#trpg lore

[cassegrainarts]

Since I've become a dungeon master, I create my own campaign setting. There are five worlds, each of them has its own features, history, races, etc. But there's also a unique race common in four of five worlds - cergals. They share the same background, and even the pantheon of gods shares the same names and features.

I will add tags #The Five Worlds and #The Legends of Inskaar to mark every post with characters and lore from my setting.

I've never drawn all of the gods, but here are two of them, and some of them are planned. But you'll never see the Great Architect because the Great Architect is me :D Ofc I'm joking, I wish to draw him someday.

⬆ This is Zereassus - the Supreme God of Creation. The title is wrong but he is worshipped as the divine father of the living, so his name is a tradition across the Five Worlds. Traditionally depicted with five eyes, each of them gazing at its own world. Zereassus' horns hold a ringed planet this god represents (the Five Worlds are the moons of a gas giant, rotating on their axis due to the forces of magic, which is additional to regular laws of physics).

⬆ This is Aelian - the goddess and creator of the world of technology which is unique among the Five Worlds. Its people exclude cergals (they actually were there but disappeared after the magical accident caused by the mages of Yst tried to raise to godhood but failed (nod to Magisters Sidereal, ahahah), and this influenced the whole world and the nearest one, Aelian), there's the one and only existing race (aelians btw), they can't cast spells like other races do that, because each use of magic shortens their life, so they are good at tech, and have the power of creation - the only case in the Five Worlds - to give the life and consciousness to their creations. Can you imagine the sentient spacecraft? Yeah, they can make such!

Aaaaaaaand here is the cherry on top of the cake: the creation myth.

In the beginning, there was chaos. And chaos once gave birth to the Great Architect whose goal was to establish order in the Universe. And the Architect created space and time, turned chaos into matter, and created stars from that matter, and told them: "I give you the abilities to create life by your own design. Fill the world and transform it." That's how the first gods appeared. The Architect turned himself into energy and dispersed throughout the universe, but he did not cease to exist.

The Architect's two children, Zereassus and Qntaraan, space and time, were inseparably linked and could not exist without each other. They decided to continue the divine kind according to the Architect's design and created five children of their own - Zer, Otann, Yst, Xass and Aelian. That wasn't enough for Zereassus, and he wanted to create something else. Keeping it from Qntaraan, he planned to create more gods in his own image, and brought his plan to life. That's how the first cergals appeared. Each of them had three eyes.

However, it did not escape the eyes of Qntaraan. She became enraged and said: "Don't you have enough of what we do together? You shouldn't have created anything without me, it violates the order that the Architect designed! In that case, I will take away eternity and infinity from your children, they will not find shelter and will wander alone in the universe, giving birth to the same creatures in their doomed existence, whose life will be short! And you won't see me anymore!" At that moment, cergals lost their connection with the gods, their immortality, and their third eye.

The sorrow of Zereassus was great, it was painful to see his own children die. And then Zer, Otann, Yst, Xass and Aelian came to Zereassus, and said: "You have inspired us and given our lives the meaning, Father, we will create life ourselves similar to life you created, as the Great Architect created it himself. And your people will no longer be alone, they will not wander around the universe, they will always have a home."

They sacrificed themselves, many nations were born from their blood, and the five gods turned their bodies into planets. Zereassus mourned for them, then gathered the planets around him, and swore he would look after all of them, and protect them and the people living on them.

Seeing this sacrifice, other gods came to Zereassus. The God, born among the stars, and named Anareth, said: "Your children and your children's children will not perish from the cold, I will give them warmth, light and my love" and turned into the Sun. The god, born at the moment when Qntaraan cursed the children of Zereassus to death by the power of her rage, and named Kiln, said: "I will stand guard over life and death so Qntaraan won’t be able take the souls of your children and your children's children." The God, born from the Architect's energy, able to control it, read the divine plans, and named Oris, said: "I will fill the homes of your children and your children's children with my power and teach them how to control it."

Qntaraan learned of the sacrifice of her and Zereassus' children, turned to chaos in great anger, and began to produce disembodied and soulless creatures in an attempt to create her own army, which would bring an end to the world created by Zereassus without her participation. The disembodied only dreamed of taking over the bodies of mortals, while the soulless aimed to obtain their souls. But the powers of the Great Architect, dispersed throughout the universe, prevented her plans from becoming a reality and have been keeping the goddess in a jail at the edge of the universe ever since.

[donovaneagle2098]

A Complete Encyclopedia of the Lore of Every Witcher School

This is a project I've been working on for a long time. The Witcher Schools in general have lore spread across 3 or 4 different sources, so it's very easy to find inaccurate details about each school due to a person only going off of one source without even knowing of the others. Hell, I've been guilty of this in the past. So I've gone out of my way to find every source available for the various Witcher Schools and compile it into one master post, mostly pulling from the standalone Gwent game, and the Witcher TRPG, as well as an email conversation I've had with the TRPG's writer, Cody Pondsmith. Without further ado, let's start out with the original school, the Order of Witchers.

Witcher schools are like the Clans of Skellige, subtly different, but largely united by their common ground, and that common ground is the Order of Witchers.

The Order of Witchers began as an experiment by the rogue mages Alzur and his mentor Cosimo Malaspina. They "recruited" tests subjects from orphanages, buying them from neglectful parents, or outright kidnapping street kids.

From Cosimo's Gwent Card:

"Children keep asking him for gifts. He doesn’t know why, but it really helps with finding subjects for his experiments."

