Ruins as Remains

In classical memory theory, once you memorized something you were essentially stuck with it forever unless you somehow managed to forget it. There was no active process you could turn to which would delete a memorized thing. I believe it was John Chrysostom who spoke of trying to forget information and compared it to mentally burning pages of parchment or papyrus: you would still be left with the memorial ashes, which would in turn trigger an entire sequence of signification that brought to mind the original information anyway. In this way, all ruins are memorial remains—a broken temple, a shattered castle, a burned out villa. As long as anything is left, it serves as a memorial trigger.

But this can be applied to the world at large as well as the mental cosmos. Perhaps not perfectly (for what mental construct can translate without some changes into the real world?) but enough to suit our purposes. We can think through memory here to come to an understanding of ruinous signs and what they portend or foretell.

We must first take stock of the cycles of the world: great wealth and sophistication followed by social decay and ruin. These cycles are not unavoidable, but they have happened in the past. When society suffers decay for whatever reason, technological advances are often lost, particularly in those societies that have heavily specialized means of production (like Rome, for example). During this process, active living places are transformed into ruins. The ruins, however, serve to trigger a memorial sequence that reminds us of what once stood there... as long as we know what the ruins were meant to represent.

As time goes on and the original generations who lived within the memorial-ruins give way to others, the sequence continues pointing to the past... but the construction of the past deviates further and further from the experiences that formed it. Eventually, it may give way altogether: the past as alien construct which the viewer cannot understand. Thus, extremely ancient ruins give way to entirely fictive pasts constructed to explain them while ruins that were made nearer to the viewer's own time period tend to have more or less "grounded" connections.

But ruins are something special; they are not just the remains left behind by other civilizations, they are living semions, signs whose meaning and signification evolve over time. They can point the way to strange and mysterious pasts (as archaeological study would have it) or they can be the foundation of completely new constructions. The most important thing is that the meaning or purpose of the original ruin may not always be clear, sensible, or intelligible. While it is interesting indeed to think of why a thing was made when we design it (and it brings a good deal of flavor to it) we can design ruins that have no purpose, or that had a purpose but that those now in them could not figure out.

A History of Ninfa

Ninfa is the largest island of the Trident Isles, but it is also the name of the city that is located upon that island. The mercantile compact which rules the Tridents (comprised of the Afasen College, the Ivory Coin Traders, and the Guild of the Open Palm) has its headquarters here at Ninfa. The Fleet of the Trident also resides at anchor here, and the Whitestaff Citadel is located on the harbor.

Ninfite and Tridentine history doesn't go back a very long way compared to the ancient settlements of men throughout the north. The islands were colonized in the early Eighth Age, before that having been primarily the dwelling-places of lizardfolk in the low-lying swamps and sahaguin off the coasts. This was during the heyday of Ishtria, long before it was broken into the many semi-independent Dominions that comprise it in the modern age. The Ishtrians had subjugated the Hadashen tribes (which would eventually lead, in the end of the Ninth Age, to the creation of an independent kingdom of Hadash) and had won many wars with their ancient foes, the Khewedi.

Seeking expansion and a foothold into the north, the Ishtrians followed the ancient example of the Khewed kingdoms. Where the Khewedi had sailed to Highstone and Colona to begin their conquest, the Ishtrians required a nearer base of operations and they chose the Trident Isles. For nearly two hundred years the wild islands were tamed. Bounties and mercenary parties did most of the work for Ishtria, drawing many soldiers from across the North to fight and kill and die in the swamps and the coastal tidepools where inhuman creatures still dwelt.

Rumor persisted that the islands had been a place of human habitation in the early ages of the world and that a secret port had been constructed to bring travelers to and from the mythical island-kingdom of Sintarra, but this port was never found. The Ishtrians built a fortress amongst the rocky mountains of the isle of Ninfa and presided over the Trident Isles until the Ninth Age when the Hadashen Tribal Rebellion spilled over into the Tridents and the Tridentine people declared themselves free.

Ninfa proper had been growing ever since the colonization, serving as the chief port for reinforcing the Ishtrian garrisons and moving men and material across the Trade Sea. In the wake of throwing off the Ishtrian shackles, the seat of government in the Isles devolved to Ninfa. A large segment of the Ninfite population was Aellonian, and so Ninfa adopted an Aellonian style of governance for its first centuries. To whit, all men and women who lived on the Islands were declared citizens of the Trident and all future outsiders who wished to acquire citizenship would have to serve the Tridentine government. A single Tyrant was elected to rule Ninfa and thus the procession of the Nine Lawgivers began.

These Lawgivers structured life on the Isles. They fostered the growth of mercantile companies and the inclusion of merchants, helped to quash the rampant piracy and lawlessness of the outlying isles, and constructed the infamous prison-mine, the Creak and Clink. The Lawgivers have lent their portraits (and their title) to the Ninfite platinum coin: the Nines of Ninfa.

After the death of Lawgiver Ahaj in the latter years the Assembly could not choose another to replace him. The Afasen College, which had been founded in Ninfa under the Lawkeepers, forwarded their own candidate but this prompted immediate response from the Ivory Coin Traders (whose ships ferried goods to and from the Onyx Cities on the Zeshimite coast) and the Guild of the Open Hand (which was a known thieves organization). As a compromise, the early 10th Age saw the establishment of a triumvirate of uneasy peace between the three great trade guilds.

