Crossroads II: I'm on a Mammoth.

[Mith]

I'd say that they're one step removed from whatever counts as the spirit world, in a sense. They're native outsiders, in essence, tied to the lands or concepts they are connected to. No souls, because they're mostly spiritual entities themselves that have equal footing in the material world.

That works with what I recall as the origin myths of the Sidhe.

I think re-framing them as the church's 'internal affairs' would go a long way toward de-evilizing the inquisition.
However, I think that they will always be at least a little evil to the players by virtue of their methods. I think, however, we could justify that, too. We justified human sacrifice, after all. What I would suggest is making there be a good reason for their actions, not just paranoia. There is tangible evil out there, eager to corrupt and possess those whose faith falters, and it's an insidious threat that must be rooted out. A conspiracy of extra-planar infiltrators. Maybe those with arcane powers ARE somehow more vulnerable to its influence, it's not just correllation?

Perhaps Magic users interact strongly with the spirit world, bringing them closer to the influence of Satan. Practitioners can work as members of the Church, but they are basically priests working under the guidance of the Church. So the initial start was that Magic users face a council to determine if they are under the influence of dark forces, and if so, attempt to sway them. The use of fire could be an actual ritual that serves a a last resort that basically kills those being immolated but also serves as a way to separate them from the influence of darkness, and basically serves as a last chance to look back on your life and choose differently. That would add an extra layer to the name of the Pure Fire. Perhaps the ritual depends on those casting it to be strong in faith and virtue, and that the stronger they are in these characteristics, the less agonizing the ritual is on the recipient. So over time, the corruption of the Order could lead to the more agonizing burning at the stakes that people think about with the Inquisition. The Order appears to have forgotten part of their past, and such are slowly falling from their purpose.

I have no idea how to explain the Scarred Monks though.

[BRC]

Inquisition
True, but we've been pretty good thus far about not portraying any singular group as a purely evil force. Some may be jerks, some may be aggressive, some may do a lot of evil things, but none of them are just wholly, unredeemably evil.

It depends how Factional we want to get things.

If we consider the Church as a Faction, then the Inquisition is one part, and the Knights are another.
Do we also split the inquisition into two factions?

That said, I suppose we could muddy the waters a little.

Perhaps Magic users interact strongly with the spirit world, bringing them closer to the influence of Satan. Practitioners can work as members of the Church, but they are basically priests working under the guidance of the Church. So the initial start was that Magic users face a council to determine if they are under the influence of dark forces, and if so, attempt to sway them. The use of fire could be an actual ritual that serves a a last resort that basically kills those being immolated but also serves as a way to separate them from the influence of darkness, and basically serves as a last chance to look back on your life and choose differently. That would add an extra layer to the name of the Pure Fire. Perhaps the ritual depends on those casting it to be strong in faith and virtue, and that the stronger they are in these characteristics, the less agonizing the ritual is on the recipient. So over time, the corruption of the Order could lead to the more agonizing burning at the stakes that people think about with the Inquisition. The Order appears to have forgotten part of their past, and such are slowly falling from their purpose.

I have no idea how to explain the Scarred Monks though.

The Scarred Monks are easy to explain.

The Monks take the power drawn from the flames onto themselves. Maybe its not safe to just let it fly free, maybe they feel that the power is too great to waste. The self-Flagellation rituals are supposed to prevent the Monks from being corrupted by their power. Everytime they use their magic, regardless of the cause, they whip themselves as penance. The idea being to prevent them from using magic habitually. They'll only use magic when they feel they really NEED to, because they know they'll suffer for it later.

However, it didn't quite work out that way. The Monks just got used to the regular whippings, seeing them as a fair trade for the awesome arcane powers they now wielded, rather than as repentance for using those powers. The whippings turned from a special circumstance if the Monk had used their magic, to just a regular part of everyday life.
Eventually, the Brothers of the Pure Flame became the Scarred Monks.

Maybe we give the Ritual a little bit more of a twist. The Monks gain the most power from burning spellcasters and magical creatures alive, but they can also draw power from burning arcane items, spellbooks, or corpses.

The archetypical scarred monk is a barely contained madman brimming with arcane power, constantly looking for spellcasters to burn. A more restrained Monk could limit themselves to burning items and corpses.

Perhaps the founding charter of the Inquisition specifies that it is their job to contain and destroy "Evil Magics". Most of the Inquisition assume all arcane magic is evil, therefore all spellcasters, regardless of their deeds, are fair game for the Fires. A more sympathetic Inquisitor could take that character to mean that there IS good magic out there, and limit themselves to destroying evil magic.

[Steckie]

Tobago
Hmm... my only concern is that it's rather far south, right off the coast of south america, in fact. I think most nexuses should be somewhat more centrally located, don't you think?

Why should a nexus be located in the center? I thought that a spiral is the representation of how Links work with the Nexus as the most powerfull one in the center and the others arranged on the rings around it according to power until you hit a point where there is not enough power for a human to use a Link. I also thought Links are not a geographical representation.
For example: Cahokia is a powerfull nexus. If you draw a spiral outwards from Cahokia's location on the map you have a geographical representation that results in very weak Links in Nouveau Orléans, the Caribbean coast, the Great Lakes region but powerfull Links close to Cahokia. And weirdly enough, powerfull Links near the Appalachians. That's the result of a geographical representation: the further away you go from the Nexus, the weaker your Link is.

