Myths from Flipped Faerûn, Part II: The Compass Court & assorted members of the House of Nature

Here's more D&D Backwards religion from Flipped Faerûn. There will be at least one more installment concerning the House of Nature and its sub-grouping, the Furious Hunt (a.k.a., the Deities of Fury in the typical Forgotten Realms). Because this one is kind of a grab-bag, I do feel like it suffers from a lack of unified narrative and middle-movie syndrome, but there is, I think, some good stuff in here nonetheless....

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Featured Inhabitants of the House of Nature: (8)

Lathander (NE)

Chauntea (NE)

Ubtao (N)

Syranita (NE)

Cat Lord (N)

Skerrit (NE)

Mentioned Inhabitants of the House of Nature:

Silvanus (N)

Umberlee (LG)

Friends of the House of Nature:

Selûne (LE)

Mystra (NE)

Enemies of the House of Nature:

Helm (CN)

Dead gods:

Murdane (N?)

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Silvanus may have founded the House of Nature out of love for his daughters and continue to rule it to this day, but his northern throne isn’t the only one to reign over this realm.  There are three other directions from which the realm can be ruled.  Though none of those thrones’ inhabitants have such a bloodline and entourage as the Forest Father enjoys, nonetheless they rule the House of Nature with him as the Compass Council.

 In the east’s rosy sun throne sits daring Lathander, the NE young god of the dawn, drunk on his own capabilities, heedless of consequence or risk.  If you can do it, then it is right, and only failure marks an action as reprehensible ~ this is his way.  Blonde and beautiful, he it is who husbands all living things, driving us to choose the fittest partners and breed the strongest children, the eternal and inevitable improvement of every race of mortal and animal alike.  Purity of blood, he tells us, is what gives him the prowess that is the foundation of his and his followers’ supremacy.⁵

 Beyond the brilliant colors which seep from the Morninglord’s throne can be seen a giant mountain rising tall enough that its top can be seen though its foot be hidden behind the throne’s gleam.  This is the bordering spirit realm, the House of the Triad, built atop Mount Celestia, and from Castle Everwatch in that realm the CN god of suspicion and wariness, Helm, glowers down at the House of Nature.  It is said that in the days of ancient Jhaamdath, whose Twelve Cities of the Sword were ruled only by the power of the enlightened mind, Lathander staged a coup against the other rulers of the gods, seeking the power to assure their perfection.  During this Dawn Cataclysm, his ally and still realm-mate Umberlee of the Furious Hunt (that group of gods which enforces the dictates of the gods) to drown Helm’s lover, the practical and rational goddess Murdane.  When she died, Helm lost the only thing keeping his paranoia in check; he has determined that all of the House of Nature is suspect and scans flitter-eyed and wary for a possible avenue of invasion.

 Across the House of Nature, to the west, the plains fill with crops, tamed and controlled rather than wild and overgrown like the woods inhabited by Silvanus and his get.  From these square fields rules hungry NE Chauntea who drinks deep of murdered blood and gives of that reserve of life-energy to the crops that they might grow tall and fruitful.  One life taken, blood jumping with all the force of fear and scraps of organs scattered throughout the rows, bones for fences and scarecrows, can be divided by her to grow food for a hundred or more, but a calm, willing sacrifice would only have the energy to feed a couple dozen or so, according to her.

 Though Chauntea was married to Silvanus by Selûne, bound to him throughout every phase of the moon from dark to light and back to the dark, she has since taken Lathander to her tilled bed, finding common interest in husbandry and breeding.  This is not kept secret from her husband, who watches them from behind the branches at the edge of the fields, eyes rich as the leafy forest floor in autumn with lust for both bodies.

 The Rashemi witches call the Three in their mysterious and hidden rites, two of which haunt the verdant lands of the House of Nature.  NE Mielikki and Chauntea are joined in these ways by NE Mystra, further cementing the Mother of All Magic’s bond with this realm.  Magic is taken, of course, snatched from every living thing, and if we don’t snatch it from wild or tamed nature, the gods’ associations alone tell you that nature will take it from us.  Everyone bleeds, after all, and it is the blood which moves everything and all motion falters.  Will you be the one to continue moving or will your stillness give that motion to the world around you?

 Outside of this triangle-of-the-heart stands alone the Compass Council’s ruler of the south.  The N Father of Dinosaurs, Ubtao, rules from the dripping jungle throne.  In truth, he prefers to keep his distance anyway, from his fellow rulers and from his worshipers as well.  He keeps his own council, and rarely speaks when the House of Nature’s monarchs gather, even to cast his vote or suggest a way to move forward.  This has been his way since this ancient being, older than the gods, one of the primordials who originally built Abeir-Toril, made his way without pomp or circumstance into the House of Nature shortly after its founding.  He built his realm and claimed a whole direction before anyone even noticed he was there.

 Wilderness is famously difficult to rule ~ it is the very nature of such a place to be untamed.  The Compass Council does not rule like some monarchy, assured in the right of their power by heritage or conquest, or like the democracies one finds scattered occasionally through the realms, wherein the rulers know that they are wanted and can rule from that comfort.  No, the Compass Council rules by means of Syranita.  This NE aarakocra-goddess spends her days circling lazily and ready-eyed above the House of Nature.  It is said that those eyes of hers are keen enough that even Mielikki’s brambles and the woods’ canopy cannot protect one from her sight.  Syranita is fiercely loyal to the Council as a whole, taking no favorites in fear for her divine life, and she reports all the furtive activities of those in their realm to them that they might know and be able to react to any threats to their rule that sprout among their wild subjects.  It is Syranita’s eyes that provide the best shield against the piercing sword of Helm’s, a game of seeking unknown dints in the realm’s armor and of spotting the incursions therefrom, an endless game of watching.

