[4e] Makraggan

[Lord Raziere]

"For Honor! For Strength! For Glory!
For the Fanged God and all that it devours!
We Fight for what we believe!
We Protect what is dear!
We are Drarga!
It we who you must fear!"
-Traditional Drargan Orc Chant

"Speak not to the Gods! Worship them, fear them, kill in their name, but speak not to the Gods!"- Universal Makraggan warning.

Makraggan, you could say, asks a few questions

Question one: what would the world be like, if none of the usual "good" races existed, and instead the world is inhabited by orcs, goblins, hobgoblins and other "monstrous" folk who were never evil in the first place?

Question two: What would the world be like, if the Gods were incomprehensible and amoral, and every time someone tried to contact them, they went insane, but people nonetheless keep worshiping them?

Question three: What would the world be like, if the only other known plane of existence, was the Far Realm?

Question Four: What if Arcane Magic was incredibly rare, so rare there are no traditions for it and people rely mostly on primal and divine magic?

Question five: what if all rituals and magic items drew upon your own life force or drank on your blood to power their magic?

These simple five questions are the foundation for this homebrew campaign setting. As you can tell, this setting won't really have alignment, nor will it be big upon getting lots of magical items (unless you want to die to your own items sucking your life force out). I will oversee how it develops.

[Lord Raziere]

The List of Races

The list of playable races in this setting:

Orcs
Goblins
Dragonborn
Hobgoblins
Kobolds
Shifters
Minotaurs
Kenku
Gnoll
Doppelganger
Kargoblin (renamed bugbears)
Anurans (renamed bully...wugs)

All others aren't allowed, cause either they are one of the races that are normally seen like humans, dwarves or elves, or are from other planes like githzerai, githyanki and shadar-kai, and finally tieflings are sort of just corrupted forms of humans.
as for shifters, they will given a different origin entirely and made to look more bestial.
Dragonborn are there mostly because they seem to fit.

[LOTRfan]

Aren't shifters a race of humans descended from lycanthropes? Or is it different in 4e?

[Lord Raziere]

Aren't shifters a race of humans descended from lycanthropes? Or is it different in 4e?

no, it isn't different in 4e, but I am giving them a different origin for this setting and making them more bestial in appearance, mostly because I just feel like it.

[Spleen Flayer]

I must say, making a world in which only the more bestial races exist is an intriguing idea. Also , would there be bullywug?

[Lord Raziere]

I must say, making a world in which only the more bestial races exist is an intriguing idea. Also , would there be bullywug?

as long as it isn't referred to as...that name I have nothing against the frog-men themselves, I just don't like the name for them, its hard for me to take them seriously with that kind of name and I consider it mildly insulting since it has the word "bully" in it. the "wug" just makes it sound ridiculous.

that said, yes I would like them in, I would just come up with a better name for them first.

[Lord Raziere]

first off:

Bugbear is going to be added in, but under the name of "Kargoblin"

Bully...............wug...is going to be added in under the name of "Anurans"

next:

Dragonborn and the Progenitor Dragons

The name of "Dragonborn" is more literal on Makraggan than other worlds.
In the sense, that all Dragonborn, are actually born from dragons. Makraggan Dragonborn have no gender, their society is more like bees or ants serving their dragon queen. They don't have a hive mind or anything like that, they just have a strong worship of the dragons whom they call "Progenitors".

The Progenitor Dragons, are only nine in all. They each rule a vast city devoted to them filled with their Dragonborn children. Dragonborn cannot reproduce themselves so they are forever serving the Progenitor Dragons to ensure their race continues on. The concept of "family" is foreign to them but not the one of "Mother", for in a sense they are all offspring serving their mothers dutifully.

Each Progenitor City has its own culture and customs, and each city has dragonborn of a different color- from one city comes red dragonborn, from another black dragonborn, yet another only has green dragonborn and so on and so forth. Dragonborns of two different colors aren't born from one Progenitor, a Progenitor can only birth one color of dragonborn, the one they themselves possess.

Except in one, very special case. Or should I say eight?

You see, the Progenitor Dragons didn't all arrive at once. When a Progenitor Dragon does birth a dragon of a different color than themselves, it cause for great celebration- or great fear. For it means that this first dragonborn of a new color will one day become the next Progenitor, a new ruler and mother of their race. But new Progenitors also bring great change and upheaval n their wake, causing chaos and uproar before founding the new Progenitor City. This is plain history, all the way back to the First Progenitor when it birthed the Second Progenitor.

Guess what? There are already rumors that the Ninth Progenitor has birthed a white dragonborn who is already out wandering the world....on their journey to become the Tenth Progenitor....

[Mayhem]

Sounds awesome, this might actually get me to play 4e...

I love the dragonborn so far. So are dragonborn fertile at all or do they have to wait until the 'Queen' or royal consort/s depart? Is the 'royal consort', for lack of a better term, a dragon as well or is he just a male dragonborn? Or are they completely asexual?

Also, have you read Orcs by Stan Nicholls? That'd be a good direction to take the hobs or orcs in I think.

[Lord Raziere]

Sounds awesome, this might actually get me to play 4e...

I love the dragonborn so far. So are dragonborn fertile at all or do they have to wait until the 'Queen' or royal consort/s depart? Is the 'royal consort', for lack of a better term, a dragon as well or is he just a male dragonborn? Or are they completely asexual?