If your Spiral is a metaphysical representation you can just pick the places with the most powerfull Links, put your Nexus anywhere you want and still have the squished and distorted geographical representation of the area that Spiral covers. I like the weather map thing of Spirals pushing against each other. If they push against each other could they grow or shrink? Gobble up the Link sites of another Spiral?

Let's make a quick example: A Nexus in San Fransisco covers the geographical area of the lands west of the Rockies. That Spiral goes from the Gulf of California, runs along the border of the Rockies and goes all the way into Alaska until it meets the sea. Geographicall this Spiral is very stretched out, but that doesn't matter because the first ring Link sites are spread out across the whole area and not just close to San Fransisco.

How do we want to handle fey, from a metaphysical perspective? Are they just a different kind of mortals, are they a part of the material plane like outsiders are part of the spirit world, do they have sous, and if they do, what do those souls do when they die?

The way i see them is that they are a kind of mortals and part of the material plane, but their souls are linked to the spirit world.
When a Human (or Tuniit or any other normal kind of mortal) dies, the soul moves on to whatever afterlife there may be. Nobody knows what this afterlife is but all cultures have their own ideas. Christians have heaven, Mexica have that thing where they go help the sun, and the others have their own ideas. Nobody can be absolutely sure on what really happens.
Fey souls are linked to the Spirit world. When they die, they move into the spirit world. They stay there for a while until they get reborn on earth again. They're in a constant cycle of reincarnation. You might even meet a fey when you're young only for that fey to die and eventually cycle back. Then you might meet the soul of that fey again but in a different body and with no memory of it's previous life. The soul stays the same, but the memories of past lives stay in the spirit world.

This is why the Inquisition views those magical creatures as evil, their souls don't go to the afterlife to get judged so they must be the spawn of evil!

Tobago

Have started work on Tobago and decided it needs a new name. Tobago is derived from the English word 'Tobacco', but the Island had several other names throughout it's history depending on who controlled it at the time. Natives now control it, so it should have a native name.
I'm using a (frustratingly incomplete) Taino dictionary, and i think i've found a decent name for the place:
Guara Ara'guacu - The Place of the sacred people.
So far this has been the best i can find using that dictionary, if it had more words maybe i could find something better. If anybody can find a better name in the Taino language, please tell me.

And does this name sound good? Is it too difficult to pronounce for the native English speakers here? I had to say it a couple of times out loud before i was able to decently pronounce it

Inquisition

I agree with Squish, i would like them to have some more redeeming qualities but not bring them all the way up to good. They are firmly on the grey side.

Here's an idea: Human life is sacred to the inquisition. God created mankind in His image, and every person should be allowed to live their life until they die and receive judgement in the afterlife. If you are a proven Witch or Warlock or something like that, they consider you a Hybrid and your life is no longer sacred. This includes the life of non-christians and heretics, they're just humans that haven't been converted yet.
This gives them redeeming qualities (they Always try to save human lives), but also keeps them on the grey side (they're on the edge of becoming human supremacists, some of them may have already gone there).

Another idea: they get power from burning people right? Suppose they can use that power to do spells of all kinds but if they use that power to do healing spells the power gets amplified.
If they get X power from burning a witch they can use X power to throw around fireballs. But if they use X power to do healing they might get 1.5X or 2X worth of healing out of it. This is one of the reasons the church managed to save people during the Black Death: they burned magical creatures and used that power to do healing. But curing one person of the Black Death would cost more than 10X so they could only save a few important people. Still, that cemented the power of the Church at the time.

Actually, reading up on the Mediëval Inquisition the inquisition itself wasn't allowed to kill people. Sometimes they would hand over heretics to the secular authorities who would then administer punishment. And sometimes that was burning at the stake, but not Always.
For Crossroads it's probably best if we change that part of the inquisition to fit it into the story. But it's still interesting.
Read the part on 'Inquisition Procedure' on the wiki page i just linked, it's interesting.

[Mith]

So a summary:

Inquisitors: effectively neutral, although the higher up in the order are slowly sinking to the darker side of things due to more politics than their actual mission.

Scarred Monks: Bouncing off the wall evil in a lot of cases, with a few being decent sorts? Maybe those that burn magic items do so as part of a new spell caster joining the Church? So in order to do so, the spell caster must burn all of their old magic items and spell books, and the Scarred Monk is the supervisor of the ritual?

[BRC]

So a summary:

Inquisitors: effectively neutral, although the higher up in the order are slowly sinking to the darker side of things due to more politics than their actual mission.

Scarred Monks: Bouncing off the wall evil in a lot of cases, with a few being decent sorts? Maybe those that burn magic items do so as part of a new spell caster joining the Church? So in order to do so, the spell caster must burn all of their old magic items and spell books, and the Scarred Monk is the supervisor of the ritual?

I think even the "Good" Scarred monks track down magic items to burn. It's just that rather than finding any old arcane spellcaster and burning them, and all their stuff, alive, they limit themselves to only going after Evil spellcasters in the first place, taking their stuff, and burning the spellcaster's corpse+the stuff.

They're still all about taking magic items/spellbooks/scrolls and burning them, they just only target people who were already their enemies. "Burning your magic stuff" is their version of selling it.

[Admiral Squish]

Inquisition
Ultimately, the alignment of the inquisitors would be, in their own mind, lawful good. From an objective, out of context standpoint, probably more likely to be lawful neutral, with a few extremists going lawful evil.
I don't think it would require fracturing the inquisition into factions for those two distinct perspectives to exist. It's just a matter of the varied intensity by which they follow the codes of their organization. Some are more moderate, looking for evidence of corruption, possession, and evil, and excising it like a surgeon where they find it. Others are a little less discerning, seeing hidden evil everywhere, and prefer a more 'scorched earth' policy, annihilating the corruption they find and anyone or anything connected to the source of it, sometimes imagining evidence where there is none.

