TheLonelyScribe
2010-04-28, 02:36 PM
There is the real, material world that you see about you, where I can reach out and touch you, see the glow of your eyes, hear the roar of your heart. But beyond this world lies the chaos of the Ror, and the great power that comes with it.
O.K, I'm going to tell you about this idea in several parts, starting with saying what Ror is:
The Ror is the only known plane other than the material world. In it dwell the Lords of the Ror, the Life-Givers, and, supposedly, the Creatives (more on all them later. When people refer to Ror as a substance they mean the pure energy that comes from this plane, the fuel of all life.
Because of being fuelled by Ror, creatures in this world are somewhat different from usual. Though it has little in-game effect, some of the following will make more sense if you know this. In the material world connected to the Ror a heart, instead of being a fleshy lump, is an apparently metal ring. Until its owner is killed potent Ror flows out of it, being converted into blood by systems in the body that are fuelled by oxygen. When the owner is suffocated, these systems fail, and cause the body to burn up, often leaving no sign of the heart.
Hearts are not products of normal, organic growth. They are given by the Lords of the Ror to those who make the appropriate sacrifice of blood (as the Lords of the Ror look to reclaim Ror from the material plane) or a heart (as the Lords of the Ror cannot actually create hearts and so must get their servants upon the material plane to steal them from other Lords). Each species is serviced by a particular Lord, and each heart is on loan for 80 years, but circumstances may change (more detail to come below).
People's brains and nervous systems do not contain blood (the liquid form of Ror) but they do contain its gaseous form. This glows a dusky orange, and people often judge whether someone is alive or not by whether there is a glow in the back of their eye. When someone is thinking hard (or hanging by their ankles, Ror is heavier than air) the glow becomes stronger.
The Ror and its Lords:
The Lords exist in the elemental fury of the Ror. Their realms are points of stability in the tempest, each one looking different depending on which Lord owns them. Surrounding these tiny islands are vast columns of pure Ror (which glows an almost insufferably bright white). These are the Life-Givers, and they are the source of the Ror that powers living beings. They are sentient (though not terribly intelligent) and will not allow a Lord to take Ror for any other purpose than to bring life into the world. The Creatives are beings of enormous power that live above this all, having created it. The do not interact with mortals or the Lords, but that doesn't stop the widespread worship of them.
A Lord will never break a promise, but that doesn't make them honourable. They are after only three things in their lives: Ror, hearts, and, above all, entertainment (although what they find amusing is often shockingly immoral). For instance, although they will not shut a heart off for 80 years after an individuals birth (unless the owner of said heart violates the contract by dying or by bleeding too much), they will sometimes 'graciously' allow a creature to have it for longer. About 1 in 100 lives to 81, 1 in 1000 to 82, etc. Often the Lords of the Ror will allow someone to wake up, alive, the morning after their 80th birthday only to die 5 minutes after they regain conciousness.
Spellcasting:
There are two types of magic, sorcery and witchery.
Sorcerers use the blood coursing through their veins to devastating effect. Ror is simply another form of energy for them, and behaves that way. It will not mysteriously keep certain creatures away and not others, or create huge walls in the blink of an eye. Instead, it is a powerful but delicate art that takes years to do anything with instead of random blasting. All sorcerers can 'Blast' (think warlock's eldritch blast but reflavoured, constitution based and deals damage to the user). Other uses of energy, such as creating sounds, causing strange lights to appear, pushing objects away (but not pulling them or making them levitate, and not affecting sentients less), and more finely manipulated blasts require expertise and delicacy, and must be mastered one by one. (Basically, a Sorcerer works like a warlock, but with different flavour and invocations, and constitution is their most important ability)
Witchery is making deals with Lords of the Ror. Their magic functions more like a mix of Ranger, Druid and Barbarian powers, but they are not necessarily connected with nature. They retrieve hearts from dying creatures for their masters (this requires swallowing the heart before the creature is completely dead (and the heart is still gushing blood, gross, I know)), in return for great power of life-force and Ror. They make deals with different Lords of the Ror, gaining greater control over more different species as their power grows. (basically, a Witch has bolstering and healing spells for their allies, and can gain a level of control over enemies depending on what Lords they deal with (and those Lord's associated species), all coming with a violent and dark flavour)
O.K, I'm going to tell you about this idea in several parts, starting with saying what Ror is:
The Ror is the only known plane other than the material world. In it dwell the Lords of the Ror, the Life-Givers, and, supposedly, the Creatives (more on all them later. When people refer to Ror as a substance they mean the pure energy that comes from this plane, the fuel of all life.