 Syranita’s efforts work like this:  There is a style of prison utilized in some places on Toril, in which the prison is shaped much like a cake.  Circular these prisons are, with the cells of those being held occupying the circumference of the building and the officers of the ruler who hold them occupying the center.  By blinds and other contrivances, the inspectors conceal themselves from the observation of the prisoners, who thus gain a sentiment of a sort of invisible omnipresence.  The whole circuit is reviewable with little, or, if necessary, without any, change of place.  In these prisons, as in the House of Nature with its skies haunted by Syranita, the inhabitants know that they might be being observed, unknowing, at any moment, even if it is unlikely.  Those who use this system find that it encourages their inhabitants to become more placid thereby, for they can find no comfortable safety in their seditious acts.

 Hidden paths through the House of Nature are the natural home of the N Cat Lord, from which he directs the ways of all Abeir-Toril’s felines.  The stories of old say that the Cat Lord is ancient and yet young ~ that every so often, the Cat Lord chooses an heir, passing on their mantle to a new generation to reinvent what cats are.  There have been fierce Cat Lords with blood matting their fur, and there have been cuddly Cat Lords content to be fed by their mortal servants and offer themselves to be petted, their bellies for scritches.  The previous Cat Lord made his home with Ubtao, a jungle beast possessed of an incongruous elegance and nobility.  He turned the way of the world upside down, treating the leaf-dripping jungle as we do the cobbled city.

 But the current Cat Lord is a creature of those cobbled streets, mangy and ragged-eared, with one snaggle fang that never gets to rest at home behind warm lips, and he makes his home in the small town that houses those who work Chauntea’s fields.  “You think your wooden-doored world is somehow different from the world outside its walls whence you harvested that world,” he whispers to the mortals who hide from him huddled behind the wooden doors of their houses, “that these stones upon which I rest my body have made this place somehow separate from the loamy dirt that they interrupt.  You are wrong, delicious friends ~ nature cannot be buried beneath streets and banished by city walls.  Come out from that stone, escape that confining brick, free yourself from wattle and daub, feel the sun on your face that warms city and wild alike.” 

 While the Cat Lord makes his hardscrabble life in Chauntea’s fields, Skerrit the Forest Walker roams the tree-crowded remaining lands of the realm.  The otherworldly woods echo with the song of his revelry and the dregs of his prodigious consumption of beer can often be seen floating through the House’s waterways.  Just like the centaurs who revere him in the Green Isle of Evermeet, this brutish NE god cares about nothing more than his own basest desires and the neverending party that fills his godly days.  When he needs sleep, he beds in a cave and when his mighty hungers are roused, he goes hunting the wild animals of that realm with rock and branch in hand.  It is said, sometimes, that when a youth or maiden or pretty young thing of some other gender goes suddenly missing and cannot be found, that they have been taken by Skerrit to the House of Nature.  Woe be unto them that have come under the muscled sway of this brute, for their lives will not be long, in the spirit worlds though it may be.⁶

 ⁵  Yeah, flipped Lathander turns out to be a capitalist Nazi god.  That’s . . . disturbing, considering the crush I have on NG canon Lathander, but that disturbance is welcome and useful ~ one of the joys of exercises like this is the chance they offer to notice and process the things in my psyche that present the risk of leading me down paths I very much do not want to head down.

⁶  Yep, flipped centaurs turn out to be much truer to the original Greek depiction of this tribe than the usual D&D version.  They’re essentially equivalent to the modern stereotype of bikers ~ toxic (and intoxicated) masculinity taken to almost parodic levels.

Myths from a Flipped Faerûn, Part I: Silvanus's Bloodline

This thread on RPGnet about essentially playing D&D backwards, if I may steal a bit of slang from the In Nomine community/fandom, kind of inspired a small writing jag in me.  I kinda think this setting might be an interesting one to play in, actually.

With such a majority of evil gods, the world itself would be against the PCs, even if they weren't good.  It might come out sort of Points of Light-ish, of course, but of a different, more settled sort.  Faerûn has far more settled and established nations than PoLand, of course, and accordingly much more intrigue and conspiracy than 4e really had.  It's more dystopic and feels more like these past four years in the United States have felt to me, to be honest.

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Featured Inhabitants of the House of Nature:
Silvanus (N)
Mielikki (NE)
Eldath (NE)
Tapann (LN)
Shiallia (NE)
Lurue (LE)
Nobanion (CE)
Gwaeron Windstrom (NE)

Mentioned Inhabitants of the House of Nature:
Chauntea (NE)
Malar (LG)

Friends of the House of Nature from other divine realms:
Hanali Celanil (LE; Arvandor)
Tempus (LN; Knight’s Rest)
Mystra (NE; Dweomerheart)
Sharindlar (LE; Dwarfhome)
Selûne (LE; Gates of the Moon)
Eachtighern (LE; the Land of Faërie)

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In the earliest times, when the world was still being set up, Hanali Celanil, the LE elfin goddess of the Seldarine who promotes beauty as not the ultimate but the only virtue and thus that any act is good so long as it is beautiful, came to N Silvanus, whose work it was to set the stage for all of the histories yet to come.  The wild places, the plants and the animals, these were all his efforts.  Her objective ~ which turned out to be successful ~ was to talk with him about the one thing quite dear to her heart: the laws by which beauty can be achieved, the only laws that mattered¹.

