Arhosa

[Stratovarius]

Arhosa is, in essence, a place where I've let my homebrew run free - every god has one or more unique magic systems tied to just them, none of the traditional races exist, and all of the traditional classes that D&D relies upon (Arhosa is a 3.5 world), have been tossed out the window and/or rewritten into something new. It's been in existence since 2008, and I've been slowly working on it and expanding it ever since then. It is not what one would call a finished setting, which is mostly due to the sprawling nature of the content and the landmass that it covers (it's more or less an entire continent, with a few mentions of overseas empires).

What I'm primarily looking to work on here is the setting (meaning the kingdoms, lands, history, etc.) rather than all of the mechanical content, although the two are heavily interlinked. All of the existing content for Arhosa can be seen here (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13351.0), usually tucked away in those innocuous little "Magic System" links. Much of the flavour text of the setting is also contained therein, especially in the write-ups of the various races. The need to synthesize all of this (particularly the Ritual and PPF material, which was written before Arhosa as a setting existed) is one of the next big steps in working on the setting.


Welcome to Arhosa
http://i.imgur.com/b4yCYcF.png
(The artwork is mine, btw)

Introduction

The Arhosa Campaign Setting is a long-running world that is completely custom in nature, and is aimed at both rebalancing D&D so that all classes, melee and caster alike, are on an even balance footing, as well as exploring new concepts in class and system design. The mechanical design of the setting is wrapped in the life of a fantasy continent, once almost entirely ruled by the old Arhosan Empire, now a fragmented mass of small kingdoms and tribal societies, many of them living among the ruins of their far-greater forefathers. Above all of this swirls the undying hatred of two gods for one another, each having directly opposed themselves to the other, and staked their claims to places up on the map of Arhosa.

From a mechanical point of view, only classes designed explicitly for it are allowed, and the same can be said for races and a large portion of other material. This is in order to both keep with the unique flavor of the setting, but also to ensure that all of the classes are roughly balanced. For those familiar with the tier system, the goal is for all Arhosan classes to exist at a Tier 3 level, until approximately 15th level, at which point abilities begin to spiral upwards. This is because, much like Eberron, play in the Arhosa setting is intended to run from 1st level up until about 13th. While there are planned campaigns that carry beyond that limit, most of the material is aimed at a lower level, with a large number of the prestige classes being finishable by 6th, 7th, or 10th level.

Magical equipment is more restricted and higher cost in the Arhosa setting, but easier to craft, reflecting both the desire to allow characters who wish to go down the path of building their own items access to it, but also the belief that the focus should be on the character and what he or she is, rather than the magic items that he is carrying. This general focus on the character and their specific abilities is why there are so many options available as base classes with unique and varied strengths. Along the vein, although multiclassing is by no means discouraged in Arhosa, each of the base classes is designed in such a way as to allow a fully valid character from levels 1-20 without the need to create a class salad as in base D&D.

Now that you, the reader, has made it through the underlying ideals of Arhosa, I would like to welcome you to stay awhile and listen, or at least poke around. There's a class and race for every taste. Enjoy! :D

[Stratovarius]

War Amongst the Gods
Magic is a strange thing in the lands of Arhosa. Once, it would have been considered all of a piece, a single whole of slightly disparate but otherwise homogeneous behaviour. Now, it has broken apart into tens of competing factions, if not hundreds. Now, when one meets a man on the street who says he is a mage, the next question one must ask him is what tenets he follows, and, if he answers wrong, slay him. For that is how the talented of Arhosa greet one another in this day and age: with curses, anger, hatred, and violence.

Arhosa has always been a violent place, a land where might most certainly has made right. But it has also been a land where the violent used their skills in that direction to promote unity, to promote the growth and prospering of riches and wealth. Foremost amongst those was the Llethu, a race of near-giants who, although lacking in the traditional graces of magic, more than made up for their untalented children with brilliant strategists, silver-tongued diplomats, and warriors of unsurpassed skill. But above all, it was their alliance with the Enayinbo that secured for them the means of power, for the Enayinbo are truly gifted in the realm of teleportation and transmutation. Thus were Arhosa's greatest strategists granted access to unbelievable feats of logistics, a capability that they were to abuse time and again as they conquered their empire.

What resulted, after the bloodshed and the dying had time to fade into the distant past, was a flowering of civilization the likes of which had never before been seen upon this dreary continent. Cities all across the land, linked by all-but-free teleportation and run by administrators trained in the most admirable of styles, flourished as never before. And with the free exchange of people and goods came the free exchange of ideas, and no guild took more advantage of that than the wizards, for they wished to delve deep into the secrets of magic, to use their freedom and wealth to find such powers as had never before been dreamed. And in the security of their rich existence, the Llethu gave to them that freedom.

