FlamingKobold
2009-12-26, 10:54 PM
Note: This is a work in progress. I still need to Figure out and write out the rest of the tears. Also, I need to flesh out every ability for Entropic Majesty. If you have a suggestion for one, post it. Anything, seriously. My imagination-fu is getting lower every day. Anyway, this is what's done:
The ignorant imagine the creation of the universe as a strictly ordered and methodical process undertaken by the gods. The truth, told by the eldest mortal beings in existence, is drastically different. It is all but forgotten today. When the gods created the worlds and the various planes of existence, they did so by manipulating the essences of law and chaos, subtracting, combining and subdividing. Every world, every location, is a precise mixture of the two. However, the nature of having worlds in the universe means that, in the known world, law dominates chaos. Even on different planes, there are still rules, still laws, to determine what happens. In short, that leftover chaos must go somewhere. When worlds are created, there is leftover chaos flying through existence. Thus were formed the elder chaos-beings, creatures of pure chaos. The gods did their best to contain them, to ensure that they don’t destroy us all. Many were cast into eternal slumber, or sealed in prison demiplanes. However, as is the nature of chaos, it can never be contained. The “leftover” space in the universe is the greatest chaos-being of all: The Abysm. It can’t interact with the worlds at all, as it’s resting place is the opposite of the worlds. It is everywhere, and larger and more powerful than anything else in existence, but it is also nowhere, unable to breech the confines of the various worlds. Wizards, bah, they think that the only way to do anything is to follow rules. They ignore the greatest power of all, the power that I now wield against you. The power of Abysm.”
-Emald Sayos, epic Wanderer of the Abyss
Fluff
Background:
Wizards and wu jen are thought of, by most, as some of the most scholarly beings. To a Wanderer of the Abyss, however, they are remarkably close-minded. The fundamentals of both classes include the philosophy of following certain rules, such as words and gestures, to produce effects. The sorcerer does not fall prey to this to as great an extent, but they still say and do certain things, even though it is not memorized or studies. Wanderers have the ability to tear through the fabric of reality to let some amount of chaos into the world, which can have a multitude of effects, as explained later.
On the Meaning of “Abyss”:
When you hear the word abyss you probably think about demons. However, this interpretation of Abyss is flawed. Demos are only a chaotically-natured being, they do not exemplify utter chaos, as is the meaning of the term “Abysm.” Even the Grand Abyss in Baator is governed by law to some extent, but it is one of the locations in the multiverse with a significant link the real Abyss. The Abyss is both a location and a creature. Put simply, it is everywhere that is not in a world. The great Wheel has gaps between planes, and this is where there are no rules, there is no law. There is only chaos, which is the nature of the term Abyss.
Chaos
You may be thinking something along the lines of “What is this idiot talking about? Of course spellcasters already use chaos, there are spells with it in the players handbook. There’s an entire domain about it. Also, there are already classes that are all about chaos. Chaos monk, barbarian, anarch, avenger, etc.” Yep, those classes exist alright. However, if you’re thinking anything like that, you’re misinterpreting what law and chaos really mean. It’s not about following or breaking the law, or casting a spell with a certain word in the title. Law and chaos are the two most fundamental units of reality. Sure, good and evil often come into play more often in your average game, but they pale in comparison from a larger perspective. Good and evil don’t change how things function or are created, they are only moral codes that are utilized after a creature has been created ad functions. Anything that any creature currently relies on (swinging a sword, casting a spell, attacking someone in a vital area, etc) is governed by the laws of physics. (Physics in game terms, I’m not saying that it’s possible to cast a spell in real life). Chaos is, quite literally, the lack of any order. While I don’t suggest that the Wanderer is going to ignore every law of physics (he’s still going to walk, talk, and breathe), his power comes from pure chaos, the raw force in the multiverse that gives all things the ability to move, change, grow and happen. Chaos is the cause of all action in the universe, while law exists to make sure that actions have a location and a purpose for occurring.