There is a certain sequence of numbers that she convinced him to encode in the many spirals of the world, for but a single example, a certain set of proportions that prove most pleasing to the eye².  And it wasn’t just the sight of the natural places that she discussed with him ~ this conversation, as a second example, is why the deadliest flowers have the sweetest scent.

Over the span of unknowable time which this discussion filled, Hanali’s heart gained a new treasure for her to obsess over, to study and perfect: Silvanus himself.  The two joined in the ancient ways of love, and so came about NE Mielikki and NE Eldath, twin godlings growing in Hanali’s womb.

But Hanali was surprised by their never-before-seen half-elfin forms.  They followed no law of beauty she had studied, obeyed no dictate of art that she had set forth!  All long, gangly limbs with not enough torso, heavy human muscles anchored upon twig-like elfin bones, Mielikki and Eldath were anathema to everything their mother valued.

“Nothing you ever do,” she told them and thus they believed, “can ever be good, for you are ugly!”  With these words, she cast the two from Arvandor into a forgotten forest that loomed on the border of that place, all overgrown and misshapen, a scrap of Silvanus’s earliest work from before Hanali visited him.  Mielikki, the more fearful of the two, settled into the thickets and the brambles of the forest’s shallows, making her home amongst the dangerous beasts of that place, while the more adventurous Eldath pushed past these wooded doors and found a picturesque clearing.  Within the clearing was a lovely little pond, with just the tiniest waterfall adding its tinkling to the airy music of bird-gossip and frog-song.  This she made her home.

They were still hiding in these places, these two half-elfin twins, when their father returned to this place to clean and reshape it according to the precepts the twins’ mother had taught him.  He found his daughters, and loved them in the fierce and distant way that only a wild father can.  He vowed that this forest, misshapen though it was, would forever be the House of Nature whence he would manage all the wide world and its ways, saying:

“There is nothing in nature that is bad, for even the fiercest predator has a place amongst its cycles and ways and the most disgusting creatures give food back to the rest of the community, often from literal shit.  You are my daughters, and you can do no wrong for wrong is an impossible thing.  Join me in this House of Nature, and aid me in my work.”

His words found rocky and infertile ground, sending up only scraggly, malnourished shoots in the hearts of the twins, but Silvanus had neither desire nor taste for his daughters being anything other than what they were, so it was enough.  They accepted his offer, Mielikki ensuring the flow of energy by filling the woods with threats and terrors and Eldath by providing secluded, peaceful places where all the unpleasantness that needed to happen for the world to continue could do so without disturbing the many other beings with whom those she harbored shared the world.

Eldath, distrusting of most everyone in all the worlds and (thanks to the words of her mother) mistrusting most herself with those few she found she could trust, lives to this day as something of a loner.  Oh, she plays a distant game with LN Tempus who glories in the rules and conventions of honorable warfare, the two of them positioning and inspiring their followers toward the end of violently but honorably settling great questions and disputes on his side and of ensuring the dangerous peace which allows horrors to happen on hers.  She is deeply wounded, realize.  Some other deity ~ perhaps her own twin, or Chauntea who is the NE ground which fertilizes itself with murdered bodies that crops might grow, or NE Mystra whose followers use magic only to take and who takes from them in turn ~ sponsors her among the courts and gatherings of the gods, but the very uncertainty tells you that the relationship isn’t close.  If it were, we mortals would know who her sponsor was.

Mielikki, on the other hand, living on the edges of the forest where it greets the path and the grasslands, has many more friends and closer, three of whom accompany her wherever she goes, cavorting with the monsters and creatures that swarm her sacred places.  Let me tell you about them.

Tapann, LN hermit-god of the korred fey who is fascinated by the intricate and exacting dances of nature that follow complex rules with perfect motions and who is worshipped by means of their ornate imitation in courtly dance³, was contacted in antique times by Sharindlar, LE dwarfin goddess who protects that stout race by means of insularity, arranging marriages within tight bloodlines to keep the people the people⁴ and empowering her clergy to heal those most like them while leaving everyone else to die.  Sharindlar was thinking of incorporating dance more into the complicated courting ways of the dwarfs, to further tie them together and to make marriages with other races, or even with dwarfs from other houses or settlements, even less likely.  She hoped that Tapann could teach her much, both in the mechanics of a proper complicated turn on the ballroom floor and in arranging the dance to mimic and control the metaphysical ebb and flow.

The two desired a secluded, secret place to have this discussion and this teaching, for dance was still foreign and suspicious to the dwarfs and Tapann, well, Tapann is a hermit ~ he doesn’t do much outside of secluded and secret places.  The korred god suggested one of Eldath’s clearings, but Sharindlar knew well of her reputation and what she fostered in such idyllic places.  Mielikki’s brambles were the compromise they reached.  The wild goddess watched from off to the side, only her red eyes glinting in the moldy dark revealing her presence.  They looked lustful, and the hidden grin beneath them was hungry in a different way than usual.

Sharindlar learned what she had sought to learn and, disgusted by such prolonged contact with a non-dwarf, rapidly fled with the knowledge.  This left Tapann to be approached by twig-crowned, thorn-toothed Mielikki, who remarked upon the inevitable tease of engaging in such a sublimatedly lustful activity with one who would much rather a monogamous relationship with her own mirrored, twinned self.

“The dance of nature often provides a new partner to finish what was left undone by the old,” Tapann said, and the two danced a dance not so different in form but much different in effect.  That effect being the birth from Mielikki’s own body of the NE goddess Shiallia, spawn-goddess.  Shiallia it is who pulls a person into nigh-constant breeding and the feeding of the large clans that resort thereby.  Oh, how pleased Shialia is that one can be pregnant while also providing for, caring for, those you have already birthed!