Much to the disappoint of the wizards, who had believed that magic flourished in the world all around them, and could be drawn from it at will, they found that magic was granted by but a single god: Lledrith. To the arcanes, this was the greatest of errors, for the world could simply not work in such a way. Lledrith, passive god that he was, smiled and laughed at the error of his children, but left them to their own petty researches.

What occurred to wizards and priests alike was that in a world where there was one god who could be named and discovered, there were likely more, and so, as the empire of Arhosa flourished, the wisest of the scholars poured over ancient texts, hidden archives, and cast a great many spells, all in search of knowledge. And, eventually, that was what they found, for Lledrith was no solitary creator. Rather, he was not even the greatest of the gods.

At that revelation, the clerics and priests and other assorted believers splintered into various factions, each one holding their own tenants highest. The arcanes laughed at their petty politics, so childish and foolish did it seem. But to a number of the wisest scholars, there had occurred another thought – that if one god was able to grant magics to those who begged for his assistance, perhaps the others were capable of such acts as well.

And so was born in secret dungeons, hidden laboratories, distant towers, and concealed caverns a race amongst the learned, each one seeking a way to propitiate a different god. The first to be approached in this manner was Drancedigaeth, god of death, for to please him simply required the slaying of an appropriate creature, no doubt. What the mages had not counted on was the sheer indifference Drancedigaeth gave to the insignificant mortals who died and filled his realms. Compared to the span of time and space that was his to oversee, the death of a single creature was not even worth a glance.

But eventually, enough sacrificed to him to attract his notice. And when Drancedigaeth noticed, he felt his power increase, for the lands of his kingdom swelled as life, precious life, flowed through the gates of death and was locked away there. And so he began to parcel out minuscule helpings of magic in return, appropriate to the measure of what was granted him. Thus was ritual magic born.

Other gods granted to their worshippers powers befitting their station upon seeing the example that Drancedigaeth had wrought, and thus were born the magics of chronomancy, runecarving, osteomancy and others.

And for years, all of the gods were content with such an arrangement. Until Lledrith felt weakened, and looked again in detail at the world, and realized that what had once been his and his alone was now the plaything of all the gods, but Drancedigaeth most of all. He grew vengeful, and approached his compatriot to ask for recompense, only to be rebuffed by a god already his superior in power. In spite and malice, Lledrith turned the tables about, and invented the realm of the undead. No longer would all souls pass into the kingdom of Drancedigaeth. Some, now, would come to Lledrith. And those that did, why, when they slew the living they would gift those souls to Lledrith once more. The last of the great magics, necromancy, had come into being.

This war amongst the gods soon became a war upon the fields of Arhosa, for Lledrith and Drancedigaeth influenced their clerics and priests one against the other, and from that diplomacy of daggers and lies came outright warfare. Other gods and kingdoms were dragged into the conflict, and soon a land that had once been a great, rich, empire broke apart, a hundred warring kingdoms becoming a thousand, and then ten thousand.

And magic, once a single, beautiful, whole, was now a disparate ruin of factionalism, brutal demands, and internecine conflict. Thus were born the scrolls of Arhosa. Today, they are all but vanished, for although the gods would dearly love each of their powers to be considered foremost, all but a few kingdoms have lost the knowledge, ideas and wisdom buried beneath centuries of hatred, bigotry, and murder.

But that does not stop each of the gods plotting the return of their own power, seeding the knowledge to the best of their abilities amongst those most amenable to their craft. And one day, knowledge long thought lost might burst into the harsh light of day once more.

[Stratovarius]

History

The great civilization of Arhosa persisted for over one thousand years, a monument to the strength and the power of the bureaucracy that imbued the empire, more powerful than even the emperors that ruled over the vast land. A beautiful, fair, and prosperous terrain graced the kingdom, marking it as the chosen land on earth.

Until one day the bureaucracy began to fail, the emperors weakened and became vain, and nobles within the land focused on their own gain and their own wealth, and let those around them fall into ruin. The empire split apart, each little village, town and city becoming its own kingdom, able only to claim the lands within a day's march of their centre. Armies devolved, and bandits grew, and the best of those claimed their own kingdoms, cutting out baronies by capturing villages, demanding tribute, and marking the land and as their own.

That state persists today, and the land is a broken ruin, for the temples, the roads, the books, the knowledge that marked the high point of the culture of Arhosa, all are slowly being lost and eroded. The castles that marked and ruled the land are occupied, but as often those residents are ghosts and crickets as they are nobles and servants. Populations have crashed, plagues sweeping across the land wiping out towns and villages, famine now a danger where once it was a remote memory, staved off by copious grain reserves. Today those silos stand empty, collapsed and hollow, mold climbing the walls where wheat used to feed thousands.

