Weirwane (Homebrew Setting, Idyllic Horror for 3.5)

[GryffonDurime]

Weirwane: A Kingdom of Idyllic Horrors

The kingdom of Weirwane is fading away. The Summer Palace has been destroyed, and with it the entire line of the royal family. Spirits long settled have begun to creep back into the bodies of the recently dead, and throughout Weirwane, children are starting to go missing.

The Congress of Peers, seizing on an opportunity to consolidate their control without royal oversight, granted sole license over the magical arts to Bluegate College. The Church of Saint Rosalinda has openly defied this edict and has earned public favor for their humanitarian efforts. In the northern mountains, the Clockwork Court has tripled their imports of gold and silver and in the south a petty nobleman named Jack is said to be raising an army against the Congress. Holy relics throughout Weirwane are disappearing in the night, and a sinister fog has encircled the valley kingdom.


Table of Contents

Introduction
A Description of Weirwane
The Government of Weirwane
Organizations of Weirwane
The Lesser Races
People and Places
Playing in Weirwane
Secrets of Weirwane


Updates
July 9th, 2008: Thread created.


Introduction:

Weirwane, at it's hopeful conclusion will include rules for playing a game of idyllic horror. Nothing is quite as it seems in Weirwane, and even the most innocent forces may have sinister motives. Weirwane will contain a lot of fluff and, in time, a good chunk of crunch for classes, races, feats, and magic unique to the gorge kingdom. The ruleset being used butchered will be Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, though I'd imagine a great deal of the setting could easily be used for other systems.

[GryffonDurime]

A Description of Weirwane

Weirwane itself is a kingdom built into a truly magnificent gorge, bounded by the Jaen and Krae mountain ranges. The southern borders of Weirwane empty into the Rainward Bay, fed by the Tsuri River. A plethora of cave systems run throughout both the mountainous borders of the canyon and beneath the surface of Weirwane itself.

In terms of population, Weirwane is comprised of five great cities situated on outcroppings and plateaus and a handful of towns and villages on the floor of the gorge. Humans represent the overwhelming majority of the population, followed by spiritkin and clockworks who are both regarded as little more than curiosities and not afforded much in the way of rights. There are also a few odd goblins and the isolationist ogani, though both rarely deal with the affairs of the kingdom.

Weirwane is characterized by a very warm climate with intense summers and mild winters. The lands at the floor of the canyon are rich and fertile, and the mountain ranges themselves are often sheer rises with carved caverns near their middles, often overgrown with a strange blue moss native to the gorge.


Government of Weirwane

The government of Weirwane was formerly a faceted oligarchy: each of the five great cities was allotted a number of titles of nobility to be granted to citizens of the city by a vote of all land-owning citizens. Once granted, these titles were held for life, and these created nobles represented the interests of their cities in the Congress of Peers. The Congress has authority to create laws on behalf of Weirwane as a whole, but was checked in power by the Royal House of Weirwane, a hereditary monarchy.

The monarch of Weirwane and his first and second children were, by birth, granted titles of nobility to represent both the Summer Palace and the Winter Palace, as the grounds of either were of the same stature and size as a great city. They each have a vote in the Congress, and the King (or Queen) holds the power of a tie-breaking vote and is considered the moderator of the Congress.

A short three generations ago, King Ignatius Weirwane himself moved for the institution of a new class of nobility, and managed to garner enough support that each village and town of the kingdom was now granted a single title to pass to a representative. The creation of these “petties” was seen by many of the peers as the King’s move to oppose the Congress as, in recent times, it has become almost standard procedure for a congressman’s descendant to be “elected” as his successor.

With the recent destruction of the Summer Palace and the obliteration of the House of Weirwane, the Congress of Peers has wasted no time in moving to undermine the King’s work.

It is worth mentioning that criminal offenders were held until the winter, when the Congress leaves session and the nobles return home to serve as judges. It is rare but possible for the monarch to overturn a noble’s ruling: possible because he has the authority to do so, and yet rare because it requires the ruler’s actual presence.


Organizations of Weirwane

Aside from the Congress and the House of Weirwane, the kingdom is home to several highly influential organizations and a number of seeming curiosities. Foremost among the influential, however, are the Church of Saint Rosalinda and Bluegate College.