Selûne, LE goddess of the regularly changing and beauteous moon, temptress who challenges your devotion to your path by luring you away from it (or attempting to), including upon the paths of love and those into the future, goddess of untrustworthy dreams and fickle love, patroness of all those many monsters who hunt in a more pleasing form than that in which they kill, once journeyed among the flower-speckled prairies of the Land of Faërie.  There, she met the LE archfey Eachtighern, the reason horses, unicorns, and pegasi all form themselves into herds.  A wild beauty she saw in him, a fierce and uncompromising loyalty to his people, a devotion to protect them by means of even the evilest act.  So impressed was she that she seduced him and formed from their union the LE unicorn goddess Lurue, murderous enforcer of chastity and avenger of unlawful sex.

Lurue, in her turn, fell into the orbit of the CE lion-god Nobanion, the arrogant noble who takes whatever he wants from those in his power.  His willingness to seize by strength the ability to seize as a matter of simple course attracted her, and she took up with him as his mate, reasoning that her unwillingness kept her pure.  It was not an argument which stayed her horn or her hoof when she stalked the mortal world, but it settled her as she considered her own actions.

None know how Mielikki and Lurue met, but something came of that meeting, a friendship born in monstrosity and bloody vengeance.  The bramble-goddess brought the unicorn and the lion into the House of Nature; she usually rides the former but occasionally can be seen atop the latter.

Gwaeron Windstrom is a different sort of deity entirely, a NE saint and a teacher rather than a descendent of primeval cosmic bloodlines.  He was in his mortal life the kind of man who, obsessed, would devote all of his time to gathering information on whatever individual had caught his notice, and on following them wherever they went.  Inventing love full-cloth in his head, Gwaeron would treat this behavior as the uttermost romance and flirtation.  In time, he would reveal himself and, deaf to the protestations of his victim, consummate the relationship he imagined they had.  Often, the resistance of his victims would call him to tearfully and brutally arrange for their death at his hands.

After several encounters with various guises of the LG hunting beast of the gods, Malar, justice red in tooth and claw, Gwaeron came to Mielikki’s attention.  Repeatedly, this mortal human had avoided notice by Malar; over and over again, he had overcome the Beast and defeated him.  Mielikki rewarded him for this with sainthood, raising him above his mortality and giving him a home in the House of Nature.

¹  Making Hanali Celanil more monk-lawful than cop-lawful, which as an anarchist, submissive, and aspiring devotional-polytheist nun, I prefer anyway.
²  The Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Ratio, if it’s not obvi.
³  Another monk-lawful.
⁴  I did not expect flipped Faerûn to be so anti-miscegenation.  Please understand that this is not reflective of my own belief, and just an attempt to make evil portfolios from good ones.

Finishing touches (Fantasy Friday #31)

Next, a camel to help carry stuff and get around ~ that’s another 150 gp ($30,000-$75,000).  With a Strength of 18 and being a Large quaruped, camels can carry up to 900 pounds, with 300 and 600 being the maxima for light and medium loads, respectively.  Buying a medium tent for Kavvuraz (and maybe a friend) to live out of and a pavilion to serve as zir refozev, or court, sets zim back another 115 gp ($23,000-$57,500).  Finishing out Kavvuraz’s tools for living with a bedroll, a blanket, a tent cover, and a folding chair costs 17 gp 6 sp ($3520-$8800).  We’re down to 187 gp 4 sp ($37,480-$93,700) and, since the quissians are nomads, we need to track encumbrance as well.  The lightsaber is 2 pounds, the ceremonial armor is 4 pounds, and the cloak is 5 pounds.  Carrying zir home puts another 113 pounds on the camel’s back, adding up to 124 pounds, plus Kavvuraz’s naked weight, for that noble and ill-tempered animal to carry across the sands.  Speaking of, Mythic Races notes that quissians weigh between 250 and 350 pounds (there’s no die-roll chart, sadly).  That means our camel is already at a medium load.

A lamp and 54 hours’ worth of oil (which is to say, 9 pints) costs a gold piece ($200-500) and weighs 10 pounds.  Desert nomads don’t expect to easily find fresh food while wandering, I would imagine, so Kavvuraz probably keeps, let’s say, 4 weeks of trail rations (28 pounds and 14 gp, or $2800-$7000).  Animal feed is heavier, so let’s only give Kavvura’s camel six days of food (60 pounds and 3 gp, or $600-$1500).  You know, with the load on the camel, it won’t be moving all that much faster than Kavvuraz would on foot, so why don’t we just throw a pack saddle on it and use it just for carrying things?  That’s 15 pounds and 5 gp ($1000-$2500), and a harness and dandy brush cost another 2 gp 2 sp ($440-$1100) and 4 pounds.  New totals: 230 pounds (armor, cloak, and weapon would be carried by Kavvuraz, naturally) and 162 gp 4 sp.  Huh, the decision to not have the refo riding the camel might mean we could have space for significantly more feed!