It is into this dessicated world that you have been born, a world drained of all the great things in life. Perhaps it is possible to restore Arhosa to glory, to recreate the empire and the knowledge and the life that once occured. Or perhaps there is a life to be made in this new land, taking for yourselves a kingdom and a rulership, passing it down to your children, or even create a new empire, a land remade in your image. All of these things are possible, and Arhosa is open to you.

Civilizations, Kingdoms, and Locales

Hauthar: The Haugars were a warlike, barbarian tribe that lived in a hilly region to the north. So fearsome that Arhosa, the ruling empire to the south built a wall to keep them out, the Haugars were the only warriors able to break their disciplined army, using wild charges and insane rage to cut bloody swathes through all who stood before them. They still stand as they always did, roaming their northern mountains, perhaps least affected by the collapse.

Hegenon: A small but highly formalized population, the Heginyn did not have the numbers to slay their own in petty disputes, and so each fight ended with the break of the opponent's weapon, rather than with any wounding of the opponent. Situated to the south-east of the former empire, their prior nobility of mind has eroded, leaving them pretenders to honour.

Gyntar: The Yn Gyntaf prized speed and willingness to fight above all the other attributes within a man, and they bred their children for that very purpose. Fleet of foot and fast of arm, they ran into battle with joyous cries. Residents of the western plains, they are perhaps the only society there that does not use horses.

Cuallhome: To strike and slide away was the love of the Cuall, a race of small beings who could never hope to slay the larger creatures in a single strike, and instead learned a method of fighting that emphasized many small, glancing blows that would slice into the legs and vulnerable flanks of their foes. They found their home in a broken range of mountains that encircled the centre of the empire, for it let them disappear into rocks and crevices, always safe.

Helfarn: At one with the woods and trees about them, the Helfarch were extraordinary hunters, able to stop animals with a single shot, pinning it in place and quickly moving onto the next in their list of prey. It was with displeasure that they found out that the orcs and the goblins of the northern reaches did not respond so as well as the animals which had been their primary competition for food. The next level down from the northern reaches, they lie to the west and slightly south of the Hauthar, in woods that rest up against the base of the mountains.

Astaland: The Astalch fought in a semi-ritualized manner, for to break a man's shield was to break his spirit and his energy. Defeat was to the shield, and not to the death. Against other cultures, the Astalch did not honour these mediums nearly so much, but the overwhelming emphasis on shield to shield fighting often lead to their downfall in battle. Bordering the western plains, they often conflict with the Yn Gyntaf and their plains-running brethren.

Anaraf: Those of the Anaraf lived in the verdant bowl of a forest, at home with the natural world around them, and so beloved of the animals that a wounded bear would often wander into the camp of the Anaraf, where it would be soothed, tended, and fed, before being sent again on its way. It was an easy and pleasant life, for while they took care of the forest, the forest with their many gifts took care of them in the same fashion. Very close to the woods in which they live, they home themselves in the southern forests, remote from the rest of the world.

War Lands of the Cynddeir: To fight to the last, to the very end, has been seen throughout history, but in none more so than the Cynddeir, who seemed to have a great predilection for fighting at the very last of their strength. It did, in fact, seem to be a racial trait, something inherited, that willed them on when they were covered in blood and exhausted. Warlike to the extreme, the Cynddeir crushed foe after foe under a relentless and furious assault, but as they came to civilization and a more relaxed way of life, their strength bled out and was left behind, a remnant of a greater past. They reside in the east, beyond the core of the great civilization, but not so much. With the collapse of Arhosa, they are recovering some of their more warlike ways.

Llethome: To crush a foe beneath, to run them over, that was the pleasure and the excitement of the Llethu. None had been more vicious or more violent, and none had a greater empire at their peak. Creatures of near giant stature, they swarmed through their foes, using their great bulk to crush and overwhelm the pitiful creatures before them. Nothing stopped them, until their society broke amidst factional infighting, and the little ankle-biters were able to rise up and regain some of their own independence. The very core of the Arhosan landscape, they occupy the central realm of the broken empire.

Biyan: The people of the Biyan region are a specialized culture. Each boy, at a young age, is tested and slotted into an appropriate discipline, and thence trained for a decade and a half before he is allowed to perform and become an adult. This applies equally to the study of magic, where those few who show magical apptitude are further subdivided, each studying a single small area of the totality of magic. The apprentices practice that one area until they have perfected the art, and there are vicious duels between various factions, each supporting their own area of magic as the perfect expression. Their lands fall within the south-west, close the central core of civilization. They were one of the first conquests of the Llethu.