I think the inquisition itself would mostly be concerned with mundane corruption and exorcism, leaving the sins of arcane magic to the Order of True Fire.

I will admit, I like the idea of not being able to kill humans normally, though they can hand them over to authorities with a strong suggestion that is usually followed. I also like the idea of them being able to 'reclassify' spellcasters as hybrids, allowing them a bit more freedom. I'm not sure if

Idea: holy fire weapons/spells/implements that deal normal damage to standard creatures, but double damage to outsiders. In addition, if used on a possessed creature, the effect deals normal damage to the possessed creature, but also automatically deals double damage to the possessing creature.

Scarred Monks
Basically, I'm thinking the inquisition itself deals with all corruption and possession, but their knightly order, Order of the True Fire, is the aggressive appendage of the inquisition specifically tasked with arcane corruption and the extermination of magical evils. Scarred Monks would be a specific sort of agent within the Order of True Fire.
Basically, Church > Inquisition > Order of True Fire > Scarred Monks.

An important theme to keep in mind with the Scarred Monks is 'Fire Consumes'. They burn things because the fire consumes what it touches, and they've learned to link themselves to the flames so that they, by extension, consume what the fire does. If fires consume a magic item, a spellcaster, or a magical creature, the magic within isn't released, it's devoured by the fire, and by them. But fire consumes what it touches, and if not constantly checked and monitored by their 'handlers', the power they gain consumes them and they become obsessed, gluttonous for power, for magic.

Perhaps part of their induction process is being branded with a rune of some sort that allows the church officials to check the scarred monk's power, maybe like set a limit on their spells, or maybe more like a fail-safe that allows the priests to sear scarred monks that get out of hand or even terminate them if they go completely out of

Hmm... You know, we could probably tie the scarred monks into the ritual magic thing I'm working on. Perhaps when they burn spellcasters/magic items it releases mana like a monetary or blood sacrifice, and they can capture that mana and release it to power rituals later. Perhaps that's, like, the initial usage, maybe they get extra stuff on top of it as they level.

Fey Souls
Hmm... Interesting options.
On one hand, the idea that when a fey dies, they do not release a soul, but are instead released into the material world to be reformed at some point in the future.
On the other hand, the idea that when a fey dies, they do release a soul, but rather than passing Beyond, they instead reincarnate on the mortal world, with no memory of their past life, sometimes as different kinds of fey.
Both have a certain appeal...

Here's an idea. Fey release a soul.. but not quite like mortals. A fey's soul goes to the spirit world, for a limited time, but rather than moving Beyond, their soul loses integrity and begins to dissolve, bleeding back to the mortal world, disseminating into the mortal plane, entering a sort of 'pool' of undifferentiated fey-stuff. It's from this pool that new fey are formed. While fey souls don't reincarnate in any one entity, their traits, experiences, and wisdom are disseminated out into the various fey formed around that time. Fey aren't 'born', they 'form' from natural settings as ageless entities, with a natural knowledge of the world around them and fully developed facilities, but no memories or experience. Of course, it's not exactly a seamless process (I'm imaging that most if not all fey go through something akin to the Doctor's reaction to regeneration when first formed). Though, if they're not born, then it seems strange how many fey are capable or reproduction with humans...
This would also allow fey to be raised/resurrected, as long as it was done before their soul disintegrated.

Totemic
Well, it's not quite 'humans that turn into animals' it's more 'humans with a spirit-animal companion'. The turning into animals thing is an option, but not an inherent part of the race.

Spirals
The distribution of link sites isn't supposed to be geographically correlated, so it wouldn't be like, the first-ring sites are closer than the second-ring sites and so on. The visual of the spiral overlayed on the map would be more to illustrate the area covered by a spiral. It could just as easily be done with a colored semitransparent thing, but I think the weather-map idea looks cooler.
I do think the borders of a spirals' influence probably shift slowly over time. I had a vague pondering that the lines would correspond to currently active links, and that the lines would shift seasonally with the axial tilt, but angles involved would require eight lines coming off the central point to cover all of the space in a spiral, and it would make it so all links were only active either once or twice a year. Now, I'm thinking borders probably move at glacial, or even geological, pace.

Ring
I think ring might be the wrong word for the different categories. It seems to cause confusion. I still think 'nexus' works, but maybe we could call the steps down something else?
Basically, my understanding is that a single link has the potential to connect to another link within one step. So, a nexus only connects to the first 'ring' points, and there's only like 6-12 of those. First 'ring' links can connect to the nexus or second 'ring' links, of which there are exponentially more. Second can connect the first or third. Third can connect to second or to other spirals.
Maybe degrees, like "first-degree links". Maybe levels, like "first-level links". Maybe categories, like "category one links". I dunno, I'm throwing words at a wall, here.

Tobago
Guara (Guar as in GWAR with an a on the end), Ara'Guacu(guac as in guacamole with an oo on the end) is basically what I ended up with when I tried to figure it out.
Man, try saying that ten times fast...

I think it works, though. Sounds good, not hard to understand, fits common naming schemes...

[Steckie]

Fey souls

I don't really like the soul-pool option, it's a bit unpersonal and it kinda diminishes the value of a fey soul.
In fact, thinking about it a bit more the idea i gave you that they release a soul and later reincarnate without memory of their previous life fits very well with the Spiritbeasts. When spiritbeasts die, their body just dies and their souls stays alive in the spiritworld until they form a new body. Same thing happens with the fey, they don't form a body but get born and they don't remember anything like the Spiritbeasts do.
That way things fit together a bit better, coherency is important.