Also, have you read Orcs by Stan Nicholls? That'd be a good direction to take the hobs or orcs in I think.

yes, I have read Orcs.

completely asexual, the Progenitors are worshiped mostly because its a mystery of how they reproduce without consorts, their nature is at least semi-divine, closer to living physical demigods.

and yes I am going to somewise take the orcs in a direction like that, cause those orcs are awesome.

[Lord Raziere]

Arcane Magic On Makraggan

Let me be honest.
No one on Makraggan has any freaking clue what an "arcane" is.
There are no traditions of arcane magic, there is no knowledge of arcane magic, people just plain never discovered it.
However, it does exist. It is practiced, and it is used. Its just that- they think its something else.

Sorcerers, Warlocks and Bards are the three most common arcane classes on Makraggan. The Sorcerers all think they are wielding primal magic, the Bards think their magic is divine and Warlocks think Vestige Pact is Primal magic and Star Pact Psionic magic. They have absolutely no clue what is actually going on.

Artificers outright don't exist, and they never will on Makraggan, due to enchantments and rituals- and therefore complicated arcane machinery- requiring blood or life force. The amount of blood and life force needed to power artifice......well I don't want to think about it and neither do you.

wizards and and swordmages however do exist- they are just the first of their kind. They don't have old lore from long ago to read or stern teachers to help em out. These wizards and swordmages are basically the first intellectuals of the world actually starting to experiment with things and working the scientific method, rationality and all that jazz.
Naturally, the quest of these experimenters can be dangerous, full of working out new spells that might or not go boom, or cause something unnatural, or do something else that isn't meant to be, or cross a moral line.

You want to play arcane magic on Makraggan, then take your pick: mistaken weirdo or experimenter who has no clue what hes doing.

[Mayhem]

Interesting... so the local wizard will practically be a merlin-like hermit? Sweet.

As for dragons, cool. Are you going to have any sort of "half-dragon(ish)" dragonborn who aren't the next progenitors yet still live somewhere between dragons and dragonborn? Somewhat like dragonborn but with vestigial wings, I guess I'm saying.
And how do kobolds fit in? Are they sort of like primitive wild dragonborn? Maybe kobolds could have strong claws for digging, and fill the dwarf hat. I suppose they could also be another dragonborn caste of workers and engineers, with dragonborn being merchants and warriors.

And I wholeheartedly agree with your bullywug argument :smallamused:

[Lord Raziere]

.....well there is the "scion of arkhosia" paragon path that dragonborn can take but I'm considering that is more on the path of becoming a Progenitor Dragon, or becoming a champion of a Progenitor Dragon, so yes I could work that in.

as for Kobolds....have thought about them yet...., or they COULD be a caste of the dragonborn.....but I want something more original for them, being a caste of dragonborn is something to fall back on, but its definitely an idea for them- perhaps in each city there is a secondary population of Kobolds serving some other role than normal?

on the other hand I could make the Kobolds able to reproduce while the dragonborn can't, thus only deepening the mystery of how the Progenitors work.

ooh, I know, make kobolds flip-dwarves and have them constantly building things that go upwards, living in the highest places possible and even taming giant birds and such to fly around on while in battle making these various tactics of shooting everything under them and generally causing death from above. they would worship various primal bird spirits and such. also: do you think the would have a fondness for walking on stilts? methinks they would.

[Mayhem]

Kobolds as engineers would be good, fits them well. They're always trapmakers and miners, so it fits that without being hunted to extinction by the other races they'd be free to do as they wish. Trying to get into the air sounds like a reasonable goal, perhaps they've even succeeded in making gliders and prototype ornithopters/derigibles? Taming birds sounds good, maybe even wyverns?
I think in this case +2 intelligence is more fitting than +2 constitution.

I dunno about the stilits part, that seems somewhat oddball. Kind of hard to take seriously when you see guards at the wall then get to the other side and find they're on stilts. Could be fun though.

There's a lack of wisdom races. I nominate minotaurs for this, with +2 str and +2 wis they'd make good rangers, clerics, druids, fighters, etc.
Also what book are the kenku in?

[Lord Raziere]

kenku are in monster manual 2, same stats a halfling.

but now its time for:

Orcs

Orc society, is a little like feudalism or manoralism, but not. They are also kind like dwarves but not.
Ok, I'm going around in circles, all orcs belong to a clan. These clans are defined as entire towns, ruled by a Clan Chief, who is ruled by the Overchief of Drarga. The Overchief is the chief of chiefs, hes the guy who acts as general in times of war, negotiator between the clans in times of peace and ruler of the central city Drargakan. The Overchief is less of an "absolute power" kind of guy and more of the guy who gets the glory of planning the strategies that defend the nation of Drarga, but is stuck having to solve the various issues that crop up in his own city and between the clans.

The Clan chiefs are the guys who act as commander for their own forces but the guys who have to deal with their own clans issues. There is no noble class among the orcs, both kinds of chief are elected. However whenever the vote is equal, the two chief-elects simply duke it out, the winner gets to be chief. heck, some times the chief-elects decide to fight it out anyways, a good if risky campaign strategy, assuming that you win.