Enayinbo: Far from the madding crowd and pathetic, squirming civilizations that profess to master magic, the Enayinbo remained quiet and still. Travelling hither and yon amidst their peoples through teleporation that came to them as easily as breathing, they remained free and imperturbable, for as they had mastered teleportation, so had they mastered the arts of magical combat. That mastery they expended in duels amongst themselves, looking inward until they all but collapsed under their own weight. The civilization that most propped up the empire of Arhosa after the Llethu, they were responsible for the magical core of the land.

The Crying Mountains: The Ferthyr long believed that to know, the person wishing to know must suffer for their art. Be it in the form of flagellation, self-denial, or even outside loss, suffering became a core to their society, such that they incorporated it into all of their magical artefacts and casting. Living in the mountains to the northeast of even the Hauthar, they deprive themselves of all sensation in a cold and unforgiving land.

Nowhere: Brilliant yet eccentric, the Liara used their magical talents to create tools that would ease their daily tasks. Lawns were watered, silent servants kept the housing spotless, and magical beasts patrolled the land and town, keeping all those within the bounds unharmed. Freed of responsibility, the Liara danced and partied, their lives bathed in an endless ether of pleasure. Yet at the end of all things, they are gone, for even the mages who maintained the spells were swept up and away, and the defenses crumbled. The Liara sang as their civilization burned. A forgotten land, their artefacts can be found within some of the eastern lands.

The Shore Counties: Each element is held in high regard by the Hegwyd, and it is to all of them that they pray, and from those precious elements that they draw their life and energies. Now, they live along the shore of a great sea, merchants and sailors, living in a land of winds, cliffs, and seas, and the sun that grows their crops.

Tro Ar Fyd: Few things offer a wizard more delight than to twist the designs of one spell into that of another. The Tro Ar Fyd have long studied the essence of magic, and what divides the conjuration of ice from the invocation of fire. They did, discover the root of magic, and it has become the core of their land. It marks their terrain, a strange land that is a desert covered in cold, blasting winds and burning sunshine, the land farthest to the east.

Marleath: Buried underground, in deep subterranean crypts, the kingdom of the Marleath thrived and grew, constantly digging and creating new buildings and tunnels. Armed with an array of dead servitors, raised from the body of every citizen of the city who passed the age of fifty, only the Patriarch Ve Angau stood eternal, a cold and restless Lich, who felt no love for the living, and viewed them as broodcattle to birth more to be slain. The kingdom resides under the northwest core of the empire, forbidding and difficult to reach, hidden and guarded by the unliving monsters.

Whispering Woods: To change. To become other than one's self. That was the goal of the Cyfnewid, a people of such subtle and shifting form that no two ever looked alike. Each took to himself his own, unique, identity, as separate from one another as a bird in the sky is from a bush in a swamp. Eventually, each began to change and differ so much, that those of that race are almost unrecognisable. They live in the Whispering Woods, divided from the lands of the Anaraf by a great river.

Flonha: Flonha healers, as well as the rest of their society, were renowned for their ability to heal, and for the kindness and gentleness that permeated the culture. Diseased people would make a pilgrimage from all over the world to be treated at the hospitals of the Flonha. Sheltered under the reign of the Llethu, they are homed upon the eastern edge of the great plains that house the Yn Gyntaf.

Chral Kala: Magical energy crackled from the spires of the Chral Kala in its heyday, siphoning off of the energy of all those who lived with its domain, feeding that energy into carriers and storage for the use of the few, proud rulers of the city. Haughty men, others died so that they might live. They live against the western borders of the continent, a distant and remote kingdom that never fell beneath the yoke of Arhosa.

Setras Ra: Bright lights sparkled along the golden rooftops of Setras Ra, brilliant spheres of captured light, illuminating a city of splendour and exquisite tastes. What it did not reveal was the lust and corruption eating away at the heart of the land, two forces brought together within the hearts of the rulers, men of charitable dispositions and secretive and immoral liaisons. It is the capital of the great land of Arhosa, the former heart of a vibrant empire. All races congregate here.

Hania: The Hanian civilization was one of the first to discover the magic needed to make lands flow and form, lifting the mountain tops from the hoary peaks and turning them into the first flying landmasses. Each was enmeshed in the gale that kept it airborne and stable, but one by one, these failed as the patterns of the world changed, and the great stones fell from the sky, leaving behind little but forgotten hills and tiny islands as markers of what once was. Only a few still fly, and they hide themselves away, drifting among the misty peaks, homes of forgotten knowledge.