The main goal of this project was to create an order of knights artificially mutated and imbued with extreme levels of magic to protect people from a world where, at the time, monsters were often literally around every corner.

The mutation experiments were grueling, and most early candidates died horribly, the girls especially, as the mutagenic compounds the mages were working with at the time were better suited for a boys physiology, and they quickly stopped trying to find a mixture that worked well with women, instead refining the more successful candidate pool to meet deadlines. Even with these refinements, however, the Witchers couldn't actually generate much in the way of magical power, at least not nearly as much as those funding the project had hoped for.

These early candidates were encouraged to stick to political neutrality, were told of their duty to protect the common people, and their sword instructor tried to encourage them to take on knightly virtues to live their lives by, though only a few candidates actually bought fully into these particular knightly ideals.

The school developed a training regimen that all later Witcher schools would put their own small twists on. They perfected the whirling sword style, practiced on the Pendulum and Gauntlet training courses. They learned the Witcher Sign magic, created by Cosimo. They were taught hunting and monster lore from experts hired from across the world, and master alchemists crafted the famous Witcher potions.

Ultimately, funding from this school would be pulled due to the Witcher candidates lack of truly powerful magic ability, and the order would start to fracture. Witchers dissatisfied with their lot in life after being forcibly mutated, and railing against the Order's enforced ideals began getting combatative with other Witchers over petty contracts. At this time, contracts were so plentiful that there was no real need to fight over them, but these dissident Witchers did so anyway out of a desire for autonomy and to be free of the Order's code, which they saw as having no practical purpose to prepare new Witchers for the road ahead, and hypocritical as it was forced on them by the mages who never cared for the Witcher's lives. This culminated in one such outspoken Witcher, Arnaghad, attacking another Witcher who poached a contract from him.

After being forced into the painful life of a Witcher, Arnaghad loathed anyone who imposed their will upon him, the Order and it's codes especially. He led an attack on the Order proper, aided by fellow Witchers who respected his defiance towards authority. Once they were beaten back, these dissidents fled to the Amell mountain range to start the next Witcher school, the School of the Bear.

The School of the Bear is one of the most misunderstood schools of them all, owing to the first major lore drop about them being largely in-universe rumors and conjecture surrounding the school, and as such I may need to go more in depth. The two major misconceptions stemming from this is the rumor about their armor, which claims that they don't bother dodging like the other Witchers and instead take blows head on (generally a bad idea, according to Geralt in the books), and the rumor about them attacking most Witchers they meet.

I contacted Cody Pondsmith, who wrote a great deal of this lore, and he mentioned that Bears do often threaten or even fight other Witchers, but in a very Skellige way, only to ward off the other Witcher from contracts they want. The Bears just want to live lives where they aren't commanded by others, and were trained especially brutally, and so will fight for what contracts they want. However they will NEVER kill another Witcher, just draw first blood (outside of duels to decide who runs the school, which occasionally turn deadly. It's unknown if Arnaghad has ever lost these duels) and if that other Witcher stands up to the Bear, they'll let them have the contract and if they meet up and work together enough even maybe become a lifelong friend.

To quote Cody himself: "I like to think of the Witcher Order as a big family in which the Bear School is the blunt, no-nonsense brother. He can be prickly and a bit of a bully sometimes but he takes his job seriously and he can be a good drinking buddy if you get to know him. Not the friendliest of people but far from evil. If you stand up to him and show him you're not afraid of him, he'll respect you."

The other rumor is also an exaggeration. The Witcher TRPG mentions that the Bear armor was designed with flexibility in mind, and while they trained to take on weaker blows with their armor and "mastery of the Quen sign", they also trained how to move quickly in their armor if they needed to dodge a fatal blow. The Bears also still trained on the gauntlet and pendulum like the other schools. Cody Pondsmith also confirmed that the Bears are just as agile as the other Witchers.

The Bears' core philosophy is almost very Lambert like, viewing Witcher's work not as a duty, or knightly virtue, but as difficult, brutal work. The only reason they stick to this work is to do a job where no one else commands them and they're left in peace. They focus only on the practical aspects of their profession, and as such discourage their students from working together in training, since Witchers work alone. As Arnaghad said, "We pass through life alone, better get used to it!" As a result, Bears are very isolated, preferring their own company to that of other Witchers, and were encouraged to value their autonomy and self care above all else. The Bears' approach to teaching was embodied as "let them better themselves through practical, dangerous trials. Survival of the fittest", embodied by final trial, that involved climbing to the top of Mt. Gorgon and back, and any who died from the cold were left "as a sobering reminder of the dangers of their trade". This resulted in the students of the school seeing things in a very callous, survival of the fittest way. Be as strong as you can, and let the perils of Witcher training and life pick off those who can't keep up. As a result, the Bears were by far the smallest Witcher school.

Despite this, the TRPG has a list of random early training events Witchers from all schools can have, and Bears could sometimes make friends amongst their fellow witchers in training just like members of every other school.

Once the new Bear students left their keep of Haern Caduch, most wouldn't return to winter there, unlike the other schools. They developed a reputation as being terrible to fight, and for being firebrands, often speaking very bluntly and quick to anger no matter who they spoke to, authority included. One such Witcher, named Gerd, was asked by a Duchess to help kill her father. He insulted her so badly he got a warrant for his death placed on him, though all the peasants he met spoke rather highly of him. As a result, Bears found it easiest to make friends amongst the similarly minded Dwarves and Gnomes of the Amell mountains, and people of the Skellige Isles. According to Cody Pondsmith, this is the main reason the Bears stayed together as a group at all. They valued autonomy above all else and so long as they functioned as a Witcher school, they were left alone and no rulers would try and command them. They also largely take their ideals of free will and apply it to others, never seeking to rule over others. They simply wish to live their lives free.