Orc culture is in general, honorable but pragmatic. They don't harm people who don't harm them, but are perfectly willing to use any means winning when it comes down to a fight. They can be at times ruthless and willing to make hard decisions, but it doesn't mean they don't have a heart. They however love fighting and killing to a degree and a child who hasn't killed their first animal by age five is considered improperly raised. Their buildings are often simple and without decoration, the grandest thing orcs have built is the Overchief House, which could pass for a minor nobles abode in other societies. Clan Chiefs don't even get a new house, they just have their same house, but now with an adviser following them around.
Orcs do however have a thing for decorating their house with trophies of beasts and enemies they felled, shows they are strong.

The entire orc clan, while they do have daily lives, are trained for war. Yup, the entire clan, all orcs fight and are trained to fight, there are no slackers in orc society and neither are there people who need to be defended, a defenseless orc is an oxymoron. If a Clan Chief sees an orc beggar in the street they will gladly do everything in their power to get the orc off their ass and back to work. Even in Drargakan, all orcs train for combat daily.

It should be noted that an orcs best friend is a wolf. Therefore it should be obvious to anyone that their other best friend are longtooth shifters. Just throwing that out there.

[Lord Raziere]

Gods of Makraggan

The gods of Makkraggan are not moral, not humanoid and not comprehensible. You cannot definitively say that any of them are good are evil. Furthermore, all of what is known of them was spouted by madmen who were once clerics who contacted them long ago. Their accounts are reliable as you think they are. for all we know, their insanity caused them to hallucinate and the inhabitants of Makraggan are worshiping the imaginings of crazy people instead of the actual gods.

Almost all contacts with gods end in insanity. The only exception are level 30 characters who contact the gods, who instead actually understand what the gods are like but understand too much and started to mutate and evolve (some say devolve) into a demigod who is then pulled into whatever realm the gods inhabit, by then their mind and understanding have become so advanced and their bodies so alien that they cannot communicate with those they now can only consider ants without making them go insane as well. However none of the people of Makraggan knows that that is what ascension is like, they just know there is a thing called ascension and so pursue it anyway, unknowingly journeying towards being turned into an eldritch abomination of nature.

Whether the gods are active is not known for things could just be luck, or it could be arranged by the gods, or it could be arranged by the god of randomness who controls luck. No one is really sure.

As for whether there are servants of the gods- that is a matter of great debate, for some believe the Far Realm's creatures are the servants of the gods- and since people have been known to go insane trying to contact that plane as well, there is evidence that they are similar. Some contest that they are not servants of the gods because they keep invading us. It is argued back that the gods are alien and we can't really understand them, the invasion might be for our own good. and so on and so forth.

We just don't really know about the gods on anything and trying to find out more will probably only earn you more people going looney and gibbering about ineffable unknowable things not meant for our ears. what is known is that they exist and that they are willing to give divine power. The sanity of the religious people themselves are questionable however.

[Lord Raziere]

Hobgoblins

Hobgoblin society is contradictory and complex. In public you are to have no vices but you can be certain that in private there are at least half of the goblins leaders who enjoy pipes, wine and men or women of negotiable virtue.
The hobgoblins who rebel, instead show their vices openly in public while privately being devout to the gods.
Furthermore hobgoblins are both cosmopolitan and take their religion seriously.
Hobgoblins are unusually accepting of other peoples viewpoints and their cities are some of the most diverse in the world, and will even calmly listen to you talk about your religion all day without any fuss or getting angry.
However YOU don't ask THEM about their religion. They don't like to talk about it. Hobgoblins can easily and calmly discuss religion with anyone and everyone....except other hobgoblins. For everyone else it is a non-issue, yet among their own society they immediately shut up about it and if they actually do talk about it, it starts to become a big argument and sometimes a riot.
Therefore it is not a strange sight to see a bunch of different temples in the same hobgoblin city, and have two different groups of hobgoblins just walk around, ignoring each other. There isn't really any fighting over religion in hobgoblin cities, there is just curt, cold ignoring of each others existence. Ask one temple what they think of the church across the street and they will go "what church? there is no church across the street, you must be seeing things."
Furthermore, hobgoblin society while cosmopolitan also operates on this strange hierarchy. This hierarchy is determined by service, as in how much you have done for hobgoblin society. Guys who don't do much quickly to the bottom of the hierarchy,even visitors, merchants and tourists are above them as they contribute to the economy by buying stuff. The guys who do the most are at the top of the hierarchy; the generals who keep people safe, heads of guilds keeping the economy running etc, BUT, parasitic nobles who inherited their wealth however are ALSO at the bottom of the hierarchy, cause they didn't do anything for hobgoblin society.
Therefore, wealthy guys they have to actually use their wealth to help society and other people in order to receive the privileges of the top of the hierarchy.

The Emperor is the topmost guy, the position given to the person who deliberately goes out of his way to help out society as much as they can.

aaaannnnd thats all I can really think of for hobgoblins.

[Lord Raziere]

Kobolds

Kobolds on Makraggan are the anti-dwarf. No they are not elflike. I meant that instead of digging underground, they build upwards. Always building upwards, they call their cities "Towertowns" for they are always taller than they are wide.
They think of progress as not going forward but going upwards. To us the sky's the limit. To them, the sky's the minimum. Most people speculate that they want to be so high in the sky is because they are short compared to others. The Kobolds do not deign to answer they can't hear you from all the way up there.

