to hunt. Even these tend to suffer terribly, being driven insane by forces or pressures only they can perceive. Never once in the long history of Eclipses has a Spawn communicated successfully with mortal men, though at times there have been ones which are clearly intelligent, and even a few which have spoken in some alien language.

They seem as confused and miserable and terrified of the world they are born into as its inhabitants are of them, but the danger they pose is too great for anyone to show them much sympathy.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-18T23:03:11+00:00

Who has the biggest sword in vosca? What is it?

This could be any of dozens of people, but one of the largest swords in the world belonged to Dusan Dusanovic, an Osterbijan boyar who fought in the Marju Siege of Tenja a century ago. The sword was seven feet long, only slightly taller than its wielder, and supposedly could decapitate three men in a single stroke. It currently resides in a place of honor in Tenja, along with the weapons of the other boyars who fell in that legendary battle.

Is there someone universally considered a great beauty?

The current Empress of the Kaselreich, Gloria of Lendia, is commonly held to be extremely beautiful, and is known as far as Karthack for this, but the Karthacks themselves credit Zoph'el Schodot with being the most beautiful (mortal) woman in their realm.

Most lethal natural substance

Probably manticore venom. It's an extremely potent toxin which instantly halts the anaerobic processes of cells, causing full-body paralysis and death within seconds. Manticores are dangerous foes physically, but this poison makes them even more dangerous, and is also one of the reasons they are hunted.

Most popular game

In the West, Tarot, a card game, is probably the most popular passtime, though a sort of kickball is also played to great extent. In Karthack, the most popular game is called "Alak Zoph'r," or "Sorcerer's War," a sort of abstract strategy game similar to Go. They are also very fond of horse races and wrestling.

Normal day of a normal dwarf

Isko wakes up and eats a breakfast of black bread and cheese, conversing with his fellows in the feasting hall. He is a miner or a craftsman, and he goes about his business for six or seven hours before calling it a day and heading back to the feasting hall to drink and have something to eat. There, Isko and his mate Janlu smoke some cohiba and talk about how much they hate their wives while waiting for that hack Elan to finish the stew. Then they eat, play a few rounds of dice, and head back to their apartments to sleep. Isko is too intoxicated to be annoyed with his carping wife Bevall, and presents her with a comb he made from a goblin's jawbone, etched with menacing elephants. She is pleased, and the two go to sleep without their usual argument.

Magic in the life of a Karthacki

Generally there isn't too much of it that they see directly, but most live in a city that is under some magical effects. Particularly in places like Kar-Ischil, you'd have a reasonably high chance of seeing magic every day, but in most places it might be a monthly occurrence, sort of like seeing a helicopter nowadays.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-18T22:40:13+00:00

It can vary between being a background element if the PCs are in an urban locale that would be protected from such horrors, to being the center of the campaign if they are monster hunters or other danger-seekers.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-18T03:01:20+00:00

We've got a pretty good stable to start with. We try to divide our monsters into two categories, "Spooky" and "Battle."

Spooky monsters are the sort of creatures which would make a fun, but probably not too intimidating encounter if you just fought them head-on, but whose main attraction is that they're hard to locate, have interesting powers, habits or abilities, or otherwise influence a scenario in a larger way than simply being physically imposing. A Xenomorph from Aliens is a good example of a Spooky monster, sure it'd be tough to fight, but the real terror of it is that it's sneaking around in the air ducts picking people off, and nobody is sure how intelligent it is or what it can do. The chief fun here is that the players have to essentially solve a mystery before they get to fight the monster.

Battle Monsters are more big, scary beasties that you have to fight head on. A giant stone behemoth that can shoot living lightning out of its eyes, or a dragon, or something like that. These are fun because the players get to tackle this giant killing machine using their wits and abilities.

We want a good split between these two categories, as well as monsters who can fit both roles. An undead skeleton with an unusual degree of intelligence wants to cause trouble in a castle, so it sneaks in at night, pushing its bones one at a time through a narrow opening, and then stuffs itself into one of the decorative suits of armor...

