Keeg
2017-01-14, 07:26 AM
There's a post I read about a good-guy-necromancer that I thought would make a really great setting for a dnd campaign I'm starting but was looking for some general advice on it.
I have a backstory but here's the basic premise: Small group of strong good-guy-clerical-necromancers see the tyranny of the land and unjust hierarchy in agrarian based feudalism and essentially raise an army or undead, conquer everything, build churches to an good-god of death and teach people how to animate-dead for agricultural / construction / labor purposes so man can dedicate himself to the finer arts.
Leaders of agriculture, defense, construction / expansion, and conservation are all trained necromancers. Living morgues are built to house the undead when unused. Socially it is expected that upon death their bodies will continue to serve the city. Murder is still highly taboo but so is living to old age with a useless body. Is there a more selfish act? Once the signs of a failing body appear it is expected that one will take their life or go to a morgue and donate themselves. Once a year there is a great festival celebrating the lives of the elderly and a mass-suicide takes place. (I'm thinking walking across an altar, kneeling before a city head, hearing praise, having a quick stab to the heart, and a quick raise.) Walk to your death and walk out a servant of the state.
Cities are full of the smell and sight of the undead. Disease spreads easier now that the dead are falling apart. Cities fill themselves with flowers and have undead-cleaning crews litterally mop up the streets. The finer districts in large cities are made like Venice to just carry away the filth. Food preparation is reserved for the living. And society has adopted pretty extreme hygiene. The living and dead walk together but still separate. An undead will follow the commands of its master until it’s brain deteriorates until it can’t. SO brains are ALWAYS in high demand as they fall apart quickly and new ones make much better servants.
(I'm thinking there would be cool appendage assimilation for cool frankenstein-style specialized zombie folks.
Other things to consider
-Huge discrimination against the physically inept. You’ll be no use dead, you might as well live forever. (and secret envy)
- Likewise it's not entirely useful to study the arcane since that becomes useless once your soul leaves. Like it's fine and people do it, but there was the unintended consequence that relying on the undead would make a need for increasing undead bodies.
-Undead non-humans are just are prevalent. Construction crews wouldn't be the same without a giant/trolls in the mix.
-There are still body needs. A body can be raised purely on magic but can't regenerate to any degree. If they want to stay in good condition undead need, essentially, cleric-mechanics to fix up. I'm thinking appendage assimilation / necrotic healing spells. Injuries are accumulative so wear and tear breaks them down after a while. (to avoid sun-damage most work is done at night)
-Rich folks can buy their own undead servants. OR, just keep papa in the family post-mortem. A symbolic, he used to be the head of household but now he’s a mindless servant.
-Actual resurrection is pretty taboo too. Your body is ours, your soul is yours.
-A city’s affluence is based on its population vs it’s undead population
Inconceivable that is a town is having trouble monetarily or foodwise that the elites wouldn’t engineer a plague to wipe some out?
Similarly, there IS dead flesh around. A lot of it.
-A Necros worth is based on how many he can raise.
And the condition of those raised, mindless goopy monsters, or perfectly preserved snow-whites?
-Annual undead fights between cities. Like Football but grosser. Nothing is decided but bragging rights. Rich cities raise up strong lads and teach them to fight, then kill before the fight so they're in perfect condition. Occasional scandals when a city enters a living contestant pretending to be dad via magics.
I think traditional DND has a few easy race mechanics too.
Dwarfs - Strong focus on family ties means they'd be less OK with resurrection of their dead. Undead dwarfs would also probably hit too close to home with similarities to druegar or azer. Just bad mojo. Like a "We retreated into our mountains out of a piety to Moradin, it was our vanity that lead us from the surface that let the age of man flourish. That was a mistake!
- Basically have dwarven hunting parties that are all about ending or containing the scourge.
Wood Elfs - pretty distrustful of magic and basically retreat more into the forest not taking the new age seriously. But also very[B] against them turning an elf into a thoughtless slave.
[B]Wild Elfs - Less apprehensive of the use of magic but are disgusted with how it's being used. Youth make a sport out of messing with nearby towns. Arcane archers shoot them from afar and druids make it look like farmers were lost to wild animals.
I think gnomes might be the most diverse. With the forest folks not really liking it but seeing an opportunity to be pranksters. and the fun loving tinker gnomes to pair with the necromancers to fuse metals in with the undead to make cool worker-zombie-cyborgs.
Half Orcs can go both ways too. In cities they are prized more for their strong bodies and possible continued usage of it after death.