Acquiring a link to the Abyss
All beings are inherently chaotic in two ways. First, they can think independently; in a perfectly lawful society, free thought would not exist. Second, they promote change. All change is inherently based upon chaos. Every movement a person makes adds chaos to the universe by changing the status quo. However, this alone does not provide a link to Abysm, because these same actions are anchored by law. Movements and actions, chaotic as they are, are anchored to law. Actions are guided by unchanging statutes such as gravity, reactions and results. However, there is one way to escape the reality of the world and enter the abyss: to learn to completely detach you mind from your body and delink it from reality. Once this occurs, your thoughts exit the world and are pushed to the only other “location:” Abysm. This may happen to any creature, especially while asleep, because dreams are a beings strongest link to chaos. Any creature whose mind enters the Abyss is forever changed. They gain abilities at great costs. However, there are some who pursue some semblance of control of the excursions and the ability to harness the power of chaos. These are the Wanderers of the Abyss, their thoughts roam through pure chaos and this allows them to tear open a small rip to let the chaos into the world.
The Method to the Madness
All creatures with a link to the abyss are constituted by the same four components: Interference, Excursions, Disruptions and Tearing.
Interference
Interference represents the distractions in your mind that come from having chaos constantly affecting you. The residual chaos from tearing into the Abyss interferes with the normal functioning of your brain. Every time you create a tear, you must make a Will save (DC 10 + 3xTear level) or take one point of temporary Wisdom damage. This does not heal normally, but you regain all wisdom damage lost this way after you do not create a tear for one hour. If your Wisdom would become zero due to this effect, you go incurably insane, by anything short of direct deific intervention or a wish or miracle spell. If you are unable to take wisdom damage, you may not use Tears.
Excursions
The way that a creature establishes a link to the Abyss is to go on a sort of “mental exploration,” most often by accident whilst asleep. This is called an excursion to Abysm. Wanderers, as they become more powerful, become more in tune to the abyss by purposely taking part in more excursions. An excursion is kind of like a school of wizardry, in that, depending on what excursions you have undergone, you have access to different Tears and you Disrupt the environment differently,
20 events that you witness. What you see and interact with on an excursion is what defines the excursion, because it is what part of chaos you explore and link to.
{table=header]Roll|Vision|Category of Excursion
1|A battle between two chaos entities|Entropic War
2|The evolution of chaos beings over the course of millennia|Perpetual Evolution
3|An elder chaos being that imparts to you lost secrets of the world|Distant Secrets
4|The nightmares of all beings in the multiverse|Nightmares Eternal
5|The links and spaces between planes|Planar Insight
6|The tides of the ocean of dreams|Waves of Dream
7|Your past tainted with chaos|Malformed Past
8|An endless road|The Endless Road
9|All the key elements performing an opposite function|Elemental Disjunction
10|A raging chaos being on a path of destruction|Destructive Anger
11|The dreams of an elder chaos things producing new creatures|Chaotic Dreams
12|A beautiful landscape that is quickly malformed into chaotic nonsense|Beauty Disfigured
13|A Wanderer that died long ago|Kinsmen of Ages Past
14|Your worst nightmare replayed again and again, getting more and more chaos-infused|Spiraling Fear
15|The distant past and distant future becoming chaotically coterminous, and yet still separate|The Unmeasured Time
16|A set of scales, never still, but with unchanging weights|Scales of Unbalance
17|You fly through the night sky, as stars live out their entire lives in a matter of minutes|Journey of the Night Sky
18|A creature pulling chaos from its own body and fashioning it into items|Tools from Chaos
19|Suggestion?|???
20|Suggestion?|???[/table]
Disruption
Where Interference is the internal effect of travelling to the Abyss, a disruption is a change in all creatures in the vicinity. You Disrupt the environment differently based on what Excursions you’ve gone on. Excursions extend 20’ out from you I all directions. Disruptions are a constant, weak sign of your connection to the Abyss, and thus have no in-game effect.