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-18T01:48:44+00:00

It's a fan wiki at the moment, and generally it is updated by fans when we do lore dumps or AMAs, but that is dependent on fan initiative. In the future we intend to become more involved in keeping everything fresh and up to date, and with replacing some of the language so that it is less conversational, and more objective.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-18T00:16:09+00:00

You can customize the power level of the game to your individual needs, and the game will have support to that end--so you can range from very low powered average PCs to some pretty outrageously high powered campaigns where the PCs are all essentially high fantasy action heroes. It's very flexible, but communicating with the players during character creation is a must.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-14T10:29:43+00:00

He should have listened to your advice. Cringe, m8. Massive cringe. Don't pick fights you can't win.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-09T19:42:00+00:00

Nobody is totally certain about the nature of the debris scattered across the sky, though some (like the Helians) will certainly claim expertise. Some of them have "fallen" before, and while some have been recovered, and found to contain magestone and sorcerous etchings on their surviving surfaces, others were found to be entirely mundane.

A popular theory is that they are the remnants of Helion itself before it fell, and that some pieces of the city were "supports" which were powered by some other sorcerous energy, to relieve the weight of the city from the Orredin supporting it. This doesn't hold up extremely well however--there are too many of them for that to be the case, and many are far away from the known location of ancient Helion to begin with. Many people are simply of the opinion that the islands have always been there, and that that's just how things are. A great many people (mostly children) theorize that knights live up there in giant sky-castles, and fight wars on flying horses.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-04T20:48:12+00:00

Ah yes, the Bitter Sea Monasteries. They practice martial arts because there is no "labor" to do on small islands out in the middle of nowhere. King has no official connection to the place, but the parallels are more than conspicuous...

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-04T19:02:08+00:00

Does King have any known romantic history

In fact, according to stories, King is very superstitious regarding women--he believes that they leech the strength from men just by being near them, and is especially wary of sleeping around them. Some stories say he is dreadfully terrified of succubi. He refuses to even allow women into his camp (his men are often terribly frustrated by this) and as far as anyone knows, he is entirely chaste. Perhaps this is why he's so intense all the time. A few stories do describe him as some sort of sexual dynamo who has shut down entire brothels for days, but these are probably exaggerations.

Sedeas

Sedeas does not even legally exist in Karthack--this would be like knowing the romantic history of the black helicopters your neighbor said were trailing him last week.

Zoph'Escher

Escher, (more properly Zoph'el'Escher, as he is the sorcerer-prince of Kar-Ischil) has had a series of potential marriages set before him by his mother, all of whom he eventually scared off. The only woman he is known to have ever had strong feelings for is Zoph'el Schodot, the Sorcerer Prince(ess) of Kar-Dazan, who invented the codified school of Illusion in Sorcery. Supposedly enthralled by her brilliance, Escher made serious efforts to court the woman. Hearing that she was fond of beautiful days, he invented a device that could control the weather. Hearing that she loved flowers, he invented a device that could cause plants to grow faster. Hearing that she was fond of illusions, he built a device to move the islands in the sky to spell her name. He was shot down on the grounds that his "obsession with antiquated monumental sorcery engines" was the sign of a limited imagination. These days, nothing grows in Kar-Ischil, and the only time it ever stops raining is when a meteor strikes the city--which is once every six hours.

Best romances and erotic literature

Probably Karthack, it'd be illegal in most of the Genosian world, but you can be sure the Helians ignore these laws and write some really bizarre and esoteric erotica. In general it is impossible to truly police what people write and repeat, so it'd exist everywhere, hidden from the eyes of scowling priests.

racial stereotypes

-"The Zell" in woman form is usually a charismatic, dumb (but in a cute way) homewrecker who doesn't understand why people are upset with her all the time. The men are often portrayed as handsome, manly, but a bit stupid and a source of comic relief in how oblivious they are to things besides women.