The Church of Saint Rosalinda:
The Church of Saint Rosalinda was founded in the same breath as the kingdom itself, and it was originally the divine mandate of the titular saint herself, ascended into true divinity, that allowed the royal house of Weirwane the right to rule. While the church is fervent in their belief that Rosalinda still watches over the kingdom and the world from her celestial hearth, they have shown a surprising tolerance for religious deviations. The clergy of Rosalinda use only “soft-sell” methods to convert others, and are known for their generosity, humility, and love.

The Church itself is almost a misnomer, in that it actually entails three separate cults: Orthodox Rosalindans hold to strict scriptural interpretations, Liberal Rosalindans have added countless parables and stories to the original texts of Rosalinda, and the Humble Saint Church itself eschews the grand ceremony and decadence of the more formal churches in search of a more Spartan life.

Despite their differences, the Church of Saint Rosalinda is referred to collectively because all three of their doctrines include an acceptance of the other sects. Friction comes most frequently from the adherents of these three sects, rather than their clergy.

In recent times, the Church of Saint Rosalinda has become highly defiant of the Congress, and has earned a great deal of popularity from the common folk as a result. They’ve earned a great deal of enmity for offering the Right of Sanctuary to royalists and rogue mages, and despite the fact that the Congress has granted sole authority over all magic to Bluegate College, the Church refuses to yield the secrets of their oldest prayers and holiest relics.

Bluegate College:
Bluegate College itself is a fine old building built like a tower in reverse: a great, tubular shaft carved into the cold limestone of southern Weirwane from which branch out a thousand different hallways and chambers. The College began as little more than a simple school, but was quickly granted a great deal of prestige for its work in the arcane. The College specializes heavily in Abjuration and Illusion magic, and as the only true source for magical learning in Weirwane, the kingdom itself is lacking in most other forms.

The college has always held a hatred for the Church of Saint Rosalinda, ostensibly for the fact that they have always wanted a monopoly on magic. Even still, the college has also worked to nearly eradicate native arcane practices, including the secret arts of the Tsuri goblins. It is somewhat surprising, then, that the college does often accept potential mages of both the ogani and the spiritkin.

The oldest mandate granted to Bluegate by the Congress and the royals was a simple declaration of purpose: the college would maintain broad leeway in power and virtual autonomy in exchange for service to the kingdom, both in the form of military assistance and civil projects. The city of Bluegate itself, home to the college, has reaped great benefits from this arrangement, with improvements ranging from unquenchable lamp posts to sustainable portals.

It is said that a man searching for the college will never find it, and that only those who know it to be true and supreme can ever descend into its hallowed depths. Even still, the college is not very popular outside of the city of Bluegate itself.

[GryffonDurime]

The Lesser Races

While mankind represents an overwhelming ninety one percent of Weirwane’s population, five lesser races also inhabit the corners of the great canyon: the Tsuri goblins, the spiritkin, the ogani, the grenca, and the clockwork courtiers.

The Tsuri Goblins:
The Tsuri goblins were, by their own admission, the first inhabitants of Weirwane. They live in the caverns carved into the heights of the border mountain ranges, and claim to remember a time when the waters of the Tsuri river lapped against the portals of their lofty homes. Despite a longstanding attempt to characterize them as violent or ignorant, the goblins are clever and intensely respectful.

Goblins often stand around three feet tall, with wiry muscles and thick skin that ranges in color from brass to gold or black to blue. They develop patterns of spots as they age, and most also develop an increasing lack of division between the iris and the rest of the eye as their eyecolor eventually spreads across the entire organ by the age of sixty. Goblins can live to eighty comfortably, and truly venerable members may live to be one hundred.

Most of the goblins that remain are decimated remnants of their old culture who straddle the borders between an old world and the modern Weirwane. Religiously, the goblins worship a pantheon known as the Ten-Thousand Raindrops, though some have converted to incorporate some or many elements of their religion to the Church of Saint Rosalinda, forming a minor fourth sect known as the Reconcilers.

The goblins keep the secrets of a native art of arcane magic that verges on divine. Their Tsuri Way is concerned chiefly with the balance and invocation of elemental spirits of flame and water, holding the union of opposites to be the loftiest of spiritual goals. This guiding philosophy has certainly helped many goblins integrate with Weirwane, though they staunchly guard the secrets of their magic. Only a few rare and truly dedicated men and women have ever become goblinfriends and aspirants on the Tsuri Way.