Oh, and maybe the fey are aware of the way their death and rebirth cycle works and from time to time they investigate their past lives. Maybe they have some sort of bardic knowledge thing that allows them to get a bonus on knowledge skills from their past lives?
Maybe they have oracles/prophets/whatever that remember ALL their past lives and draw tremendous power from it? That could be interesting if players need to find some form of ancient knowledge.
There's a lot that can be done with something like this.

Spirals

I agree that Spirals should move at a glacial pace. Maybe sometimes an event can cause a Spiral to move a lot quicker, but it's a destructive process.
The Pompeii eruption was one of these events.

Ring

A few name ideas to replace ring:
- Loop
- Halo
- Oculus
- Aureole

Of those loop is kinda generic, Halo reminds people too much of the video game and Aureole sounds kinda weird but could work. I like Oculus the most.
In fact, an Oculus is "a circular opening in the centre of a dome or in a wall". So it is a bit like the description of a Link, something circular that allows for an opening in the fabric of the material plane to send you to another place. Plus, it sounds nice.
That gives you the Nexus and several First Oculus Links, Second Oculus Links and Third Oculus Links.

Man, we're developing a whole magical theory for this setting....

[Admiral Squish]

Fey Souls
I don't think the existence of a soul-pool thing reduces the value of a given soul. They still have a unique soul, at least temporarily, a fact that would, theoretically, give their soul more value than an outsider whose essence simply immediately returns to their home plane. To them, returning to the zeitgeizt/gestalt would be much the same as passing Beyond. Non-specific reincarnation. It also preserves the overall knowledge of the fey creatures, and makes them ageless. They don't have children, they don't age, and they are created with all the knowledge of adulthood, but they're not eternal or immortal, they can be killed. A one-to-one reincarnation with a loss of memories just seems kinda boring, by comparison.
If we were to make it a one-to-one reincarnation like the spirit beasts, I would say that the reverse would have to be true as well: the spirit beasts would have to be remade into fey. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, on further consideration, they would seem to fit with the overall theme of fey as a blending of natural elements and creatures...
A one-to-one reincarnation deal would allow for prophets who could perfectly remember all their past lives, but then, if such a prophet could tap into the accumulated knowledge and experience of all the fey souls in the soul-pool at the moment, that seems like it would be a much broader sort of knowledge.

Vague thought: what if the fey soul-pool was somehow tied to spirals or arcane magic?

Spirals
I definitely agree, there should be the potential for massive, cataclysmic chain reactions such as pompeii.

Ring
Not quite what I meant. I want to move away from terms that would indicate distance and cause confusion between geographical location and link strength. All of these terms describe circles, and I want to make it more clear we're talking in terms of link strength, not location. If I say 'first-ring', a lot of people seem to, consciously or not, connect the link's strength with it's distance from the nexus.

Power, perhaps. The term could tie to both the link's strength and the number of links. Say, there's 6 links of the 1st power, there would be 36 of the 2nd power, 216 of the 3rd power, 1296 of the 4th power... Though not all of them would be identified and most wouldn't be active often enough to use freely. You'd just refer to them as 'a first-power link'. or 'a third-power link', though the terminology would be different to different cultures.

[Mith]

Instead of Power, I would use the term Order (So first Order, Second Order,...)

With the idea of reincarnated fey souls, are we also having the fey live long lives? Or is that what is meant by the term "ageless"?

[Steckie]

Fey souls

I still like my idea a lot, but i'm starting to see potential in your soul-pool. Linking the soul-pool to Spirals also has a lot of potential, but it has a large effect on the fluff behind those souls. Remember Pompeii? Big cataclysmic event that sucked the energy out of the Link system?
That had to have a huge effect on the soul-pool if it was tied to the Spirals. Eurasia's fey would most likely be decimated by something like that.
But on the other hand, if they're closely tied to the Spirals they can use Links more easily and maybe escape across the ocean to Vespuccia? That way they escape the Church as well.

Actually, if we're going in this direction we might need to change some basics.
Spiritbeasts are anchored in the spiritworld and can use 4th power Links, Fey are tied to the Spirals by the soul-pool. If we keep going in this direction we need to start thinking about how the Spirals are tied to the spiritworld.

Wait, weird idea: what if the soul-pool is a constant vortex? A vortex is kind of a spiral right? Souls fall in at the top, they start to dissipate and sink down while mixing with the other souls until they reach the bottom (the Nexus) and get reborn (Linked) in the material world.
Hmm, would that make Earth into a place covered in two-dimensional spirals while the spiritworld has three-dimensional vortexes?

Spirals

Rings
Echelon?
Humanoids can use the High Echelon (1st ring), Middle Echelon (2nd ring) and Low Echelon (3rd ring), creatures tied to the spiritworld can use the Deep Echelon (4th ring) as well.

Guara Ara'guacu
I still need to know if i can put the Nexus in Tobago or not. Doing so would solve a LOT of the problems i'm having with my work on Guara Ara'guacu.

[Mith]

Guara Ara'guacu
I still need to know if i can put the Nexus in Tobago or not. Doing so would solve a LOT of the problems i'm having with my work on Guara Ara'guacu.

I know my two cents are not official greenlights, but I would see no reason why you shouldn't, if it makes things so much easier.