One of the original Witchers to side with Arnaghad, Ivar Evil-Eye, had extra mutations done to him by the Order of Witchers during his trial, allowing him to see into other worlds. In these visions he saw the Wild Hunt rampaging across them, conquering them. Ivar became obsessed with stopping them, and tried to kill Arnaghad to take command and lead the Bear school against the Hunt. This failed, so he and his supporters left to form the Viper School.

The Witchers of the Viper school, based in Gorthur Gvaed, were said to be the most secretive, taking contracts as both assassins and witchers. They at first dedicated themselves finding a way to stop the Wild Hunt, amassing a massive library on the subject. Fighting with an unpredictable, ambushed based variant of the Witcher fighting style, Viper Witchers employed poisons, brewed by skilled Viper alchemists, on both their swords, and a dagger in their offhand, their biggest deviation from typical Witcher combat techniques.

Vipers, for an unknown reason, eventually forgot their purpose. In his time, Letho of Gullet could only guess at why the school had been founded. Instead, they became famous for their skill at political killings, dealing with the nobility of the southern countries before Nilfgaard had even become a large-scale power.

Viper students had a different type of trial, after more grueling than typical training. Instead of any physical task like the other schools, the Viper students were given a pet at their induction to the school. And to graduate, they simply had to hunt it down and kill it, showing their lack of mercy.

While most of those who supported Ivar followed him to the Viper school, one group broke off and west east, across the Korath desert, to Zerikania, founding the School of the Manticore.

The School of the Manticore was founded by the Witcher Iwan, from the School of the Bear, following Ivar's assassination attempt on Arnaghad. They got work in the Korath desert as caravan guards, earning the attention of the Zerrikanian Queen after a deadly battle with a manticore. The Queen sponsored the Witchers of the Manticore, making them the only school to be officially backed by any government. They were experts on potions and anti-toxins, a necessity of dealing with the poisonous creatures of the Korath desert.

A unique adaptation to the monsters of the desert also had Manticore Witchers employ shields into the whirling combat of their Witcher training. Given their extra support, the Manticores held two keeps, Behelt Nar and Bailsuf Alsarea, on opposite sides of the desert, so that they might better patrol and guard those within it.

The Manticore is the final school to come from the schism Arnaghad had led. The other voices of dissent against the ideals of the Order would soon hear of these new schools and decide to break off as well to form the School of the Cat.

The School of the Cat was founded out of a response to the hatred and distrust Witchers received. They desired to be seen in a better, more respectful light. Ironically, they would end up doing the opposite. The Cat School stole away with several of the mutagens needed to make more Witchers and headed to Ebbing, and Stygga Citadel, where they would begin to experiment on human-elf children in an attempt to perfect the mutations. Its possible that the mages at this time furthered experiments on making women Witchers, but this is not confirmed yet.

Attempting to make a name for themselves, the Cats hired themselves out as spies, assassins, and mercenaries, genuinely earning them some respect from common folk for killing bandits.

In their attempts to perfect the mutations and further dull the emotions of their Witchers, the Cat school experimented harshly on a group of children that resulted in the opposite, giving these Witchers hightened emotional responses instead. These students, cast aside and left for dead, fled into the arms of a group of elves, who agreed to support them if this branch of the Cat School supported the elves' fight for freedom.

This branch, led by Gezras of Leyda, attached itself to the Dyn Marv caravan and traveled the continent, lending their services mostly to those nonhumans who could pay, while the main Cats at Stygga ended up getting assaulted by angry royals incited by their political maneuvering. This left the Dyn Marv branch as the only functional element of the School of the Cat. These Cats would train students' agility in a light, fast Elven take on Witcher fighting style, and would train their balance by making students walk a tightrope, starting low to the ground at first, but getting higher and higher each attempt.

The Cat school's breaking of Witcher neutrality and reputation for bloodlust earned Witchers such a bad name that those in the Order who most cherished their old swordmaster's knightly virtues would leave to form the School of the Griffin.

The School of the Griffin, led by Erland of Larvik, wished to truly achieve the dream of the original Order, and Gryphon, the Order's sword instructor. They traveled north to Kaer y Saren, an old fortress the Order once used, and cleansed it of the spirits of those who died in the first Witcher mutations. From there, they began a Witcher school focused on respectability and honor, believing in their knightly duties. And it worked, somewhat. The Griffins were sometimes advisors to nobility, and seen as honorable, but the prejudice against Witchers would never leave, and most would never see a Griffin Witcher as anything more than a monster playing at being a knight.

These Witchers tried their best to cushion their students against the pain of their lives on the Witcher's path, and were more brotherly than the other schools, though their knightly virtues and brotherhood were oftentimes cold comfort to Griffin students.

From the Witcher TRPG Sourcebook:

"Witcher I knew couldn’t really remember much ‘bout his past. Heh, too young to really form a lotta memories when they took him to Kaer Y Seren. Told me that the memory he did have made the mutations easier. Poor bastard clung to a memory of his pa takin’ him on a horse for a ride in the fields. Don’t know why he chose that one. Probably the only normal memory he had."