However, as the Age wore on, they grew more comfortable with one another. Informal agreements became formalized into governmental structure. The once-dangerous council meetings became routine and the compact settled into the task of governing the Isles. They too repressed piracy, reinvigorated the old Lawgiver's Guard of the Whitestaves, encouraged trade, and paid for the foundation of numerous temples in the city and the outlying Isles. They greatly expanded the Creak and Clink and from it began to extract small fortunes in copper and iron.

These are the Trident Isles of today: fiercely multi-ethnic, fiercely free, and fiercely mercantile. Ninfa stands as the crossroads of the world.

Mundane Items: The Metalogicon

Written in the Ninth Age, the Metalogicon is one of the great works of the central Thyrnessan period. It is a modern interpolation of a more ancient work which collates and analyses diverse philosophies from Aellon and Miles but focusing mostly on the application of logic itself to various philosophical schools. The main elements come from Avaridus' codification of logical systems, but the work itself was authored by a Quilian monk of the city of Miles named Theolendus.

Widely considered to be sacrilegious in its contestation of many details of the so-called revealed mysteries of Orijen and Aeldus (in the record of Hierian faith known as the Scroll of Law), Theolendus Gravus was eventually expelled from his order and forced to live in exile in a land more accepting of his analysis—namely, High Aellon itself. He spent the rest of his days living in Chimeros and dwelling amongst the books rescued from the fall of Byblos.

While not a magical manual (like the Tehkne manuscripts of the Old Empire), the intense study of the Metalogicon can provide one with benefits beyond normal reading. Indeed, anyone who takes the time to read a copy of this revered book and study it over the course of three months can purchase (at no slot cost) the new proficiency Logic (Int -3) which, when checked against, allows the character to make one test or proficiency check as though their wisdom were actually 2 points higher.

Updates updates

Lotta irons in the fire - from looking for a job to running a million games to writing a play, things have just taken me away from the blog. I will resume regular posting soon, hopefully next week.

Stay weird, people.

The Burning Glass and Reading Stones

Optics and lenscraft didn't really hit its heyday until well into the Renaissance, and even then the equations necessary to create extremely reliable lenses weren't developed until centuries later. However, the classical world did have its share of optical science (and the Arab philosophers after the Muslim Conquest had many interesting things to add to the science).

The first thing we'll look at is the so-called "burning glass." The most famous of these is, without a doubt, the lens of Archimedes of Syracuse which was said to set the ships of Rome on fire during the Punic Wars. Whether or not that's true, the burning glass did in fact exist in the classical world and was sometimes in the guise of a transparent urn full of water or of a series of joined mirrors. The sacred fires of classical Greek temples were not to be lit with profane sources, but rather directly with the sunlight—this was how that was accomplished.

Another important development that we can see represented by the Visby Lenses is that it was possible through practice to achieve a magnification technique not equalled by theory and equation until the late 1950s; the Visby Lenses might have been what were known as "reading stones." These are essentially glasses that don't go on your face but rather rest on the document you are attempting to read.

Just some things to think about the next time you want to dole out some treasure... or if you feel like creating some new and interesting magical items.

Harps and Things

In the 10th Age there are, just as in the world of real men and women and harps and things, several families of stringed instrument (many referred to as harps) that are played by the various cultures of the land. Listed here are some videos and pictures as well as brief descriptions of where each instruments hails from.

The Elvish Greatharp - Based on the Finnish Kantele. Sitting and traveling greatharps.

The Eylic Hand Harp - based on the saxon lyre known as a hearpe

The Milean Lyre - based on the Roman lyre

Dwarves play a version of the Eylic Hand Harp known simply and appropriately as the Dwarven Harp.

Other string instruments of common use across all cultures include the lute, the rebec, the viol, and the hurdy gurdy.

The Sage's Sanctuary: Silanoran, the City of Flowers

These pages have been penned by Soroviel the Scholar

In answer to your questions, I have prepared these pages. Within them shall ye find the histories of this ancient city and the legends of its fall. Included as well are the fortunes of the Murastirial house and the legendary Eferian Cloak as well as several of mine own theories regarding its present location and the theories of many scholars since the War of the Moon.

The Founding
The Fifth Age poet Saransiere gained great fame after reporting his sight of a star falling from the heavens. It struck the earth in the midst of the Arvoreen Meadows, many days journey north of that city. Saransiere claimed to have been seeking inspiration and of a night he looked up to see a great tail of fire streaking down from the Vault of the Sky. It gouged from the very earth a great lake, which subsequently filled with water. He dubbed the waters Sillamuravesi - the Moonstear Pool. Word of the wonder spread, for the star was still present in the low waters and many flocked to see it. It was not one of the bright stars valnaseren but rather isseseren or a dark star made of iron rather than pure crystalline minerals.

He built his own home there, and soon thereafter a temple of Senia was founded. Many pilgrims came to drink of the blessed heavenly waters, which were then associated with the Dish of the Moon. Tulians came as well, and a double-foundation was built upon the banks of the pool. The king in that age gave rulership of the city to Saransiere, naming his family Murastar - the tearful.

The Flowering Circle
The Murastirai loved Silanoran with great fierceness. As the Tywyn of the city, Saransiere's nephew Alascorin caused to be builded there the Flowering Circle. Some ways from the Valnatula river, amongst the great wide meadow of blossoming asphodel, goldenrod, and meadowsweet, there was constructed this great circle of the Silver Road. It brought many more pilgrims to Silanoran and eventually the kings of Arvorienna deigned to construct a summer palace there by the waters.