{table=header]Roll| Category of Excursion|Disruption
1| Entropic War|Creatures are more anxious for violence
2| Perpetual Evolution|Living creatures constantly change form in small ways
3| Distant Secrets|Creatures remember events faster and more vividly
4|Nightmares Eternal|All sleeping creatures experience nightmares
5| Planar Insight|Creatures have brief visions of other worlds
6| Waves of Dream|All creatures dream throughout their sleep, and always remember their dreams
7| Malformed Past |Creatures remember the past in a more somber fashion
8| The Endless Road|The end of a path always appears farther than it is
9| Elemental Disjunction|Elements are less extreme (Fire isn’t as hot, water not as wet, etc)
10| Destructive Anger| Creatures are angrier within the area
11|Chaotic Dreams|All beings think of ideas for new, strange creatures
12| Beauty Disfigured|Nothing appears to be as beautiful
13| Kinsmen of Ages Past|Creatures have thoughts of long-lost friends or allies
14| Spiraling Fear|Everything appears more frightening
15|The Unmeasured Time|Time never seems to go by at the correct rate
16|Scales of Unbalance|Scales and other measurements are indecisive
17| Journey of the Night Sky|Creatures constantly study the sky
18|Tools from Chaos|At first glance, all manufactured items seems slightly disfigured
19|???|?
20|???|?[/table]
Tears
A Tear is quite literally ripping the boundary between the world and the Abyss. This is a creature with a link to the abyss’ equivalent of spells, in that they are abilities that can be used a limited number of times per day, and perform a certain effect. As is the nature of chaos, it can’t be controlled, so very time a tear is created, there is a 1% chance per Tear level that more chaos will flow into the world. This causes the creator of the tear to take 1d6 subdual damage per level of the tear, a -4 penalty on the interference check, and the tear to become Empowered, as via the Empower Tear MetaTear Feat. Different excursions provide access to different Tears, as explained below. You must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + Tear Level to use a Tear.
Some people have already gone up to the section on interference, asking, “So when you use your main class ability, you harm the ability score associated with it? What?” In short, yes. As you use create more tears, more residual chaos floods your body, which means you can’t concentrate enough to tear anymore. From a crunch point of view, it acts as a limit, because it gets very risk to use higher level tears. Because Tears are at will abilities, they need some sort of limit. While I realize that this means that every player is just going to pump their wisdom through the roof, that’s the goal. Every class has one major weakness that the player strives to minimize via feats and resources. So, at the very least, this mechanic means that resources (gold and feats) are going to be put to the use of minimizing wisdom damage rather than other things.
The ignorant imagine the creation of the universe as a strictly ordered and methodical process undertaken by the gods. The truth, told by the eldest mortal beings in existence, is drastically different. It is all but forgotten today. When the gods created the worlds and the various planes of existence, they did so by manipulating the essences of law and chaos, subtracting, combining and subdividing. Every world, every location, is a precise mixture of the two. However, the nature of having worlds in the universe means that, in the known world, law dominates chaos. Even on different planes, there are still rules, still laws, to determine what happens. In short, that leftover chaos must go somewhere. When worlds are created, there is leftover chaos flying through existence. Thus were formed the elder chaos-beings, creatures of pure chaos. The gods did their best to contain them, to ensure that they don’t destroy us all. Many were cast into eternal slumber, or sealed in prison demiplanes. However, as is the nature of chaos, it can never be contained. The “leftover” space in the universe is the greatest chaos-being of all: The Abysm. It can’t interact with the worlds at all, as it’s resting place is the opposite of the worlds. It is everywhere, and larger and more powerful than anything else in existence, but it is also nowhere, unable to breech the confines of the various worlds. Wizards, bah, they think that the only way to do anything is to follow rules. They ignore the greatest power of all, the power that I now wield against you. The power of Abysm.”
-Emald Sayos, epic Wanderer of the Abyss
Fluff
Background:
Wizards and wu jen are thought of, by most, as some of the most scholarly beings. To a Wanderer of the Abyss, however, they are remarkably close-minded. The fundamentals of both classes include the philosophy of following certain rules, such as words and gestures, to produce effects. The sorcerer does not fall prey to this to as great an extent, but they still say and do certain things, even though it is not memorized or studies. Wanderers have the ability to tear through the fabric of reality to let some amount of chaos into the world, which can have a multitude of effects, as explained later.