The Goblins now hold only one passable city known as Sriani in the western mountains. Despite their lack of technological sophistication, their city is a model of cleanlieness and aesthetics: furnaces are heated by fledgling salamanders, and aqueducts are attended by gentle undines. Every home has at least one hearth spirit who protects his family and offers a connection to the afterlife of goblinkind that lies just beyond the Elemental Planes.

The Spiritkin:
The spiritkin are roughly human in appearance, though nearly half their size and of squashed proportions. They are always completely pale, and they shine with a faint inner light. They are clever and somewhat insubstantial, with an innate affinity for illusions. The goblins are wary of them, and have been known to kill them for even the smallest slight. Humans consider them worthy of little more than a passing interest to begin with.

Spiritkin are an anomaly because they don’t seem to be born: they spring, fully formed into the world around them, armed with only the most rudimentary understanding of the way of things. They seem to appear most frequently in the forests outside of Bluegate, and in fact they’ve made their largest and only settlement in that same place.

Their innocent nature and curious situation has led to a popular trend for noblemen and women to keep spiritkin retainers as jesters, minstrels, chefs, or pets. They are sometimes used as hunting quarry because of their natural ability to render themselves nearly invisible.

Spiritkin have little organization or government, and indeed seem to be incapable of even understanding themselves as a group of beings. Their settlement in Bluegate is more a result of settling where they were born than any actual attempt on their part to cobble together a racial identity.

The Ogani:
The ogani are mysterious creatures with sharp, feathered scales and lean, tall frames offset by serpentine tails. Those few who’ve ever met the ogani hold them to be beautiful creatures, and their presence beside a ship is seen as a sign of good fortune. Even still, they remain the most reclusive of the lesser races, and have almost never ventured forth from Rainward Bay.

The Grenca:
The grenca share much in common with both the goblins and the ogani: like the goblins, they were among the very first inhabitants of the canyon and like the ogani, they tend to keep to themselves. The grenca inhabit a swath of marshlands flanked by old banyan trees.

Grenca are not so much a race so much as a collective of similar beings. Female grenca are known as hags and tend towards lithe bodies with undeveloped sexual features while males are called ogres, often displaying a frightening and dense musculature. Both of these races are gifted in an old practice of wild magic, and are especially envied by human mages for the fact that they jealously guard the secrets of flight.

Grenca are wanderers by nature, and while their elders tend to wander around their swampy homeland, young grenca tend to explore the canyon and the world at large. While there is a monstrous stereotype surrounding the grenca, it is not undeserved: they are all highly aggressive and have trouble forming empathetic connections with other beings.

The Clockwork:
The final of the lesser “races” is only tenuously recognized as such: in the far north of Weirwane, there stands a great city built from brass and gold and silver. The Clockwork Court is held as an oddity, the old creation of some deranged and truly powerful wizard. It is inhabited by a strange mix of clockwork men and women, all ornately carved and inhumanely calm.

The clockwork courtiers are barely considered living creatures, save for a lasting edict from one of the first kings of Weirwane. They are cold and utterly pragmatic things ruled over by their eternal Silver Queen. Perhaps the only savings grace that has so long protected the court from salvage is, in addition to their own fearsome physical strength, their skill as craftsmen and willingness to export weapons and goods in exchange for raw material with which to construct more of their time.

Clockwork ambassadors are sometimes sent into the world of Weirwane proper to secure new trade routes and the like, and these ambassadors are generally built with a more amiable personality. They still remain, however, strange and alien things to the thoughts of men.


People and Places

The Five Great Cities:
Bluegate - The southernmost of the five, Bluegate is a walled city that sits on a stark plateau, surrounded on three sides by thick forests and on the fourth by the mountains. It is the most modern of all the cities of Weirwane, due in large part to the fact that at its very center is the great shaft of Bluegate College. The city is lit at night by magical lamps lit by wisps of pale light, and the city's industrial district is by far the most productive in the kingdom, with great public furnaces set both day and night. All ten of the city's noble titles are held by flimsy old patricians and graduates of the College.

Mayna - Mayna is built overlooking the Tsuri river, and it boasts a stunning number of hamlets just beyond the city proper, with the landscape dotted by countless farms and homesteads. Mayna is the breadbasket of the kingdom; nearly all the food grown in Weirwane is grown in or around Mayna, and the bazaar at Mayna is held to be one of the greatest delights in all of Weirwane. Perhaps the most remarkable part of Mayna is the fact that it represents a rather astounding amount of power since the advent of petty nobility: the hamlets surrounding the town have generally allied with Mayna's nine noble to form the largest bloc of power in the Congress.