The Love of Anunia
The city was considered very holy for its double-temple, but more important to the Murastirial line was the worship of Anunia, the Lord of the Wind. They constructed many temples and monuments to the Wind Lord and oft there was poetry performed along the shore of the lake in his honor. The hosts of Silanoran marched beneath a triple banner of Senia, Tulia, and Anunia and they were known as the Varimornan hosts or the Armies of the Three Colors. These knights came to be protectors of Arvorienna and the lands south, and fought in several of the Arvoreen Wars against the Anarean folk as well as in the Wars of the Lance against the goblins.

Tulomor Murastar, Tywyn of the City in the year VI.337 and also Windspeaker of Anunia in that time, was given a great gift by the temple: the Eferian Cloak which was said to be woven of the fabric of the heavens itself.

The Cloak of Eferus
Imbued with the spirit of the West Wind, the Eferian Cloak has many and sundry powers associated with its use. Since no Vesimian document ever speaks of its recovery, I am forced to believe it lies within Silanoran still. Many scholars believe that the cloak was spirited from the city... but I do not believe this to be the case, elsewise it would have surfaced in the years since.

The Enätys Silanoranin Murastirai reads:

VII.37 -- The delegate from the Mount of the Winds outside of Aroviënna has gifted our lord, Tulomor, with a great aegis. It is called the Cloak of Eferus, and many mannish and elvish artisans labored to complete it. The mantle is of the finest blue brocaded with golden and orange thread from Meirienia. It has been laid about with many enchantments, and the Windseer promises that he who wears it shall never come to harm.

While the Festal of the Moon War furthermore says:

In the year 688 the royal family was utterly destroyed. The news came to the Tower of the Sun-Watchers by fateful messenger. Tyrmaa is a small settlement, so we received word later than everyone else. That has always been the way as long as I have dwelt there. King Morfínderon poisoned, Queen Luvoristen put to the sword… the Summer Palace attacked...

Silanoran itself, gem of the northern coast, was sacked only days afterwards. We heard of the cities' defense: the Murastirai with their bladedancers, the retreating highborn guard… but the Vesimian armies poured from the Flowering Circle like endless rain. Turoëlayn Murastiran was said to have personally accounted for some fifty Vesimän bladesmen, for he wore the mantle of Eferus. 

Whether Turoëlayn escaped, we do not yet know, but there are many who claim the Murastirai hoards where sealed in their tombs against the invasion when the foes could no longer be held. I doubt that any but one of that family could open those crypts, so at least we need not worry about the Vesimän soldiery taking hold of their treasure-host and turning those weapons upon us.

Se Lange Silanorin contains the following passages:

All the southern meadows were afire. The Vesimän sotamnai burned everything upon emerging from the Asentanith Ympera (Flowering Circle) so that they could hold mastery over an empty landscape and not be attacked from the high grasses. They surrounded the Summer Palace and soon garrisoned it with their forces. For a week or more a brief and fierce war raged in the city between the ever-expanding sotamnai of the Vesimäns and the Murastirai in the city. At the forefront of the fighting was Turoëlayn Murastiran, clad in the Eferian Cloak and wielding the sword Valosbrén (Bright-silver). 

The sotamnai overwhelmed his forces and scattered bones before the gates of his palace. Turoëlayn himself was lifted up onto the shoulders of the men and then thrust within his vault. They closed the door and the noranai took control. They heard his screams of indignation, but not a nouriso among them knew how to open his locks.  

Whether the Cloak was buried or hidden before the last Murastar, Turoëlayn, was imprisoned in his own vaults I cannot say. However, there is a scholar who lives within the city known as Alomyr who may know more of this matter, having studied it for many years from a position of relative safety.

The Fall
Silanoran was undone by the Flowering Circle, for it was through this entryway that the Vesimian forces attacked. There was a desperate stand at Saranor Tower, where the Varimornan Sotamnai destroyed the bridge that forded the Valnatulva. The foes camped in what was then the Old City, quartering in the city buildings. This became their foothold in Silversong for many years. Several strikes towards Arvorienna were turned aside only with the aid of the Green Wizards.

During this time the last few Murastirai founded the Silver Order and joined with the Green Wizards to harry the Vesimians. This caused great destruction near the Well of Sighs (the Battle of the Well) and at the head of the Calodymir Spur (the Battle of Calodymir Bridge). Nevertheless, Vesimian knights held the city for most of the war.

A further note: Queen Lurovisten, who despised her husband Morfínderon, spent most of her later years in the Summer Palace of Silanoran where she was eventually slain by assassins. It is said that the ruins of that place are avoided by all monstrous beasts of the wood, and for good reason.

The City Today
The Moonstear Lake has been sullied by some dark force; the once blessed waters are murky and filled with a strange filth. Reports of adventurers who have dared it speak of a dark shadow beneath the water that circles the mound of the star near its northern shore.

As for other beasts... orcs and kobolds as well as ogres have oft been seen in the southern parts of the city, particularly out on the Charred Mere where the Flowering Circle once stood. I have seen rumor of gnolls from the west having come to the region as well. From time to time Satyrs may emerge from the forest to do their worship at the Fount of Mirth where once they met frequently with the elves. Highmount, in the northwest, has been the traditional approach into the city since the Tellabryn River is fair water and clean (and its bridges have not been destroyed like those of the Calodymir and the Valnatulva) but I have seen reports of ankheg up along the ridge there.