Ghaelora: Those of the Ghoel valued faith above all else, faith in their single, overarching diety. That monolithic faith drove them onwards, pressing outward into the surrounding lands until they encountered those of another faith. Each converted, through death or through life, until the other gods saw their civilization as a true threat to all of their existences. Faced with the combined wrath of the gods, the Ghoel redoubled their own faith, knowing that they had come close to toppling the balance in their god's favour. It was all for naught, as attrition and the ageless, remorseless hate of the gods ground their civilization down, eventually burying their great city beneath a giant slurry of molten lava. A forgotten kingdom, its home and location have long been lost.

Lochlands: The Byd Nitur spent their time in quiet contemplation, dancing amidst the trees and lakes of their quiet valleys, each tasked with looking after a single type of animal. And so each would wander through their domain, healing the sick, feeding those in their charge. It was an idyllic life, one relatively undisturbed in their quite homes, nestled amid the hills and lakes. Upon the eastern edge of the land, they are too small and too unimportant to have been engaged in the wars of conquest.

Pyribyr Vestana: Possessed of a most startling trait, the Pybyr could weaken themselves in order to store the energy for use at a later time. Pybyr would collapse in their homes, emaciated, only to emerge hours later, their muscles swollen, as they went to work at smithing a stubborn metal rod. Some of their racial makeup can be gleaned through the works of their cities, although the citizens themselves remain quiet and aloof. Southwestern in location, they reveal little to the outside world.

Astral: Mere ephemeral beings, the Pellennig danced and swum amidst the Astral plane, able to see what was before and behind them, and never in danger because of such. Their god had given them the gift of foresight at the cost of their bodies, and that was how they remained, half-present, but knowing all things that passed through their scope. Perhaps they still exist, although that, for certain, is not known.

Unknown: It was long rumoured that existed a race of people to whom death was merely a stopping place on the eternal cycles of life. Known by the name of the Edfryd, they possessed the qualities of the phoenix, able to die, only to be reborn. They persist as a rumour, a paragraph here, a line there, always teasing and tantalizing, never realized.

[Mechalich]

Are these cultures, races, or a mixture of both? 26 unique races would be an immense number to try and manage in a world that also has a unique magic system.

As dark ages style world linked to active competition among the gods is a workable idea, though one worries that it is vulnerable to grimdark creep. Beyond that it's unclear what exactly you want help with from this material.

[Stratovarius]

Gods and Goddesses

Fasnachu
"None have but one aspect."
- Fasnachu the Two-Faced

Portfolio: Trade, Deception, Conversation, Arts, Luck, Wealth
Domains: As appropriate.
Magic: Spellsong

Description
There are many things that could be said about Fasnachu, for she is a goddess of many forms and many faces. Called by some the deciever, and by others lady luck, she oversees the process of labour and trade and negotation. Her greatest trick is leading men into temptation, then withholding from them the goods they so earnestly desire. Prayed to by merchants, thieves, artisans, traders, and all manner of men and women, she is perhaps the most despised deity within Arhosa, for it seems that she has left the lands, taking her blessings and departing until some further time. Men speak no more of luck, or of good fortune, and ward daily against evil happenings.

Drancedigaeth
"All end within my domain, and I welcome them."
- Drancedigaeth the Solemn

Portfolio: Death
Domains: As appropriate.
Magic: Ritual

Description
All aspects of the afterlife fall within the sphere of Drancedigaeth, and he welcomes saints and murderers with equal aplomb. The dead form his province, and it is a grey realm of flat, unending, land, in which each spirit can only see themselves, and no other. Death is solitary, and Drancedigaeth enforces that upon all within his realm. A friend of no man and no god, he most hates Lledrith, for that creature will pry away the spirits of the dead to be slaves and servants to the living. There may be a war brewing there, and it would be foolish to wager against Drancedigaeth, for he is the greatest, and yet the most silent, of all the deities of Arhosa.

Lledrith
"I will control you, and all that you might offer."
- Lledrith the Bright

Portfolio: Magic, Undeath, Ambition
Domains: As appropriate.
Magic: Arcane, Necromantic

Description
The very soul of ambition and magic, Lledrith strikes all who speak to him as the mage always striving to be better than he is, to live longer than he would, even as a god. He seeks power over death, over life, over all aspects of the creation. Often he will bleed through into the minds of his servants and worshippers, imbuing them with the desire to move above their station. Worshipped almost exclusively by mages and seekers for power, his is the most rapidly expanding power among the gods, but it is soon to run into those who will push back, forcing Lledrith into drastic action.