Brynne - Built high in the Northern reaches just a short span from the Clockwork Court, Brynne is the religious center of Weirwane, because it is Brynne that plays home to the three great chapels of the Church of Saint Rosalinda. Brynne holds only seven titles in the Congress, but the Church held great sway over the House of Weirwane and were often assured of their support. Brynne has become a haven for political refugees after the destruction of the Summer Palace.

Awgiles - The great city of Awgiles was built on the back of an old slave trade, mostly human but disproportionately goblin and spiritkin as well. Awgiles was built on one of two peaks: the other holds the ruins of the Summer Palace. Because it is home to the Congress of Peers, Awgiles is the capital of the kingdom. Twelve nobles were granted lordship over Awgiles, and the city is the most populated in Weirwane even to date.

Eima - Eima was the first of the great cities to be built, and it shares a unique view of the grounds of the Winter Palace. In recent ages, it has fallen into a sort of comfortable disrepair: the people of Eima are an old, proud lot. The city today has only four titles of nobility, and despite the city's royalist bent in the face of the regicide, all four of these nobles are thought to have had a hand in it, save the most senior member.

The Palaces:
The Summer Palace - Before its destruction, the Summer Palace was the home of the House of Weirwane during the growing season when the Congress is in session. Its destuction came at the end of the summer, just as the royal family was preparing to withdraw to the Winter Palace. Now, the Summer Palace is a smoldering ruin just outside Awgile.

The Winter Palace - The Winter Palace outside of Eima stands as one of the grandest structures in all of Weirwane, and below it lie the royal catacombs, home to the line of kings. After the destruction of the Summer Palace, a contingent of Congressmen came to the Palace with the intent to claim it for the Congress, but they found themselves repelled by strange protective magic and a horde of undead that descended on the structure. Eima stands ever vigilant as these wards and hordes continue to mull about the Winter Palace, and no one is quite sure what will happen next there.

Homes of the Lesser Races:
The Clockwork Court - A beautiful city of golden gears and silver mechanisms, the Clockwork Court is a wondrous place inhabited by the cold clockwork courtiers. It is utterly inhospitable, not out of any spite on the part of the courtiers, but out of a lack of food and beds and other necessities. The greatest draw to the Court is not just the Silver Queen's mansion, but the Forge District wherein the finest crafts in all the kingdom are worked.

Ogastasi - Very little is known at all about the home of the Ogani, save that it sits beneath the waves of the Rainward Bay. Some claim it to be carved wholecloth from coral, and yet others say it is little more than a collection of hovels woven out of seaweed.

Espoir - Espoir is the "home" of the Spiritkin, the forests surrounding Bluegate. While the spiritkin live together here, it is only in the sense that they live in the same area. A pair of spiritkin could live in the same home and still be alone in the world, though this statement implied a sense of misery that is alien to the innocent creatures.

Grencavei - The swampy homeland of the grenca is largely a mystery to the world outside: their marsh is bounded by thick, nearly impenetrable banyan trees.

Sriani - The home of the goblins in the western mountains, Sirani is a clean and wondrous place where the goblins themselves live in symbiosis with elementals of flame and water. Humans are a rare but occasional sight in this city, as a handful of goblinfriends have earned their heaths.

Hamlets and Villages of Note:
Gritton - A tiny village between Eima and Bluegate, Gritton is home to a petty named Jack, a longstanding player in the politics of the kingdom even before he was granted a petty nobility. Gritton itself is staunchly royalist, and it fields a surprisingly large militia currently in the process of being trained and armed from Jack's own personal coffers.

[GryffonDurime]

People and Places of Weirwane:

The Late House of Weirwane

The Late King, Ignatius Weirwane the Thronemaker
Named for his famous act that first created the hundred thrones of petty nobility, Ignatius Weirwane's rule was, by and large, a rather uneventful one. His creation of the petty nobilities came in the face of growing unrest among the commoners that the greater nobility was growing distant and power hungry. Since that time almost forty-five years ago, his life has been a chain of delightfully unsuccessful assassination attempts. The destruction of the Summer Palace left nothing but ash, though Ignatius' corpse was largely identified by proximity to bits of his crown. Ignatius is currently being reviewed for sainthood by the Church.