PMF: Vamp

Vamp
You got a thing for the sweet sweet flavor of cool. You ride a motorcycle, wear a leather jacket, and love to get down and boogie. Anything uncool is the very worst, including the daytime and squares. You're a free spirit - a free undead spirit riding the highways and doing all the shit that cool cats do.

Agility d6
Smarts d6
Spirit d10
Strength d8
Vigor d8

Racial Traits 
Major Hinderance/Habit (Feed) (-3 Ability) - You feed on sexual/romance frustration, you must seduce another character once per day and then leave flat;
Strength of the Damned (+6 Ability) - d8 str and vigor
Weakness (Uncool Things) (-3 Ability) - glasses, pocket protector, neckties, sweater vests, pleated pants, saccharine romance, saying I love you, kiss (no tongue), caring, getting emotionally invested, etc. Being in the presence of any of these things reduces fighting rolls by -2.
Undead (+2 Ability) - +2 toughness, +2 to recover from being shaken, no additional damage from called shots, immune to disease and poison, does not suffer wound penalties
Weakness (Unwelcome Guest) (-2 ability) - You cannot enter any place where you have been invited - you must instead break in. An express invitation to stay will immediately expel you.
Weakness (Sunlight) (-2 ability) - Doing stuff in the day is super uncool. You are elderly (as per the hinderance) any time you are exposed to the blinding glare of day.
Arcane Background (Vamp) (+2 ability) - Works as a super power

Hinderances
Arrogant (Major, +2)

Edges
Attractive (Major)

Skills
Vamp Skill (heal self) d8, Driving d6, Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Knowledge (cool stuff) d4, Lockpicking d4,  Persuasion d6, Streetwise d4

Gear
Leather jacket, motorcycle, snazzy clothes, hair grease, switchblade

Magic

Power Points: 20

Spells: Heal (self only)

Ricohombre

Señor, I beg of you to consider this humble package of papers just the first of many ways in which I shall repay you. I, your slave and servant, could never have survived my ordeal without your support not only in the reals you have given me and the assistance in the courts, but also in the favor you have shown my brother Santiago by having him proclaimed a Hierofante in the Fe de la Sol. From the bottom of my heart, Señor, we all thank you.

Cruzadores of the Fe de la Sol

A visitor to this strange country of ours must wonder how we came here. Is it true that we landed amongst these lush gardens and discovered ancient walled cities uninhabited but ready for the claiming? Si, this is so. Five hundred and fifty years ago we first arrived in this land, and in that time we have become a people to be well-reckoned with. The native inhabitants of the gardens call us now the Militaritos, the Children of War, for so mighty were we that they had never seen our like.

The historiadores tell of a fleet of ships that were commanded by a proud man, noble in bearing and countenance, and of a great storm off a foreign island that sent them scattered by the hands of fate. But rather than be dashed to splinters against the rocks, Capitán Medina (for such is the name of our hero, first king, and first regicide) demanded the old water-witch he kept always by his side save his people. He sacrificed many of them that day, but we were borne from danger to danger. Our ancestors sailed dark and perilous waters, but we they came at last to this place... to Paraíso.

Rey Medina-Sidonia, the first King of Paraíso

The Cities of Our Noble Home
Cascabel, the greatest of our cities. What ancients inhabited it we know not. It was first settled by King Modena in the earliest of times, and served as the heart of our kingdom when we fought the Crudo for possession of the Praderas Centrales. Flowering gardens, mighty waterfalls, and the walls of the forgotten folk define its borders. The Fe de la Sol and the Fe de la Sal both inhabit it in temples they have raised to their own grandeur.

This is the home of the Palacio de la Infanta, from which our proud Reyes rule.

Paraíso, the Isles of the Militaritos

The Nobiles of Paraíso
The Rey and the Infanta
Our most beloved king, Alvaro Trastamara, is the fourth in this noble line. His father's father's father won the throne during the War of the Gardens. He is beloved of his people, who think on him as a doting father. Their love is ever more with him in these latter days, as the Reina Trystina was taken by the White Fever four years ago.

Their daughter, the little Infanta Isabel, is the beloved pride of the entire kingdom. Her every mood is known in the courtyards and marquets of the city by all and sundry. We hang upon her words and pray that her dark spells will not endanger her livelihood.

The Duques and Duquesas
The greatest lords of the kingdom, there are three Duques and two Duquesas. They rule the Central Provinces under the Rey and are arranged around Cascabel like a constellation. Each has their own schemes and plots, but all are loyal to the kingdom.

The Marqués and Marquésas
Beyond the boundaries of the Central Provinces are the hard lands. Marqués and Marquésas govern these territories, granted with vast military powers. The titles are not hereditary, but rather appointed.

The Condes and Condesas
The Condes and Condesas make up the majority of the upper nobility in the kingdom. They are the powers in the Rey's court, and they assist him in the governance of the land. It is from their ranks that potential Marqués and Marquésas are drawn, and them also who support the great edifices of the Cults.

The Barónes and Baronesas
The lesser nobility, the Barónes are charged with keeping their lands safe and the roads in repair, raising troops and keeping them outfitted with musket and sword, and generally ensuring the continuation of the kingdom and the enforcement of the tax structure.