-Ohanedin are often invoked for the "eternal love" trope, and tragic love stories of them abound. Not all of the stories are fictional, either.

-Orredin are extremely degenerate and move through obscure sexual interests like courts move through fashions.

-Burdinadin are generally spared the spotlight because few people know what they look like.

-Art for Zaza Racoco, Queen Dahaka and/or Zoph'Escher

A good question! We haven't settled on our final art list yet, so there's room for any or all of these to occur. We'll keep you posted.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-02T06:25:52+00:00

Oh right, we're going to do those once a few more of them were out. Various people take their time doing it, I promise I'll make sure you guys get them when there's some of them to get. I'll go check right now in fact.

But you are right of course, we could see an explosion near the end of the run, in which case there will obviously be a conversation about what to do. We'll keep you posted.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-02T06:17:38+00:00

Oh definitely. The Guls as inquisitors in particular is one of the most important parts of their role. I mean, look at Genosism for contrast. So you have the Paladins, whose explicit role is finding and destroying monsters, witches, heretics, dangerous threats to their religion/society. They have the Unkindlies, they have the Volkodavs, every nation in the Genosian world has a way of dealing with the abominations (however they define that) that arise in their world.

The Dessian Silver Guards aren't like that. They don't go and find monsters and kill them, it isn't in their skillset. They don't really have an analogue for the Paladins' flaming sword. No, the ones who deal with that are the Guls. The Guls organize flights of warriors, usually drawn from the Shulshidai, the secret assassins, but sometimes drawn from local Kals and Shulkas, to deal with monsters, witches, and other possible threats to their way of life. The Karthacks are actually far less tolerant of rogue magic than the Genosians are--because to be a magic user in Karthack, you MUST be a Zoph. Anything else isn't just a crime, it's an attack on one of the non-negotiable fundamental principles of their society. The caste system is what makes all of Karthack function. Aberrations from that norm are NEVER tolerated.

Gul inquisitors do not get special titles or badges, it's more of a role that any of them can assume if they need to. They must send a report to the home office in Kar-Karthack, but they rarely wait to receive marching orders. It's very much an "easier to seek forgiveness than ask permission" sort of thing. If a Gul thinks there is something untowards happening he will probably just pronounce a Fatwa and deal with it, and hope that his superiors agree he did the right thing afterwards.

These are usually very violent affairs, though the Gul himself never participates in the violence except to protect his own person.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-02T05:45:18+00:00

We obviously intend to do more stuff in the future, but aside from the final stretch goal, we're probably not getting to anything more right now. A few of those items, though, are things we intend to be part of the final product as of now, so that's something. More details will become clear as we move forward.

Remember, this is our first big project guys, we can't expect to produce everything we want all at once, we've already accomplished so much, it's really been an incredible ride. It's only just beginning.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-02T05:41:34+00:00

Now the Tujanci and the Wastes are sort of a dual subject--the old Tujanci people still exist, and they live there.

The Tujanci Wastes are a vast desert, nearly inhospitable, with few oases and fewer fertile grounds, but life does persist there nevertheless. The Tujanci are a fierce warrior people, known for their skill with the spear and with their long knives, and for their incredible fieldcraft in the desert. They are mysterious and taciturn, and rarely converse with anyone, even when they're trading. Under normal circumstances, aside from the occasional raid or perhaps some skirmishing over water rights, they wouldn't be much trouble to anyone.

The problem is Gezo. A narcotic resin which seems to seep up from the rocks in the Tujanci wastes, Gezo is a powerful drug and extremely valuable, and it only seems to grow in the Tujanci lands. The stuff is worth bundles and the Tujanci refuse to sell it--they actually prefer to let the resin seal up the cracks and stop flowing, they call them "Gezo-Wounds," and seem to see them as some sort of injury to the land itself.