Her Late Highness, Queen Mariella Rahane Weirwane
If the common people liked Ignatius, they loved his wife--ten years his younger and a heroine in her own right. Raised from birth as an orphan granted to the mercy of the Church of Saint Rosalinda, the Queen proved time and again to be a powerful prelate. It is commonly thought that it was her geriatric magic that kept Ignatius as healthy as he was. Small remnants of her royal panoply were found in the ruins of the Summer Palace, buried under a pile of ash and bone. More so even than the loss of the King, it is the Queen's death that has spurred many Royalists to action.

Their Late Highnesses, Jackelepski and Alandro Weirwane
The only children of the Late King, Jackelespki and Alandro were ten and seven at the time of the destruction of the Summer Palace. Jackelepski was named in honor of his godfather, the petty noble Jack of Gritton.

The Greater Nobles

The Blue Madonna
It is the fashion, in Bluegate, for nobles to lose their names upon ascent to one of the city's ten titles. The Blue Madonna earned her monicker at the age of twenty-seven, famed for her great beauty and a slew of suiters. She is now one hundred and thirty four, and while age has made her less beautiful, it hasn't dampened her fire or verve. She is the undisputed controller of the Bluegate peers, and her word is generally law when it comes to their voting bloc. While she never formally attended the College and has never been formally charged as such, it is commonly thought that she must have some measure of magic in her.

Lord Chancellor Rives
The eldest and most senior peer of Eima, Rives is marked by a great deal of enmity largely because he's the only Royalist among the city's nobles. While neither a student of the College nor a registered magus, it is hardly a secret that Rives is held as a friend of the Tsuri goblins and is known to practice their brand of elemental magic. By law, Rives, is one of three possible successors to an empty throne, and yet he has made no (public) moves to take the Winter Palace.

The Petty Nobles:

Grinning Grim Jack of Gritton
Gritton's a piddling little town, and yet since anyone can remember, it's played host to the affluent Grim Jack. By all rights, Grim Jack is old as sin: he's thin, gaunt, and you can see most of his bones and veins. Even still, Jack remains the consumate gentleman and a ladiesman well into the midnight of his life. No one's quite sure where he came from or what he did to earn it, but he seems to be inexhaustably rich. Jack was the first petty noble created by Ignatius' act, and has since remained their de-facto leader. He's a staunch royalist, a professed atheist, and possibly the only man to have survived more assassination attempts than the late king.

The Lesser Races

Vaina, the Bogqueen

Ollam Fenforge

Miss Lili

The Silver Queen

The Voice of Tsuri

The Ogani Ambassador

[GryffonDurime]

Playing in Weirwane:

Under Construction


Secrets of Weirwane:

It should be noted that this section will reveal a great deal of the mysteries of the Weirwane setting, and is thus not appropriate reading for players who aren't looking to DM a game in the setting. Spoilers are marked by topic, and each topic is divided into several levels regarding the level of authenticity--much like peeling back an onion.



The Church of Saint Rosalinda

Known by it's lesser Acolytes:
The Church, regardless of denomination, holds many archaic and strange traditions that are outside of public knowledge. Novice prelates are offered a heady draught on the eve of their initiation which places them into a numb sleep. A number of hours later, they awaken to find themselves alone in a room plated from floor to ceiling in golden hexagons. The chamber is filled with a scent of incense and heavy, floral perfumes, and the prelate is left in the chamber until the scents, actually heavy psychotropics, begin to drive the prelate towards their physical and mental limits. Prelates who can still find the clarity of mind to recite the core prayers of the Saint are welcomed into the order. Those who fail to invoke the Saint in their trial are never seen again.

Known by greater Acolytes who've proven themselves time and again:
Once an acolyte has proved his faith to the Saint's message of love and oneness, his superiors will initiate him into the Greater Mystery: at the core of every temple sits a hallway of many chambers, all plated in gold hexagons. Several of these chambers are the same used by the order to test the faith of new initiates, but there are other chambers where the greater acolytes tend to strange, slick plants as colorful as the rainbow of an oilslick. At first, the acolyte is taught that it is a meditative process, that the care of these plants is a task that sets the mind in a receptive state. Quickly, though, many discover that these plants are the same ones used to produce the heavy psychotropic drugs utilized in the initiation. Indeed, all incense, even that exposed to publics at Mass, has a hallucinogenic and "upper" property.