Other Folk of this Land
The Crudo - This race of green-skinned folk inhabited the lands before us. They were here to see Los Antiguos vanish or be destroyed, and they have learned much from them. They are steeped in strange alchemical arts, and know how to make powerful weapons the likes of which we cannot match. Still, their disunity is our strength. The Crudo Principes are more concerned with fighting each other than fighting us. Their daemoniac skills are turned always to self-annihilation.

Crudo Magical Items
The Cazador. While our arma de fuego can spit hot lead, the arms of the Crudo are known for even greater might. The chief amongst their arsenal is a long musket known as the Cazador, which is often made from the tusks of an oliphant and hard horn-wood, all carved into fantastical shapes. The Cazador es let out a great bellow shriek when they are fired and a pale blue ghost-smoke drifts up into the air. The shot penetrates all armor, and those struck by it often die within the hour from a horrible wasting disease transmitted by the ball. No balls have ever been recovered from these dread weapons, so the eruditos believe that they dissolve in flight.

The Perferadora. These are Crudo cannon that have been fashioned from the horns of deceased demons. They are used against city walls, primarily, though I have seen them loaded with crudo alquitran (that is, pitch or tar) which is fired in massive globs to mow down tens of soldiers at a glance and injure hundreds more. However, the primary shot fired by these beastial weapons is an iron ball filled with small innocuous looking filings. When exposed to air, however, they glitter and burn like lightning and may crack stone with ease.

While Crudo are not recommended to be used as a player race, it is possible that they may be slaves or serve the men of Paraísa. If that is the case, the following modifications can be used:

+1 str, +1 con, +1 int, -2 wis, -1 cha

Their stats may be higher than 18. They may be fighters, thieves, Cura Del Sol, other types of priests, and they may even be wizards.

The Ogro - A beastial race indeed, the ogro have served as the work-horses of Paraíso for centuries. They are fit only to be slaves, their limbs thick and slow and their minds incapable of holding much in them.

Ogro are certainly not good for players, but if you decide to allow a player to begin as an ogro slave, use the stats from the Complete Humanoid for ogres.

The Bribon - Also called the dog-folk. The bribon inhabit forests and unexplored dells, and may even swarm over ruins left behind by Los Antiguos. They communicate in a barking howling language, and have been known to overwhelm border posts and caravans. Crudo despise them and kill them on sight.

Kits

These define your place in Paraísone society as well as your background. The rules from A Mighty Fortress should be kept in mind.

Warriors
Ricohombre

The Ricohombres are men and women who beat the boundaries. They push back the edges of Paraíso and settle the wilds. They are known as brutal folk, capable of just about anything. They serve the almighty real and no faith or king. It's said that there are whole bands of Ricohombres in the wilds. 

Requirements: Strength 9+, all races and both genders are eligible. 

Role: Ricohombres are often hired by nobiles to deal with various blights on their property, or to establish colonies for them or otherwise extend their power. Ricohombres are not made for stand-up battle; they often wear light, maneuverable armor and do not drill extensively in the various skills which make soldiers suited for war. Rather they are often skirmishers, and they rely as much on their wit as their weapons. 

They often ply the depths of ruins left by Los Antiguos; from lost cities to ruined castles and other less wholesome dens of darkness, Ricohombres will go wherever the pay takes them. 

Weapon Proficiencies: Ricohombres may begin play with proficiency any personal weapon (but not large weapons such as cannon). 

Nonweapon Proficiencies: Survival is a required proficiency for Richombres. 

Equipment: While Richombres can use any kind of equipment, they prefer to stick to lighter armors. 

Special Benefits: When dressed in an armor lighter than mail, the Ricohombre may subtract 1 point from all initiative checks. 

Special Hinderances: Ricohombres are notorious for their unrefined behavior and suffer a -2 reaction penalty in any settled land. This may be negated or even reversed if the NPC in question has a reason to like Ricohombres.

Esclavadore

There are slaves in Paraíso, mostly those conquered by war or debt. Crudo are often slaves of this sort. Esclavadore must begin the game under the ownership of someone else, but they may be manumitted at any time. 

Requirements: Strength 9+, Con 10+ 

Role: Esclavadores are fighting-slaves who do battle for Crudo Principes or for the señors of Paraíso. They excel at battle, but are skilled with little else. 

Weapon Proficiencies: Esclavadores may learn the cannon group for 2 WP slots but they are not permitted to learn any other ranged weapon lest they turn upon their masters. 

Equipment: Esclavadores may begin play with any weapon they know (save cannon) and a single suit of leather armor. They also have 1d6 reals in spending money and an outfit furnished for them by their master. 

Special Benefits: Esclavadores gain +1 con and +1 strength from their soldiery training. 

Special Hinderances: Besides being slaves, Esclavadors receive only half the standard NWPs.

Caballero

The Caballero are descendants of nobiles or nobiles themselves in full flower. Use the Gentleman Adventurer kit from A Mighty Fortress.

Thieves

Use the thief kits from A Mighty Fortress.

Priests
Cura del Sol

The Cura of the Sun worship one of the Five Hundred Forms of the Sun-God Mithrago. They are statistically normal clerics. Other types of clerics exist, I just do not have time or the room to catalogue them here.