The Griffins amassed a huge library of magical knowledge, though they could only push sign magic so far, and the books were likely wasted being in a Witcher library. The library held several incredibly famous tomes on magic within, and was the envy of full mages across the Northern Realms. Despite all their efforts, they never could achieve their goal of bringing about the Order of Witcher's vision. The Griffins even had their own breaches of Witcher tradition in pursuit of their knightly heroics. An often said mantra of the Griffin school in Gwent is "To slay dragons! Tis our knightly duty!" despite dragons being largely innocent, intelligent beings who mostly wish to be left in peace.

Code Pondsmith had this to say about the Griffins:

"The Griffins stuck to the knightly traditions that the original witcher order tried to uphold. As a result it's safe to say that the Griffin school taught that monsters were the enemy of mankind and must be defeated. I don't think they would all be blindly overzealous but they wouldn't have any qualms about slaying sapient monsters if they believed it was for the good of mankind. Similarly, it's likely that they would side with humans in any conflict between monsters and humans. In a way, the Griffins' knightly virtues made them easier to manipulate than the other witcher schools. They were bound to protect humanity and thus were more likely to be convinced to hunt a monster if a local noble or alderman claimed it would be for the good of the people. This is the case with the dragons. The kingdoms and jewelers guilds of the North convinced the Griffin School that dragons were a blight upon humanity and the Griffins started slaying dragons regardless of whether all of the dragons they slew deserved it. Additionally, the knightly values might make Griffin school witchers more likely to take pity on desperate humans and work for free."

Those few Witchers remaining in the Order by now traveled to northern Kaedwyn, and started a school based on their tempered, traditionalist, and realistic view on the Order's goals. They based themselves in Kaer Morhen and dubbed themselves the School of the Wolf.

The School of the Wolf is the most famous Witcher school, known for their professionalism and efficiency. They don't kill humans like the Viper or Cat. Aren't bold or brash like the Bear, or put Knightly virtues above Witcher ideals like the Griffin. I mean, anyone reading far this knows who the Wolf Witchers are, so I'm not going to get into to much detail. They're Geralt's school. Ciri's school. While the Griffins school wasted it's energy on trying to be what Witchers were supposed to be, the Wolf set its goals on being the best they realistically could be.

They took a balanced approached to Witcher life and as such trained Witchers who were the best adjusted out of the schools, with neither the Bear's harshness nor the Griffin's egocentrism. They perfected the Witcher's style of combat, refining their swordsmanship into an incredibly graceful dance. Combined with their professional attitude and teachings that allowed Wolf Witchers to adapt very well to most situations thrown at them, Wolf Witchers were lauded all across the Continent.

With all Schools formed, the Golden Age of Witchers began, at first with the Bears and Griffins making peace. From Erland of Larvik's Journal (The TRPG's monster manual):

"Surprisingly enough the fracturing of the witcher order had lead to a more effective organization for us witchers. Spread across the Continent and each making more witchers independently, it was no longer the task of 60 or 70 witchers to patrol the entire Continent from Nilfgaard to Kovir. Each school patrolled their own path and when a Gryphon met with a Bear each knew they had their territory and any infighting wouldn’t be worth the bloodshed. We managed to broker peace and live as somewhat estranged brothers rather than bitter enemies"

Witchers at this time were seen largely as heroes, with their detractors' voices largely simmering underneath. With Witchers around to kill monsters, people felt safe and so ignored any misgivings they might have.

Witchers, no matter the school, aren't too dissimilar from each other, and so the Cintinent at large formed an overall opinion of the Witchers based on the traits they all shared. From the TRPG:

"In the heyday of witchers there were many many seperate schools, which all mutated new witchers and taught them the neccesary skills to hunt monsters and lift curses. While it’s generally agreed that there is a core set of skills required to a be a witcher, each school taught its students differently and focused on different aspects of witcher training. Thus, witchers from different schools often act differently and go about their jobs in similar but varied ways."

During this period, the Schools all would produce hundreds of Witchers (though at any given time, most schools had about 20 Witchers running the school, a handful of novices undergoing the trials, and around 30-50 Witchers on the path hunting monsters. This fluctuated from school to school. The Bear's brutal training resulted in the lowest number of Witchers amongst the schools, while the Wolves' prolific status and high success rates meant they took in more candidates and had more Witchers than the other schools), and each was their own person, With their own preferences and personality, despite the schools themselves having reputations for Witchers with only a few certain traits. For instance, the Bear Witcher Ivo of Belhaven fought like a Viper or Cat Witcher, but in personality was a perfect fit for the Bear School with how standoffish he could be. The schools kept to their own territory at first, but as time went on and contracts got ever more rare, these already thin lines fell apart and the schools stopped caring much about territories.

They also all customized their gear in different ways, usually keeping their gear in similar fashion to their school's, as its what they trained in an were used to. For example, Bear Witcher Junod of Belhaven wore what appears to be a set of Wolf School armor he had modified to fit Bear Witcher style.

Witchers also at this time experimented with signs. The Griffins obviously focused on making them more powerful, and the Bears pushed Quen to a level beyond any other school. But the most interesting case is that of Warrit, a blind Viper Witcher who used the lesser known Suppire sign as a form of echolocation.

The Golden age lasted for around 150-200 years or so, ending around 1160 when the monster populations had been hunted down enough that people's main concern stopped being the monsters, and became the Witchers themselves.

The Griffin School, refusing to share the knowledge of its library, was destroyed by jealous mages. A group of peasants and mages attacked the Wolves' keep out of nowhere. The Bears failed to destroy a powerful cabal of vampires and, when peasants rioted and came for their keep, chose to disband rather than engage in needless slaughter. The Cat's keep of Stygga is destroyed, but the Dyn Marv chapter may still be alive and well. The Manticore School failed to protect an important prince from a fire elemental, and so lost their funding and closed. The Viper refused to support the Nilfgaardian usurper and were destroyed.