Equally strange is the fact that an acolyte of this level is kept to a strict diet, causing him to develop a mild form of telepathy that keeps him in touch with his brothers at all times. When not being instructed through this mental link, there is a constant sound like wind-rustled leaves and whispered prayers.

Known only by the great leaders of the Church:
Saint Rosalinda was never a woman. She was a convenient fiction for a being of indescribable beauty. The plants greater acolytes tend to are cuttings taken from this being, truly housed at the center of the temple at Brynne. Her true form is a towering column of braided vines, red like blood and tall as an old oak. Pulsating sacs of bright gold liquid hang like heavy fruit from the vines, with the shape of women gestating inside. Every five years or so, one such sac is opened and the creature within freed: a naked, mute beauty with all the features classically attributed to the Saint. These "daughters of Rosalinda" serve the church by performing any task asked of them by greater acolytes. They are heartless things with truly terrifying strength.

At this level, an acolyte also discovers that the ambient sounds of a mental link are indeed the fervered whispers of Rosalinda herself, as she prays to live.

Known to the Gamemaster:
Saint Rosalinda was once a Spiritkin, though long ago she felt, for the briefest moment, a true hint of the love and compassion that mark mortal races. This single instant has driven her mad, given her form and power. She seeks to become the Goddess of Love, and her singular desire is to bring all creatures into her fold, and to unite them under her voice. She is not above mindcontrol or violence, and rationalizes such actions as the necessity to achieve her "world of love." She has long suspected and worked againt the Bluegate College.

The Creation Myth of Weirwane:

Known to most scholars:
The Great Canyon, and indeed the very world, were once the home of demonkind: abominations of life that sought a single aspect of humanity to the exception of all others. They were the wisdom that sought more by any means, the dreamer lost in the depths of his dreams. They were, in a single way each, infinitely more human and in all other ways, infinitely less.

It was by the efforts of men that demonkind were cast down and the mortal races were freed to rule the world

Known to only the wisest and oldest of beings:
"Cast down." Most assume this means the demons were damned to some great, tormented abyss. Indeed, most encourage this belief. But the demons were cast down and made lesser, not banished. They still walk among us, an obsessed heart beating in an innocent shell: the Spiritkin. Rip away the core of their being, and inside you'll find them: the souls of demonkind. Weep for the world if every even a single of them should awaken to their true nature.

Known largely only by the Gamemaster:
It is humankind alone who can become so inhuman as to fall into demonhood. Man are their own demons, they are both banisher and banished. While rare, sometimes a human's obsessive worldview can lead them to fall into demonhood. The strain of it kills their old body and a new body, theoretically, should emerge from the carrion...but the spell used to "cast down" demonkind is still in effect in Weirwane and Weirwane alone. They instead raise as Spiritkin, ignorant of their true nature. Several spiritkin have already broken this shell: the demon known as Saint Rosalinda is foremost among their number. None in the Church save the Saint herself know the truth of the Spiritkin.

Who is Grim Jack?

GM Information:

The world of Weirwane is without direct divine intervention by its very design. The gods are barred from accessing this plane directly, though the reasoning for this is largely left to the given DM. Nonetheless, Grim Jack is as close as any god has ever come to an Avatar in Weirwane: the Death God who Jack once was died in the effort, whether by difficulty or by the censure of some Overdeity. Jack is, to whatever degree deemed appropriate by the DM, obsessed with life and death--the passing nature of living and the nature of mortality. His single charge is to work against the demonkind who seek to usurp Weirwane and rise to divinity.



What is the Clockwork Court?

Known by scholars:
The Clockwork Court is more than a curiosity: it is a living organism of steel and silver and glass. While most imagine it as the life's work of a gadgeteer or wizard of incomparable skill, the Court is almost solely self-created: every courtier and servant within the Court was in fact crafted by Ten Rings, himself a Clockwork creation seemingly without a creator. The only exception is the Silver Queen herself, who clearly predates Ten Rings and his suceeding generations of Clockworks given her stylings and bulk. The Queen herself refuses to speak on this point.

Known to the DM
Once upon a time, there was a demon. What this demon did or was is largely a matter of little importance, only that there was a demon, and then after demonkind was cast down, there was a Spiritkin: dark haired and gentle as the dusk. Others became obsessed with love or war, passion or creation. This gentle soul, a demonheart so strictly confined, became obsessed with good.