On the Meaning of “Abyss”:
When you hear the word abyss you probably think about demons. However, this interpretation of Abyss is flawed. Demos are only a chaotically-natured being, they do not exemplify utter chaos, as is the meaning of the term “Abysm.” Even the Grand Abyss in Baator is governed by law to some extent, but it is one of the locations in the multiverse with a significant link the real Abyss. The Abyss is both a location and a creature. Put simply, it is everywhere that is not in a world. The great Wheel has gaps between planes, and this is where there are no rules, there is no law. There is only chaos, which is the nature of the term Abyss.
Chaos
You may be thinking something along the lines of “What is this idiot talking about? Of course spellcasters already use chaos, there are spells with it in the players handbook. There’s an entire domain about it. Also, there are already classes that are all about chaos. Chaos monk, barbarian, anarch, avenger, etc.” Yep, those classes exist alright. However, if you’re thinking anything like that, you’re misinterpreting what law and chaos really mean. It’s not about following or breaking the law, or casting a spell with a certain word in the title. Law and chaos are the two most fundamental units of reality. Sure, good and evil often come into play more often in your average game, but they pale in comparison from a larger perspective. Good and evil don’t change how things function or are created, they are only moral codes that are utilized after a creature has been created ad functions. Anything that any creature currently relies on (swinging a sword, casting a spell, attacking someone in a vital area, etc) is governed by the laws of physics. (Physics in game terms, I’m not saying that it’s possible to cast a spell in real life). Chaos is, quite literally, the lack of any order. While I don’t suggest that the Wanderer is going to ignore every law of physics (he’s still going to walk, talk, and breathe), his power comes from pure chaos, the raw force in the multiverse that gives all things the ability to move, change, grow and happen. Chaos is the cause of all action in the universe, while law exists to make sure that actions have a location and a purpose for occurring.
Acquiring a link to the Abyss
All beings are inherently chaotic in two ways. First, they can think independently; in a perfectly lawful society, free thought would not exist. Second, they promote change. All change is inherently based upon chaos. Every movement a person makes adds chaos to the universe by changing the status quo. However, this alone does not provide a link to Abysm, because these same actions are anchored by law. Movements and actions, chaotic as they are, are anchored to law. Actions are guided by unchanging statutes such as gravity, reactions and results. However, there is one way to escape the reality of the world and enter the abyss: to learn to completely detach you mind from your body and delink it from reality. Once this occurs, your thoughts exit the world and are pushed to the only other “location:” Abysm. This may happen to any creature, especially while asleep, because dreams are a beings strongest link to chaos. Any creature whose mind enters the Abyss is forever changed. They gain abilities at great costs. However, there are some who pursue some semblance of control of the excursions and the ability to harness the power of chaos. These are the Wanderers of the Abyss, their thoughts roam through pure chaos and this allows them to tear open a small rip to let the chaos into the world.
The Method to the Madness
All creatures with a link to the abyss are constituted by the same four components: Interference, Excursions, Disruptions and Tearing.
Interference
Interference represents the distractions in your mind that come from having chaos constantly affecting you. The residual chaos from tearing into the Abyss interferes with the normal functioning of your brain. Every time you create a tear, you must make a Will save (DC 10 + 3xTear level) or take one point of temporary Wisdom damage. This does not heal normally, but you regain all wisdom damage lost this way after you do not create a tear for one hour. If your Wisdom would become zero due to this effect, you go incurably insane, by anything short of direct deific intervention or a wish or miracle spell. If you are unable to take wisdom damage, you may not use Tears.
Excursions
The way that a creature establishes a link to the Abyss is to go on a sort of “mental exploration,” most often by accident whilst asleep. This is called an excursion to Abysm. Wanderers, as they become more powerful, become more in tune to the abyss by purposely taking part in more excursions. An excursion is kind of like a school of wizardry, in that, depending on what excursions you have undergone, you have access to different Tears and you Disrupt the environment differently,
20 events that you witness. What you see and interact with on an excursion is what defines the excursion, because it is what part of chaos you explore and link to.