A book of religious legal commentary (treat as an adventurer chronicle (religion)) sets zim back 50 gp ($10,000-$25,000) and a pound, and a book of letters covering the subregion bounded on one side by the Dragon Coast and on another by the Pearl Coast also seems highly appropriate.  It also costs 50 gp, but weighs 3 pounds.  Of course, what kind of refo would go around without a copy of their holy text?  Well, to be fair, the worship of Time isn’t a textual religion, but there are a few compilations of famous writings on the faith by famous teachers that function similarly to a holy book.  That takes 25 gp ($5000-$12,500) and 2 pounds.  A couple ounces of ink cost 16 gp ($3200-$8000) and a pen to use it is 1 sp ($20-$50), while 10 sheets of paper to use it on is 4 gp ($800-$2000).  A case to carry all those sheets in is 1 gp ($200-$500) and a half pound.  Kavvuraz, like everyone, starts with a free outfit ~ like many Scarhasi, ze chooses a 4-pound hot weather outfit.  Let’s give zim a signet ring, too, to mark their status as refo ~ that’s 5 gp ($1000-$2500).  I almost have Kavvuraz buy a bunch of water, but then I remember that quissians don’t need it!  Everyone needs coffee, however, so let’s give Kavvuraz a couple pounds of ground kahve, maybe 3 pounds actually, which would cost 4 gp 8 sp ($960-$2400), and a coffee pot and 2 cups (4 pounds and 5 gp, or $1000-$2500).  I guess some waterskins are necessary after all, for the coffee-making.  Let’s go with 4 waterskins, for 16 pounds and 4 gp ($800-$2000).  New totals:  270.5 pounds and 5 sp.

A simple but sturdy board game could set Kavvuraz back 2 sp ($40-$100) and 2 pounds.  I also want zim to have a deck of fortune-teller cards, because I can’t imagine a Time-floater without a deck (or, as with tarot nowadays, fifty).  Let’s trade in 2 days of trail rations for a common deck (Kavvuraz, it seems, is humble in terms of his things); that incidentally saves his camel a pound and a half.  It occurs to me that another two days of rations should translate into a flint and steel to light the lamp, and the coffee will need an actual fire to heat, so let’s add, say, 3 days’ worth of firewood for 3 cp ($6-$15) and 60 pounds.  Kavvuraz finishes at 329 pounds (barely a medium load) and 0 cp.

Let us begin the shopping trip! (Fantasy Friday #30)

Memory Walk [Fate, mind-affecting]
You torment an enemy causing them to relive their most horrible memories.  Time:  Standard action.  Target:  One creature with an Intelligence of 3 or higher within 30 feet of you and in your line of sight.
Make a Float upon the Sea of Time check.  The result of the check determines the result, if any.
DC 20:  If the target fails a Will save (DC equal to your Float upon the Sea of Time roll), the target takes 2d6 points of Time damage and loses their swift action on their next turn.
DC 25:  As DC 20, except the target loses their move action on their next turn.
DC 30:  As DC 20, except the target loses their standard action on their next turn.
DC 35:  As DC 20, except the target loses their standard and swift actions on their next turn.
Special:  You can spend a Time point to increase the damage by +2d6.
You can maintain memory walk from round to round, extending the normal duration.  Maintaining the memory walk power is a standard action, and you must make a new Float upon the Sea of Time each round.  If you take damage while maintaining memory walk, you must succeed on a Float upon the Sea of Time check (DC = 15 + damage taken) to continue maintaining the power.

Sever Force [Destiny]
You can block another Time-floater’s access to the Flow, preventing them from spending Time points and making it difficult for them to use Time powers.  Time:  Standard action.  Target:  One Time-surfing creature with a Fate score of 1 or higher that is within 60 feet and within line of sight.
Make a Float upon the Sea of Time check.  If your target fails a Will save (DC = the Float upon the Sea of Time check), the effect (if any) is determined by your check result:
DC 25:  The target cannot spend Time points for a number of hours equal to its Fate score.
DC 30:  As DC 25, plus the target gains a cumulative –1 penalty on all ability checks, attack rolls, combat maneuver checks, Combat Maneuver Defense, saving throws, and skill checks.
DC 35:  As DC 25, except the target gains a cumulative –2 penalty on all ability checks, attack rolls, combat maneuver checks, Combat Maneuver Defense, saving throws, and skill checks.
Special:  This Time power has no effect on targets with a Fate score of 0.
You can spend a Time point to double the duration of the effect.

All Kavvuraz needs now, I think, is equipment, and then they’re done!  3000 gp (equivalent to $600,000-$1,500,000), and they already have a moonbeam blade for free from their class.  We are thus covered for melee weapon, and I don’t really see the good refo carrying a missile weapon, so we come to the tricky question of armor.  Quissians live in a hot desert, deep in the dunes nomading far from cities.  Armor tends to be famously uncomfortable in those situations.  After a bit of googling about fabric choices in the dry heat of the desert, I figure that silken ceremonial armor seems the most appropriate for Kavvuraz, but I wanna check the rules for robes and things to see if they obviate the need.  That’s when I remember that cloaks of resistance provide bonuses to saving throws, not AC ~ I was thinking of bracers of armor.  However, I think I can get better protection from the ceremonial armor than the bracers with the money available.  Unenchanted, that’s 30 gp ($6000-$15,000) for a +1 armor bonus and no penalties.

The robe thought, however, pushed me to really consider the idea of a desert Jedi that is core to Kavvuraz ~ both desert and Jedi suggest robes, so I start to wonder if spending a bunch of money on a fancy magic robe for Refoaz might not be appropriate.  I set myself the task of paging through the magic robes Pathfinder’s published.  Nothing particularly affordable comes up ~ robes and cloaks and things tend toward the mid-range expensive.  Only three items interest me that cost less than 3000 gp, and they all violate the general guideline of not spending more than half (hell, more than two-thirds) of your net worth on a single item.  I’m okay with that, though, generally speaking ~ breaking that guideline leads to fewer magic items (avoiding the mass-production feel of many D&D games/settings) and to magic items that have more weight on the plot (thus giving them more identity and story than just being, again, mass-produced industrially).  My options are: robe of the master of masters (2300 gp = $460,000-$1,150,000), abjuration cloak of the hedge wizard (2500 gp = $500,000-$1,250,000), and cloak of the dark tapestry/of the night sky (same cost as the cloak of the hedge wizard).