Naive, dedicated to serving that lofty undefinable calling of "good," she wandered until she came into the employ of a wizard known as the King of Blue, and there was love until there was death--hers, to get to him. Desperate, he forged her heart into a spindly body of silver and glass, and the Silver Queen was born. Freed from the confines of Spiritkin flesh, she remembered everything: the secrets of demonkind, the powers of ascension, the world that was once theirs. For all her knowledge, though, she remained constrained by that small, wilting Spiritkin's devotion to good.

The Silver Queen is ruthless. The Silver Queen is patient. The Silver Queen lies in wait, a demon seeking to remake the world into a utopia. Goodness shapes her ends, but her own demonic heart shapes the means: she's killed to bolster the ranks of her Clockwork Court, reasoning that her bodies are stronger than flesh. She seeks the perfect world, and she alone knows the secrets of Saint Rosalinda and the magisters of Bluegate.

[sigurd]

I like it!

Tell me about the geography :)

More stuff, More stats!


Sigurd

[Deathtouched]

It's... glorious... :smallsigh:

[GryffonDurime]

So, I've updated it with a few of the personalities of Weirwane, and the first set of "Secrets," hopefully revealing why I think of this as Idyllic Horror.

I'm holding off on posting "crunch" because I'm not sure which direction to go in. I've considered basing the classes of Weirwane off D20 Modern, with custom classes created for Advanced/Prestige levels that bring it more in line with 3.5's level of magic and power, but I'm just not sure if people would appreciate that or if it would just be a waste.

[sigurd]

I'd most appreciate 3.5 but I'd take D20 Modern....


This is really elegant - a lot of flavour in a small slice of world. I'm curious to see what you create.


Sigurd

[Zeta Kai]

Wow, the secret of the Church really blew my mind. I feel like I just read a really good short story.

Great job, so far. This is all just lovely.

[Pronounceable]

Now THIS is awesome. Though it doesn't seem that horrorful (yet), just a little bit of sinister. Just forget about crunch, it doesn't matter. Keep going.

Want more... More... MORE!

What happened at the palace and who's this Jack?

[Lappy9000]

This setting is pretty dang awesome. You've gotta keep updating it! I....need.....more!

[Lappy9000]

"Staring mournfully upon the fallen structure of the Summer Palace within the valley of Weirwane, a gleam appears within the eyes of the young threadomancer. Lapay Nin-Thozand knew what his mission was and that his intentions were pure; Weirwane must be resurrected.

With several intricate hand motions, green energy burst out of Lapay's hands as he prepared to deliver the final component to the spell. Inside, Lapay knew that the spell may very well be beyond his power, but he would not be denied. With a mighty shout, Lapay spoke the verbal incantation for the Greater Bump spell, "Legacy of home-brew past! Join us in the present, fast!"

The entire thread seemed engulfed in the green energy as Lapay felt his strength draining. At the moment he felt he could hang on no longer, the spell finished as Lapay fell to the ground, exhausted. He felt...less experienced now, but if that was the price to pay to resurrect the thread, then so be it. "I've done all I can," Lapay Nin-Thozand spoke, "Now I can only wait, and pray to the great Banjo that the thread of Weirwane be revisited." Drained of strength, Lapay closed his eyes to recover his fading strength...."

[combatmedic]

I like this setting. The races/species are especially good.

[GryffonDurime]

Hmm. Perhaps I should detail the Secrets of the Clockwork Court.

[Zeta Kai]

...

Best threadomancy casting evar.

And yes, GD, we members of the forum demand more of this wonderful world you've been crafting. Do it for yourself or do it for the good of all forumkind, but please - just do it.

[Pronounceable]

^What he said...

[Lorien077]

Wow, that's absolutely fabulous. Pretty please make that in 3.5? You can bring in D20 modern rules and modify them if you need to, but DnD 3.5 suits the almost grimm fairy tale atmosphere.

[Fri]

This.. this is amazing. Fairy tale-ish fantasy (that's how I imagined the setting anyway) and idyllic horror. No one are what they seems.

d20 modern works fine. not too much difference with d3.5 if you're making a brand new setting in my opinion.

And yeah, I'm also looking forward for the classes, if you want to have any.

I'll be haunting this place from now.

But... why I have this feeling that it isn't much 'idyllic horror' but more 'grim fairy tale'? It's more to the DM to make any 'horror' setting, but maybe you can add some more thing to the fluff to make them feel more... disturbing?