19 February 2021

A Fistful of Setting Questions - from the Nothics Eye

Responding to A fistful of setting questions post - as another idea spinner for my next session.

Which specific NPC do I want to piss off the least?

There is a bunch of delicate noble family politics going on that the players are in the middle of that they care deeply about but for Peter the Rabbitling in the streets, its probably their grandfather, the Duke of Thenya.

In the eyes of the commoners, the Duke has recently started a major crack-down that has driven raids, demolitions, dissappearances and rumours are rife in the city of some sort of shrieking horror in the dungeons beneath the palace. The Duke is famed for driving the Cult of Assassins out of the city as a young man a century ago. He put the current King on the throne. His hospitality is grand - the great tourney held for his grandsons wedding was a great public spectacle and the feasts for the common folk on the day of the wedding were lavish - but his ire is swift and merciless - the last commoner who protested their treatment in public saw their home partially demolished that night.

Which god should I want to piss off the most?

You are probably not going too far wrong if you have caused enough of a stink to piss of either Torog or Tharzidun. Vecna, Tiamat, Bane and the rest could get hacked off for political reasons but annoying the god of the apocalypse is probably a good indicator you are up to the right things.

What's the worst thing I could meet at a crossroads?

Almost certainly a devil come to strike deals. Followed a close second by the wyld hunt. Both of those will be keen to meet you and do not have your best interests at heart. Infernal traces can be found across the realms in the wake of the cult of Tiamat.

What's the nearest thing that can utterly destroy me to your starting town? Or starting town equivalent?

Probably the forges at the alchemists guild could see you rendered down to a vapour. Or if one of the multiple higher level wizards in the city deciding to delete you. There are many other deadly things you could run afoul of but with these you would leave either blood smears or digestive by-products.

Is apotheosis open to my character? If not, why not?

Definitely! There are numerous tales of ascension - whether the elves shaping more elves by training those they deem worthy through to heroes ascending to semi-divine status through to old and powerful wizards becoming more than they started out as. Great age and power changes people, and the numerous strange forms of the senior wizards about the city show this.

Do people in your world have souls? Why?

Yes. Souls are the differentiator between the animal-lings and awakened animals who have rights and tax obligations and the beasts of the field who are destined for the table. Souls are what live, the meat-shells they inhabit on this prime material plane are just a chrysalis - often just a step on a greater journey across the great wheel. A body walking without a soul is one of the undead. A construct without a soul is just a device.

Does jazz exist in your setting yet? Can I invent it and not be stoned to death?

Jazz does not yet exist but could be invented without mortal peril. Critical reception might be ... confused but you could certainly give it a shot and see. The party has already launched a new genre of illusion-backed oratory that the artificers guild is in a twist trying to replicate.

What's the weirdest country/polity/region/area on your map?

Potentially the Land of the Dead - an old elven kingdom over the mountains which fell to a dark god, who was in turn deposed by Kirianshalee. Not much is known of this realm now, only that something has sparked off a new wave of the inhabitants fleeing over the mountains and into the focal realm of the game. They are said to be at war with the neighbours that share a northern border with the focus realm. They are said to be desperate.

Do guns exist yet? If they do, is there anything making them weird/different?

Something like guns exist. The propellant is not gunpowder and the typical ammunition is not lead balls but the principle of 'forged tube that spits fast moving projectile' is there.

Is there a divide between mundane/magical animals?

More of a continuum. It gets very fuzzy at the edges. This is a menagerie world - drawing from Rupert Bear, Curly Wee, the tales of Beatrix Potter - where magic has been in use for a long, long time with the expected reality warping effects. A recent incident involved a panic in the city where a tavern owner realised that the burly, fuzzy cloaked figure asleep in the corner was not a bearling but an actual bear in a cloak.

Additional responses to these questions can be found at Nothics Eye, by Filthpig, and as part of a triple bill on Throne of Salt.

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