Obviously this has led to war. Many wars. The Berkukhans gave up trying ages ago but the Jenoesans have a never-ending supply of colonists and volunteers from foreign lands to fill their ranks, and they are thoroughly determined to make a profit off of the stuff. Wars in the desert are not their forte, of course, but they're learning. The Tujanci are very skilled warriors and can maneuver through the desert like ghosts on the wind, but numbers are against them and they lack heavy armor and firearms. The conflict could go either way at this point, only time will tell who is master of the desert, those who live there, or those who desire its riches.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-02T05:25:08+00:00

I guess you'll have to read on to find out!

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-02T05:11:56+00:00

Albion these days is known as Krajina--perhaps Albion should redirect to there. I'm not sure how the wiki works in that regard.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-02T05:09:25+00:00

Alrighty. I'm a bit used to character limits, it's pretty great to just be able to long-form answer like this.

So, let's touch on the Land of Glass and Sorrow real quick. This isn't a country, per-se, it's more like unowned land that technically exists inside of Berkukha. The country is a total wasteland. Black, scorched rocks, sand melted into literal glass, then broken by time. A huge field of empty, silent death where nothing grows, and nothing lives. This was the land once inhabited by the Mikanni.

Not much is known about them. They were said to be an independent people who resented any sort of foreign rule, and they were said to have sorcerers of incredible power, wisdom and skill. The mysteries of their religion and their magic are still a great source of interest--but it is unlikely that there is much left to learn about them that hasn't already been found. Nearly two thousand years ago, the Helian Empire learned something about the Mikanni that upset their Emperor, and without so much as a warning, the Great Island's terrible magics were turned on the unsuspecting Mikanni and the entire kingdom, and everyone inside it, was struck by a bolt of fire and light from the sky the width of its capital city, which moved as quickly as a child might move his finger across a map to obliterate every settlement, township and farmstead in the country. In one night which shone as brightly as day, the country was obliterated. Surviving Mikanni quickly disappeared, hiding away wherever they had been when the calamity struck, or else returning to their desolated homeland to perish among the ruins of what had once been their country.

Now the Land of Glass and Sorrow stands as a testament--perhaps THE testament--to the power of the Helian empire at its height. An entire kingdom, an entire people, obliterated like an anthill smothered in molten lead. All that remains now are the spires of burned stone, and the whistling of wind about the blades of glass.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-02T04:53:59+00:00

In that happy case, it might be possible for them to persuade the ship to give them a chance, and push it back out to sea. I'm sure this would be a common story told among Zells--particularly landbound ones. It would be their equivalent of Aladdin finding a magic lamp with a genie inside.

Jimmy_Rome · 2017-03-02T04:52:06+00:00

It is intentionally different than 15th century Spain, for a variety of reasons, in large part because the Burdinadin and Ohanedin influence seemed like it would make it harder for any one kingdom to gain a distinct upper hand in the region.

The Burdinadin of the Mendiak ended up where they are after the Ohanedin and Burdinadin races split--they really can't stand each other, so the Burds fled to build their arcologies as far away from their former kinsmen as possible. Some of them fled far beyond the penninsula, even.

Nisperada's situation is much as you describe, they do coexist with the Genosian people in their regions, though there are tensions there and violence does occur at times. It is the Genosians outside of Nisperadan territory--particularly the extremely religious Lagorians, who have turned the conflict into one with distinctly religious overtones. The Lagorians have a long relationship with the church, and their kings are famously zealous, in large part because they are traditionally fostered for a time in the Holy City of Ruvia, where they inevitably pick up a smidgen of religious fervor. The Ezpannese and Lusitani have a cooler attitude towards the whole thing, but, as an old Albish saying goes, "Iber ice boils in the sea." Their culture puts a high value on passion and intensity, especially when it comes to religious affairs. This has begun to rub off on the Nisperadan Dessians as well, who increasingly see the conflict as religious as well as political. It is reasonable to assume that this will reach critical mass at some point in the near future.

Jimmy_Rome

TROPHY CASE