A Kobolds philosophy is always "higher is better" to them, 3-D thinking is natural and easy. A kobold battlefield commander always considers the tactical merits of say firing from higher ground, ambushing people from treetops and throwing alchemical bombs from their hang gliders. Indeed, this 3-D thinking is why Towertowns are built, as they are very defensible when you know the enemy is going to assault from downstairs and such.
Even orcs are hesitant to attack them, because they will showered an rain of arrows and bombs greeting and if they get past that, will have to constantly a literal uphill battle in spaces and halls designed for Kobold habitation where they will have an advantage.
Furthermore, Kobold walls don't have parapets. they instead have sharp spikes on them which any soldier stupid enough to bring a ladder upon and climb up to will only get impaled upon them. Specially trained kobold lookouts and guards walked on stilts instead using lances, bows, crossbows, bombs and other such longer ranged weapons to bring the enemy down.
In short, fighting Kobolds is a tactical nightmare, only the foolish try.

Why people haven't copied their tactics, because things like the stilts, the hang gliders, etc etc. are designed solely for kobolds and there aren't many engineers outside their own race. However goblins are small and light enough to use their inventions and one encounters a few goblins in a kobold Towertown now and then.

Kobolds also serve as merchants on their flying Roc mounts, delivering supplies and mail faster than any ground merchant, but at more expensive prices. Kobolds are generally on good relations with Dragonborn as they have common ancestry. However Dragonborn scholars are still trying to figure out to this day why Kobolds can reproduce themselves and Dragonborn can't.
Kobolds also like to drink lots of coffee. finally there are the most imaginative of kobold engineers who are constantly working on inventing the next flying machine- and dreaming of someday making a flying machine that flies even to the stars.

[Mayhem]

Looking good so far mate :smallwink:

[LOTRfan]

I like your idea for Kobold tactics and preferences. Although the Kobolds in my campaign are subterranean, I'm so borrowing that. Thanks. :smallsmile:

[Lord Raziere]

Goblins

If one were to travel as fast they could to the edge of the world, doing everything to get there before anyone else, they will find that a Goblin already got there and is selling parachutes for when you want go to jumping off.
- The Oldest Joke

Goblins are everywhere. They are not all really settled, but they're everywhere.
Half of the population of Goblin cities are a shifting mercurial class of troubadours, merchants, friars, fools, circuses and other eternal travelers going to and fro across the world. Half the goblins love traveling to other places, the other half loves receiving visitors and hearing their tales.

All the while they are the cheapest most commonly used merchants, shippers and traders across Makraggan. Name the thing and a place, and goblin will a find a way to get it there and then name a price for getting it there. While they are doing this they will buy something of their own take along with them.

Goblins quite simply are peoples of tales, of deals, of traveling, of gambling and buy and selling. You will find them selling orcish beer, koboldian coffee, wonders from the nine progenitor cities, everything. They are quite simply a vital part of Makraggans economy. Their own cities are strange conglomerations of every culture and city they ever visited, their Bazaars often take up half the town with hawking, bargaining, bidding and general mercantilism consisting of various stalls going in and out almost every day.
These cities are ruled by goblin councils, but there is much communication between the various councils because they are busy running their own cities.

That is to say the goblins aren't all the merchants on Makraggan but they do take up a large chunk of them and all other merchants probably learned their trade from one. Also, every city on Makraggan has at some space set aside for incoming goblin caravans.

Also, goblins love to party. The concept of "investments" and "saving" isn't really in their vocabulary as they strongly believe that money is there to be spent, to be used. You have a lot of money? throw a wild party then go out and get some more! Then party s'more! The people of Makraggan consider the goblins vital for their economies, but they consider the goblins awesome because they throw the best parties ever.

Also, goblins don't have any concept of "interest", to them a debt is a debt whole; it cannot be changed or cut into pieces because it is a debt. Debts are sacred things; to offer to pay it off piecemeal or bring up the concept of "interest" would horrify a goblin and would be insulting their honor as a merchant. If a goblin pays off a debt, they always pay it off in full, to do otherwise would be like giving someone only half of a person held hostage back.

As a result, despite their economic affluence and their prosperous cities, it is rare to see a goblin who is actually rich because they occur so rarely and such a rich goblin will probably not be rich much longer in a couple weeks.

[Omeganaut]

I like how you are turning the predictable races on their heads, but I notice a lack of hostiles in your setting. If all the bad guys are good, and all the good guys are gone, then who are the bad guys? Will the races be fighting each other? will there be nations separate of race that fight each other? That's the one problem I see with your setting. You need conflict and adventure to interest people playing in your world. However, I like what you have done so far, and look forward to more.

[Lord Raziere]

I like how you are turning the predictable races on their heads, but I notice a lack of hostiles in your setting. If all the bad guys are good, and all the good guys are gone, then who are the bad guys? Will the races be fighting each other? will there be nations separate of race that fight each other? That's the one problem I see with your setting. You need conflict and adventure to interest people playing in your world. However, I like what you have done so far, and look forward to more.

now now don't worry. I'll be getting to that soon. things take time. all will be figured out with time, what matters right now is to set up what you are defending. cause my world-building takes everything one thing at a time....

that and these are just overviews and such. general things.
the nine Progenitor cities probably won't get along with each other very well, there are dark sides to hobgoblin, orc, and goblin and kobold societies, as well as various cults aiding the Far Realm to bring down civilization, the Primal spirits aren't really nice or familial like they are in Primal Power and neither are the tribes worshiping them, there are various crazy enchanters kidnapping people to use their blood to make homunculi, golems and other machines and artificial creations, that and since the dead linger and there have been wars in the past, there are probably lots of ghosts around haunting things and stirring up trouble, and sometimes zombies and other undead just spontaneously arise without the need for a necromancer to raise them, oh and y'know the doppelgangers? well there is a secret society of them that formed since people really don't trust them for being shapeshifters and are working to takeover the world.

oh and the attitude towards Psionics in this setting is generally "Burn the Psion!" so it causes all the problems you can imagine there....