Wizards
Erudito

Erudito use the scholarly wizard from A Mighty Fortress

The Medieval Kingdom, Liquid Borders

For anyone who's played Crusader Kings II lately, this won't come as a surprise. For everyone else... well, perhaps it will. I have seen many arguments presented on either side of the fence about whether or not kingdoms were similar to or the same as nation-states; whether they were, in any real sense, nations. Part of having a nationality entails having an ethnic identity tied to your state. I would dispute whether this was true in any real sense; Franks, for example, seem to think of themselves as Franks well into the 9th century whether they are from Lotharingia, East Francia, the Holy Roman Empire, or what-have-you. While its certainly true that institutional systems lingered from kingdom to kingdom, it's also true that these systems were divided upon the death of rulers when kingdoms fractured.

The territories of kingdoms were not geographically defined "states" with solid borders as we think of them today. Kingdoms could rise and fall in under a generation, coalesce and then find themselves resubmerged into the European milieu. I've tried, to some extent, to model this in the 10th Age in that many of the human kingdoms present in "modern times" are not more than one or two hundred years old. The idea of being Eylic is more important than being from Weyland or Claulan. Even elvish kingdoms are prone to division and collapse, as is visible in the splintering of Silversong and her royalty.

This, of course, brings into question one of the elements of D&D and any fantasy setting with long-lived creatures which was never an issue in medieval Europe. Namely, that there are creatures who have lived long enough to see a hundred human kingdoms appear and disappear. The follies of men must be plainly on display for elves and dwarves, since they are as inconstant as the wind. They pass like mayflies through the world, vainly raising up their edifices of law and culture only to have them crumbly almost at once, or to be reshaped into new things.

The ephemerality of early medieval kingdoms is important to the setting as it is to history. Fictive links to previous, now vanished, kingdoms and empires must be established to grant the trappings of authority. How much more mighty is the Third Empire of Miles than the apparently unrelated Kingdom of Thyrnesse... and yet both are the same territorial regions, ruled by the same men who bear little to no relation to those ancient Milean conquerors. Thus are the lives of kingdoms given false history, their shadows stitched end to end back to the beginnings of remembered time just as when Rome had to be given the link to Aeneas and the Trojan War to help grant it a longer and more heroic founding.

PMF: Killer Queen of the Damned

Killer Queen of the Damned
She keeps Moët et Chandon
In her pretty cabinet
'Let them eat cake,' she says
Just like Marie Antoinette
A built-in remedy
For Kruschev and Kennedy
At anytime an invitation
You can't decline

Caviar and cigarettes
Well versed in etiquette
Extraordinarily nice

She's a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, guillotine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime

Recommended at the price
Insatiable an appetite
Wanna try?

To avoid complications
She never kept the same address
In conversation
She spoke just like a baroness
Little Man from China
Went down to Geisha Minor
Then again incidentally
If you're that way inclined

Perfume came naturally from Paris
For cars she couldn't care less
Fastidious and precise

She's a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, guillotine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime

Drop of a hat she's as willing as
Playful as a pussy cat
Then momentarily out of action
Temporarily out of gas
To absolutely drive you wild, wild...
She's all out to get you

She's a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, guillotine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime

Recommended at the price
Insatiable an appetite
Wanna try?
You wanna try...

Agility d8
Smarts d6
Spirit d8
Strength d4
Vigor d6

Racial Traits
+2 charisma
Free Edge: Attractive

Pace 3 (heels)
Strength takes 2 steps to raise

Hinderances
Addiction (minor) - Moët et Chandon
Wanted (major) - murder

Edges
Attractive
Very Attractive
Arcane Background: Psionics

Skills
Psionics (smarts) d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d8, Riding d8, Streetwise d6, Shooting d8

Gear
Laser pistol, 3 fast food meals, 1 cake, Fancy clothes, spiked heels, a shitty car or horse

Magic
Power Points: 10
Powers: Beast Friend, Deflection, Fear

Another Shot at HP and Fatigue

This one is, I think, a little more graceful.

Characters may fight continuously for a number of minutes equal to their current hp total. Since I use C&T, this means hpx4 rounds (each round is 15 seconds). This would necessitate the number be recorded next to hp and ticked down each round.

When the number of minutes fought exceeds the number of remaining hps, the character becomes fatigued and receives a -2 penalty to all rolls, AC, saves, etc. save for damage rolls. This condition remains in place even once the fight is over. By taking a 15 minute rest after the fight, this penalty can be reduced to -1. Another 15 minute rest will reduce it back to 0 (though the current hp will still be used to calculate another burst of fatigue in the next combat).

Simpler and, I think, more effective.

PMF: Rock God

Rock God
No one knows where you guys came from. Not even you. All we know is that before the Thunderkiss, people had never seen anything like you. You're a rock star—literally. A musician who's soul is the lightning and thunder, who's heart is a battery filled with caged power. When you will it, that power springs forth and dazzles, astonishes, and shreds (people, guitars, whatever). You are a living rock god.