If you've made it this far, holy shit, thank you! I hope you have a great day!

[loregoddess]

went and picked up Unicorn Overlord bc there was exactly one copy left at my local electronics store, and played through the first couple of stages and, yeah...this is exactly my sort of game

[blazerwyvernmaster]

How Magic Works In Tathylia Chronicles

(And also possibly my other games, idk)

Alright, so I've been thinking about Tathylia Chronicles' magic system and lore, and I've finally decided to work on it and post it somewhere fully.

🕯Origins and Harnessing 🕯

Magic was created long ago when spirits guided the world as much as the gods did. Once they left, it was significantly harder to harness and use magic.

Nowadays, in order to use magic, you need to have some sort of magic potential inside you. About 35% of the population of the world can use magic to some degree.

Keyword being can. There are many who don't have the resources to learn magic or don't want to learn magic or don't even know they can use magic.

Either way, in order to actually use magic, you need some sort of magic conduit or focus.

This type of conduit is usually a tome or a staff, our next topic

🔮🪄📚Tomes,Staves, and Enchanted Items📚🪄🔮

In order to use magic, most spellcasters have to channel their magic into magic tomes and staves, along with any other enchanted weapon or item.

Tomes and spellbooks are created by magic who fill pages of a book with instructions, mystical runes, and information about the spell, bound by magic (and regular book bindings.) The user must study a magic tome in order to weave its magical contents around them.

Staves are made with a rod, usually made with metal or wood. Then, a magic crystal is placed on it, along with decorations. Another way is to just infuse the rod with magic. Using a magic staff is as simple as focusing magical energy into the staff and letting it expell that energy.

Enchanted items or weapons all have magic inside of them, either because they are enchanted, blessed, cursed, or otherwise infused with magic. It's also as simple as energy in magic out.

One thing you need to know is that the magic in these tomes is somewhat finite. Once a tome runs out of magic, you can still cast magic out of it, but it will not be nearly as potent, usually being useless for combat. Same goes for staves and enchanted items. After this, they usually get used for training and teaching, allowing budding mages to safely practice spells.

🍃🏔🌊Druidic Magic: The Magic of Wild Spirits🌊🏔🍃

Druidic Magic, also called Spirit or Nature Magic, is magic gained by studying and harnessing the power of the spirits that still live in the world. Practitioners are guided by the wind, water, and earth of the world, and use their guidance to expel magic.

Druidic Magic bests Holy Magic, but is withers by Arcane Magic

🔥⚡️❄️Arcane Magic: The Magic of Elemental Power❄️⚡️🔥

Arcane Magic, also known as Raw or Anima Magic, is magic derives from the study of nature. Only, instead, it draws magic from the raw energy of the world around them, rather than just being guided by the world. Wind becomes thunder,earth becomes fire, and water becomes ice. It's more commonly studied and practiced than druidic magic,but it loses some of its inate power.

Arcane Magic trumps Druidic Magic, but withers to Elder Magic

💀🌌🌑Elder Magic: The Magic of Dark Ages🌑🌌💀

Elder Magic, also known as Cursed or Dark Magic, is magic that gains power through the soul of the user and their foe. In times of old, this magic was discovered and molded from the darkness of the earth and night sky. It was/is immensely powerful, but its dark nature led to many problems. Its spells usually have negative effects on the user, like hexes. Using it too much may prove dangerous...

Elder Magic trumps Arcane Magic, but withers to Holy Magic.

☀️🌟✨️Holy Magic: The Magic of Divine Light✨️🌟☀️

Holy Magic, also known as Divne or Light Magic, is magic that is gained from the heavens and the sun. It requires the user to be deeply devoted to a cause, usually a religion. While it is not the strongest type of magic, its purifying and blessed light purges demonic essences from people, beasts, and places.

Holy Magic trumps Elder Magic, but withers to Druidic Magic

[panahedvn]

God I wanna run Kult. But I don't know enough fucked up people who wanna RP seeing a guy fucking himself with a candle.

[greatwyrmgold]

I've continued to work on that FATAL spreadsheet. In the process, I've read the FATAL rulebook for an unsafe amount of time. I'm starting to have weird thoughts about the system. A surprising number of things make me think "I wish this was in a better RPG".

For instance: FATAL wants to be historically and mythologically accurate. The former is a shitshow for reasons related to the author's biases (he talks about removing all influence from non-European cultures, ones which historically influenced European cultures), but the latter is inherently an impossible task.

You can't have mythologically accurate fantasy races, because the mythological beings that (say) elves and dwarves are based on come from a wide variety of cultures, and often lack consistent characteristics even within a single culture's folklore.

So FATAL divides elves, dwarves, ogres, and trolls into different subraces, which (at least in principle) reflect different ideas of what those creatures were/should be. For instance, brown dwarves seem inspired by brownies and other spirits of the household and field, black dwarves are wicked tricksters playing cruel pranks on the humans. While that sounds kinda racist (especially since the humans tricked by black dwarves and served by brown dwarves are all white), I'd like to see a better RPG handle it in a more thorough and less racist manner.

[greatwyrmgold]

Coyote & Crow, though I haven't read much of it.

Pendragon if you're into Arthurian stuff.