Challineb
"The growl of the lion, the cry of the gazelle, the wind in the trees. All of these are part of me."
- Challineb the Green

Portfolio: Nature, Wisdom, Dream
Domains: As appropriate.
Magic: Nature, Osteomancy, Runecarving

Description
Challineb is not a kind goddess, and in many ways is barely a deity at all. More akin to the awakened consciousness of the world, she cares almost nothing for prayer, and does not mark her strength to the numbers who worship her, as so many others do. She considers all living creatures to be within her purview, and that simply by being alive, they revere what she has offered to them. She also considers the realms of the mind to be hers, and that all thoughts and dreams are aspects of her being. After all, are they not created by the creatures that she birthed? In this, she sometimes conflicts with Fasnachu, but neither side cares about the other, and so tend to ignore any irritants.

Hannhangnefedd
"I glory in war, in chaos, in combat, in all things that test man."
- Hannhangnefedd Heavyblow

Portfolio: War, Chaos, Strength, Blood
Domains: As appropriate.
Magic: Martial

Description
Hannhangnefedd is a brutal deity, concerned with combat and little more. Wherever one man fights another, he is there watching. When army clashes with army, he gloats and cheers, egging on either side to brawl and die, and curses those who retreat as cowards and little men. Never one to give thought to tactics or strategy, for him wars revolve around the beauty of the charge, that first heady crash of sword on shield. Unsurprisingly, he glorifies those servants of his who vanquish the most in combat, and glares down upon those who stab in the back, who assassinate, who corrupt the brutal essence of war, and steal from it the honour gained in combat. Upon those he will lay his deepest curses.

Awyr Leuad
"I see all, for my vantage point is the light upon your face."
- Awyr Leuad

Portfolio: Sun, Sky, Weather, Moon, Stars, Vision, Day and Night
Domains: As appropriate.
Magic: Astral (Uncreated)

Description
The far-seeing goddess, Awyr Leuad, is the watcher, the sky above, observing all that takes place on Challineb below. Hidden within the sun and the moon, the stars and the sky, Awyr Leuad is the one who lets each creature see one another, even in the darkest of nights. Controlling all that passes through the heavens, she is responsible for day and night, light and dark, and sees through it all, recording the behaviour of those creatures below. She watches with trepidation as Lledrith begins his war against death itself, for even she will be forced into the conflict upon one side or another. She fears death, the extinction of all light, not merely the dimness of night, but Lledrith with power over death frightens her equally, if not more. It is a poor choice she must soon make.

Amserwch
"I am. Because I am, so are you."
- Amserwch

Portfolio: Time, Prophecy, Creation
Domains: As appropriate.
Magic: Chronomancy, Echoes

Description
Amserwch is, in many ways, an uninterested god, concerned as he is with Time and Creation, knowledge so far above mortal ken that they barely even know of its existence. But, he, too, has been spurred to act by the conflict amongst the gods, and from the depths of time itself he has seen fit to grant some small measure of his talent to those who understand the weight of history. And to continue to ensure that this is so, from time to time he will deliver a prophecy, often through an unwitting soul. Most commonly, he grants only the tiniest fragment of what he can see, and then lets the creatures below attempt to understand what it might mean. Yet even that very act turns them towards him, and so he flourishes. For when Creation itself is his, who can stand in his way?

[Stratovarius]

Are these cultures, races, or a mixture of both? 26 unique races would be an immense number to try and manage in a world that also has a unique magic system.

As dark ages style world linked to active competition among the gods is a workable idea, though one worries that it is vulnerable to grimdark creep. Beyond that it's unclear what exactly you want help with from this material.

Ah, I see my introduction isn't as clear as it could be. Apologies for that. To answer your questions roughly in order:

The things named above are a mixture of both, although generally they should be considered kingdoms, principalities, and the like. They are, more or less, the various regions into which the continent of Arhosa is divided. Each of them is host to one or more mechanical races (Marleath, which has a special place in the setting, houses four, while Setras Ra, the former capital, has even more, although many are from other named areas).

The currently existing mechanical races are as follows:
The class listed next to each race is the favoured class of that race, indicating which class it is most directly designed for. However, this is not to say that the race cannot be used for another class. Indeed, many races, Pybyr, Hanian, and Hegwyd especially, are designed to be as generalist as possible. Also, a small number of the classes have LA and/or RHD. This is also indicated next to the class.