Agility d6
Smarts d6
Spirit d8
Strength d4
Vigor d10

Racial Traits
Electric Soul (+3 ability) - Your vigor starts as a d8 and can be raised to a d12.
Power of the Rock (+2 ability) - You are a rock and roll god; +2 charisma
Shredding (+1 ability) - Start with a d6 in rock guitar playing
Rock Lightnin' (+1 ability) - Start with a d6 in thunder conduction
Arcane (Thunder Conductor) (-2 ability) - You got the POWER
Hard to Get That Shit Tucked Away (-3 ability) - Your strength takes two advances to raise
Easy Target (-2 ability) - -1 toughness
Greedy (major) - You can't let anyone get more than you, and you definitely gotta work out the contract in your favor. You've seen too many bands ignore their frontman to let this go.
Easily Woozed (-2 ability) - -4 penalty to resist all environmental effects; you don't do well in bad places

Hinderances
Bad Luck - Things never seem to go your way
Power Source - You can technically be hooked up as a power source if someone pins you down and puts clamps on you. Every 10 minutes you are used this way you give out something on the order of 45 amps and must make a vigor check or be shaken and then start taking wounds.

Edges
Attractive

Skills
Rock guitar playing (agility) d12, Thunder Conduction (arcane, vigor) d10, Knowledge (the Rock) d6, Stealth d4, Streetwise d6, Taunt d6

Gear
big ole guitar, amp, neat clothes, shades or gloves

Magic
The arcane skill associated with Thunder Conduction is vigor.
Power Points 10
Spells: Bolt (lightning), Light(ning), Burst (of lightning)

PMF: Slimebodies

Slimebody
In the years leading up to the Thunderkiss, a spaceborne vessel was waiting just outside our solar system. It contained a number of weird creeps and nasty overlords, but its main operators were the Slimebodies. These creatures were intended to serve as a ground invasion force to get feelers down on old Earth and suss things out. You are one of these Slimebodies.

When the Great Happening (which is how the Slimebodies refer to the Thunderkiss) rocked Earth, the creeps and overbugs jetted towards it. Basking in the radioactive glow of Planet Motherfucker, the Slimebodies figured now was their hour and hurtled to the surface. Dressed in false machine-forms of friendly 50s moms and pops, the Slimebodies have long since lost touch with the Homeship. Now, they're just another one of the many freaks in the freak kingdom.

Agility d6
Smarts d4
Spirit d4
Strength d8
Vigor d8

Racial Traits
Construct - you are a gross slime that lives inside a machine-form. If a slimebody is ever dumped from its machine-form, it dies within a matter of moments.
Dehydration - you must supply your machine-form with five gallons of water so it can fill your tank. If you do not, you will dehydrate inside it.
Immunity to Disease and Poison - You don't eat, so you don't get poisoned. Your machine-form can filter out all the badstuff.
Reduction - Your spirit may never be advanced beyond a d6

Hinderances
Outsider (minor)
Phobia (major), fire

Edges
Brawny

Skills
Climbing d4, Fighting d6, Knowledge (machines) d4, Persuasion d10, Repair d8, Shooting d4

Gear
Machine-form body, desert eagle, 50 bullets, halogen lamp

30 Days of D&D: Favorite Class.

No argument. Wizard. Done. I don't even need to consider the others.

The only class I could never be in life. I watched the Sword in the Stone too many times as a babe.

Guards!

This post brought to you by a special request from the Marquis over at the East Coast Guide to Living. The Marquis asks...

"Just exactly what was the role of the local constabulary in apprehending criminals throughout the Middle Ages?"

The answer to this, like any question which addresses the medieval period as a single continuous block, is very complicated and we'll have to take it apart by period. Since I know a bit of Late Classical stuff we can start there, with the Roman version of the constabulary and move forward through time to examine when and were guards got their infamous positions making sure there was peace in any given city or town (hint: very late or very early, but not in between).

The Romans. I have no idea what the Hellenistic world, the Persians, the Babylonians, or the Egyptians did in terms of guards and constables. I do, however, know how the Romans played that game. They had both the vigiles and the Urban Cohorts to act as a sort of police force. These were paramilitary organizations which primarily kept riots and things from taking control of the Republic. The vigiles kept a night watch as well, to prevent or stop robberies and catch runaway slaves. These are as close to the fantasy trope of "guards" as we're going to get for a long time.

The Early Middle Ages. Say farewell to guards. They don't exist. The closest thing there might are maybe some reeves or ealdormen in England, perhaps a local bailiff in Frankia. When something goes wrong, it is the duty of citizens to apprehend the culprit. The reeve or ealdorman (depending on your time period in England) will put offenders up in a croft or manse to be held for judgement if they've committed a crime that the lord has to come and adjudicate or, (ENGLAND ONLY) if they've committed a high crime which requires waiting for the royal assizes to travel through the area and assemble a trial.

Towards the end of this period you have a lot of people pulling "guard duty" or something like it in castles. It's part of the services they owe their lord, including paying for their own armor and poles or truncheons. These guys are overseen by one or more knights. They aren't trained, they're just your average local schmucks except they have a leather jack on now. These guys aren't in cities, just at fortifications. Cities are still utterly guardless.

The High Middle Ages. None here either, though the organization of a night watch occurs in england towards the end of the 13th century. This is a commoner-composed force just like the castle guards. People get chosen to serve for a month and then they have to be a sort of makshift vigiles squad. Knights or serjants of some kind usually accompany them.

The Late Middle Ages. Retinues of princes start developing more police-like duties. However, the true police force (one that investigates, stops, and prevents crimes) doesn't exist for another several centuries. So stop running your watch like a modern police department, you dope! Or keep doing it, that's fine. I have very few "police" like figures at all in the 10th Age, myself.