The robe of the master of masters is more appropriate to a different sect of Time-floaters, the Shivrad sect that interact with the All of Time by means (and metaphors) of ecstatic dancing ~ so that gives us four major sects that have spread beyond the Hemeya Sea and its broad range of Time religions: the Destiny-focused Haćo, the Fate-focused Tosj, the Alys who submit themselves to the Flow, and the Shivrad who dance with Time.  The Alys are most common in Not!Central Asia, Not!India, and Not!Southeast Asia rather than in Scarhas itself, and the Shivrad are focused in Not!Persia, with some members throughout the rest of Scarhas and Not!Central Asia.  The Haćo and Tosj have spread across Not!Maghreb and Scarhas, with some found in Not!Central Asia, Not!West Africa, Not!Central Africa, and Prester.  The other two are vaguely similar (in that they both actively aid desert survival by means of endure elements), but there’s something more aesthetically pleasing about the cloak of the night sky ~ we’ll just make it Haćo-specific rather than Desna-specific, for obvious reasons.  That eats up all but 500 gp ($10,000-$250,000), and the silken armor is another 30 gp ($6000-$15,000) gone into the purses of merchants.

Choosing Kavvuraz's Time powers (Fantasy Friday #29)

Eyes Over the All of Time
This regimen trains you to sense images that you cannot normally see by reading the surface thoughts of others.  During this regimen, an assistant looks at a series of cards with common objects painted upon them.  As the deck cycles through the different images, you must read the surface thoughts of the assistant to determine what card they are looking at at that time.  Time: 1 hour.  Requirements: A deck of image cards and an assistant.
Make a Float upon the Sea of Time check.  The result of the check determines the benefits of the regimen:
DC 13:  You successfully read one-third of the assistant’s surface thoughts.  You gain a +1 Flow bonus on Float upon the Sea of Time checks made to use the Telepathy application of the Float upon the Sea of Time skill.
DC 18:  You successfully read two-thirds of the assistant’s surface thoughts.  You gain a +2 Flow bonus on Float upon the Sea of Time checks made to use the Telepathy application of the Float upon the Sea of Time skill.
DC 23:  You successfully read all of the assistant’s surface thoughts.  You gain a +2 Flow bonus on Float upon the Sea of Time checks made to use the Telepathy application of the Float upon the Sea of Time skill.  In addition, if you successfully use Telepathy against an unwilling target, you can also sense the target’s surface emotions and stray thoughts as if on the third round of a detect thoughts spell.

Quiet the Mind
This regimen trains you to block out distractions and stray thoughts.  It requires little more than finding a quiet, secluded spot and slipping into a meditative trance to clear your mind of doubt, questions, fear, and the chaos of the galaxy.  Haćo use this technique to open themselves to the flow of Time, allowing them to see distant places and events.  Time: 1 hour.  Target: You.
Make a Float upon the Sea of Time check.  The result of the check determines the benefits of the regimen:
DC 13:  You meditate, but your mind is still clouded by external stimuli.  You can add one use of the farseeing power to your Time suite, but once it is used, it cannot be regained by any means.
DC 18:  You meditate, quieting your mind except for but a few small distractions.  You can add one use of the farseeing power to your Time suite.
DC 23:  You meditate, quieting your mind entirely.  You can add one use of the farseeing power to your Time suite, and you gain the benefits of the Visions talent (if you do not already know it).

Let’s see, which talents do we want Kavvuraz Refoaz to have?  The first ones to catch my eye are in the Haćo Consular tree.  Adept Negotiator allows the Haćo to argue someone into what is essentially a sanctuary-like effect (and, not so incidentally, unlocks a talent that would allow zim to replace Diplomacy with Float upon the Sea of Time, essentially).  Meanwhile, Skilled Advisor would allow zim to give zir allies bonuses by means of shouting out tips and hints.  Fate Sense from the Haćo Sentinel tree would make sense, representing insight the good refo would have gained from zir own almost-fall to zir own Fate; Consumed by Fate is less about insight and more about anger, but that works here, too.  All Sides of the Wheel isn’t about Fate, but about failure, and that seems appropriate, too.  Some talents, like the Control talent Focus on the Moment (which lets you regain spent Time powers), are just sort of generically useful.  Temporal Perception from the Sense tree is directly applicable to a refo’s work, boosting Sense Motive and Perception, and Heightened Awareness is another means of doing the same  Meanwhile, the Cleanse Mind talent from Haćo Consular would seem to be super useful, too; Indomitable Will from Control is similar but affects you rather than allies.  Crucial Advice from the Guardian Spirit tree would also be wonderfully useful to a refo.

As for Time powers, Fated Rage is another option that could represent the reverbations of Kavvuraz’s flirting with Fate, as are Fear, Hatred, and Memory Walk.  Temporal Disarm could be useful to a judge, but refo judge people who have failed to follow religious obligations and duties not those who have done wrong.  I think bailiff-like powers might be thus less appropriate.  Counterspell-like powers such as Rebuke, Resist Flow, and Sever Flow probably fall into a similar category ~ although, thinking about it, Sever Flow could be an effective punishment. . . . 

I think I’ll go with Memory Walk and Sever Flow as Force powers, remnants of zir days on the edge that have remained somewhat useful in zir work as a refo.  It does give zim a rather weird vibe when judging ~ zir decisions and behavior echo with compassion and understanding rooted in zir own journey, but zir methods are brutal and rough.  As for talents, let’s take Crucial Advice and Cleanse Mind.