New Gods of Mankind is a mixed bag. IIRC, it tried hard to avoid doing anything the cliché way. I like its take on elves, but most lore doesn't reach that level. Also there's a god-above-gods called Fate and it doesn't add much.

FATAL, if you're willing to wade chest-deep into toxic waste to potentially discover a few scraps of brass that are potentially interesting for reasons the author probably did not intend. If you scrape off the radioactive gunk that's probably clinging to it.

Anybody got any good recommendations for ttrpgs if I'm primarily looking for extended loredumps about a setting with little to no intention of trying to run a game? I being realistic about my social prospects, and worldbuilding

[sir-fluffbutts]

so for a bit of context, around 2018-2019 i had this CS called "bunsharks"

the idea for the species itself wasen't very original (they are literaly fat bunny+shark hybirds), but it was to proove my point of "CS is more about good lore and community then a actual creative design"

however due to sudden IRL events happening, i wasn't really able to fulfill my TRPG based CS dreams 😔

now, about 5 years later, i've been testing out how the species would had functioned if i had it going as i envisioned, and heres some highlights

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[help-an-alter]

any good picrew recs that have short hair options? as a guy it can be hard 2 find smtn i like -T

hi anon! i did my best to find some, i hope these help!

- hawks

piccrews below the cut!

[rom-kal]

fuck it. rkalanta picrew gallery ft. jan palach for some reason

[ttrpgadventurer]

So... The Witcher has a TTRPG??

So, The Witcher TTRPG is going on hiatus... which would upset me, if it wasn't for the fact that I only learned about its existence literally 5 years after its announcement. Anyways, unfortunately for The Witcher and TTRPG fans who are aware of the TTRPG's existence, Comic Book announced on the 27th of August, 2023, that the TTRPG's development has been put on hiatus until The Witcher 4 is released. This was first announced at Gen Con 2023, and later also announced via R. Talsorian Games' blog, on the 21st of August. It is a shame, but it is nice to see that unlike the director of the TV series, R. Talsorian Games and CD Projekt Red are actually interested in keeping things lore accurate.

If you're like me, having just learnt about its existence, R. Talsorian does have a quick-start guide or 'Easy Mode', as they put it. You can download it for free via the link on their website, and it's free! If you have the money to spare, there is the Core Rulebook available for $24.99 USD, and the Lords and Lands expansion for $8 USD. If you're more of a visual learner, R Talsorian Games published a playlist of videos explaining the rules and gameplay of the entire system on YouTube. If you'd like to see an actual session being run, you can watch the full 2-hour playthrough that IGN did here.

From a glance at the pregenerated character sheets, and from the first 30 minutes of the Witcher TTRPG playthrough, the system runs pretty similarly to D&D. It's set in a fantasy setting, you've got racial abilities, skills and also something similar to an armour class. The main differences is the dice system (you only need d10s and d6s), the inclusion of the Witcher as a race, the combat system, inclusion of critical wounds and the fumbling system (aka when you roll a nat 1). The inclusion of Critical Wounds definitely makes damage and getting hurt a lot more dangerous, since it's not as simple as getting someone to heal you and moving on with your day. It's a ruthless system, and the creators of the TRPG definitely intended for it be to so. Quite fitting for the Witcher, with how it's advertised as a "dark and dangerous world".

Lorewise, the Witcher TRPG is pretty friendly to people unfamiliar with Witcher, and according to the easy mode guide, the Core Rulebook has a full rundown of the history of the Witcher world. Even someone like me with little to no knowledge of the Witcher understood some of it pretty quickly once the GM for the IGN game gave the rundown of the Witcher world. Of course, I know it's not that simple, and I welcome anyone who's more familiar with Witcher lore to give a more thorough explanation of it.

I guess, putting aside the dumpster fire that the TV series is becoming (Henry Cavill as Geralt will be missed), at least the video games seem to be good? I have to admit, I only started watching the TV series recently and looking up The Witcher's video game series to be caught up on the lore and other specifics of it. I'm just a casual TTRPG fan running a TTRPG blog that's based around finding out about all sorts of TTRPGs aside from D&D. Learning about the TRPG's existence has certainly piqued my interest in the video game lore!

The Witcher 4's development is still pretty under wraps by CD Projekt Red. However, considering how the mainline games have been released about 4 years apart, it should have been released 4 years ago? But delays in production do happen, so I reckon it should be a year or two until 'Project Sirius' is released. While that is happening, I think I'll take the time and catch myself up on the video games series.

[donovaneagle2098]

Bear Witcher/Arnaghad Headcannons

Here's a list of Bear Headcannons because I can't stop thinking about them. They won't leave my brain no matter how much I try.

-their fighting style is more about dodging than a lot of the Bears' lore says. (Actually I don't think this is a headcannon I think they have confirmed in like the TRPG and that "what Witcher school are you?" quiz that their armor is super flexible for dodging and that they're just very good with quen so the school got a reputation for tanking blows)

-they hate authority/are possibly anarchists. Another low key cannon one. The Cat School lore in Gwent lists the Bears as "firebrands", Arnaghad is cited over and over as having trouble with authority, as does Gerd and Ivo's lore. Honestly so many people connect Lambert to the Cat School but he'd fit right in with the Bears too.

-Arnaghad got a following and respect from other Witchers because of his hatred for authority. Most Witchers, ESPECIALLY early era Witchers, did not come to the Order of their own choice, and I think Arnaghad speaking his mind about the school not needing a code that further takes choice away from future Witchers is what earned him support.