[Admiral Squish]

Spirals

Link Names
Hmm... I definitely like the idea of named levels rather than numbered. That does sound cooler. And a big fan of the idea of a not-normally-accessible 5th category, open only to beings tied into the fabric of magic.
I also like both 'order' and 'echelon', but i'm not quite convinced on either.
Maybe something relating to activity?

Guara Ara'guacu
I dunno... I still think it's just too isolated to be the nexus of the Caribbean as a whole.
What if it's part of it, though? Like, there's a nexus in Yucatan, and the nexus in Guara Ara'guacu. The spirals overlap between Haiti and Cuba, and Guara Ara'guacu's covers the north coast of south America.
Or maybe it would just be easier to put one nexus in Cuba and have it cover the entire region...

Regardless, I would say you could easily put some manner of powerful link in Guara Ara'guacu, and being a neutral trading port right on the coast of south america seems like it'd attract plenty of attention on it's own.

Fey

Immortality
I was thinking immortal until killed, but they're not supernaturally healthy. Technically speaking, there are a couple big turtle species that, due to 'ageless' genetics, are functionally immortal unless killed by predators or disease or starvation, but we've never recorded a turtle older than a few hundred years. I imagine it would be the same with fey. They can last forever, theoretically, and many of the more powerful ones may well be hundreds of years old, but death comes for everyone eventually...

Soul Pool
This one's getting complicated...


Unified Theory
Okay, we've got four large, extra-dimensional phenomena that may or may not be interrelated. The Soul Pools, the Spirals, the Spirit World, and Arcane Magic.
Spirals are directly linked with arcane magic, we've established this. But we never really explained HOW they're linked. Similarly, it's been mentioned that the spirit world might be tied to the spirals in some fashion. And now, we've got the soul pools which might be tied in with the above.

What if the earth as we know it and the spirit world are just 3-dimensional 'facets' of a 4th-dimensional shape? My brain hurts from trying to visualize that, so let's simplify.
Imagine a finite, two-dimensional plane in an infinite three dimensional space. Call that the material plane. Normally, nothing on the material plane can affect anything outside the material plane. Now, directly above that plane, let's place a flexible, two-dimensional sheet. We'll call that the spirit world. I would say it'd just be another plane, but for the metaphor to work, the surface of the spirit world needs to be closer to the material world in some places than in others. So, we have the plane, and the sheet. The spirit world is flexible, and it's surface varies in the third dimension. But those on the sheet don't experience that bendiness, it's just two dimensions to them. The stretching and folding and waving causes a little weirdness, but not too much, it's still a fundamentallly 2-d space, and those within cannot interact with the 3rd dimension. The sheet is, due to this waviness/stretchiness, difficult to measure in ways that those on the 2-dimensional plane would be able to manage, and when it's position is measured in the third dimension, there are parts of it that are closer to the material plane and parts that are further.
The planes don't normally interact, but non-physical things aren't limited to remaining on the plane. A soul, for example, leaves the material plane by moving in the 3rd dimension to reach an approximate counterpart point on the spirit world. Similarly, moving on from the spirit world involves more 3rd-dimensional movement, past the spirit world, and up into an infinite 2-d event horizon positioned above the spirit world, the Beyond, from which there is no return. Planar travel allows one to create a 3-dimensional bridge from one point on the material plane to a point on the spirit world. Energy can also travel between planes. The mental energy of the creatures living on the material plane moves in three dimensions and applies force to the sheet of the spirit world, altering it. Some entities of great power on the spirit world can apply force to the sheet, as well.

And now, my brain hurts from trying to think in 4 dimensions, so I'm gonna go to bed and try to make soul-pools and spirals work with this metaphor in the morning.

[Mith]

So if you looked at the system from outside the whole thing, the Material Link Spirals look like a cross section of the 3D vortices from the Spirit world closest to that general area?

As for linking the fey soul pool (I am assuming that the fey includes Greco-Roman Nymphs, Dryads, and Pans, as well as the Celtic Sidhe) with Link Spirals, I think that would make a lot of sense, since it's general lore that trying to catch a Fey creature that does not want to be caught is next to impossible. They just step in and out of the Link.

As for the reincarnations of the Fey, it would make an interesting take in Irish Myths of the Lia Fáil, for Tara to be a Link/Nexus (not recalling what the decision on Stonehenge was. Since it's older, might want to make that a Nexus, and Tara a Link). Perhaps the significance of the Lia Fáil is that it can recognize souls that were once great heros of the Fey, and that if they are worthy of being King, it declares them as such.

Also, when is the Skype chat this weekend? I should be able to make it. Or was that last weekend?

[Steckie]

Skype call was moved to tomorrow (sunday) right? I don't think a start-time has been mentioned yet.

Guara Ara'guacu

I think i've solved this one, i took a quick look at the map of the Atlantic and it hit me: Guara Ara'guacu is relatively close to the Cape Verde islands.
A bloody Link across the bloody ocean, i don't know how i could have missed that Obvious solution.
So right now i'm thinking the Link on Guara Ara'guacu opens up 1 or 2 times a year to Cape Verde and apart from that it Links into the Caribbean and northern Cabralia often enough to be a very valuable Link site.
Guara Ara'guacu is one of the maybe 3 or so Links across the ocean at regular and predictable times (the others being somewhere in Greenland and Brazil probably)
That solves most of my problems, so if this allright for everybody i'll adapt the story to fit the new situation.

[Admiral Squish]

Skype
Sorry, I totally forgot to give the time. The Skype call happens at 3 PM EST, the usual time, just on Sunday rather than Saturday. About five hours from this post.