Guardian Spirit Talent Tree (Temporal ~ available at odd levels to everyone with Temporal Sensitivity as a replacement for a class feature)
You have a spirit watching over you, providing advice and continuing your training in the Flow.  Although Time spirits cannot physically aid you, their guidance is critical to your success.
Crucial Advice:  Once per encounter, when you fail a skill check, you can reroll the skill check with a +2 circumstance bonus.  (In the case of skill checks with multiple possible results, such as when activating a Time power with multiple effects, failing a skill check is defined as achieving less than the minimum DC for that check.)

Haćo Consular Talent Tree
The following talent belongs to the Haćo Consular talent tree, which is available to members of the Haćo class.  Any character who can normally choose talents from the Haćo Consular talent tree can choose this talent as well.
Cleanse Mind:  Once per turn as a swift action, you can remove one ongoing mind-affecting effect from a single allied target within line of sight.

Finishing off Amon Assemon (Traveller Tuesday #28)

Land transport starts at the energy tech level, which is 8.  Having no water doesn’t change it, but having no land would.  The 2d6 for x-factors gives us an 8, so it stays there, with triphibian vehicles being the state of the art on this moon.  That gives us a base and a maximum for water transport technology.  Now, the dryness of the moon changes things, subtracting one from its tech level, and a 2d6 roll of 4 lowers it by another level, meaning that the moon can produce water transports about equivalent to what the United States did in the mid-20th century (G3TL 6), making submersibles, scuba, and amphibian vehicles the most advanced such tech they can produce.  I’m not sure said production happens much, though, considering that Amon Assemon lacks large factories and things for exporting products.

Air transport takes its base from the energy tech level, and is modified only by the x-factors, which don’t have any effect, thanks to an 8 on 2d6.  At TL 8, that means hypersonic jets and (again) triphibian vehicles.  That sounds rad, but jets still require atmosphere to work, so they are likely not produced here much, either.  Space transport, likewise, tracks with energy, and a starport-in-name-only has no effect on its advancement.  However, the xenophobia demonstrated by the Assemonite qweens does, to the tune of dropping the space transport tech level by 1.  2d6 come up 10, though, which gives that level back to space transport, resulting in an 8.  These qweens can build space shuttles, space stations, and non-grav ships of Maneuver 3-5.  No native noetic drives yet, however.

Without cities to receive subsidiary starports and spaceports, I imagine that Amon Assemon actually does only have the one Class E Starport.  Though the moon could build orbital cities, that starport indicates that they don’t really have the will to do things like fill up the LaGrange points, so there aren’t any subsidiary Assemonite settlements.

Personal weaponry and armor and things starts with energy tech (like almost everything).  Their desire to accept compromise rather than actually end up fighting doesn’t change that level, but their bullying tactics of showing off their military might in bluster does, adding one, putting it at the maximum level of the tech.  Do the x-factors change that?  6 on 2d6 says no.  These qweens fight ~ well, bluff and intimidate ~ with laser guns and ablative armor.  Heavy military tech gets the same modifiers, but tracks with land transport.  Which doesn’t change anything, but the x-factors might.  A 10 on 2d6 would, but 9 is the upper limit for the tech, so once again it is stuck where it is.  Assemonite war vehicles ~ which probably display a similarly over-the-top drag aesthetic as their fashion, for extra size and intimidation ~ show off their particle accelerators, target-designated missiles, and lightweight composite laminate armor.

Two out of ten technology levels have been running into their ceilings.  With the Rose Brothers just a few thousand feet below and a rising movement agitating for putting more (read: all) the power into the hands of the people by utilizing advanced computing/communications technology, that clicks right into place.  A large contingent of the agitators are scientists, engineers, and inventors who see it as a way to push the boundaries of Assemonite technology and knowledge further than it can while Parliament keeps such a tight grip on everything but free trade.

Novelty tech levels still need to wait until the subsector is mapped before I can establish them, since novelty imports can take the slot.  Local prototypes are TL 9, straining to achieve TL 10.

The world gains a Green travel code, indicating free travel to and fro.  As for trade codes, the Drag Moon is LG (low-gravity), of course, and is As (asteroid) as well, despite technically being a moon.  Hey, classificatory systems always include weirdness like that.  It’s also obviously Lo (low population) and gets Va (vacuum) for having no air.

Let’s see, the last few details could use working out . . . .  Hydrographics 0 might not actually mean that there’s no surface water (it only probably means that), so we roll 2d6-7 and add the result to 0.  So if we roll 8-12 (before the subtraction), there will be a tiny bit of water on the surface.  However, we roll a 6, which is -1 after the subtraction, which means the surface of the Drag Moon is dry, dry, dry.  Which also means there’s no hydrography to have a composition, so we skip that.  Nor are there any oceans and lakes, obviously.

By definition, a Size 0 Hydrosphere 0 planet has little geological activity, with the entire surface being but a single tectonic plate.  That just leaves the number of volcanoes (which is based on the seismic stress factor) and specific temperature details to work out, but as I’ve stated, I don’t know how to do all of those computations for a satellite.  I’d love help from any Traveller nerds who might be reading this

bUWP:  α-3D-0704-α0-A (α Greve-Eau Pleine-α Bishop Scheumack-Ishee-Amon Assemon)/E000346-8/X/As-LG-Lo/Em

Finally a name! (Fantasy Friday #28)

OK, now that I’ve converted a bunch of stuff, let’s get back to the actual character we’re creating.  Our party so far includes a cismale and a genderqueer, so I’m debating between cisfemale and agender for this character.  Naw, not agender ~ neutrois.  Yeah, let’s go with neutrois, with a presentation more interested in removing gender markers than in presenting or mix-&-matching them  As for zir name, I start from two places.  The list of names given in the Mythic Races book wherefrom I got the quissian race, and the quissians’ homeland as being equivalent to the Arabian desert, making them vague equivalents to Bedouins.  Fantasy Flight Games back in the day, didn’t include non-binary names for their races, so I’m left with male (Szzickra, Zrrilin, Ozvveriaz) and female (Ullziizza, Yuzziwaz, Plezxixxina).  This tells me that quissians are really into trying too hard to make their names alien to English eyes, if not ears.