-Arnaghad was a slave. I think this because he comes from Gemmera, a country bordered by several nations that practice slavery, and we know the Order was not above buying test subjects. It also explains why he "hated anyone who tried to impose their will on him."

-Arnaghad attacked Rhys because he lost a student. I have no evidence to support this one at all, I just like the idea of Arnaghad losing a student to the Trial of the Grasses, and him going off to hunt a monster, so he can work through his grief with violence, finding Rhys already took the contract, and not getting to picky about what target he tried to kill while grieving. I especially think it's be sad if Rhys, seeing Arnaghad, went to comfort him about his dead student, only for Arnaghad to draw his sword before he can get a word out. It humanizes him without excusing his violence.

-Gryphon, the Order's swordmaster who inspired the creation of the Griffin Witchers, picked on Arnaghad. Gemmera, Arnaghad's homeland, supposedly constantly attacked it's neighbors including Gryphon's home country, so I think the idea of Gryphon treating Arnaghad as a barbarian fits his character, and a lot of Witcher esque themes of knightly hypocrisy.

-the Bears were the most successful school. This one is just economics. When the Bears left the Order of Witchers, the location they picked to set up shop was on a massive mountain range bordering the North and South. Anyone who wanted to pass through or around that mountain range for things like trade would need a guide, and who better than a Witcher who had been trained on those mountains? Toussaint especially would need protection to get their wine across the mountains, and the Bear's final trial was on Mt. Gorgon.

-Skellige hero worships the Bears. Kind of implied already, but I love the idea that the Skellige armor sets you get, which look a lot like the Bear school gear, were inspired by tales of the Bear school, since we know the Skelligers loved them.

I got more but this post has gone on long enough. If you made it this far, thank you for reading, you're awesome and I hope you have a day that's just as great as you are.

Oh and, uh... my ever wonderful friend and Witcher TRPG game player @aerllette , my always incredible mutual @loganyeehawhowlett who I know loves a good Witcher story, and my new super amazing Witcher mutual @seainthestars , any Witcher Headcannons you guys have?

[blazerwyvernmaster]

Dalgari's Countries

❤️Bovent(Empire of the Bull)❤️

An empire in the rough and boiling mountains. It's people are mighty and strong, but a bit brutal. Strength is valued above all, and those who wield it must make the choice to be benevolent or cruel. While the current emperor is seemingly kind to his citizens, those who defy him are met with an unending fury.

💙Liron(Kingdom of the Lion)💙

A kingdom in the snowy mountains. The royal family and nobles live lavish lives, unconcerned about their people who suffer in the cold. This has caused many to despise the country, and many flee for a better life. Those who stay must pursue chivalry and knighthood in order to live a comfortable life. Known for its cavalry and elven magic.

💛Phenlory(Theocracy of the Songbird)💛

A theocracy in the snowy tundra. Its citizens are devout and holy, though some of its people are more zealous and harmful than others. It's rulers even more so. They see the heroes of eld as divine, and anyone with relations to them are treated with the highest of respect. Small and not exactly strong, it relies on the strength of allies to stay safe. Known for its holy magic and pegasus riders.

💚Delka(Queendom of the Elk)💚

A kingdom in the deep forests and jungles. Seen as a safe haven for the Ainmhí, as they have bigoted foes. It's people live with a constant and unending peace, knowing very little about war. It's queen seems to be missing, which is concerning for a variety of reasons.

🩶Pakwil(Oligarchy of the Wolf)🩶

An oligarchy in the steppe. It's people are jolly and hardy, and often spend their time studying things like music, poetry or art. The country is very diverse and camaraderie is encouraged. Nobles ignore this concept, and are extremely divided. Even the head oligarch seems to have the diversity in not just the country's people, but the world's. They seek to turn the country into a isolationist and militaristic country.

💜Nowtuol(Aristocracy of the Owl)💜

A country with beautiful plains and beaches. It's people are studious and knowledgeable. All kinds of magic are studied here, and many types of magic technology are created here. This means that, while their army is small, it's ray magical might and tactical knowledge makes them masters in the battlefield. If only the rulers cared enough to use their army for things.

🧡Ampherous(Kingdom of the Cobra)🧡

A kingdom in the sands. It's people tend to either be law abiding and patriotic, or sly and a bit rebellious. Merchants are common here, and are well protect by royal soldiers. They must be, as bandits appear much more frequently than other countries. Or at the very least, they're more organized. Long ago, the previous ruler of the country made some foolish deals, causing it to be cursed to attacked by a spectral army every decade or so. It's up to the current generation to protect then people now.

🖤Umbertala (Kingdom of the Raven)🖤

A dark kingdom in the dark, western swamps and forests. Its people are both mysterious and curious. Not many people travel in and out, but the few that do seek to learn all they can about the world. It's not that they aren't allowed to leave, but the people are already afraid to leave because of the countries dark monsters. It's rulers do it's best to serve the people, but don't reach out for help too often.

🤎Cerotia(Archduchy of the Bear)🤎

A newer country in the middle of the continents plains and forests. Wealthy and mighty, it's people come from all walks of life and fill the country with pride. Mercenaries and other warriors are common here, and they protect the country when the military can't. It's leader founded the Gilded Guardians, which is supposed to fiercely protect the people of the world, as well as unite people from every country.

🩷Taliver (Kingdom of the Salamander) 🩷

A kingdom with sands, cliffs and savannahs. It'd people are cheerful, but weary. The country faces rocky relations with it's neighbor, Ampherous, but have been trying to patch things up as of late. Bandits from Ampherous spill into the country, but it'd people are still cheerful and express themselves through dance and art, as well as spiritually.