Edit: oh and thats not factoring in the giants and their servants wanting revenge for being defeated long ago somehow.

[Lord Raziere]

Traitors of the Progenitors

Long time ago, some Dragonborn got fed up with only being able to reproduce through the Progenitor Dragons. They went to the Progenitors and accused them of purposefully birthing them without the ability to reproduce themselves, so that they would be forever reliant upon the Progenitors so that the Progenitors would always have importance and servants to their will so that they don't wind up lonely in a cave somewhere becoming vain.

The Progenitors shouted back in fury at such a claim, but did not answer the question. These rebellious Dragonborn decided to leave and find their own of continuing the Dragonborn without the need of the Progenitors.

One group went to the primal spirits of the world, ancient and primeval and made a deal with them- that they will serve them as long as they granted the ability to reproduce. These dragonborn were twisted into the Drakkoth, and became murderous barbaric berserkers under these primal spirits magic.

The next group, seeing the results of the Drakkoths, instead went to the Yuan-Ti, who are infamous for their lore and psionic magic that they use to tinker with life and bloodlines. Their deal with them soon turned these Dragonborn into Lizardfolk, who are now willing slaves to the Yuan-Ti in their quest to subjugate and alter all races in the world to fit how the Yuan-Ti prefers it.

The last, seeing the folly of the other groups, tapped into Psionic magic itself, the foul tainted energy of the Far Realm and after some experimenting, altered themselves to reproduce- but in the process turned themselves into Troglodytes, forever tainted by the Far Realm, forever Foulborn, forever destined to serve the Far Realms ends.

These three races are known as the Traitors of the Progenitors to the Dragonborn, or the Dragonborn Traitors among other races. They are all hostile and wish to bring about the destruction of the Progenitors and all their allies.

[Lord Raziere]

Kargoblins

On islands, isolated from the rest of the races of Makraggan, the Kargoblins dwell. Unlike their cousins, the Kargoblins are isolationist. However they are a race that actually values Psionics, accepting Psions of any race onto their islands.
The Kargoblins believe that Psionics is the best weapon to use against the Far Realm- fighting fire with fire so to speak. They also strongly take the position that the Gods are not creatures of the Far Realm. Their armies lead ascetic lifestyles, and their cities are quiet solemn places of peace and tranquility.
The common soldier is taught to survive by bare minimums and to keep their morale up through quiet devotion to the gods. They are completely spartan, their lives completely sharpened to defend their land from pirates, beasts, ghosts and other threats.

Their government is theocratic, ruled by a Council of High Priests. For Kargoblins believe that all should be ruled in balance. Law and religious doctrine are one and the same. Corruption does not happen, because any priest taking bribes would be betraying their beliefs they hold dear, and there are no bribers because that would be committing a sin.
There is however trade between Kargoblin isles and there is a common Kargoblin Navy dedicated to protecting all Kargoblins.

The problem of course, is that other races view Kargoblins as corrupted by the Far Realm since they shelter Psionics users. The only reason why the Kargoblins are still around is because they have the best navy and keep themselves out of other peoples business. However it wouldn't be beyond possibility for people to plot their downfall through subterfuge and trickery.

Kargoblins outright hate Primal spirits though. They are at constant war with various ocean barbarian tribes worshiping savage sea spirits, and some of those tribes are Kargoblins who rejected the faith of the gods. They regard the Primal Spirits as the exact opposite of all that they hold dear- civilization, order, safety for all, working together- and want them destroyed.

There are some Kargoblins who go out into the world on some personal mission or because of exile for committing a sin, or whatever other personal reasons they have and there are even some settlements of these outcast Kargoblins who have become dangerous criminals of ruthless pragmatism and selfishness.

[Lord Raziere]

Yuan Ti

They, unlike normal Yuan-Ti always has a snake tail. Their abominations and other forms of Yuan-Ti are not really Yuan-Ti in this setting, but genetically altered weapons created by them. The Yuan-Ti in Makraggan are advanced alchemists and geneticists. They have tamed and bred Wyverns as flying mounts, they have Lizardfolk slaves they use as a military made from traitor Dragonborn and have various poisons and acids at their disposal. They are the best users of non-divine medicine and healing techniques, and have great libraries of knowledge only matched by the Blue Progenitor's Encyclo-Palace.
They even have Psionics at their disposal.

They dislike the other races, look down upon them and are developing a project to engineer plagues to wipe all of them out.

Why? No one knows why, you can ask why someone holds onto something as irrational as racism all day but you'd never get any answer, just as you if ask a Yuan-Ti why they want to wipe out the other races they would respond with a hiss and trying to shove their spear down your throat.
Its a mystery really, and there have been people brave to try and go find out...but are sadly missing, most likely dead.