{table=header]Roll|Vision|Category of Excursion
1|A battle between two chaos entities|Entropic War
2|The evolution of chaos beings over the course of millennia|Perpetual Evolution
3|An elder chaos being that imparts to you lost secrets of the world|Distant Secrets
4|The nightmares of all beings in the multiverse|Nightmares Eternal
5|The links and spaces between planes|Planar Insight
6|The tides of the ocean of dreams|Waves of Dream
7|Your past tainted with chaos|Malformed Past
8|An endless road|The Endless Road
9|All the key elements performing an opposite function|Elemental Disjunction
10|A raging chaos being on a path of destruction|Destructive Anger
11|The dreams of an elder chaos things producing new creatures|Chaotic Dreams
12|A beautiful landscape that is quickly malformed into chaotic nonsense|Beauty Disfigured
13|A Wanderer that died long ago|Kinsmen of Ages Past
14|Your worst nightmare replayed again and again, getting more and more chaos-infused|Spiraling Fear
15|The distant past and distant future becoming chaotically coterminous, and yet still separate|The Unmeasured Time
16|A set of scales, never still, but with unchanging weights|Scales of Unbalance
17|You fly through the night sky, as stars live out their entire lives in a matter of minutes|Journey of the Night Sky
18|A creature pulling chaos from its own body and fashioning it into items|Tools from Chaos
19|Suggestion?|???
20|Suggestion?|???[/table]
Disruption
Where Interference is the internal effect of travelling to the Abyss, a disruption is a change in all creatures in the vicinity. You Disrupt the environment differently based on what Excursions you’ve gone on. Excursions extend 20’ out from you I all directions. Disruptions are a constant, weak sign of your connection to the Abyss, and thus have no in-game effect.
{table=header]Roll| Category of Excursion|Disruption
1| Entropic War|Creatures are more anxious for violence
2| Perpetual Evolution|Living creatures constantly change form in small ways
3| Distant Secrets|Creatures remember events faster and more vividly
4|Nightmares Eternal|All sleeping creatures experience nightmares
5| Planar Insight|Creatures have brief visions of other worlds
6| Waves of Dream|All creatures dream throughout their sleep, and always remember their dreams
7| Malformed Past |Creatures remember the past in a more somber fashion
8| The Endless Road|The end of a path always appears farther than it is
9| Elemental Disjunction|Elements are less extreme (Fire isn’t as hot, water not as wet, etc)
10| Destructive Anger| Creatures are angrier within the area
11|Chaotic Dreams|All beings think of ideas for new, strange creatures
12| Beauty Disfigured|Nothing appears to be as beautiful
13| Kinsmen of Ages Past|Creatures have thoughts of long-lost friends or allies
14| Spiraling Fear|Everything appears more frightening
15|The Unmeasured Time|Time never seems to go by at the correct rate
16|Scales of Unbalance|Scales and other measurements are indecisive
17| Journey of the Night Sky|Creatures constantly study the sky
18|Tools from Chaos|At first glance, all manufactured items seems slightly disfigured
19|???|?
20|???|?[/table]
Tears
A Tear is quite literally ripping the boundary between the world and the Abyss. This is a creature with a link to the abyss’ equivalent of spells, in that they are abilities that can be used a limited number of times per day, and perform a certain effect. As is the nature of chaos, it can’t be controlled, so very time a tear is created, there is a 1% chance per Tear level that more chaos will flow into the world. This causes the creator of the tear to take 1d6 subdual damage per level of the tear, a -4 penalty on the interference check, and the tear to become Empowered, as via the Empower Tear MetaTear Feat. Different excursions provide access to different Tears, as explained below. You must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + Tear Level to use a Tear.
Some people have already gone up to the section on interference, asking, “So when you use your main class ability, you harm the ability score associated with it? What?” In short, yes. As you use create more tears, more residual chaos floods your body, which means you can’t concentrate enough to tear anymore. From a crunch point of view, it acts as a limit, because it gets very risk to use higher level tears. Because Tears are at will abilities, they need some sort of limit. While I realize that this means that every player is just going to pump their wisdom through the roof, that’s the goal. Every class has one major weakness that the player strives to minimize via feats and resources. So, at the very least, this mechanic means that resources (gold and feats) are going to be put to the use of minimizing wisdom damage rather than other things.