30 Days of D&D: Favorite Playable Race

As a DM and a world-maker, I don't like to play favorites with my races. Maybe this is a cop-out answer, but its true. I value each of the peoples of Arunia just as I value each of the races of vanilla AD&D. They're like my children in a way. The dourness and glumness of the dwarves, the deep pathos and intense emotions of the elves, the rural contentment of the halflings, and the forest-dwelling non-stop-talking of the gnomes speak to me each in a different way.

I suppose, from that group, elves and dwarves have always inspired me most since they are the ones with sweeping histories and stories of great battles to tell. Dwarves reluctantly chanting a death-song as their hilltop is surrounded by a sea of goblins, elves humming war-melodies and braiding bells into their hair to show that they are marching to battle... those are a bit more epic than the halflings or gnomes.

Yet still, I love also the beautiful country of the halflings where they farm and rest contentedly. The Shire is a deep-seated memory for me, and I've tried hard to include a sort of pseudoshire in the 10th Age. Ahh well. I just cannot pick amongst my children creations.

War and the Little Folk

Armies are brutal. Conquering armies rape, destroy, and annihilate. Defending armies do the same. When a battle is fought, men lose their minds and become drunk on slaughter, letting it spill over every one and every thing. They treat friend and foe alike, killing everyone indiscriminately as long as they don't wear the same colors or a uniform at all. The Ancient and Classical worlds were no better than the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, or even the Enlightenment. Soldiering changed little; the chaos caused by war allows those who merely dream about wanton murder and theft the freedom to let loose. The overwhelming sensations of being near death, of winning a hard-fought victory, of murdering at every hand, lead otherwise sensible men to become monsters as well.

So what's the question? The question is: how would this change when your foe wasn't a person like you, but rather a wholly different creature?

The example I'm looking at here (because it may be relevant to my game soon) is the elvish army moving on Arovrienna and the ring of goblin encampments that have sprung up around it. If the goblins win, there's no question they'll rape and kill ilmai and aloisia landholders alike. These elves are foes, they look like a different race of people, and they provide sport for goblin egos (goblins in the 10th Age are one of the flawed "mud peoples" made by the Felnumen, or lesser gods, and their particular mental block is that they have no humility).

But what if the elves win? Will there still be cruel and vicious elf knights who may exploit the madness of the battle and ensuing war to further their own grotesque desires? Jocelyn, to whom I first pitched this idea, said to me: "Yes." My original thought was no. I'd like to examine both answers.

NO. The distinction between friend (insider) and foe (outsider) is too great. Fighting in a battle against an enemy race (or any other race, one that is not necessarily known as a foe) allows for immediate and complete identification of those who belong and those who do not. Therefore, there can be no confused emotions spilling over onto members of your own race. This is something like National Pride, but taken to an absurd level. Elves protecting other elves from goblins would certainly feel as though they are doing something noble and thus wouldn't stoop to the level of sullying their victory.

YES. So what if you can identify the outsiders? There are people who simply use the swirling maelstrom of the aftermath to do whatever they please. This isn't going to stop because they were fighting goblins instead of other elves. While an elvish army may be among the most controlled and disciplined, you're still going to get those who feel their emotions wash over them (particularly amongst the soulful and lusty elves) and allow their reason and judgement to be overriden by the madness of war. Just because identification of the outsider is simple doesn't mean, in this case, it makes any difference.

I so want to go with no. But I fear the answer is yes.

30 Days of D&D? Why the hell not!

GETTING STARTED

I started playing D&D with a neighbor when I was eleven. He was around seventeen. He smoked a lot of weed (his house always stunk) and he really had a lot of fun fucking around with us kids—he had me convinced for an entire summer that he was a legit wizard and I could be too. His name was Peter Eagle, but we just called him Peter.

One day I begged him to show us how to play Dungeons and Dragons. I had seen old D&D books at my grandfather's house and my father off-handedly mentioned that he used to play. Looking back, I don't think he ever really got into it. He was baffled and confused the first time I tried to get him to play using the 2nd Edition rules and he never seemed at home with it... one of the reasons I stopped trying to include him in my games. The other was because he could never remember the names of important NPCs, which I thought was quite simple.

Anyhow, Peter had the Dark Sun set. He promised us he would let us roll up some characters, but it was really bullshit; he made up a bunch of nonsense numbers and then plopped us down in some inn. The other kid, Vinnie, and I instantly got into a fight over which one of us was going to get the room's one bed and which one was a piece of shit. He was a fighter. I was, of course, a wizard. I cast spook, thinking it would get rid of him. We hadn't read the books at this point, we were just going off of Peter's word.

Peter said that the spell killed him. He died of fright. I had to go, now, and find a way to bring him back. A bat killed me later in a forest. He didn't really want to play, he just wanted to amuse us for a while.

How old are you in fourth grade? I was that old, I think, because I remember immediately making up simple roleplaying games and playing them during recess. I didn't have access to the D&D books at first, so there were a lot of 3d6 games that were just mimicries of the SNES rpgs I had played. It wasn't until I got my hands on my first copies of the AD&D 2e books, a few months later, that the game really began in earnest.

I have literally never stopped playing since that day. Peter thought he was making a fool out of me, but he was introducing me to a lifelong hobby of fantasy gaming. I was already hooked on the Lord of the Rings and other fantastical literature. It only took one spark to galvanize me into Dungeons and Dragons forever.