[Admiral Squish]

Alright, the skype call was very productive! We discussed what needs to be done, and I might just get a little bit of help.

Ultimately, we decided that I'm gonna buckle down and get to work on the Chosen, the Warrior, and the Priest classes. In the meantime, I'm gonna post the template that I use for cultures, and the main super-cultures we're going to need to have done to make the setting playable. I'm going to rely on the thread to do research on the various cultures and come up with culture details for me to take and polish into a finished product. Some people have already volunteered to take on some cultures, but there's still plenty available, and the more you guys help out, the faster we can get to a playtest!
After the cultures are done, then I'm gonna go over everything and update/correct from a bird's-eye view, to make sure it all works together and fix any bugs I can, and when that's done... Game on!
Then, of course, there's the extra gravy like Runecaster, Martial Artist, and such, but those will likely have to wait.

Now then, cultures, and claims:

• Arctic
• Subarctic
• Northwest
• Plateau
• Great Plains Superdave
• Northeast Superdave
• Great Basin
• Southwest
• Southeast
• Mesoamerica Handled
• African Superdave
• European Steckie
• Chinese Kungfulobster

Spoiler: Culture Template

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Background Skills: (Should be a handful of skills, of which the player chooses three)
Background Feats: (Say, 5-ish, player chooses one. Should be able to qualify for these at level 1.)
Native Language: (all the major languages of the region, or language groups. Character picks one, all others are bonus languages.)
Bonus Languages: (Languages they would be exposed to, from neighboring areas or groups they have contact with)
Mandates: (things the culture would mandate they do in certain situations, like offering a prayer over a slain enemy)
Taboos: (things the culture forbids or looks down upon, like interrupting an elder for Mexica)

• Description (physical description, common traits, keep it general. Maybe mention what they consider attractive)
  
  • Clothing (The clothes the common folk wear and the clothes the higher-ups wear)
  • Grooming (How often do they wash, how do they wear their hair/facial hair, do they wear makeup or paints?)
• Psychology (Defining cultural psychology, a very general overview of traits that an outsider might consider strenge)
  
  • Morality (Things the culture considers good and evil, and maybe an explanation of the mandates/taboos)
• Life (The general pattern of an individual's daily life)
  
  • Arts and Crafts (Arts and crafts they are known for, how they treat their craftsmen/artists)
  • Technology (Their relative level of technology, perhaps specific mention of important, revolutionary, or fundamental items)
  • Magic (do they favor arcane magic, or divine magic, how they regard spellcasters, what kind of spells they are particularly known for)
  • Love (How do they handle romance, marriage, and children?)
  • War (Favored tactics, weapons, maneuvers, how they regard warriors)
  • Death (How they deal with old age, sickness, and death)
• Society and Culture (
  
  • Leadership (who leads, how leadership is determined, how much power the leader has)
  • Social Structure (How their society is organized, groups they categorize themselves into)
  • Family (How they interact with relatives, children, spouses...)
  • Traditions (A specific tradition that is particularly interesting or unique)
• Other Races (How do they interact with nonhumans or human hybrids?)
• Religion (Their dominant religion and belief system, and how they respond to to other faiths)
• History and Folklore (A particular story or set of stories that occupies a particularly important place in the culture)
• Language (The dominant language/s of the culture, how they sound, other languages.)
  
  • Phrasebook (A handful of terms or phrases that are particularly flavorful or warrant further detail)
  • Written Language (If their language has a written component, what the written language looks like)
  • Names (Naming traditions, are there different kinds of names for boys and girls)
• Cities and Settlements (Do they have cities? How are their settlements arranged? Do they have special architecture?)
  
  • Economy (What they trade, who they trade with, what they get for their trades)
  • Example city (An example city)
• Creating _____ Characters (Things to keep in mind when making a character)
  
  • Special Options (Special options available to characters of this culture)
  • _____ as Characters (What classes they usually are, what roles they fill, how common are adventurers)

[Mith]

I have taken responsibility of writing up Vinlindr Culture, and was wondering if it is OK if I potentially rewrite the other two cultures (Tinuiit and the Mammoth riders) if needed, since they are both in the same region as the Vinlindrs, and have close (antagonistic) ties with each other.

[Admiral Squish]

I have taken responsibility of writing up Vinlindr Culture, and was wondering if it is OK if I potentially rewrite the other two cultures (Tinuiit and the Mammoth riders) if needed, since they are both in the same region as the Vinlindrs, and have close (antagonistic) ties with each other.

Actually, Tuniit and Vinlandr are both subcultures of Arctic, and Mammutchadinne are a subculture of Subarctic. Plus, I've already done writeups for mammutchadinne and vinlandrs, they would just need to be adapted to fit with their new relationships. While I appreciate the offer, we're not doin' subcultures yet, we're just trying to knock out the big overarching culture categories.

[Mith]

OK. I will await the template needed for the overcultures then.

[Admiral Squish]

OK. I will await the template needed for the overcultures then.

The template's in the spoiler above. The over-cultures use the same template as sub-cultures, but with sub-cultures you can leave off parts that are overly similar to the over-culture entry.

[Mith]

Hadn't seen that, since the forum doesn't say when the forum has been updated before you post, and that template went up before I posted my question.

[Admiral Squish]

I'm sneaky like that.

But yeah, I'd suggest, if you're interested in the vinlandrs, tuniit, and mammutchadinne, you could take the Arctic and Subarctic cultures and get to researching them. What you come up with for the overcultures will be heavily incorporated into the later rewritings of the Vinlandrs and Mammutchadinne.