High Caste Biyou (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13346.0) - Arcanist
Low Caste Biyou (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13346.0) - Champion
Boncyff (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13762.0) - Champion
Caeth (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=12874.0) - Martyr
Casglwyr (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13761.0) - Vivisector
Cyfnewid (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=14140.0) - Totem Master
Ascetic Ferthyr (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=14145.0) - Martyr
Sybaritic Ferthyr (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=14145.0) - Any
Flonha (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13356.0) - Ecclesiast
Gollwyd (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13760.0) - Overlord
Hanian (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=14139.0) - Any
Hastro (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=12875.0) - Ritualist
Heginyn (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13510.0) - Champion
Hegni (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13759.0) - Necromancer
Hegwyd (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13354.0) - Any
Helfarch (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=12877.0) - Ritual Warrior, +1 LA, +3 RHD
Llethu (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13350.0) - Champion or Savage, +2 LA, +2 RHD
Niwl (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=12876.0) - Gallant
Pybyr (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13355.0) - Champion
Tokunnir (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=14136.0) - Runecarver
Air Tro Ar Fyd (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13358.0) - Arcanist, LA +1
Earth Tro Ar Fyd (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13358.0) - Arcanist, LA +1
Fire Tro Ar Fyd (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13358.0) - Arcanist, LA +1
Water Tro Ar Fyd (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13358.0) - Arcanist, LA +1
Yn Gyntaf (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13353.0) - Savage

Discounting multiple variants, there are 20 playable races in Arhosa, although not all of them have homes or are worked into the lore. Or had homes, and lost it. This is one of the big areas where I'm trying to look for some help with the setting, although I'll explain more further down.

Now, about magic systems. Arhosa does not have one unique magic system. It has ten. There's Spell Seed Casting (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13114.0), granted to Arcanists by Lledrith and then eventually by all the gods to their clerics. Lledrith later developed Necromantic Magic (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13309.0) as part of his war with the God of Death. Challineb (Nature), gave to Arhosa Osteomancy (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=12810.0) and Runecarving (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13024.0). Drancedigaeth, in his war with Lledrith, gave to his followers Ritual or Blood Magic (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=12839.0). Fasnachu, Goddess of Luck, Trade, and the Arts, created Spellsong (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=14156.0) to make the world a more beautiful place. Then there are those who revere Amserwch, God of Time and Creation, who can use Chronomancy (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=5780.msg84300#msg84300). Hannhangnefedd (War) gave to all the warriors of Arhosa Martial Fusillades (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13008.0). Finally, although it's not really a magic system in that it's not granted by one of the gods, certain races, primarily Marletan, have developed the techniques of Fleshgrafting (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=14498.0).

Now, that's more or less the mechanical background of the world. The biggest weak point, and where the help is needed, is the flavour/world itself. Let me give an example to make that clear:

Ritual Magic is the first piece of D&D homebrew I ever wrote, well before I created Arhosa. Then, when I created Arhosa, I gave Marleath (a vast undead kingdom) to the Hastro and the Helfarch, the primary Ritual races. Then, I spent more time working on the setting, and came up with the war amongst the gods angle - which suddenly had Drancedigaeth (Death) overseeing an undead kingdom, which is the thing he despises above all else. So Marleath was handed over to the Casglwyr and their buddies, and switched to Lledrith. But now the Hastro/Drancedigaeth suddenly no longer had any lands of their own.

Hence, parts of the world are disjointed, because they were written at different "eras" of history. The other primary aspect I've run into trouble with is the tone, which has varied between pretty damn dark (post collapsed empire), and quite healthy fantasy lands. Where I want it to be is this: The Arhosa Empire ripped itself apart (which occurred as part of the first war between Lledrith and Drancedigaeth), but the lands are far enough beyond that that they can begin to recover, and indeed some have already done so. But striking the balance between the two has not always been achieved. Generally, the campaigns I've run in the world start at this turning point, so that as the PCs play, their homeland grows stronger, eventually re-emerging as the power it once used to be (along with some other kingdoms that end up as competition).

Also, any area that hasn't been used in a campaign tends to have scant to no information written about it. Usually only the tiny stinger above, or whatever the race from the area has in its flavour text.

So, to boil this mass down into what I'm hoping for: help cleaning up the flavour and focusing it, and suggestions on fleshing out the vast expanses of the world that are blank-ish.

[Stratovarius]

Marleath

Marleath is a buried kingdom, long since lost from the sight of those who live on the surface. Hidden deep within the earth, it is by no means a dead kingdom, for it is ruled and run by those of a necromantic persuasion. The patriarch of this foul land is a lich called Ve Angau. Beneath him lay the rival factions of Hegni and Gollwyd, civil servants and necromancers, each with their own petty rivalries and disparate desires. These two races vie for power constantly, a struggle that is inextricably enmeshed with the conflict of rival houses and power structures, these often cutting across racial lines, as different cabals and organizations seek an edge over their rivals. Of all the organizations that hold the most power beneath Ve Angau, the priests stand preeminent, for the structure they have constructed sees Ve Angau worshipped as the unliving personification of Lledrith. The lich is not, but his powers and age are of such vast scope that no lackey has ever truly tried to challenge him.