But could also be strong shamen and lead full-orcs to a strong devotion to Shargaus (god of darkness, night, thievery, and the undead) or Yurtrus the god of death. Lead roving hordes of orcs, undead, and undead orcs. And the flip side of half-orcs who see their orc side as evil and have a strong resurgence in paladinic ways.
Halflings are known to be pretty passive and adopt local norms. I think they'd dabble in it but never be great undead-masters. Just like, learn a few tricks, carry a bunch of stories about times before the dead-times.
Less accepted races like dragon born and tieflings were predisposed to magics anyways and were never really accepted. I think in a land of undeath it's their time to shine and help out. Dragonborn would be against the idea of raising their own family / clan but others? Totally ok if they had their consent for it or if it was an enemy of the state.
I have a few preliminary ideas for a campaign later but first I want to set the world. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Assuming there have been at least 100 years of uninterrupted study in necromancy I think there would be more than just a few types of undead. 5e has a few:
Ghast/Ghoul: Good for stocking around the city in a barracks or longhouse waiting to be needed for defense. Generally kept away from the populace and weather.
Skeletons: super low maintenance. Good for city patrols and watches.
Zombies: the main labor force. Bodies aren't great but they can pull a wagon or till the land.
Warhorse Skeleton: A big horse that can pull wagons and the heavy stuff.
Liches: I suspect that some of the more self-righteous city leaders would make the conversion to lichdom to continue serving the city after death and still keep their oath to the people. likewise with Mummies and Mummy Lords. Perhaps the more educated folks who couldn't go lich went mummy to keep their knowledge around?
Then I think there would just be undead versions of normal monsters. Trolls and Giants to lift heavy things. Ghost might serve a use but I feel like summoning a spirit is wrong while just the body is ok?
1) Any cool undead mechanics
2) An idea on scale. I think a somewhat isolated continent that cut off major trade with the rest of the world during the 1st undead war. Now folks are going back and spreading rumors around the world about weird AF necromancy. Hence our quest goers come to check it out.
2.5) Also considered putting it in a demi-plane like the demi-plane of dread. Thoughts?
3) Input on race relations. Assume we're running with the 5e pantheon
4) Any cool undead variants or thoughts on if folks should be OK with mummies and liches?
5) GODS. What god would be cool with undead labor? If they aren't evil is divine magic still super effective? Why are they inherently evil?
I have a backstory but here's the basic premise: Small group of strong good-guy-clerical-necromancers see the tyranny of the land and unjust hierarchy in agrarian based feudalism and essentially raise an army or undead, conquer everything, build churches to an good-god of death and teach people how to animate-dead for agricultural / construction / labor purposes so man can dedicate himself to the finer arts.
Leaders of agriculture, defense, construction / expansion, and conservation are all trained necromancers. Living morgues are built to house the undead when unused. Socially it is expected that upon death their bodies will continue to serve the city. Murder is still highly taboo but so is living to old age with a useless body. Is there a more selfish act? Once the signs of a failing body appear it is expected that one will take their life or go to a morgue and donate themselves. Once a year there is a great festival celebrating the lives of the elderly and a mass-suicide takes place. (I'm thinking walking across an altar, kneeling before a city head, hearing praise, having a quick stab to the heart, and a quick raise.) Walk to your death and walk out a servant of the state.
Cities are full of the smell and sight of the undead. Disease spreads easier now that the dead are falling apart. Cities fill themselves with flowers and have undead-cleaning crews litterally mop up the streets. The finer districts in large cities are made like Venice to just carry away the filth. Food preparation is reserved for the living. And society has adopted pretty extreme hygiene. The living and dead walk together but still separate. An undead will follow the commands of its master until it’s brain deteriorates until it can’t. SO brains are ALWAYS in high demand as they fall apart quickly and new ones make much better servants.
(I'm thinking there would be cool appendage assimilation for cool frankenstein-style specialized zombie folks.
Other things to consider
-Huge discrimination against the physically inept. You’ll be no use dead, you might as well live forever. (and secret envy)
- Likewise it's not entirely useful to study the arcane since that becomes useless once your soul leaves. Like it's fine and people do it, but there was the unintended consequence that relying on the undead would make a need for increasing undead bodies.
-Undead non-humans are just are prevalent. Construction crews wouldn't be the same without a giant/trolls in the mix.