I do like the idea that quissians are known only by pet names or family names until their 17th birthday, when a two-day-long meditation with a Haćo or a leader of one of the tribal groups the quissian is a member of, instructing them on their path though Time.  I’m going to say that every quissian has a pet name (usually some cute nonsense word), a descriptive adult-name, the adult-name name of one of their parents and one of their grandparents (each punctuated with a preceding “yu”, meaning “child of”), and then the name of their put, or tent, (a group of familial units related by blood, marriage, or other such bonds), the name of their yuazz (a group of related tents ~ about 3-5 generations), and finally the name of their pann (tribe).  All but the pet-name are descriptive.  The suffix -az will function as a definite article (“the”)

Let’s call this quissian Haćo . . . Wayii Kavvuraz yu Lazzidaz yu Szzarraz Putzrrilin Yuazzullziiza Pannszzikra (The Forgiving child of the Infallible child of the Goading, in Bright Star Tent in Storm Hammer Yuazz in Proud Path Tribe, called Wayii by their family as a child and in intimate moments).  Ze would mostly just be referred to as Kavvuraz or the Forgiving in everyday life ~ Refoaz Kavvuraz (“The Forgiving Judge”) in a formal capacity.

Refoaz Kavvuraz gets a total of 6 skill ranks at 3rd level.  Let’s give zim 3 ranks of Float upon the Sea of Time, of course.  Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (local), and Sense Motive all seem like necessary skills for a refo, or judge of positive laws (that is: laws about what followers of the faith should do, rather than laws about what they shouldn’t).  With only 3 ranks left, let’s just give each of those 1 rank.  Three of these four skills are class skills for the Haćo ~ Sense Motive is the odd one out that doesn’t get the extra +3 bonus.  We roll 2d8+14 for zir hit points, and get 4+14, for a total of 18 hit points.  Ze actually turns out to be somewhat fragile.  That fragility is accompanied by a moonbeam blade, proficiency with both it and simple weapons, the Temporal Sensitivity feat (with a maximum of 2 Time points), two talents, and another bonus feat.  Additionally, it’s pretty clear that Kavvuraz will choose Temporal Training for both zir 1st-level and 3rd-level feat, giving zim 2 powers in zir power suite.

That means we have to page through all of the the Haćo and temporal talents to choose two and all of the time powers to choose two.  Somewhat easier will be to choose the bonus feat, as that’s a much smaller list to page through, so let’s start there, y/n?  The most refo-like of the bonus feats available seem to be:  Center of the Circle, Circular Certainty, Cranial Adjustment, Flow Regimen Mastery, It Has Already Happened, Practiced Ritualist, Psychic Adept, Psychic Disciple, Psychic Maestro, Psychic Sensitivity, Psychic Virtuoso, Skill Focus, Skill Training, Spectrum Sight, Strong Flow, and Trepanation.  Of course, Refoaz Kavvuraz doesn’t even qualify for most of these yet.  If we edit those out of the list, it’s much shorter:  Flow Regimen Mastery, Psychic Sensitivity (which doesn’t do much unless I wanna change one of zir skill ranks from Knowledge (local) to Perception to get the read aura unlock), Skill Focus, and Skill Training.

I’m going to look through the Flow regimens to see if there’s anything interesting.  If not, I think I will change that skill for Psychic Sensitivity, which will give Kavvuraz both the prognostication and the read aura skill unlocks.  There’s actually exactly three regimens that are perfect for a refo ~ which is how many the feat will give our quissian.  Kavvuraz takes Flow Regimen Mastery as zir bonus feat, gaining a choice between the Awaken Temporal Sensitivity, Eyes Over the All of Time, and Quiet the Mind regimens for their daily practice.  The benefits of Flow regimens, by the way, last for 24 hours, and only one flow regimen’s effects can be active in a given 24-hour period.  For story purposes, you can perform as many regimens as you like; you only benefit from the first one performed, however.  If you fail to complete a Flow regimen, you cannot gain the benefits of that regimen for 24 hours, though you can attempt another Flow regimen you know.

Awaken Temporal Sensitivity
This training regimen is used to awaken another to the flows, cycles, and transcendent Eternal Nowness of Time.  You and the beneficiary of this regimen practice meditation, quieting your minds and becoming present to the All of Time.  Time: 1 hour.  Target: One willing ally who does not possess the Temporal Sensitivity feat.
Make a Float upon the Sea of Time check.  The result of the check determines the benefits of the regimen:
DC 13:  You gain the benefit of the Gauge Force Potential talent (if you do not already have it).
DC 18:  As DC 13, and you awaken the first glimmers of awareness in the target.  For the next 4 hours, the target can make untrained Float upon the Sea of Time checks as though they possess the Temporal Sensitivity feat.
DC 23:  As DC 18, except the target also gains a +1 insight bonus on Float upon the Sea of Time checks.
DC 28:  As DC 18, except the student also gains a +2 insight bonus on Float upon the Sea of Time checks.