[Mith]

First Impressions of Arctic Cultures

I've only done a first glance at the Arctic Overculture, but here are some impressions I have gotten. Traditionally, the Arctic People were fairly peaceful, in that they generally chose to live in peace with their environment and neighbors. If threatened, they will fight, but they are not a war-like people.

EDIT: Reading on the Dorset culture, evidence shows that the Thule (Another term for the Inuit?) seemed to be more warlike in the past, since they drove out the Dorset people. I will see how I can work with this aspect that seems to have been lost over time.

The cultural religion was Shaminism, which can be tied quite nicely into the Old Ways of Scandinavian Traditions (if we want to blend them. I have a few ideas on how to do that.)

How to make the Expansionist policies make sense with this view could be problematic. On a small scale, it can work, since Family is very important, so small groups of people may end up absorbed if they join the local community. The large scale Intermarrying policies of the Tuniit would have to come directly from the Giants themselves, since it would be a break in character to have the Inuit/Aleuts be the aggressive culture. The Vinlandrs could gain a more aggressive culture from the Scandinavian Vikingrs. The Mammuchadine, I will get back to them at a later point.

[Admiral Squish]

Been working on chosen, made some good progress. I've got here my idea for the major ability of the Death domain (maybe sphere might be a good term?), and I'm wondering if I may have overdone it. It sounds kinda like an epic spell, but the line kinda gets blurry at 9th-level-equivalent.

Spoiler: Annihilate

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Annihilate The chosen can remove a being from existence, utterly destroying them body and soul. To use this ability, the chosen must be within 30 feet of the target’s soul, be it contained in their body, roaming the spirit world, or part of their body as with outsiders.
First, the chosen severs soul from body, tearing the being’s soul violently out of their body or severing its connection to the mortal body. If the target is alive, they must make a fortitude save or die instantly. A creature that successfully saves against this ability cannot be targeted by it again for 24 hours, but still takes damage equal to the chosen’s caster level. If this is enough to kill them, the spell progresses normally.
Secondly, the destructive power rolls back and forth along the spiritual bonds connecting body to soul, destroying the corpse or mortal body of the being. The body is not disintegrated or burned, rather, violently annihilated piece by piece until nothing remains, not even ash. Any attempts to revive a creature targeted by this ability would have to create an entirely new body.
Thirdly, the chosen faces the choice of what to do with the soul itself. Even with beings that normally do not have a distinct soul, the chosen’s power keeps their spiritual energy contained until they come to a decision. The chosen can choose to release the soul, allowing it to continue through its normal movements, or they can choose to destroy it. If they choose the latter, the creature’s soul makes a will save. If successful, the attempt has no effect, the soul escapes and cannot be targeted by this ability again for 24 hours. If they fail, however, the soul is destroyed. Not sent to the beyond, not dispersed, but completely, utterly destroyed, agonizingly torn out of the fabric of existence, leaving a tangible scar in the fabric of the planes to mark its passing. The soul is gone, and can never be again, cast beyond even the reach of the gods.

[Steckie]

Seems like a very, very powerfull spell. This isn't even save or die anymore this is save or be completely annihilated.
And this kind of spell would be regarded as completely evil by almost everybody, destroying a soul is not something that you just do. If somebody goes arround destroying souls, he or she is going to attract the attention of powerfull beings that don't like soul-destroying.
So yes, i think this spell is a bit much.

Also as a general remark: something that kinda bothers me is that spells related to death are in most games on the evil side of the alignement, at best they're morally grey. For many cultures in earth's history death was only the beginning and only in the afterlife things started to get really interesting.
Why is this never reflected in an rpg? What if a death domain consisted of spells that call upon ancestors or ghosts to do various things? Or a death domain that is anti-undead (it gives them their natural dead state back, not this unnatural unlife)?


Tobago

While typing up everything for Tobago i'm starting to get really annoyed with the name Guara Ara'guacu. The first and second part resemble each other too much and that apostrophe is annoying as well. I've now typed the name over 30 times and i'm already sick of it. I can imagine somebody playing in that area to get sick of it is as well.

I'm still working on it, but i think i'm going to change the name into "Kaya Salina (Island Refuge)", Trinidad is going to be renamed into "Kaya Colibri (Island of the Hummingbirds)"
These names are a lot easier to pronounce and write for me so i just wanted to ask all those anglophone people here if they think this new name is easier to pronounce or not?

[Mith]

Seems like a very, very powerfull spell. This isn't even save or die anymore this is save or be completely annihilated.
And this kind of spell would be regarded as completely evil by almost everybody, destroying a soul is not something that you just do. If somebody goes arround destroying souls, he or she is going to attract the attention of powerfull beings that don't like soul-destroying.
So yes, i think this spell is a bit much.

Also as a general remark: something that kinda bothers me is that spells related to death are in most games on the evil side of the alignement, at best they're morally grey. For many cultures in earth's history death was only the beginning and only in the afterlife things started to get really interesting.
Why is this never reflected in an rpg? What if a death domain consisted of spells that call upon ancestors or ghosts to do various things? Or a death domain that is anti-undead (it gives them their natural dead state back, not this unnatural unlife)?


Tobago

While typing up everything for Tobago i'm starting to get really annoyed with the name Guara Ara'guacu. The first and second part resemble each other too much and that apostrophe is annoying as well. I've now typed the name over 30 times and i'm already sick of it. I can imagine somebody playing in that area to get sick of it is as well.