-There are still body needs. A body can be raised purely on magic but can't regenerate to any degree. If they want to stay in good condition undead need, essentially, cleric-mechanics to fix up. I'm thinking appendage assimilation / necrotic healing spells. Injuries are accumulative so wear and tear breaks them down after a while. (to avoid sun-damage most work is done at night)
-Rich folks can buy their own undead servants. OR, just keep papa in the family post-mortem. A symbolic, he used to be the head of household but now he’s a mindless servant.
-Actual resurrection is pretty taboo too. Your body is ours, your soul is yours.
-A city’s affluence is based on its population vs it’s undead population
Inconceivable that is a town is having trouble monetarily or foodwise that the elites wouldn’t engineer a plague to wipe some out?
Similarly, there IS dead flesh around. A lot of it.
-A Necros worth is based on how many he can raise.
And the condition of those raised, mindless goopy monsters, or perfectly preserved snow-whites?
-Annual undead fights between cities. Like Football but grosser. Nothing is decided but bragging rights. Rich cities raise up strong lads and teach them to fight, then kill before the fight so they're in perfect condition. Occasional scandals when a city enters a living contestant pretending to be dad via magics.
I think traditional DND has a few easy race mechanics too.
Dwarfs - Strong focus on family ties means they'd be less OK with resurrection of their dead. Undead dwarfs would also probably hit too close to home with similarities to druegar or azer. Just bad mojo. Like a "We retreated into our mountains out of a piety to Moradin, it was our vanity that lead us from the surface that let the age of man flourish. That was a mistake!
- Basically have dwarven hunting parties that are all about ending or containing the scourge.
Wood Elfs - pretty distrustful of magic and basically retreat more into the forest not taking the new age seriously. But also very[B] against them turning an elf into a thoughtless slave.
[B]Wild Elfs - Less apprehensive of the use of magic but are disgusted with how it's being used. Youth make a sport out of messing with nearby towns. Arcane archers shoot them from afar and druids make it look like farmers were lost to wild animals.
I think gnomes might be the most diverse. With the forest folks not really liking it but seeing an opportunity to be pranksters. and the fun loving tinker gnomes to pair with the necromancers to fuse metals in with the undead to make cool worker-zombie-cyborgs.
Half Orcs can go both ways too. In cities they are prized more for their strong bodies and possible continued usage of it after death.
But could also be strong shamen and lead full-orcs to a strong devotion to Shargaus (god of darkness, night, thievery, and the undead) or Yurtrus the god of death. Lead roving hordes of orcs, undead, and undead orcs. And the flip side of half-orcs who see their orc side as evil and have a strong resurgence in paladinic ways.
Halflings are known to be pretty passive and adopt local norms. I think they'd dabble in it but never be great undead-masters. Just like, learn a few tricks, carry a bunch of stories about times before the dead-times.
Less accepted races like dragon born and tieflings were predisposed to magics anyways and were never really accepted. I think in a land of undeath it's their time to shine and help out. Dragonborn would be against the idea of raising their own family / clan but others? Totally ok if they had their consent for it or if it was an enemy of the state.
I have a few preliminary ideas for a campaign later but first I want to set the world. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Assuming there have been at least 100 years of uninterrupted study in necromancy I think there would be more than just a few types of undead. 5e has a few:
Ghast/Ghoul: Good for stocking around the city in a barracks or longhouse waiting to be needed for defense. Generally kept away from the populace and weather.
Skeletons: super low maintenance. Good for city patrols and watches.
Zombies: the main labor force. Bodies aren't great but they can pull a wagon or till the land.
Warhorse Skeleton: A big horse that can pull wagons and the heavy stuff.
Liches: I suspect that some of the more self-righteous city leaders would make the conversion to lichdom to continue serving the city after death and still keep their oath to the people. likewise with Mummies and Mummy Lords. Perhaps the more educated folks who couldn't go lich went mummy to keep their knowledge around?
Then I think there would just be undead versions of normal monsters. Trolls and Giants to lift heavy things. Ghost might serve a use but I feel like summoning a spirit is wrong while just the body is ok?
1) Any cool undead mechanics
2) An idea on scale. I think a somewhat isolated continent that cut off major trade with the rest of the world during the 1st undead war. Now folks are going back and spreading rumors around the world about weird AF necromancy. Hence our quest goers come to check it out.
2.5) Also considered putting it in a demi-plane like the demi-plane of dread. Thoughts?
3) Input on race relations. Assume we're running with the 5e pantheon
4) Any cool undead variants or thoughts on if folks should be OK with mummies and liches?
5) GODS. What god would be cool with undead labor? If they aren't evil is divine magic still super effective? Why are they inherently evil?