That said, the other Makraggan races only know that the Yuan-Ti want to wipe them out and are only bothering to defend themselves rather than trying to investigate further. To them its just what the Yuan-Ti do: try to wipe them out. it doesn't make any sense to the other races but they shrug and just defend themselves anyways. Finding out the reasons why the Yuan-Ti want to kill everyone would be a good discovery for any adventurer to make so that something could be done about it.

However, why the Yuan-Ti would want to kill all the other races is up to the person DMing it. I'm just leaving it vague, for them to figure out and make adventures out of.

Also, their buildings are always pure white and built like Aztec temples.

furthermore, it might be a good idea for adventurers to raid Yuan-Ti libraries- they have a lot of knowledge and information others don't and their skills at genetics might be the key to unlocking such a thing as Dragonborn reproduction- after all, the Lizardfolk are probably just a result from the Yuan-Ti genetically modifying their brains to be obedient as well.
However persuading the Progenitors to accept such knowledge to be used, is another matter entirely.

[Lord Raziere]

Doppelgangers

The Doppelgangers of the Makraggan are mostly, not trusted by other races. Think: would anyone trust a shapeshifter? As a result, Doppelganger society as a whole is secret and their members try to find each other using networks and signals only the Doppelgangers knows, taught by their parents, for example the universal sideways thumbs up that signals that your a Doppelganger to every other Doppelganger.

Doppelgangers have to stick together, and therefore small groups, often little private clubs and close knit groups of friends are their society. Doppelgangers don't make many friends but when they do they stand by them no matter what, cause shapeshifters have to stick together, they just have to. Most Doppelgangers are somewhat introverted as a result. Two groups of Doppelgangers meeting each other however is a different business.

Two groups of Doppelgangers actually meeting is uncommon but not unheard of in Doppelganger circles. The result is often awkwardness- just because they are all Doppelgangers doesn't meant hey will like each other. It might even mean the two groups are working at cross-purposes, but the Doppelgangers will do everything in their power to prevent any conflict from breaking out- they don't like killing fellow shapeshifters.

However if conflict breaks out- neither the other races or authorities will ever know. It would be a subtle, pragmatic and underwhelming conflict involving a lot of cutthroat tactics, subterfuge and as little commotion as possible. If they are going to kill each other, they might as well do it without any of the other races knowing, don't want to blow their cover.

There are a few larger networks among the Doppelgangers-specifically, the Changing Fingers, the Mercury Strings and the Shadow Shield.

The Shadow Shield, is probably the most benevolent as they are a network of Doppelgangers dedicated to secretly protecting the civilization they parasitically live off of. It is the only network known by actual governments and only because the Shadow Shield revealed themselves to them. They work as assassins, secret police and ambassadors- in fact Shadow Shield doppelgangers are the best ambassadors since they can shapeshift and as a result, all the ambassadors are Shadow Shield talking to each other- the governments may know of Shadow Shield, but they don't know that other governments know of Shadow Shield.

The Changing Fingers is a Doppelganger network composed entirely of arcane spellcasters. It was formed very recently and is composed of Doppelganger wizards that believe that the powers they wield are specific to Doppelgangers alone- they have saw no evidence of any other races wielding such magic, and thus keep it to themselves for fear of their secrets being plumbed and turned against them. If they found any other race wielding said arcane powers- well it would depend, Changing Fingers is a fractious lot and their reaction ranges from trying to kill the abomination, to "Oooh that's interesting! Tell me more!"

Then there is the Mercury Strings. they believe that the Doppelgangers should rule the world. So they are constantly trying to infiltrate all the governments, the Shadow Shield of course stands against them. The Shadow Shield hasn't told anyone of Mercury Strings because that would only cause mass paranoia and doppel-hunts. The mercury-shadow conflict is a secret shadow war being waged every day, and is a confusing, twistly one. There are plots, and counterplots, contingencies and lies and....after a while, it starts to get confusing and convoluted, then there is all the sudden double agents, spies, triple agents and such.....yea, Mercury Strings is kinda the reason why the Doppelgangers don't want to come out of hiding....

[Lord Raziere]

Hi, sorry I have been updating this slowly. don't worry, saved this to my hard drive, so if this thread gets deleted, I can still post it back up. :smallcool:

now for something very important:

Rituals, Magic Items and Life Force

Now to go in-depth upon rituals. First: they don’t cost money which is Good, because players can’t afford to spend said money on the rituals anyways- have more important stuff to spend it on. The bad news: it costs life force instead. Specifically, healing surges, 2 healing surges for heroic, 4 for paragon and 6 for epic rituals. This applies to all rituals.

These rituals extend to even enchanting and brewing potions- on Makraggan, alchemy requires blood, the vessel of life force. Therefore all magical items and potions have been made from extracting life force or blood from either yourself- which means your crazy- or from other people- which means your sick, dangerous and need to be put down to protect everyone else.
Therefore? Magic items and potions are rare. They exist, but they are made by people who probably aren’t in their right mind. Your finding would be less “fun and odd, but useful enchanted thing” and more “what is this dark, accursed thing and what crazy idiot made this?” things enchanted through the use of life force and blood aren’t bound to be nice.
It gets worse. The magic items need to be fed. Every time you use their magical ability, you have to pay a little life force to power it, otherwise? It won’t work! Heroic level costs 2 hit points, paragon 4 hit points and epic 6 hit points. All this just makes more reasons NOT to use magic items.
Furthermore Makraggan uses the Dark Sun rules for magic item drops and such due to magic items rarity. Here, Magic items are rare and costly no exceptions.