Marleath was once a kingdom upon the surface of Arhosa, gifted in the lore and magic of the world. But its people, the Hegni, were consumed by ambition, by the need to be better than they were, magically and physically. To that end, they began to experiment, first upon their own people then upon those who lived near to their lands, taking their bodies and minds and warping them, twisting them. Eventually, the best amongst the Hegni settled upon the undead as a solution to their dilemma, for intelligent undead need never perish, and so the greatest Marletan magicians transformed themselves into liches and other intelligent undead. Over time, fierce infighting whittled away at that number until only Ve Angau was left. He, as patriarch of Marleath, drove the experiments to lengths unheard of, creating a number of lesser races that would serve or assist his people. But to the kingdoms around him, the Llethu and Enayinbo in particular, what he had done was an abomination. Thus enraged, they drove back his servitors, living and undead, and encroached upon his very fortress. In response, Ve Angau worked a great magic, driving Marleath far underground, safely away from the prying eyes of the Arhosan kingdoms. Now he can work his magic in peace, having all but forgotten the surface world.

Marleath holds a great number of subject populations, some undead, such as Boncyff, and others living. The living servants are divided at a young age, taken from their breeder parents and given into the cold and heartless care of certain necromancers, who would teach and prepare the children for their appropriate task in the great necrotic machine of Marleath. Many of the least intelligent were taken to the mines and the tunnels, constantly forced to dig and build and carve the heavy, heartless stone of the caverns. They would be worked until they died, and then transformed into zombies and skeletons, idiot creatures that could work yet longer hours. Those with a special spark were gifted into the ranks of the house servants, forced to toil under the auspicies of the Gollwyd and the Hegni. Once drafted, those children would be trained and forced and beaten and abused until they had learned all that was necessary for their given duties. Any of these bred slaves who, by chance and luck, should reach something approaching the onset of older age, is killed and recycled, unless a particularly beloved pet of their overseer.

Terrain

Marleath is, for the most part, a single giant city, or perhaps more accurately, a collection of smaller ones, linked to one another via massive tunnels. Each of the cities is carved and formed primarily from the stone of the deep underground where Marleath resides, but the next most common building material is living or undead flesh and bone, magically warped into structures and shapes as needed. The Marletans have lost what talents they might once have had with the shaping of stone and metal, whereas necromancy allows them to do the same with flesh. Thus their use of the material all across their civilization.

Each of the caverns in which one of those cities sits is connected by an early advent of the railroad, although it is little more than iron shod carts being pulled along rails by servitors, undead and living. Such practice allows the easy travel from one to the next, making the cities easily accessible one to the next. The caverns themselves are often up to a mile across, although usually only hollowed out to the height of a few hundred feet if not less. The Hegni, especially, prefer distance from their neighbours, and so there is often gaps between the different buildings, much more than would be seen in Setras Ra or cities on the surface.

The tunnels surrounding Marleath are a barren wasteland, stripped clear by the depredations of both Marleath itself, and the clusters of creatures, living and undead, that have been lost, discarded, or otherwise escaped from the clutches of Ve Angau to make what living they can by scraping it from the barren rock and hideous vermin that inhabit those regions. It is through these tunnels that any attempts to scout or travel to the surface have to take place.

Population
Each of the primary cities of Marleath houses around 10-30,000 people, although much of that number is made up of undead, and fluctuates wildly. Whichever one is Ve Angau's current residence (which he changes for reasons no one can understand) has a population of an extra thousand or more, being comprised of priests, servants, experiment subjects, and all manners of political wellwishers and hangers-on who follow the court of the patriarch as it travels about.

The racial makeup of the people is slanted towards the Hegni, but their dominance has been challenged in recent decades by the rise of the Gollwyd. Somewhat off to the side, tolerated but watched by the Gollwyd and the Hegni resides the Casglwyr, renowned for their strangeness and vivisection. Finally, the last major race of Marleath is the Boncyff, living undead created by the Hegni in past for use as servants and warriors. There is a vast number of clusters of surface races and monsters, kept for experimental and breeding purposes by various collections of necromancers and priests. They are jealously guarded, lest their escape or capture by another party in the labyrinthine power structures use them to gain an edge.

Important People
TBD

Important Items
TBD, needs to be some necromantic artefacts.

Possible Quests
TBD