Because of being fuelled by Ror, creatures in this world are somewhat different from usual. Though it has little in-game effect, some of the following will make more sense if you know this. In the material world connected to the Ror a heart, instead of being a fleshy lump, is an apparently metal ring. Until its owner is killed potent Ror flows out of it, being converted into blood by systems in the body that are fuelled by oxygen. When the owner is suffocated, these systems fail, and cause the body to burn up, often leaving no sign of the heart.
Hearts are not products of normal, organic growth. They are given by the Lords of the Ror to those who make the appropriate sacrifice of blood (as the Lords of the Ror look to reclaim Ror from the material plane) or a heart (as the Lords of the Ror cannot actually create hearts and so must get their servants upon the material plane to steal them from other Lords). Each species is serviced by a particular Lord, and each heart is on loan for 80 years, but circumstances may change (more detail to come below).
People's brains and nervous systems do not contain blood (the liquid form of Ror) but they do contain its gaseous form. This glows a dusky orange, and people often judge whether someone is alive or not by whether there is a glow in the back of their eye. When someone is thinking hard (or hanging by their ankles, Ror is heavier than air) the glow becomes stronger.
The Ror and its Lords:
The Lords exist in the elemental fury of the Ror. Their realms are points of stability in the tempest, each one looking different depending on which Lord owns them. Surrounding these tiny islands are vast columns of pure Ror (which glows an almost insufferably bright white). These are the Life-Givers, and they are the source of the Ror that powers living beings. They are sentient (though not terribly intelligent) and will not allow a Lord to take Ror for any other purpose than to bring life into the world. The Creatives are beings of enormous power that live above this all, having created it. The do not interact with mortals or the Lords, but that doesn't stop the widespread worship of them.
A Lord will never break a promise, but that doesn't make them honourable. They are after only three things in their lives: Ror, hearts, and, above all, entertainment (although what they find amusing is often shockingly immoral). For instance, although they will not shut a heart off for 80 years after an individuals birth (unless the owner of said heart violates the contract by dying or by bleeding too much), they will sometimes 'graciously' allow a creature to have it for longer. About 1 in 100 lives to 81, 1 in 1000 to 82, etc. Often the Lords of the Ror will allow someone to wake up, alive, the morning after their 80th birthday only to die 5 minutes after they regain conciousness.
Spellcasting:
There are two types of magic, sorcery and witchery.
Sorcerers use the blood coursing through their veins to devastating effect. Ror is simply another form of energy for them, and behaves that way. It will not mysteriously keep certain creatures away and not others, or create huge walls in the blink of an eye. Instead, it is a powerful but delicate art that takes years to do anything with instead of random blasting. All sorcerers can 'Blast' (think warlock's eldritch blast but reflavoured, constitution based and deals damage to the user). Other uses of energy, such as creating sounds, causing strange lights to appear, pushing objects away (but not pulling them or making them levitate, and not affecting sentients less), and more finely manipulated blasts require expertise and delicacy, and must be mastered one by one. (Basically, a Sorcerer works like a warlock, but with different flavour and invocations, and constitution is their most important ability)
Witchery is making deals with Lords of the Ror. Their magic functions more like a mix of Ranger, Druid and Barbarian powers, but they are not necessarily connected with nature. They retrieve hearts from dying creatures for their masters (this requires swallowing the heart before the creature is completely dead (and the heart is still gushing blood, gross, I know)), in return for great power of life-force and Ror. They make deals with different Lords of the Ror, gaining greater control over more different species as their power grows. (basically, a Witch has bolstering and healing spells for their allies, and can gain a level of control over enemies depending on what Lords they deal with (and those Lord's associated species), all coming with a violent and dark flavour)