🩵Scalborn (Kingdom of the Dragon)🩵

A kingdom composed entirely of a few islands. Its people, the Ollphéist, live here in relative peace, though they must defend themselves from humans,elves and ainmhís. They hide away on the islands, rarely heading on to the mainland, and they must be strong to avoid invasions. Though it seems a few people want to try peace with the mainland after all these wierd.

[imaginefear]

the imagineer breaking into the tardis holding the doctor and companion(s) captive and forcing them to listen to him explain all the warhammer 40k lore, the rules of the trpg and then picking out with factions they want to play.

[chunkyfunker5]

Yeah this is all literally true, but I just read it as like… the point of the setting. The utopia word is confusing if you take it at face value, but none of this lore is prescriptive.

Like regarding non-human personhood… Star Wars is very clear that it wants you to Stop Thinking About The Droids. Theyre a joke half the time and forgotten the other half, at least in terms of becoming politically enabled.

The situation with NHPs makes a lot more room to exercise these ideas and tell stories with them, in my personal opinion. There’s literally a talent track that canonically counteracts the main reason NHPs are cycled. A lot of the Horus lore indicates that some people may believe in NHP supremacy or simply treat them as equal.

Ofc, that’s not the story they already told in the lore. The writers have expressed regret that they weren’t able to represent every perspective they wanted to in the core writing, but in a TRPG I think they hoped they simply introduced enough varied fields of conflict to inspire GMs.

Like take all your complaints and write your campaign around them. Make an adventure about a system where NHPs joined the revolutionary vanguard to overthrow the resource-barons that had ruled the sector for millenia and are now building fully automated gay space luxury communism, if you like.

I don’t think the lore contradicts this, and if it does then change it lol!

Lancer is a funny because of how much it insists that Union is this flawed but ultimately benevolent institution that's well on the path to improvement, a "utopia in progress" as they love to say, when like they casually reveal so many things about it that show Union as rotten to the fucking core. Like as much as Lancer fans like to go on and on about how it's an imperfect society that needs to make compromises, there's so much awful shit about Union that just seems pointless or easily avoidable.

And like part of this is the creator's politics; they're social democrats so it's not surprising that Space Sweden is their idea of a society that, if not the best we could possibly achieve, is at least the best we can do for the foreseeable future. As a Marxist-Leninist it's only natural that I'd have a condemnatory view of such a society just as I do for real Social Democracies; my idea of an achievably "good" society is just fundamentally different from that of the creators But like Lancer is also full of little details that just seem fucked up and awful even from the values and viewpoint of Social Democracy. Like stuff that's just as bad, if not worse, than a lot of sci-fi Dystopias. Like why the fuck does Union have a CIA that's run by a group of super-computers with the actual elected legislature having an advisory role but no actual jurisdiction and this fact being kept secret from the vast majority of the populace? Not much of a democracy if one of the most powerful institutions in the entire political body is free from any kind of democratic or even fucking human oversight while most people aren't even allowed to have an opinion on this because they aren't allowed to know about it. Or what about the caste of Janissary diplomats (like was it really necessary to take children and train them like they're the jedi of interplanetary relations) who come with customised computer slaves. Like yeah don't forget about the fucking SCP computer slavery thing, which is completely fine (except for the times it isn't I guess). Like it's basically the weirdest and most uncomfortable part of Star War's setting imported near whole-cloth only like the regular mindwipes are justified because otherwise they'll full Durandal and you don't want that do you? Look how happy and content they are being forced to think like humans while acting as loyal servants. Btw Union is somehow even less denazified than West Germany. Significantly so. They literally gave Hitler Corp. (a fucking weapons manufacturer so powerful they call it a "corpro-state"!) a seat at the UN. While allowing their Blue Helmets to keep using those Nazi-made weapons. And like Third Comm is repeatedly described as doing basically the same shit that Second Comm did but with more "Care" or whatever so don't worry it's fine now.

Like I can just keep going on and on like I'm not making this up this isn't some like weird expansion this is all from the core rulebook. I get that there has to be conflict and tension but like why did they need to make their ostensible good guys so fucking awful like these are the people you're meant to feel good about fighting for why did you need to fill them with the sort of details you'd see in some cautionary dystopia? And like why do actual people keep defending these guys? Like once you get down to it Union manages to be less Space Sweden and more* "The Ottoman Empire with Pronouns"

*to borrow a phrase coined by a mate while we were talking about this

[themadauthorshatter]

What kind of vibes do I give off if I list the stuff I'm interested in/find interesting?

Worm on a String

Bionicle

Kingdom Hearts

The Owl House

Gravity Falls

Axolotls

Wolves

Butterflies

Masquerade masks

Writing

Anything with Lore behind it

The Henry Stickmin Collection

Arcane

2005's Robots

Good Omens

Platypuses/Platypi

Octopuses/Octopi

Anomalocaris

Sharks

Puppets

Telescope fish

Land of The Lustrous

Red Queen

The Cruel Prince

The School for Good and Evil

Dorothy Must Die

Unreality

Fantasy

Horror

Terror

The Uncanny Valley

Plushies

Painting

Silk/Artificial Flower Arranging

Unique formal wear

Where salt water meets fresh water but you can still see where the two are seperate

Tattoos

Dungeons and Dragons/TRPGs

Dragons

Puzzles

Old cartoons

Crafting with polymer clay

Cats

Stickers

Idk, I'm bored and I need to post on this blog more