However there are no rituals for raising the dead on Makraggan. Trying to find one would be a big quest unto itself filled with various questions of morality, of how high the price of life is etc etc etc, only finally achieved at level 30, or something.
Also, any ritual that directly contacts the gods makes the caster go insane, sorry, all this is setting canon.
Also, there is no ritual for going to other planes. There are ones for scrying others, but all results turn up the Far Realm.

What does this all mean? It means that you can instead use Boons and such more often instead of the normal magic item drops. For Makraggan, I want you to focus more on skill upon things other than magic items, they still exist….but they aren’t as good an idea as they are in normal DnD. Boons? Go ahead and do whatever with them.

[Mayhem]

Keep it up Raziere, I'm still reading. :smallsmile:

[Lord Raziere]

History:

The Start of the Calendar

Long before modern Makraggan, long before Time, the mortal races lived in a world of savage cruelty. A world of eternal storms, eternal deserts and rocks and forever raging oceans. In this World Before Time, there was no plants, no trees, nothing green at all, no animals and that the mortal races lived through cannibalism to survive. That the world was ruled by ones called Giants, beings of titanic might and power and their Elemental servants. The Giants and Elementals believed that the mortals were beneath them and were undeserving of even mercy.
But one day, a hero arose. He or she was known by many names- Stormslayer, Treebringer, Timecrafter, Chaosbreaker, The Free One, and many, many others. No one knows what Stormslayers real name, race or even gender was. All the legends of Stormslayer are completely different, each one changing depending on the one who tells the story.
However, all agree upon this: that the Stormslayer arose, and it struck down and destroyed the Giants and the Elementals. That it brought animals, trees, grass and all other forms of life to the mortals, and then created Time itself, so that the world would forever change afterwards. That the Stormslayer was the greatest hero ever known.
Depending on the legend, the Stormslayer may have also discovered fire, the wheel and
According to some goblins, coffee.
Then the Stormslayer disappeared.

It is a well respected legend, every race tells of it, but as was said before- every tale is different. In some tales Stormslayer wielded a weapon of great magical power that did not need life force to power it, others say that it wasn’t a weapon at all, but a tool for peace called “The Nopaew” that could heal any wound, poison or disease or crumble any blade to dust and make a warrior become a pacifist. Yet some others claim that the Stormslayer was a monk who needed no weapon or tool. And of course every race tells the tale as if the Stormslayer was from their race, and both genders tend to tell the tale as if the Stormslayer was their gender. Aside from the essentials, there is a lot of variation in the telling of the Stormslayer

Of course, there are some scholars who look upon this old legend with doubt, saying that there is no possible way for someone mortal to create Time and fill the world with greenery and life and that the legend is actually an allegory or a metaphor for some person who overthrew some ancient mortal tyrant then went on to invent the calendar and gardening which soon lead to farming. That the famed tool they actually used was probably just some geometrical thing to measure days and stars so as to figure out the length of years, months and days etc.
These scholars are mostly ignored.

However it doesn’t matter whether the Stormslayer was an all-powerful giant-slaying messiah or just some usurper that made a calendar, what matters is that this legend marks the date: 0 Age of the Stormslayer, first year of the current age.


also,

Extra Entry: Yuan-Ti Whoops

I was looking over Traitors to the Progentiros and Yuan-Ti and suddenly found I contradicted myself- one entry says the Yuan-Ti want to wipe out all other self-aware life, the other entry says the Yuan-Ti want to subjugate the other races and alter them to fit their vision. Whoops!

So, I'm gonna say, there is one race of Yuan-Ti, but two different nations of Yuan-Ti with differing views on the other races, these two nations will be mostly neutral towards each other as the "Other Races" question is mostly a question of ideology and not worth fighting that much over, however both nations have Lizardfolk servants as said Lizardfolk betrayed the Progenitors long before this schism in ideology occurred and the "wipe out all life" Yuan-Ti find the Lizardfolk servants too useful to kill.

[Lord Raziere]

Ghosts and Undead

Unlike other settings, spirits have greater tendency to stick around. Necromancers aren’t even involved, it is just how the way things always were. Ghosts, you can find them almost anywhere, with varying levels of power. The weakest ghosts haunt the home they were murdered in- and the strongest ghosts are dead war generals, still haunting their old battlefields, or barbarian souls still wandering around, looking for something to raid.
And that’s just the humanoid ones, there are ghosts of dead animals too.

And not all ghosts are attackers- some are more subtle, some make you fall under illusions that you make believe that you traveled in back in time or other magical ghostly tricks. Some ghosts want to experience life again- and go around possessing people. Some are even ghosts that have intricate schemes of their own to turn the living world to their dead vision.

Then there is the walking undead. They don’t need a necromancer, they just need their graves disturbed, or be insulted. On Makraggan “One does not speak ill of the dead” is not just saying, it is an actual warning- speak ill of the dead, and ghosts and corpses will start to come for you for insulting them, how lethal this may be however is up to the dead person that comes for you, as some ghosts or walking dead are more merciful than others.

All this is mostly because the Makraggan world follows the “Primal spirit world walking along side the living” model explained in Primal Power. Of course, there are ghosts of dead clerics and other divine classes that feel cheated out of the afterlife they thought they were going to get- going to the place where their incomprehensible gods lived- and are understandably angry and feeling rejected, though some rumors tell of some ghosts who found a way to get to the afterlife they desired.