I'm still working on it, but i think i'm going to change the name into "Kaya Salina (Island Refuge)", Trinidad is going to be renamed into "Kaya Colibri (Island of the Hummingbirds)"
These names are a lot easier to pronounce and write for me so i just wanted to ask all those anglophone people here if they think this new name is easier to pronounce or not?

I think it's the fact that the Clerics of the original D&D was very much Christian influenced, so there is a negative connotation from that. Perhaps the Death domain should include Communication with the dead, instant kills, protection against undead, creation of undead.

On the subject of the Undead, do we want to make two types: The unwilling Undead (where there is no consent from the spirit who's body it was) and the willing Undead (where there is consent between the two). I ask this because the Mexica seem to use the second one, and the European version usually seem to be the first one.

Also, I like the new names.

[Admiral Squish]

Death

Spell
Well, technically it's save-or-die then save-or-be-unmade. I sorta had the idea when looking at soul trap. I didn't want to just trap the soul somewhere, since it shouldn't have a material component, and I figured that would be pretty much the best way to get somebody out of circulation. I don't think it's inherently evil, it is... morally challenging, and extremely violent, I will admit, but there are probably people who really shouldn't be allowed to come back once you kill 'em. Leaders of evil cults, regenerating monstrosities, and so forth.
But yeah, I'll work out something else.

Concept
I think, as living creatures, we all have a somewhat unfair bias against death. We associate acts that kill people with evil, an individual's death is always tragic, and generally speaking, death is not good for us. It's good for the world in the long run, yes, but not us in our limited perspective.
I will admit though, I think I did go overboard with the undead/negative energy stuff with this particular version of the death domain. I might be able to salvage much of it though, putting some of the abilities into 'life' and others into some sort of... undead/deathless domain of some sort. I haven't worked out the bugs yet.

Undead/Deathless
This isn't really a topic brought up often, so I don't actuall know the exact specifics of how it works. I might start a thread on the topic.
Normally, undead don't involve the soul at all. Basically, the soul moves on, and the remnants become infused with negative energy, giving rise to undead. Undead, being made by negative energy, find positive energy distasteful, and have a default setting of 'kill everything alive', though more intelligent or well-formed undead can hold back such urges.
I think that 'deathless' should be similar, sort of equal-and opposite, just made of positive energy instead of negative. They're hard to tell apart on sight, and they come in a wide variety of similar forms. The main advantage to using 'deathless' is the lack of that default 'kill all living things' mode. But I don't think they would involve the soul either, any more than undead would.
I think, for cases where keeping the soul around is important, that would have to be handled by mummies. We have the preservation process involve binding the soul to the body, and animating it with negative energy or positive energy.

Overall, I'm thinking we keep the undead type, but add subtypes for [positive] undead and [mummies], which can have the positive subtype too.

Tobago
I'll admit, it probably would be a pain in the butt to type that over and over. I think both the names you give sound pretty good to my ears, and I think they're easier to pronounce on sight.

[Steckie]

Well you could go in a different direction with the death domain. Why not just remove it?
I think that in Crossroads Death is not a tangible thing, you are either alive (soul in body) or dead (soul in afterlife). The actual death part is just a tiny moment between two states that probably sucks.
So maybe add a 'Soul' domain or 'Soul Manipulation' or whatever you want to call it. A domain that's all about manipulating the soul is well suited for either buffing or debuffing, maybe some fear spells. Soul trapping obviously as well. Maybe some (temporary) body stealing?
And in the end you put something similar to the spell you proposed that unravels a soul. Ooh wait, maybe it's some sort of soul-dismemberment where the caster picks wich parts are destroyed permanently and the rest of the soul can then be thrown into the Fey Soul-pool. Or the caster keeps the non-dismembered soul for himself.
That takes care of the 'soul in body' part, then you add a 'soul in afterlife' part. Maybe just an 'Afterlife' domain?
Spells in there can range from speak with dead, to resurrection, to maybe buffing yourself with the power of souls in the afterlife? Not sure on this one.

A Death domain in itself isn't exactly needed, killing people with spells is something that you can find in a lot of other domains. Undead is something entirely different.

[Admiral Squish]

Domains
I think it would probably help people figure out what I'm talking about if I gave a list of the domains as they currently stand.

Spoiler: Calling Domains

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Ancestor
Beast
Wood
[Unnaturals]

Earth
Flame
Sky
Water

Chaos
Evil
Good
Law

Spoiler: General Domains

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Artifice (done)
Communication (WIP)
Darkness (done)
Greatness (done)
Knowledge
Leadership
Life
Light
Luck
Magic
Summoning
Travel
Trickery
Undead (?)
War
Weather
Wrath

Basically, I was planning to do the general domains first, so I have a pretty solid idea of what I'm doing before I do the calling domains, since everyone's going to have a calling, but if I seriously gank up a general domain, it's possible it could just be ignored/deleted.
Also, I still need a collective name for non-plant, non-animal, non-humanoid spirits.

Death
Yeah, basically, as I was saying, I'm going to take apart the death domain. Some of its stuff will probably be used in Life, other stuff will probably show up in Undead.
I'm planning to have some soul manipulation stuff in the Ancestor domain, and there will probably be some stuff in Life, too.

[Mith]

Also, I still need a collective name for non-plant, non-animal, non-humanoid spirits.

That are still living sentient beings? Otherkind sound generic, Aberration might give the wrong impression, since I believe people would only think of Cthullu and his ilk with that term. I still kind of like Mythic, but that's just me.

Maybe a better way of ensuring that we can come up with a good name for the category, what all were you thinking of fitting into this category?