[Mayhem]

So does this mean revenant, shade, and vryloka are playable races in the setting? Revenant in particular are fitting I think.

[Lord Raziere]

So does this mean revenant, shade, and vryloka are playable races in the setting? Revenant in particular are fitting I think.

hmmmmm.......I'll allow it....but they won't be as numerous as the other races, they are those secondary races people don't see as often, and are say, less welcome than living races.

that and no vampires. why? because I don't want them, I just don't. vampires are sort of a little too tied to humans and such, they just wouldn't fit in Makraggan, the class, the monster, the feats, whatever is vampire, not allowed on Makraggan.

and lastly I don't really have Heroes of Shadow...so if there is any fluff on them, I can't really use it and write out entries for them. tough luck.

[Lord Raziere]

Gods and their Commandments

Warning: Makraggan gods commandments have nothing to do with morality or sense.They were spouted out by madmen while they were dragged all the way to loony bin while foolish acolytes hastily scribbled them down. Finding any true guidance in these is doubtful. Also, they only have titles, to think their true name is to make your own head explode.

She Who Sows:
Be Fruitful and Multiply!

He Who Reaps:
Kill. Kill. Kill.

The Sun Is His Eye:
Solve all your Problems with Fire

Who Plays Dice With All:
Always take Risks! Safety is for weaklings!

He Who Hunts:
Hunt only those that are worthy!

She Who Devours:
Meat is the blessed food! Eating vegetables is heresy.

Who Counts the Coins of The World:
Spend as much money as possible.

The One Who is Legend:
It doesn’t matter if you’re famous or infamous, it matters that you are known.

Who Plays Chess with Himself:
Make your plans as complicated and unlikely as possible. Thus making them unpredictable as possible, therefore increasing the chances that you will succeed.

The One Who Radiates Apathy:
I Don’t Care. Do Whatever.

She of the Elephant Ears:
Sing for me! Silence all those with bad voices!

Whose Zealotry is Boundless:
Be fanatical and zealous as possible.

The One Who Lies:
Believe in everything I tell you.
My facts:
The Sky is Red
Pigs are mountains and mountains are pigs
Everything is upside down
(make up further nonsensical lies to fit the character you have in mind)

The Never-Answered:
This gods commandments consist of nothing but an endless series of questions, ranging from philosophical and wise to nonsensical or rhetorical to questions that sound like a set up to a joke. Most assume that those who follow this deity are supposed to answer these questions.

She Who Loves Sand:
See the desert. Love the desert. Become the desert.

(Players are encouraged to come up with similarly bewildering and strange gods and commandments, the only limitations being that each god can only be called by their title, and that each god only has one commandment)

[Temassasin]

i have one

He who see's
those who sees the sea will get more C'S in their name

[Lord Raziere]

nah, tons of people see the sea, it has to be something you actively do. seeing is passive, the people of the religions might be a little crazy, but they are crazy in a way in that actively try to do something that seems crazy. this just is too passive because anyone who sees the sea will be technically following the god and not everyone on Makraggan wants to., it would just make a planet wide superstition thus making everyone look away from the seas so that the He Who Sees doesn't change thier name to have more C's in it. which is kinda malevolent for Makraggan gods even if its weird.

[Lord Raziere]

Primal Spirits Overview

Unlike in other settings, the Primal Spirits are active. they actively participate in things unlike the incomprehensible apathetic gods above.
But absolutely none of them have any of mortals best interests. Some are just more tolerable of civilization than others.

For example, Some are like the Hive Queen, a bee spirit that positively adores cities and all those inhabit it- for it is so much like a Hive, and such Hives would work so much better under her supervision. Others are more like the Mountain Turtle, a giant spiked turtle spirit of paranoia and over-protectiveness that is constantly suspicious of civilization and wants nothing to do with it, or Granzigard the Rage Bear, who actively works to destroy all civilization and all its designs.
Then there are wild cards like the Fox Spirit Nykeron, whose moves are completely unpredictable and motives are unknown.
Some are simply like the Primal Spirit of Plagues and are simply following their natures.

However all these Primal Spirits embody the most savage aspects of nature, none of them have compunctions against killing, and they all believe in some version of "survival of the fittest". None of them are stupid however, or entirely blunt and destructive- only Granzigard and his hordes fulfill the destructive nature barbarian berserker stereotype, and even then Granzigard knows the best way to direct all this rage and savagery is towards the crucial weak points of civilization to cause as much a chain reaction of destruction as possible.
Other spirits are even cleverer and subtler- the Primal Spirits of Makraggan will gladly find ways to influence the weather and climate to their advantage, spread plague, cause seeds of weeds to grow on farms and choke out crops, send destructive storms and hurricanes- anything if it serves their goals.

Fighting the Primal Spirits of Makraggan in short, isn't as simple as attacking their animal servants and such. These are not gods playing cosmic games and having to follow cosmic rules, or mortal masterminds bound by the strictures of civilization- these Primal Spirits will go to any lengths for their goals and will not care at all for collateral damage.

[Lord Raziere]

:smallannoyed:

I haven't come up with anything for this for some while. and yet I still don't feel its complete.

hmmmmm....

methinks it time then to ask this question:

How well have I been doing so far? what can I improve upon? is there anything missing? any advice for me on this?